For the next week no one really disturbed them, apart from the odd phone call Taehyung received from Hoobi, Yoongi or Jungkook.  They spent a lot of time inside, Taehyung didn’t push her to go out too much, so they watched movies, played games, Alexa began reading some of the books Taehyung had and watched him painting, something he enjoyed doing which she was surprised to find he was so good at. 

‘I’m going to go and take a nap ok, I’m a little tired.’ He told her one afternoon after they had finished lunch, kissing her nose as he left. 

‘Ok.’ She said, staring at him, a little worried.  He didn’t look so good, but he reassured her he would be ok. 

After he didn’t wake up for a few hours, she shouted for him, ‘Taehyung?’ but got no answer. 

Walking into the bedroom, she sat carefully on the bed next to him, he was under the covers, but he was shivering.  Reaching out, she pressed the back of her hand to his forehead.  He was burning hot, sweat was beading up on his forehead. 

‘Oh no.’ she moaned.  She didn’t know what to do.  He was sick, and now he needed her, but she had no idea how to make him better. 

‘Taehyung, Taehyung,’ she whispered, trying to get him to wake, but he merely groaned back, still trembling with the shivers.  What was she supposed to do?  She didn’t know how to look after someone who was sick, she didn’t know what kind of sick he was, a fever could mean many things, many serious things.

Looking around for an idea she saw his phone on the table and searched for Hoobi’s number. 

‘Taehyung! What’s up?’ the sweet woman answered.

‘Ho-Hoobi-,‘ she stammered,

‘Alexa?  Are you ok sweetie?’ she asked her tone changing suddenly.

‘It’s-it’s Taehyung, he’s sick, I don’t know what to do.’ She told her, her voice trembling. 

‘It’s ok calm down honey.’  She answered, ‘what’s wrong with him?’

‘He’s, he’s shivering, but his body is hot, he’s really hot, he’s sweating too. He won’t wake up.’ She told her stuttering. 

‘Ok sweetie, listen to me and do what I say ok? Go and get a towel and make it cold, put it on his head to cool him down.  We’ll be there soon, I’ll call Seokjin to come and look at him ok?’

‘Ok.’ She told her hanging up and running to the bathroom.  She opened the cupboards to find a small enough towel, throwing it under the cold water she rang it out and folded it up, taking it back into the bedroom she placed it on his head. 

‘Please don’t be sick.’ She moaned at him, scared that if he got really sick she would be blamed. 

‘Hmm,’ he moaned back snuggling into her hand that was his face. 

Within 15 minutes the doorbell rang.  She jumped up to answer it, Hoobi at the front with Yoongi, Seokjin and a very tall man she didn’t recognise. 

‘He’s in bed.’ She told them pointing in the direction of the bedroom, Seokjin was kind, reassuring her it would be ok as they all came in. 

‘I’m sure it’s just a fever.’  Hoobi told her putting her arm around her shoulder leading her back to the bedroom as Seokjin went to work on Taehyung, putting a thermometer in his mouth and checking his pulse. 

‘Hi, I’m Namjoon,’ the tall man addressed her as they all gathered in the bedroom watching Seokjin. 

‘I’m Seokjin’s soulmate.’ He smiled at her.  He seemed to have a kind look in his eyes.  Struggling she smiled back at him she turned back to Taehyung, worried about him. 

‘I think it’s just a fever,’ Seokjin explained after a little while, ‘He might need some medicine, give him this every few hours, and make sure he always has a cool towel on him ok?’  Seokjin nodded at Alexa.  She explained how much medicine to give him and when, telling her to keep checking his temperature with the thermometer and if it got any higher than it was to call her again.  Alexa was shaking, she didn’t want him to die.  Looking over at him with large eyes, her lip began to tremble too, attempting to fight back tears threating her eyes. 

‘Hey, hey it’s ok.  It’s just a fever, he’ll be fine.’  Hoobi reassured her, rubbing her shoulders, noticing how upset she was. 

Yoogi and Namjoon had settled on the sofa’s in the living room, but Alexa didn’t want to leave Taehyung alone. 

‘Did you eat dinner?  Can you cook anything?’  Hoobi asked her softly.  Alexa shook her head, she barely knew how to make anything. 

‘Ok, I’ll make you some food, so you can eat later, and give some to Taehyung ok?’  Alexa nodded at her, unable to make any kind of noise.  As the two women left, she climbed up on the bed to keep close to Taehyung.  She his hair and dabbed his head to make sure he was cool and comfortable.  Occasionally he would moan at her whenever she touched him making her jump with fright. 

Hoobi had begun cooking, though Alexa wasn’t paying too much attention to the four people in the living room.  She could hear them speaking, though her attention was focused solely on making Taehyung better. 

‘So that’s Alexa.’  Namjoon spoke.  ‘She’s so small and innocent.’ 

‘She’s been starved for a long-time sweetie.’  Seokjin answered. 

‘I know, I just didn’t expect her to be so little, like a baby rabbit.  She seems sweet though.  She really cares about Taehyung huh?’ 

‘Yeah, I think she’s really overwhelmed.  I feel so bad for her, she almost cried when I did her hair and makeup, didn’t she babe?’  Hoobi answered. 

‘What she’s been through isn’t right.’  Yoongi replied back to the group.  ‘But I hear Jungkook is having a hard time with it.’ 

‘Yeah Jimin told me he’s been getting a lot of pressure off his dad for Taehyung talking her home.’  Namjoon explained. 

‘He’ll never send her back to prison, not the state she was in when he rescued her.  You don’t even want to know what they did to her in there. The state of her poor body.  I thought the rumours of prison guards weren’t true before I saw her.’  Seokjin answered.  ‘I wouldn’t forgive him if he sent her back.’ 

‘The laws need changing.  I’m doing what I can to get my dad to do something about it, but these laws, they’re so old, it’s so tough to get anyone to see sense.’ Namjoon said to her.  ‘I hope Taehyung has his research ready soon. I’m doing the best I can to help, but everything is so hidden.’

‘What do you mean?’  Yoongi asked. 

‘Taehyung has been obsessed with her since he was a kid.’  Seokjin dropped her voice, ‘His father was a police officer, and him and Jungkook always knew that’s what they would do too.  Her families case was so high profile, it was all over the news-.’

‘I remember,’ Hoobi chipped in.

‘Taehyung was really taken with it.  He thought she was so lovely, and kept asking his dad why, why they would put a little kid like her in jail, what did she do wrong.  His dad, his dad actually agreed with him, but said it was the law and they had to follow the law.’  Seokjin paused.

‘I’ve known Tae since he was what, 12?  He was always looking at information about her case, he was devastated when her brother and sister died.  Jungkook took an interest in the case for a while, but he gave up on it, saying there was nothing they could do, the rules were the rules. Same as his dad.’  Namjoon continued for his soulmate.  ‘But Taehyung always talked about it, he had her picture on his wall in his bedroom for years and years.’  Namjoon said. 

‘Is that why you asked him, before the ceremony?’  Yoongi asked. 

‘I was in love with Seokjin before we were matched.  I thought Taehyung might already be in love with her, maybe he was so obsessed with her because she was his soulmate.  I thought there was a strong possibility they could be matched.’  Namjoon said.  ‘When I asked him how he would feel if he was matched with her, if he would reject her, he told me, ‘No, I’d love it if she was my soulmate.  I will save her, she’s innocent.’’

‘Jungkook seemed to think the same, that they would turn out to be soulmates, but I think he was hoping he would be wrong.’  Seokjin continued.  ‘But after the ceremony, he promised Taehyung to help him do whatever he could.  After he understood about how soulbonds worked, after he could feel it with Jimin, he promised him he would help.’

‘But it’s been harder on Jungkook than he anticipated, he wants to be fair, but he doesn’t want to break the rules.  He doesn’t want to see Taehyung get into trouble either.’  Namjoon explained. 

‘Oh, it’s so awful.’  Hoobi answered after hearing the story.  ‘I’ll take the soup into them.’ 

Hoobi walked into the bedroom, Alexa was holding Taehyung’s hand, staring at him, willing him to get better.  She had heard little bits of their conversation, how Taehyung wanted to be her soulmate, but she didn’t have time to think about it too much with the worry that was consuming her. 

‘Sweetie, here’s some soup,’ Hoobi said handing her the bowl.  ‘Try and give some to Taehyung.’ 

Alexa took the bowl from her with trembling fingers. Taehyung was half awake.  ‘Please eat.’  She whispered to him.  He opened his mouth and swallowed a few mouthfuls before refusing and closing his eyes again.  Placing the half empty bowl down, Alexa forgot all about eating herself.  Fully consumed with making sure he was going to be ok, she got up and changed his towel, making sure it was still cool, she laid down next to him, with her hand on his chest. 

‘Please don’t die.’ She whispered. 

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