When Cal came through the front door he was aware of two things. One, was an obscene amount of noise coming from upstairs, the squeal of two high pitched voices. The second, was the obnoxious blare of the TV in the formal living room. He dropped his bag on the foot of the stairs, leaning into the room to see what was going on. Two light brown haired girls were avidly watching a movie, a bowl of popcorn between them. Cal backed up slowly and headed for the kitchen. He spotted Gillian lying on the two-seater couch, her bare feet hanging over the edge. She was in jeans and a tank top but was sheltered from the sun by the back of the couch. When he got closer, he could see her eyes were closed.

"Hey," he greeted gently, not convinced she was asleep, not with all the noise. He sat himself on the coffee table.

Her eyes flickered open. She gave him a tentative smile. "Hey."

Her eyes were glassy, her skin pale, dark rings under her eyes. "What's wrong?" Cal asked immediately.

"I don't really feel well," Gillian responded.

Cal leaned forward to press the back of his hand against her forehead. "You're very warm."

"Yeah I'm sweating," she gave a sigh. "Did you finish?"

She meant, had Cal brought the last of things from the motel and paid up? "Yeah," he confirmed, still more worried about her being clearly sick than the monumental achievement of him moving back home. "Why don't you go up stairs and have a nap?"

"With all the noise?" Gillian winced. "Are you kidding me?" Her eyes wavered like she couldn't quite focus on him.

Cal knelt on the floor by her waist so she wouldn't have to turn her head to see him. "Yeah, who are all these foreign children?"

"Your nieces and nephew."

"Ah. Did it have to be today? When you're sick?"

"Mm funnily enough it was today, when we're both here," she gave a groan. "So I don't have to deal with them on my own."

"Seems unfair, seein' as they're your nieces and nephew."

Gillian shot him a half hearted glare, before closing her eyes again. "Payback is a bitch."

"Now why does that seem familia?" Cal asked dryly, bringing up a hand to brush his fingers against her cheek. Her skin was warm there too.

"It tastes particularly bitter when someone uses your own words against you," Gillian noted, her blue eyes coming open again.

Cal gave a slight raise of his eyebrows in agreement. "Did you go to work feelin' like this?"

"Yeah," Gillian sighed. "Had to. But at least these guys got me out of it early."

Cal gave a frown. "How about tryin' to have a nap here?"

"Are you kidding me? With all the noise?" She winced again.

"K, then, what do you think it is?"

"Feels like the flu."

"Can I get you anythin'?"

Gillian gave a slight shake of her head then closed her eyes slowly, taking a deep breath. "Shouldn't have done that," she murmured.

"Warta," Cal decided. "Keep your fluids up." He got to his feet again, heading for the kitchen. He pulled the doors closed and poured water from the fridge, taking it back to Gillian. He tried to give it to her but apparently she was weak as well, so he settled for leaving it on the floor beside her head. He opened a window to let in a breeze and Gillian hummed her appreciation. He kissed her forehead, telling her he was going to do the rounds, and come back and check on her.

"Uh huh," she breathed, eyes closed.

Cal headed for the living room next door, concerned but not yet worried enough to intervene. Sometimes the best way to deal with being sick was to just sleep it off. So he hoped she would nap after all. He approached the two girls, calling out a greeting when he was half way across the room. They turned startled and said hello, calling him Uncle Cal, and it was weird but kind of nice until a moment of panic gripped him; he couldn't remember their names.

"What are you watchin'?"

"Harry Potter," the youngest answered.

"Oh yeah?" Cal responded, interested. "They made that into a movie huh?" A frown in response. "Ok can you turn it down a little? Gillian's tryin' to sleep."

"In the middle of the afternoon?"

"Yes," Cal responded. "She's not feelin' so good."

The eldest reached for the remote and took the volume down a few notches. Better than nothing. "Thank you," Cal told her before heading out of the room again. He closed their doors and grabbed his bag before heading upstairs. The yelling and squealing and occasional thumps coming from Lewis's room were much more pronounced now Cal was on the second floor. Cal put his bag on the bed, unzipped it and found his notebook. He flipped through to the pages about extended family; Arianna, Rachel and Max. He put the notebook in his back pocket, dumped his dirty washing in the basket and folded the bag up, putting it at the top of the walk in wardrobe. He suddenly realised the bedroom was a mess. Only one curtain had been opened that morning. The bed hadn't been made. There were clothes strewn over the mattress. So Gillian had gone to work feeling like shit. Silly woman. She should have stayed at home, and she should have told Kate she couldn't babysit because she was ill.

Cal pulled back the curtains to let in the afternoon light, then turned for the bed and gathered up the clothes Gillian had worn to work that day. He draped them over the end of the bed, added to the pile already there and straightened the bed clothes. 'Poor Gillian,' he thought. She still stretched herself too thin. At least on Monday that would change. He was going back to work and he was determined to lighten her load, even if it was just a little bit, in at least one small way, anything he could do. She had been taking care of him for the last four months, since the accident in May, and now he needed to reciprocate. Not just for the sake of their marriage, but for the sake of his manhood too.

A ringing phone. Cal checked his but nope... and it wasn't the home phone though it sounded suspiciously familiar... Oh Gillian's phone! He searched the bed covers and found it tucked in a small mountain of blanket. Doctor Johansson flashed on the screen. Cal hesitated. Could be private. Could be important.

"Cal speakin'," He answered politely.

"Hi there my name is Nalini calling from Doctor Johansson's office. May I speak with Gillian Lightman please?"

"Yeah she can't come to the phone right now. Can I take a message?"

"I was calling to make an appointment with her regarding her blood test results. Can you get her to call me back at hear earliest convenience?"

"I can," Cal confirmed. She thanked him. He hung up. Hmmm. He should have asked what it was about. He should have pried. She probably wouldn't have told him anything anyway. Why did Gillian need to go in for a blood test result? Wouldn't they just tell her the results on the phone? Unless something was wrong. Then they would probably want to see her. Now he was worried.

Cal finished with the bed, taking Gillian's phone with him as he headed down the hall to see his son and his cousin... Max. That was his name! The bedroom door was wide open and there were an assortment of toys spilling out into the hallway; wooden blocks, miniature cars, a soft toy, puzzle pieces. In the room Lewis was jumping on his bed, heaving plastic Lego at his cousin who had built himself a fort out of pillows, more cushions and one exceptionally large teddy bear. "Whoa!" Cal hollered over the screeching excited noise of Lewis, who was red in the face, and the returning yelling of Max, who was blindly flinging back whatever he could get his hands on.

The room suddenly went quiet. Lewis stopped jumping on his mattress. "Put that down," Cal pointed at his son firmly. The Lego fell to the messed up bed. Max appeared from his defensive wall, looking a little sheepish. "That's enough," Cal told them both. "Clean this room up and make that bed," he pointed again. "I'll be comin' back to check." With that he left, surprising himself with his authority. But at least if they toned it down a little Gillian might sleep. Because she clearly needed it.

When Cal got back downstairs it was a little quieter. The biggest source of sound pollution now was the TV. But with both sets of doors closed it was better. "Gill?" Cal approached her again.

"Mmm?"

"Are you asleep darlin'?" He whispered.

"No," her voice was firm.

"Your docta rang."

"Hm?"

"About your blood test."

"Oh what about it?"

"Said they wanted to see you."

"Busy," Gillian murmured.

Cal watched her for a moment. "When did this start?"

"This morning. I woke up feeling weird."

So perhaps it wasn't some long incubating disease... oh actually, it could be. Her blood test had been a week ago. It could take that long for symptoms to show. He was so blowing this out of proportion. "You should have stayed at home."

"Well I... had things to do."

"Are the extra giblets stayin' for dinna?" He took a seat on the coffee table, watching her again. She looked about the same.

"Uhm," she cracked an eye open to peer warily at him. "You know? I don't think I could deal with that."

"What time did Kate say she was gonna come get them?"

"She didn't really..." Gillian frowned and closed the eye again.

"What about what she was up to?"

"Um something about going to see a movie."

"K," Cal pulled her phone out of his pocket again. "I'm gonna call her."

"No don't do that."

"You just said..." Cal tried but realised she can't have been that absorbed in the conversation. Nor should he let her be. "Gill," he leaned down to her. Her hand came up to his cheek.

"Oooh you're cool."

"Yeah, I'm very cool," Cal agreed. He pressed his hand to her forehead again. She felt a little warmer. "You're gettin' worse," Cal noted. "Let me take you upstairs."

"Mmm no. It hurts to move."

"Come on Gill. I'll call Kate but you need to get into bed. And take somethin' for you feva and your aches."

"Mmm," she complained.

Cal got up and found Kate's number in Gillian's phone. If Gillian had the kids from after school, he checked his wrist for the time, frustrated again at finding he still didn't have a watch there, and used his phone instead. The movie should have just finished. Hopefully, fingers crossed, Kate would pick up. She did. Cal explained that Gill wasn't well and could Kate come back as soon as she could? Kate assured him she would. She wouldn't be more than twenty minutes. Cal apologised. Kate told him it wasn't a big deal.

Cal went back to the couch. "Gill," he picked up her arm, felt zero resistance in it. Her eyes opened as she stirred. "Bed," he told her firmly. She didn't complain and she didn't try to shunt him away. He pulled her gently to sit, swinging her legs to the floor. "Come on," he encouraged gently. "Don't make me try to carry you. I don't think I could handle it." She didn't even attempt a laugh and Cal worried some more. If she was like this in the morning he was taking her to a doctor. But first he was going to load her up in bed with water and pillows and drugs.

Gillian leaned on him as they headed up the stairs. "Mmm glad you're here."

"Me too," Cal agreed. "And stop bein' so stubborn. You gotta put you first at some point."

"Huh," Gillian breathed.

Cal marched her gently, but marched her nonetheless, into their bedroom and to her side of the bed. He pulled back the blankets, undid her jeans and took them off her. He gave her one of his pillows to prop her up, closed the curtains, and covered her with the sheet only. He went to get the glass of water from downstairs and asked the girls to keep an ear out for their mum. Then he headed upstairs for the medicine cabinet in the bathroom Lewis used. Tylenol. Good. He poked his head into Lewis's room to find the boys huddled over a pile of... cars? Looked like cars, on the floor. The bed was a mess but the fort had been dismantled and most of the shrapnel on the floor had been put away into the toy bins. Cal asked them to go downstairs, and for Max to get ready to leave, because Kate was on her way to get them.

"Aw," Lewis complained. "Why?"

"Mum's not well," Cal told him.

"What's wrong?" Lewis asked.

'I don't know.'

PJ

"You completely freaked me out."

"Aw sorry," Gillian sniffled as they lay in bed, facing each other.

"With your docta ringin' and Lewis is goin' 'what's wrong with Mum?' and you were completely out of it. I thought you could be dyin'."

He had to be exaggerating right?

Gillian gave a slight chuckle, but that hurt her abdominal wall, which had had the most thorough workout from all the coughing in the last two days since after Lewis was born. Gillian winced and Cal brought a hand up to her cheek, brushing back a piece of hair. "I'm sorry," she pouted, or at least she would have if she wasn't exhausted.

"Nasty cold huh?"

"Did I keep you awake?"

"A little. You don't rememba me sittin' you up to medicate you?"

"Not really," Gillian admitted. "Yesterday was a bit of a blur too."

"You know why right? You let yourself get run down," Cal admonished.

"Yeah yeah," Gillian huffed lightly. Her throat tickled and she fought back the urge to cough. No more coughing. Seriously.

"But you're gonna let me carry some of the burden now right?"

"Uh huh," Gillian agreed. They had already planned for him to be back at work tomorrow and their plan for dealing with the work 'issue' was becoming clearer as they chipped away at it. Gillian had expected Cal to want to be all over it first and foremost. The Lightman Group was his baby after all. But he had pleasantly surprised her by giving it secondary priority status behind their relationship. Oh yeah, he was trying.

"Wait, what did you medicate me with?"

Cal wiggled his eyebrows at her, causing a smile to pass over her lips and a stronger urge to suppress the coughing. "Just the usual luv."

She had probably gotten the worst cold in the history of the known world because she had finally started to slow down. But at least it was all over now. All of it. As a couple, they were great, as a family they were fantastic, and as far as Gillian was concerned, the last four horrible months were over. Just that one last little work problem and then they would be good and clear.

"You feel up to gettin' up today?"

"Yeah I think I could attempt a slow hobble downstairs."

"And tomorrow? Are you gonna be able to hold my hand?"

"Of course. No matter what, I will always hold your hand," Gillian promised him.

PJ

So, quite the epitome this one. Thank you all for your support, for reading and for reviewing, for sticking through right to the very last chapter. I really appreciate it.

I finished this three times, but always ended up adding a few more chapters to the end. This is the longest of all the sagas, chapter-wise obviously, but also by page count, and word count. In fact, it's the third longest story I've ever written. (At least it was, at the time of publication). Quite impressive by all counts.