April Fools?

Really, Bloody Sick

Thanks to Karen's ministrations (and to be honest, the ondansetron), all three of them managed to get a full night's rest.

Well, almost a full night's rest anyway.

The drug started to wear off at around midnight, but Dec surprisingly stayed asleep right up until his bladder began to protest at around four am.

Blinking awake very slowly, it took a few moments for the cobwebs inside his brain to clear, and another few minutes until he felt okay enough to sit up.

He was vaguely surprised when he felt much less dizzy than he had expected - at least, until he started actually moving.

Trying to stand on his own two feet, Dec barely made it a few steps before a sudden wave of light-headedness brought him crashing down to the floor with a loud THUD.

Rubbing his elbow against the bruise that was sure to start developing, Dec tried to roll over onto his side for another attempt. Just as he was readying to sit up, the guest room door opened, and a very bleary-eyed Ant stood in the doorway.

"What on Earth are you doing?" he croaked sleepily, sounding a cross between fondly exasperated and genuinely not surprised.

Dec pouted back at him.

"Needed the loo" he explained quietly, almost embarrassed at the admission.

Chuckling softly, Ant padded across the carpet and offered a hand to help him up - which Dec gratefully accepted, ignoring the new wave of dizziness that accompanied the action.

Letting him stand still for a few moments to get his bearings, Ant then put a hand on his friend's shoulders and steered him in the direction of the ensuite.

"Think you can manage alright in there by yourself?" he asked, raising a concerned eyebrow.

Dec blushed and nodded silently.

"Alright then" Ant agreed, deciding to wait outside the door until his friend was finished.

It took surprisingly longer than usual, but eventually the sound of the toilet flushing could be heard from behind the door, followed by the sound of hands being washed.

A few seconds later, the door opened and Dec stepped back out into the main room, switching off the light as he left.

"Better now?" Ant quipped cheekily, getting a tired groan and a light punch to the arm as an answer.

"Come on, back to bed with you, Sunshine" he ordered, noticing that Dec's eyes were beginning to drift closed - even while he was standing upright.

"N't tr'd" he mumbled back, even though as soon as Ant got him lying back down in the bed, he was out like a light.

As the congested snores wafted up to his ears, Ant smiled and ran a gentle hand across the side of his friend's head.

"Course you're not, kidda" he agreed, chuckling as he got a sleepy huff in response.

Deciding to leave him to sleep, Ant left the room with a pat on Dec's shoulder, and tiptoed back to his own room - where Lisa had somehow slept through the whole thing.

Pressing a tender kiss to his wife's forehead, he settled back down under the blankets and tried to go back to sleep himself.

*****

It was to the sound of his phone ringing that Ant awoke to a few hours later, and he blindly grabbed the offending piece of technology and blinked heavily at the screen - wondering crossly who the bloody hell was calling him at this time of the morning (despite the fact that it was actually around nine am now).