#also it’s making my nose literally drip liquid snot

[ghosthart]

i have really bad congestion rn so i was like can’t wait to take dayquil when i get home but i was thinking like doesn’t dayquil make me feel funny tho like make it hard to sleep but i didn’t wanna take nyquil and end up sleeping for a million years and missing my morning shift cuz i will do that so i took the dayquil and now i feel HORRIBLE like mild nausea and weird sensation near my heart and feel wide awake like i remember why i don’t take it lol the side effects listed really do happen and are kind of strong id rather just take ibuprofen and hope for the best

[aswallowssong]

Whumptober (Sickfic) Day 10 - Tissues

Two posts in one day? (Four? I’m not sure any more it’s Fall Break and I’m losing my mind.)

As always, Patron Saint belongs to @themetaphorgirl and I love her with my whole heart.

Read on AO3

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Spencer was watching the battle with wide eyes. From his position on the couch, just behind where Alex was standing, he could see JJ’s pale face perfectly. She was nearly as pale as Hotch got when he didn’t feel well, which was saying a lot, but there was an angry red flush across her face, and an even angrier looking redness under her nose. She’d nearly rubbed it raw, as it had been running like a faucet over the last few days. Spencer was worried. She’d been coughing a lot too. He wanted her to feel better more than anything, and he wished she’d just take whatever Hotch and Alex had been trying to give her instead of blowing it all off like no big deal.

He always took what they gave him, though it was different from what they gave JJ. He was almost always given gross liquid something-or-other, which he would have protested all together if he was capable of taking pills. He didn’t meet the weight requirement.

But he hated the liquid stuff that Hotch and Alex always tried to coax down his throat. The red one made him throw up most of the time. The purple one was viscous and made him gag with every dose. And the pink one was minty. Why was the pink one minty?

All JJ had to do was swallow some dumb orange pills, and she fussed and refused over it, always telling Alex and Hotch over and over how she was fine and to just leave her alone. She didn’t like to be babied, just like him, but she usually got her way.

She wasn’t getting her way now. Alex had her feet shoulder width apart, arms crossed over her chest. A power stance. Hotch was sort of to the side, an anxious look on his own pale face. He wasn’t sick, not yet, but it would come. That’s how it always happened. If someone was sick, he and Hotch would get sick. It was only a matter of time. 

JJ was standing in a similar fashion to Alex, but her hands hung at her sides, eyes challenging despite being slightly glassy. She probably had a fever. Alex would know.

Alex knew everything.

“You need to go lay down, JJ.”

“I told you I’m fine. Why are you treating me like a baby? I’m not Spencer.”

“Hey!” he whined, not realizing that his whining would only affirm JJ’s statement. “I’m not a baby. I’m ten!”

JJ rolled her eyes, bringing an arm up and wiping her gross, dripping nose across the length of her sweatshirt sleeve. Alex shifted immediately, her arms uncrossing as she threw them down in annoyance. “That’s fucking gross, JJ! Penelope gave you tissues, why won’t you use them?”

They’d been fighting about it the whole day, and Hotch had yet to intervene. He didn’t get in Alex’s way, not usually, but he almost always defended JJ. Spencer couldn’t tell if it was a loyalty thing, or a sort-of-afraid-of-Alex thing, but either way, he understood. He wouldn’t get in the way of Alex on a rampage either.

“I told you, I don’t need them.”

“You clearly do,�� Alex challenged, “Because your sleeve is literally drenched in snot. Which is disgusting.”

JJ turned to look at Hotch, who’s eyes immediately went the size of saucers. “Tell her I’m fine, Hotch. I’m not a baby.”

“I don’t really want to get involved,” he said cautiously, a hand moving up to rub at his left ear. Spencer’s eyes darted around like a tennis match, watching the chaos unfold from his spot. Blankie was clutched to his chest, one of the corners having been stuck in his mouth the minute they started arguing. 

“Don’t look for him to tell you any differently,” Alex said, gesturing to JJ’s sweatshirt, “that’s gross. It’s so unsanitary.”

JJ pointed an accusatory finger at Spencer, and he sniffed defiantly. “Spencer is chewing on a blanket that literally goes everywhere with him! Chewing on it. It’s in his mouth!”

“That’s different!”

“Not, it’s not!”

Spencer watched Alex and JJ go back and forth, eyes moving to look at Hotch as he rubbed at his other ear, then palmed at his eyes. 

Alex ran a hand down her face. All of her usual composure was gone, and with it her normal cadence and her sweet pet names. “Just use some tissues! What’s the problem, Jayje? I don’t understand.”

“I don’t understand why it’s a big deal,” JJ said simply, tilting her head like a challenge. Alex shook her head and dug a hand in the back pocket of her jeans, producing a travel pack of tissues. “It’s a big deal because you’re fourteen, and you should use tissues when your nose is running. And maybe, also, take something for your nasty cold that you’re going to pass to everyone, because there’s germ-filled snot all over you.”

Spencer hadn’t even noticed that his nose was starting to run until he was sniffling. Quietly, as most things he did were. Well, except when he rambled. Emily said he thought louder than anyone she knew. 

He took it as a compliment. 

His ears didn’t get itchy like Hotch’s did when he was sick. At least he assumed Hotch’s ears were itchy. Hotch rubbed at his ears and his eyes when he didn’t feel well, which made sense when they’d caught a cold or something, but he did it when his stomach hurt too, so Spencer couldn't be sure. 

But Spencer didn’t rub at his ears. He got headaches, right behind his eyes when the pressure built in his sinuses. He’d been nursing a low-level one all day, but it hadn’t really been bothering him, so he hadn’t said anything to Alex or Hotch, and they hadn’t asked. His nose was definitely starting to run, though, and as JJ and Alex fought he tried to keep his sniffling quiet. They were busy, obviously, and he didn’t want to be annoying or add to the frustration. 

“Tissues make my nose burn,” JJ was saying, and sniffling, and coughing a few times. Alex shook her head. “You need to use them.”

JJ looked at Alex for a moment before pulling her arm up to her face, wiping her running nose down the sleeve while maintaining eye contact with Alex the entire time. When she put her arm down she sniffed before saying in a raspy voice, “No.”

Spencer didn’t think about what he was doing, but he mimicked JJ, moving automatically to rub his own disgusting, running nose across the length of his sleeve. He didn’t even realize he’d done it until he heard Hotch say quietly, “Spencer, gross.”

He didn’t think about the implications of what he was doing as he tried to sniffle and went to do it again. Alex turned on her heel at the sound of Hotch’s warning, eyes going wide as she saw what was happening.

“Oh god, Spencer, no.” She turned to throw a glare in JJ’s direction. “You see! Do you see what happens? He watches what we do, and now you probably got him sick, and he’s going to have gross, snotty sleeves.”

“And?” JJ asked, pawing at her nose with the sleeve of her other arm. Alex threw the pack of tissues at her, where they bounced off her side and hit the floor.

She sat next to him on the couch, brushing his bangs back before palming his forehead. There was a moment where the only sound was JJ’s muffled coughing before Alex sighed. “It’s low, but it’s there. Do you feel sick, darling?”

Spencer didn’t really know what to do. Alex clearly knew that he didn’t feel well, which was weird, because he hadn’t really noticed he didn’t feel well. Except for the headache. And then when his nose started running.

Maybe he had noticed, but he was ignoring it in place of watching the showdown between the girls happen.

“I have a headache,” he said quietly, “and my nose is running. No drainage though, at least not yet.”

She hummed quietly, brushing his bangs back again before cooing quietly, “You should have told me, baby.”

“I’m not a baby,” he said automatically, going to wipe his nose on his sleeve like JJ had done. It was effective, but gross. Environmentally friendly regardless of the fact that it was unsanitary. He could see why she did it. “Plus, Hotch is doing the ear thing.”

“I’m not doing anything!” Hotch said defiantly, though he sounded tired. Hotch always sounded tired.

Alex’s head snapped towards him, and she said in a quiet, even tone, “Bubba?” He hummed his acknowledgement before she spoke again. “Sit down.”

He sighed, but obeyed. 

JJ looked between the two boys with guilty eyes, then down at the tissue package on the ground. “They make my nose burn,” she said again, and Alex shook her head. 

“I understand that, but look. Now, not only are you sick-”

“I’m fine,” JJ interrupted defiantly.

“But you got your brothers sick, and they don’t bounce back like you do. If you’d been using the tissues and throwing them away, the germs might have left them alone. And if you’d gone and laid down like I asked, instead of being stubborn, you would have gotten a lot less germs around them.”

Alex sounded just like Mrs. Clark from the playground. Like a mom. A good mom. He shuffled so he was laying his head in Alex’s lap, letting her run her fingers through his short hair. The more he thought about being sick, the worse he was feeling, and laying in Alex’s lap made things better. At least a little bit. He wiped his nose on his sleeve, causing Alex to sigh unhappily, but she didn’t make a comment. 

Spencer watched as JJ looked between him, Hotch, and Alex a few times before sighing herself. Her eyes were still guilty, but they’d shifted a little. She bent to pick up the tissues from the floor and pulled one out, glancing at Alex with hesitance before blowing her nose wetly into the paper. She wrinkled her nose a few times when she was done before stepping over and tossing the soiled tissue into the trash can by the door and walking out of the room.