“I’m so sorry.” I turn to Zack. “I’m so sorry that I made you try this.”
He rubs my cheek with his thumb. “You can’t take the blame for this,” he tells me. “It’s not your burden; you aren’t God.” Burying my face into his neck, I realize the night came quickly, and it’s been almost twenty-four hours since we’ve gotten here. The quiet nighttime is just too much to bear; I can’t stand it. The only thing I hear is the beep of his machine.
“How about I read you a story?” I tell Jack, getting up and climbing on the bed with him, just like I do at home when I read him the story. I don’t need the book to recite the part in the book.
“I love you for always …” I say with tears streaming down my face. Zack leans forward now with his face in my stomach as I tell his son how much I love him.
“You didn’t say it right.” I hear his voice, and I about jump out of my skin. Zack’s head shoots up as he looks at Jack, who is licking his lips.
“Water,” I tell Zack, and he leans over and gets the cup of water that I always want to be fresh beside the bed. “Can you take a little sip?” I tell him and then press the button for the nurse. He takes a tiny sip, and then I touch his forehead to find the fever now gone.
“Page Steve,” I tell Mallory. “Fever is gone, and he’s awake.” She smiles and runs out and goes to call Steve. This time, Shirley and Arnold race inside the room, and she puts her hand to her mouth and silently cries.
“You scared the bejesus out of Grandpa,” she says, coming over to him as he blinks his eyes slowly. He doesn’t say anything, and I put the straw in his mouth again.
“I have to pee,” he finally says, and I just nod as I get up and make sure everything is attached before Zack lifts him and carries him to the bathroom.
Steve comes in about thirty minutes later, the blanket mark still on his face from when he was sleeping. “Well, what do we have here?” he says, taking in Jack who is now sitting up and attempting to eat some Jell-O and chicken broth.
“I’m eating yellow Jell-O,” he says, laughing. “It rhymes.”
“It does,” he says, coming over and smiling at me. “I take it you took all his vitals?”
I roll my eyes. “Obviously,” I tell him, and he laughs. “His pressure is a little bit high, but it’s normal.”
“Well, then,” he says, grabbing the chart. “I’m going to look over this and see if you’re on your A game,” he says, coming in and doing all the tests I just did. “You scared a lot of people with your long nap,” Steve tells Jack with a smile. “Happy you woke up.”
I walk out with him and wait for him to turn around. “What now?”
“Now we wait and hope that fever doesn’t come back,” he says, bringing me close and hugging me. “I will do everything I can for him.”
I hug him back. “I wouldn’t trust him with anyone else,” I say honestly and then go back to my men.
Shirley and Arnold go home, leaving the three of us in the room. Zack and I cuddle Jack in the middle of us, and I finally close my eyes. When I wake, Zack has his arm around the three of us.
I kiss Jack’s cheek and slowly move away from him, having Zack open his eyes. “I have to go to the bathroom,” I tell him, and I walk out, going to the nurses’ desk first. “Did anyone take any more vitals while I was sleeping?” I ask them, and Mallory looks at me with one eyebrow perked up. “Don’t use that eyebrow on me.”
“I will use what I want to with you. You aren’t a doctor right now. You’re a patient’s family member,” she says, crossing her arms.
“Now go away and get something to eat. You look like you’re all sticks and bones.” Now I really do roll my eyes. I walk to the bathroom and the whole day we spend on pins and needles as we wait to see if his fever will spike again. He goes a full twenty-four hours before we can say that he is out of the woods.
“Knock, knock.” We hear from the door on the second day, and Evie and Janet walk in followed by Darryl and Brock.
“Hey,” I say, smiling at Evie. “How is she feeling?”
“Amazing,” Janet says. “We were going to stay in a motel,” she says and then looks over my shoulder at Zack, “but someone canceled, and we are staying two blocks over.”
“It’s so cool,” Brock says. “We even got our own robes.”