Page 59 of On the Mountain

He shook his head. “No. Pills.”

Fear climbed up my throat, coming out in, “Crow, we have to get your fever down! You have to take something.” I knew he had issues with medication, that he didn’t go to doctors, but I hadn’t considered what happened when he got sick.

“No! Sleep.”

“Do you at least have a thermometer?”

He nodded, pointing to the bathroom. I went and looked in the cabinets and found one. What happened if he just got a headache? When he got a cold? What if Crow got really sick?

I went back to him. He had his eyes closed, blanket tight around himself.

“Baby, open your mouth. I need to take your temperature.”

He didn’t answer, worry now making my hand shake. “Crow, open your mouth. Please. I need you to do that for me.”

Those words seemed to work. I slipped the thermometer under his tongue, and he closed it again. When it beeped, it immediately flashed red, and I saw it was one hundred and three.

Shit…shit. What did I do?

“I’ll be right back,” I told him, hurrying from the room. It wasn’t as if Crow was going to respond anyway.

I got ice packs from the fridge, cold water, and a cup of ice. So they wouldn’t be too much of a shock to his system, I wrapped the packs in towels and said, “I’m going to put these on you to try and lower your temperature. Can you suck on this ice for me?”

Crow didn’t answer, didn’t move.

I pressed the cold compresses to his body, then lay in bed beside him.

Please be okay.

Don’t let me fuck this up.

I need you.

I love you.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Crow

Hot.

Cold.

Hot.

Cold.

My head throbbed.

My chest hurt.

I could hear the wheezing in my lungs and knew that wasn’t a good sign.

I didn’t know how much time passed, but I thought it’d been a lot. It felt like both an eternity and no time at all.

Cyrus had helped me to the bathroom numerous times, had forced me to drink cold water, no matter how much I fought it. I didn’t have the strength to fight too much.

They used to put things in my food…

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