Only A Northern Song ~ Game of Thrones / Willas Tyrell ~

Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen: Tears

Fear and helplessness were feelings that Eddmina knew very well, but somehow both felt far worse when it came to seeing Willas be so ill.

Never had she seen him be sick, nor had he even suffered with so much as a chill. In the years she had known him, it had always been him looking after her. It had been her with the multitude of issues, be it her nerves, sickness, pregnancy, attacks from their enemies, and he had been there by her side for most of her problems, but it had been rare for him to need her so desperately. Perhaps that was why she had gone so cold, why she was constantly having to force herself to ignore how dizzy she was and how sick she felt, and she wondered just how he coped in looking after her and if he too felt so useless constantly.

Useless really was the word, because all she knew to do was sit at his side, rubbing his back as he retched into the chamber pot he hugged close just as he had done for her countless times, repeating over and over to him that he was alright. She had tried to get him to sit up properly, but he hadn't got the strength, something else that scared her, but she couldn't show it and so merely propped him up on his side. She hated being sick herself, but watching him was far worse, especially since when realised he wasn't bringing anything up but bile, while the noises he made she knew she'd never forget. Even so, she kept rubbing his back, stroking his hair, and dared to push a kiss to his temple.

It couldn't be the alcohol, surely? She'd made herself sick from drinking multiple times, but not to Willas' extent, and she hadn't been as feverish either. She tried to get him to drink some water in the gaps between his heaving, but the gaps were growing fewer and shorter. When he did fall quiet, that was almost worse, because the way he gasped for breath in exhaustion scared her more, especially when he kept mumbling apologies to her.

'Make it stop,' she thought desperately, glad she was sat behind him so he couldn't see how tears were rolling down her cheeks. 'Please just make him be well again.'

"You don't.. you don't need... don't stay," he mumbled out exhuastedly, his voice hoarse and scratched. "Mina... go-"

"No," she insisted firmly, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand before she stroked his hair again. "I'm going nowhere, unless you want me to go get a Maester?"

"No... no maester," he shook his head, trying to angle himself so he could see her, but he could hardly move, and when he did turn over he let out a groan of pain far worse than his retching. "Hurts..."

"Where?" She demanded, far too tense than she should have been.

"Knee hurts..." he muttered eventually, and she swore, because the last thing they needed was another complication, an old ailment flaring up alongside whatever else was making him so ill. "Think I... might've fell. Last night, getting into bed... Passed out or something, on the floor, had to drag myself to bed. It's... never hurt this much... well, other than-"

"Why in Seven Hells didn't you tell me that last night?" She exclaimed, hating how frustrated she sounded.

Perhaps he was sick from the pain? Perhaps the fever was from that? It was a simple answer, an easy fix. Get him some pain relief, get his knee seen to, and he would be back to normal. It was simple, almost too simple, and with one look at him she knew it was not just his knee causing his state.

"Mina I'm sorry-" he began, and she realised his voice was thick not just from his attempts to be sick but because he was trying not to cry. "You shouldn't... you don't deserve-"

Eddmina cut him off with a kiss to his temple, then got up from her spot, moving around the bed to face his front, pulling away the bedsheets he was tangled into to look at his knee. She swore again, because she had never seen it so swollen, never seen it so reddened, and knew that if she touched it he would only end up screaming. She refused to let the shock show though, as she instead looked back up at his face and tried to offer him a reassuring smile. It must have not worked, because he still ended up retching into the chamber pot.