Questions And Answers...

Funny The Things You Get Used To..

Collette requested a chapter of Stella being sick and Kelly turning nursemaid....

This is just a few scenes of how Stella's past contributes to her determination that she doesn't need help and Kelly's all-encompassing need to look after his wife... This isn't from any particular episode ... just a little whimsical rambling of my imagination...

♡♡♡♡♡

Two days of a sniffling cold, and by day three, Stella could barely get out of bed. Her head was splitting, and every muscle in her body became painful as a fever locked her body inside a furnace. Kelly came in from the academy and found her in just her underwear lying face down on her pillow. His face creased in alarm when he touched her leg, and she jerked away from him.

"Ah! You're so cold..."

"Christ.. You're burning, Stella!"

She didn't reply and put her face back down into the pillow.

"I feel like crap.." She mumbled into the pillow after a few moments.

Kelly went to the kitchen and came back with a thermometer coaxing it into her mouth.

"39.3. Have you done another covid test today?" His hand reached out to slide under her hair and onto the back of her neck, his forehead creased.

"Yeah... negative."

" Let me get a wet compress on you. "

He pulled out his cell to ring Brett as he stuck a cloth under the cold water faucet.

"What shall I give her?" Kelly filled Brett in, listening while holding the cell between his chin and ear with one shoulder and pulling open a drawer locating the Tylenol as she advised and noting the plenty of rest and hydration. Brett knew Stella as well as he did. She wouldn't take the rest part well. He headed back to the bedroom.

"Why didn't you call me? I would have come home." He remonstrated sitting on the edge of the bed and put the pills on her tongue, holding the bottle of water to her mouth.

"There wasn't anything you could do." Stella lay back down and curled up on her side.

Kelly frowned. She hated asking for help, and he knew she would have been determined not to bother him while he was working and just suffer alone, and it annoyed him. Didn't she get by now that he wanted to look after her? Wasn't that the whole point of being together?

"I"m calling you in sick for tomorrow."

Stella struggled up protesting all over her face.

"No! I might be o.k by the morning!"

Kelly stared at her, his eyes sparking with annoyance.

"Stella! No, you won't be! You're sick! Boden won't thank you if he has to find a floater at 7 am. tomorrow morning!"

There was silence, the conflict playing out on her face.
Strands of hair stuck to her forehead, and her nose was peeling from the constant use of tissue paper to clean her streaming nose. Kelly's heart contracted, his frustration with her dissolving, and his face softened, tilting slightly to one side looking at her without saying anything.

"O.k." She muttered, her eyes dark and heavy falling back down onto the pillows in defeat.

"Thank you." He put the cold compress on her forehead, and again, she jerked, wincing.

"So cold." Her protest was hoarse and exhausted, but she let him carry on, closing her eyes in defeat.

"Brett says the ibuprofen should manage the fever, but it will take a couple of days, so you need to rest up."