Aftermatch ✔️

Part 23

"Can we go outside?" Meredith asked sleepily from under the big pile of covers. "You still have a high fever, I don't think that's a good idea." Andrew replied from the neighbour bed, looking over at her. He had laid with her the whole day but when she had asked for a fourth blanket it had gotten way too warm for him he had transferred into the other bed, that was still standing directly next to hers so that he could still be close to her.

Meredith sighed, releasing a few chesty coughs into her blanket. "Please, I want to go outside." She said, a few tears leaving her now closed eyes. "I'm sorry, but you have four blankets covering you Mer, don't you think you'll be extremely cold outside?" he asked, laying a little closer to her.

"But I have blankets." She said quietly, making him chuckle. "You're so cute, you know it's hard to say no to you when you look at me like that." He replied, trying to resist her adorable smile. "Then don't." she gave back, smiling at him.

"You're still positive." He said, trying to find reasons to make her stay in the room. "I certainly don't plan on going near people." She said, giggling her most perfect giggle. "I'm too scared that something will happen to you." He said, stroking her hair.

"I promise you I'll be fine. I'm sleeping the whole day, I'm not walking around, you always carry me to the bathroom and I'm taking my medication although it causes migraine attacks during which I really feel like I'm dying." She said, still smiling brightly.

"Please don't worry about me too much Andrew, you have to take care of yourself too." She added, getting a little more serious again. "I am I promise." He replied, trying to prevent the tears he felt starting to well up in his eyes by pulling her into his chest where she sighed in content.

"I love you." He whispered into her ear, kissing the spot above it. "Love you too." She mumbled into his chest, now forgetting the thought of going outside since she didn't want him to worry too much because she knew it would just lead to him disregarding his mental health again.

"But can we watch a movie?" she asked instead, still cuddled into his chest. "Yes of course." He replied, getting up to grab his laptop before adjusting Meredith's bed so that they could sit up a little more. He pulled the table in front of the bed and placed his laptop on top of it, starting a film on his watchlist he hoped Meredith would like before crawling into bed with her and pulling her close to him again.

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When the film ended both of them had tears streaming down their cheeks as they were tightly holding onto each other. "He didn't knew it'd be the last time he'd see her." Meredith hiccupped, burying herself into Andrew's chest who pulled her even closer. "It's okay." He said, quietly crying himself but trying to stay strong for her. "Why do films have to be so emotional sometimes." Meredith asked, climbing on top of him as he adjusted the bed. She laid down on his chest, her arms around his torso as he laid the blankets around her again, laying his arms around her waist.

"Well, when we cry it just means it was a good movie." He said, smiling sadly. "This isn't likely to happen in real live right?" she asked, her voice muffled into his chest. "I don't think it's even possible." He replied, rubbing her back. "Good." Meredith whispered tiredly.

"Are you tired?" he asked, pulling the blanket up around her again since it had slipped down a little during the movie. "Yeah." She said softly, her eyes already closed. "You need to take your meds before you go to sleep Mer." He reminded her, shifting her back onto the mattress, carefully standing up, moving the bed into a more straight position again before closing the laptop and getting the small box with the three pills from the trail with two empty plates on top. He also grabbed her water bottle from the nightstand and passed both to her as she was already sitting up in bed, but obviously having trouble balancing herself. He sat down next to her and let her lean against him while she quietly took the medication.

He was a little worried that she didn't even protest or tried to avoid taking the medication. The past few days she had denied her meds, took only half of them, or pretended to be asleep when she would have been due to take them. She gave him the water bottle that he placed onto the nightstand and laid down, pulling her blanket up until her chin. He laid down next to her, taking her into his arms, not saying anything since she was already half asleep.

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He was awoken by a few raspy coughs that were muffled into his chest. Still half asleep he started to rub her back as she continued to cough shakily. It took her a bit until the coughing fit stopped but after just a few seconds of silence she broke into a second one. He carefully grabbed the inhaler from the table and plugged it in above them, putting the mask onto her face, filling in the liquid, flipping it on and placing it behind him, pulling her a little closer again.

He looked at her face, stroking her cheek to make sure she knew he was here and she wasn't alone. Soon the side effects of the medication started to set in and she started to shiver so that it almost looked like she was having a slight seizure. It hurt him that he couldn't do anything to make it stop since he was already holding her and she had every single blanket in the room laying on top of her. She was also wearing one of his sweatshirts and a sweatpants with thick wool socks.

Suddenly she tried to move away the mask from her face but he stopped her. "You're not done yet." He said, putting it back on but she quickly pushed his hand away, pulled down the mask and turned around, throwing up onto the floor, not able to even sit up. He on the other side now quickly got up, pushing the nurse button and picking up the inhaler, turning it off and placing it back on the table.

"I'm sorry I didn't realise..." he said, wiping her mouth with a tissue since he now realized that she was too weak to move just a bit and for turning around she had already used all her energy. She didn't reply anything but just opened her eyes, looking at him, and by how she was looking at him he new what she wanted to say.

"It's okay." He said, kissing her cheek as now a few nurses came in that started to clean up the vomit on the floor. "Thank you for not throwing up on me." He chuckled, sitting down on the bed behind her, carefully turning her onto her back, readjusting the blankets. 

"Water." She said, trying to sit up and eventually managing with his help. He lifted her onto his lap so that she wouldn't have to hold herself up and could lean against him while opening her water bottle and giving it to her.

"Thank you." She said after taking a few sips, passing the bottle back to him. "Does your head hurt a lot?" he asked, figuring that her weakness and the throwing up was a result of migraine, caused by the medication she had taken a few hours ago. She nodded into his chest, leaning heavily into him, not able to hold herself up any longer.

"Do you want me to get you some heating bottles?" he asked, rubbing her upset stomach that was growling from time to time. "Don't go-way." She mumbled as he laid down with her still in his arms. He laid her against him so that she could rest her head on his chest. "I'm not going anywhere." He reassured her, stroking her hair and rubbing her back. He could feel her feverish forehead nuzzled into his neck as he kissed her temple.

Why did it feel as if they weren't moving from the spot and Meredith wasn't getting any better?