In Sickness and In Health - Tags Cobalt/Josh

[Riley Adams]

Getting a job closer to his apartment had its perks. He didn't actually have to pack his lunch and he didn't have to solely rely on bought food. But the idea of having lunch with his friends appealed to Riley, more than he had originally thought.

But lunch was in an hour and he was getting into a good groove in getting the snow pile off the property he was working on enough to start planting. Rina was a ways away from him working on another patch of plot so Riley hadn't even realised the time.

He took out his phone and pressed the green call button to see his recent call and scrolled down to Josh's number. He waited as the dial tone sounded before Josh's voice came on. He didn't sound too hot and Riley's concern showed. "Josh? Hey, it's Riley. We're still on for lunch right? Yeah, okay. Um...you okay? You don't sound...oh oh okay yeah. Alright. I'll see you there. Okay bye." He switched off his phone and slipped it back into his pocket before continuing the digging.

--

"Dude, I feel like I have a secondary job as your alarm clock." The thirty-eight year old long-haired brunette stood over Riley with a glare. Riley grinned and got up, dusting the kneecaps of his jeans and taking off his work gloves, stuffing them in his back pocket. "Sorry, you know how I get."

The glare softened on Rina's face before she playfully punched Riley in the arm. "You keep saying you're sorry but I know you never are." She paused for a grin. "The rest of us are hitting the vendors. Join us?"

"Uh, I've got plans with a couple of my friends." Riley smiled. Rina's eyebrows shot up. "Oh really? So not Stephen?" A sly grin crossed her face. Riley chuckled and shook his head, not really all too embarrassed about his relationship anymore. It was hard to be anymore. Stephen was a great guy. And just because they haven't seen each other since Stephen's transfer to another facility, doesn't mean anything.

"No, not Stephen. Just a couple of friends."

"Well okay. Next time then. Or maybe you could have your friends come here and we could all get stall food. Or you know...you could cook...either way." Rina grinned while her boss chuckled and waved her and his other colleagues off before walking his way down to the restaurant Josh had mentioned.

Riley wasn't dressed the way the others in the restaurant was dressed and it was obvious he stood out at his impressive height but he was learning to not care too much about it as he strode over to where Cobalt was sitting. He waved to the other man as he sat down. "Hey, Josh isn't here yet?"

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt absently toyed with the edge of a napkin, waiting for his friends to show up. In truth, he had been looking forward to this since Josh had called him yesterday. The only time he’d spent time with both his friends together was during ill-fated parties, or ill-fated interventions. None of which were very enjoyable to anyone involved. But this should be fun. He only had a few male friends, and truthfully…. Riley and Josh were basically it.

All the same, he had invited Leila to join, but she’d declined. She’d been ill or tired so much recently that she needed some time to catch up with things. He was starting to legitimately worry about her, but she had deflected any and all concerns he had voiced. And since Leila was a grown woman in charge of her own decisions and all that, Cobalt hadn’t pushed the issue. She said she’d seen a doctor, and that was that.

Cobalt glanced around the restaurant, wishing he wasn’t the first person to arrive. That was always boring. His boredom was assuaged, however, but the sight of Riley loping over to meet him. Cobalt grinned, “Hey. Nah, Josh isn’t here yet.” He rolled his eyes at the thought of his other friend, “I think he’s sick. Which is what you get when you ride around in the snow like an idiot.” He shook his head, grinning. “But whatever. How’s work?”

[Joshua Bernstein]

beep beep beep

An arm groggily flailed half-heartedly in the direction of the nightstand, succeeding only in knocking the alarm clock to the floor. A muttered curse and covers were tossed aside to reveal a very disheveled man, eyes squinting against the sunlight pouring in through the blinds.

He swung both legs over the side of the bed, shivering and sniffling. He felt miserable, and did not appreciate being so rudely awakened -- even if he had been the one to set the alarm.

He'd felt fine yesterday, unless one counted an excessive exhaustion he'd chalked up entirely to getting worked up over patching things up with Sean. He always made himself feel a bit ill over that, so he hadn't really thought anything of it. Apparently he should have. However, he'd already missed far too much work, and couldn't afford to stay in bed, much as his aching body insisted he ought.

He shuffled across the floor to the bathroom; perhaps a warm shower would help.

----

He wasn't sure how he'd made it to work; the bike ride there was a blur of stuffy sinuses and fiery throats. He was beginning to think perhaps he'd made a mistake coming in, as he hadn't been the least bit productive: He'd simply taken some ibuprofen and stared blankly at his computer until his phone ringing in his pocket brought him back to reality. He blinked at the screen for a moment before realizing that perhaps he ought to answer. "Mmmello. Riley? Mmmyeah, still on. No, 'm fine." He mumbled hoarsely, "See you there."

He was not calling off lunch, no matter how miserable he was. He'd only just forgiven his friends, after all, it wouldn't do to stand them up. Even if this did mean he had to trudge through the snow for the second time that day, squinting through a massive headache and wondering if his joints were going to fall off because they ached so much.

At least the restaurant they were meeting at wasn't too far, not as far as his home was from work. And fortunately Riley and Cobalt weren't difficult to spot, what with Riley being taller than everyone even sitting.

He stumbled over to their table, offering an inarticulate greeting before flopping down into the remaining chair. He kept his coat on, huddling in an attempt to keep warm.

"It's really cold in here."

[Riley Adams]

Riley smiled with a tilt of his head at Cobalt's fond exasperation of the other gentleman who was to join them. "He needs to learn how to drive," the landscaper chuckled with a shrug. "Work? I'm actually working on a local business. Although I don't quite understand why they insist on us coming during winter. It's going to be covered in snow anyway. But work is work is work." Riley busied his hand with arranging and rearranging the cutleries on the table.

"How's Leila? I haven't seen her in awhile." Riley brought up the young woman he hadn't seen in awhile. When was the last time he saw her? At the New Year's party? Even then it hadn't been a long conversation between them. He'd have to catch up with her soon. Such a sweet young woman.

He was about to ask about Cobalt's work but a mumbled greeting came from his left and he turned to see a very tired puffed up looking Josh who slumped into the empty chair. "Josh, oh my G...you look..." Riley's hand itched to place on Josh's forehead, a reflex action that might not sit quite well on the lawyer so he held back. But his power awakened in him despite not being able to do anything about human afflictions. He'd tried once and was not about to do it again. Ever. Not even for a simple cold.

Turning to Cobalt and then back to Josh, Riley showed his concern. Not wanting to state the obvious, Riley just kept quiet.

[Cobalt Weaver]

“He really does.” Cobalt rolled his eyes, “He’s what? Fifty?” He matched Riley’s grin as he listened to the taller man’s talk about work. “Yeah, I hear that. Work is always nice. But yeah, a little counterintuitive, isn’t it? Working in the snow.” Cobalt shrugged thoughtfully. “But local must be nice. Though I have to say, sometimes Pilot Ridge feels too small sometimes.”

“Leila’s…okay.” Cobalt frowned ever so slightly at the mention of his intern (business partner). “I think she’s come down with something, but she says she’s all right, so…” He held up his hands in a what-can-you-do shrug. “But she says hi and gives her best. When she’s feeling better she says wants to have lunch again.” He fiddled with the napkin again, wondering where Josh was, anyways.

When Josh arrived, Cobalt’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. The older man looked…well. There was a moment of sputtering silence from the other two men as Josh huddled in a chair, looking miserable. Riley stammered around, trying to settle on something to say. Then, Cobalt decided to save the taller man the trouble. “You look like shit, man. What the hell are you doing here anyways? Aren’t you supposed to be in bed or something?”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh shook his head, denying Cobalt's concern with a feeble, "Nooo. I'm fine."

That was a lie if ever there was one. He didn't just look like shit, he felt like it, too. If staying alert wasn't taking all his energy he might have mustered up some indignation at both Riley's held back comment and Cobalt's much more direct one, but as it was he could barely manage his denial.

"'s just a cold." He hoped it was just a cold; usually colds didn't make him feel quite this lethargic and ill and at least one of his coworkers was out with the flu, but he couldn't afford to have anything more than a cold. A bad cold he could justify going to work with; the flu he would have to stay home. And there were numerous reasons not to stay home:

1. Work. He didn't have any more sick days available and he didn't want to use up his vacation time on ill health as well and
2. He was supposed to meet Sean for dinner. This would be the first time they'd seen each other since the Super Bowl and thus he really did not want to stand up his friend just because his immune system decided not to work properly.

"I'll be fine," He whispered through the congestion, knowing full well he wasn't convincing. "Don't worry about me. How've the two of you been?"

[Riley Adams]

Riley looked at Cobalt wide-eyed at his honesty. The man didn't hold back did he? Riley scratched at his forehead before turning back to Josh. "Yeah you don't look fine. Josh...you have to-" Riley was cut off by Josh repeating that he was fine and even asked how they were doing. There was in no way Josh looked fine. His eyes looked botch, his nose was red and puffy and he was visibly shivering in what seemed to be four layers of clothing.

The man was sick, plain and simple and while Riley would love nothing but to sit down here and enjoy a meal with his friends, ignoring what could be a much worst case than a cold would not sit right with the landscape artist. "I'm fine. Josh you should really go home and rest, you look too sick to be out."

"I could drive you back home or we could call you a cab or something?" he looked to Cobalt for additional advice.

[Cobalt Weaver]

“You don’t sound fine.” Cobalt pointed out, raising a challenging eyebrow at his beleaguered friend. He saw Riley shoot him a wide-eyed, shocked look at his honesty and he sighed, affectionately exasperated. It wasn’t that Cobalt didn’t care. On the contrary, Cobalt cared very much. Hence his bluntness. The fact that Josh wasn’t affronted only worked against the older lawyer. Besides, it was no fun to tease Josh if he was too sick to realize it. “Can you even breathe right now?”

“Yeah, you know why you’re sick? Because you ride that damn bike around in the snow. Like an idiot.” Cobalt clapped a hand on Josh’s shoulder to show he wasn’t really serious. Which he was, but reprimanding Josh for being stupid could happen later, when his friend didn’t look like he was going to pass out. “Seriously Josh, you need to learn how to drive.”

When Riley suggested sending Josh home, the shadow manipulator nodded. “Yeah, you wanna go home? We can get you home.” He would insist, but he knew how Josh felt about people hovering too much. Josh was a grown man; if he wanted to go and stay out when he was sick, that was up to him.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh pulled his coat tighter around him, mumbling a "water is fine" when the waitress asked what he wanted to drink.

"I...I think it's jus...just...a...a....achoo!" He wished that the napkins weren't cloth; he felt rather ill-mannered for using his to wipe his nose but he had no other recourse at the moment. "It's just a cold." He finished.

He looked plaintively up at Riley (even more up than usual, as he was slouching in his misery) and whined, "I can't go home. I missed too much work already." Riley was self-employed, but he had clients and so he had to understand being unable to miss too many days without earning a reputation as a flake.

"And I can't be sick. S'pposed to meet Sean for dinner. Haven't seen him in....a while." Which was the fault of the two men sitting with him. They should have left well enough alone. "I'll just take some tylenol and take a nap when I get home."

He decided it was high time to deflect the conversation away from his health, so he turned to Cobalt. "What's Leila up to these days?" He was unaware that this had already been covered previously, but it seemed like a safe topic.

[Riley Adams]

Riley couldn't help but smile a little when Cobalt showed his concern by asking abuot Josh's breathing.

Wow, the man really did look sick. And his response and the sneeze was just not working in his favour. Riley had an insane immune system that never let him go sick. not even a cough so he knew the sneeze wouldn't affect him but he looked at Cobalt with concern. It was really too bad that Riley couldn't work his healing with humans.

Riley, like Cobalt, would have continued to insist but Riley shared the same thought as Cobalt did in that Josh was a grown man; he was a year older than Riley and about 6 years Cobalt's senior, and Riley was sure if he were in Josh's shoes, he wouldn't want someone like Ben or Leila to push him to do something he didn't want to.

Riley winced slightly at the mention of Sean. The older man had more or less forgiven Riley but he still felt awkward around him. Josh was a different matter; the lawyer was less...Sean.

The landscape artist let Cobalt reply to Josh's question directed to him.

[Cobalt Weaver]

“Eugh.” Cobalt shied away as Josh sneezed next to him. “Bless you. But if you get me sick, I swear…” He rolled his eyes but said nothing else, taking a sip of his water. “Well, at any rate, I hope you feel better eventually. And don’t work yourself to death.” Cobalt couldn’t imagine that Josh was being very effective at work today, but he said nothing more on the subject.

At the mention of Sean, Cobalt glanced at Riley awkwardly. Cobalt would just as soon forget about that night as well. While he acknowledged both men’s right to be irritated with them, Cobalt still hadn’t really forgiven Ben for setting that whole disaster up and then having Cobalt do the majority of the talking. Truth be told, Cobalt hadn’t expected much of Riley; the older man was notoriously terrified of confrontation. Ben, on the other hand, was just being a wuss. “Try some robutussin.” Cobalt suggested, ignoring the mention of Sean altogether, “It’s a cough suppressant too. I don’t think Tylenol is going to be strong enough.”

Cobalt smirked a bit. He was sure Leila would be thrilled to know that she was the default subject of choice between the three men. “Leila’s doing fine. I was just telling Riley that she’s still a smart-alek. She says hello. And called us all dorks. Just so you know she loves you and all.”

“So Josh,” Cobalt took another drink of water, “Aside from being deathly ill, how have you been?”

[Joshua Bernstein]

"I only have tylenol." Josh muttered. The thought of purchasing anything stronger didn't cross his mind, because that would involve diverging from his routine. He was just barely able to cling to that routine; adding another task was monumentally difficult. "Sleep'll help."

He would normally have rolled his eyes at the message Cobalt relayed, but he didn't have the energy. "....dork isn't the worst I've been called." He'd never exactly been the outcast loner, but he'd definitely been one of the geeks in his school days. And then he'd graduated from geek to activist to lawyer, none of which were popular with the masses.

He scowled sullenly at the table. "I'm not deathly ill," He contradicted, wrapping his arms around himself for warmth. "A cold isn't gonna kill me."

Although generally colds weren't accompanied by massive waves of queasiness. Cobalt's question went unanswered as he stood, placing one hand on the back of his chair to steady himself. "I'll be right back."

He fumbled his way through the aisles with alacrity -- or the afflicted equivalent -- hoping to find the bathroom in time. He was sure he was running an obstacle course as his way was blocked by toddlers whose parents weren't watching them, harried wait staff, and people who thought it was necessary to scoot their chairs as far back into the aisles as possible. Finally, the entrance to the restrooms was in sight. Only one more table to pass before he crossed the threshold! He mentally rejoiced, certain that he would make it in time -- and was promptly cut off by a woman and her three small children. He took a step backward, allowing her to pass....

and that was when he vomited all over the floor.

[Riley Adams]

Riley was determined now more than ever to make sure Josh got home for that helpful sleep he was talking about. The man couldn't have looked any worst and Riley was afraid Josh would hurl at any given moment.

He was tempted to correct Josh when he said a cold won't kill him but he kept his tongue and figured being a biology minor wasn't going to help persuade the stubborn lawyer into admitting there might be a problem with that statement.

When the other man stood up, rather unsteadily at that, Riley jumped up and held a hand out instinctively to help the man out of his chair. His gaze followed Josh's trek to the bathroom before he turned to Cobalt. "I'm calling my colleague to bring my truck around. Will you help me bring Josh back to my p-" his sentence was cut short by a faint wretching noise and a little shriek as cutleries clanged against plates.

Riley turned to where Josh had went and saw people clearing away from a bent over Josh. "Oh boy," Riley turned back to Cobalt with a stunned expression. "I'll call now." He slipped his phone out and pressed the number two button which directed him to Rina who picked up after two rings.

Once the phone call was over with, Riley went to Josh's aid with Cobalt already there. "I'll take care of this, um Rina will be here in a few minutes. Wait at the entrance?" Riley directed the question to Cobalt. He looked down at the puddle of sick on the floor and winced. He'd seen worst but it didn't get any prettier.

"Do you mind getting me a plastic bag and paper towels?" He thanked God the floor wasn't carpeted.

[OOC: Riley in crisis mode! ^^]

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt mirrored Riley’s obstinate face when Josh failed to respond coherently to really any of their jibes. His friend was sick, and Cobalt wasn’t going to take any of his shit about it. He opened his mouth to scold Josh some more (and perhaps reintroduce the idea of sending him home) when the older man hauled himself out of his chair, looking pale. When Riley jumped up, Cobalt instinctively rose to his feet, ready to react to whatever Josh was doing.

“Yeah, I think—” Cobalt’s eyes went wide as Josh doubled over, halfway to the bathroom. People jumped away, a few people yelled, several dropped cutlery. “Oh, hell.” Cobalt muttered, glancing at Riley, “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” As Riley reached for his phone, Cobalt rushed over to help his friend.

“I told you, you were sick, dummy.” Cobalt chided gently, looping an arm around Josh’s shoulders, steadying him. Cobalt stared down at the puddle of vomit at their feet and grimaced. “We are so taking you home.” There were people staring at them both and Cobalt wasn’t quite sure what to do. Thankfully, Riley came to both of their rescue with instructions for Cobalt. “Right, okay.” Handing Josh over to his friend, Cobalt limped over to wait at the front for Rina.

After a few moments, a truck pulled up, driven by a cheerful-looking brown haired woman. When she pulled out up front, Cobalt raised a hand to get her attention. “Rina? Hey, I’m Cobalt Weaver, Riley’s friend.” He gave her an exasperated grin, “You came just in time.” He led her into the restaurant and got Riley’s attention. “Hey, let’s go,” He called out to his friend, who seemed to have everything under control.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Later, when he was feeling better, Josh would look back on this incident and be thoroughly mortified. As it stood he could barely care that people around him were recoiling or attempting to help as their personality dictated.

"Maybe," He grudgingly conceded that Cobalt had a point; it was very difficult to deny illness after throwing up in public. At least his friend didn't continue to rub that in, instead leaving him to Riley, who was determined to help the busboy sent to clean up after him.

He leaned against the wall, clutching his stomach and squeezing his eyes shut until he felt a hand on his shoulder and then Riley was leading him out to his van and there was some woman he didn't know driving it and Cobalt was talking to her and then they were explaining to him that they were going back to Riley's place and he felt far too miserable to continue with his objections. He simply mumbled his acceptance of this state of affairs, allowing his friends to help him climb into the backseat, where he promptly leaned his head against the window, closing his eyes. He would call Sean and let him know he was too sick to make it, but not now...later. Later after he'd taken a nap and felt well enough to fish his phone out of his pocket and stare at the screen without feeling ill. For now, he would allow Riley and Cobalt to take him home.

He couldn't afford to be sick. Unfortunately, he didn't have a choice.