Page 64 of Arden and the Girl Downstairs

“No, I don’t want to go to the hospital.”

I have a feeling she’s still haunted by the last trip to emergency.

“I think we should get you checked out.” My voice cracks again.

“I will let Caleb check me out. But I really don’t want to go to the hospital if I don’t need to. From past experiences, I just need to wait it out. Probably take some meds when the nausea passes.”

“I’ve asked Caleb to bring his doctor’s bag with him,” Rhys informs us.

I’m glad Rhys thought to call Caleb.

“Do you want your anti-nausea meds?” Yasmin asks her.

“I can try, but I don’t think I’ll keep them down yet.”

As she finishes speaking, she throws up into the bucket again, bringing up whatever it is she had for lunch. I rub her back and hold her hair out of the way.

Ally comes back with a washer for Ella’s face. Our friends have taken up positions on the floor around the couch, just waiting and being with us. I’m thankful they haven’t left me alone in this instance because as much as I want to help her, and I want to take away all the pain, I can’t. And me bossing people around and telling them what to do isn’t helpful either. In this situation, she just needs me to be here with her.

There’s a knock at the door, and not long after, Shamus comes walking in with Caleb, followed by Chad, Lochlan, Isaac, and Mady.

“What’s with the entourage?” Rhys sarcastically asks Caleb.

“Well, we were in the car on the way to the movies when you rang, which is why we got here so quickly.”

Ella’s soft voice from the couch cuts straight through the chatter. “You know we have a theatre room here, right? Why are you paying to go to the movies?” she says before she vomits again.

Seriously, Ella? You’re sick. You’re not supposed to be telling them off,I mentally admonish her.

Caleb makes his way over to us. “What’s going on?” He’s in doctor mode now. “I thought everything has been okay?” His voice is calm and full of concern.

From what Ella has told me, Caleb took her under his wing when I organised the consult and has been looking after her ever since. He may not be her doctor anymore, but he still gets updates from her doctors.

“I don’t know. It came out of nowhere. One minute I was fine, I walked into the kitchen, and the next minute I was not.”

“Okay, so you’re vomiting. What else is going on?”

“I feel like all of my incisions are being torn from the inside out, and somebody’s repeatedly stabbing me in the stomach while twisting.”

Isaac blanches at Ella’s description, and I can’t help but wonder what that guy’s story is. I don’t know a lot about him, other than he’s good at what he does. He can find his way around just about anything tech, and if he can’t, he’ll work until he does.

I recently discovered that Ralph has actually been using Isaac for the past three years to run all of our background checks. If Ralph trusts him, so do I, and obviously Chad trusts him, so I guess he’s a decent guy.

“Okay, so it sounds like you probably have a cyst rupturing, and from my understanding, you knew that was going to still happen.”

“Yes,” she says through clenched teeth. “I knew it could happen, but I wasn’t expecting it to hurt this much.”

Caleb gets down on his knees next to the couch, and she rolls onto her back so that he can start physically examining her.

“Alright, I’m going to need you to lift your shirt. Are you okay with these people being in the room?”

I’m about to clear everyone out, but Ella places her small hand on my arm and shakes her head no.

Fine.

“It’s okay. Everyone can stay. I don’t think we’ll be able to get them out of the room even if we try.” She groans in pain again.

“Sorry, this will not be easy for you.”

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