Page 21 of Serenity

ChapterNine

Dillon

“Shit!”I ignored the pain in my hand as I bent down to catch Faith before she hit the floor. Her skin was paler than it’d been just moments ago, and the dark smudges under her eyes were more pronounced. “What’ve I donetoyou?”

“This isn’t on you,” she protestedweakly.

I lifted her up and gently set her down on the mattress. Then I went back into the bathroom and ran a washcloth under cold water. Pressing it to her head, I argued, “If I’d have just balled up and stuck around, or at least texted you, then maybe youwouldn’thave—”

“Fuckedup?”

“Yeah, fucked up.” Because that’s exactly what she’d done. Not eating or drinking right and missing pills could make her lose her kidney—Declan’s kidney. “ButI—”

She grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “If I’m sick, it’s on me. I know better than to fuck around with my health. No matter what thecircumstances.”

“Let me go grab the thermometer, and we’ll see how bad this is.” I headed back into the bathroom and dug in the top drawer for it. I pressed the button to power it up and groaned when I went to swipe it across her forehead because the cool washcloth was there and it would mess up the reading. “Shit, we’re going to have to wait to takeyourtemp.”

She lifted the washcloth up and handed it to me. “I have an oral one in the junk drawer in thekitchen.”

“Okay, I’ll go get it.” I didn’t have any doubts that she was running a fever, and I didn’t want to wait any longer than necessary to find out how high it was. I ran downstairs and yanked the junk drawer open so hard that it pulled all the way out and crashed to the floor. Luckily, the thermometer was in a plastic case that kept it protected when it flew out and bounced around. Snatching it up, I raced backupstairs.

“Open.” I punctuated my order by pulling the thermometer from its case and thrusting it towards her mouth. When she parted her lips, I went to slide it under her tongue but she shookherhead.

“You have to turn it on first.” She took the thermometer from me and pressed the button on it. After it beeped, she shoved it in hermouth.

I paced the floor until I heard it beep again. “How badisit?”

“One hundredpointfive.”

I didn’t get sick often, but I remembered that my mom usually didn’t worry too much unless my temperature was at least over a hundred and one. “That’s not great, but it isn’t horrible either.Right?”

Her brown eyes were filled with fear as she stared up at me. “For me, it’s bad. Especially when you add in the missed doses, poor nutrition, not drinking enough water, and my othersymptoms.”

I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. “What othersymptoms?”

“Fatigue, chills,nausea.”

“And?” I asked when she paused, feeling like the worst was yettocome.

She lifted up one leg and pointed at her ankle. “Someswelling.”

Shit. That didn’t sound like something we could write off as being cold or flurelated.

“Anythingelse?”

“I’m a little tender at mysurgicalsite.”

“Fucking hell!” I roared, my hands fisting. I wanted to rage at the world, but it wouldn’t help the situation. I needed to focus and find a way to fix this because there was no way in hell I was willing to lose Faith. So I took a few deep breaths and tried to gain control of myself before I spoke again. “Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to take your normal morning dose of your medications. You’re going to wash them down with a big glass of water. And then you’re going to get in the shower and wash off while I call your doctor’soffice.”

Her dark hair fell limply over one shoulder as she shook her head. “But they aren’t authorized to release my medical informationtoyou.”

“I’m not too worried about that since I’m the one who’s going to be doing most of the talking during this call,” I pointed out. “But we’ll fix that as soon as we go into their office today. There’s no way I’m going to be kept in the dark if you get sick. I want to be added toeverything.”

“They might not be able to see me thatquickly.”

“I’m not going to give them much of a choice,” Iwarnedher.

“Dillon—”

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