Page 20 of Fighting Fate

Corey returned, still looking dumbfounded by Rhorey’s reaction to Baylor. A massive man who looked more than a little scary was on his heels.

Rhorey scrambled from his lap. “Bear!”

The mountain kneeled and caught Rhorey as he ran into his arms. The guy wore a huge grin as he listened to Rhorey talk at a thousand miles an hour. He carried Rhorey away.

Corey didn’t seem bothered, so Baylor assumed everything was fine. “I stayed until I got the results, since it only takes about five minutes.” He reclaimed the chair at Baylor’s side. His gaze moved between Baylor and Chipper and back again, reminding him Chipper had been there the whole time. Rhorey had flipped him on his head. Now he couldn’t breathe for a whole new reason. Corey didn’t look like a man about to deliver good news.

“With your permission, I’d like to do a nuclear GFR scan. A renal scan,” he said, as if clarifying. “A small, thin plastic tube is inserted in the vein of your arm and a radioactive tracer is injected. The test takes about four hours, but it’ll give me a clear picture of how your kidneys are actually functioning.”

Chipper moved closer and took his hand.

Baylor’s brow furrowed. “Why do we need that?”

Corey made a calming gesture at the slight panic in Baylor’s tone. “My personal opinion is your kidneys are fine, but your bloodwork is wonky, and we need to rule that out. The numbers don’t match. If you were dehydrated, I could tell. If your kidneys were diseased or failing, I could tell that too. Bloodwork is always the first and most important test anyone takes for anything. However, your blood doesn’t show dehydration, disease, or failure. But your GFR is much lower than it should be.”

“Why would that happen?”

At Chipper’s question, his expression completely closed. While Baylor got the impression he didn’t normally show emotion, he knew Corey held something back.

Baylor pressed. “Please. I swear you won’t scare me. I’m just a worrier with high anxiety. If you don’t tell me, I’ll have a stroke.”

A small smile played on Corey’s lips at Baylor’s dramatics. He shook his head. “When I drew your blood earlier, I noticed a few things.” He took Baylor’s arm and held it out. “You have a webbed pattern under the skin.” Once Corey pointed it out, it was super obvious. It almost looked like hives were just under the skin, waiting to burst to the surface.

“What the hell!”

“And this.” He turned Baylor’s hand palm up and brushed the top of his finger down the tips of Baylor’s. They were purple.

Now he was just confused as fuck. How had he not noticed that?

“There’s also a hint of a rash across the bridge of your nose.”

“I was in the sun yesterday.”

Corey shook his head. “It’s not a sunburn. I think you have lupus. I also think that’s why you’ve been hit so hard by this virus and you’re having such a hard time shaking it.”

Chipper grabbed a chair and pulled it close to Baylor’s side—like really getting into the conversation. “What are the options?”

Corey smiled. He looked kind. Baylor knew he must be to have saved Rhorey. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I took more blood than needed when I noticed the signs, but I don’t have any results yet. Plus, I genuinely need to see what’s happening with the kidneys. There’re other possibilities such as blockages or lack of oxygen to the kidneys. We won’t know for certain until I have all the results. If it is lupus, you’ll be okay. I’ve obviously caught it really early if you haven’t been completely hobbled by it before now or noticed the symptoms. That’s a good thing. That means starting medications and getting ahead of things. No matter what we find, I’m glad Zander called. It takes years to get taken seriously in our health system and I’m better.”

That might have sounded conceited, but Baylor got the feeling Corey had just saved him when an overworked nephrologist probably would’ve had to see him a thousand times before finding anything.

“Thank you. Whatever tests you need. I’m in.”

Chipper kissed his temple and Baylor felt stronger than he had in a long time. It was strange that staring a challenge in the face was the thing he needed to breathe easier. Maybe that was a little of Rhorey’s doing too, and a lot of Chipper’s. Still, whatever happened, he wasn’t quite as ready to leave this world yet as he was a month ago. He wasn’t alone. That mattered more than anyone would ever know.

Chipper felt sick. He spent the evening hours searching for all the possibilities and treatments online. Baylor seemed oddly fine, and that worried him too. Chipper stopped pacing and rubbed his chest. Baylor’s face when Rhorey called him a daddy. Something inside Chipper had shattered. He hurt all the way to his soul, and it wasn’t even his son that was gone. No one could stand that close to that deep of a loss and walk away whole. It was a pain that scarred the universe. He had no clue how Baylor kept getting up every day. Chipper had to be his strength now.

“I was afraid I’d find you like this.”

Chipper started at Maverick’s sudden appearance. “Oh. Hey. Baylor is still getting scans. Apparently, this takes several hours.”

Maverick nodded. “I know. That’s why I’m here. I knew you’d be outside the door, wearing a hole in my floor.”

A guilty smile snapped to Chipper’s lips. He sat. “Sorry. I just don’t handle medical shit very well.”

Maverick nodded. “I know. PTSD from your mom.”

He had to change the topic. “How did you know when you were ready to retire?”

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