For Life

Part 44

"Shit" Dec muttered to himself.

"Its okay Dec" Ant assured him "you'll be fine"

The man then went into a list of dos and don'ts aimed at both Ant and Dec.

"You must stay inside for fourteen days,completely isolate yourselves...do you live together?"

"Yes" Dec nodded.

"Then neither of you are to leave your home" the man continued "if you need supplies,you can get someone to get them for you,a friend or neighbour or someone,but they must leave them on the doorstep and not come into contact with you"

"But we have dogs" Ant protested "they need to be walked"

"Same thing applies then" the man stated "someone else can walk them for you or else they'll just have to stay in your garden...do you have a garden?"

"Yes,we do" Ant nodded,thankful for that small mercy.

"Okay,good" the man said "now go straight home and follow the instructions on this leaflet"

He thrust the piece of paper into Dec's hand and walked away.

"I feel like a leper" Dec sighed as Ant drove out of the car park.

"He's just doing his job" Ant shrugged "don't take it personally"

"I can't believe all this is happening" Dec sighed "I thought we'd got through the worse of it"

"Who knows?" Ant frowned "this could go on for years,I think we've done very well not to catch it before now"

"Please don't say that" Dec replied "its awful and I feel so crap"

"Poor baby" Ant squeezed Dec's thigh as he drove.

"I suppose you'll have to keep away from me too?" Dec asked.

"Not sure how I'm supposed to do that?" Ant said "we live together and I need to take care of you"

"I'll probably be in bed the whole time" Dec shrugged "I won't need much looking after,its best you just keep away from me"

"Hey" Ant smiled "if I was going to catch this virus from you,I probably already would have...maybe I'm one of those lucky people who has had it with absolutely no symptoms,but there's no way I'm not going to look after you when you're ill,so don't even go there"

"Make sure you where a mask whenever you come near me then" Dec insisted.

So Ant did exactly that,although it broke his heart to have to sleep in another room and not even be able to give Dec a quick kiss on the cheek,so he longed for the day when his beloved boyfriend was over this.

Dec mostly slept and coughed throughout his illness and Ant felt desperately sorry for him,wishing there was something he could do to make him feel better,but he knew they both just had to ride it out and he was grateful that Dec wasn't more seriously ill like a lot of people were.

One morning as Ant sat in the kitchen alone eating his breakfast,he was startled by a small voice.

"Morning" Dec said.

"Dec?" Ant smiled happily "you're up,how are you feeling?"

"A lot better thankfully" Dec smiled "I just wanted to see you"

Ant quickly got to his feet and rushed over to Dec and practically swept him off his feet in a huge bear hug.

"Ant" Dec frowned "you probably shouldn't be hugging me,I doubt I'm completely free of the virus yet and you don't even have a mask on"