Chapter Thirteen:
Chapter Thirteen:
Stress to the Max
Emily lay on her bed in a complete darkened room. She pulled the blanket
up closer to her chin. She and Matt had gotten back from the Roland scene and
she had just crashed. Matt had tried in vain to convince her that she needed to
eat something. But all she wanted to do was peel off her work clothes and put on
her pyjamas, she was to exhausted for food. She figured she would fall asleep
the moment her head hit the pillow. However, she hadn't, instead what had
started out as a tiny pain in the back of her head had pushed itself forward
into a full blown massive migraine.
"Matt" Emily called out
"Yeah" Matt replied as he opened the door to their bedroom
and let the evil light shine in
"Don't let the light in...it hurts" Emily said in pain and
shut her eyes tight
"What's the matter?" he asked in a very concerned voice
"Nothing. I just have a migraine. Can you get me two Advils
and the biggest glass of cold water on the planet plus a slice of cheese?
Please" Emily asked
Matt nodded his head in agreement "not a problem" he replied
as he walked back out of the room to get the stuff Emily had asked for. He
wasn't gone very long before he was back into the bedroom trying his best not to
let in to much light. "Here you go" He said passing Emily the Advils.
She sat up and took the slice of cheese from Matt's hand. She
carefully rolled one Advil in a small piece of cheese. "Ok I have got to ask"
Matt said looking at what she was doing with a questionable expression "what in
the world are you doing?"
"This is how I take pills" She replied "I have a very
sensitive gag reflex so I wrap the pill in the cheese and chew it up before
taking big gulps off water so I can swallow it.” Emily replied before popping
the cheese with the Advil in it into her mouth and taking several gulps of water
before getting it down. Matt sat down on the bed next to her as she got the
second one ready to swallow.
"You know this is probably a stress headache" Matt suggested
"You have been under an incredible amount of stress lately"
"Actually I used to get migraines all the time as a kid"
Emily replied
"Really? Well when was the last time you had one?" Matt asked
"Actually, I stopped getting them when I moved out of my
parent's house." She said as she lay back down under the covers “I doubt it is a
coincidence"
"You know you really should have eaten something" Matt said
"I just ate a slice of cheese" Emily replied. She knew Matt
had rolled his eyes at her even though she could no longer see his face. "When
are you coming to bed? I'm getting lonely" she said snuggling into him.
"I'll be in, in a few minutes OK?" Matt said "just let me go
turn off the TV and the lights, and make sure everything is locked up."
"Ok don't let any more light in" She requested
She felt Matt slip away from her and heard the door close
behind him. Emily had finally started to drift off to sleep when she heard the
phone ring. Her first instinct was to pick it up but the pain that shot though
her head stopped her from moving any further over to get it. The ringing stopped
so she assumed Matt had gotten it. A few moments later, Emily heard Matt open
the door and his attempts to enter the room quietly. All she heard was bang and
a few whispered curses as he tried to make his way over to the bed in complete
darkness. He finally crawled into bed next to her and wrapped his arms around
her waist. Emily was wide awake now "so who was that on the phone...not Cheryl I
hope"
"No, it was your mom" Matt replied "how's your head"
"Still there but the pain is semi wearing away" She replied
"I could have talked to her"
"I told her you were asleep and you would call her in the morning" Matt replied
"Hmmm" she said as she finally started to fall asleep.
Morning came faster than either of them would have liked and neither wanted to get out of bed when the alarm started to go off. But after hitting the snooze button a half a dozen times they knew that they had to give in and get up. Matt started to get out of bed
"We should call
in and take advantage of the time off that Cheryl offered us.” he said groggily
Emily smiled "she only offered me time off, not you. Maybe
I'll call in and go back to bed while you go to work" she replied with an evil
grin on her face as she too crawled out from the warmth of the blankets.
"Very funny" He said "Feeling better?" He asked as he walked
over towards her and wrapped his arms around her, Matt lowered his head so that
his lips could come into contact with Emily's.
Emily deepened the kiss before pulling back "the migraine is gone and if we continue to do this, we will actually have to call in to work" she said as she started to move around the room getting clothes for the day.
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An hour later they were both sat at their desks at work. Emily was
attempting to do the pile of paperwork but with every file that she completed,
the pile seemed to be getting bigger instead of smaller. And to make matters
worse her migraine was making reappearance. All of a sudden it occurred to her
that she hadn't called her mother back. Since she didn't really want to have a
private conversation in the middle of the bullpen she got up to go downstairs
and make the call from her cell. Matt noticed Emily get up from where she had
been sitting. “Hey, where are you going?” he asked
“Outside to call my mom back” she replied as she
left the bullpen and headed down the stairs and outside into the sparkly
sunlight of LA which would have been beautiful if she didn’t have a migraine.
Emily took a deep breath and tried to ignored the pain as she dialled the number
to the 4 seasons hotel. When she got the operator she asked for room #409 and
waited for someone to pick up and after a few moments of no one picking up Emily
was about to hang up when her mother’s voice came through the phone “Hello”
“Hey, mom it’s me” Emily answered
“Oh hi sweetie” Katherine said “What are you doing?”
“I’m at work. I just wanted to call you back” Emily said
“Can you meet me for lunch?” Katherine asked “We can meet somewhere close by the FBI building?”
“Sure Mom. I have a class from 12-1 so I’ll take my lunch break at 1 that is if we don’t get a situation before then. You can meet me in the lobby of the FBI building.” Emily said
“See you than
honey” Katherine said
“Alright bye” Emily said as she clicked her phone
closed. Her migraine was now so painful she thought she was going to be
physically ill. She walked back inside before she headed back up to the CNU she
made a pit stop to the vending machine and grabbed a water and a package of mini
Oreos then she continued her way back upstairs. Emily walked back into the
office and headed off to the R-Sims room. “Hey Lia, do you have any Advils or
Tylenol or something in your purse?” Emily asked
“Yeah I have some Tylenol” Lia replied reaching for
her purse “are you Ok?” Lia gave Emily a look of concern
“Yeah just a touch of a headache” Emily replied as
she took the pills from Lia. Lia wasn’t convinced that Emily was really okay,
Lia gave her a skeptical look. “I’m really fine, Lia. Thanks for these” Emily
said taking a seat next to her so she could put the pills in the Oreos to
swallow plus it was darker in the R-Sims room.
“If you say so” Lia answered in a very unconvinced
tone.
“I do” Emily said taking a gulp of water and
popping another Oreo in her mouth with the other Tylenol in it. “Are you coming
to class today?” she asked changing the subject
“Are you up to class?” Lia asked
“Yes.” Emily said though she hadn’t figured out how
she was going to be able to teach a full class with those bright lights shinning
in her eyes, she just hoped that the pills she had just taken would kick in by
then.
“Than I’m coming” Lia replied
“All right I should get back to work” Emily said as
she stood up, the room started to spin. She took a moment to steady herself then
she left the room. The lights in the office never seemed so bright. She spent
the rest of the morning trying to finish the paperwork but staring at a computer
screen for two hours hadn’t really helped the migraine any. Emily managed to get
through her class but by the time 1:00 came the pain was so unbearable she could
honestly sit down and cry.
“So you’re still fine?” Lia asked as she and Lucy
came up to talk to Emily after she had dismissed the class
“Not really” Emily admitted
“Go home” Lucy
said “just take the rest of the day off”
Emily nodded her head “I have lunch with my mother
now after that I’ll just go home”
“Good” both Lia and Lucy said as the three of them
walked out of the classroom. Emily made a quick stop at her desk to let Matt
know she was going home. He wanted to drive her home but Emily insisted she
would be fine, then she stopped into Cheryl’s office to let her know before
heading down to meet her mother in the lobby.
“Listen mom, this has to be a short lunch I have a
really bad migraine” Emily stated once they had taken their seats at a nearby
café.
“You’re not going back to work after this?” her
mother asked
“No I’m going home to a dark room and staying there
until this pain goes away” Emily said pulling a pair of sunglasses out of her
purse and putting them on hoping blocking out the sun would help with the pain.
The waitress came by and both ordered.
“How did Ally take the news” Katherine asked
“Not good mom. Ally won’t forgive you.” Emily
replied “you can still try and see her but I doubt she’ll consent to the visit”
Katherine nodded her head; she knew getting her eldest daughter to see her was a long shot. She had already accepted that Allison would never forgive her for the past. But she had hoped for the chance to say good-bye. “Emily I have to asked you something” she said
“Ok” Emily replied
“Your father and
I are headed back to New York on Friday. I would really like for you to come
with us. I want to spend however much time I have left with you.” Katherine said
“Mom, I can’t go to New York” Emily said “I can’t
just take time off work and than I have to consider Matt. My life is here in LA.
Why can’t you stay here?”
“Because when I
die I want to die at home. Not in an hotel or a hospital but in my own bed.
Please Emily” Katherine said as a single tear formed in her eye and rolled down
over her cheek.
“I have to think about it” Emily replied. The pain
in her head seemed to increase and she no longer could take it “I got to go mom”
she said but as soon as she stood up from the chair her surroundings started to
spin and the world became dark as Emily hit the ground.
Chapter Fourteen