Ricky Bowen Sickfics

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this is gonna be prompt #6 from my prompt list here u go @daisha709

it takes place after the musical is over!

Nini's POV

After all of our performances were over, things just kind of stopped. It came to a really abrupt end. We went from rehearsing every single day, sometimes before and after school, and coming in on the weekends to do extra work to doing nothing. 

It was a weird transition and I knew that it was hitting everyone differently. I was bored. I felt like I had all this momentum built up from doing the show and I actually felt confident in myself and I wanted to go conquer the world, but all I had for now was winter break. 

When break started, I noticed that Ricky wasn't doing well. Something was off. I figured he was just sad because our production was over and he didn't know what to do with himself. That was partly it. 

A few days into break, Ricky came down with a pretty nasty head-cold. We still hung out, but we just stayed in and watched movies and napped. A couple of days after that I was expecting him to start getting better. 

He didn't. 

He got worse. 

Ricky's cough worsened and his temperature was still high and he was having these terrible, terrible headaches that were preventing him from getting much sleep. Overall, he seemed much worse than he had a week before.

The next week was the week of Christmas and Ricky went to go spend it with his mom in Chicago. He was gone for a week. The whole time he was there he told me he wasn't getting better and he was scared he was getting worse. I told him I was sure it would be fine. 

When he got back, I wasn't as sure as I had been. There were only about four days left until school started again once he got back from Chicago. 

He definitely had bronchitis, and he wasn't doing very well with it. His dad wouldn't take him to the doctor because he told him it was just a lingering cough. The bronchitis was making Ricky throw up from time to time and the acid wasn't doing anything good for his throat. 

I sat with Ricky in his bed two days before school was supposed to start up again.

"Are you gonna go to school?" I asked.

Ricky shrugged. He croaked, "I don't know if I could even make it through a day. I'm so exhausted."

"You've been getting so much rest, I don't understand why you're not better," I said.

"I think my body's just breaking down from all of the stress I had during the production. I don't think I allowed myself to get sick during the time we had rehearsals and everything. I think my body's hitting me with it all now," Ricky explained. He let out a sharp cough into his elbow. 

I rubbed his back. "You're still warm," I said. 

"I feel like I'm getting warmer. Can you take my temperature again?" 

I did as Ricky asked and took his temperature again. It had gone up. He was currently sitting at 102.3, whereas he had been at 101.6 a few hours prior. 

"It went up again," I said. Ricky cursed. "You want me to get anything for you?"

"I just want to go out and do something," Ricky said. "I've been cooped up here since winter break started, except for when I went to Chicago and that made me feel even worse."

I thought to myself for a second. "We could go get lunch with everyone. We could get you some soup."

Ricky agreed and I contacted our friend group and told them to meet us at Panera. I drove Ricky and I there. Ricky was bundled up tightly, wearing more layers than I'd ever seen him wear, and it was pretty adorable.

He and I both had a travel pack of tissues. I knew that with how sick Ricky was, one wasn't going to last very long. 

We weren't the first ones to arrive. When we got there, Ashlyn, Red, and Carlos were already sitting down at a booth. 

Ashlyn took one look at Ricky and her jaw dropped. "Ricky, you look terrible," she said. 

"I've been pretty sick," Ricky acknowledged. "For a couple of weeks now."

I had Ricky sit down and then I slid in next to him. We talked for a few minutes as we waited for everyone else to show up. Each and every person commented on how awful Ricky looked, and it only got worse as time went on. 

Things were okay for the first little while, but I could tell the second Ricky's energy started dwindling. However, he kept insisting to me that he was fine and that he didn't want to leave. It was only when someone else called him out that he really addressed it. 

"Ricky, you look like you're on the verge of death. Please, go home," Carlos begged. 

Ricky shook his head, "I'm fine." His words were laced with congestion and I could see the pain on his face that came from moving his head. His eyes were glazed and just carried exhaustion with them. 

I watched Ricky's skin pale and I finally made an executive decision. 

"Ricky, I'm taking you back home," I announced. 

Ricky refused, "No, I want to stay with everyone. I miss the way things used to be."

"Why doesn't everyone come over for a movie night at yours, then? You need to rest," I suggested. 

"Yeah, I'll tell my dad." 

Ricky had a barely coherent conversation with his dad, but Mike ended up agreeing. I dragged Ricky out of there the second he said it was okay. He was practically delirious. He had tried so hard for so long to seem okay in front of everyone, but we could all see right through it. Everyone was so worried about him and they were all pushing him to go home and rest. 

But Ricky hadn't wanted to seem weak, like some failure in front of everyone. That's why I was beyond relieved when he agreed to go home.

I drove us back to Ricky's house and everyone followed me in their own cars. Ricky stumbled a bit while coughing and trying to get out of the car. My adrenaline spiked and I rushed to his side. 

"I'm okay," Ricky said, assuring me that nothing was too wrong for the time being. 

He sneezed into his sleeve twice as we walked in through his garage and stopped to blow his nose while we waited for everyone to catch up. He leaned against the wall, not having the energy to stand up on his own. I ran my fingers through his hair and frowned at the heat radiating off of the poor boy. 

I only settled down once I wrapped him up in several blankets and got him settled on the couch. 

He fell asleep fifteen minutes into the movie we were watching, and he looked like an angel.