By MMW
Meredith pushed open the door to her hotel room and promptly sneezed. She was miserable. Every muscle and joint ached, her head was stuffed up beyond belief and she could feel the cold begin to descend into her chest. She'd felt fine when she left Denver for this conference, now she had a miserable cold. She had some cold medicine, but had only taken a half dose since a full dose would knock her out completely, like it always did. She'd gone through three packs of Kleenex and more lemon tea than she cared to think about. She supposed something with rosehips would be better, but she just couldn't stand the taste of rosehip tea, not with honey, not with sugar and not with milk.
Flicking on the light she made sure the door shut and the locks set before staggering to the bed. Collapsing upon the mattress, she said a quiet prayer of thanks that it was firm. She couldn't stand soft mattresses and had spent too many nights on hotel floors because the mattress was too soft for her.
On the third try she finally toed off her shoes. Dropping her notebooks and texts for the conference on the floor, she kept the message note saying Travis needed to speak to her. She didn't want to call. All she wanted was to sleep. Food didn't even sound appealing and she had deliberately skipped the special speaker that night so she could rest.
Realizing she would have to bend over to pick up a notepad and pen, she released a groan. "Why?" her gravelly voice asked. She chuffed out a laugh. As if the miserable cold weren't bad enough, she was losing her voice on top of it. Ah well, she thought, it won't last forever.
Deciding against bending over, Meredith allowed herself to slide from the bed onto the floor. Using the side of the bed as a backrest, she reached up and pulled the phone toward her. Taking the message note, she dialed the number, waiting for an answer.
Finally hearing an answering voice, she responded, "Hi. It's Meredith. Orrin called for me. Is he available?" She waited for the several minutes it took to track down the Assistant Director and transfer the call.
"Meredith!" came the booming greeting from the AD.
Meredith wrinkled her nose at the greeting. It was never a good sign for her when Travis was cheery. Last time he'd been this cheery, he'd made her Content Editor in addition to all her other duties. Sniffling slightly, she responded, "Good evening Mr. Travis. I trust you are well."
Hearing the sniffles and roughened voice on the other end of the phone, Orrin frowned. He also noted the formality and note of suspicion in her voice. Maybe cheerful wasn't the best way to go with her. "I have news," he began. Hearing nothing from the woman on the other end, he continued, "I need you to do a bit more traveling. It appears that several of the other offices have heard of the wonderful job you've done with our internal and external websites and have asked you to stop by and help them."
Allowing her shoulders to slump, Meredith closed her eyes, a move she decided was a mistake as she almost immediately fell asleep. Opening her eyes again, she released a sigh, which was quickly followed by a sneeze. "Excuse me," she said into the phone. "When am I going?" she asked, knowing Travis would have already agreed.
On his end, Orrin smiled. He loved his job. Somehow he had ended up not only with the best teams in all the ATF, but with the best support staff too. Truth be told, aside from controlling Team Seven, he sometimes wondered if he was needed at all. "I've sent a package overnight with all the details for your trip. Just let me know if you need anything and I'll send it along. You'll be leaving immediately after the conference."
Meredith sighed. "How long?" she asked.
"Right now it looks like about four more weeks. Is that going to be a problem?" Orrin asked, knowing she wouldn't have one.
Sighing again, Meredith replied, "No. That's fine. I'll make arrangements." She and Orrin then said their goodbyes and hung up.
The phone had barely made it onto the desk when a series of hard, painful sneezes stole Meredith's breath, leaving her whimpering and reaching for more Kleenex. "A month," she mumbled as she slowly made her way to her feet. Checking her watch, she realized JD would be at work for at least another hour or so. Deciding she'd rather catch him outside the office, she made her way to the bathroom and started running the hottest bath she could stand. Fortunately she had one of her favorite, fragrant bubble baths with her. Pouring in a generous amount, she slipped out of her clothes and into the hot tub, hoping the steam would help ease her breathing.
Relaxing into the hot water, she allowed her mind to drift and found herself unsurprised when it settled on Vin. Images of the young man filled her thoughts. In her mind, she reached out a hand and caressed his cheek. I love you, she told him in the dream.
And I love you, came the dream-Vin's response.
Releasing a sigh, Meredith's mind then started revealing other images of the two of them, things they had done together and things they might do.
Too soon, the water cooled. Satisfied that her breathing was a little easier, Meredith got up, dried herself and slipped into her pajamas. Taking a full dose of cold medicine, Meredith set her alarm and slid under the covers. She didn't care how early it was, she wanted sleep. Besides, cold medicine usually left her having all sorts of odd dreams and she wanted the extra time since she was pretty sure she'd be up several times during the night.
Just as she was drifting off, she remembered she needed to call JD and see if he could housesit for a while longer.
Releasing a sigh, she flicked on the bedside lamp, checked her watch and dialed her home phone number.
<><><><><><><>Vin had just opened the door as JD was rushing through the house gathering his wallet and keys when the phone ran. Releasing a sigh and leaning against the doorframe, Vin crossed his arms over his chest and waited.
"Hello?" JD answered. "Oh! Hi, Meredith! How are you? You sound a little stuffed up. Didn't catch a cold did you? I heard airplanes can be an awful place to get colds and become sick… What? Oh, yeah, I can understand. There are some medications that knock me right out. Its…"
As soon as Vin heard it was Meredith on the other end, he had stood up and headed toward the phone to take it from JD. He felt a little flicker of worry as JD started talking about colds. Was Meredith sick? Shouldn't someone be there if she was? Feeling his anxiety increasing slightly at the thought of his love being sick, Vin tried to get JD's attention.
The young man, however, turned at just that moment and missed Vin's signal. "Oh! Sure. No problem. A month at least? Well… No, no. That should be fine. What about…? Oh! Cool! Yep. No problem… Naw, Vin and I were heading out to Chris'. Nope work, but we're hoping to find some time to play, though. Oh, and that strawberry/peach pie thing on the graham cracker crust was great! And that tea was a huge hit with Casey and her friends. Nope, cat's fine. OK. You rest. Bye!" With that, JD hung up and turned to find a frustrated looking Vin standing behind him. "Oh, hi! What's up? You ready to go?" the young Bostonian asked making his way to the chair where he had hung his jacket.
Vin didn't know whether to strangle his friend or just scream in frustration. A few words with Meredith. That's all he'd wanted, just a few words with Meredith. He couldn't tell her how he felt over the phone, but at least he'd know for himself that she was all right. Finally giving up, he simply asked, "So, what was that about?"
JD slipped on his coat as he headed for the door. "Oh, Meredith's going to be consulting at other ATF offices for about a month, maybe a little longer. She just wanted to know if I could watch her house and cat until she came back. I said sure. She's going to let me know the details when she has them. Sounds like she's picked up a really nasty cold. She was a little out of it, said she'd just taken some medicine that made her really sleepy, y'know."
Vin felt his shoulders slump. Another month. Another month before he'd see her. Another month before he could find out if she ever thought of him as more than a friend. Another month without her near him, without her smile, her laugh… Vin released a heavy sigh and closed the door behind him.
<><><><><><><>Meredith hung up the phone, turned off the light and pretty much face-planted herself on the mattress, pushing the pillows to the side. Who uses pillows? she wondered idly, already slipping off into an uneasy sleep, reminding herself never to talk to JD when she was sick again. And why were they going to Chris' house to play with play-dough?
Taking an empty tea tin, she placed her whole peaches in it before dropping them into the mixing bowl. She followed that up with a gram of strawberries. She knew it was a gram because she took the time to measure it on a scale. Adding a liter of tea, she began mixing the concoction. Realizing it was missing something, she reached up and removed the barrettes from her hair, tossing them in. Stirring a long time, she eventually decided to add a color. "What color do you boys want?" she asked.
"Spruce," Vin replied with a smile.
Smiling back, Meredith added the food coloring watching as it made an
abstract design in the dough. Pouring the mixture into a pan, she popped it
into the oven and went over to see what the young agents were working on.
"Want to help?" JD asked, offering a coloring book and crayon
to the young woman.
"Sure," Meredith agreed, taking the crayon and book.
Looking at the table, she decided against a chair and settled into Vin's lap,
leaning against him as his arms wrapped around her. "Can I color the other
page?" she asked.
"Sure," came Vin's reply. He shifted slightly to give her
better access to the page.
As she colored on the page, she noticed each stroke revealed a line of
poetry from one of the poems she'd written about Vin. Looking over at
Vin's page, she noticed each stroke of his crayon revealed a line from a
different poem, one of the ones she'd received anonymously.
"When will the play-dough be done?" JD asked. "It's been
cooking for almost a week."
Rising from her place on Vin's lap, Meredith headed over to the oven and
pulled the play-dough from it. Waiting a few seconds for it to cool, she
brought it over to the table.
"Keep it on the plastic tablecloth," she admonished, suddenly
noticing that her kitchen table looked like one of the table at the youth
center she and Vin helped out at. Looking around she noticed that Vin and JD
had been joined by a number of young children. It seemed odd, she couldn't
remember moving the table into her kitchen. Still, she divided the
play-dough among the children, Vin and JD and turned around to begin cleaning.
Before long, she heard Vin call to her. Turning around, she saw the
children were gone and her own table had returned. Thinking nothing of that,
she wondered idly why a full-grown Vin and full-grown JD were acting like
little kids. Wandering over to the table, she saw that Vin had made a
play-dough paper and a teaspoon. JD had made a life-sized replica of his
friend. Complimenting both of them on their excellent work, Meredith turned
toward the stove where the teakettle was whistling. Odd, she didn't remember
putting on water for tea. Glancing over her shoulder, she watched as the two
men mashed their sculptures into a hexagonal shape before beginning again.
Just as she was throwing out her teabag, she was called back to admire
Vin and JD's work. Meredith made appropriate appreciative noises as she
listened to the sounds of JD's gurgling tiger. Turning to look at what Vin had
done, she didn't know what to say. Somehow, Vin had managed to smear the
play-dough all over the cat and the watches that were all sitting on the
counter.
About to demand Vin help her clean, Meredith turned to find herself
alone in her kitchen, play-dough everywhere. Heaving a heavy sigh, she started
cleaning, thinking it would take her a fortnight to clean out the watches and
get the play-dough off the cat. How she would ever get it off the cat's elbows
she'd never know…
Jerking slightly, Meredith surfaced long enough from her dream to groan at the absurdity of it, squint at the clock and fall back asleep.
