by J. P. Comeau
But, the door to my office burst open, and Leslie’s frantic voice sounded. “I have to leave during our lunch break.”
I turned to face her and registered the panic in her features. “What’s going on?”
She drew in a shaking breath. “It’s Rori. She’s struggling to breathe again. Her school just called. She’s headed to the hospital in an ambulance.”
Without hesitation, I strode for my desk and started shutting everything down. I reached for my wallet and my cell phone, texting away to let people know I’d be away from my desk until further notice. I rushed out into the hallway with Leslie on my heels, watching her scoop her things up and shut down her phone and laptop for the night.
And after she was done gathering everything in her computer bag, we started for the elevator.
“You know you don’t have to come, right?” she asked.
I jammed my hand into the button for the garage floor. “I’m aware, yes. Now, where are we headed? I’m driving.”
She didn’t skip a beat. “Same hospital, same doctor. They know we’re coming.”
I pulled my keys out of my suit coat pocket. “Good.”
When the elevator doors opened, dumping us out into the garage, I strode for my BMW I8 convertible. I opened the door for Leslie, and she slipped inside while I slid across the hood of the car and leaped in without so much as opening the damn door for myself. I cranked the engine without a moment to lose and kicked up burnt rubber, skidding onto the main road, then we took off toward the hospital.
Soaring as quickly as I could legally go so we didn’t get held up by an overzealous police officer.
“What kind of car is this?” she asked.
I grinned. “A BMW convertible. I8. One of the best on the market in terms of speed and practicality.”
She gripped the door handle tightly. “I would’ve sprung for a nice mid-size with a mid-price, but that’s just me.”
As I careened into the emergency room parking lot for the hospital, I tried to stuff my smile down. She was the only woman I’d ever come across who wasn’t impressed by my money. If anything, she always had a quip or a comment to bring my egotistical head out of the clouds and plant me back on planet Earth.
I enjoyed that about her.
But, once we got inside, the wolf inside of me kicked up. “I need someone to tell me where Aurora Popovich is!”
A nurse turned to look at me before she eyed me up and down. “And who are you?”
Leslie stepped up to the plate. “I’m her mother, and this is one of her guardians. Where is she? I was told she was brought from her school on an ambulance.”
The nurse nodded. “With me. She’s being looked over by a doctor before she’s admitted.”
“Ma’am, I want your best people on this. None of us are leaving until we have an official diagnosis as to what’s going on. And I expect her to be in a—”
The nurse held up her hand. “Sir, I don’t know who you are or why in the world you think you can speak to me this way, but I can assure you that we are doing the best we can—”
I cut her off and pinned her with a glare. “Let me be very clear about this: I respect this hospital and its establishments. But, we were here for tests a month ago, and we thought we had this figured out. So, now we’re back because apparently, that’s not what happened, and that means that you can either have this hospital get their best staff on this case, or I can fly my own doctors in to take over and do the job this establishment should have done a month ago. Your choice.”
Because if Aurora died from this hospital’s inability to properly diagnose her when I had access to the best of the best, I’d sue the damned thing into the ground.
16
Leslie
I stared up at Trey like he had lost his damn mind, but I felt something warm growing in my chest. The way he took charge and put the staff of this hospital in their place was kind of hot, if not completely rude at the same time. I felt conflicted, though. On the one hand, Aurora wasn’t his daughter; she was mine. I was the one who needed to be laying into the doctors with all of my teeth bared.
But, on the other hand, he did make a hell of a guardian…
It’s almost like he cares what happens to Rori.
Everything happened in such a blur after that confrontation that it almost spun my head out of place. Rori had to be admitted again, so per Trey’s demands, we were whisked back into one of the top rooms the hospital had to offer. Another battery of tests had to take place, and most of them scared my poor little girl to death. But, with me holding one of her hands and Trey standing guard, making sure the doctors didn’t hurt her any more than necessary with the needles, she began to relax a little bit.
Until she started gagging.
“Mo—oh, no.”
The second Rori opened her mouth, I heard her gagging. Her face turned pale as I raced to get her hair out of her face while Trey shoved a small bowl right up against her chin. She doubled over in bed, tossing the sheets out of the way as her petite little body shook and quaked with a fury I’d never seen before.
“Just let it up, don’t fight it,” I whispered.
Trey rubbed her back. “We’re right here, but you gotta get it up, Aurora.”
After vomiting twice, her gagging stopped, and I helped her lay back down. Trey set the bowl off to the side and ran to get a washcloth before he started cleaning off her lips. And as I watched him dote on and take care of my daughter, I saw a completely different side of him that I would have never thought existed.
In some ways, he was better with my daughter than I was. “You need anything?” he asked.
Rori shook her head softly. “No. Just some ice, maybe.”
He nodded. “You sure you don’t want any water? It’s pretty good here. The hospital has gigantic sterilizers that filter the water before it even comes out of the tap.”
My daughter paused. “Maybe just a little bit? But, not in the ice.”
Trey grinned. “A cup of water and a cup of ice, coming right up.”
He ruffled her hair softly before Aurora hunkered down in bed, and I resisted the urge to go over there and check. I settled onto the couch, allowing Trey to take care of my little girl while she watched his every move. It was nice, having help like this. It felt really good not to be dealing with this alone, for once. However, one question remained.
What in the world was triggering all of this shit with my child?
A soft knock came at the door, and it caused both Trey and me to say “come in” simultaneously. And when the door opened, an older man in a bright-white coat came slipping in.
“Well, well, well. You must be my patient, laying here in this massive bed.”
Rori eyeballed him but didn’t say anything. So, the older man with salt-and-pepper hair walked over and perched on the edge of her bed.
“I’m Doctor Dale. What’s your name?”
Rori looked over at me, and I nodded, which caused her to speak back. “Aurora.”
The doctor smiled kindly. “A pretty name for a very pretty girl. I like it.”
She giggled, but then her face fell flat. “What’s wrong with me, Dr. Dale?”
My heart broke at her words as Trey came over to sit next to me. He eased himself onto the couch and patted my knee, but he didn’t move his hand. So, instead of combatting against him for once, I took the hint and stayed seated, allowing the doctor to interact with Aurora without hovering around her. And as if Trey felt my nervousness, he took my hand in his and started stroking his finger against my skin. Almost as if to comfort me.
“Well, that’s what I’m here to find out, Miss Aurora. Do you remember much about what happened with the procedure we did the last time you were here?”
I swallowed hard as Rori shook her head. “No, sir.”
He smiled. “Well, when they were working on you to make you healthy again, they found a little pea lodged in your air sac in your lungs. Remember that?”
Recognition was
hed over her face. “Oh, yeah! From the shepherd’s pie that we ate.”
He chuckled. “Right, from the shepherd’s pie you ate. But that wasn’t the real issue going on. That was just that issue. Make sense?”
She wrinkled her nose. “So, this is a different issue?”
He nodded. “Exactly. And that’s where I come in. Want to know what I specialize in?”
“What?” I asked from across the room.
The doctor chuckled and peered over his shoulder. “I’m an allergist. People come to me when they have allergic reactions to something, but they don’t know what it is.”
Rori took the reins. “So, I’m gonna have an allergy test done?”
The doctor nodded. “Right, you are. I won’t make it hard on you, either. We’re going to start with one right on your upper arm, and it’ll be a series of pin-pricks that have certain things on the tips of them. After we touch your skin with them, we watch and see if any of them get raised or welted or red or itchy, or generally irritated. And if they don’t, you’re not allergic.”
She nodded slowly. “But if they do… that’s what’s wrong with me?”
The doctor patted her arm. “That’s the gist of it. It’s a good place to start, especially since your recurring episodes point in the direction of being exposed to something that creates this reaction. So, what do you say? Ready to take the first test?”
The hours passed by in a blur. One test morphed into two, and when they still didn’t have an answer after the second test, they let Rori sleep before the tests were continued. Two at a time, with five hours of downtime in between to sleep and rest. And not once did any of the common triggers, or even uncommon triggers, give her any sort of reaction to explain what was happening.
Then, the fifth test happened.
“Well, there’s a reaction,” the doctor said.
I rushed from the bathroom and right to my daughter’s side. “What is it?”
Rori whimpered. “Mommy, it’s itchy.”
Trey cupped her hands. “You don’t want to touch it. Just let the doctor look, okay?”
I saw the doctor quickly switch over the little slider of things he was using before he exchanged needles as well. I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but when he started pin-pricking Rori again, her skin lit up like wildfire. She wiggled around, and Trey had to hold her hands to keep her from scratching. And by the time that swatch was done, my poor daughter’s arm was lit up like a fucking red stop sign.
“Can I itch now?” Rori asked with tears in her eyes.
The doctor pulled out a white cream. “Give me three seconds with this stuff, okay? This should help.” And the second he started slathering it against her skin, Rori relaxed. “Better?” Dr. Dale asked.
She nodded. “Much better.”
I shook my head. “What in the world is going on? She’s obviously allergic to something, so what is it?”
The doctor finished lathering up my daughter’s arm before he smiled. “Dust.”
I blinked. “Sorry, what?”
He capped off the salve and put it away. “Dust mites, actually, and everything that comes with them. She’s deathly allergic, and that explains just about everything that’s going on with her.”
Trey’s voice piped up behind me. “Just about?”
The doctor shrugged. “There’s no definitive way to know if this is the only allergen until we flush her system and get her in a dust-mite-free environment, but yes. This explains most—if not all—of what she’s experiencing.”
I slowly stood to my feet. “But—but I clean my place from top to bottom at least twice a month. I-I-I—I wash her bedsheets every week. I even have the carpets cleaned—”
The doctor chuckled. “Ma’am, dust mites have absolutely nothing to do with the cleanliness of your home. They happen as a byproduct of other factors that come into play, such as not moving furniture around enough so you can vacuum underneath and things of that nature. But, Rori isn’t just at your house, correct? She goes to school with other children?”
I blinked. “Yeah, she isn’t homeschooled.”
The doctor shrugged. “Well, then there’s yet another source of dust mites, possibly. You don’t know how clean her fellow students are or what’s being carried around on—and in—their backpacks. Her pillowcase could also have static-cling, so the dust mites are being attracted while she sleeps.”
My shoulders slumped. “You’re making this sound like a losing battle, Doc.”
He walked over to me and shook his head. “It’s not a losing battle. You’d be surprised how common a dust mite allergy is, but it’s the last thing we look for because dust mite allergies also present as more serious issues, such as sinus infections, or ear infections, or migraines, or—”
“Hey,” Rori said as she chewed on some ice, “I’ve had those before.”
I nodded slowly. “A lot, actually.”
The doctor put his hand on my shoulder. “This doesn’t make you a bad mother, and it certainly doesn’t mean your house is dirty. It simply means there are things you’ll have to add to your cleaning regimen to make sure your house is dust-mite free. For example, moving your furniture and vacuuming underneath it. You can also get her some special pillowcases that repel dust and don’t attract dust mites. They also make bedsheets out of the same material, so you might want to pick her up a few sets of those.”
As the doctor continued to rattle things off—all of which cost more money on my part—the situation quickly grew hopeless. Every time I thought I was getting ahead in life, something set us back. The entire situation seemed bleak, and yet I found myself wondering if I was eligible to apply for yet another credit card just so I had access to the money I needed immediately.
“So, here’s the plan. I want to keep Miss Aurora here one more night just to make sure we can get her allergies to calm down. And while she’s here, I want one of you to go back to her home and start cleaning as much as possible. There’s a place in town I’ll jot down for you that sells these sheets. Tell them Doctor Dale sent you, and they’ll give you a bit of a discount on things. Those sheets and a nice clean-down will help tremendously when we discharge her tomorrow. Okay?”
I felt my stomach bottoming out, so Trey took the reins.
“Of course, Doctor. Thank you for helping us.”
The doctor shook his hand. “My pleasure. I’ll also leave my number and email in case any questions pop up. And from now on, if you find yourself here because of another attack, have them call me immediately. Okay?”
Trey nodded. “We will most certainly do that. Right, Leslie?”
I swallowed hard. “Right. Yes. Thank you.”
The doctor’s eyes grew sympathetic. “It feels like a lot now, but I promise you’ll get into a routine just like you do with everything else. Okay?”
I blinked back tears. “Oh, yes. Of course. Always. Thank you.”
I managed to shake his hand before he left, and I walked toward Rori in a haze. I sat on the edge of her bed and brushed her hair back, watching as her eyes slowly fell closed. I ran my finger through her hair, untangling the knots the sheets had already created in her hair. And just as she started slipping off to sleep, I heard the familiar cadence of someone rushing down the hallway.
“Trey?”
“Hmmm?”
I pointed to the door. “Can you get Suri? She’s outside letting the nursing staff have it.”
He chuckled. “On my way, beautiful.”
Somehow, I went from watching my baby girl sleep to standing in the middle of my townhome. And as I stood there, I thought about all of the things I’d have to change. I clocked all of the corners and saw a few cobwebs growing. I looked down at the baseboards and saw that the corners were coated in dust.
This place is gross.
“Yes, uh-huh. Once a week, top to bottom. Yep, dust mites, that’s what they said. By the way, do you guys have any connections with a laundry service in town? Wonderful, I’m going to need their number.
”
I furrowed my brow and turned around, watching as Trey stared out the back windows of my living room. He hung up the phone and quickly dialed another number, only this time he lowered his voice so much that I couldn’t make out what he was saying. I crept closer, straining my ear as I slowly approached his side.
And when I caught wind of who he was talking to just before he hung up, my jaw gaped open in shock. “A maid service? Really?” I asked.
He slid his phone into his pocket. “You’re going to need help, and it’s not the kind of help I can provide. So, I’m going to find someone to provide it.”
I blinked. “I can take care of my own house.”
He turned toward me and looked down. “I never once insinuated that you couldn’t. But, you are only one person, and there’s a reason why it takes a village to raise a child.”
“Well, I—it—you can just—fuck.”
He cupped my cheek with his hand. “What can I get you?”
I nuzzled against his palm. “A moment to breathe.”
He closed the distance between our bodies. “What can I get you that’s obtainable currently?”
I peeked up at him. “Will you kiss me again? Just… just kiss it all away for a little while?”
His gaze fell to my lips. “My pleasure.”
He captured my lips in a tender kiss, and I felt the entire world fade into the background. I had no idea how in the world he could do that to me, but he did, and I loved every second of it. I slithered my arms around his neck, standing onto my tiptoes as our kiss deepened. I felt his hands caressing my body, sliding down my torso until his hands perched against my blossoming hips before he backed me up and pinned me against a wall.
“She’s going to be okay,” he murmured.
Tears rushed to my eyes as I kissed him again. “My God, I hope so.”
He pinned my hands above my head. “I know so. And I’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that.”
A tear streaked my cheek. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
He pressed his knee between my legs, immobilizing me against his body. And as he gazed into my stare, allowing them to dance side to side in a small show meant only for me, his lips crooked up into a soft smile that ignited the stars behind his amber orbs.
