It was the first morning of mid semester exams and the kids were up early. They wanted the extra time to make sure their mid semester projects were perfect or to study a little more or both.

It was definitely a stressful time so Brandon wasn't surprised that he had a headache.

He went to breakfast and managed about 4 bites before he was nauseous and couldnt eat anymore. After breakfast Brandon went back upstairs and started packing his backpack. As he was doing that his head was pounding. He couldn't push through the pain anymore.

He walked to his moms room and knocked on the door. "Good morning, do you have any ibuprofen?". Stef went to get the ibuprofen as Lena asked if her son had a headache. She wasn;t surprised when Brandon nodded yes. His stress often manifested as a headache. Lena pulled him into the room and kissed him on the forehead. She did it not only to comfort him but to see if he had a fever. She was relieved when he didnt. The last thing she wanted was a sick kid in an exam.

Little did she know that's exactly what was going to happen.

After taking the ibuprofen and having a moment of quiet with his mom, the family piled into the car and went to school. Brandon went to Timothys class first. During the exam he hoped the silence of the exam would calm his head and his slowly fraying emotions. Instead what he got was a lot of noise. Noise he couldn't stop no matter how hard he tried. His head was feeling like someone was jack hammering it and the sound inside his head was deafening.

He made it through the exam, went to music class and found that he just couldn't stay there. The sounds and the bright sunlight in the room full of windows were making it impossible to concentrate on anything and making his head worse. He was really starting to worry. He had had headaches before but nothing this bad. He asked his teacher for a bathroom pass and left the class. It was a god thing that he left when he did as the stimuli of the music room made his stomach do a flip and before he knew it he was kneeling in front of the school toilets losing his breakfast.

When he was sure he was finished being sick he decided to find Lena. He wasn't sure that his head as going to make it to lunch without some kind of intervention. he walked towards her office he noticed that he was feeling dizzy and really cold. He was glad when her office came into view. He knocked lightly on her office door but she didnt respond. He texted her and she didnt respond. So he called his mom and got her voicemail. He decided to head back to the music room to get his stuff since it was almost time for lunch.

At lunch he sat with his siblings. Mariana was the first to notice that Brandon looked pale and was squinting. She told him to go to Lena, he told her that he had tried. She told him to put his head down on the table, it might help. Jesus didnt really notice anything until his older brother started giving away his lunch items. The nausea he was feeling was awful. all he wanted to do was sleep off whatever illness he had caught. With his head down his siblings started to talk about how the night at home was going to suck. Jesus had been sent to his Mamas office accidentally tripping someone in gym. He says accident the other say on purpose, Mariana had been sent to her Mama because she and tia were disrupting the class. Callie had been sent to Lena due to a cheating scandal in biology class (*it would later turn out that she hadn't cheated but had sat beside someone who did). Jude had been sent to his Mama when he and Connor were caught kissing in the hallway.

After lunch Brandon knew he had to find Lena. His first afternoon class had their exam the next day so all would be missing was an in class study. It took about 10 minutes but he finally found Lena. He wasn't really paying attention to where he was walking and literally bumped into Lena. He put his head up to apologize when Lena caught a glimpse of her son. He was pale, sweating, squinting and just looked awful. She wrapped her arm around him and guided him back to her office. When they got there she put him on the couch and got him water. She asked if he was alright and he said no. He told her about his headache and how the ibuprofen from the morning idnt do anything. He told her how he got sick during music and how nauseas he was at lunch. Lena kissed Brandon on the forehead again, told him to lie down and put a trash bin by his head.

Lena was relieved to see Brandon sleeping a few minutes later. She grabbed some paperwork for a board meeting and headed to Montys office. She kissed her son and told him she would be back. On her way back from the meeting she called the kids doctor to see if she could get an appointment for Brandon for today. She didn't know what was going on in that head of his but knew it wasnt normal for him.

As the kids started to file out of the school she guided her oldest son to the car. The others were already there fighting over who would get shot gun. Truth was Lena was upset with the other kids and she rather loudly said that Brandon would be getting the front seat. The rest of the kids piled into the car. Lena helped Brandon with his seat belt and gave him a plastic bag in case his stomach couldn't handle the ride home. At every red light Lena would run her hand along Brandons back. She knew that when she was sick she liked to be touched. Brandon leaned his head on the passenger side window. The coolness helped dull his queasy stomach a bit. The rest of the kids kept carrying on talking and arguing with each other. Lena kept telling them to quiet down but they wouldnt listen.

Once they pulled into the driveway Lena laid down the law with her kids. At this point she was fuming over the behavior of her kids. She raised her voice telling all her kids that they needed to head up to their rooms and do their homework and she didnt want to hear a peep from anyone until dinner. Brandon knew he was too out of it to do homework so he looked at Lena with pleading eyes and asked if he could take a nap before dinner. Any other time that innocent question would have been answered with a kiss and a smile but today Lena just saw the question as defiance. She was so angry at the kids that she found herself yelling at Brandon teling him to just do what he was told.

Stef got home about 40 minutes later. She found Lena by the stove crying. Stef walked up and wrapped her arms around her wifes waist. She kissed her wife, dried her tears and asked her what happened. She told Stef about the kids and how she yelled at Brandon. Stef decided to go check on her sick baby. When she walked in she saw him lying on the bed with a textbook open. He looked up at her with exhaustion and pain in his eyes. Her heart broke. She told him that Lena didnt mean to yell at him and that he was free to nap until they took him to the doctor. She laid in bed beside him and rubbed his head while they quietly talked about his symptoms. Brandon let out a tear, the pain was really getting to him. Lena then called out for dinner. Stef kissed Brandon and asked him to change into something comfortable and that he could avoid dinner if he wasn't up to it.

After dinner Lena went in to check on Brandon. He had tried to change into pyjamas but failed. He had on pj bottoms but his same school top. He was trying to sleep when she walked in. Lena sat on the side of his bed and rubbed his back. She apologized for her outburst earlier and helped her son to his feet. They slowly walked to the car and they got to the doctors office with Brandon who got sick on the way once.

At the doctors office Brandon lost what little resolve he had left. The bright lights and office noises were sending his jack hammer head into overdrive. He just wanted to go home and looked at his mom and pleaded to go. She was heartbroken. Her son was really sick and and in pain and there was nothing that she could do to take it away. After filling out all the forms they waited for what seemed like forever before Brandons name was called. In the doctors office he dimmed the lights and brandon thanked him. The doctor did several tests and came to the conclusion that Brandon was in the middle of a stress induced migraine. Stef got mad at herself, she can't believe she missed the signs. She herself had migraines in the past but had only had a few since being with Lena and hadnt had one in several years. Lena knew how to help her wife and so togehter they knew they could help their son.

They gently guided their son to his bed, pulled the curtains to make the room as dark as possible and turned off anything that might make noise. They got him a bottle of water and Stef put a cold cloth on Brandons head.

Brandon got fuzzier as his pain got worse. It was hard for him to voice his pain. He was exhausted but the pain wouldnt let him sleep. Lena checked on him very early in the morning, she changed his cold cloth and rubbed his back. That made his pain worse. He hoarsely said "no touching". She took that as a cue to leave and was almost out of the door when Brandon said "Mama stay". He was lonely and scared.

Lena stayed with him as long as she could. She wanted to say things but thought that her just being there might have been enough. Stef stayed home with Brandon for the rest of the day. Lena hated to break the news but school board rules required him to be in his exam. Stef went to wake her son and started to cry. He was laying in bed, curled into the tightest possible ball with his head under a pillow. Stef could hear the faint sound of crying from her son. He hadnt been to sleep much because of the pain. She slowly got him out of bed and even slower down the stairs. She gave him a pair of sunglasses as they headed to the car.

Stef messaged Lena before they left the house so she was waiting for her wife and son. They helped him to class and then the two women went back to Lenas office to wait for school to finish. Jesus and Mariana rode back with Stef and Brandon. They were loud and Brandons pain was getting worse. After having enough he finally yelled SHUT UP at the top of his lungs. He finally had peace.

Once they all got home the moms threatened the kids and they all stayed upstairs quiet. The moms headed outside to the backyard to sit alone for a few minutes when Callie came running to them. She told them how they had all heard a thud and she went to see what it was. She found Brandon in a heap on the floor at the side of his bed. Callie had taken charge before she went to get her moms. She had Jude sitting with Brandon, had sent Mariana to get cleaning supplies and Jesus to get a new pair of pyjamas. The moms rushed to Brandon and Stef kneeled in front of him. She asked where he was going. All he could do was point towards the bathroom. She asked if he still needed it and he nodded.

She and Lena got him up and walked him to the bathroom while Callie and Mariana cleaned up. Once Brandon hit the floor he had an accident and then got sick. Callie was so glad she had a strong stomach. After a bath, a cold cloth and some momma attention Brandon looked a little less pained then he had earlier in the day.

Brandon went to bed after that. The moms went to bed that night early, they were exhausted. Brandons emotions had been playing with their emotions and that day. They werent complaining about him being sick, the migraine wasnt his fault. The next morning was SAturday. Stef went off to work and Lena had sent all the kids out of the house for the day to keep it quiet. She was about to make herself some lunch when she heard foot steps by the stairs. She looked up to see Brandon at thetop. He wasn't swaying or sweating and he didnt look as pale as he had for the last couple days.

He walked towards Lena and hugged her. He apologized for being rude when he told her not to touch him. He told Lena his headache had gone away and he was much less fuzzy then he was earlier. He did say that he was still exhausted though. She hugged him back and told him he never had to apologize for what happens when hes sick. They had a lunch of soup and crackers and watched a movie. Well Lena watched the movie, Brandon slept.