Burn out ✔️

Part 21

So, two days had passed. It was about seven in the morning, Saturday. Nick was lying in bed, looking at his sleeping girlfriend who had finally fallen asleep half an hour ago. He himself had been up pretty much all night. Sitting with Meredith on the bathroom floor, holding her hair while she would throw up, cuddling her afterwards while she was feeling miserable and carrying her back to bed. Both her and Ellis had a high fever and he was constantly walking back and forth between the two rooms to take care of his sick girls.

He kept looking at her pale face as he noticed how she started to wake up, sleepily opening her tired eyes. "Hey." He said, carefully moving a strand of hair out of her face. "Hey." She mumbled groggily, still very miserable. "How are you feeling?" he asked. "M'okay." She whispered, closing her eyes for a moment but opening them again as they suddenly heard a noise in the hallway and then the bathroom door.

"Ellie" Meredith said, weakly trying to push herself up. "You stay here, I'll go get her." Nick said, carefully pushing her back into the pillows with no effort. "Zola and Bailey have school." She mumbled as he stood up and tucked her in again. "It's Saturday Mer." Nick replied with a smile, kissing her forehead as she mumbled something he didn't understand. He quickly walked out of the room and into the kid's bathroom where he found Ellis kneeling in front of the toilet.

"Hey princess." He said, sitting down next to her and starting to clean her up a little. "Want mommy." She mumbled tiredly as he flushed the toilet for her. "Can I stay with you and mommy?" she asked, reaching up her arms, signalling him to pick her up. "Of course." Nick said, lifting her into his arms and carrying her over into their bedroom. He laid her down next to Meredith who immediately pulled her daughter closer. "Morning Ellie, how are you feeling?" Meredith asked, opening her eyes again but obviously having trouble to keep them open. "Better now." Ellis mumbled, cuddling into Meredith's arms as Nick laid down next to them. "Let's sleep some more." Meredith said, closing her eyes again as her hand searched for Nick's and he quickly took her warm hand in his, smiling at the scene in front of him. There really was no place he'd rather be right now.

The next day went pretty much the same. Ellis was feeling a lot better in the morning and also didn't have a fever anymore but Meredith wasn't feeling any better and slept pretty much the whole day.

On Monday morning Nick woke up before her once again, glad that she was getting some rest. Until suddenly the alarm clock went off that he was convinced having turned off in the evening. Meredith slowly turned around, turning it off now as he frowned. "Did you really turn back on the alarm?" he asked unbelievingly, seeing where this was going. "You're not going to work Mer, you're sick." He said, looking at her as she sat up. "I'm fine." She said as she started to get dressed, swaying a little. "Mer, it has no use if you go to work sick, you won't be able to get anything done, you might as well just stay here and get some more rest." He argued, standing up as well.

"Nick I already took a day off and didn't go on Saturday I have so much to do I can't stay here and do nothing all day." She said and he could see tears welling up in her eyes. While she had been sick, she hadn't had enough energy to worry about the hospital. But now it seemed as if her anxiety had just been paused for a while and had somehow been turned back on now. And he didn't want to make it even worse although he was extremely worried about her.

"Fine but promise me you'll take it easy." He said, walking over to her and laying his arms around her waist, hoping to comfort her a little like this. "I'll try." She replied, trying to smile a little. "Okay." He said, kissing her forehead gently, still not really wanting to actually kiss her lips because he had managed not to get sick yet and wanted things to last a little longer like that.

After they had dropped the kids off at school they were walking towards the entry of the hospital together and by the fact that Meredith took his hand while going in he could tell that she was scared and somehow he missed the state where she had been too sick to even think straight about anything.