Brace Yourself.

"Thank you," Leia says as she accepts the award from Mrs Fabien. The woman smiles at her gently, but then the smile quickly changes as she raises an eyebrow. 

"Are you okay dear?" Mrs Fabien asks. 

At this moment, Leia feels sweat roll down her face in a lazy line. Her body feels almost as if it were on fire. 

She shakes her head and waves off Mrs Fabien's worry, meanwhile clenching the award in her sweaty grip.

She automatically swallows the bile rising in her throat before facing the podium with the object in her hand. 

She knows that it is customary to give a speech during such events. 

Leia has drafted out a speech, but as soon as she looks at the crowd everything upstairs vanishes without a single trace. 

She feels her stomach roll in anxiety as she looks at the expectant faces of the guests.

If she remained quiet for long, she would draw attention to herself and disappoint the family, and of course, she didn't want to disappoint anyone. She didn't want to fail.

But Leia was never so Lucky. 

Nearly laughing in hysteria, she feels her vision flicker, as the stage lights swam before her eyes.

Leia stumbles, dizzy, as her eyes blink back.

Distantly, she can hear the sound of glass shattering and the alarmed cries of the audience as chaos erupts in the hall.

'Shit' was an apt word she would use for the current situation. 

"Leia!." Her name echoes in her head. Lifting her head causes another round of dizziness, and she catches sight of Mark running towards her, carelessly shoving people and objects out of his way to reach her.

Unfortunately, that was the last thing she sees before her eyes rolls into the back of her head and she knew no more.

***

Moments later, her eyes snapped open to a completely different scene. Leia blinked owlishly at the ceiling, a ceiling she has never seen before in her life. 

Before she can panic, her eyes dart to the side when she hears a door click.

Mark, in casual clothes, gently closes the door. 

He turns around and she watches as his eyes slowly widen when he sees her awake.

"Leia…. You're awake." He deadpanned.

The irritated Leia rolls her eyes at his obvious response before trying to lift herself on her elbows, but she falls back, causing her to grunt, annoyed at the weakness of her body.

Hands stop Leia when she tries to level herself.

"Hey! Stop that. You're still sick." Mark admonishes her, his hands grabbing her shoulders and shoving her back on the bed.

I fell with a huff, already out of breath.

'Maybe I am sick.' she tiredly thought.

Mark looks at her for a moment before turning and retrieving the basin on the bedside table.

While he is distracted, she takes the opportunity to look around the room. 

The room is undoubtedly large. 

Ostensibly so. 

It is adorned with invisible shelves which host exotic statues and weird knick-knacks.

She spots some pictures too but those are too far away to make out. 

The room was connected to a walk-in closet, which has an adjourning bathroom. 

There's a large plasma screen on the wall that's attached to a game console. Not forgetting the bed took up most of the space in the room, roughly the size of a max queen.

And its soft blue sheets. It felt wonderful against her feverish skin.

Leia is broken out of her revelry when a damp washcloth is plopped on her forehead. 

It startles her so badly that she nearly falls off the bed.

"What the hell!" She squeals in shock. Mark just rolled his eyes at her flailing before placing his hand on her cheek. She stilled at the contact. 

He checks her temperature before taking his hand away.

"You still have a fever but it's gone down a bit," he tells her. 

Gulp!

She swallows, embarrassed and anxious causing red to bloom on her already flaming cheeks. Leia can't help but hate how vulnerable she was. 

To distract herself she glances down at herself, finally taking in how she isn't wearing her dress anymore. 

Rather she's clad in a large sweatshirt and cotton shorts. 

Leia suddenly feels cold.

Her arms wrap around her body as she stretches out her hand. 

"Where are my clothes?" Her voice is scratchy and hoarse from disuse. Mark doesn't say anything. He just gave her a glass of water, which she reluctantly accepts and gulps it down before repeating her question.

He rolled his eyes again. "It's in the wash and for your information, I didn't touch you or do anything to you. Our assistant was the one who changed your clothes."

She breathes a sigh of relief knowing it was a woman who touched her. 

Regardless, she wonders why the lady decided to work with somebody like Mark.

"Good, and that, what's that?" She points.

With a sigh, Mark stands up before returning with a bowl of soup. He gestured in her direction.

"Eat."

"No."

He sighs once again. 

"Now is not the time to be childish. Just eat the damn soup and take your meds."

Leia shakes her head, lifting her nose in disgust.

"I'm not eating anything made by you."

"You drank the water just fine," he yells.

"As said, I won't eat anything made by you." She repeats herself with a glare directed towards him, which he returns, but he is no match for her, so the competition doesn't last that long. 

He pulls out his phone

"Fine. What do you want?" He yes, stormed off in a fit of rage. 

It doesn't take long after he leaves, fifty minutes prior and the food has already been eaten. Leia has also taken the medicine Mark had left for her, before fleeing from Mark's building in freshly laundered clothes. 

She has work to do and a press conference to organise after her dramatic act last night. She couldn't stay in bed.

Walking into the office that morning feels like a suicide march for Leia as she is appraised by whispers from the employees. 

If it weren't for the fact that she has an office to herself, she would have never gotten a minute to rest by herself.

As soon as she steps into her office, she is assaulted by bushy curls and large teary eyes. 

Rachel leaps at her, her arms wrapping around Leia's neck in a constricting hold.

"Girl, Where the hell have you been? I was so worried." She sobs against Leia's chest. Leia winces when she says this, guilt washing through her. She must have been worried for a while, probably because yesterday's accident is all over the news. 

"Rachel…" Leia murmurs trying to soothe her.

"You should be more careful." She scolds Leia as she pulls her ear. Leia winces again at her scolding but still nods.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. Just give me a call or something next time, so I can come to get you," she smiles for the first time that morning.

"Sure."

"I have something to show you," Rachel says with nervous laughter, her hand stroking the back of her hair, "you're not gonna like it." She warns. Leia narrows her eyes on Rachel. 

"What is it? Show me." She sighs at Leia's words before she turns on the TV station on my wall.

"Just don't panic," Rachel warns her for the second time. 

As soon as Rachel turns on the TV, Leia starts wishing she took the warning seriously.