Everybody Gets Sick

Chapter Two

Carina returned from the store in less than thirty minutes. She got everything she needs, gatorade, soup, more medicine, and popsicles to help with Maya's sore throat.

She got it all.

The roads weren't the best, which made for a longer trip than she originally anticipated. Although, walking through the front door, the warmth that is their apartment brings a familiar sense of coziness.

Walking straight for their bedroom, she pushes open the slightly cracked door, frowning when she notices that Maya's not in bed.

She quickly leaves the room, searching the whole apartment, until she remembers the basement. More importantly, what's in the basement.

Walking down the stairs, her smile is quickly wiped off her face at the recognizable sound that fills the room like a slap to the face.

Around the corner at the bottom of the stairs, Carina immediately sees what she was looking for. The treadmill is on. Someone is running. And that someone is her sick wife.

As soon as Maya looks up and meets Carina's eyes, she jumps back, having not realized that she's already home.

"You're back," Maya points out as a useless distraction while she turns off the treadmill, feeling a wave of nausea and dizziness pass through her body once the machine comes to a stop, causing her to grab onto the handlebars for more support.

The firm glare Carina gives her as she crosses her arms in annoyance is enough to make Maya cower at her gaze.

"What are you doing, Maya?" Carina asks angrily as she drops the bags from her hands, walking closer to her side. "Are you crazy? You're sick! You could've hurt yourself!" Carina shouts as Maya immediately bursts into tears.

"I'm sorry. My thoughts were too loud and I couldn't sleep and I kept having nightmares. I thought the only way they would go away was if I ran," Maya explains in one breath as Carina struggles to follow her words.

Before Maya can say anything else, she rushes up the stairs and towards the bathroom, falling to her knees in front of the toilet as she empties her stomach, losing her fight against keeping her food down.

Carina followed her, pulling Maya's hair into a makeshift ponytail to keep it out of her face, gently rubbing her back.

She could feel Maya's hot skin against the palm of her hand, assuming that she's most likely throwing up because of overheating or dehydration, maybe both.

Carina wants to scold Maya for making a stupid decision to run while having a high fever, having trusted the blonde to take care of herself while she was gone, but she knew that Maya has a heartbreaking past and she's still trying to remind herself that she can rest and take sick days.

She also figures that Maya's already being tortured enough between the mix of vomiting and having a sore throat, a bad combination.

That's enough of a punishment.

"Do you want some water?" Carina asks as softly as she can manage, even though she's still upset with the blonde.

Maya nods as she wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, moving her thumb and pointer finger to massage her painful lymph nodes.

Carina dropped Maya's hair as she went to the bedroom, grabbing the cloth from earlier, along with the cup of water before returning to the bathroom.

She hands Maya the water, placing the cloth on the back of her sweaty neck.

Carina gives them a moment of silence to not only calm down, but to think through what she walked in on.

"Why were you running and how long?" She asks more calmly after a few minutes as Maya moves to lean against the wall, a few coughs escaping.