Lucy chen ~ chenford ~ chronic illness

Flare up

Prologue
Tim knew Lucy struggled with chronic fatigue syndrome, he'd even been to a few doctors appointments with her to help
some of the sexist doctors listen to her. But he'd never really seen her as sick, he kind of thought she'd just grown out of it. After all they'd only been dating a bit and he never really stayed that long compared to his past relationships he just assumed it was because of Tamara. So when Lucy got in a bad flare up, he found himself a little surprised.
End of prologue.

Tim awoke to the sound of his phone ringing followed by his alarm. Kojo shuffled with a disapproving look before letting out a yawn and tottering to his food bowl. However the dog's bowl remained empty as Tim fumbled to turn off the piercing sounds. Who had bothered ringing him before work? He wondered. He grasped his phone swiping up to see his notification to reveal the caller.
One missed call - Luce (Chen)
He was never the kind of person to come up with creative contact names for his friends but settled on Luce since it seemed a little more fitting to their relationship compared to before when it was just Lucy.

The phone buzzed again this time with a FaceTime call, he quickly accepted sitting up in his bed. "Morning, you alright?" He opened with, his morning voice still slightly scratchy. "Um, yeah I just don't think I can go to work today and was letting you..."
She trailed off, her skin was slightly paler than normal but Tim restrained himself not to comment. "Luce?" He said, wondering why she stopped. "Oh." Her eyes focused back on the phone before continuing. "Yeah Sorry, brain frog." He smirked a bit at the way she said frog but she seemed frustrated so he suppressed his laugh. "Fog." She corrected herself. "Why aren't you coming in?" Tim asked as he got out of bed to feed Kojo, keeping his phone pointed at him. "I'm in a flare up, I've gotta go sorry." The call ended before he could say anything else.

Thoughts raced around his mind but he couldn't figure out exactly what was going on with her. The call replayed in his head as he tried to focus on her face in his mind. She rubbed her temples, as if she had a headache. Maybe a migraine, he guessed. Either way he wasn't going to let her feel shitty by herself so he decided to at least check on her before work. "Sorry boy, I'll walk you later." Tim said apologetically, patting the dog on the head and grabbing a couple gatorades from the fridge.

Meanwhile Lucy was dreading every movement, knowing eventually she'd have to drag herself to the bathroom and at least get changed. It had been weeks since she felt like this, and she didn't even know what triggered it but she did know that she wanted to cry at the way her own body felt. The click of her joints announced her standing and she slowly started making her way to the on-suit. Fighting through the dizziness as she walked but being forced to stop when her vision went black. She sat down immediately, bending her legs to her chest and leaning against the doorframe. She sobbed slightly into her knees, not even bothering to crawl into the bathroom.

It had only been an hour since Lucy called Tim but when he knocked no one came to the door. After waiting a few minutes he rustled in his backpack pulling out the spare keys he'd kept for emergencies. Though this wasn't an emergency, he was worried about her. "Luce." His voice was quiet just in case she was asleep, or if Tamara was home he didn't want to scare them. With no reply he assumed she'd gone back to bed, so decided to grab her a glass of water and some paracetamol before going to wake her.

Lucy's eyes fluttered open at the touch of her boyfriend, he was knelt down next to her gently rubbing her knee. "Tim?" She didn't mean for it to sound like a question but it didn't do any harm. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. I was just coming to make sure you're okay." His eyes scanned the doorway she was sitting in before passing her the glass and moving to the side so she could straighten her legs. "Mmm" she groaned as her muscles stretched. Though she did feel a bit of relief when her boyfriend's hand moved from her knee to her thigh massaging it gently.

"Have you drunk anything this morning?" The question prompted by the way she chugged the glass of water he'd given her. "Was gonna, but I fell asleep." He was so confused, how an earth could someone fall asleep in the doorway? "Can we talk, I feel like I'm missing something here." Lucy only nodded before attempting to stand. As Tim watched her wince slightly he stepped closer to her, allowing her arm to loop through his. Then plopping next to eachother on the bed.

"What do you wanna know?" But before he could think of question she added to her own. "I'll answer the best I can, but I feel like I've been hit by a truck." She was met with a comforting squeeze as he moved them both towards the headboard cuddling up against one another. "I've never seen you like this." It wasn't a question, yet it needed an answer. "I've worked hard." Correcting herself she continued. "I work hard. I manage my energy, built it up over years. You can't prevent everything though, sometimes I just get flare ups like the way people do a cold. Unavoidable." It caught him by surprise, the way he'd listened to her chatter on about her personal life for years and never once had he realised. Guilt struck him, but he quickly pushed it away realising pity was probably the last thing Lucy wanted. He still knew her, that part of her at least.

It felt like hours since they'd started talking and as Lucy checked the clock she realised she wasn't wrong. Only two, but she felt herself slipping slightly. Black eyelashes fluttered against her deep oak eyes a little more frequently as her tiredness grew. No one else would've noticed but Tim did, she was glad he did. "Sorry, I'll stop questioning you now." He said, chuckling slightly as he interlaced his fingers with hers. "No i like that you want to know, my parents always used to tell me it was in my head." As she realised another apology was on the tip of his tongue she quickly butted in. "Don't." Squeezing his hand as she said the word.

Tim's phone buzzed in his pocket breaking them from their little perfect world. "It's Grey. I'll call in sick, one sec."
"W-wai-" But her voice hushed itself as she registered his voice was now directed to the phone held up to his ear. "Thank you." was the only thing she said when he hung up. Tim didn't say your welcome, he didn't need the thank you. All he needed was to make sure she was okay.

Hii! Thanks for reading, I will be adding a couple more parts to this one. Also if anyone has any name suggestions for this please comment them bc "lucy Chen ~ chenford ~chronic illness" isn't really the vibe. Love you all x
Part 1 out of 2, the second part is called; Flare up - ways to help someone you love.