I Think I'm in Trouble {Reimagined}

XXVIII.

Walking into her Arizona home, Stevie sighed as she walked into the central air conditioning.

Even though she absolutely adored her family, the introvert in her was screaming for alone time; she hadn't written, she hadn't painted or done anything creative other than sing to Jessica.

It was nice to have Robert back to run the rest of the show, but it was still a lot of people to be around and knowing he wanted to move passed the affair, it made her even more anxious.

For months it had felt like the walls were closing in on her, but once everything got out to the open, she felt relieved.

After going through the motions of nausea and then vomiting, her head was pounding and all she could think about was laying down. In fact, she didn't even make it to the bedroom so she laid on her couch with ease---moving slowly since she wasn't trying to jolt her body.

Laying on her left side, she adjusted the throw pillow under her neck and she pulled the cashmere blanket from the back of the couch onto herself.

Robert walked over and he sat on the arm of the couch, bringing his hand to her head---swiping her hair out of the way as he moved down to rub her neck and shoulder.

"Can I get you anything?" he asked. "You're feeling warm..."

"I think there's some Tylenol in the cabinet... I have a nasty headache..." she shivered. "I really don't feel good..."

He sighed to himself as he made his way to the kitchen in order to retrieve some over the counter medicine and a glass of water.

When he returned, he knelt down on the floor next to her, helping her administer her medicine so she wouldn't have to sit up all the way.

"Thank you," she sighed. "Hopefully this will kick in the next twenty minutes..." she flattened out to lay back down, but then she brought her hands to in between her thighs since they were cold.

"Here," he took her hands and he felt how just her fingertips were cold yet the rest of her was burning. Taking a glance down, he looked at her dainty hands.

She opened her eyes momentarily, but long enough to notice he was thinking about saying something.

"What's wrong?" she shuddered.

"Where's your wedding your ring?" he wondered.

It took her a moment to process and recall everything.

"My purse... I had to take off my jewelry when I was bathing Jessica this morning... I--" she stopped. "The prongs, I scratched her last week and I didn't want to hurt her."

"Hm..."

"She started getting interested too, she was pulling on my earrings and my necklaces," she continued passed his hum. "I took it all off... With the heat, I was feeling claustrophobic anyway."

He kind of nodded.

"Why?"

"I've never seen you take your wedding ring off for any reason is all," he commented.

"Look, I'm really not feeling good right now... Even if I did, I wouldn't wanna turn this simple situation into an argument anyway."

"Who's arguing?" he shrugged. "I see you're not feeling good, I'm helping."

"And I appreciate it, but I could do with the third degree," she stated brusquely.

"You don't have to get excited," he claimed calmly. "I asked you a question... That was all."

"Yeah, but you nodded and looked at me like you don't believe that's the truth somehow. It is what it is; I took my jewelry off because it's hot and I didn't want to hurt my niece. No, I never take my wedding ring off, but the prongs bothered her. It's as simple as that."