You drew stars around my scars

Better than revenge

Taylor, Jessica and Tree had flown out to LA for a week. Taylor had a new round of interviews – some face to face and some videos so they needed to be close by. Taylor and Jessica were staying at Taylor's LA house but Tree was staying in a hotel despite Taylor's offer for her to stay with them – knowing the pair needed some alone time.

Taylor had done a full day of face to face interviews on Monday, they had Tuesday off, Wednesday they had lots of team meetings to discuss the year ahead then Thursday the interviews re-started again. Tree had started to feel unwell Monday night after the interviews – they had mixed with so many people and flown across the country so she figured she had picked up some sort of virus. She got an early night Monday and planned to rest all day on her day off. She was taking medicine every 4 hours to ease off some of the aches and pains she was feeling.

On Tuesday late afternoon, Taylor text the redhead – asking her to come over to the house to prep for their management meeting tomorrow. Taylor had decided that her new album was going to be the longest one yet and she wanted to give Tree a heads up about what she was planning before discussing it in front of everyone. Despite feeling no better, Tree agreed – hauling herself out of bed and throwing on jeans and a t-shirt. Taylor had ordered her a car to pick her up so Tree relaxed as she was driven towards the blonde's house quickly.

When Tree arrived at Taylor's house, the blonde greeted her warmly "Hey! Have you had a good day off?" Tree smiled tiredly "yeah thanks – what have you two got up to?"

Taylor frowned at Tree's crackly voice "are you sick?" Tree shook her head "No – not sick, think I might be brewing a cold."

Taylor smiled sympathetically "do you need medicine? I have some!"

Tree shook her head, looking down at her phone "thanks but I'm not due any for another hour and a half." The redhead winced slightly as she talked – her throat scratching more.

Taylor grimaced slightly "what about if I make you a honey and lemon instead? Soothe your throat a bit at least?"

Tree smiled softly "yeah, that would be nice thanks. I've been drinking hot tea all day but honey and lemon sounds great"

Taylor got to work quickly, making the redhead her drink. The three of them sat on the sofa together, chatting about Taylor and Jessica's day out today. The teen seemed in high spirits and both women were happy to see her so animated.

Tree sipped the honey and lemon slowly, feeling the soothing effect on her scratchy throat. Jessica soon excused herself and Tree and Taylor got to work, discussing the meeting the following day.

Tree was on board with all of Taylor's ideas and promised that she would support her when pushing it forward to the label. After a couple of hours of talking, they had wrapped up everything they had to say and had a good plan in place. Jessica came back downstairs "I am hungry – what's for dinner tonight?"

Taylor bit her lip "I haven't actually got much food so we can either go out and grab something or order in..."

Jessica nodded "ordering in would be good, can we get pizza?"

Taylor nodded, smiling at the teen before turning to Tree "will you stay for dinner?"

Tree shook her head "thanks but no – I'm going to head off and try and get some rest. If I get a good nights sleep I think I'll feel better tomorrow. Could you grab me a water though first? I can take some more medicine now and then I can go back to the hotel and crash..."

Taylor nodded, standing quickly to grab the redhead a drink. Jessica plopped down next to Tree, frowning slightly "you do not look good. Do you need anything?"