Cuddling is the best medicine
September 2 nd , 2022
The Star Wars main theme was heard in Lynn’s bedroom, disturbing her peaceful sleep in a brutal way. She loved the music, getting chills every single time she watched one of the nine movies, but she hated Nate for having it as his alarm tone ever since they watched the first movie together.
What she hated even more was the fact that it never actually woke him. He told her that he used to be a light sleeper before the nightmares started but, to be honest, she never saw that version of him. Even without having nightmares he slept like a rock, Lynn always needed to wake him in addition to the alarm clock. It was the same every morning.
She scooted closer to Nate, who had tossed his own blanket almost completely off his body. Because of him still having nightmares from time to time they’d decided to sleep with two separate blankets. Lynn could continue sleeping while Nate tossed around and pulled on the blanket frantically .
Her boyfriend was lying on his back, his lips parted while slightly snoring, all of his four limbs stretched in different directions. It looked adorable. His right arm was outstretched towards Lynn and she remembered he had caressed her back until she fell asleep last night. She grabbed his arm, slid it over her shoulders, and laid right next to him. Lynn turned onto her left side and carefully placed her hand on Nate’s stomach. She leaned forward and kissed along his shoulder, collarbone, neck and jaw until she reached his lips.
He was wide awake already but kept his eyes closed. Only the little twitch in his lips, while he was trying to hide his smile, gave him away. While nibbling on Nate’s lower lip she drew small circles around his belly button, carefully not to tickle him, but her touches were so light that he struggled to not burst into laughter. His abs engaged and the sixpack popped out of his skin. Immediately Lynn stopped her movements and laid her palm on his abs instead.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Nate whispered against her soft lips before moving his head just a little to give Lynn a proper kiss.
“Good morning, honey. Did you sleep well?”
Nate opened his eyes and looked at her with a sleepy gaze. She looked beautiful this morning, and he almost got lost in the depth of Lynn’s eyes. Something was different this morning because she was glowing. She looked at him with a wide smile on her face, her cheeks having a wonderful pink tint. He couldn’t tell what exactly it was and why but she looked like an angel today.
“I slept amazing. What about you? ”
“Me too. It’s the first night that I actually didn’t wake up because I moved on my right side and hurt. Don’t know if I just didn’t turn on the right side, or if the pain is gone. Don’t want to try though,” Lynn whispered.
Her eyes were still shining and he could practically see how happy she was.
“That’s amazing, darling.” Nate smiled before pressing a few kisses along her face.
The last one landed on her nose, like always.
“Hungry?” she asked, the smile on her face never fading.
“Oh yeah, I could use some breakfast. Let’s get ready and head to the communal kitchen!”
Nate was about to sit when he heard Lynn whine a little. His head shot around to look if she had hurt her wound but he only looked into puppy dog eyes.
“What is it?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Let me make breakfast and bring it to you,” she pleaded.
Nate let out a loud sigh and changed into a sitting position to lean back on the headboard. Lynn slowly raised as well until she was sitting cross-legged in front of him, still waiting for an answer.
“Do you think you’re strong enough for that already?” he asked carefully.
“Yes!” she exclaimed immediately and then added, “I made great progress with Becks the entire week and she even let me do some squats. Squats, Nate! That’s kind of working out.”
Nate couldn’t help himself and chuckled a little. He’d seen Lynn’s last session with Becks and the ‘squats’ she was referring to. It was nothing compared to a real squat. It was more like standing up and sitting back down on a box.
Nate had worked with Becks after his knee surgery as well. As the whole situation around Lynn wasn’t clear at that time, Toby had decided to call a friend to help. Toby and Becks had worked together a few years ago until Becks decided to open her own practice instead of working in hospitals around the region. Nate really respected her because Becks wasn’t only following strict plans. She was the most flexible physical therapist he had ever worked with in his life. Constantly observing his recovery and changing the plan so that he would get the best possible outcome. It was thanks to Becks that he was back in the field so early after his surgery and he knew that she was the best person to help Lynn get back on her feet.
“You’ve only been discharged from the med-bay for a week, darling. And yes, you’re doing some work with Becks, but you’re still weak. Especially because you’re doing so much PT. Your muscles need time and rest,” he argued but knew that it was useless with his girlfriend.
She wanted to prepare breakfast, so she would do that.
“Don’t treat me like I’m broken, Nate,” she scolded him.
They had talked about this several times over the past few days, always with the same outcome: Lynn convincing him that she was okay by doing activities she wasn’t actually cleared for yet. Like carrying stuff around and walking on the treadmill without supervision. It was super hard for Nate to find the fine line between supporting Lynn in her recovery and stopping her from doing too much. It had been a constant fight and struggle the last few days .
“I’m not treating you like you’re broken. I’m just trying to protect you from hurting yourself, Lynn,” he sighed.
He was looking at her with his brows slightly furrowed, making three lines appear on his forehead.
“I won’t hurt myself by doing fucking breakfast.” She rolled her eyes and was about to get out of bed and prove to him that she was indeed capable of making breakfast and carrying it to his room.
“Let’s make a deal,” Nate suggested the moment Lynn slowly rose to her feet.
Her strength had improved over the last week but she was still slightly dizzy every time she stood. She tried to hide it as best as possible when turning around to Nate but he saw her cheeks turning pale. Thankfully he kept his mouth shut about it.
“What kind of deal?”
After a few seconds, Lynn steadied herself a little but she still stood next to the bed like a baby deer right after it was born.
“You do the breakfast and you carry it to the dinner table, but I’ll be there just in case your legs give out on you.”
Lynn rolled her eyes. This was exactly what she had expected him to suggest but at least he let her do stuff on her own now. The first few days he hovered behind her with his left and right arm outstretched next to her waist in case she collapsed. What would he have done anyways? His left hand was still in the brace, he wasn’t allowed to catch her. She hated every single second of her recovery process. All she wanted to do was go back to work and continue living her life but her muscles were weak from lying around for weeks and she really underestimated how sore she became. How long it would take to regain the strength in her legs, her mobility, and moving around without pain.
“Okay,” she sighed, watching Nate swing his legs over the edge of the bed and practically jump to his feet.
He grabbed black sweatpants and a navy-blue shirt with the SEALs logo in golden letters on the front. He quickly changed into the clothes before grabbing Lynn’s pair of sweatpants from the chair of his desk. Lynn had stepped towards it as well. She tried to appear strong in front of him, but her first steps every morning were still a little wobbly, until her legs were cooperating and accepted that lying in a bed wasn’t their new life now.
Nate threw the sweatpants towards Lynn who quickly raised her left arm and caught them in the air. The Agent watched her curiously, seeing that she didn’t lose balance while catching the pants but he also realized that she had caught it with her left hand although she normally preferred her right one. Raising her right arm was still painful for Lynn, as the surgery wound was on that side. He felt the same although his wound was already looking pretty good. Toby had been surprised by how fast he was recovering and said that “it must be because he was in such a good physical state”. Nate wasn’t so sure about that as he had always recovered fast, even as a child.
Lynn held on to the desk for some stability before slipping into the sweatpants.
“Don’t test me, honey,” she groaned, well-aware of the intention of the pants-throw .
“Sorry,” he mumbled before adding: “Just for the record, you passed the test with flying colors.”
Lynn started to laugh while Nate stepped in front of her, grabbed her face in his large hands, and placed a tender kiss on her forehead, her nose and on her lips last.
“I love you,” he mumbled.
“I love you more.”
Hand in hand they left his room and headed towards the communal kitchen. Marta and Oliver were already sitting at the dining table, chatting about something Lynn couldn’t hear.
“Good morning,” she shouted in the room, making both of her colleagues turn their heads around.
“Good morning, Lynn.” Oliver smiled.
“Good morning! Look who’s walking to get breakfast all on her own, huh?” Marta mocked.
“Don’t get too excited, Marta. It’s only walking,” Lynn huffed.
She walked in front of Nate now, making her way straight towards the fridge to grab some ingredients for breakfast. With a little grimace she observed the contents of the fridge, silently considering what she wanted to eat.
Nate had halted in his movements for a moment, awkwardly standing on the other side of the island. He looked at Lynn for another second before stepping towards the table and taking a seat next to Oliver.
“Hey, pal. How are you feeling?” the blond asked.
“Good actually. Barely feel the wound anymore. It’s just a matter of time until I’m cleared to work again.” He directed the last part towards Marta who nodded with a smile .
Lynn had grabbed some eggs, an avocado, bagels, butter, and sriracha sauce out of the fridge and was currently cracking some eggs into a pan to make scrambled eggs.
“You okay with her doing this all alone?” Marta asked in a low voice, careful that Lynn wasn’t able to hear it.
“Tried to talk her out of it, unsuccessfully as you can see,” Nate commented, his eyes locked on Lynn.
Carefully observing every step she took, every movement with her upper body. He was alert, ready to jump off his chair and run to her side in case she gave any small signal that it was too much, but he let her do it alone.
“Seems like you finally found someone to match your stubbornness,” Marta chuckled.
Nate only huffed in response but couldn’t hide the smirk that danced around his lips. Lynn had almost finished preparing the avocado bagels and was finishing them off by putting some sea salt and black sesame on top. Then she shoved the scrambled eggs from the pan onto the two plates and placed both plates on a tray she had already got out of one of the cabinets.
So far she was still smiling, no sign of her injury. She turned around to another cabinet and was about to get two glasses out of it but because they were placed very high, Lynn needed to stretch her arm in the air to reach them and that movement pulled her stitches a little. She whined a small “ow” but scolded herself immediately for it. Screeching noises could be heard as Nate rose from his chair.
“Don’t you dare!” Lynn exclaimed.
“You’re good?” Nate asked, still standing next to his chair .
“Yes. Just pulled the stitches a little, but I’m fine. Sit down.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
Lynn placed the glasses on the tray and grabbed the orange juice out of the fridge to place it beside them. Then she grabbed the whole tray and carefully carried it towards the table. Nate, who was sitting again, watched her, concern written all over his face. He didn’t like it. It was still too early in his opinion but he knew it would only end in another fight if he helped her right now.
It took her a little longer than usual but in the end the breakfast and orange juice ended on the table and Lynn was smiling from ear to ear. She quickly wiped away the sweat on her forehead and took her place in front of Nate.
“Told you.” She winked at him.
“I’m proud of you.” Nate smiled.
“Wow, I’m impressed. Seems like Becks is really making improvements with you,” Marta commented.
“Yes. She’s an angel. Challenging me a lot every day. I’ll have my next session with her at 11.”
“Then you can tell her about this morning,” Oliver added.
“Absolutely. I’ll tell her that I improved a lot thanks to Nate,” She giggled before loading her fork full of scrambled eggs.
“Thanks to me?” the brunet man asked, confused.
“Yeah. !” she laughed. Nate reached out his hand to Lynn’s face and booped his finger on her nose.
“Only if you listen to the one that gives you the cuddles,” he commented, making all four of them laugh again .
They enjoyed the breakfast afterwards, both couples shooting loving gazes between them while eating in silence.
Nate was sure that it was only his imagination but that morning the avocado toast tasted even better than usual.