Chapter Text
After an hour or so, Trevor heard Hetty waking up in a coughing fit. After it eventually settled down, he tried to get her to drink some water which seemed to help. At some point during the coughing fit, she latched harder onto his clothes and even after it subsided, wouldn’t let go.
“Hey, guessing you’re not feeling any better?”
“No…”
“Alright. Do you want to get more sleep or do you want to do some low energy stuff like TV?”
“I do not want to sleep because if I do now, I will not tonight. But at the same time, TV is not ideal because I have a headache. Could we simply talk instead?”
“Yeah, of course. Also, my parents said they hope you feel better soon and that you don’t falsely confess to killing one of my uncles like the last time you weren’t feeling too good. I still can’t believe you said, ‘I apologise for your loss’ to them.”
“Again, would you be able to remember the difference between ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I apologise’ while having a migraine? Probably not. And ‘falsely confessing’ is a gross exaggeration.”
“Are you saying it was a real confession then?” Trevor asked as a joke.
“Of course not,” Hetty replied, smiling despite the circumstances, “But everyone knew it was simply bad wording. But enough about that, your phone made a noise.”
When Trevor checked his phone, he saw Alberta had messaged saying, she’ll be round with the medication soon. That was good.
“Hey, we’ve nearly got meds for you.” Trevor said but when he saw Hetty wasn’t paying attention and was instead smiling looking at her own phone, he decided to joke a bit, “I thought looking at screens was worsening your headache.”
“It would if I were looking at a big screen for an hour. My phone is much smaller and I am only quickly checking messages. Or do you just not want me to find out you couldn’t figure out how to put a teabag in water without messaging Isaac?”
“He told you? Also, it wasn’t the putting it in water part that I was stuck with.”
“He specifically said, ‘Hi. Hope you feel better soon. Also, ask Trevor about the tea bag incident’.”
“Nowhere in there does that say I messaged him.”
“No but I could guess and your reaction confirmed it,” By this point, Hetty was smiling and laughing. That was a good sign Trevor hoped, “There was also a gif of a dinosaur with a monocle and a tea set. I am honestly not sure what that is for.”
“Okay, you have to show me this, Hetty.”
And sure enough, Isaac had sent a gif of a dancing dinosaur with a tea set. It wasn’t unusual though. Isaac always had a strange store of anything dinosaur related.
“Are all palaeontologists like that or just Isaac?” Trevor asked
“I do not think it is exclusive to palaeontologists. Nigel is the same way about ants.”
“Yeah. But Nigel doesn’t have an irrational hatred of Alexander Hamilton.”
Then there was a knock at the door. That could only be one person. Alberta.
“Do you want to stay here or do you want to put on a face mask and come say hi?”
“I may as well say hello.”
After Trevor opened the door, Alberta walked right in. But Trevor simply stepped back. He knew the look on Alberta’s face. That was her “about to give a lecture” look.
“What were you two thinking? Having an unstocked meds cabinet in November?”
“It was not unstocked. It was simply not stocked with things I can take.” Hetty replied.
“Same result. You’re sick and had to wait the whole morning for medication. Learnt your lesson?”
“Yes…”
“Good. Now let me stock your cabinet.”
“This will probably just be a 24 hour thing anyway.”
“No, it will not.” Trevor interjected.
“More like 72 hours at least.” Alberta followed up.
Evidently, that was the wrong thing to say seeing as Hetty walked away and sat in the corner against the wall. That was universally recognised as the overload corner. The softest section of the carpet with a 360 degree view of the room, soft pillows against the walls and a tray of fidget toys.
Both Trevor and Alberta knew this so didn’t talk while they restocked the cabinet. Just tried doing it in silence. After which, Alberta left with a wave.
Trevor went and sat next to Hetty on the floor when it was just the two of them.
"Everything okay?"
"No..." Hetty replied, pulling Trevor's hands over her ears.