Author's note: Written for Caesar's Palace shipping week (prompt "illness"). I just couldn't resist this idea when it popped in my head! Also uses the CP prompts dagger (Weapon Challenge) and darkness (Darkness Challenge).

Thanks to: Bratling for the beta!

In Sickness and Sulking

The door to her quarters slid open and Kathryn ducked inside. The living area was cloaked in almost complete darkness, pierced only by the muted light of the warp-streaked stars outside the viewport. As she squinted to adjust her eyes, she stumbled into his favorite chair, upsetting the stack of padds in her hands. The chair cushioned her fall as she sat down hard in it, but the padds weren't so lucky, scattering over top of and around the nearby table. Shaking her head, she gathered them back up and stacked them on the table top, then headed into the bedroom.

The bedroom seemed even darker than the living area, the viewport dimmed to block exterior illumination, but she could still make out the lump in the center of the bed. "Chakotay?"

A grunt and a cough was the only response. She smiled in the darkness, knowing he was awake and likely sulking under the covers. "Are you in there?" she teased in a stage whisper, tapping her fingers lightly against the top blanket where she knew his shoulder would be.

"No, I died an hour ago."

She swallowed the laugh that struggled to break to the surface and sat on the edge of the bed, calling for lights at twenty percent. She tugged gently at the covers. "Come on. I brought you some light reading material to alleviate your boredom. Tuvok's six-page security report should make you forget all about being sick."

"Hmph."

Kathryn tugged at the covers harder and it slid down to uncover the top half of her husband's head. Dark eyes attempted to stare daggers at her before it was ruined by a fit of coughing. Chakotay tugged the covers back up, missing the glare of gentle exasperation she shot him in return.

"If you come out from under there, I promise not to tell the Doctor I snuck work in to you."

"You wouldn't tell him anyway." A muffled sneeze punctuated the comment.

"And I'll sit with you and we can read the reports together."

A long minute of silence passed before the covers slid back to their previous position. "You win."

The sulky tone of the mumbled words brought her smile back. "Be right back."

When Kathryn returned, armed with the stack of reports and two mugs of steaming tea, he was sitting up with a pillow at his back, a box of tissues in his lap, and a single tissue in one hand. "I hate being sick," he grumbled, holding out his free hand to accept one of the mugs.

"I know." She handed him the padds, then circled around to the opposite side of the bed, climbing on to settle next to him against her own pillow. As she picked up the first of the padds, his head drooped onto her shoulder. She smiled and kissed his brow before leaning her head against his and turning her attention to the first page of Tuvok's report.

*fin*