Ok, The Mediator Series and all of the characters held within DO NOT belong to me.  I'm just borrowing the characters for a little while, and I will return them with as little wear and tear as possible.

Well, anyway… on with the fic…

Nobody But You

            I lay there in bed, staring up at the canopy of the four-poster bed that Andy and my mom had bought for me.  Usually I thought that it had been a nice gesture, something beautiful that they had wanted to share with me.

            Now it was making me want to hurl.

            Actually, everything was making me want to hurl right about now, especially the thought of what I must look like at this very moment.

            I'd been bed-ridden for almost three days now, having apparently caught some bug that must be going around.  At least, that's what my mom kept telling me.

            I knew better.  I was sick because I had gotten into a fight with a particularly nasty ghost in a restaurant a few days ago.  I seemed to have really pissed it of when it decided that it was first going to drench me with freezing water from those automatic fire-extinguishers that were built into the ceiling, and then locking me into the restaurant freezer for just over an hour.  Well, it didn't really decide on that amount of time, I was just stuck there until Jesse came and got me out.

            I decided to leave that ghost alone after that incident.

            And then, after I got home from that run-in, I was so cold and exhausted that I just sort of passed out on my bed, never bothering to try to get my body heat back up to a more normal level.  Ever since that night, I've felt like crap.

            Oh, and I haven't seen Jesse since that night either, a fact that I've been kinda thankful for.  I didn't want him seeing me like this.

            Ok, I admit that I'm probably not that impressive to him on an everyday basis, but that didn't mean I wanted him to see me when I both looked and felt like something that had been run over by a bus…several times.

            I'm just starting to get used to the way I feel when I'm around him anyway, and I didn't want my sickieness to make me feel even more like a loser.  I'm sorry, but it's hard for me to be impressive when I'm around a guy who's that gorgeous…even if he has been dead for over a hundred years, especially when I'm in lo—no, wait, I'm not going to finish that thought…  I'm not.  If I even think it, I'm doomed…wait, what am I talking about, I already am doomed.

            Crap! I never wanted this to happen… I didn't' ask for this… I didn't want to fall in love.

            Oh crap.

            Most thought processes kinda shut down right about then…thankfully.  But unfortunately, the now-constant pain in my stomach and the feeling of a cold sweat covering my body replaced them. 

            I didn't understand this, I mean; I was in freaking California for heaven's sake, wearing the pajamas that I used to wear during winter back in New York, bundled up in my blankets, and my mother said that I had a fever of over 102 degrees.  And I was still freezing!

            Then, just as I was finally sinking into the blessed realm of sleep a soft glow illuminating the space behind me, and through my drooping eyelids I saw the excess light spilling out into my line of vision.

            That can only be one thing, I thought as I was dragged into sleep.

            Jesse.

-----

            When I awoke there was soft light coming in through my windows, and I blinked over and over again to clear my eyes.  Then, right after that, I realized that quite a few things were different than when I fell asleep.

            I was no longer sweating, my stomach felt better, and my pounding headache was gone.  And I was no longer cold, but instead almost blissfully warm.

            And there's someone else in the bed with me…  My body stiffened automatically at that thought, and the figure next to me shifted, and I received yet another shock.

            The person had their arms around me!

            Even though I was feeling a lot better, I realized that I was still exhausted and weak as a kitten as I tried to free myself from the unfamiliar embrace.

            "Shhh, Querida. It's alright."

            I stopped struggling at the familiarity of that word, even though I didn't know the meaning, and shock flowed over me as I then recognized the voice.

            Jesse, oh God, Jesse…

            One of his arms pulled away from my waist, the other one remaining snugly around me, and moved up my body.  His strong, rough hand smoothed my tangled hair away from my face, stroking it back, then stilled to rest on my forehead.  It stayed there a minute, and then went back to its original position, resting on my stomach.

            "Good," he whispered, his voice deep and husky in my ear.  "Your fever has broken."  Then, as if I wasn't shocked enough by this little encounter, his arms tightened around me, and he hauled me back, turning me over in the process so that I was half-resting on his hard chest.

            I don't know how long I laid there like that, my head resting on his chest, my left arm splayed across his abdomen.  At some point, one of his hands traveled up my back and began to stroke my hair, taming the tangled mess it must have been after days of not getting out of bed.

            We must have been there over an hour like that, him holding me, playing with my hair, me almost desperately hugging myself to his body, half out of exhaustion, half out of fear that if I did move, then he'd think I didn't need him any more, and disappear.

            Truthfully I don't think I could have moved if I had wanted to, the attraction I felt towards Jesse was just too strong.

            Then, when I finally gained enough strength to move a little bit, I shifted my head, so that I could catch a glimpse of his face.  My eyes locked on his dark liquid ones, and were held there.

            Then his arm moved again, and suddenly he was stroking my face with his fingertips.

            "It may be the fact that you're probably too weak to hurt me now, that you might not even remember this to hurt me later, or even the fact that I finally have you in my arms, but I know that I'm going to enjoy this…"

            And then he leaned his head down and kissed me, his lips warm and soft on mine.

            Wow, is this why he was mad when he caught me kissing Tad in the car?  I thought.  Because Jesse wanted to be the one kissing me?  Oh man, whatever the reason, I should never have had my first kiss with Tad, I should have held out for this…because this—this is way better…

            Jesse's kisses did not become as deep as the ones Tad gave me, but they lasted longer.  And they made me feel something that I had never felt with Tad, that I had never felt with anyone…

            Eventually, Jesse started to pull away slowly, and then my eyes fluttered back open to meet his.  The only problem was that they just kept fluttering, and I suddenly realized how exhausted I really was.  Unable to keep my eyes open any longer, I laid my head back down on Jesse's chest and let out what I thought was a pretty good contented sigh.

            Jesse tugged me closer, ducking his head down so that his face was by my head.

            He kissed the top of my head once, and then leaned in even closer. 

            "Just one request, Querida," he murmured in my ear.  I was beginning to like that name he called me, whatever it meant.  "Whatever you wake up believing, just don't think that it was someone else that kissed you, I wouldn't be able to bear it."

            His voice was so husky with emotion that I realized that it would, in fact, really hurt him if I didn't remember his kisses, and that he was the one that gave them to me.

            Smiling, I cuddled closer to his hard, muscled body, burying my face in his chest.

            "Nobody but you, Jesse," I mumbled into his chest, making sure that it was loud enough for him to hear, and I'm sure he did because he pulled me closer.

            "Nobody but you."