Page 97

“We’re all set for now,” Leo declared. “Now, we wait for the fluid to drain, and for that fever to come down. Hopefully overnight.”

Kimmy nodded, but I couldn’t even do that. I felt weak and clammy myself, and when Kimmy moved a chair over to Claire’s side, I sat gratefully. The other two cleaned up while I watched Claire. She’d closed her eyes and seemed to be drifting off, helped by the morphine.

Leo gathered up his surgical tools and left to boil water to sterilize them.

“You look like death,” Kimmy commented, and I laughed shakily.

“Thanks,” I said, deadpan. “I feel like it, too.”

She touched my arm. “You did well. I’m going to find out where we’re sleeping, okay?”

I nodded, and she left. I went to the small single bed at the back of the cabin and stripped off the blanket. I draped it over my wife’s sleeping form, then stroked her hot, damp forehead.

“It’s over now,” I whispered to her, though I wasn’t sure she understood. “You did good, baby. You were brave.” A lump formed in my throat as another drop of sweat streamed down her face.

I held her hand in both of mine and pressed my forehead to her fingers. A long, shuddering breath escaped, and I was suddenly on my feet again and out the door, finally puking my guts out on the grass.

Morning came, and Claire’s fever hadn’t broken. I’d been up all night watching over her, only leaving to soak cloths in the nearby lake to make cool compresses for her forehead. My eyes were sore and itchy, my whole body ached, and my mood was bleak as fuck, but I didn’t care. All I could think about was my wife, shivering hard under her blanket, suffering so much after everything she’d already been through.

“Her fever hasn’t broken,” I spat at Leo when he came to check on her that morning.

He took her temperature again and checked her vitals, frowning in concentration.

“It takes time,” he answered, and I threw up my hands, exasperated. He maintained a neutral expression. “It hasn’t even been 24 hours yet. The fluid is draining, which is good. I’ll give her another dose now, and check back up on her soon.”

But that evening, things still hadn’t improved. Claire was still burning hot, and she only stayed awake for a few minutes at a time. Leo increased the dose of antibiotics, but hours later, in the middle of the night, she was still coated in sweat, her teeth chattering. She thrashed during fever dreams, and I had to hold her still. I was terrified she’d pull out the chest tube and start bleeding.

“John,” she mumbled, half-awake. “I’m…not getting better, am I?”

I broke a little at her words. I couldn’t even come up with the strength to lie.

“No,” I whispered, my throat tight. “I don’t know why. I’m so sorry, baby.”

“It’s…alright,” she murmured, her eyes closed again. “You did everything you could.”

“Nothing about this is alright,” I said, desperation rising. “Don’t give up on me. We’re going to figure this out, okay?”

When Leo came back a half hour later, I was out of patience. I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and backed him against the wall. The air was knocked out of his lungs, and his eyes went wide in surprise.

“She’s not getting better,” I hissed, right in his face. “Try something else. I don’t give a shit what it is. She’s dying, and if you let that happen, I’ll make sure it’s the last thing you ever do. Do you fucking understand me?”

The doctor didn’t react with anger. He took a deep breath and met my eye without flinching. I got the feeling this wasn’t his first time being in this situation.

“The problem is the fever,” he said, his mind clearly working. “We need to lower her body temp to give the antibiotics more time to kill the infection. Once they do, the fever will come down on its own, but she’s running too hot right now to wait for that. A bath might do the trick.”

At that moment, Kimmy walked in the door. Her mouth fell open at the scene in front of her, but I was already letting go of Leo and turning to her.

“We need to give Claire a bath to bring down the fever,” I said to her.

Immediately, Kimmy’s expression smoothed out, and I recognized the blank, professional look she always had when she was working.

“I’ll start getting the water,” she said with a nod. “Sit tight. Why don’t you come with me, Leo?”

Leo jerked a nod, and followed Kimmy out the door with quick strides—probably nervous that his patient’s crazy husband would attack him again. I mopped my face with my hand. I couldn’t make myself care. Not when Claire gave another shiver under her blanket, and my stomach clenched. I went to her, pushing sweaty strands of red hair back from her forehead.

A short time later, Leo and Kimmy returned carrying metal buckets full of water, followed by Cade, who dragged in an old-fashioned steel tub. It looked like a water trough for animals that’d been repurposed.

“This is all the boiled drinking water we’ve got,” Cade said to Leo, who nodded. “Not sure why we couldn’t use perfectly good lake water for a bath, but—”