A/N: This one's been bouncing around my head for a while, took me ages to get it down on paper!
Enjoy!
Four days from flying out for Nationals. That was when the setback hit her.
She had trained as usual, even staying half an hour later to make sure she was properly cooled down and stretched out so her muscles didn't hate her by the time she got home. She had gone home, showered, and changed, before heading straight to Will's for dinner.
After dinner, she and Will had retreated to his room, where cuddling and a movie had turned into a round of passionate (yet quiet, lest his parents heard them) lovemaking, before they had crawled under the covers, glowing and exhausted.
But barely a few hours later, she woke up with a horrible sensation in the pit of her stomach.
She lay there for a moment, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. And then, the sensation began crawling upwards through her chest.
"Oh no," she breathed, throwing the covers back and leaping out of bed. She left Will's room, dashing across the hallway into the bathroom. She barely managed to flick on the light switch before she collapsed in front of the toilet and started to vomit.
It seemed to go on for ages. And then, as soon as it stopped and she tried to breathe in, the nausea won over and she was retching again.
"JJ, honey, are you sick?" came Janine's voice behind her just as the next round stopped. Too weak to feel embarrassed by Will's mom finding her hugging the porcelain, she lifted her head just enough to nod at Janine as she reached up and flushed the toilet.
"Oh sweetheart, here, I'm gonna pop your hair back off your face," Janine said gently, and JJ stayed hunched over as she gathered her hair back in a scrunchie. Janine's hands were cold, but as they brushed against the back of her neck, it provided a smidgeon of relief.
"Alright JJ, I'm gonna get Will... and then I'm goin' to run downstairs and get you some Pepto to help settle your stomach"
JJ didn't respond, instead resting her head near the edge of the toilet bowl as Janine rushed out of the room, pulling the door partially closed behind her. It seemed like hours later when the door gently opened again and Will came into the room. He said nothing, simply sitting down beside her with his back resting against the edge of the bathtub. She shuffled over, allowing him to wrap his arms around her as she laid her head on his shoulder and clutched her stomach.
"Do you think it's somethin' you ate?" he asked softly. JJ shrugged, closing her eyes as he brought a hand up to her forehead. "You're real warm, Jayje, you're definitely runnin' a fever"
"Can you take me home?" JJ mumbled. Will nodded, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. He knew all too well the feeling of wanting the comfort of your own home and your own bed when you were sick.
"Here JJ," came Janine's voice as she bustled back into the room holding a small cup of pink liquid. JJ shakily reached out and took it, downing it in one swig. She grimaced a little at the taste, allowing Janine to take the empty cup from her hand.
"I'm gonna take JJ home," Will said softly as she tucked her head back into the crook of his neck. "I won't be too long"
Janine nodded, leaning down and kissing the top of her son's head. She pressed a gentle hand to JJ's cheek as she straightened up, giving the younger girl a warm smile.
"Hope you feel better soon, JJ. And I hope it wasn't William's cookin'"
JJ managed a weak grin, leaning back against the bathtub as Will gently pulled away to go and grab a shirt. She closed her eyes, swallowing hard as she was left alone in the bathroom. She really did feel terrible. And she was supposed to be up in a few hours to go to training.
If this had been before London, she'd have gone to training even if she had had to hook a barf bag to the bars. But somehow, an Olympics and a birthday into adulthood had wised her up, and she knew the right thing to do was curl up in a ball at the bottom of her bed and stay there until her stomach decided to play nice again.
"Alright, I've got your bag. Come on, I'll take you home," Will said, making her open her eyes. He held out a hand and she gratefully took it, allowing him to pull her up onto her feet. As she came upright again, a sudden rush of wooziness hit her, making her scramble for the toilet again as Will grabbed her shoulders to steady her.
Twenty minutes later, they had pulled into the driveway of the Jareau house. They had managed to make the drive with only one stop for JJ to throw up, and before much longer, Will was opening the front door using the spare key he knew was hidden above the doorframe.
"Wha...," came Sandy's bleary voice through the darkness, and then Will spotted her stepping off the bottom stair. JJ was still leaning quite heavily on him, and he wasn't even sure if she had realised her mother was in the room.
"What are you two doing here? It's three in the morning," Sandy said, her voice still raspy with sleep. "You scared the hell out of me, I thought someone was trying to break in"
"Sorry," Will said softly. "JJ's not well. She wanted to come home"
"I think I've got stomach flu," JJ mumbled, pulling herself up straighter as she rubbed her eye with the back of her hand. "I feel like garbage"
Sandy gave her a sympathetic look, reaching out to take her bag from Will's hand. "You probably picked it up at the gym, you know what those kids are like. Go upstairs and try and get some rest. I'll bring you up some ginger tea in a minute"
JJ nodded, turning and giving Will a quick squeeze around the middle, before trudging upstairs.
"Thanks for bringing her home. I hope she didn't get sick in your truck," Sandy said, setting JJ's bag down by the foot of the stairs. Will chuckled.
"She managed to warn me so I could pull over," he said with a grin. "I'm gonna go home and go back to bed, I've got work in the morning, but I'll check in with JJ tomorrow and see how she is"
"Tell your mom I'll swing over tomorrow and pick up her car," Sandy replied, following along behind Will as he headed for the front door. "I also hope you guys don't get sick"
Will gave a little laugh, running his hand through his hair. "Look, I won't be surprised if I do..."
Sandy chuckled, swatting him lightly on the elbow. "Well, you take care of yourself, ok? Drive safe"
Once she had seen Will off down the street, she went back inside, locking the door behind her.
It was going to be a long night.
Ginger tea had not helped and JJ spent the early hours of the morning in a fitful half sleep state on her bathroom floor. It had been punctuated by vomiting every half hour, to the point where by the time the sun was starting to peek over the horizon, she was only bringing up bile.
At quarter past six, she heard the doorbell ring. Muffled voices spoke quickly downstairs, and then there was the sound of footsteps – her mother's – making their way up to the second floor.
A few moments later, Sandy came into the bathroom looking extremely exasperated. JJ blearily lifted her head from the makeshift bed she had created for herself on the floor.
"USADA is here to drug test you," Sandy said somewhat breathlessly. "At six in the morning! I told them you've been up all night with a stomach bug, but apparently that's not a good enough reason to exempt you from testing"
"It's fine," JJ mumbled, pulling herself slowly up from the floor into a sitting position. "I'll just get it over and done with"
Sandy gave her a questioning look, before turning on her heel and leaving the room. JJ sat back against the wall, tipping her head back and taking a slow, deep breath to quell the nausea that was rising up again. She hadn't been randomly drug tested in a while, and she guessed this one had been sprung on her because she was now back competing properly. It was never a fun affair; hovering over the toilet with her pants around her knees while two USADA officials watched her pee into a cup.
She just hoped the vomiting would stay at bay long enough to get this done.
"Good morning Jennifer"
Opening her eyes at the voice, JJ found two ladies wearing USADA button-up shirts standing in the doorway of her bathroom. She recognised one of them, a lady named Christina, from the national championships the previous year, but the other one was a lady she had never seen before.
"Your mom told us you're not feeling very well, so we'll keep this as quick as possible so you can get some rest," Christina said softly. JJ nodded, hauling herself off the floor and silently taking the cup Christina was holding out to her. She was feeling too crummy to care as she delivered the sample they needed, and in the end, the whole test ended up being a blur. Before too long, she was crawling underneath the covers, and her lack of reasonable sleep the night before had caught up with her.
"Jayje, you got Will sick too," came Sandy's voice around mid-afternoon, pulling JJ from her sleep. "Janine just sent me a message to let you know that he had to come home from work because he puked in the break room"
JJ couldn't help but let out a giggle – of course he hadn't managed to make it to the bathroom. Will was a shocking puker, he never knew it was coming until the very last second.
"How are you feeling?"
JJ sighed, stretching out her neck as she shifted under the covers. "My body hurts. I feel hot and cold. And I have the worst stomach cramps. But I haven't thrown up in like two hours, so I'll take whatever I can get"
Sandy sat down on the edge of the bed. "I let Nick know you weren't coming to training today and he said half of this morning's class was out with stomach flu, so I guess that solves the mystery of where you picked it up. He also said please don't come back into the gym until you've gone 48 hours with no fever and vomiting, and that you guys will just do the best you can at Nationals." She smiled, brushing JJ's hair from her face as she pressed a hand to her forehead. "You're still really warm. We should probably take your temperature just to be safe"
"I'll be ok for Nationals," JJ said softly. "Shit happens"
Sandy laughed as she rose up from the bed. "It really does." She headed for the door, turning at the last minute to look at JJ. "I'm going to get you some saltines and some more tea, ok? Let's see if you can keep a little bit down at least, and we'll take your temperature"
JJ nodded, burrowing back into her pillows as her mom disappeared.
Sure, she was an adult, and a world class athlete. But the comforts of being looked after by her mom when she was sick would never go away, no matter how old she got.