She smiled. “Well I wasn’t exactly thinking about that. But it is your room, and it’s not like people haven’t shared body heat in the winter since the dawn of time.” She bit her lip, slightly nervous. “Although it doesn’t have to not be that, either. If you’re okay with just keeping it to snuggling.”
Trev was more than okay with that. He brought his blankets over to add to the pile, burrowing in beside his girlfriend. It was much more warm and comfortable than the cot, and even more so after a few minutes when Deb hesitantly leaned against him, pulling at his arms to wrap around her middle.
This was completely new territory, and while he fully enjoyed it he was also more nervous than he’d ever been. His first date had nothing on his current tension, afraid the slightest movement would send her bolting like a startled deer. But she seemed perfectly comfortable, and he tried to ignore his own discomfort and nervousness and just enjoy being there with her.
“How are you doing?” he asked after maybe a half hour of just sitting there holding her in his arms in contented silence.
She made a mumbling noise, sounding almost sleepy, then looked up at him with dark green eyes flecked with brown. “I can’t describe this,” she said quietly. “It’s like it’s the first time I’ve really felt safe since… since before they took me.”
He held her a bit closer, warmth spreading through him that had nothing to do with shared body heat. “Good.”
“It is good. Because of you.” Still holding his gaze, she leaned up and pressed her lips to his, just for a moment. Trev was so shocked that she’d already pulled away before he even thought to kiss her back, and by then she’d sighed softly and settled her head back against his cheek. He was left still feeling the memory of her lips, trying to figure out what that had meant.
After about fifteen seconds she spoke again, voice playful. “Also after so long sleeping alone, even in a room with a bunch of other people with shared body heat, this warmth is heavenly. I could just sleep forever.”
No arguments there. Holding Deb was like hugging a soft furnace. Even beyond that, though, the simple human contact provided comfort he hadn’t even known he’d needed. He wasn’t tired yet, but he definitely wouldn’t mind holding her if she wanted to sleep forever. Or maybe just a little longer, before he let her settle in for the night and returned to his cot.
His short, narrow, uncomfortable, chilly cot.
Unfortunately since he was a living being with a pulse this enjoyable intimacy, combined with the memory of his first kiss with her and her previous conversation about winter pastimes, led to thoughts that didn’t have much to do with cuddling. He could stay like this forever, but it would be harder and harder to keep those thoughts in the back of his mind.
Which was all the more important he do for the future of his relationship with this woman who he’d loved for a long time now, in spite of all the complications. That meant he could either address what he was feeling or he should probably go back to his cot.
So of course he jumped the gun like an idiot. “Let’s get married, Deb.”
In his arms his girlfriend went from cuddly to stiff as a board in an instant. She pulled away as much as the bed and the blankets they were under would allow, turning to look at him with wide eyes. “What?”
He immediately knew he’d made a mistake, with his timing if nothing else. He hadn’t even produced the ring, and he’d also been planning some sort of fancy dinner and candles and all that. But in for a penny… “I love you,” he said simply. “I want to be there for you. With you. Through anything life throws at us.”
Deb’s cheeks were flushed, but her breathing was a little too fast, like panic rather than excitement. “I love you too, of course. I have since the beginning, in a way.” She looked down, obviously uncomfortable. “I-I’m just not sure I’m ready.”
That was completely fair, and probably more than he deserved for proposing just minutes after their first kiss. Still, he felt a bit disappointed and even a little hurt as he nodded in understanding. “I get it. Sorry for just springing that on you like this.”
“No I’m sorry, for making this so hard on you. If we were a normal couple—” she broke off with an anguished noise and looked away, then abruptly wiggled free of the covers and grabbed her heavy coat, tugging it around her shoulders as she clumsily stepped into her oversized boots.
As Trev did his best to muddle through what had just happened, how catastrophically he seemed to have bungled things, she escaped through the door and yanked it shut behind her, boots untied and coat flapping in the wind. He didn’t even think about trying to stop her from going out into the foul weather outside until she was gone.
A flurry of snow carried on a blast of bitterly cold wind swirled through the room at even that short opening into the storm, twice as painful after the warmth. Trev shivered and pulled his blankets up around his chin. He was worried about Deb being able to get home in that, or catching a chill in the short time it took her to do so. But at least her cabin wasn’t far, and the rope leading to it was tied to the wall just outside the door.
So he settled back, feeling alone and unexpectedly cold. Deb had only been gone for a moment, so it should’ve been just as warm under the covers. But somehow it wasn’t.
Lewis had been worried about his dad’s coughing from the start.
Sure, with the onset of cold weather there’d been plenty of sniffles and coughs to go around, and they’d only get more common now that winter had begun in earnest. Most would be simple colds or other minor ailments, with mild symptoms that either went away quickly or lingered as barely more than an inconvenience.
But it had now been long enough that he was sure that wasn’t the case with his dad. It had been eight days since he’d first noticed his dad coughing, and it was getting worse and worse, going from dry hacking fits to intense episodes that often lasted more than ten seconds.
He hadn’t realized just how bad, though, since he was usually gone during the day and slept in a different room at night. The coughs he did hear were muffled by the walls, easier to ignore.
Now, though, with the storm swirling outside it was impossible not to see how often his dad coughed. He drank lots of water but barely ate, and even eating the soup brought over by Deb from Aunt Clair caused him to have another coughing fit after the first few slurps. Lewis knew that crackers and other dry foods could exacerbate a cough, but he didn’t think soup should be doing that.
And that night he learned his dad’s condition was even worse than that, as he coughed hour after hour through the night with no hint he was getting any sleep, any relief. Lewis was so worried he couldn’t sleep either, and he listened as his dad broke into fits every few minutes. There was no sign that this illness was sapping his dad’s strength, other than from the expected exhaustion of lack of sleep and proper food, but that cough that never went away…
This was serious. It went beyond bronchitis or some other mild to moderately severe ailment and into the territory of pneumonia or another much more serious condition.
Since Lewis couldn’t sleep he searched through the medical texts in his archives. He was aware of the danger of those without medical training trying diagnose an illness, only to settle on an incorrect one and make things worse or at the very least cause needless worry. But he wasn’t sure what else to do.
His research certainly did add to his worries. From the symptoms it seemed like his dad was either suffering from a severe form of bronchitis, or more likely from pneumonia or whooping cough. Those were serious even with access to modern medicine: without it they could be fatal.