Aftermatch ✔️

Part 12

She woke up just two hours later. The sky outside the window was still pitch black and the whole house was extremely quiet. Her ears hurt. And her skin felt like it was on fire. She slowly stood up, shoving the hot covers off of her body and shuffling into the bathroom, turning on the light and closing the door behind her. She looked into the mirror. Her skin was pale and she had bags under her eyes. She hadn't slept through the past nights and although she slept most part of the days she was still tired. She turned on the cold water and splashed it onto her face, trying to cool herself down a little.

After another few splashes of ice-cold water which felt amazing on her burning skin she turned off the light and shuffled back through the hallway into the office/bedroom and laid back down but this time on top off the covers. That didn't work. She slowly slipped under the covers, immediately feeling her skin getting hotter again. Great. Next try. Now she got out off her sweatpants and Andrew's pullover and laid back down under the covers just in her underwear. That worked. But not for very long. After about twenty minutes she started to burn up again so that she stood up, walked over to the window and opened it, immediately being hit by a cold breeze. Now shivering she quickly walked over to the bed and slipped under the covers again.

After another half an hour she still hadn't been able to fall asleep but somehow she was covered in an ice-cold sweat now and her ears were still hurting. The cold air that was coming through the open window seemed to not only cool her down but also Andrew who turned around, still fast asleep and pulled her unconsciously closer to him to keep both of them warm. The fact that it was out of instinct made her smile brightly. But it still didn't solve her problem. She needed a distraction but she didn't want to wake him up, not only because of his nightmare but also because she already felt guilty enough for making him stay home instead of working.

She slowly stood up again, shutting off the heat monitor, putting her clothes back on, closing the window and walking out of the room and into the hallway, closing the door behind her as quiet as possible. She walked over towards the staircase and looked at the stairs. She took a few deep breaths and slowly started climbing them, step by step. As she reached the top she had to lean against the wall to catch her breath again before walking over into Amelia's bedroom. She dropped onto the bed and pulled out her phone, putting on her favourite medical podcast. Laying her phone onto the nightstand she slipped under the covers and closed her eyes, listening to the podcast, soon falling asleep.

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She woke up because something was very, very close to her. When she opened her eyes she noticed Andrew's face just one inch away from the tip of her nose, making her flinch slightly. "Oh oh." She muttered, trying to hide under the covers but she was stopped by a hand pushing them back.

"Mhm oh oh." He replied, not able to keep the smile off of his face. "Why did you sleep up here?" he asked, not moving from his spot. "I couldn't sleep it was too hot and too cold and then it was too quiet." She explained. "Why didn't you wake me?" he asked, stroking her cheek because she looked so freaking adorable.

"You were asleep." She whispered, her eyes looking like the eyes of a puppy, big and round, scared that she did something wrong. Adorable.

"Are you feeling a little better?" he asked. "Yeah, the podcast helps." She mumbled, leaning into his touch. "You know if it helps you fall asleep we can listen to it more often." He said, the smile still not leaving his face. "Really?" she asked, excited like a kid. She was always so innocent and precious in the morning, vulnerable like a little girl, so, so freaking adorable. "Of course." He said, kissing her forehead.

"Can we go on a walk today?" she asked as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "Yeah sure, if you feel up to it." He replied and she nodded eagerly sitting up in bed, immediately starting to shiver. "S'cold." She mumbled as she buried herself into him and he pulled her onto his lap, holding her as close as possible. "Then we should get you dressed into something warmer." He said, picking her up, her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck.

"Mer you have to let go to change into some warmer clothes." He said as they arrived downstairs in their room again but Meredith continued to cling onto him. "Mer?" he asked as he didn't get a response. "Are you asleep?" he chuckled quietly, sitting down with her on the bed, trying to take a look at her face.

"So, no walk yet, maybe later." He said as he carefully laid her down, slipping under the covers next to her and pulling her closer, enjoying her presence next to him.

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Three hours later Meredith woke up again but somehow she couldn't move. When she opened her eyes she noticed that Andrew's arms were both tightly wrapped around her body, and she was pressed against his chest while he was in a deep sleep. She smiled to herself as she tried to escape his grip which wasn't easy at all. After a few minutes she managed to get out of bed and slowly got dressed into some warmer but still comfortably clothes. Quietly she walked out of the room, closing the door behind her, and walking into the kitchen, starting to prepare breakfast. She was determined to make Andrew a special meal because he had done so much for her lately and deserved some good too.

She started to prepare avocado sandwiches and orange juice before she tried to do some scrambled eggs. She needed three tries to crack the eggs and until finally there were two eggs in the frying pan another one was laying next to it on the counter. She sighed, trying to pick it up with something you could pick up the pieces of a cake with which she had found in the drawer under the sink. After a few minutes she had managed to transfer most of the spilled egg into the pan and wiped away the leftovers. In the meantime, she had forgotten that she had already turned on the stove so that the eggs that were supposed to be scrambled were now fried and still whole. Well then... she thought, observing the two eggs in the pan, not sure when to get them out. Coffee. She had to make coffee. She slid over to the shelf and grabbed the coffee beans, starting to boil the water and preparing the coffee. As she was still busy with the coffee she smelled something burning. Oh no. The eggs. She quickly turned around, seeing that the eggs weren't just completely black but were also, well burning, like on fire- burning. She quickly grabbed the pan and put it into the sink, letting the water extinguishing the small flames. She rubbed her face, turning back towards the coffee and filling it into two cups. After she placed one of the cups on the trial next to the plate with the toasts she turned back around, looking for something she had missed out on. And there the spatula which was of course out of plastic was laying on the stove she had forgotten to turn off and which had now melted. She quickly turned off the heat and removed the rest of the spatula into the sink as well but there was now dry plastic sticking to the surface of the stove. Great. How could so many things go wrong in just five minutes?!

And then her throat started to burn and she started coughing into her arm, getting a little dizzy and stumbling against the counter, slowly sitting down on the floor until her coughing fit was over. She leaned back, resting her head against the shelf, closing her heavy eyelids. The day had just started and she was already exhausted. And she would never ever use a stove again.

"Mer?" she suddenly heard Andrew's voice and when she opened her eyes she saw him in the door. "What are you doing and why does it smell burned in here?" he asked, coming over to her. "I wanted to make you breakfast but then the eggs were on fire and the stove melted the spatula." She explained, closing her eyes again. "Oh Mer." He chuckled. He had always made fun of her cooking skills but now she had proven him right which wasn't exactly a good thing.

"I'm sorry, you were right I can't cook." She said as he sat down next to her. "It's okay don't worry. You wanted to make me breakfast?" he asked amused. "Yeah, but I failed." She said, too tired to stand up again. "Did you get hurt?" he asked concerned. "No, I'm fine." She said, smiling a little at the fact that even if she had almost burnt down the whole kitchen he was still just worried about her well-being.

"But the spatula isn't" she then added as Andrew stood up and appraised the damage. "That wasn't the spatula Mer, that was the pot scraper." He chuckled, making her stand up again as he pulled out the actual spatula. "This is a spatula Mer." He said holding it in front of her face. "Whatever." She said grumpily now in a bad mood. "Hey, it was nice that you tried to make me breakfast Mer and it's no problem that cooking isn't exactly a strength of yours." He said, putting a strand of hair behind her ear while stroking her cheek. "Let's clean this up and then I'll make us something okay?" he suggested, kissing her lips softly. "M'kay." She mumbled against his slightly parted lips, her smile slowly returning as she just enjoyed the moment.