in sickness and in health

a/n: idefk. dragon, this is your fault.

It had been a long day, filled with leaflets and caring for the nursery of baby peas. All day Mary Lou had wanted some time with her leaf machine, though she'd never gotten more than five minutes to herself before a pea started crying or Modesty dropped an armful of leaflets into a pile of leaves and then couldn't find them.

But she'd finally managed to steal a moment with Ivan. Even if it involved sending her children to bed at six-thirty in the evening.

Ivan was still asleep on his pillow when his wife entered the room. He hadn't really been feeling well most of the day, and admittedly still wanted to rest. But he knew by now that Mary Lou likely wanted to put him to use, so he just spit a leaf at her.

He let her gently pull the pillowcase out of his mouth, settling him between her legs in preparation to feed him something else. But it wasn't until they were both in position that he realized he didn't feel well at all.

Frantically, the leaf machine tried to get Mary Lou's attention, imploring her to stop just long enough to let him rest for a bit. But then he remembered, once again, that she usually wasn't interested in making conversation during the act itself. They sighed in unison.

After what felt like forever, Mary Lou finally allowed Ivan a brief reprieve. By now, unfortunately, it was too late. A tidal wave of pea soup and dampish bread chunks exploded out of him.

"Again, Ivan?" She wiped some soup from her eyes, and it appeared she had also swallowed some. "Where is your medication?"

Ivan watched for a moment as Mary Lou found a bottle of pea moonshine under the bed and proceeded to down the whole thing. She picked Ivan up and placed him back where she wanted him, determined to find release without being vomited upon.

He tried to force the contents of his stomach down, to focus on his work like a good leaf machine should. And he did, up until he heard Mary Lou groan above him, though obviously not from pleasure. In fact, she sounded like she might...

That was how Jeanne found them the next day after Credence had called to tell her that Mary Lou hadn't gotten up yet and the whole hallway smelled terrible. The bottle of moonshine lay forgotten on its side, right in the middle of the dried puddle of vomit that Mary Lou had left there the previous night.

Some green residue still clung to her mouth, as well as Ivan's from trying to clean it for her. She had also apparently gotten cold and wrapped herself around the slightly overheating leaf machine, likely from accidentally falling asleep with nothing on.

Jeanne breathed out a sigh, but Ivan didn't really mind. At least he and his wife could be sick together.

-end-