A/N: this story may not be much longer. I have afew more things I want to do but then I think I'll have to finish it.
'Kirstie I'm sorry about this.' She sighs 'It's not your fault Avi, it's ours.' 'I know but you're the one who's going to be feeling sick and dizzy and getting headaches.' I see her smirk as we pull up to the store. 'Did you just google that?' I put my hands up 'You caught me.' I reach out to squeeze her hand. It's warm and somehow fragile and it's just me projecting the way I feel right now onto her because she's never been fragile. Sure she's had her vulnerable moments, I've been there for a disproportionate amount of them, but she's one of the strongest people I know. 'Avi, I.' She doesn't make it past those two words. I use our joined hands to lift up her chin. 'Do you want me to come with you?' Her perfect eyes meet mine and there so full of gratitude that it hurts. She never quite realises that she deserves to be cared for. 'You don't have to.' 'I want to.' She reaches out and strokes my cheek and then presses a soft kiss to my lips. 'Thank you.'
We have absolutely no idea where to look and by now it's definitely getting awkward. 'Excuse me, can I help?' I turn around and see a woman who looks a few years older than me smiling sympathetically. 'Uh, I'm looking for the morning-after pill.' She nods calmly at Kirstie. 'Ok. Well there's just a couple of questions that I need to ask you first if that's alright.' Kirstie nods her head and grips my hand so tightly that her nails dig into my skin and I know that there'll be little crescents there later. 'That's fine.' 'Ok so when did the intercourse take place?' I feel my neck flushing and I try to make my gulp as subtle as possible. 'Last night.' 'Ok. So this should be fine. So you take the first dose as soon as you can and then the second dose 12 hours later. If you vomit less than three hours after taking a dose then you need to take another one.' 'Yep.' After a short muttered argument about payment we manage to get everything sorted. 'There is a possibility of side-effects so it's probably best if you rest as much as you can in the next few days and also if you have someone to look after you.' She looks pointedly at me and I nod and wrap my arm around Kirstie.
She's curled up on the couch, wrapped in a blanket. It's unbelievably reminiscent of that night after the club. She's feeling tired and nauseous and I've spent the last hour trying to persuade her that she should stay home rather than going to our rehearsal later. 'We can just move it Kirstie. You're not feeling well and we can rearrange it.' She mutters something about not wanting to be any trouble and I walk over and sit down next to her, pushing a mug of tea into her hands. 'It's no trouble. You know that we'd all put your health first.' She takes a big gulp of tea. 'Maybe you could just do it without me and then catch me up? You'd only be missing one person.' One person's a lot when there are only five of you. She really must be feeling ill. 'Maybe one person would be ok but I think two would make things a bit difficult.' Her forehead wrinkles and the corners of her mouth turn down. 'Why two?' 'You don't seriously think I'd leave you here on your own. I want to make you feel better.'
'Hey Scott, do you think we could possibly reschedule the rehearsal?' 'What why?' I try and keep my face and voice as neutral as possible because I can tell that Kirstie's eavesdropping. 'Kirstie's feeling ill and I don't want to leave her on her own so neither of us can make it.' 'So you went on a date and now she's too ill to come to rehearsal?' I wince. I can think of a million possible routes that his brain could have taken and I'm not thrilled about any of them. I'm also not thrilled about the fact that the truth could well be worse than quite a few of the things he's thought of. 'She'll be fine. She just needs some rest.' 'Sure. Can I speak to her?' I look over to where she's sat on the sofa, slightly paler than usual, all wide innocent eyes and a worried expression. I really don't want to make her speak to him but I don't think I have a choice. 'He wants to speak to you.' She holds out her hand and I pass her the phone and then leave the room to give her some privacy.
I don't know what she says to him but a couple of minutes later she walks into the kitchen holding out the phone. 'It's the day after tomorrow instead.' I take it from her hand. 'What did he say?' She shrugs. 'A bunch of stuff but he could tell I wasn't feeling great so he was fairly sweet.' 'Good. I don't want you to be upset.' 'Come watch bad TV with me?' She's brought the blanket with her into the kitchen and I wrap it around her and lift her into my arms. 'What are you doing?' 'I'm carrying you to the couch, I thought that was obvious.' She lays her head against my chest and instead of just putting her down I sit on the couch with her in my lap. She snuggles into me and sighs contentedly. 'Can we just stay like this forever?' I laugh into her hair and settle into a more comfortable position. 'As much as I'd like that I have a feeling it might make tour pretty difficult.' She's quiet for a while as we watch the show. I'm not exactly following the plotline but I'm happy enough just being with her. 'Avi.' 'What?' 'I just want to know that I'm glad you're here and that if this had to happen with someone then I'm glad it was you. I really like you.' I guess that's my silver lining.
