Flu Event: Making it Better (Cobalt, Elaine)

[Elaine Tonaya]

Elaine had been visiting Morgan again when she received a call from the Blue and Gold law firm. The young lady introduced herself as Leila and said that "Cobalt's sick out of his head and was stupid enough to come in to work anyway so could you maybe pick him up and take him home and maybe get him some chicken noodle soup?"

Apparently Elaine was listed as Cobalt's emergency contact, though where that information would have been listed she hadn't mentioned. It didn't much matter, though. If her friend needed help, then she would be there to give it. She said goodbye to Morgan and promised to be back in a few hours, but she had to go take care of Uncle Coby who had come down with a bad case of the flu.

On the way to the law firm she picked up some Sprite from the store and a few ingredients for chicken soup. She pulled up outside Cobalt's office and went inside.

Leila looked up. "You're Elaine, right? Cobalt's in the back, hugging the toilet." She shook her head. "I can't believe he bothered to come in to work."

Elaine smiled wearily. "That's what he does. He's more stubborn than anyone I know."

Leila rolled her eyes and went back to her work, which appeared to involve a large stack of paper and a few hefty textbooks. Elaine went to the back of the office and knocked on the door to the restroom.

"Cobalt?" she called out. "I'm here to take you home." She pulled a plastic bag out of her purse. "Come on out. Here, I have a bag so that you can make sure not to get anything on the car floor. Let's go, nice and slow."

She helped him out to the car and took him home, making sure to drive slowly and take the curves at a nice, easy pace. She had to ask him for his keys so that she could open the door to his apartment, then she took him inside and led him to the couch.

"This is closer to the bathroom, so you might prefer it. Or would you rather be at the bed?"

She went to the kitchen and pulled out a large pot, then started to make up a quick and simple chicken soup, which basically consisted of heating up chicken broth. She poured a cup of Sprite and took it over to him. "Clear liquids, remember," she said handing it to him. "Though at least this is something more than water."

After settling herself nearby, she looked over and said, "So how are you holding up now? You look pretty bad--I can't remember you ever being very sick, actually. But then, there was a long time in there where I didn't know you, or didn't see you." She sighed quietly. She had missed her friend while he was gone, and she was still a bit worried that if he was so easily convinced to leave the first time, he might leave again.

[Cobalt Weaver]

To his credit, Cobalt hadn’t thrown up before he’d gotten to the office. He’d already done that once, and if he’d known he would do it again, he would have saved himself the trouble and indignity and would have just stayed home. As it was, when he was getting ready in the morning, he had only felt oddly tired, sluggish and with a weird taste in his mouth. His body couldn’t seem to decide if he was hot or cold and his muscles were aching. Unfortunately, the weird taste in his mouth turned into nausea and his sluggishness turned into dizziness and before he knew it, he was kneeling over the toilet in the back, retching loudly.

When he heard Leila’s phone call, Cobalt glared irritably at the door. “Traitor.” He called weakly before turning back and continuing to vomit. He’d forgotten that he’d put Elaine down as an emergency contact, since he had nobody else. But he didn’t want to bother her about this. Especially not now when she was under a lot of stress and had enough to worry about already. He would have said as much, but he was still having some trouble making words, still bent over the toilet.

Eventually, Cobalt heard two familiar voices conferring outside. He groaned quietly, sliding to sit on the floor to relieve the pressure off his knees and squeezing his eyes shut, trying to keep the room from spinning. He winced at the knock on the door, rattling around in his aching head. Feeling guilty for having his friend inconvenienced, Cobalt pushed himself up and staggered out of the bathroom without one word of complaint.

The ride back to his house was particularly difficult. He didn’t end up vomiting in Elaine’s car, thankfully, so the bag ended up being twisted anxiously under his hands as he stared out the window and pressed his lips together tightly.

When they made it home, Cobalt obligingly collapsed on the couch, backing up into the corner against the armrest and tucking his knees under his chin, feeling particularly wretched. “This is fine. Thanks, Lainey.” He tried to muster up the energy to apologize, to tell her that he was fine, that she had enough to worry about without taking care of her stupid friend. But he was a little worried about the wisdom of opening his mouth right now.

After only a few moments, though, she had returned and handed him a cup of soda, which he took gratefully. “Thanks.” At her question, and subsequent explanation, Cobalt’s shoulders dropped a little. If there was ever one thing he regretted… Instead of saying that, which would probably come out awkward and incomplete, he scooted over on the couch to lean against his friend, resting his head on her shoulder. “I’m holding up okay. I won’t throw up on you, promise.” He grinned a little, before sobering, “You didn’t miss much, don’t worry. I was mostly more of the same. Didn’t get sick much though. I guess I got that all out of the way when I was younger. Before I went to Hammel. Now I’m getting sick again.” He shook his head, jostling her shoulder slightly, “I don’t know what’s going on.”

He laughed suddenly, “You remember when Morgan got sick? God, he couldn’t have been more than four or five. He vomited everywhere. All over you, all over me, just… everywhere.” Cobalt grinned, “And I went to the pharmacy to get that gross pink stuff for him with my shirt still all vomity?” He laughed again, covering his mouth as his laugh turned to coughs. “…Poor kid.” He rasped, his face turning serious again, “How’s he doing? I’m sorry you had to drag my sorry ass back home, I know you have enough to worry about without having to take care of your stupid friend.”

[Elaine Tonaya]

Elaine was a bit surprised to hear that Cobalt had gotten sick more often when he was young. Somehow she hadn't thought that he would be the type. He'd always just seemed strong, too stubborn to bother getting sick.

"Maybe you're getting sick because you're letting your guard down," Elaine ventured to say, partly as a wild guess and partly as mother's intuition. "The way it seemed to me, the reason you never got sick before was because you felt like you couldn't get sick, you couldn't afford it. First you had to be strong for you, then for everyone you thought needed you. So even if you felt sick, you forced yourself through it. Mind over matter stuff. But now it's okay, because you know you have people who can take care of you and you know they can take care of themselves." She shrugged and sat down in the big armchair in the living room. "Maybe it's just that this is one really bad flu." Then she smiled to try to lighten the mood.

She laughed as Cobalt related the story of Morgan. Yes, she remembered that day quite well. She'd been in the middle of really trying to launch her flower shop when he came down sick.

"Pepto-Abysmal. That's what you called it. And I remember you coming back all guilty because you'd forgotten to change your shirt and the guy at the counter almost didn't give you the medicine. You were so worried that you weren't good enough to do anything right. Because you were an incredibly stupid person back then." She laughed again.

Cobalt started coughing and Elaine stood to rummage about in the kitchen for some more sick supplies. She returned with Kleenex, a hot washcloth, and a large bowl. Hopefully the bowl wouldn't be necessary, but it was always better to be prepared.

Sitting down again in the armchair Elaine frowned at Cobalt's next question. "Don't worry about me. I'm a smart woman and I can take care of all my babies. So stop whining. Morgan will be fine without me for one day. He's a big kid too, now, though sometimes he doesn't act it."

Here she shuddered and put one hand in front of her face. She hadn't had a chance to talk to anyone about Morgan recently, and she felt bad piling problems on a guy who was already sick, but then again she thought that Cobalt would probably want to know.

"Morgan is...getting there. He's still upset, still in pain. But at least he's not stuck in the hospital anymore. He's on the way to recovery." She took a deep breath and drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them.

"I just...I just don't know about him, Coby. I feel like I might have done something wrong. Would this have happened had he been raised with his father? Was it something I did that I should've done differently? I don't want to blame this all on him, I love him so much. But if it's not his fault, whose fault is it?"

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt sniffled congestedly as Elaine gave him her opinion about illnesses. Were this anyone else, Cobalt would have been annoyed at the psychoanalysis. But this was Elaine. So it was okay. “Mmnn…Maybe. I definitely didn’t trust people at Hammel like I trusted people at St. Ives. Or maybe it is just a really bad bout of flu.” He shrugged, “I still don’t like the idea of people taking care of me. I’m not a puppy.” The last bit was mumbled in a mock-petulant tone. He liked taking care of the people he loved, but so did Elaine, so they worked out some manner of unspoken agreement to allow one to take care of the other. Every so once in a while.

Cobalt burst out laughing, which turned into a series of violent coughs, “Pepto-Abysmal…that’s right, I totally forgot about that. That stuff was awful.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to stave off the impending headache. He flashed Elaine a grin, “Well I was…what? Eighteen? Nineteen? I’d never seen him that sick before. Scared the crap out of me.” Cobalt sighed, shaking his head. Morgan had been so little then…

“Oh trust me.” Cobalt grinned, “I know. Also, I’m not whining and I’m not a baby. I think I’m technically older than you—Elaine?” Cobalt straightened up as Elaine wilted, passing a hand over her face. He listened to Elaine talk and question herself and her job as a mother with a growing ache in his chest. He remembered when he first met Elaine; she was about seventeen, frustrated, in love with her child, and determined to be the best mother in the world. As far as Cobalt was concerned, there was no better mother in the world. And Cobalt tried to think of a way to say this, but he ended up leaning over and hugging his best friend fiercely.

“You didn’t do anything wrong.” Cobalt said sternly, pulling away to look at her, “Nothing at all. Things got out of control and Morgan made his own decisions. It’s a bit of Morgan’s fault, yeah. But it’s also the fault of far more people than just him. You’ve never been anything but a wonderful mother to him. And if we’re going to pass blame for how he was raised…” Cobalt ran an aggravated hand through his hair, “I shouldn’t have left. Technically or no, you two were my family. You two are my family. I—This…” Cobalt trailed off, frustrated. “Of all the people,” He said finally, “To have blame for this, you are the least. And I know that doesn’t really help. But you should know.” He kept his opinions of Marcus to himself. They’d already had enough arguments about Morgan’s father. Instead, Cobalt kept an arm wrapped about Elaine’s shoulders, “I’m sorry this happened to you both.” He figured someone ought to say it.

[Elaine Tonaya]

Elaine had to snort at Cobalt's protests. "You may not be a puppy, but you might just be a hermit crab. And even hermit crabs need a little attention every once in a while." It was nice being with Cobalt again. They'd been friends for so long, she didn't have to worry about anything around him. They already knew each other enough to know what the other person was saying behind the words.

"You were 21, but who's keeping track? Though one might think that your math skills would have developed by this point in time. I get your point though. And I agree with you. Even though the doctors said he would be all right, it was still hard to watch." And the same was true now, of course.

She let Cobalt wrap his arm around her in a gentle hug, letting herself be comforted for just this moment. It was hard to believe everything he said, but she was willing to trust that he wasn't lying to her. Cobalt wouldn't lie, not to her. Even if he was a lawyer.

"Coby, you can't blame yourself, either. You had to go, we couldn't drag you down. You had this great life ahead of you, and you couldn't be pinned to a teen mom and her kid. Especially since it wasn't even your kid. That wasn't your responsibility, and the person who should have stayed to help ran off. That's not your fault, and it shouldn't have stopped you. I'm glad you got a chance to be a great lawyer. But I am glad you're back now." She sighed and sat for a moment longer, Cobalt's arm still wrapped around her shoulders.

Finally, she said, "Cobalt, I don't meant to hurt your feelings, but you should probably stop hugging me and lie down again now." Expecting a protest, she smiled wearily up at him. "Because you are sick and you are going to get germs all over me. When this is all over you can try the comforting thing again."

With that, she stood and smiled again. "Now. I am going to make some chicken broth for you. Do you think you can hold that down? And while we're at it, I want to hear about everything that I missed while you were at college. I don't think I know really anything. Last I really remember, you were saying that you had met a really great friend. How did that all turn out?"

She went into the kitchen and started to cook, getting back into life and cheering herself up the best way she knew how. She could worry about Morgan and the rest of the world later.

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt grinned, “I think I could handle being a hermit crab. They’re fun, right?” He gave Elaine a smirk, “Way better than puppies. At least I don’t drool all over you. Ben’s probably more of a candidate for puppy-status.” He felt suddenly and irrationally embarrassed for having brought up Ben at the moment—probably as residual suspicion from Leila and her plans—so he added, “Or Riley. Though that’d be an awfully big puppy.”

“Eh. Nineteen…twenty-one.” Cobalt waved a dismissive hand, “I majored in political science, not math. Everyone knows lawyers can’t count.” He huffed out a hoarse laugh, “No, it was hard. And I’m sure I wasn’t that much of a help, freaking out on my way to the drug store.” He shook his head wryly, “I was a little high-strung when we were younger, wasn’t I?” Understatement? Probably.

Cobalt shook his head against her shoulder, “You didn’t drag me down. That’s…ridiculous.” But he wasn’t going to get into an argument about it, so he settled on saying, “I’m back. And I’m not going anywhere again.” He gave Elaine a crooked grin, “You’re stuck with me forever now. Congratulations.”

At Elaine’s request that Cobalt let go, he was momentarily confused. “Wh- oh. Oh! Yeah, sorry.” He released her and curled up on the other side of the couch, grumbling slightly as that minimal movement made his head spin. “But hey, I was able to be kind of helpful without making things painfully awkward, right?” He snorted sarcastically, “Improvement!” He coughed then, and his throat and lungs began to protest. “…Ow.” He croaked irritably, “Ugh, Christ, I feel disgusting.”

He cleared his throat, “Yeah, that’ll be okay.” He felt supremely awkward just sitting here as Elaine did work, but he knew that if he even tried to move, she would skin him alive. So he stayed where he was. “Wha—oh! Sam?” He couldn’t think of anyone else he would have told Elaine about, “Yeah, Sam was my roommate. He was surprisingly tolerant with my…self.” He grinned, “I dunno, it was nice. He’s a police officer now. In Chicago. One day I’m going to have to take you there, Elaine. It’s so nice. You and Morgan can come down and I can show you where I went to school and where everything is. It’s a big busy city but it’s not as stressful as New York.” He coughed again, briefly. “It’s nice.”

“But I wanna hear about you guys.” Cobalt spoke up, sitting up and resting his chin on his tented knees, “Tell me about you and Morgan, too.” He’d been able to get some stories from his friend and from Morgan, but he wanted to know everything he missed, “What was this I heard once about him jumping off a roof?”

[Elaine Tonaya]

Elaine giggled as Cobalt listed off his friends and compared them to puppies. "Y'ou're right, Riley is too big to be a puppy. Unless he's a St. Bernard. And Josh is a little rabbit. I can almost see his twitching nose. Leila can be a...parakeet. So what does that make me?" she teased him.

She raised her eyebrow at him. "A little high strung? Yeah, I guess you might say that. But you got stuff done, didn't you? And still managed to become a lawyer. Even if you never learned to count. Having a baby to deal with probably didn't help you to relax, though, at least not at first." She shook her head. "I still can't believe you were willing to deal with us at all."

She smiled in response to his grin. "Stuck with you forever, huh? Ah well, I guess there's worse people to be stuck with. At least I can always count on you to care about me, right? Better than someone who just wants to drag you down, or doesn't care at all." She frowned briefly, remembering her family back at home and the poor relationship she had with her sister.

Elaine started to laugh when Cobalt tried to recover from his hug, though she started forward again when he started coughing. Years of habit made her want to jump in and fix everything immediately. "Yeah, well, you'll get over it. And the good news is that it's not a permanent state. It's just for today, and maybe the next couple days. You'll be fine, and I'm sure that your law firm will be fine as well. It seemed like it was being left in capable hands."

She finished putting together the soup while Cobalt talked about his roommate and Chicago. "It sounds nice. You must have really enjoyed your time there. And I would love to see it with you. I bet you can show me where all the best take-out places are. And maybe even a few museums." She grinned.

Cobalt seemed all right to sit up, so she didn't say anything to make him lie down again right away, though she kept one eye on the soup and one eye on her friend to make sure he didn't strain himself. "Oh, the roof-jumping? He thought he was a pterodactyl." She rolled her eyes. "And someone may have put him up to it. Morgan made a really great friend at Hammel, a character named Darryl. And when I say character, I mean it. Those two were as thick as thieves and got into just about the same amount of trouble. Always daring one another to try something new and something even more stupid than the last stunt they pulled. Did you know that one time they snuck into the city garbage dump to look for buried treasure? They got lost for twenty minutes looking around, and the only thing they managed to find that they liked was an old Superman lunch box. On top of that, Morgan managed to fall onto an old mattress and got his hand cut up on one of the rusty springs. He had to have a tetanus booster and everything. Somehow I don't know how those two survived to be respectable teachers at Hammel. Though I suppose 'respectable' might be pushing it a bit."

As the soup started to boil, Elaine set the lid on the pan and left it to sit for a while. She turned down the heat, then came back over to where Cobalt was sitting on the couch. "So your friend Sam, is he your only friend from Chicago? Do you still keep in touch with anyone from back there?" She wanted to ask him about his time before Hammel, now that he was older and could perhaps handle it better than when he was a teenager, but she didn't. Something told her that this wasn't the right moment for her to bring up the old memories, not when they were having a good time. Just like she wouldn't want to talk about her family back in New Jersey just now.

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt snorted, “You’re right. Riley is a St. Bernard.” He started laughing as Elaine listed off the others and their animal personas. “Oddly, Josh has a rabbit.” Cobalt’s voice was sore from laughing and overuse, but he didn’t care, “She’s cute, I think her name is like… Mopsy or Flopsy. Something weird like that.” He grinned when Elaine asked about herself, “Well, let’s see… with your smelling and all that… probably a Tapir.” He ducked away from the anticipated swat, “I kid, I kid! I don’t actually know what kind of animal you’d be. I hear bears are good moms, though. You could be a bear.” He didn’t think Elaine was anything like a bear, in truth. Aside from the mom aspect. He’d seen her in her “mom-protective mode” once before. It was intimidating. “What about me?” He teased back, grinning.

“Okay, okay, so I was very high strung. And you know lawyers can’t count. We clear all that math junk out of our heads to make way for more important stuff. Like how to annoy an intern. That’s really important, you know.” He took a sip of his soda, wincing slightly as it stung his throat. But it did settle his stomach, and that was nice. “Not at first, but how could I not try to help? You were always very nice to me anyways, even before Morgan, and Morgan was probably the world’s cutest baby.” He smiled slightly, nudging his friend, “I think he turned out well, road bumps or no.” Because that’s what it was: a road bump. Morgan had turned out to be a kind, caring, bright young man all through Elaine’s efforts alone. He had an accident, made a mistake, but that didn’t reflect on either Morgan or Elaine.

Cobalt frowned slightly. He had his opinions about Elaine’s family, from the barest of what she told him and the enormous wealth of what she hadn’t told him. But he held his tongue. He had one rule about tact that he tried his best to follow: don’t speak ill of family. Instead, he said, “Yup. I’m going to care forever. Also, I’m pretty sure you could never drag anyone down. So that’s just ridiculous.”

“Mmn.” Cobalt took another sip to calm his throat, “That’s true. Leila’ll run the firm fine. I’m just annoyed. I already got this. It’s like the universe didn’t even notice and decided to give it to me again.” He grumped a little, irritated with his predicament.

“Oh, ha ha. I know more than take-out places, thank you very much.” He grinned, “The take-out is a newer thing. I wasn’t able to afford take-out in college. Ramen and microwave food were my main staples.” He grinned. Oh, college.

Cobalt raised an eyebrow incredulously, “He…thought he was a pterodactyl? Okay…” In hindsight, Cobalt wasn’t sure how much help he would actually have been in those later years with Morgan. The younger man clearly had more imagination as a child than Cobalt did. “Oh yeah, I think I remember him. Wasn’t he the drunk one at the Christmas party?” His raised eyebrow turned a little skeptical. If Elaine approved of him, the younger man must be trustworthy, but if Cobalt were being honest, this Darryl had seemed a little stupid. He snorted, “You’re terrible, Morgan is completely respectable. More so than some of the staff anyways.” Oops. That last part had slipped out unintentionally, as he wasn’t willing to rail against Sean at the moment. Oh well. It was still true.

Cobalt nodded at Elaine’s question about Sam. “Yeah, he’s basically the only one I managed to be nice enough to. I had other friends, but I don’t stay in contact with him. I still email him every once in a while. Haven’t called him in years though.” He frowned slightly; in hindsight, that was a little silly. Sam had an interesting perspective on things, and a cop’s instinct. He probably would have been helpful. “We got into all kinds of shit when we were in college. Mostly my fault. I’m surprised he even still wants to talk.” He grinned crookedly.

[Elaine Tonaya]

Elaine gave Cobalt a look when he compared her to a tapir. She wasn't even sure what a tapir was. What kind of strange education did you receive when you became a lawyer? She thought about herself as a bear. "Maybe," she said. "Maybe a bear...but what about an elephant? I think they're pretty good moms, too. And they have good sniffers." She grinned. "You..." she said, pausing dramatically for effect, "you are a wet noodle." She looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded firmly, as if that settled the argument. Then she grinned. "No, maybe not a noodle. I stick to my original argument. You are a hermit crab."

She laughed a bit when he mentioned bothering his intern. "I don't think you needed to go to school to learn how to annoy someone. What were you doing to all the students at Hammel for all those years, then, and why go to college at all?" She was glad to see that the soda was helping and that he was able to keep it down. Hopefully she could keep him from being dehydrated on top of having the flu. "Morgan was a darned cute baby, I will admit," she said with motherly pride. "He's my special crayon." She wasn't sure that the difficulties they were facing now could be correctly termed a "road bump," but she wasn't going to argue the point. Especially since she knew Cobalt was just trying to comfort her.

"Thanks for that, Coby. It's good to hear that I'm not a burden on anyone. And for the record, you've turned out pretty well yourself, despite a rocky beginning."

She had to laugh at his whinging about the universe. "Yes, you're absolutely right. The universe has it out for you. It's probably paying you back for something terrible you did in your childhood. Or just for being a pain in the rear."

Elaine sighed and shook her head as she recalled Darryl at the local party. "Yes, unfortunately. I don't like to remember that night. He was going through some really difficult times. All because of some really stupid mistakes that he made. But I think it's mostly worked out now, for better or for worse." She sighed, then smiled. "Morgan is possibly respectable, if not the brightest bulb in the box. And I don't mean that literally, since he actually is brighter...anyway. And I haven't met all the staff members, so I can't be sure that he's better than most the staff there. Most of the people up at the school actually seem quite nice." She wasn't sure what Cobalt meant by his comment about the staff at Hammel, but she decided not to push it. By the way he sucked his mouth in after speaking, as though he wished to retract the words, she gathered that he wasn't really in a mood to discuss his opinions about the staff members.

"You should talk to him again," Elaine said decisively. She was stirring the soup with a large ladle, and she waved it pointedly in the air, flicking little drops of chicken broth around the kitchen. Frowning at the small mess she had made, she carefully put the soup back in the ladle and continued stirring. The soup was almost done. "You of all people should know that you have to keep talking to the friends who still like you. Otherwise you might end up with nobody. Except me, of course. You're stuck with me. Because now I know your intern, and if I can't get ahold of you I am sure that she can. But your other friends don't have that advantage. You're going to have to make the effort here, and don't give me that stupid whiny face, because I will not stand for it." She almost waved the ladle in the air again, but instead she just held up a finger and waved it authoritatively.

"I do believe that it was mostly your fault, though. Don't ask me how I know this, but I always sensed you were a troublemaker." She gave him a wink, then she pulled out an old soup bowl. She frowned at the dust lining the bowl and gave it a quick wash in the sink before filling the bowl with chicken soup and bringing it over to her sick friend. "Drink this, and then you should probably sleep. From what I'm seeing, this shouldn't be too bad. I bet you'll be up and back at work day after tomorrow, though you should really stay home for about a week. The nausea, though, and the head pain should go away after just a couple days. Or at least it'll go back to whatever normal was for you." She smirked.

[Cobalt Weaver]

“Definitely an elephant, then.” Cobalt nodded in affirmation, grinning, “Elephants are much nicer than bears in general.” This was a ridiculous conversation. And it got far more ridiculous when Elaine informed him that he was a wet noodle. He spluttered, coughing and laughing and trying to swallow soda at the same time. “You are a jerk, that’s what you are.” He cleared his throat and leaned back on the couch, trying to ignore an ever-growing headache. “I can live with hermit crab.” He rasped.

“Hah. Practicing, that’s what I was doing.” He grinned at his friend, “And I guess I needed to learn other stuff too. Besides, Leila really deserves it sometimes. That girl happens to be one of the nosiest people I have ever met. She means well, and I’m really fond of her, but damn.” He shook his head fondly and closed his eyes briefly. He smiled, “Morgan was the cutest baby.” And call it bias, but Cobalt had yet to see a baby that was cuter than Morgan was.

Cobalt saluted briefly with his cup of soda, “Yeah, I think I turned out okay. Probably thanks to you two.” He grinned, playing it casually. It was very true, and probably more true than Elaine realized. “And I am not a pain in the rear! Most of the time. Anymore.” He amended sheepishly.

“Mmm.” Cobalt’s expression was still skeptical about Darryl, but he didn’t press further. He laughed, “Morgan is just fine. And the Hammel staff is… nice, on the whole.” Cobalt agreed quietly. Really, his quarrel with Hammel was its establishment, not its staff, and his quarrel with Sean had nothing to do with where he was employed. So he was grateful when she let the matter slide.

“Heh. That’s true.” Cobalt straightened up to look at her in the kitchen, the soup smell making his stomach roll uncomfortably—equal parts hunger and illness. He leaned over, balancing his forearms on his knees, and huffed out a laugh. “I’m glad. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t pester my best friend.” He held up his hands in exaggerated innocence, “I’m not making a whiny face! I’ll give him a call when I stop feeling like crap. It’ll probably be really awkward, though.” He hated awkward, but Elaine was right: it was probably his own fault.

Cobalt flashed Elaine a crooked grin, “I am such a troublemaker. A regular delinquent.” This, of course, was a lie. Nowadays. And Elaine didn’t need to know the kind of crap he used to get into. When Elaine came back with soup, Cobalt smiled weakly, “Thanks, Lainey. I trust your judgment on illnesses.” He stared at the soup and reached for the spoon. It was incredibly tasty, but it was also upsetting his stomach a little. “Um. Thanks Laine. I…think I’m going to go lay down soon.” He swallowed hard, feeling a little dizzy.

[Elaine Tonaya]

Elaine grinned. "If a mother can't be a bit of a pest, what good is she? For that matter, what good is a friend who can't needle you?" And she laughed.

"So, then," she said, listening to his complaints about his intern. "I guess you really like having her as an intern. And she's probably perfect for you. Willing to stand up to you and able to take it when you fight back." She quietly accepted the compliment to Morgan, since she agreed with every word. Though she suspected that if Cobalt ever had a child of his own he might feel differently.

"Not a pain in the rear? Except to your intern. And the people you go against in court. And sometimes your friends. Though I will give you one thing. At least you are a pain in a different sort of way. More friendly, I suppose. As opposed to simply trying to kill everyone who came near you."

She gave her friend a stern look. "Make sure you do call your friend. Trust me, he'll probably be very glad to hear from you again. It's always nice to hear from people you care about, even if it does seem a bit out of the blue at times."

Elaine watched Cobalt closely to see his reaction to the soup. He was able to get down a few spoonfuls, but she could tell that it was hard for him. "That's enough of that," she said, taking the bowl away and setting it down. "You can always eat it later. Come back to it when you feel better. I'll leave it on the stove with a lid over the pan. All you have to do is turn the stove on and heat it up."

She set the bowl over on the counter, then came back to where Cobalt was sitting on the couch. "Would you like to go to your bed and lie down, or would you rather just stay here?" she asked him. "I can get you a bowl so that you don't have to worry if you need to run to the bathroom and can't make it. But I don't think you'll have any more problems with that. You haven't eaten enough or done enough to be too sick."

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt grinned back. “That’s true. At least, that’s my philosophy on friendship anyways.” That was how he interacted with Josh and Riley, at any rate. He laughed slightly, blinking as the room tilted ever so slightly.

He laughed, “I do really like her. She’s a good friend. But don’t ever tell her I said that.” He yawned a little, “I’d never hear the end of it.”

Cobalt laughed again, “All right, all right, all right. I am a complete pain. Somehow, you love me for it.” He grinned at her, “True, I’m past the kill-everyone stage. It was tiresome.” He was only half-joking, and the mood was too light to turn serious now.

“I will. I promise.” He put his hand on his heart with a crooked grin, “He’s a nice guy, I really should talk to him more.”

“Okay.” He mumbled, feeling more than a little miserable and nauseous. “Thanks. I think I’ll just stay on the couch. I don’t really want to move.” He managed a grin, “Thanks for taking care of me, Lainey. You’re the best.” He yawned again, illness making him sleepy.

[Event !]

Thank you for participating! This event is now closed.