I came home with all manners of snacks and fruit and whatever else I could get my hands on to distract Carlisle from the fact I'd been gone at least half an hour longer than I should have been. I hadn't slept with her again, but she had cornered me in the kitchen and grilled me again over why I was avoiding her. She was pissed, and I drove to the supermarket trying to figure out whether my brother would take my word over Heidi's if she ever said anything to him. I knew I really needed to come clean before she let it slip; he'd kill me already, but it would be a thousand times worse if Carlisle found out through someone else.

Thankfully he'd fallen asleep on the couch. I crept around the apartment to try and get something on the stove, hoping he was tired enough to stay unconscious the entire time; I didn't want to have to lie to him when he asked me questions I couldn't answer.

He eventually came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist as I stood at the sink. "How long have you been home?" he asked sleepily. His lips against my throat were horribly distracting while I was trying not to burn out food, and I bit at the inside of my cheek to try to force myself to focus. "I would have helped you cook." His hand wandered across my chest, shifting me backwards to close the space between us.

Giving up, I momentarily took the pain off the stove. I hoped he couldn't smell her perfume on me as I carefully maneuvered in his arms to face him. Heidi was mad at me, but still very persistent about having her hands on me, and I'd already had to wipe her lipstick off of my neck in the car from her semi-unwelcome kisses. "A while. I didn't want to wake you up." My fingers drifted over his waist, and I slowly readjusted to the feeling of him instead of her, my heart-rate slowly regulating. I loved him more than anything.

"You didn't. It's hard to breathe if I lie down too long, even with the antibiotics," he mumbled into me. He'd started to cough not long after, and I rubbed the small of his back until it subsided, kissing his shoulder as he groaned quietly.

"I got some snacks and stuff, if you don't feel up to dinner." Gently trapping him against me, I held him against my chest until his body stopped shuddering. "And there's some medicine in the bag on the table if you need it."

"I love you," he murmured. "I don't deserve this."

"You really don't deserve to be sick, Carlisle," I agreed, knowing full well that wasn't what he was inferring. "Especially sick again. I love you too."

"My boss is going to be pissed if I can't go to that work thing." It had been stressing him out since he'd started coughing and running a fever, but there wasn't anything I could do to make it stop for him. He pulled out of my arms to fumble for a glass of water, trying to fight back another cough.

"We'll get you well enough, baby. He can't do anything to you anyway." I turned back to the pan as an excuse to busy myself, trying to find a way to broach the subject. Before dinner felt wrong, but it wasn't like there was an appropriate time of day to admit to cheating. "Hey, um, we really need to talk later," I started carefully after a minute of silence. There was no way he couldn't hear my heart pounding.

He picked at his fingers around his glass, hearing in my tone it wasn't going to be good. "About what, Gar?"

I planted a kiss on his temple, forcing my shoulders to relax before I worried him too much. "Let's have dinner first."

.

.

My willpower had shriveled by the time we were finished eating. Losing him terrified me, especially while he was cuddled into me the way he was, his head in my lap as we sat on the couch. He was half asleep again, his fever finally edging down enough for him to be semi-comfortable, and I was about to ruin everything. Several times, it was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't get the words out. I couldn't do it to him. I needed him. "What do you need to get done tomorrow? Do you think you can just rest?" I asked instead. I threaded my fingers through his hair, distracting both of us.

"I think I can work from home for the rest of the weekend. I can't afford to get too behind, but I shouldn't have to go into the office if my laptop behaves." Fidgeting with the fabric of my pants, the tension slowly dissolved from his body.

"Good." My hand fell on his shoulder as he shuffled further into me. "You don't feel as warm as you were before."

"I feel a bit better, just tired. I'm an idiot for going out today." He was mumbling, fighting falling asleep. "I gotta go to bed soon."

"You shouldn't have gone to work today at all," I pointed out. I hadn't meant to snap at him, but the frustration of his situation and guilt of my own made me sharper than I should have been as I replied.

"I didn't have a choice, Garrett," he groaned. "I didn't want to."

"You're sick; you shouldn't be working in the first place," I continued to grumble.

"I'm always sick - I have to work, or we can't afford to pay our bills," he snapped back. It was a little bit of a sore point, but our incomes weren't equal while I was working part time and cleaning, and we definitely relied on his wages to keep things running smoothly. It bothered me even though he insisted it was fine. Even more so because he was unwell.

"I still think you need to see a specialist; you can't keep going on like this." My worry was that he'd catch something that would hospitalise him, because his body seemed to be giving in to every virus it came into contact with. It was getting progressively worse, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

"I have antibiotics; it'll go away in another week. The doctor said ten days," he protested meekly. Despite his argument, I was sure he knew I was right, even if he was too scared to face it.

"Your cough will go away in a week, but why do you have a chest infection in the first place? This is ridiculous, Carlisle."

"Because I had a cold, and it got out of hand-"

"Exactly, it was a damn cold! It shouldn't do that to you!" I exploded, my voice scaring the cat and making him violently flinch. Seeing the hurt on his face, I quickly continued. "I'm not upset with you, I'm frustrated that no one is taking this seriously, and we can't keep you healthy for more than three days. It's stupid." As he sat up, presumably to get some space between us, I locked him in a hug. "Are you going to bed?"

"Yeah," he said sharply. "But I have to shower first."

"Carlisle," I grumbled, shaking my head. I could already picture him passing out under the hot water - I knew it made him dizzy at the best of times.

"I feel disgusting, and I've been at work all day; I wanna have a shower. It might help me breathe better anyway." He struggled out of my arms, elbowing me away and scooping the cat up off of the floor to shoving her into my lap in his place. We were in for an uncomfortable night if he insisted on her being in the bed tonight - for a little creature, she took up a hell of a lot of room. Carlisle always managed to curl up comfortably around her, but she constantly woke me up because I was so paranoid about rolling on her, and her needle-claws were there to meet me whenever I tried to get closer to my boyfriend.

"You don't have a good track record of fainting when you're ill. It's Saturday tomorrow, deal with it in the morning," I pleaded. I really didn't want to push him if we were on the brink of an argument, but I also didn't want him falling and splitting his head open on the bathroom tiles when his blood pressure dropped.

"It'll be fine, Gar, I haven't passed out in ages and I'll be careful." That seemed final. He was trying to be nice about it, but I could still hear the annoyance in his tone.

I relented. "Don't lock the door, alright? If you end up on the floor, I don't want to have to bash it down; we don't own this apartment."

He rolled his eyes at me. "That's a little overdramatic."

"Carlisle-"

"I promise I won't lock myself in."

I took that as my cue to drop it. I held Fox closer to fill the void, taking her into the bedroom as I listened to the water start. My guilt drove me into making the bed and tidying up a bit; he might have been unaware of Heidi, but it was eating away at me anyway. It was making me wildly over-protective of him, and I wondered how long it would be before it got on his nerves. It already was, by the sound of it.

.

.

The entire time he was in the bathroom, I was impatiently waiting for him to come back. It was impossible to relax until he was back in the room with me. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I pulled him in my lap, pressing kisses against his throat as he draped his arms around my shoulders - obviously he needed affection too badly to hold a grudge right then. "You're making me feel bad," he mumbled to me. He was definitely more relaxed after being under the warm water, and I'd never figure out how he managed to smell so good when we both used the same soap. I loved that he'd stolen my sweatpants as pajamas too.

"What'd you mean?" I frowned. More kisses, fingers finding their way under my clothing as he shifted to face me, his knees on either side of my hips.

"I mean, you're doing everything, and I'm useless. I feel bad that you have to go to work and deal with Kate, and then you have to come home and take care of me," he explained apologetically.

"Stop it, I love you. It doesn't feel like that at all." I let him push me back against the bed, his fingers in my hair and pulling at my clothes. My heart was hammering in my chest, not slowed as he shifted back slightly to unbuckle my pants, him not breaking the kiss until I pulled back. "You're ill and exhausted; we can't be doing that." Shaking my head, I pushed him onto the bed next to me, hating the slight hurt on his face. That wasn't the reason at all; as cute as he was, I didn't think I was going to be able to finish after having Heidi scream at me a few hours before, and he was far too observant not to notice. "I'll stay with you," I clarified. "But I don't want to do that tonight."

"Are you mad at me?" he asked bluntly. He did listen, resting his head on my outstretched arm, his hand sneaking across my waist.

"No, Carlisle, of course not. I just don't think that's a good thing for us to be doing while you're sick." I rolled onto my side to kiss his forehead, unable to help mirroring his expression as it immediately produced a smile. It didn't settle him entirely, but the reassurance seemed to comfort him enough to not want to push the subject. I still needed to get changed so I could get into bed, but I couldn't figure out how to pull away without worrying him. Something about the way he was acting, how down-right clingy he was being, was enough for me to know that he knew something was different between us. Or maybe, he was just unwell and I was overreacting. No need to make things more difficult that it already was, Garrett.

.

.

I wasn't ready to sleep. We'd been in bed almost an hour, and he was relaxed and tired, but I was tense and keeping him awake. Heidi was going to be the death of me.

"Did you date much before we met after you moved here?" I asked eventually, after trying to build up the courage to bring it up. Some small part of me wanted him to have been with someone worse, to make me feel less like a piece of shit, but I knew it wasn't going to make it hurt less in the long run. "I mean aside from Alistair."

"Alistair and I were never together, Garrett," he grumbled. Judging from his tone, it wasn't a particularly welcome conversation.

I didn't say anything, not sure how to prompt him to continue.

There was a long pause between us, where he didn't reply, but he eventually relented. "I wasn't here that long before I met you; I only really knew Alistair's friends, and you know them too. So no."

"What about in London?" I pushed carefully.

He sighed, almost annoyed by my line of questioning. "I didn't really...It was hard with my family the way that it was; I didn't want to drag anyone else into that, but there was one guy. It ended badly, but it was good while it lasted, I guess."

"Why did you two…?"

"I don't know; we just started to fight all the time. Maybe the stress of my father pushed him away, but I think he was seeing other people behind my back. And then he dumped me because I was 'too much'. I guess I was a pain in the ass then too." He hid his face in my shirt to muffle his words. "I need you to tell me if you start to feel like that. If you feel like you can't…"

"I'm not going anywhere. I don't want you to think I'm going to do that to you, I'm just worried that you're getting worse, and I don't know how to help you." A lump formed in my throat; Heidi was going to kill him. I couldn't tell him. At least that decision had been made for me.

.

.

Somehow, he managed to pull himself together enough to attend his work event. He'd almost lost his voice and was still coughing a little, but his fever had reduced enough for him to be able to make it through the evening. We slowly got ready together, neither of us really wanting to pull on suits and jackets, but I couldn't hate it entirely. I grabbed him as he passed me, kissing him firmly. His cheeks were still flushed and his hair was a little unruly, but I found it endaring rather than worrying; I really liked him dressed up. "As nice as you look, I can't wait to pull all this off you when we get home," I teased, my hands replacing his to do up his tie.

He stopped his nervous fidgeting to wrap his arms around my neck. "Stop it; we haven't even left the house." My words still make him smile, his face getting slightly pinker.

"You ready to go?" The kiss was softer this time, more urgent on his behalf as I squeezed his waist. We'd be late if we didn't leave soon, but we'd both been too nervous to make the decision to finally get going.

"Yeah, I'll call a taxi," he sighed, resting his head on my shoulder.

"I don't mind driving, Carlisle, it's fine. Parking can't be that bad." Reluctantly, I untangled myself from him to shrug on my jacket, trying to steal my nerves for the next few hours. We still weren't sure if this was a dinner, but I sure as hell hoped not.

He shook his head. "No way, if I'm making you come, I'm not taking away your ability to drink. I'm not a monster, Garrett."

"Jesus, I love you."

It was another twenty minutes before the cab arrived, and we sat in the back together. Carlisle was squeezing my hand the entire way, the two of us glancing at each other as we stopped in front of the building. There were far more people than either of us had expected, and I could see now why his manager had insisted on us being suit and tie - we were under-dressed if anything. "Is it too late to call in sick?" my boyfriend asked quietly. He wrapped his free hand around the wrist he was already holding, firmly keeping me next to him.

"What kind of company did you say they were?" I whispered back. The bright lights stopped me from making sense of the situation, and I blindly followed him up the steps toward the crowd of people. As we stepped through the doors, I felt like we were in some kind of cliche movie, a man in a tux offering us drinks on a tray. I gladly took one; thank god we hadn't driven after all. I would definitely need alcohol to get through this. Another blessing was that there was no food in sight, apart from an array of nibbles toward the back; no dinner either. We were standing in a hall, rows and rows of seating set out in front of a platform, but people had flooded in to fill the large open space while we waited to be seated.

"Entertainment," he murmured. "They're loaded; they're one of our biggest clients. I guess that's why my boss wanted his whole team here - we picked up advertising for them, and they've had a massive increase in sales. Not due to us, but who needs an excuse to throw an event for some publicity, right?"

I frowned. "What the hell kind of company do you work for, again? Aren't they a book retailer?"

"Book shops are a branch of the company, but I sort of left that behind when I agreed to work for Caius." Just the mention of his name sent a shudder through his body.

"Are we allowed to be holding hands, then?" The last thing I wanted was to cause an issue in a place like this.

"If we're not, I'm leaving." His hold on my fingers increased, and we both took a glass of something bubbly off of the butler's tray. It was bitter, burning the back of my throat, but it tasted expensive.

We weaved our way through the mass of bodies in an attempt to find Carlisle's coworkers. It was difficult while everyone was dressed up in black and white, the women in cocktail dresses, but he eventually managed to track down a small group of them. He stopped abruptly before getting close enough for them to notice, pulling back to keep us against the wall. "What's the matter?" I frowned. Barging into their conversation didn't appeal to me either, but his weird behaviour made me uneasy all the same.

"Nothing, I just- I don't think I want to talk to them," he explained quickly.

My worry only grew. "Are you not feeling good? We can go and sit outside if you need to." I was not prepared for him to have a panic attack with this many people around. The hall was packed.

"It's fine. I'm fine," he told me bluntly. "I just feel weird about being here, that's all. I'm sure if they want me, they'll call me anyway." Leaning back against the wall, he groaned softly, his free hand drifting up to fidget with the buttons on my jacket.

I covered his fingers with my own. "Are you sure you're alright?" I badly wanted to kiss him, and the alcohol rushing to my head didn't help, but I managed to keep my hands to myself. More and more people were slowly filling the room, and it didn't take a genius to see the crowd was getting to him. The noise seemed to put him on edge. It probably would have made me anxious too, had I not been so relieved about not having to eat.

He nodded. Seeing as we were standing on the edge of the room, a butler kept passing us every few minutes, offering us more drinks and the odd snack, and I happily took them. Talking to a bunch of strangers didn't appeal to me either; I was more than happy to get myself a little tipsy as we waited for the event to actually get underway, and the food I slowly fed to Carlisle. He hugged me, still a little too warm as he leaned his forehead against my shoulder. "I shouldn't be here; I don't know why he was so insistent I come. It's not like our clients know who I am."

I kissed his cheek, hoping it was dark enough where we were standing that no one would notice us. Attention wasn't something we needed right then. "It'll be over soon-"

My sentence was cut off by someone calling out to us. He cursed and stepped back, looking semi-defeated as he led me in that direction. "Come and meet my coworkers."

"Look who showed up! I didn't think you were coming, Cullen!" The guy was obviously a few wines deep, pulling both of us into a one-armed hug despite never having seen me before in his life.

"To be honest, I didn't think I was coming either," he admitted, chuckling a little as his face flushed. "This is Garrett." Still holding my hand, he smiled up at me when our eyes met. "Gar, this is Sam, he works for printing."

I just smiled awkwardly. SItting down didn't seem that terrible now, if it meant that I didn't have to make small talk with strangers. The names he told me didn't stick, and I just pretended to understand what all of their jobs were as he quickly explained them to me under his breath.

.

.

We stood with the others until it was time to sit down. It took forever for the masses of people to sit down and shut up, and we'd ended up wedged in the middle of a row between the men we'd been talking to. I didn't recognise any of them as the workers I'd seen when I'd visited Carlisle at his office, but he seemed to know them fairly well. I lost interest in the speakers quickly after they'd welcomed us; it really was as boring as he'd promised me. At least everyone was in good spirits. And I'd had enough to drink that I was happy and warm.

"Sorry about this, Gar," he whispered after about half an hour in.

"It's fine; I'm glad they're pleased with you," I whispered back, sneaking my hand on to his leg to squeeze his thigh. I hadn't been paying attention to the speakers until I heard Carlisle's name. At least an hour had passed, but I was so zoned out I wasn't sure what was going on. His hand tightened around mine and I rubbed his fingers in reassurance. The man on the stage was grinning though, and I recognised the guy next to him as the one who'd originally hired my boyfriend in that meeting all those months ago. His speech got a couple of chuckles out of the crowd, a few people clapping as their names were mentioned - part of the team, apparently. He raised his glass, congratulating the company and his employees, and I strained to hear if he would mention Carlisle again. It seemed like he spoke about every other person sitting in our row before his eyes landed on him. "We couldn't have done it without our graphic designer, of course." There was more, but I stopped listening - everything he said was praise, whether it was alcohol driven or not, and I finally knew my boyfriend's job title.

Carlisle was freaking out a little bit. His fingernails dug into my hand as someone slapped him on the back, and he threw a frantic glance in my direction. I slipped my arm around his waist, leaning over to whisper in his ear as the man started speaking again. Whatever he had to say now didn't seem important."I'm so proud of you; you've done so well."

"He still scared I'll sue him over Caius," he whispered back, his face flushing.

"He is not." I kissed his cheek, squeezing him extra tightly for a second. The sooner we got out of there the better. That, or we got another round of drinks, anyway. It seemed like forever before the speeches ended, and everyone got up at once. I kept my hand firmly around Carlisle's wrist, not wanting to lose him in the crowd as we shuffled out of our row. It was only when another couple approached us that I realised maybe I shouldn't be holding him so closely."

"I told you he liked you, Cullen," the guy grinned, his hand resting around the hip of a young dark haired girl. His eyes flicked over to me. "This must be Garrett. Your boyfriend, right?"

I needn't have worried. Having downed another half of his drink since we'd stood up, Carlisle just turned towards me, his arms around my middle as he grinned at the stranger. "We're engaged, actually - almost husband."

The guy chuckled, amusement dancing behind his eyes. His face was semi-familiar, but I could have been imagining it by this point. All of the introductions were going over my head. "Well, congratulations, then. It was so nice of you to tell your work mates that you were getting married," he teased.

Laughing, my boyfriend turned to me again. "Gar, this is Peter and Charlotte; Peter and I share projects most of the time."

"Actually, Carlisle does most of the work, and then I put on the finishing touches and stick my name on the bottom," Peter butted in. I couldn't help but like him; he reminded me of Riley, and I was a little relieved that Carlisle actually managed to make friends there, considering how little time he spent in the office. He stayed with us until something across the room caught his attention, and then abandoned us to head over there.

I hugged Carlisle properly, slipping my hands under his suit jacket to rest on his waist. He wrapped his arms around my neck, leaning up on his toes to kiss me firmly. "I wanna go home," he murmured to me. He tasted sweet like the champagne we'd been drinking, but I knew he was still nervous.

"I know. Come and get another glass; maybe we can get some fresh air." Even if he was tipsy, I could definitely do with some more alcohol in my system.

"I think I'd better stick to juice," he admitted, letting me go.

I laughed, leaning down to kiss him again before leading him away. "Alright, Carlisle."

.

.