::Alex::

I hadn't planned on staying at Brook’s the entire night. I had to get home and take care of some things while I was back in Baltimore and I really wanted to see my dogs. That all went away quickly when Brook had asked me to stay with her. She was so sleepy and so helpless, I didn’t care what she was asking me to do. I’d have slayed a dragon I she wanted me to.

Once she had completely fallen asleep, I drifted off myself. When I woke up again a few hours later, it was the middle of the night and I realized two things. First, I didn't have my car and I wasn't about to wake Jenny up at three in the morning for a ride. Second, there was no way I could leave Brook. I was too comfortable with her next to me and she looked too damn peaceful. I didn’t want to risk disturbing her.

I woke up the next morning a little after ten o'clock and I was surprised to see Brook was still asleep. I'd figured by six in the morning she would have been up and trying to go to work - which she was under strict doctor's orders not to until the next week.

She stirred slightly in her sleep as I brushed some of her hair out of her face. It was probably pretty lame how fast my heart started racing in my chest as I moved my eyes slowly over her face, as if trying to memorize every inch of it. She truly was a beautiful girl.

I leaned down and lightly brushed my lips across her forehead, the bridge of her nose and then finally her lips and her eyes fluttered open.

A sleepy smile spread across her face when she saw me.

"Good morning," she whispered.

"It sure is," I said, running my pointer finger across her cheek lightly and her smile went wider.

"You stayed all night?" she asked, her voice a little raspy so I could tell she still wasn’t feeling well.

I nodded. "Of course I did. I couldn't bear to leave you. Plus, aside from not having my own car to go anywhere, Jenny left early for class this morning and you probably shouldn’t be alone."

"I'd be okay on my own," she said, moving to sit up and wincing a bit when she did it too quickly and she aggravated her scar. "I'd actually rather lay down," she said quickly, moving back into the same position she'd slept in.

I shook my head slightly, ignoring her on my own comment.

"You need to take your medication soon. Can I get you anything to eat beforehand?"

She shook her head no and I frowned.

"I'm not hungry."

"Brook, you barely ate anything yesterday. You have to eat something," I tried.

"Whatever little I did eat yesterday, I threw up. The medicine makes me so nauseous; I can't even think about food."

"You probably need to eat before you take the medicine and not after. Can we try that? Just try a piece of toast or something."

"Okay," she caved. "You can make me something to eat but only because you look so cute when you're being persistent."

I smiled, pressing my lips down to hers. "I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere," I said, slipping out of the bed.

She laughed slightly. "Where the heck am I going to go? I can't move all that well on my own."

"Exactly," I said with a wink before I left the room and headed into her kitchen.

I looked around a few times before my eyes landed on the waffle maker that was left out on the counter. I couldn't cook much but I did know how to make waffles.

I searched through all of Brook's cabinets, eventually making finding all the ingredients that I needed and about fifteen minutes later I had a nice batch of waffles made. Only two of them had burnt.

"Alex, it doesn't take this long to make toast!" I heard Brook yell from the bedroom and I smiled to myself.

"I'm coming!" I yelled back.

I balanced two plates of waffles in one hand, a glass of milk and a glass of water in the other. I picked the two pill bottles of Brook’s medication up off the counter with my mouth. Thankfully they were the smaller ones, so they sort of fit.

"What are you doing?"

"Bringing you breakfast in bed," I replied, the words coming out garbled with my mouth full.

She giggled a little as I got closer to her, reaching up slightly to take the pill bottles from me.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," I said, placing the two plates on her dresser carefully, followed by the two glasses. "Easy," I said, as I helped her move into a sitting position, propping a ton of pillows behind her to give her support.

"Thank you," she said again when I passed her a plate of waffles and sat the glass of milk next to her on the night stand.

"And this is for the medicines later," I said, setting the water next to the pills.

I grabbed my plate and moved over to the other side of the bed and got back in and glanced over at her in time to watch her take the first bite of waffle. I left hers plain, with a very little bit of syrup on the side, so to not upset her stomach.

"Just so you know, any other time, the idea of eating in my bed would be giving me anxiety but I will allow for now," she said with a knowing glance as I accidentally tilted my plate a little too much and syrup was dangerously close to dripping on her comforter.

"I'll be careful," I assured her, righting my plate.

"You better," she smirked, cutting into her waffle with a fork.

She swallowed the mouthful of waffle and turned to me with a smile.

"You can breathe now. They're good. Relax."

I let out a relieved sigh. "Thank God," I said before starting to eat myself.

"They taste a little different than they normally would. Did you do something different?" she asked.

"It's a secret," I shrugged.

"No, really. Come on. What did you do?"

"It's a secret." I repeated. "My grandmother taught me this years ago and she'd probably disown me if I told."

She faked a frown. "So there's no way for me to ever know?"

"Well, it's a Gaskarth family secret. So you'd probably have to become a Gaskarth to know."

She nodded slowly. "Eh... Maybe someday," she said with a shrug.

I tried not to choke on the mouthful of waffle I was currently chewing as it struck me what she could have been implying with that statement. Ordinarily a comment like that would freak me out but not with Brook. It was actually oddly comforting.

"Anyway," she said quickly and it seemed like maybe she realized what she had just said as her cheeks were slightly pink. "I can't believe you're awake so early. I'd figured you'd be out cold until at least after noon."

I laughed. "I thought so too but instead I tossed and turned all night worrying about this girl who had serious surgery and tried to not tell me about it. Sleep wasn't easy."

She glanced over at me for a second before placing her plate on the night stand. She'd eaten half a waffle and I assumed she was done.

"The girl sounds like a real pain."

I laughed again. "You have no idea."

"Hey," she squeaked, sticking her tongue out at me. "In her defense, she was going to tell you when you were home. She didn't want you to worry from the road. She didn't tell her parents either!” she defended herself.

I laughed again. “I’m not sure that makes it any better, darling.

“They were so excited about their trip to the Superbowl. I didn't want to ruin that because my stupid appendix decided it wanted to nearly explode."

"Brook, I don't care where I am when things like this happen to you. I want to know right away. Otherwise, I'm always going to worry that something is wrong with you when I shouldn't. I'm pretty sure your parents are going to explode when they find out."

She sighed. "Okay. Fine. I'll tell you everything from now on. I'll handle my parents when they get back."

"Thank you," I smiled satisfied, setting my dish aside and leaning back against the bed's headboard, scooting closer to Brook. "How does it feel to be home from work right now?"

"It's killing me. I feel like I'm breaking the rules or something," she said and I knew she'd say something like that.

"Brook, you heard the doctor. If you want the hole in your side to heal up nice you need lots and rest and relaxation. Two things I know you don't know much about," I said, resting my head on her shoulder.

"Well, if rest and relaxation involves laying around in bed all day and you waiting on my every command, I could get used to rest and relaxation," she said with a smirk.

I leaned up and kissed her softly. "Your wish is my command."

She giggled a little as I kissed her again. "My first wish is to not have to take that medicine ever again."

I pulled back from going to kiss her again. "I'll grant that wish, as soon as you finish this prescription. Then you won't have to take it again."

She frowned. "Fine."

"Come on." I reached over her and grabbed the bottle. "Let's get it over with," I said.

I popped the top of the first bottle and passed her a small pill that was an antibiotic. I closed that one up and popped the top to the second bottle, passing her another slightly larger pill that was some pain killer.

She swallowed the first one down quickly with a big gulp of water. Since the second pill was a little bigger, it look her a few sips of water to get that one down.

"Thank you," I said, kissing her forehead. "Now, just enjoy the fact that all you have to do for the rest of the day is snuggle up to me."

"Oh joy," she scoffed as I helped her lay back down.

I frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh quit your frowning," she smirked, leaning over to kiss me. "I'm just playing."

"I know," I said against her mouth, kissing her again.

I felt her smile as she kissed me back and as was the normal case with us, we fell into a comfortable rhythm moving our lips against each other’s.

Suddenly, Brook pulled away from me with a wince and some of the color draining from her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked quickly, only then realizing I had grabbed her waist, accidentally squeezing the area around her scar. "Oh my God," I gasped. "Oh shit, Brook. I am so sorry. Are you okay? Does it hurt badly? Should I call the doctor?" I panicked.

"I'm fine," she said quickly, the pained look still on her face. "Honest."

"I'd believe you if your face wasn't all squished up like this," I said, imitating her facial expression.

She laughed a little and started to look like he she was relaxing again. The color in her face was coming back a bit.

"It's okay," she nodded. "It really wasn't even that bad. I just didn't expect that."

I shook my head. "Of course you didn't expect that. Why would you expect me to do something so dumb?"

"I'm fine," she assured me, leaning forward and pressing her lips to mine. "You. Worry. Too. Much," she said, kissing me between each word.

"Stop giving me reasons to worry," I said, touching her cheek lightly before tucking some of her hair behind her ear.

"I'll try," she said, leaning in to kiss me again but this time I pulled back. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," I shook my head. "I just think there is something we need to talk about."

It was now or never.

"Okay..." she said slowly. “Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "It's just you know how we keep telling each other there are things from our past that we need to tell each other? Well, I think, for myself, that I’m ready to tell you some of those things."

"Okay," she said again and I tried to ignore the way her body suddenly tensed up.

"Look, Brook," I started. "When I was in high school, I wasn't exactly the-"

"Alex," she said quickly, shifting so she was sitting up a bit.

"What is it?" I asked, panicking immediately again.

"I need-" she paused and took a few deep breaths. "I need you to help me to the bathroom."

It took about half a second for me to realize what she was saying before I jumped from my side of the bed and ran over to hers, carefully helping her to stand up and even more carefully helping her to the bathroom.

She was taking big, gulping breaths once we stepped into the bathroom and I knew it was only a matter of seconds before she wasn't able to control herself anymore. I felt like a complete idiot. I couldn't figure out how I was going to get her hunched over the toilet without putting her in more pain.

"Here," I finally decided, placing her in front of bathroom sink. She turned around to look at me funny. "It's fine. I'll take care of it," I assured her and a second later Brook was leaning over the sink, her fingers gripping the sides of the counter as she emptied the contents of her stomach into the sink, which wasn’t much because like she said, the little she did try to eat ended up coming back up anyway.

I rubbed her back in comforting circles with one hand and held her hair back with my other. Once she was finished I passed her her tooth brush and the mouth wash then helped her back to her room.

"Give me like ten minutes and I will go clean that up," she said, as I sat her down on the edge of her bed.

"Hell no," I shook my head, going over to her dresser and grabbing her a new shirt and pair of sweats to change into.

I was sure to pick from the Giants merchandise pile. I know while she couldn't show it all too much, she was still extremely excited about their win the night before.

"I'll take care of it."

"Alex, that's sweet but it's also incredibly disgusting. I can-"

"Not another word about it, Brook. I will handle it," I said, standing in front of her with the clean clothes, placing them on her lap.

She stared down at the clothes with such a helpless look that my heart broke a bit for her. She was so weak.

"Help?" she asked quickly.

"Of course," I nodded, helping her to stand up.

She raised her hands above her head and I swallowed hard as I gripped the bottom of her t-shirt and slowly pulled it over her head. I didn't want her to think I was a creep so I kept my eyes on hers the entire time. I reached for the clean shirt off her bed and once again carefully slipped it over her head.

She then slid her sweat pants down to about her knees, before I helped her sit back down and pulled them the rest of the way off. I carefully guided her legs into the new sweat pants, trying to ignore the way my heart started to race as I pulled the pants up her legs and my fingers lightly grazed her skin every so often. I had gotten them up to just about her thighs, when she leaned forward and used my body as leverage to lean up and have me pull the pants all the way up passed her hips.

She adjusted her shirt into place, never once breaking eye contact with me. It was such a simple and innocent gesture, helping her change, but there was something so sensual and intimate about the moment that I knew I would never forget it and I hoped that Brook had felt it too.

"Thank you," she whispered, so softly I barely heard her.

She then pressed her lips to mine. The way she kissed me, I knew she had felt what I had felt too.
***

Notes

Story title: Taylor Swift - Sparks Fly
Chapter title: Valencia - The Space Between
Brook's outfit.