No Cure
Beckett Archibald Graves  | Outfit

She knew that she was being dramatic if she said that it had been the longest day in the history of days, but Olivia thought that it might have been close. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she felt like her head was about ready to actually explode, or maybe it was just because other people were simply idiots. She didn't know. She knew that she was ready for bed though, and she had decided that she was going to sleep in one of the empty guest rooms, because this had only gotten worse since last night, and the last thing that Olivia wanted to deal with was a sick Beckett. They had three children, and she would have taken having all of them completely on her own with no pain potions or anything over having to deal with Beckett with a head cold while she had one of her own. There was no question that her patience was a whole lot thinner when she didn't feel good, and Olivia was past the point of not feeling good. It sounded like someone had set up a seventy-six trombone parade to march around behind her eyeballs. She had tried a couple different remedies today, and right now she just wanted to try and sleep it off. Maybe it would feel better in the morning... 

Brushing her teeth sounded like she was taking a cheese grater to them or something, every little thing seemed to echo in her head, and she thought that the sinus pressure might be enough to give her two really lovely black eyes come morning. Olivia shook her head and then gathered her hair up in a ponytail. She planned on peeking in on Anderson once and then coming back in here to grab the rest of her things before sleeping in the room down the hall. If that was the only way to prevent her fiancé from getting sick then that was what Olivia would do. She would do her best not to get either of her boys sick, but seeing as she was pretty sure that Beckett might just have been the most stubborn man on the planet, and Anderson was stuck in the house with the two of them, if they got sick, he would too. Olivia was almost convinced that she would rather be sick at the same time as her seven year old than she would be the fifty-three year old man that she called hers too. He would revert to being about the same age as Anderson if he got sick, and the last thing that she needed was two sick children. Olivia would have to hope that it was a quick, twenty-four, forty-eight hour thing and it would be gone tomorrow. 

Coming back into their bedroom from making sure Anderson was in his bed Olivia grabbed her wand, and her pillow, and started to untuck one of the blankets from the end of the bed. She was rather partial to the one quilt that she stole from him every night, and she thought that she might as well take it with her to the other room. Merlin only knew that it was going to be colder in there anyway when there wasn't another person's body heat in the bed with her. Grabbing the end of the blanket, and pulling it with one swift tug out from under his side of the bed too Olivia smiled and started to fold it so that it was easier to carry down the hall. The fact that their king sized quilt ended up wrapped solely around her each night was enough to make her chuckled when she stopped to think about it. It was a good thing that there was a comforter on the bed too, or Beckett would probably have been sick even more often... Folding the quilt over her arm, she scooped up her pillow, and stuck her wand through her ponytail as she turned to head out of their room before he tried to stop her. 

No Cure

Beckett thought that his fiancée was being extremely dramatic about this whole illness thing. Not that she felt bad—he was sure that she did, because she wasn’t the type to embellish and act sicker than she was to get attention. That was something that he had been used to with Eliza, but not anything that he’d ever had to deal with, with Liv. No, he knew that she really must be feeling awful, but she was being dramatic in trying to keep him from getting sick too. He knew that he would befine. First there was the matter of his immune system, which was pretty damn extraordinary. He rarely got sick… in fact, it was hard for him to pinpoint the last time a head cold or the flu had brought him down for any amount of time, no matter who was sick in the house. Liv knew that by now, because she’d witnessed it firsthand. So there was frankly no reason for her to avoid him like he was immediately going to catch her cold, and he had a feeling that was exactly what she would be up to tonight. If he caught her trying to slip out of the room and into the guest room, he’d just have to lock her in here with him to prove a point. Then, of course, there was the matter of wanting to sleep next to his fiancée—she could hardly deny him that.

But he thought she might try and for a moment he’d let her think she was getting away with it, if only because he was curious about the attempt. She left the bathroom when she’d finished brushing her teeth, but since he’d only just gotten out of the shower, he’d lingered a bit, changed into a pair of pajama pants, and thought he heard the door opening. Since he figured she had checked on Anderson, as she always did, Beck assumed that she must be back in the room. As he walked out of the bathroom, he was proven right, when he saw Liv with her pillow and her favorite quilt in hand, heading back toward the door. It was no surprise to him that he was able to determine what she was going to do before she actually did it. She was sick, and she didn’t want him to catch it, but was also well aware that he would stop her if she tried to sleep in the other room—but that he wouldn’t go so far as to go into said guest room and carry her back in here if she was already asleep. That would be… well, tempting, but Merlin knew how hard sleep was to come by when someone was sick, he wouldn’t risk waking her up by toting her back in here. That would be too much, even for him.

It simply meant he couldn’t let her actually get out of the room and into the guest room, because then she would know. She would know that he wouldn’t go to the lengths of actually moving her, so she could feign sleep and he would have to fall for it. Picking up his wand on the dresser as he passed it, he flicked his hand lazily in the direction of the door and let it close—not slam, because he wasn’t feeling particularly dramatic, but close. “Going somewhere?” He asked with an amused grin, before going about his business like he hadn’t just stopped her from leaving. Beckett headed over to the bed, pulled down the comforter and sheets, and then glanced over at her again. “You’re not going to get me sick, Livvy.” Beckett added as he got into bed. He would be far more convincing if he had to, but he thought that reminding her of his above average immune system might be enough for her to be tempted to sleep in her own bed. It wasn’t like she wanted to be down the hall, and he didn’t want her to be down the hall, so the answer was really quite clear to him. She should just sleep in here and stop thinking that he was going to catch her cold, when he clearly felt absolutely fine.

If she had to be sick Olivia could only hope that it was just her that got sick. With their older two in the castle she had to believe that they were well taken care of, and she knew that she didn’t get sick all that often really, but this time it had hit her harder than it normally did. The witch thought that a Saturday really wasn’t the most horrific time to be sick, it was better than the middle of the week, or Merlin forbid a day when the Minister needed her for something. The last thing that she wanted was an earful from Aurora about accidentally getting Ares sick by being in the same room as him, and then having Aurora sick and somehow it all, amusingly, being Olivia’s fault. There were sure to be jokes in there about what she was doing close enough to give ‘Dopey’ her germs in the first place, but she didn’t think that anyone getting close enough to her to catch her head cold was all that necessary. She had even blown Anderson a kiss goodnight instead of kissing his cheek like she normally did. She wasn’t taking any chances of passing it around.

Trying to sneak out of their bedroom to sleep in the guest room was a feat, and it was one that in all of the years that they had been together had only ever worked a handful of times. She thought that there were times when sleeping by herself would have been better, like tonight, for example. But she also knew her fiancé, and she knew that he was more than likely going to try and prevent that from happening. The trick though, was to get out of the room before he realized what she was doing. If she made it to the other room then she had the advantage, because if she was already asleep by the time he got there he wouldn’t move her and risk waking her. It had almost become a game over the years, to see where she was going to sleep when she was sick, and it was a game that more often than not she ended up losing. Not that losing was even really losing, because it just meant sleeping in their bed instead of the guest room, but sometimes it was fun just to see how far she would get. Tonight she had thought that she had beaten him at this game, because he was in the bathroom when she had come back into their bedroom.

Her victory was short lived though when the door in front of her swung closed, and she heard his voice from behind her. Rolling her eyes she didn’t bother to turn around to face him, but she did stop moving. “I was going to the other room, and you know it.” When she heard him get into their bed behind her Olivia turned around to face him. “But I could. That immune system of yours may be good, but what if this is some super strong, wizarding head cold, that makes it through your impenetrable defense system?” It took everything in her not to smile as she said that, but slowly she took a step backwards. She was still going to try and get out of there and down the hall. If she made it to the other room her plan was simple. Throw herself on the bed and instantly pretend to have passed out completely. She very much doubted that it would work, but it was a different tactic than she had tried before, so she thought it would at least be amusing even if it didn’t work.

Winter always brought about plenty of arguments like this one. It was something that he was used to from his fiancée by now, but it was still just as entertaining as it had been the first time it had happened. She was always so sure that she was gong to get him sick, that she would rather sleep in the guest room than risk it. He’d always thought that was ridiculous, and always attempted to convince her to stay. Sometimes it worked, sometimes she slipped out of the room and into the spare when he wasn’t paying attention, and once she learned that he would feel too bad to move her if she was already asleep, she had started faking it which was a surefire way for her to win and get to spend the night in the guest room. It was why he had made it his mission to make sure that it never got that far. He knew it was silly—but honestly, he didn’t get sick all that often. There was no point in trying to avoid it, because of how rare of an occurrence it truly was… and if he got sick, then he figured it would have happened no matter what, simply from being around her all the time. Not necessarily because they slept in the same bed. If a cold was strong enough to bring him down, then he figured that there was no avoiding it.

That was his, in his opinion, very sound logic on the matter at hand. It was why he had suspected what she was going to do from the moment that she’d left the bathroom, and he waited just long enough to let her think that she was going to get away with it. It was more fun that way, because he knew that she wasn’t going to give up that easily. He wouldn’t be surprised if she pulled open the door and raced down to the next bedroom before he could move to stop her—but she forgot how fast he could be if he really wanted to, and he didn’t think she’d want to risk waking Anderson by racing down the hall. No, it would be far better if she just accepted the fact that he wanted her to sleep in here, and not waste all of that time arguing when she could have just been getting some sleep. But he knew better than trying to use that excuse on her… she would argue back that he was the one keeping them both from sleep by trying to trap her in their room when she could be asleep down the hall already. She would always have a quick retort back—but so would he. It was why arguing took so long, and why he’d much rather her just get in bed with him and call it a night… literally. He wouldn’t even try any funny business, since he knew she wouldn’t let him anyway.

But he could admit that, as much as he wanted her to just concede and get in bed with him, arguing about it was half of the fun. She tried to sneak out, he stopped her, she tried to leave again anyway—at this point it was nearly routine, but she still managed to surprise him. He might win most of the time, but there were certainly occasions where he had been caught off guard and she ended up in the guest room before he could stop her. That wasn’t going to happen tonight though. He was anticipating another victory on his part. He rolled his eyes at her words, but waited until she turned around and spoke again before he replied. “If that was the case, then I think I’d be a goner already. But here I am, still fine.” Beck answered, his eyebrows raised. He saw her step backwards, and he shifted to sit up. He would chase her if he had to, but that seemed a little bit excessive when she should really just get in bed with him. “Don’t make me chase you, Liv. It’ll wake Anderson.” He added, solemnly, but a smirk formed on his lips as he knew that logic like that was more likely to work on her. If she ran, he’d have to come after her—then their kid would be awake, and they would have to deal with him getting all energetic and running around with them, thinking that it wasn’t actually bedtime.

She didn’t think that being sick was at the top of anyone’s list of things that they actually enjoyed, but she really hated it. Olivia didn’t like being sick for a number of reasons. She didn’t like being sick because it meant that she had to have this argument with Beckett… It meant that her head got all foggy and gross, and it meant that she didn’t get give Anderson a kiss goodnight. There were plenty of reasons to really hate being sick… And she thought that she was going to have to try and get over some of that, but it had been twenty-two years of this, so Olivia really didn’t think that it was going to be changing any time soon. She thought that Beckett really should have been prepared for this when she woke up sounding all stuffy, with a red nose that was really not attractive when it came to someone with her complexion. Red hair didn’t make for all that attractive redness on noses… She knew that she got cranky when she was sick too. It was really just a crappy situation for all of them when Olivia was sick, because sooner or later Anderson would get it too, if he hadn’t been the one that had had it to start with that was… As long as her fiancé didn’t get sick Olivia thought that she would be okay. The last thing that she needed was Beckett sick if she was sick. All that was going to cause was a natural disaster of some sort that was likely to bring the whole house down.

Beckett could tell her again and again that he wasn’t going to get sick, but Olivia didn’t know if she would ever believe him. It had been this long and they were still doing this same routine… It had been the one thing that had been easier when they hadn’t quite been them yet. She thought that there was a good chance that when he had still been married to someone else, that when she had just been the mistress, getting him to leave her alone when she was sick had been easier, because the risk of getting Eliza sick had been greater… Now that wasn’t really a problem… They had actually been together for a long time now, longer than he had been with Eliza, that was for sure… She had loved him for a long time, she had loved him and she wasn’t sure that she knew exactly when that it was that she had fallen in love with him, all she knew was that she had thrown him out. The moment that she had rolled over in that bed to look at him, and realized that she loved him, that she was in love with him… She had known that that was it. She couldn’t love him when he was married to someone else, Olivia wouldn’t do that to herself. When it was just sex, when there weren’t that many attachments, she could handle it, it was fine… But once she had realized that had all changed she had thrown him out, and she had never expected that he would come after her… But he had… He had come after her, and he had never stopped.

That was something that she was confident in, she was confident that he would come after her. Even if he only had to come down the hall after her he would still come. Olivia thought that he was right that they were going to wake Anderson if she took off down the hall now, because he would give chase, and they weren’t the kind to do something like that quietly. Part of her still considered running for it, but he had shut the door behind her… Still she hadn’t stopped backing towards it, and she thought that just this once it wouldn’t hurt to wake their son up, if he was even asleep yet… Her hand closed around the handle of their bedroom door and she turned it in the same moment that she dropped her pillow and the comforter at her feet and she smirked, “I’ll risk it this once…” and she opened the door and headed for the stairs. She wasn’t running, you couldn’t really call what she was doing running, but she was moving at a faster pace than a walk, and she had taken off for the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea if they weren’t going to be just yet… Olivia thought that really this was silly, they were two grown people, and she should have just gotten in a bed, any bed, and pretended to be asleep, because even pretending to be asleep meant that she won these silly arguments. But she hadn’t, and now she was sure that Anderson was going to be up and out of his room to see what was going on, but it wasn’t terribly late yet, and every once in awhile, staying up an extra half hour or so wouldn’t hurt their seven year old. She made it to the bottom of the stairs when she heard him, “Dad? What’s going on?”

Beckett liked to think about the problems that they had now, compared to the ones that they’d had a long time ago. He liked to know that the biggest concern that he’d had all day was the inevitable argument tonight, when Liv would try to sleep in the guest room just because she was sick. That was the problem on his mind today, and there was no denying that it was a good problem to have, when he thought about the sort of things that they’d had to worry about in the past. He would much rather have to think about this—have to try to reason out why his fiancée would want to sleep in the guest room while she was sick, when she knew how uncommon it was for him to actually get sick. There was also just the matter of… well, being sick was bad enough. It was always easier and more comfortable to at least be able to sleep in her own bed when she wasn’t feeling great. One of these days, he thought he should see what she’d do if he tried to sleep in the guest room when she was sick. He thought that reverse psychology, or whatever the bloody word for it was, might just work. But it was far too late to try that tonight.

After all, he had already made the decision not to let her get out of the room. That was always her advantage—if she made it out of the room, she pretty much already won. He could chase her into the guest room, but she’d be feigning sleep by the time that he got there, and even though he pretty much knew that she couldn’t fall asleep that fast, that was always when he called it quits. He didn’t want to bother her too much when she was sick, because Merlin knew that she felt bad enough as it was… and she was probably only going to give herself a bit of a break as far as work was concerned. No, if she made it to the guest room, she was safe, and she knew it. It was why he’d made the decision to close the door, and why he was entirely ready to have to chase her if it came down to it. He thought that it might work, calling out the fact that Anderson would more than likely be drawn out of his room by the sounds of running around—if he wasn’t asleep already, then he would certainly be riled up a bit, and he knew there was always that chance that he was already asleep… in which case, they would be waking him up and then riling him up when he heard that people were out having fun.

It was the sort of parent logic that he thought was going to work on her. Beckett thought that she might consider this one a loss, and just sleep in her own bed and not be absurd about this whole sickness thing. But she was still stepping away from him, and he didn’t miss her hand on the door handle. In that same moment, she dropped her blanket and pillow, and was out the door. He only had to take a few steps after her to see that she was heading downstairs, not to the guest room, and so he shook his head and leaned against the doorframe as he considered his next mood. He could go after her, or he could let her think that she’d won this one, and be ready when she came back up the stairs after she’d finished whatever it was she was doing down there. Before he could determine what option was the better one, however, he heard a door opening, and he saw their son stepping out into the hallway. Grinning at Anderson’s question, he gestured downstairs. “I don’t know, son. Why don’t you go ask your mum why she’s running all around the house when it’s bedtime?” He suggested, knowing that he would more than likely take him up on that offer, and it would end up being particularly amusing.

She could get past this, it was just a head cold for Merlin’s sake. If she wasn’t so stubborn, and she hadn’t tried to tough it out in the first place she would probably be fine by now, but she hadn’t, and she had tried to be tough, and that just seemed ridiculous. At least now it seemed ridiculous, because she hadn’t been able to properly tuck her baby in, and she hadn’t been able to kiss Beckett goodnight either, because if she kissed him goodnight, then he would say that she had already shared her germs, and that sleeping in the other room was just pointless at that point. And really she knew that it was pointless anyway, but that didn’t change the fact that she had to continue to try. If she didn’t at least try then she really didn’t feel good, because after twenty some years it was pretty much the best part of being sick. Seeing how big of a ruckus they could cause before she ended up just staying in their bed most of the time anyway. It wasn’t that she wanted to sleep somewhere else. Olivia would always prefer to sleep curled up next to Beckett’s side. Tucked in a ball, with at least two parts of herself touching him. Usually her head and one of her legs… After this long she had gotten pretty comfortable sleeping like that, and sleeping by herself down the hall was just never the same.

It was worth some of the fun though because it really was fun to see what kind of reaction she would get. Luckily she didn’t get sick all that often, or else some of the fun would have worn off, and she would have probably have been tired of this silly game by now, but alas she didn’t, and she wasn’t. Even when she was sick though, she thought that they had to have some sort of fun. It was the little things, the fun things, that made them work. They had had some rough spots when they had first started out. A relationship with three people in it wasn’t ever easy, but they had worked that out, and then she had been sure that he was it. The kids had been a surprise, but one that they had sort of just rolled with. They had the house, and the jobs, and the kids, and they had it all. They were the picture perfect family, and that was exactly how she wanted it to be. They didn’t have to fight for it anymore, sure there were squabbles, and some bickering, every couple fought after all, but there was nothing news worthy, there hadn’t been in years. The last time that there had been something particularly news worthy had been before her father had retired and Olivia had gotten a little too invested in case. Putting herself in harms way for someone that wasn’t a family member… That had caused a fight of closer to epic proportions.

But that had been a long time ago now, and things like that were easily forgiven in light of everything else. They couldn’t live their lives thinking that tomorrow was never going to come, but on the off chance that it did, Olivia didn’t like to go to bed angry. She had made that clear a long time ago. She didn’t really like to sleep alone, and she didn’t want to go to bed angry. As soon as she had heard Anderson’s voice at the top of the stairs Olivia had stopped moving. She had wanted to hear Beckett’s response and she shook her head and chuckled over the answer, but she was moving towards the kitchen again a second later, and she heard their son come crashing down the stairs after her. “Mum!” Olivia turned to look over her shoulder at him. “Yes?” There was a smile in her eyes, even if she was trying to keep her face serious, “Dad says to ask you why you’re running all around the house when it’s bedtime?” The redheaded witch couldn’t help but grin at the fact that he had repeated exactly what his father had said, “I’m not running all around the house. I’m getting a glass of water. There was a little monster stomping on the stairs though… I wonder if you can help me find him?” Filling a glass from the cabinet with water she took a drink and looked at him… “I can help!” She watched as he pretended to look all around, and then focused on drinking her water as he did his best to sneak up behind her. When he jumped and grabbed her shoulders she acted startled, “OH NO! BECKETT!” Olivia wiggled, and squirmed, all the while reaching around behind her to tickle Anderson, “I THINK A MONSTER GOT ME!”

Honestly, Beckett had thought it would work when he brought up Anderson. If she ran off to the guestroom, like she had been planning on doing from the moment she’d realized how sick she was feeling, then she would inevitably wake their son up. If he woke up, then they would have to deal with getting him to sleep again, and really, it was almost a certainty that Anderson would wake up. Bringing that point up had a chance, in his mind—and maybe on another night, it would have worked. But tonight, apparently Olivia was feeling especially stubborn, because she raced out of the room, and he wasn’t surprised in the slightest when he had heard the familiar sounds in their son’s room, nor was he surprised by his question once Anderson had made it into the room. But he knew that this could be a lot more amusing if he played it a certain way, so he sent Anderson running off to find his mum to ask her why she was making so much noise at bedtime. He was sure that their son would repeat his words verbatim, because he always did. A smirk formed on his lips as he heard the question being repeated to Liv. This all could have very easily been avoided, if she had just slept in their room. There was just no reason for all the dramatics—she should be able to get a good night’s rest in her own bed, and not down the hall just because she was sick.

He did like the dramatics, though, because it was always amusing. He knew that it was part of the fun, and a bit of a tradition, even if Liv didn’t get sick all that often. In fact, he should have known that she would have risked waking Anderson up. But now he was going to take advantage of that, because frankly it was amusing. He hoped it wouldn’t be too difficult to get their son back to sleep, but he was well aware that they might be in for quite the challenge later when the excitement died down. But one night up late wouldn’t kill him, and Beckett thought that there was a good chance it might turn out to be very amusing. It was from here, at least, and he wasn’t even witnessing what was going on… he could just hear it, and really, that was enough for him to laugh at his fiancée’s answer to Anderson’s question. He knew exactly what was going to happen when their son said he would help, and he didn’t have to be in the room to picture exactly what was going on. He figured that Liv was playing dumb to whatever trick Anderson had up his sleeve, until it was ‘too late’ to stop it. Sure enough, it was only moments later that he heard Liv yelling and he shook his head but made no move whatsoever to get out of bed.

She yelled for help, and instead the smirk never left his lips when he called back to them. “Could you two hooligans keep it down, some of us are trying to sleep!” He laughed to himself, and figured it was only a matter of time until they make it back into their room at that response. He thought that there was a really good chance that Anderson would end up either asleep in their bed, or trying to convince them to let him stay in there. He didn’t think that any amount of ‘please mum’s would make him get his way tonight, since she was sick. But then again, there was really a high probability that Anderson was going to get sick anyway—being in the same house with a sick person, and not having as good of an immune system as Beckett meant being more prone to something like that happening. That was just how it worked though, and if he did get sick, a little cold wasn’t going to kill him. But he thought they would just have to see how this played out because right now his fiancée was apparently being attacked by a monster, and he wasn’t doing a very good job of being a knight in shining armor still laying around in bed. Oh well.

It was almost a game, after twenty-three years it was almost a game to try and dodge him when she was sick and then get carted off to their bed in the first place. She thought that that was exactly how it was going to go. That was how it always went and Olivia thought that it wasn’t something that was going to change any time soon. She thought that Beckett was used to this by now, and he knew how it went. In twenty-three years they hadn’t changed this song and dance all that much, and she sort of liked it. She didn’t want to sleep alone, that wasn’t something that she in any way preferred to do, but Olivia thought that it would be beset for all of them sometimes. Beckett claimed to have a super great immune system, and really she thought that he did, he rarely got sick, but on the off chance that he did catch this bug, she thought that it would just be miserable for all of them. A sick Beckett was a good time for no one, and if she and Anderson were both sick too then there was no telling that things were just going to unenjoyable. Right now though both of her boys were just fine and she knew that it was likely to stay that way, at least until Anderson caught whatever this bug was that she had. It wouldn’t kill him, it was just a cold after all, and she thought that she would rather him be sick now right after his siblings had left for the castle, than later on when he was already whining about not having anything to do.

Kids had never really been a part of the plan, and then Callahan had been a happy accident, and Lyla had been… More than a little bit of a surprise, and then it had been okay. It had been just the four of them, and they were this perfect, happy family, until it had been five. And Olivia hadn’t planned on Anderson either, but she wouldn’t have traded any of them for a million galleons. She loved them. And planned or not planned they had made it work. They had figured it out, and they were happy. They were this family that had defied all of the odds. She had went from mistress to fiancée, and then she had bore him children, two sons, and a daughter, and this was their life. This was their life, and it wasn’t perfect, but it was happy, and that was really all that mattered in the end, that they were happy. She wanted them all to be happy. And being happy together, well, that was just an added bonus. She thought that she would rather like to spend most of forever happy together, but she also knew that the way that things were going in the Ministry, and the way that things were working out in their world, there were going to be things that they were going to have to do to make all of this a little easier.

Right now though was not the time to worry about work, or the stress of everything that had caught up with her and made Olivia sick in the first place. Right now she was going to say the heck with bedtime and play with Anderson. And she was going to act like she wasn’t going to end up laying in bed next to Beckett. And she just seemed to think that she could get away with having it all for one night. She heard Beckett yell back and she shook her head. She should have known that he wasn’t going to rescue her, but she thought that they could get him back anyway. Laughing she got an arm around Anderson’s back and swung him around in front of her. Dropping her voice she winked at him, “What do you say we go jump on Dad and see if the monster wants to get him too?” She set him on his feet when he started nodding and he took off at a run headed for her bedroom. She was sure that Beckett would expect them up there at some point anyway, and getting Anderson back upstairs would have been half of the battle if he would have calmed down down here. This way part of the fight was already won. Olivia grabbed her water off of the counter and took it with her as she headed back upstairs after him. She heard him squeal when he made it to their room, and she was sure that he had failed to surprise his father much like he had failed to surprise her, but knowing Beckett he would play along as well. She had been impressed by how good of a father he had been right from the start, and she had thought that if she had it all to do over again, she'd do it much the same, just so that she would end up doing all of this with him.

He knew from the moment that he’d realized how sick Liv was, Beck had known that they were going to have to deal with this. It wasn’t… really ‘dealing’ with it, he supposed, because it was amusing every time that it happened—but it also did always happen, every time that she was sick. She wanted to think that she had to sleep by herself, even though he knew she didn’t want to, and he had to convince her that was ridiculous. Really, he had only been sick… a handful of times since they had been together. He could probably count the number on one hand for how little it had happened in the past years, and she knew that. She was well aware it never happened, so there was no use in trying to keep him from getting whatever bug she’d ended up with. But she tried anyway, and mostly he knew that it wasn’t about him getting sick at all. Mostly it was just about this… about her getting to run off, and him chasing her, and seeing who won and where she ended up sleeping. Usually, he won, and she knew it. But sometimes she was faster than him and ended up sleeping in the guestroom. He had known this was going to happen tonight, which was why he thought he’d let her think she’d won for a second, but he also knew that this would more than likely end up waking Anderson up and that his bedtime would be absolutely out the window.

That was fine though. He didn’t see anything wrong with that every once and a while, particularly when it was this amusing. Beck still tried to play that card, to convince her not to cause a scene by running off and waking him up, but that almost never worked. It depended, he supposed, on if anything important was happening the next day. Then he thought that logic might work just a little bit better. In this case, it hadn’t done anything at all, and the sounds coming from the kitchen made it clear to him that their son was riled up and more than likely would be dive-bombing into this bed in a matter of minutes. It all was a little bit like clockwork by this point, but he’d act surprised nonetheless. Then Liv would come in all pleased with herself, and eventually she’d take Anderson back to bed and he would take this as a victory that she hadn’t made it to the guestroom. Waking up in the morning might be just the slightest bit harder than usual, but he was used to early mornings, and he knew that they were definitely used to late nights. He decided to pretend that he was already asleep, even if he knew that wouldn’t stop their son from jumping on him the second that he got into the room. He knew that it would probably make him try even harder to be sneaky, though their son was not the subtlest person in the world.

He heard the footsteps coming and knew that it wouldn’t be much longer. He had his back facing the door, and even had his eyes closed though he doubted Anderson would come around the bed to make sure that he was asleep. Instead, he heard a loud squeal and then felt the weight on the bed as Anderson barreled toward him. He let out a ‘surprised’ yell, before rolling over to grab him and start tickling him. “Liv, I caught him!” Beck said, loud enough for his fiancée to hear, while Anderson still squealed and tried to get away. He grinned, knowing that Liv would be coming into the room soon enough, because that was simply how it always happened. He was sure she was taking her sweet old time, but it wouldn’t be too long until she got there as always. He thought he’d keep the ‘monster’ occupied until then, which wasn’t all that difficult though he did nearly let him escape a few times only to catch him and start tickling him again.