Juliet reached the toilet just in time, closing her eyes and hoping it would pass sooner rather than later. She didn’t have the time to be huddled around the toilet today.
After a couple of minutes, when she was able to think more clearly now that the worst was over, Juliet was kicking herself. She should have had the presence of mind to shut the door and lock it.
It was one of her cardinal rules! Granted, not about this specific thing, but still.
Darcy was right next to her. Juliet had barely been aware when she’d come in, but she’d very gently tugged Juliet’s hair back, now holding it gathered in one of her hands, as she gently stroked the other one up and down Juliet’s back.
At least she had the cognizance – now – to reach up and flush to minimize the grossness of the situation. To preservea littleof her dignity.
As much as she wanted to stand up and brush it off, she was terrified of embarrassing herself even more. So she stayed where she was, kneeling next to the toilet for another ten minutes just to be safe.
When she finally leaned back, she was still nauseous, still had that pain hammering through her skull, but she was confident that there wasn’t anything left in her stomach.
“Migraine?” Darcy whispered, her voice as soft and coaxing as her touch, which slid all the way up to the back of Juliet’s neck, gently massaging there.
Juliet closed her eyes, lulled into Darcy’s touch. “Good guess.”
“I had some context clues.”
Juliet supposed running into her hotel room without so much as a hello as she rubbed her fingers over her eye and then vomited would be quite a tip-off. She grimaced, absolutely mortified. She could only imagine whatever Darcy thought.
Darcy’s voice gave nothing away, though. It was just soft and quiet, as she asked, “Where’s your injection?”
“Suitcase,” she rasped back.
Darcy slid her hand to Juliet’s shoulder, squeezing comfortingly, before she leaned in and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. Then she took off like a rocket into her room.
It made Juliet want to smile, even as she felt like garbage. Weak and clammy and shaky. She was sure that her head might have even been a little sweaty where Darcy had kissed her.
Darcy returned in less than a minute, breezing back in as she unceremoniously dropped to her knees next to Juliet.
With her eyes only open enough to see a slightly blurry outline of Darcy’s hand, she reached out to take her medication, her hand shaking slightly.
“I’ll do it,” Darcy insisted, gently tugging up Juliet’s shirt.
Juliet acquiesced, not having it in her to disagree. Not even wanting to. This entire thing was already embarrassing enough; Darcy giving her the injection couldn’t possibly make it worse. “It just needs to be–”
“At least two inches from your belly button. I know,” Darcy assured her, before she found a spot and pressed the top of the pen. “I looked it up after I saw you take this last time. The locations you can take the shot, how to do it. Just in case.”
Juliet tensed, holding still until they heard the penclick. Darcy lowered it from her, smoothing Juliet’s shirt back down, then keeping her hand there, softly rubbing her thumb in circles.
Darcy maneuvered them, moving so carefully as if Juliet were a porcelain doll, so her arm was wrapped around Juliet’sshoulders, and Juliet was leaning completely into her body. Juliet had no willpower or desire to fight against it. Leaning her head against Darcy’s shoulder was the most natural feeling in the world, especially right now. Nothing in this moment could possibly feel better.
“Shouldn’t be that long now for it to kick in,” she said against Darcy’s collarbone.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Darcy assured her in a whisper.
Juliet let her eyes close, breathing Darcy in.
She didn’t fall asleep, not exactly. But she knew she went to that place in between sleeping and waking, like she was disconnecting her mind from reality and drifting. Waiting for the medication to kick in.
Even though her limbs still felt heavy, as soon as she felt slightly better, she forced herself up and out of Darcy’s embrace. Her entire body screamed at her, demanding she go right back to where she’d been, cuddled into that spot that felt made for her.
But if she did that, she’d never really pull herself together. And they had a show tonight.
In fact, they had soundcheck really soon.
She sat up straight, closing her eyes as she took in a long, slow breath, moving her head from side to side to stretch her neck. All right. She was ready to move.
