Chapter Text
Very rarely does anything good come of being awakened at around 3 AM. This is not one of those rare exceptions.
Lister stared at the ceiling of his bunk, unsure as to what woke him up. Then he heard Rimmer shifting in the bunk below him, groaning softly. Lister didn't think too much of it at first. Everyone has an uncomfortable night every once in a while, after all, and things had been pretty crazy a few days ago. Definitely crazy for all of them, but especially for Rimmer.
Nearly a week ago, they had encountered a seemingly abandoned station with a rather temperamental semi-sentient computer, caused by the last survivor uploading their entire consciousness into it. Rimmer had accidentally set off the computer by merely brushing up against it. Unbeknownst to any of them until they actually started looking around, the station was a beyond top-of-the-line biomedical research station even before the last survivor had added her consciousness to the computer. It had completely reconstructed him down to the smallest cell, but had warned that he would go through trials within the next few months as the new body "got used to things", as the computer had wryly put it.
Lister was yanked from his musings by another groan, this time with a more obvious edge of pain to it. He heard Rimmer sit up, wincing as he heard another soft pain-filled groan. He sat up himself, and was just about to ask Rimmer if he was okay, but Rimmer spoke before he did
"Listy? Are you awake?" It was a hoarse whisper.
Lister looked down to see Rimmer wrap his arms around his midsection and lean forward a bit. "Yeah, I'm awake. You okay?" He got down off his bunk in order to get a better look at his partner.
Lister didn't require a verbal answer once he actually looked at Rimmer. His face was pale, he was shaking slightly, and his arms were still wrapped around his stomach. The expression on his face was a blend of pain and nausea. "My poor Rimsy," Lister clucked, laying a hand on his partner's forehead, nearly jerking it back from the heat that he felt. "You've got some fever."
"Mmmmhmm," Rimmer mumbled, leaning into Lister's cool hand. He then drew back, swallowing hard. "Listy, I think…," he broke off with another hard swallow, the color draining from his face.
Lister was already looking for a container of some sort. Grabbing the nearest thing he saw (a large, empty mixing bowl they had used for popcorn a couple of days ago that Kryten had fortuitously missed), he had it ready in a matter of seconds.
"Don't wanna... throw up…," Rimmer whined into Lister's shoulder. Lister's arm around his shoulders tamped down some of the fear, but not enough to completely quell the rising panic inside of him. Illness had always gotten him punished on Io. Surely Lister wouldn't punish him, would he?
Almost as if he could hear his thoughts spiraling out of control like they usually did when he was overly tired, stressed, or not feeling well, Lister's voice broke through. "Arn, it's okay. I'm not going to be mad. I'm not mad now. You can't help being sick. Your family were smegheads, the lot of them!"
Rimmer nodded tightly, holding back a retch. He moaned softly, feeling Lister rubbing circles on his back with one hand, the other holding the bowl.
A few seconds passed. Then the urge to retch struck again, and he couldn't hold it back. "It's all right," he heard Lister say as he inhaled, only for it to be cut off by another retch, then another, more violent than the last.
It felt like an eternity before some of that night's dinner landed in the bowl, and another small eternity until he stopped retching. Panting hard, he opened his eyes a little to see Lister set the bowl down on the floor.
"You done for now?" Lister asked gently.
Rimmer nodded, a flush that definitely was not just from the fever coloring his cheeks just a bit more. He hated being ill, and usually tried to hide it until he couldn't anymore.
"I'll go empty this and get you a towel and some water, yeah?" He laid a hand on his sick partner's shoulder for just a moment, then took off to take care of everything.
It wasn't long before he returned with a clean bowl, a cool wet towel, and a glass of water. He set the bowl down, then wiped Rimmer's face with the towel. He then helped his partner to take a few small sips of the water, gently chiding him when he started to try to gulp it down.
"Easy, love. You don't want it to just come right back up again."
Setting the glass aside, Lister wrapped an arm around Rimmer's shoulders, feeling his partner relax slightly and lay his head on his shoulder. Lister dropped a gentle kiss on top of his head. The heat that he felt coming off of Rimmer worried him a bit, but he could tend to that in a few minutes. Right now, comforting him was far more important to Lister.
It wasn't much of a respite before Rimmer started to shift uncomfortably again. Lister immediately reached for the bowl again, but Rimmer got up, running past him to the bathroom. Lister winced as he heard retching leading into violent vomiting. Deciding to give Rimmer a moment, he got some painkillers and fever reducers out of the cabinet. Setting them on the table, he went over to the bathroom and poked his head in.
His heart clenched painfully as he saw his partner still hunched over the toilet. It broke as he stopped vomiting, only to start sobbing.
Kneeling down beside him, Lister drew Rimmer to him, reaching one hand over to flush the toilet. As Rimmer sobbed into his chest, Lister rubbed his back, whispering reassurances.
Thinking to himself, Lister was wondering how Rimmer had become so ill so quickly. He was reasonably certain that it wasn't food poisoning, since, in spite of his cast-iron stomach, he would be sick as well. Kryten was an android, and Cat was a different species altogether. Perhaps this was one of those trials that the computer had mentioned would happen.
"Do you think you can stand?" Lister asked, once Rimmer's tears had slowed.
Looking confused for a moment, Rimmer said hoarsely, "I can try."
Helping his partner back out to sit on the edge of the bunk, Lister then got the glass of water and the medicine. After helping Rimmer to take it, he went and got a chair, pulling it over to the bed. "Try to get some rest, Arn," he said softly. "I'm not going anywhere."
As Rimmer fell into a fitful doze, Lister hoped that his partner would feel better when he woke up. It might be a futile hope, but he hoped anyway.