Enjoy.

VPOV:

I take a big stretch as the sun peaks through the curtains and blinds me. "Ugh what time is it?" I ask the warm body next to me but all I get is an annoyed grunt in reply. "Charming." I look over Charity and see 9:12 flashing on the clock. "Bloody hell Charity it's after 9."

"Shhhh." She hisses moving away from me.

"I guess I'll go make the teas then." I huff rolling out of bed, putting on her dressing gown over my naked body and heading down stairs.

"Morning." Chas greets from the couch.

"Hiya, didn't realise how late it was, Charity's still asleep."

"Late night was it?" She says winking at me.

I ignore her smirking and head to the kettle. "No actually I was doing paper work in bed while Charity was dead to the world by 10."

"Hmm, she must be ill." Chas laughs turning back to her breakfast and the telly.

I shake my head at her cackling while she watches the latest batch weirdos on the Jeremy Kyle show and head to the kettle to give Charity her morning fix of tea. I think about making her a bacon roll, but I think Chas might be right, she was pretty quiet last night and just wanted cuddles in bed.

"Good luck waking the beast." Chas calls as I head past her with the teas.

"Charity, I've got you some tea." I announce quietly pushing her bedroom door open with my foot. "Charity?" I call out when I'm greeted by an empty bed.

I hear Charity groan from the bathroom so I drop the teas onto her bedside table, race to the bathroom and find her bent over the toilet bowl heaving. "Oh shit, you okay."

"Do I look okay?" She says glaring at me from her spot on the floor.

"You look beautiful." I try, but she just continues to give me that unimpressed look. I lean down and press the back of my hand against her head. "Jesus you're burning up."

"I'm fine." She huffs worming away from my touch. "It's cold in here not hot."

"I think you've got the flu."

"I don't get the flu." She says trying to supress a shiver. I give her my own unimpressed look that she tries to ignore and grab a flannel from the side and run it under the cold tap.

"Everyone get's the flu, sadly the flu isn't scared of you babe."

"Bullshit, everyone's scared of me." She says trying to sound intimidating, but her voice is all muffled from her stuffy nose.

"Okay then." I nod feeling my heart swell at how cute she looks.

I reach down and start to cool her down by dabbing down her neck with the flannel. "Eh…what are you doing." She screeches pushing my hand away.

"I need to cool you down Charity."

"No."

"Charity." I sigh.

"I don't have the flu Vanessa."

"Yeah and I'm not a blonde pocket rocket." I wink trying to lighten the mood, but of course that doesn't work.

"I'm fine." She struggles to stand up for a moment before stumbling out and towards the bedroom.

"Great." I follow her to the room and find Charity struggling out of her pyjamas. "I thought you were cold."

"Well now I'm hot…I am allowed to change my mind ya 'know." She huffs climbing back into bed.

"That would be your fever." I mumble…Charity just pulls the covers up to her neck and gives me such a 'poor me' look.

"Can I get you anything?" I ask sitting down by her legs and brushing her hair away from her clammy forehead.

"No." She says avoiding my eyes, thankfully I can now ready this amazing woman like a book and know exactly what she's like.

"How about I stay with you until you fall asleep? Just for my peace of mind." I hold back my smirk as a smile quickly appears on her face

"Whatever…if you want." Charity shrugs turning her back to me, so I can shuffle up behind her and wrap my arms around her. "Mmm nice and warm." She says wiggling closer to me.

.

.

.

.

"She still not up?" Chas asks as I walk into the bar a couple hours after leaving her this morning. It only took a couple of minutes for Charity to doze off again, but I couldn't pull myself away from her.

"No, she's got the flu." I tell her before having a sip of my fresh cup of tea.

"Really?" She raises her eyebrows at me in disbelief.

"Yeah…when I went upstairs she was heaving in the toilet." I wince.

"Hmm, well I guess it's a good thing it's her day off then."

I take a seat at the bar and prepare to take pregnant Chas' wrath. "She might need more than a day."

I avoid looking at her, but I clearly hear the deep breath she takes. "How long?"

"Well I'm no doctor but from experience I'd say a few days minimum, at least until she gets her strength back."

"I guess it's unavoidable." She huffs slamming down glasses.

I feel my hackles rise a bit at the way Chas is taking this. "I mean she has earned a bit of time." I say trying to gather up every bit of confidence I have.

"Excuse me?"

"Come on Chas, Charity's been amazing recently." She scoffs, gives me a disbelieving look and that just pisses me off more. "I mean with everything that's been going on with Joe, Debbie and this Bails arsehole she's still managed take your shifts and run this place when you've had issues with your pregnancy or another tiff with Paddy."

Chas just stares at me in shock for a few moments and I think I've pushed it a bit too far with the Paddy jibe, but thankfully her eyes soften, and her shoulders drop. "You're right." She says walking towards me and leaning against the bar. "She could do with the rest."

"Agreed." I nod.

"And you're going to look after her?"

"I am. Already covered it with Rhona and Trace is watching Jonny for a now."

"I'm sure I don't have to remind you that Charity is a force to be reckoned with when she's healthy, god knows what she'll be like when she's run down with the flu." She winces.

"Ahh don't worry I had a taste of it this morning, but I know I need to push through…it's for her own good." I look to the clock and see it's nearly lunch time, I should really make her something to eat and keep her hydrated.

"Well good luck." She says patting my hand and going to her tasks.

"Cheers." I call heading into the back. "Oh, and if you need a hand with anything down here just let me know."

"Thanks love."

I give her a smile before going into the kitchen and making Charity some toast and grabbing a cold bottle of water from the fridge. As I enter the bedroom I see Charity already awake and staring into space. "How are you feeling?" I whisper, trying to be mindful of her possible headache.

She looks over to me with glossy eyes and lets out a small whine. "I'm sore Ness."

"I know." I say placing the plate and bottle to the side. "You're gonna be sore for a little while I'm afraid."

"Noooo." She moans shoving the covers off her sweaty body.

"I've made you some toast and I know you won't want it, but it'll be good to get some foot in your stomach before you take painkillers."

She begins to while again but I just shush her while grabbing onto her hand and kissing her knuckles. "How about you try and eat a little bit for me, have some water, get in the shower while I change the sheets and we just spend the day in bed watching chick-flicks that you pretend not to like, but we both really know that you love."

"I don't like them." Charity mumbles playing with my fingers.

"Not even Legally Blonde or Notting Hill."

"Yuck." She says with a slight grin.

"Okay then we'll just watch Chucky or something."

Charity lets out a small laugh and squeezes my hand tighter. "Don't be silly you'll get nightmares, we can watch Legally Blonde…I think Chas has it on DVD."

"Yeah Chas." I wink.

"Can you shower with me? I don't think I'm strong enough to do it on my own." She says all innocently.

"Are you really ill." I joke laying my hand on her fiery forehead.

"Yes." She groans trying to shove my hand off…but failing miserably.

"Okay I'm sorry."

"So shower then bed time?" Charity smiles sitting up slightly and nodding to the toast.

"Sound like a plan gorgeous." I tell her handing over the plate. When I woke up this morning and discovered Charity had the flu, I was expecting to be dealing with WW3, but it turns out this woman turns into a teddy bear when she's not well. Just another of many incredible things I'm finding out about this amazing woman...and I can't wait for the rest.