GL - A FEW DAYS AWAY - Chapter 9
TITLE: A Few Days Away
FANDOM: Guiding Light
PAIRING: Otalia
SUMMARY: Set mid-friendship, this is a hurt/comfort piece as I'm a hurt/comfort junkie. Olivia, Natalia and Emma decide to have a few days away...hopefully more interesting than the summary suggests. Please request before archiving.
RATING: PG for mild violence
Author's note: This is my first ever attempt at fanfic so I'm having to gather a lot of nerve to post it. With very deep thanks to my Canadian Buddy, Critic2000, who beta'd and prodded for this story to see a conclusion and provided insightful and useful comments throughout. I know most of Europe loves her for providing us with Otalia clips as soon as possible but to me, she's my very dear friend. (Course, the clips help ;o))
ADDITIONAL NOTE: Again, huge thanks for those that are sticking with it, even if it's not going in the direction most probably hope or want it to go but I have stated it's a hurt/comfort piece and it will remain in that vein throughout - you have been warned ;o)
DISCLAIMERS: I do not own Guiding Light or any of the characters.
Chapter 9
Still was good, stillness was very good. In fact it was close to nirvana. For the past while Olivia had found herself gradually squirming around in the bed searching for that one position to lie in that would not offend either her bruising or her still protesting, grumbling stomach.
She’d managed to remain in the same position now for what must’ve been at least ten minutes when, irritatingly, her nose began to itch. It was a tossup really as to which would be more satisfying, to maintain her comfortable, virtually pain free state or to give in and scratch the damn thing already.
The nose won.
Extricating her arm from underneath her where she’d managed to trap it, she scratched at her nose, rubbed her face and attempted to burrow her way back into the pillows to recapture the feeling of stillness again. No such luck, her stomach rebelled.
Caught in that awful sensation of knowing if she was just sick again she’d feel so much better, Olivia levered herself upright with urgency and found a convenient bowl beside the bed to disgorge more liquid in and amazingly, did feel better for it.
“Hey,” came a soft voice from the door. “Thought I heard you moving around in here.”
“Yeah,” Olivia flopped back to the bed and immediately regretted the pull at her side.
“Do you need anything?”
Rolling her eyes and sighing Olivia groaned, “A new body?”
“Tsk, there’s nothing wrong with the old one.”
“Hey, less of the old, although I do feel about a hundred.”
“Is your stomach any better?” Natalia moved into the room and sat on the other side of the bed.
“I thought so but apparently not quite yet.” She waved her hand in the vague direction of the bowl she’d just used.
“Oh let me get rid of that,” Natalia leapt up and moved around to collect the bowl.
Olivia could have been mortified that this woman seemed to be dealing with the disgustingness of her current predicament but frankly, at this time she was utterly appreciative.
As Natalia left to empty the bowl Olivia snuggled in again in hopes of recapturing the original position. Her side had definitely woken up.
Putting her hand to it, she could feel the heat from the injury.
“Would you like an icepack on that?” Natalia was watching her from the door again, cleaned bowl in hand. “I brought it back, just in case.”
“Thanks. And yes, at this point I’ll try anything.”
It was Natalia’s turn to raise an eyebrow.
“But I don’t need a doctor.” She stuck her tongue out to emphasise her point.
“Okay, let me go grab one and I’ll be back.”
A short time later, following the sounds of rummaging and doors opening and closing in the kitchen, Natalia returned with the icepack and the elastic bandage.
“It says you should only apply for a maximum of thirty minutes,” she read from the label as she strode back into the room.
“Really?”
“Uh huh, don’t want you getting frost bite as well do we?”
Natalia lifted Olivia’s shirt and applied the pack to her bruise.
Olivia inhaled sharply and then closed her eyes in relief.
“Better?”
Olivia could only nod as the icepack began to do its job of numbing the offending area.
***
About half an hour had passed since Natalia had last checked in on Olivia, the patient turning in bed as if still trying to find a comfortable place to lie.
She’d spent the time getting something to eat, although her appetite was small, and thumbing through some magazines, all while keeping an ear out, straining to hear any sounds coming from the bedroom.
She was ‘rewarded’ a further twenty minutes and one really inane article later, with the sound of Olivia quite obviously making use of the bowl she’d left beside the bed ‘just in case’.
Standing up, she moved towards the bedroom, attempting to school her features into an expression that didn’t show the worry she’d been trying to quash for what felt like forever.
“Hey, thought I heard you moving around in here.”
Olivia slumped back down onto the bed and unsuccessfully concealed the wince the move caused. After attempting to joke about the state of her body, Natalia tried to cover up the blush she could feel blooming at her response by moving into the room and sitting on the other side of the bed.
Looking down into Olivia’s eyes she asked, “Is your stomach any better?”
There was almost a regal nature to the way Olivia waved her hand towards the bowl that clearly indicated not quite yet. “Oh let me get rid of that,” Scrunching up her nose, she quickly picked up the bowl and left the room.
Trying not to inhale as she emptied the bowl in the bathroom and began to clean it, Natalia looked at her reflection in the mirror and considered she wasn’t doing too bad a job of hiding her present emotional state. Having been able to talk to Olivia for a bit, even that small amount of dialogue, had set her at ease.
Happy that Olivia seemed to be getting better, she returned to the bedroom to find her prodding at her bruise again.
“Would you like an icepack on that?”
Returning the bowl, Natalia could feel her worry rise up a notch as Olivia professed to being willing to try anything but before Natalia could even suggest a doctor again, she was shot down. Did she just stick out her tongue? She can be so...so...exasperating! Stubborn, childish...
The list undoubtedly could go on but she had a new mission now which was to collect the icepack from the kitchen. Grabbing the necessary articles, including the elastic bandage, she began reading the label for instructions of use.
“It says you should only apply for a maximum of thirty minutes,” she read from the label as she strode back into the room.
Olivia seemed surprised.
Carefully lifting Olivia’s shirt out of the way, Natalia could feel the heat radiating off the bruise and tenderly placed the icepack on it. Glancing up as Olivia reacted to the application, she watched Olivia’s eyes close, “Better?”
There was a nod and Natalia gave in to her need to touch and swept her hand over Olivia’s forehead. She could feel the heat there and she tried to determine if this was another symptom or whether it was just warm in the room.
Using the back of hand, she stroked down the side of Olivia’s face.
“Olivia?”
“Hm?”
“Are you warm at all?”
A slight shake of the head.
Okay, well Natalia knew she’d just applied an icepack to the woman so it was possible she wasn’t feeling warm at the moment but where Olivia had seemed to be quite pale after her collapse earlier, she now had high colour.
“Would you like to have the bandage on? Constriction around a bruise is supposed to help but I don’t know how that’s going to feel if your stomach’s still upset.”
Seeming to consider the options, Olivia shook her head, “No, I um, I think I’ll just stick with the icepack for a bit and then I’m going to lay down again. But thank you.”
Noting her complexion again, Natalia casually took hold of Olivia’s wrist and felt for her pulse.
“What’re you doing?”
Pulling her hand away in a guilty reaction and then feeling foolish for doing so, Natalia responded, “I wanted to make sure you’re as well as you claim to be.”
“Me? I could go fifteen rounds.”
Natalia quirked her eyebrow at the evident false bravado and Olivia finished with, “Of Frere Jacques - easy, no problem. Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques...”
“Uh huh, I’m starting to think you’re becoming delusional,” Natalia cut in before the complete round could be sung.
“Everyone’s a critic.”
TBC...