In The Heat Of Los Angeles [H.S.]

The Drugs Don't Work (The Verve)

Okay, Evie take the pill, brush your teeth and crawl back in bed. If you know what is good for you it would be smart to take the anxiety meds now too because if not you'll likely be in a rotating version of hell for a while with this. What else? I found the roller bottle of essential oils that one of Pops' old girlfriends used to swear would fix me so I kept that out. I carefully stood from the floor to brush my teeth, pop the pills, apply the oil and turn to Harry.

"You have a lot of pills in there," he said.

"Yeah, I do."

"Are you okay?"

"I mean physically more or less. Mentally? That's another story."

"Evie, I'm being serious. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm basically normal. I've got birth control, migraine meds, and a heaping help of Daddy issues." He was trying not to laugh at me. "Harry, I love you for being concerned but I'm fine. I've dealt with issues basically my whole life when it comes to mental health. Everything from being overly stressed for my age to deep seeded abandonment issues. I see people that handle all of this. I obviously don't need to take it all that often, but I have to have it for the occasions when I need it. Now don't judge me."

"I'm not going to. Everything in there is a prescription. It's not like I found needles or something." Trying to lighten the mood I held up one from my bag. "Not what I meant."

"I know. And I don't think you're going to judge me for having medications I need to take. Fuck, half of them are natural supplements that someone at some point has told me might help with stress, anxiety or the shit that comes along with my migraines. It's that I just took the medication that will make me less likely to puke again and help the migraine. Both of those tend to make me a bit...wacky."

"Wacky?"

"I sometimes act like an idiot. So don't be mean to me." I watched him grab the glass of water from the counter as I left the bathroom and climbed back into bed. He put the glass on my nightstand before hopping over me and hugging my body close to his.

"I have no desire to be mean to you. I want to take care of you."

"I'm used to doing this on my own. I'll be okay."

"I know that you're used to doing a lot of things on your own. You don't have to anymore. Let me take care of you sometimes."

"Okay. But for now let's let my medication kick in."

"Do you need anything else?"

"No, just sleep. I might if I can't get to sleep." He started to rub my back to comfort me and help lull me to sleep. It didn't take long before I finally fell asleep. It was short lived as I was back awake at about 5:15 and back on the floor of the bathroom.

"Evie, baby are you okay?"

"I'm fine." The alarm on my phone started to go off. "My body evidently decided that I was going to get up right before my alarm. Perfect." I flushed the toilet and stood up to brush my teeth. I went back into the bedroom as he was shutting the alarm off and took my phone. "I need to get in the shower."

"Yeah, right. You've been up throwing up throughout the night. You're getting in bed."

"I've been out of the office for nearly two weeks. I have to be in the office." I swayed a little bit. The vertigo from my migraine was starting to kick in because I'd been standing for too long. I felt Harry's arms around me before I even realized he'd moved or that I'd gotten dizzy enough that I almost fell.

"You are laying down," he said as I sunk into his arms on the bed.

"I need to get ready for work."