Quid Pro Quo

by Sherryl Hancock

  “I’m gonna head back,” she said. “No, no, I can get back,” she added when Kai started to stand and pulled out her keys.

  “You can take my car if you want,” Kai said.

  “Me? Drive that Mercedes? Girl, you crazy!” Jackie smiled. “I’m good, honey. You just take care of our girl.”

  Kai smiled. “I will. Thanks, Jackie.”

  Jackie left and Kai knelt next to the bed again, reaching up to stroke Finley’s forehead.

  “So, tell me what we’re looking at here, and what you’ve done to make yourself feel better.”

  “Cold, flu… headache, fever, chills, muscle aches, sore throat…”

  “Okay,” Kai said, nodding. “What have you done to make things feel better?”

  Finley was silent.

  “Babe?” Kai queried.

  “Slept.”

  Kai chuckled. “Okay, well, I think we should be just a little more proactive than that. First of all, why’s it so cold in here?”

  “I haven’t had the time to get the gas company out to check the pilot light,” Finley said. The seasons were just changing at that point.

  “Okay, well, let me take care of that first,” Kai said, standing again. “I’ll be right back.”

  A few minutes later the heater kicked on and Kai came back into the room. “Problem number one solved,” she said, grinning. “Now, about that sore throat, do you have any tea?”

  “Um…” Finley stammered, her expression blank.

  “I’ll go check,” Kai said, and left the room again.

  Finley watched her walk out and had a feeling she knew what she’d hear next. She was right.

  “Seriously!” she heard Kai say. She grinned to herself, knowing that Kai had just walked into her kitchen and had started looking around for food. Kai was likely going to have heart failure at how badly she ate when she was home—frozen dinners, boxed meals, anything fast and easy.

  When Kai walked back in the room, Finley was already grinning.

  “You know what I’m about to say, right?” Kai said, grinning too.

  “Uh-huh. But can you keep the expletives to a minimum? I’m sick, you know…”

  Kai smiled at that. “Uh-huh,” she said, kneeling down to look into Finley’s eyes again. “I saw a market downstairs—I’m going to go do some quick shopping.”

  “That’s a natural-foods… oh…” Finley realized who she was talking to and shut up.

  “I will be right back,” Kai said, softly kissing Finley’s lips. “Don’t run off on me, huh?”

  “Where would I go?” Finley asked wistfully.

  Kai was gone less than an hour. When she got back she immediately made Finley tea with lemon and peppermint essential oils, adding honey. Back in Finley’s room, she knelt down, touching Finley’s cheek, and set the tea on the nightstand. Finley opened her eyes, smiling softly.

  “I made you some tea,” Kai said. “It should help your throat and your fever.”

  Finley moved to sit up, and Kai stood to help her, putting pillows behind her, then handed her the cup. Finley took a sip and sighed.

  “What’s in this?” she asked.

  “There’s lemon and peppermint, and honey.”

  Finley held the cup with both hands, sipping at it like a child would.

  “Have you had anything to eat today?” Kai asked.

  Finley shook her head.

  “Okay, I’m going to get you some toast to start with, but then I’m going to make you some real food.”

  Finley grinned. “Versus what I had in my fridge?”

  “We’re not even going to talk about what was in that fridge,” Kai said darkly, even as she grinned.

  Kai made Finley toast, keeping it soft so it wouldn’t be too scratchy on her throat. She ate it, still sipping on her tea. After she was done, Kai kicked off her shoes and took off her jacket—wearing black workout pants and a white tank top with a jog bra under it, she was the picture of health. Climbing into bed, she gently pulled Finley into her arms and held her, stroking her hair, pulling the covers up to keep her warm.

  “Kai, I don’t want to get you sick,” Finley protested weakly.

  “I’ve done my sick for this year,” Kai said, grinning. “Don’t worry, babe.”

  Finley snuggled against Kai’s chest, feeling warm and far too happy considering how lousy as she felt. She was asleep a little while later. Kai carefully got up and went back into Finley’s kitchen. The kitchen itself, like the rest of the condo, was beautiful, with stainless steel appliances and every possible convenience. The food that Finley had in her house looked like it belonged in some twenty-year-old’s kitchen—macaroni and cheese, SpaghettiOs, TV dinners in the freezer, old to-go containers in the fridge, soda, old wine, and a few terrifying-looking science projects Kai was almost afraid to touch. It was not the refrigerator of a doctor at all. Kai had to resist the urge to throw everything out, and not just the stuff that was past its natural life. She had to hunt around in the drawers for a knife and cutting board. The woman had almost nothing in the way of cooking utensils. Kai shook her head ruefully.

  She managed to find enough things to cook the chicken soup she had bought supplies for. She added rosemary and let it simmer. Walking back into the bedroom, she checked on Finley and saw that she was sleeping still. She sat on the bed carefully so as not to disturb her. Pulling out her phone, she started moving her appointments for the next two days so she could stay with Finley. She got up a few times to check on the soup, and turned it off when she was finally happy with it.

  Finley woke a couple of hours later, and Kai brought her soup and some water.

  “Oh my God, this is like completely homemade, isn’t it?” Finley asked as she took a mouthful.

  “Versus a can?” Kai asked, grinning.

  “Um, yeah…” Finley said, grinning back. “Campbell’s, you know…”

  Kai shuddered dramatically. “Not on my watch.”

  Finley chuckled. “Seriously, Kai, this is really incredible.” She’d known that Kai could cook, since she’d done so most of the nights they’d been together. She knew Kai liked to use fresh ingredients and make as much from scratch as possible. They’d had a lot of discussions about why certain things that seemed healthy weren’t. Finley was learning a lot.

  After she finished eating, they watched some TV. Finley found that even though Kai held the remote, she brought up the guide and let Finley tell her what she wanted to watch. She only drew the line a couple of times, one of those being Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which Finley had only suggested to see how Kai would react.

  “Uh, no,” Kai said, shaking her head. “I need all the brain cells I have left, thank you.” Finley chuckled.

  They settled on a movie on the Independent Film Channel that Finley had picked because of the title: A Marine Story. It was about a female Marine who returned to her small hometown after discharging from the military. She’d discovered while in the military that she was gay, and even though she’d married a man to hide it, she’d been accused of being gay and had resigned rather than take the chance of being dishonorably discharged.

  Finley had noticed that Kai nodded quite a lot during the movie. She asked a few times if it was accurate.

  “Oh yeah,” Kai said. “That’s exactly the way it was.”

  Finley shook her head. “I don’t know how you did it,” she said, her tone pained. “How you lived like that… hiding who you really were.”

  “A lot of people lived that way, Fin. If you wanted a career in the military, you had to be what they wanted you to be, not who you really were.”

  “I’m glad Obama got rid of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”

  “Believe me, so are many people in the military.”

  “Did people know about you?” Finley asked at one point.

  “Yeah, some of the guys in my unit knew, but they were cool, so it was generally safe. The problem was, there was always that chance that I’d piss one of them off and they’d rat me ou
t.”

  “And when you were with her…” Finley said gently.

  “Hell, I was never sure what was going to happen there. Half the time I wondered if she’d turn me in herself. She was just vindictive enough to do that.”

  “So why didn’t you two work out?”

  “You mean besides the fact that we were both in a military that forbade us from being together?” Kai said wryly. Finley nodded. “It was simple—she used me for sex. She told me she loved me, she told me she wanted to be with me, but in the end her husband had the power she needed to move up in the military and that’s what she wanted.”

  “Ouch,” Finley said, frowning.

  “Yeah. The thing was, if she’d just been honest, I would have been okay. But she spun this whole tale about how he would out her if she left him, and that she needed to find another way, that she was ‘working on it.’ She had me so completely fooled, and I stayed that way for a long time. When I finally got fed up and broke it off, she just laughed in my face. I was so sick over it. She told me she was never really into me, that she just liked to see me twist. That she was just bored over there in the Middle of Nowhere, as she always put it, and I was a distraction.”

  “Not really into you? Right, sure, I believe that…”

  “Well, I heard later that she moved back to the States, and divorced him and married a woman under her command.” Kai had said it simply, but it was obvious it still hurt her.

  Finley shook her head sadly. “I really hate that woman.”

  Kai grinned. “You’ve never even met her.”

  “I’ve never met your father, but I don’t like him much either.”

  Kai pressed her lips together. “Tell me how you really feel, babe.”

  Finley did her best to look circumspect, but didn’t really pull it off. She didn’t like anyone that didn’t see Kai as the amazing woman she was.

  “How many appointments did you have to reschedule to be here with me?” Finley asked, wanting to steer the conversation away from Kai’s ex. She was also aware how busy Kai usually was.

  “A few.”

  “A lot, I’m betting. It’s the middle of the week and that’s when you’re busiest.”

  “I’m where I need to be,” Kai said seriously.

  Finley looked back at her, her smile soft. “Taking care of me.”

  “Taking care of you.”

  Later that night Finley got the chills. Kai bundled her in the covers and went to run a hot bath. She added oils that would soothe Finley and help her cold at the same time. She turned on the heated tiles and also the towel warmers. Once everything was ready, she got Finley up and carried her into the bathroom, bundled in a thick, warm robe. She helped Finley get into the tub, then sat down on the floor next to it. She had a book out and was looking through it.

  Finley lay in the tub turned on her side, the warm water right up to her chin. She watched Kai as she flipped through the book. Finley inhaled deeply, smelling the wonderful scent from the water.

  “Okay, what’s in this?” she asked. “Because it smells wonderful.”

  “Lavender, eucalyptus, rosemary, and chamomile.”

  “So, like aromatherapy stuff?”

  “No, like actual essential oils that you absorb through your skin that will help you fight off this cold.”

  Finley narrowed her eyes slightly. “And this is a new side of you now too…”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I know you eat clean and all, but you don’t take medicine either?”

  “I avoid taking medicine if I don’t have to. I mean, unless I’ve got appendicitis and I’m like dying or something,” Kai said, winking at Finley with a grin. “This is how the Indians used to care for themselves—this is ancient medicine.”

  “So you are in touch with your American Indian side,” Finley said, smiling softly.

  “Yes, I am. I guess it seems strange to you.”

  “No.” Finley shook her head. “At Harvard they actually had classes on alternative medicines and holistic therapies. It’s very interesting; I’ve just never had the time to really look into it.”

  Kai nodded. “Well, I use it a lot in my training, making rubs for people for aches and pains and that kind of thing… and also to help them with issues like digestion or kidney troubles like mine.”

  “And this oil absorbs through the skin,” Finley clarified.

  “Right. It’s not that junk oil you can buy anywhere—this stuff is very specifically grown and harvested for holistic uses. It’s designed to even be ingested.”

  “Really?”

  Kai nodded. “Yep.”

  “And that book is…” Finley said, looking at the spiral-bound book in Kai’s hands.

  “Is a kind of guide to what oils can be used for what issues.”

  Finley nodded, looking at Kai, her eyes softening. “And you’re using it to make me feel better. Wait, where did you get this?”

  “Well, the book was in my car, but the rest I picked up down at that market.”

  “You bought all those oils?” Finley asked, having seen the small satchel Kai was keeping them in—it looked significant.

  “I have a much bigger one at home,” Kai said, grinning.

  Finley shook her head. “I’m going to make you go broke.”

  “Oh, I doubt that.”

  “I don’t—you’re forever spending money on me,” Finley said, looking abashed.

  “Stop it,” Kai said softly. “I’m taking care of my girl, and that’s worth every penny I have.”

  Finley pressed her lips together, warmed by Kai’s words and too tired to continue to try and argue with her. She lay quietly in the tub for a while. At one point she opened her eyes. Kai’s head was bent as she studied the book. A few strands of her long black hair had escaped the ponytail and hung loosely around her face.

  “You are so gorgeous,” Finley said softly.

  Kai looked up at her, smiling. “Thanks. You’re pretty hot yourself.”

  “Oh yeah, I’m sure I am right now. My nose has got to be completely red…”

  “Just a little, and it’s cute,” Kai said, winking.

  “You need so much help…” Finley said, shaking her head.

  Kai just grinned engagingly.

  They spent the next two days much the same way. On the second day, Riley showed up at the apartment to check on her daughter. She was shocked when Kai answered the door.

  “Kai,” Riley said, staring up at the other woman. “What are you doing here?”

  “Finley’s sick,” Kai said matter-of-factly.

  “And you’re taking care of her?” Riley asked, as if she couldn’t believe it.

  “Of course.”

  Riley walked through the condo and could smell varied scents. When she went into her daughter’s room she saw a diffuser running next to the bed. Finley was sitting up in her bathrobe, with a cup in her hands. She didn’t look up when her mother came in, assuming it was Kai.

  “I’m drinking, I promise,” Finley said, grinning as she glanced up. “Oh, Mom, hi.”

  “I called the hospital to talk to you and Jacks said you were sick,” Riley said, sitting on the bed.

  “And you ran right over here to check on me?” Finley asked wryly, even as she saw Kai shake her head behind Riley.

  “Don’t be like that, Finley, it’s not becoming,” Riley said, reaching up to brush a curl off her daughter’s cheek.

  Finley caught Kai’s look and blew her breath out slowly, refusing to rise to her mother’s bait.

  “So Kai’s taking care of you?” Riley said after a few long moments of silence.

  “Yep,” Finley said, smiling at Kai. “Best bedside manner I’ve ever seen,” she added with a wink at her.

  “Is she being a good patient?” Riley asked over her shoulder.

  “She’s being a great patient, dutifully drinking whatever I give her.”

  “And she’s running baths for me, and making me chicken soup from scratch�
�”

  “Wow,” Riley said, glancing back at Kai. “I’m thinking I need to change teams for sure now…”

  “Well, too bad—Kai’s mine,” Finley said with a grin.

  Kai smiled at Finley, happy to see she wasn’t getting mad at her mother.

  “I could thumb-wrestle you for her,” Riley said.

  “Nope!” Finley said. “She’s mine, I’m keeping her, and besides, you cheat at thumb-wrestling.”

  “I do not!” Riley said, sounding aghast as she chuckled. “Okay, maybe a little.” She winked at Kai. “Strong thumbs,” she said, like it was the sexiest thing on the Earth.

  Kai grinned. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Riley left a little while later, telling Kai to keep up the good work to get “our girl” better. Kai said she’d do her damndest.

  “I do believe you will,” Riley said, running her finger over Kai’s jaw with a smile. “I think you are the best thing my daughter has ever been lucky enough to find. I hope she holds on to you.”

  “Oh, she’s got me pretty good,” Kai said, smiling.

  Riley nodded. “Good.”

  As Kai had promised, she took care of Finley. She was there constantly to feed her, make her tea, run her baths, and hold her when she slept or was cold. On the third day, Finley woke feeling better. Kai was asleep, so she was able to stare up at her unobserved. Finley found that she loved looking at Kai while she slept, the way her long black lashes lay against her cheeks, her lips slightly parted…

  When Kai stirred and opened her eyes, she could see right away that Finley was feeling better.

  “Hi,” Finley said, her eyes sparkling.

  “Hi,” Kai replied, leaning down to kiss her softly. “How are you feeling?”

  Finley smiled. “Better, thanks to you.”

  “Better is the important part,” Kai said, grinning.

  Finley reached out, touching Kai’s cheek. “Thank you for this, for taking care of me,” she said softly.

  “It’s been my pleasure. Thank you for letting me take care of you—like you did for me when I was sick.”

  “It’s not a contest, you know,” Finley said, smiling.

  “No, but it is a relationship. And you do that for each other in a relationship.”

  Finley looked back at Kai and thought she couldn’t believe how lucky she’d gotten in finding her. The woman was amazing.