Woods' POV

There are no words to describe how awful I feel. My day already started off poorly because I woke up hot and sweating. There was a dull throb in the back of my head. My muscles felt achy and tight. I had to be sick today of all days. I have so much to do at work from being in videos to building things, doing it while sick is the last thing I wanted to do. I could call in sick but that would just delay the things I have to do or possibly pass it on to someone else. Matt would understand but I just can't.

I begrudgingly pulled myself out of bed. As soon as I was standing on my feet my vision blurred. I shut my eyes and steadied myself by grabbing onto my nightstand. After a few seconds, my head stopped spinning and I was able to start my routine. As I went through the motions, everything felt slower. Like time was slowed down. I knew I was the slow one though. So much so that I arrived to work 15 minutes late. No one saw me though because red base is empty. I was going to make a door on the room under the stairs to give us easy access. Handling dangerous tools is not something I should be doing, but who cares. The only person I can hurt is myself. Better than hurting anyone else. I looked around for hinges that I knew were here somewhere. I'm not sure how long I was searching for. What I do know is that I wasn't aware enough to know that someone had entered the room with me. CJ almost gave me a heart attack when I turned around and saw him standing there, hinges in hand.

"God CJ, you can't do things like that." A nervous laugh escaped my lips which turned into more of a small cough. CJ looked concerned.

"Hey man, are you doing alright?" He pressed his hand to my forehead and quickly withdrew it. "Woods you're burning up! Why didn't you call in sick?"

I didn't let my eyes meet his. My reasoning for being here isn't that solid and I don't want him to try and send me home. "I didn't want to miss the things I had to work on. I'll be fine." He let out a sigh and I finally let myself look at him. He was shaking his head.

"God Woodland, you're gonna work yourself into the ground. At least let me help you." He grabbed the drill off the table and walked over to the hole in the wall. This is exactly the opposite of what I wanted. I don't want to accidentally hurt him.

"CJ I can't ask you to do that. You could get hurt." He rolled his eyes and looked back at me.

"I didn't ask you to. Now come over here and help me. And I say that as lovingly as possible." This time It was my turn to roll my eyes. But I went over and held the hinge against the wall.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Filming a key series video was physically exhausting. I had to act like my normal self to hide my sickness from everyone. Every once in a while I had to step away to sneeze or cough. I don't sneeze very loudly so that wasn't a problem. As soon as we were done filming I scurried off saying that I had things to do. It was lunchtime, but I didn't feel like going to get food. Instead, I went to my office to relax for a little while. My headache has developed into a full-blown migraine. I sat in my chair and closed my eyes. My body sort of fell asleep, but not fully. As soon as I heard someone enter the room I snapped my eyes open.

It was the one and only CJ Osorio. He was standing in the doorway with a styrofoam cup in his hand.

"Hey, I saw you didn't go out to lunch so I got you this." He set the cup on the desk in front of me with a spoon on top. One look and I knew exactly what it was. A smile crept onto my face and a warm feeling found its way into my chest. The container was warm and the condensation blocked the view of the greatness that awaited me.

"Thanks, CJ, this means a lot." I opened the lid and the smell of the chicken soup breathed life back into my body. The delicious aroma was enough to slightly clear my sinuses.

"It's no problem. Someone has to take care of you, I'm just glad it's me." He said as he exited the room. His words felt weird. Like there was something beneath them that I couldn't quite place. I shoved it to the back of my head for later pondering. Instead, I removed the lid of the container and dug in.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

The rest of the day went by easier than expected. That is all because of CJ that is. He's been helping me out and taking care of me all day. Even when I insisted that he leave me, he still stayed to help. I don't know how he managed to juggle my duties and his along with it. While my sickness was slowing me down, it's like all the energy I didn't have went straight to him. He was a hurricane of help. I don't know if I would've been able to get through today without him. So, I have to thank him for that.

"Hey, CJ!" He turned from the computer screen he was staring down at. His eyes met mine and I was temporarily stunned. I shook my head clear and continued. "Look man, thanks for all your help today. I know it's not much but, if you wanna come back to my place we can order some food and watch a movie or something. You know, as a thank you." His mouth formed into a real, genuine smile. The light in his eyes seemed to get ever so brighter. As if they weren't already blinding before.
"Yeah, I would like that."

"Great, I'll meet you at my place after work."

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

We were both curled up on the couch watching an Avengers movie. Our legs are intertwined under our shared blanket. The pizza box was resting on top of both of us. We took turns taking slices from the box and laughing at the movie.

"Hey CJ?" I don't know when we started whispering to each other. But my voice was barely audible over the movie. I'm not even sure if he heard me. A faint 'hmm' reached my ears. "Thanks again for taking care of me. You really didn't have to do any of it. And you have no idea how much this means to me."

"It's alright, really. I liked taking care of you. It was... nice." His eyes kept flickering from the movie to me and back again. The look in his eyes was nothing but love and caring. My fever and overall sickness have gone away significantly. It must've been a single-day fever or something.

"I feel like you should get something else for helping me." I detached from him and climbed off of the couch. I crawled over to him and sat on my knees right by his face. I searched his face for any sign of discomfort. There was none. I leaned in slowly and he met me halfway. The kiss was slow and hesitant. We were both still a little unsure of ourselves. But as the seconds passed, we put more passion behind it. We pulled apart and my eyes fluttered back open. He moved back and lifted the blanket up. I crawled in right next to him and felt his arms work their way around my stomach.

"Is this alright?" His breath was warm against my ear and It sent a shiver down my spine. In a good way though.

"More than alright."