Hardin's POV.

"Here, I found some." I tap Tessa on her shoulder.

She has her head buried in the couch and her eyes closed. After another minute of me poking and prodding her she opens her eyes and sits up to take the small pills from my hand.

"Are you sick?" I ask her again.

"I don't know, I think I may be getting sick. My stomach hurts worse than my head now but it may just be because I'm hungry."

Or because I'm stressing you the fuck out and you look like you're going to vomit on our couch.

"Oh, well the pizza should be here soon."

"Mhmm." She tips her head back and takes a drink of water to swallow the medicine.

I can tell by the loss of color in her cheeks that she isn't feeling well.

"Have you had your flu shot?" I ask her.

"What?"

"Your flu shot. Have you gotten one this year?" I don't know what types of questions to ask a sick person.

"I don't know.. actually no. I don't think so. I don't have insurance. You should see the bill from my ambulance ride." She groans and gives me a weak smile.

"I'll pay it." I offer and she frowns and lays back on the couch.

"I will, you shouldn't be worrying about medical bills."

"Shhh.." She says and closes her eyes.

I'll remind her again when she's feeling better, or I will just go pay it myself without her permission. That would surely piss her off though and that's exactly what I'm trying not to do.

"What should I do?" I ask and there is a  knock at the door.

The pizza of course. As I stand up the knocking gets louder and I cover Tessa's bare lower half with the blanket before walking to the door. The knocking turns to pounding. Are you fucking kidding me?

"Don't fucking pound on my door, she has a headache." I snap at the young delivery kid.

"Sorry man." He says, handing me the square box.

I feel a little bad for scolding him but he was going to make her headache worse. I sign my name on the receipt and close the door in his face.

"I'll.. uhm..I'll put some on a plate for you." I stutter and walk to the kitchen.

I'm so glad she's here with me in our apartment, sick or not.

"Here, you have to eat." I tell her and she groans again.

"I'm not hungry."

"Yes you are, you just said you were."

She pulls herself to sit up while pulling the blanket up over her lap.

"One piece." She argues.

"Two."

"None." She half smiles.

"Fine, one."

I sit next to her and pull her feet onto my lap while we eat. She takes slow, small bites, emphasizing her chewing to prove a point to me. Even when ill she still has her attitude and I love that. She leans forward and places her empty plate on the coffee table before closing her eyes again.

"We should go to the hospital." I suggest.

"I'm fine Hardin, it's just a stomach flu or something."

"How do you know?"

"Because I've been sick before, everyone has. It's not that big of a deal."

"It feels like it." I don't mean to say audibly.

She opens her eyes and reaches her arm for me to move closer to her. I guess something good is coming from her not feeling well, she has seemed to put all of her anger towards me to the side for now.

"I'm fine. I just need to sleep." She grips the thin material of my shirt between her fingers and lays her head on my chest.

"Let's go to the bed." I instruct and she shakes her head.

I ignore her quiet protests and lift her off of the couch and into my arms to carry her to our bedroom. I tug at the duvet and lay her gently on her side of the bed.

"Why is the bed made?" She asks, snuggling into the pillow.

"It hasn't been used." I tell her and she nods in understanding.

I couldn't sleep in this bed without her. It would be a constant reminder of the loss I suffered.

"I really am sorry for earlier." I tell her, laying down next to her and bringing her to my chest.

"Mhmm." She mutters and closes her eyes.

I reach across the small space between us and press my hand to her forehead, I think that's what you're supposed to do when someone's sick? It feels very warm, too warm.

"Do we have a thermometer?" I ask  quietly.

"I'm okay. Just let me sleep."

"Tess.." I whine, literally fucking whine.

"Shh.."

I sigh and roll onto my back, keeping one arm hooked around her waist and stare at the ceiling. I don't like this, I don't like this at all. Her skin is damp and glistening with moisture, her lips and cheeks are pale, and she's breathing too heavily. If I lay here and stare at her I'll go insane. She is stubborn and refuses to go to the hospital but what if it's something serious. She was fine a few hours ago. The possibilities are endless and trampling through my mind with muddy shoes.

"Tessa." I shake her arm.

"What?" She opens one eye.

"Can we go to the hospital now?"

"Hardin for goodness sake, I am fine."

She's getting irritated with me but that's fine with me.

"Go watch television." She instructs.

I decide to listen to her because really I can't just sit here and she's getting ready to smack the shit out of me if I don't leave her alone, I can tell. With a sigh I grab my phone from the bedside table and saunter out into the living room. I don't have a clue what to do with myself, my sick, sleeping beauty wants me to leave her alone to sleep and all my friends are assholes. I could get some work done but I have no interest in it at the moment. I wonder what Landon's up to?

What...the..fuck? Why did that thought just come to my mind.

What could we possibly do anyway? He's into all the shit that I'm not, sports, school..that about sums it up. I guess I could clean the kitchen up and sweep the thin layer of dust that has blanketed the entire apartment in the last two weeks.

An hour later the kitchen is clean, well clean enough, and I'm fucking tired. I hate cleaning and it was an even bigger mess than I thought. I somehow managed to splatter food all over the inside of the microwave, let a beer bottle explode in the freezer, and left the remainder of an old sandwich on the counter. Keeping my room at the frat house clean was much easier, it was only one room.

Tessa is fast asleep on the bed, her arms hugging my pillow and her knees curled up to her chest. She's breathtaking even when sick. It's still too early for me to go to sleep so I go into the closet and grab the copy of Pride and Prejudice she gave me for my birthday. Bright yellow covers much more of the book than I expected so I lay next to her once again and begin to read the marked passages.

“There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.”

This one is certainly from our earlier days. I can picture her now, annoyed and flustered, sitting on her tiny bed in that dorm with a highlighter and novel in hand.

I glance over at her and chuckle lightly at her expense. Flipping through the pages I see a pattern here, she despised me. I knew that then but being reminded of it is pretty damn strange.

“An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.”  

Her mother and Noah.

“Angry people are not always wise.”  

Isn't that the truth...

“I have not the pleasure of understanding you.”

I didn't understand my own damn self and still don't, really.

“I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.”

She did this the day I told her I loved her and took it back. I know she did.

"I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve.”  

Easier said than done, Tess.

“To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.”

The wedding. I know it. I remember the way she beamed up at me and pretending not to be in pain as I stepped all over her shoes.

“We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him.”  

This still applies. Landon would say some shit like this to Tessa, he probably has before.

“Till this moment I never knew myself.”

I'm not sure which of us this applies to more.

“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome."
"And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody."
"And yours," he replied with a smile, "is willfully to misunderstand them.”

Each part holds more truth than the last as I skip back to the front section of the familiar novel.

“She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.”  

I had once told Tessa she wasn't my type, what a fucking idiot I was. I mean look at her, she's everyone's type even if they are too damn stupid to see it at first. My hands work the pages and my eyes skim over countless marked lines that relate to the two of us and how she feels about me. This is the best gift I'll ever receive, that's for damn sure.

“You have bewitched me, body and soul.”

One of my favorite lines, I used it on her once when we first moved into this place. She scrunched her nose at my corny use of the line, laughed at me, and tossed a piece of broccoli at me. She's always throwing shit at me.

“But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever.”  

I have changed for the better, for her, since I met her. I'm not perfect, fuck no where near but I could be one day.

“How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue.”  

I don't like this one at all. I know exactly what was going through her mind as she highlighted it. Moving on..

“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”  

At least it isn't just Tessa's mind that does this crazy shit.

"Only the deepest love will persuade me into matrimony."

She left the rest of the sentence out, the part that says 'which is why I shall end up and old maid'

Only the deepest love can persuade me into matrimony. Hmm.. I'm not sure even that will do it for me. There is no possible way there is a love deeper than what I feel for this girl but it doesn't change my opinion on marriage. People don't get married for the right reasons anymore, not that they ever did. In the past it was for status or money and now it's only to be sure you won't be lonely and miserable, two things nearly every marriage person still feels.

The book is placed on the bedside table before I switch off the light and lay my head flat on the mattress. I want to take my pillow back but she's holding it too tight and I don't want to be a dick.

"Would you please just stop being so stubborn and come to England with me? I can't be without you." I whisper to her in her sleep, running my thumb along the warm skin of her cheek.

I'm looking forward to getting some sleep again, real sleep with her next to me.

Tessa's POV.

When I wake up I'm grateful to find that Hardin isn't laying on top of me like he usually does because he's still asleep with his mouth hanging wide open and I really have to pee and take a shower. Hardin's t-shirt is soaked in sweat and I feel disgusting. With a quick kiss to Hardin's cheek I hurry to the bathroom.

Maybe I should take an actual bath to try and break this fever, I haven't had a bath in the longest time. Hardin's shirt is peeled from me and I gaze at my naked figure in the mirror. My complexion is ghastly and red stains my stomach. What is that? I run my fingers along the crimson streaks and look down at the t-shirt on the floor. It's blood, it has to be. I put on the shirt Hardin wore yesterday and now I have his, or Zed's, blood on my skin. A shiver rakes over my body and I start the shower first to wash away the brutal evidence of Hardin's temper. All of this is making me sick, literally. The Advil last night helped and I no longer have too much of a stomach ache but my head is still pounding and I just feel.. weak. I may need to go to the Urgent Care down the road after all. It's money that I don't want to spend especially since I'm moving soon but I don't think I have much of a choice.

After a quick shower I run the tub full of scalding water and squirt an excessive amount of wash into the water before stepping in. It feels incredible, relaxing my muscles instantly. I close my eyes, breathing in the sweet scent of vanilla and begin to think about Seattle. I am anxious and excited but also nervous and worried over what Hardin will say. I wish he could just be happy for me and come along, if only it were that easy. I'm going regardless of how he reacts, I made a promise to myself and my mother that I would never allow a man to hold me back and prevent me from doing anything. This has always been my plan, my dream, and it's right in front of me, so close that I can nearly touch it. I wish I could continue to be a coward and wait until the last moment to break the news to Hardin but I can't. I owe it to him to be honest as soon as the opportunity arises.

"Tess?" Hardin's knuckles tap lightly against the bathroom door.

He pushes the door open before I react.

"You okay? I woke up and you weren't there.."

"I'm fine. I feel a little better." I tell him and he sits down on the toilet seat.

"That's good.."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just.. I don't know, I thought you may have left.."

"Nope, still here." I lay my head back against the cold lip of the tub.

"Do you have plans today?"

"I think I'm going to have to get some antibiotics, real ones."

"I'll take you."

I thank him and soak in the large mound of bubbles for a few more minutes before climbing out. He hands me a towel and I wrap it around my body. If I was feeling better I know he would have climbed in the tub with me and made crude remarks before making love to me in the water. My already flamed body ignites at the thought and I shake my head trying to discard the thought.

"I just need to get dressed and I'll be ready. Thank you." I smile at him and he stand to his feet.

I feel his eyes on me as I walk across the dimly lit hallway and into the bedroom.

"This is taking forever, good thing you're not dying." He complains for the tenth time since we were seated in the small but very colorful waiting room.

Cut outs of children's handprints and large barn animal decals cover nearly every inch of the place.

"I didn't know this was a damn kindergarten class." Hardin huffs and rolls his eyes.

"I don't know.. whining child, check.." I touch his leg and he scowls at me but I see the humor in his eyes.

"Ha-ha."

"Theresa Young." A elderly nurse calls my name from a few feet away and Hardin stands to his feet.

"You can't go back there with me." I tell him, using my arm to stop his movements.

"Why not?"

"I don't know.. because you aren't family and I don't think they'll let you."

He looks a slightly wounded by my words but sits down without another word.

After waiting another forty-five minutes, peeing in a cup, giving three vials of blood, and explaining my symptoms and stress level at the moment, I'm given a clean bill of health except a slight stomach virus and a warning to lower my stress level. The grey haired man writes me a prescription for antibiotics and sends me on my way.

Hardin is pacing back and forth in the waiting room, glaring at the large brown cow on the wall.

"Jesus, could that have taken any longer. I was about to lose my mind." He runs both hands through his hair.

"We just have to pick up my prenatal prescription before we go." I take advantage of his frantic state.

He stops dead in his tracks and I begin to laugh. All of the color drains from his face and I think he may keel over dead in the middle of the waiting room.

"Prenatal?" His voice comes out as a gasp as he tries to put the pieces together.

"I'm teasing, it's only a stomach virus. I need to get these antibiotics though." I wave the paper in front of him.

He snatches the prescription from my hand and walks toward the door.

"Not funny." He remarks once we get outside.

"Yes it was." I laugh once more and ignore the death glare he's giving me as he opens the passenger door.