I will love again

Part 22 - Continuing the treatment

"Well", Gabriel started, "I guess it's time to continue my work now, I'll be over there!" He pointed towards his desks.

Nathalie glanced at him. "O-o-okay, I'll be right back. I-I n-need a m-m-moment."

She turned around without letting him answer and rushed out of the office and back into her room. Leaving the door open she ran into her little bathroom and slammed this door shut before she barely had time to open the lid of the toilet to empty her stomach once more.

After a moment she got back to her feet and rinsed her face and mouth with cold water. Then she brushed her teeth. Nathalie took a deep breath, and opened the door to get back into her room. One part of her hoping, that he didn't follow her, the other part desperately longing for him to just hold her in his arms and give her the comfort she needed.

The room was empty. She let go of the breath she was holding and flung herself onto her bed, She didn't even bother if her door was still open, when she closed her eyes for a moment and laid both her hands on her stomach one on the upper and one on the lower abdomen, hoping to calm her intestines so far, that she could get back to work soon.

When Gabriel looked through the open door about an hour later, after getting concerned because she took so long without informing him, she was fast asleep. The designer shook his head with a loving smile and quietly went inside to tuck her into one of her blankets. Then he closed the door to let her get some more sleep. He knew, she wouldn't like that, but he also knew the doctor had said, she needed to take several steps back. So he went back to his office and sat down at her desk. When he looked up from the screen around noon, he had finished most of her work for the day. The remaining things were that easy, that Marinette would be able to handle them on her own. Of course Nathalie needed to check them afterwards, if the calculations and orders were correct, but the actual work would be done by then.

Gabriel leaned back and yawned. That kind of work was exhausting. Considering, that this were just the simple tasks on a day with not much to do, and that he only did the paperwork and not the phone calls and errants that usually were to make each day, he could understand why she was so tired lately. If she had still health issues, that kept her from sleeping at night, and all of this stuff that she did here and elsewhere, she would never recover completely.

"And I have been stressing her even more", he murmured. "I am such an idiot!" He covered his face with his hands, when he felt two arms slide along his chest and hug him from behind.

"You are not!", Nathalie's sweet voice soothingly whispered into his ear. "Thank you for the blanket!"

Gabriel took her hands into his and leaned his head back against her chest for a moment. Then he kissed both her palms.

"You're in a good mood all of a sudden. Don't tell me that came only from that two hours of sleep!", he hummed tenderly.

"I had a dream or something like that and I somehow made a decision for the future, not tomorrow or the next time, but further into the future. And I feel actually good about it", she explained with a dreamy voice.

Considering to ask her, what kind of drug she was on, he decided against it. Instead he started caressing the back of her hands with his thumbs and asked softly: "Would you like to tell me about it? Not today, but sometime? Or let me put it that way, do I have a place in that future?"

"To be honest, I don't know. It's gonna be your decision at some point I guess, but for now, I just try to focus on getting better. I am finally at a point, where I have to sort out priorities. So, if that's going to be a problem, we should..." Gabriel interrupted her.

"It won't be a problem, whatever is going to happen. You should know that by now. So a little hint to what your decision was about?", he looked up at her with puppy eyes.