Page 76 of When We Burn

Birdie whines, but I pick her up, and she loops her arms around my neck. She’s not feeling as good as she wants me to think she is if she’s willing to let me carry her.

“I’ll come check on her when I get home.” Dani bites her lip, obviously worried. “I hate that I can’t leave.”

“It’s only a couple of hours,” I remind her and kiss her forehead. “We’re okay. I’ll text you.”

Dani nods, and I carry Birdie out to the truck, secure her in the back seat, and then drive us over to the doctor’s office.

“I want to be at school,” she says with a pout.

“Yeah, well, I want you to feel better, and what I want is more important right now.” I park in the lot, then help my girl out of her seat, and with her hand in mine, we walk inside.

“Hey, come on back,” Marsha says with a smile, gesturing for us to come through the door to her left. “We have a room ready for you.”

Sometimes it’s convenient to be the brother of a doctor.

One of the nurses, Leslie, takes Birdie’s blood pressure, checks her temperature, and takes all the vitals she needs, and then she smiles at us as she gathers her things to leave the room.

“Dr. Blackwell should be in soon. He’s just wrapping up with another patient.”

“Thanks, Leslie.” I nod, and she leaves, and Birdie sighs as if this is the worst day of her life.

If she feels good enough to be this pouty, she’s not doing too bad.

Less than a minute after Leslie leaves, the door opens, and Blake walks inside, giving Birdie a soft smile. He’s in green scrubs and a white lab coat with his name embroidered over the chest. His stethoscope hangs around his neck. He looks tired as fuck.

“What’s up with you, wee one?”

“Nothing,” Birdie says and stubbornly folds her arms, and I scowl at my daughter.

“Just wanted to see me, huh?” Blake grins and squats in front of her. “I missed you, too, cupcake. How are you feeling, though?”

She shrugs, and I jump in.

“She woke up with the sniffles, but after I gave her the cold medicine, she seemed fine. She went to school, and at lunchtime, she was running around and had an asthma attack. Dani had her inhaler on her, though.”

“Sniffles, huh?” Blake looks at the vitals that Leslie took. “Let’s get a listen of your lungs, okay? Sit up here.”

He helps her up onto the table with the strip of white paper along it, then tells her to breathe in and out while he moves his stethoscope around.

“You’re a little congested in there,” he says. “We’ll do a breathing treatment before you go. Let’s keep up with the cold meds every eight hours, too. She should be fine in a couple of days. I’ll swing by and listen to her lungs to make sure there’s nothing lingering. Until then, no running around. Hear me?”

“Okay,” Birdie says with a long-suffering sigh. Blake pokes his head out the door and tells someone to bring him the nebulizer.

“Thanks,” I tell my brother. “Appreciate it. She’s been lethargic again.”

“I saw that at dinner on Sunday.” He sits on a stool and sighs, examining my kiddo. “She was such a little preemie, Bridger. The lungs may always be an annoyance for her. Let’s get her recovered from this bug, see how she is for a week or two, and then we can run some more blood tests.”

“I don’t want any more needles,” Birdie whines as Leslie bustles back in with the machine to give my daughter a breathing treatment.

“I’m sorry, cupcake,” Blake says with a sigh. I know that Birdie’s illness has weighed on him. He wants to help her so badly. “We’re going to figure this out. Now, you know the drill. Hold the tube in your mouth, and take some deep breaths to get the medicine in your lungs.”

The treatments always make her shaky for a whileafter, but they really help when her poor lungs are working extra hard.

“How did Dani handle it?”

“She did great. I warned her this could happen this morning, and she carried the inhaler on her, just in case. I’m glad she did.”

Blake nods. “I like you two together,” he says, his voice low. “I think you’re good for each other.”

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