provincialbelle | (no subject)

After several days, Belle could no longer ignore the signs. She had been so tired that she had barely made it out of bed and her muscles ached fiercely with a sort of fatigue that seemed to be warring with the swelling of her ankles for the most distracting symptom. Once she factored in the irritation and the headaches, she didn't want to do anything, let alone get out of bed.

Maybe, she reflected, it was a good thing that she was still at the Homestead. She couldn't imagine this would go over very well if she had left it. For one, no one would have found her for some time and wasn't that just a scary thought? As it was, she struggled with her bedsheets -- her body a decent temperature, but her limbs sore and she wanted to warm them -- and curled up on her side, making herself as small as she could be.

She just wanted to sleep. Maybe it wasn't right that after three days, she had spent more time asleep than awake, but she didn't care. She felt like she deserved a small break. It would all go away, she told herself. It would all fade.

It wasn't really like Belle just to stay in bed and Jacob hadn't really seen her around much. They didn't always share, especially not since there were a lot more people in the Homestead these days but he couldn't help but feel like he ought to go check on her.

He knocked lightly on the door before pushing it in, settling on the edge of her bed. "Belle? What's going on?"