Richpez one-shots

Sick

This came to mind this morning and my body wouldn't let me sleep until it was done, so here ya go. It's a little rough as I wrote it with 5 hours of sleep. Enjoy!

Lauren woke up not feeling great, and like really not great. She had felt herself getting sick all weekend and things finally took a turn for the worst that morning. Not wanting to disturb her sleeping partner, she quietly slid out of their bed and moved to the kitchen to get water. When she got back Joey was already awake and looked rather concerned.

"Lo?" He questioned, a hint of worry in his voice. "Are you okay? We're never up this early, especially not after a show."

"Uh, yeah" she paused. "Actually, no. You know how I haven't been feeling so great the past few days? I think whatever that was is now starting to catch up with me."

With this, Joey signaled for her to get back into bed. She hesitated for a second but climbed back in keeping a small amount of space between herself and her boyfriend. This only made him more concerned as they both were very affectionate people, he knew something was up when she kept her distance. He tried to move closer to her but she just slightly shifted away as he got closer. She looked at him with a sad smile hoping he would understand what she wanted. Naturally he did, but that didn't stop the small pang of sadness he was feeling.

Neither of them had work that day as they took off on show days. Joey decided he would give Lauren her space and check up on her in a little bit. He got up and ready for his day, deciding to take Diane for her morning walk and let Lauren try to sleep off whatever was making her so sick.

About half an hour later he went to check on her, only to find her worse off than he left her. He wasn't going to let her fight him off any longer. He got her all of the things she could possibly need for the day and piled them up on her bed side table for whenever she may need them. He walked around to his side of the bed and sat down on the sheet as Lauren was now completely wrapped in their comforter. He leaned over pressing a kiss to her forehead and could feel just how hot she was. At this new touch she was rather startled, rolling over to see Joey sitting next to her.

"Jojo, we have a show tonight you can't get sick." She said realizing just how close he was.

"Lo, you've been sick before during a show, especially tour, but did that stop me?" She sighed knowing he was right. "And if you're this sick, you probably shouldn't go on tonight. I can text Nick, just in case you're not better by then." He added that last part seeing the anger in her eyes that he wanted her to stay home and miss a show, which she had never in all of her years in this business.

She reluctantly agreed hoping more than anything it wouldn't come to that. Feeling worse than she had when she woke up, she shuddered, looking at the boy next to her with pleas of comfort in her eyes. He could read her like a book and before even giving her a chance to ask, instantly pulled her into his side.

"Lauren, sleep. Please. I promise you won't get me sick. I'm not leaving your side until I absolutely have to."

"I love you."

"I love you too." He smiled back. "But I wasn't kidding about the sleep thing."

She didn't have the energy to fight him this morning, knowing she really needed the sleep. She shifted, forcing him to half lay down in order for her head to rest on his chest. He wrapped his right arm around her, mindlessly switching from stroking her side to her temple. He hated that she was so sick but he was grateful to have her in his arms.

He quickly grabbed his phone scrolling through Twitter, which ended up being a bad idea due to all of the terrible news everywhere he looked. He wanted to talk to her about all of this, but would rather have her rest. Looking down, it was clear to see that this was exactly what she needed. He sent Nick a brief text letting him know she was sick and that she was trying to fight it off but things weren't looking great. Nick agreed that if things were that bad she should stay home and that the rest of the cast wouldn't know until it was confirmed.