J2 Fic. In Which Jared Is Sick - 2/2 (continued)
Here’s the rest of Chapter 2....entitled “In Which Jared Is Sick And Jensen Is The Best Cure - Part Two (continued)” also known as ‘Sometimes LJ really sucks eggs’.
~Part Two (continued)~
Cliff answers the phone when he’s still more asleep than awake, warm and in a sleep-haze he fumbles clumsily to pick up the receiver. He snaps into alert mode when he recognizes Jensen’s voice on the other end of the line. It’s not like he could ignore an SOS call from Jensen even if he wanted too, especially when Jensen’s sounds so....terrified.
~0~
“So, Jared hasn’t taken a blow to the head recently?”
Jensen tries not to roll his eyes, they’ve been over this once already with a different doctor. God, he just wants them to do something because all of these endless questions are not doing anything apart from sending them on the fast route to nowhere. “No. We get knocked around on set from time to time but nothing major, I mean, we do have stunt guys. I just thought it was the flu. He’s been grouchy but-”
“Grouchy? And a bad temper is unusual for him?” The doctor asks, cutting Jensen off mid-sentence.
Jensen nods hesitantly, furrows his eyebrows. Jensen’s never been slow on the uptake but he’s starting to feel like he’s missing something. The doctor’s pale blue eyes narrow and he scribbles on his pad again. He’s holding the pad close to his chest, close enough that Jensen can’t see what he’s writing. Jensen’s having to fight back the urge to rip it out of the doctor’s hands just so he can read what it says. It’s Jared they have back there, behind their closed doors. He’s trusting them with the most important thing he has ever had.
“We’re going to run some blood tests and possibly a lumber puncture. Jared was awake earlier and complaining of muscle aches and weakness as well as some stiffness in his back and neck.”
Jensen feels sick to the stomach; Jared’s not mention any of those symptoms to him, not once. “When can I see him?”
“You can sit with him now if you like. He’s been in and out of consciousness so just...” The doctor pauses, eyes travelling over Jensen’s face like he’s trying to assess Jensen’s mental capacity for understanding complicated medical terminology. It pretty much makes Jensen want to start kicking his ass. “...just don’t be surprised if he’s not especially lucid.
Jensen feels Cliff’s giant beefy hand close around his shoulder. “I’ll be right here.” Cliff says motioning at an empty chair in the bustling ER waiting room.
Jensen sucks in a breath and nods.
~0~
Jared’s awake when Jensen finally gets to see him, flat on his back in a too-small bed; his room is a quiet single room on an endlessly long hallway. Jared turns his head towards the sound of Jensen’s mumbled, “Hey, there.”
He tries to smile, he really does but it’s shaky and uncertain and looks a hell of a lot more like a grimace. Jensen takes a seat in the chair by the bed and reaches out until he’s got hold of Jared’s hand, the one not hooked up to an IV pumping clear fluids that Jensen guesses must be for pain relief. But in truth he has no fucking clue. He’s out of his depths here, he feels helpless and painfully useless, like he’s standing on a shoreline watching Jared slowly drown. So Jensen does the only thing he can think to make Jared feel better, he leans across and kisses him, softly on the mouth. Jared squeezes his hand once as his eyes slip closed and then, all too quickly, Jensen is alone again.
Jensen isn’t sure how long he sits there, time is interminable, there’s only him. Only Jared.
“Mr. Ackles?” The doctor this time is female, one who Jensen hasn’t met before. She’s tiny with a petite frame and fine-boned features like a porcelain doll. Her hand feels fragile as it touches his arm.
“Jensen.”
“Jensen.” She repeats with a kind smile. “I’m Doctor Baker. Do you have a moment?”
Jensen gives Jared one last long glance, Jared's still sleeping and he feels like he needs to catalogue everything about him, in case...just, in case. The room is quiet save for the steady drip of the IV and the bleep of monitors which Jensen can’t and doesn’t even try to pretend to understand. Jensen stares at the rise and fall of Jared’s chest, his long dark lashes curled over closed eyes and the soft fall of brown hair against the stark white of the pillow. Only when Jensen can shut his eyes and still see Jared lying there does he summon up the courage to leave the room.
Jensen feels marginally calmer when Dr. Baker stops them only a few steps down the corridor. It’s as though he thinks being guided into a room which has comfy armchairs and a box of tissues unobtrusively placed on the coffee table is the only place where he could be told bad news. If they’re talking in the hallway then things are going to be fine, Jared’s going to be fine, they’re going to be fine. Right?
“Jared has Encephalitis.”
She may as well be speaking in tongues. Jensen focuses on a spot on the floor , tries to spell the word out in his head, make sense of it somehow even though it’s nothing more to him than a jumbled bunch of letters.
“Encephalitis is an infection which affects the brain, causing inflammation. There are many different forms but it seems Jared’s is as the result of a viral infection, most likely a stomach bug. It can be dangerous, fatal even but you acted fast, brought him in before the illness had a full chance to develop and cause any damage so, providing the medication does its job and the fever starts to drop, he should make a full recovery.”
Jensen has an absurd urge to laugh out loud, hug the doctor or kiss her smack bang on the lips. He reaches out to shake her small delicate hand instead and knows the grin on his face and the way his eyes are shining makes him look more than a little half crazy but he feels as though he’s earned it. Earned the right to walk through the hospital wearing that look on his face like a fucking badge of honor.
~0~
“You want me to complain more when I’m sick?” Jared’s still paler than Jensen would like to see, but he’s sitting up and talking and his amused gentle voice wrapped in a soft Texas twang sounds exactly like the Jared Padalecki Jensen knows and loves. So really, Jensen isn’t about to start picking fault.
“Hell yes, I do.” Jensen’s hand is resting on Jared’s blanket covered leg where it’s been for the last hour. He wouldn’t admit it out loud but he’s frightened to break the contact, as though he honestly believes that if he moves it, Jared might up and float away.
Jared worries his bottom lip. “I’m sorry I scared you.” He looks down at the blanket for a beat, playing with his hands. “Scared myself.” He adds quietly.
“No hiding how you feel again. Not from me. Next time you’re sick, I want a full running commentary. Even the really gross stuff.”
“Gross stuff?”
“Even if you puking red, white and blue.”
“You’re crazy, you know that, right?”
“Crazy about you.” Jensen mumbles to himself, cheeks coloring an interesting shade of tomato red.
Somehow he thinks Jared might have heard him because suddenly Jared’s face is lit with a double-dimple grin. The one normally reserved for Jared’s favorite Caramel Macchiato Starbucks, Tarantino movie marathons, well fought games of chess and of course, Jensen Ackles.
Jared grips hold of Jensen’s shirt, pulls at him so that Jensen has no option but to climb half onto the bed. Jared’s eyes lock on his and Jared leans forward, kissing him hard. The kiss doesn’t taste like their normal kisses. It takes of stale coffee (Jensen) and a medicinal synthetic sweetness like a whole mouthful of Tootsie Pops (Jared) but it’s still the best kiss they’ve ever shared.
~0~
Following his discharge from the hospital Jared is prescribed a week of bed rest and if Eric thinks for one second that he can make up any lost time on their shooting schedule by focusing on filming Jensen’s scenes, well, he’d have to be a very foolish man.
When Jensen wanders into their bedroom to find Jared wide awake and leafing through a book, he glares pointedly at him. “You should be sleeping.” Jensen glowers.
“Dude, you’re in and out of here so often it’s like trying to catch forty winks in Grand Central.” Jensen hangs his head, starts trying to stutter out an excuse but Jared’s having none of it. “Get over here, Ackles. I’m sorry I was such a dick to you before.”
“You had a friggin’ brain infection; I think that gets you off the hook. I think you’re safely off the hook for the next, I don’t know....shall we say, ten years at least?”
“Would now be a good time to tell you I accidently deleted your saved game of BioShock?”
“I was, like, two hours away from completing that fucker.” Jensen growls as he takes a seat on the edge of the bed but his frown disappears when Jared puts a warm hand on his leg, runs long fingers up the inside of Jensen’s thigh, tracing the outline of his dick through the thick denim. “You’re meant to be on bed rest.” Jensen says but his cock still twitches, reacting to Jared’s touch and Jared cackles, highly amused when Jensen scowls down at it with a disgusted expression.
“I’m in bed aren’t I? They didn’t say you couldn’t be in here with me.” Jared’s fingers pull at the zipper on Jensen’s pants. Helping himself, Jared unzips it slowly and his hand disappears inside, fingers wrapping eagerly around Jensen’s cock like they’ve just discovered hidden treasure. Maybe they have.
Jensen wiggles around until his pants are down around his ankles and his brain shifts into an almost blank state filled with simple automatic actions based on pure basic desire. He tugs off Jared’s pyjama pants and unfastens the buttons of Jared’s top, one by one until he can peel it away and reveal the tanned toned skin previously hidden from his view.
Licking at his fingers he runs slow circles around each of Jared’s nipples until they are as hard as bullets while Jared nips and sucks as he plants rough hasty kisses on his face, neck, and chest. Every inch of skin his lips skim across. Then, when they are both breathless with pent-up need, Jared shifts dutifully onto his stomach.
Jensen rolls on a condom and applies enough lube so as to make his entry as slick and painless as possible. Jared’s tight and hot as he slips himself inside. Revelling in the feel of Jared’s body bucking and shifting with each drawn-out groan of pleasure underneath him, Jensen closes his eyes and tips back his head, his fingers tighten their grip into the flesh of Jared’s hips.
He feels it, the exact moment Jared comes. Jared’s whole body goes tense, clenching around Jensen’s dick as he gasps through his orgasm. Jensen follows straight after, coming in spurts of sheer bliss which leave his fingers and toes tingling.
When they’ve cleaned themselves up and Jared is back tucked under layers of blankets again, he looks spent but happy and Jensen lies down, resting his head on Jared’s chest so that he can listen to the echoing thuds of Jared’s heartbeat. “Don’t ever leave me.”
“Wild horses couldn’t do it, dude.” Jared whispers drowsily, drifting ever closer towards an utterly contented sleep. “They really couldn’t....”
And Jensen smiles, ocean wide and deep. Wild horses couldn’t drag him away either.
~end~
I wrote this with the intention that it would be a humour fic, so that it would sit nicely with the rest of the ‘In Which’ verse but instead it turned out angsty and schmoopy. Still, best laid plans and all that jazz...hope you enjoyed it all the same?
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