Chapter Twenty-Eight
Mikayla
I ache all over, and the urge to pee is so strong I may go in my pants! A deep heaviness presses down on me as I open my eyes. Fuck! I have to get up. For two nights I slept at the clinic. Two long freaking nights of being woken up and poked and prodded until my fever broke.
The dreams were next level! Having a fever makes your brain go loopy apparently, well, at least when you have a fever as high as I did.
I dreamt of fairies and Greek gods! One came in the form of Caine and told me he would never leave me. It was so freaking insane! If I hadn’t known how fevers could impact the mind, I’d have told you they were real. But we all know Caine isn’t a Greek god, though the man is Adonis himself.
Caine brought me home yesterday, but apparently, I’m still supposed to stay in bed.
I could pretend to be annoyed that I’m forced to be here, but let’s be real, I have little to no energy or strength.
So, that’s where I am right now… in bed, still tired and achy, but home.
It’s eleven o’clock in the morning, and I’m still in bed with my bladder screaming at me that it needs to go… NOW!
Caine went to work this morning. I’m actually shocked at how hard I had to convince him to go. The man is a workaholic if I’ve ever seen one, yet he resisted going. I had to promise not to do anything “strenuous.” HA! I can barely move! I’m hardly in a state to go for a run.
I force myself to sit up, stifling a groan as my bladder protests the movement.
I throw the blankets off me, take a deep breath and scooch to the edge of the bed.
I sit with my legs dangling for a few moments, collecting the strength I need to get up.
My bladder is screaming at me, move your ass Masterson!
I wish I could say that the dizziness has passed, but I’d be lying my ass off. The moment I stand, the room begins to spin, and I have to sit back down.
Fuck! I’m seriously going to piss myself if I don’t get to the bathroom! I may just faint in the bathroom if it comes to that because I refuse to pee in Caine’s bed!
I take one more deep breath and stand up. The world is spinning, but I force my feet forward toward the bathroom.
But, I don’t make it to the toilet. Nope.
Before I know what’s happening, the world grows lighter, yet somehow, heavier all at the same time.
It’s crazy, but I know exactly what is about to happen, yet there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
And in one breath the world goes blank, and it feels like my soul is being sucked out of my body as I collapse to the floor.
“Mikayla!”
I hear a voice. Far away, but definitely a voice. I can’t make out what they are saying, but I feel a shadow looming over me.
I blink my eyes open and see… Kyle. He’s frowning at me. I feel his cool hand on my face, and slowly I come to.
“Mikayla?” he asks, and not quietly. “Mikayla, can you hear me?” he repeats. “Mikayla?”
“Yes,” I whisper harshly.
Then I feel it, and I’m so mortified I have to shut my eyes.
“It’s completely normal and natural,” he says. “You know this,” he adds soothingly.
Reading about physiological responses to fainting in school and experiencing a physiological response to fainting in life… not the same.
I know how the body works. I’m a nurse! Yet there’s something so terribly degrading about being a grown woman who just pissed her pants!
I’m thanking the Greek god Ares, who visited me in my dreams, that I didn’t shit myself.
That too is a normal response. But that, at least, I can say with certainty, didn’t happen.
The cherry on top of my humiliation is when Kyle bends down and picks me up! I’m covered in urine, and he’s touching me! Oh, my God! I cover my face with my hands, traumatized.
“What happened?” he asks as he carries me the rest of the way to the bathroom.
I kick myself because if I’d just made it five more steps, I would have been on the toilet! I look up at him, and he looks down at me with a quirked brow.
“Tell me why you fainted, and I won’t call Caine right now. We both know what will happen if I do that,” he threatens.
The bastard!
Caine has already taken three days off work in addition to the two he took beforehand when we went to New Mexico.
I’m pretty sure the man hasn’t taken a day off since he took over the ranch!
Caine is not Superman, though he doesn’t seem capable of admitting that.
I will not have him bothered now after just getting back to work!
“I had to pee. I got up, sat down, let the dizziness pass and then got up and well… that’s how you found me,” I explain.
“Have you eaten today, drank anything?” he asks as he sets me down on the toilet. When I don’t respond, a look of pure irritation crosses the man’s face.
Kyle is a very good-looking man. I find him kind of insufferable and a bit condescending, but I can easily admit that the man is hot, combine that with the fact that I’m actually sitting in my own urine right now, I feel the need to collapse in on myself and disappear.
“Well, Dr. Asshole, apparently when I stand up, I faint. So not sure how I am going to manifest food and drink in bed,” I argue, and yet, my voice is dripping with the tiniest bit of sarcasm. Fine, maybe a lot of derision.
“Caine didn’t leave you anything to eat?” he asks in disbelief.
Kyle walks out of the bathroom, to, and I can only speculate, the bedroom.
When he returns, he holds a glass of apple juice and graham crackers… the cinnamon and sugar kind… because I told Caine how much I loved those when I was a kid. Apparently, he bought them for me. I smile as I look at them and my heart flutters with love for my man.
And he was going to let me eat those in bed! Talk about a mess!
“He did leave you food,” Kyle says, holding them up.
“Okay,” I say because what else am I going to say? I got nothing!
Then the staring contest begins. I’m not sure why he’s still here. Kyle crosses his arms and regards me with that annoying frown.
He needs to go!
Did I mention I’m sitting in pee! Leave Kyle!
“I really appreciate you helping me,” I say, thinking maybe he’s waiting for me to thank him.
“Of course.”
Okay! Clearly that isn’t it because he’s still here.
“Um…” I say, looking around the bathroom and tapping my fingers on my thighs.
I really need him to leave so I can clean up!
Turning around, he walks to the large shower and turns it on for me. But still, he doesn’t leave.
“I got it from here.”
“Either I help you or I call Caine,” he says. “Your choice, but you aren’t going to be moving around until I know you won’t faint.”
From a logical standpoint, his argument is sound. But from my annoyed, covered in urine perspective, it’s frustrating. And Caine will not be pleased. No, he’ll be pissed.
“I have an idea,” Kyle says, then walks out of the bathroom. Without anything better to do, I nibble on a graham cracker.
My eyes widen when Kyle returns with a… is that a child’s plastic chair? Kyle opens the shower door and places it in the shower under the spray.
“Viola!” he says with flair, like he’s some sort of magician that made the chair materialize out of thin air.
“Where the hell did that even come from?” I ask because I’ve been here for what… two weeks… and I have never seen that chair, and Caine doesn’t have kids.
“It’s from the playhouse in the backyard.
You haven’t seen it? Caine built it for when his niece and nephews stay with him.
These are their ‘lawn chairs.’” Kyle uses his fingers, putting air quotes around the words lawn chairs.
“Undress in the shower. Once you’re done, Caine will likely be home for lunch, and he can help you change. ”
If Caine comes home and realizes I fainted, he won’t go back to work. And why the hell is Kyle even here? I don’t have the time to question him because he walks over to me and lifts me up and places me on the seat in the shower.
I wait for the door to close before removing my now drenched clothing. I toss them behind me onto the floor with a plop.
I sigh as heat from the water cascades down my body. I close my eyes and allow myself a moment just to relax. Just thinking about how Caine is going to react when he gets home makes my heart race, and I just want to get better. I finish washing my hair and body and just sit under the spray.
A knock sounds at the door, and I know it’s either Kyle or Caine coming to fetch me. I move to stand in order to turn off the shower but, fuck if the room immediately begins to spin again!
I’m able to turn the knob and quickly sit down. But the chair isn’t strong enough for me to push down on the back, or maybe it’s because of the tile, but the chair skids to the floor, and I fall to the ground on my ass.
The door slams open, hitting the door stopper against the wall and Caine runs inside. He grabs the shower door and yanks it open with a look of pure panic on his face before he kneels down and cups my face.
“The chair slipped,” I say softly as I look up at him from the floor.
“Are you hurt?” His voice is so soft as he runs his hands over my body.
“Just my pride,” I respond dejectedly.
I look down at my hands, beyond frustrated and embarrassed.
Caine grabs a towel and wraps it around my shoulders before lifting me up.
“You look pale,” he says as he carries me back to the bed.
“Thank you, just what every woman likes to hear from her boyfriend,” I complain, rolling my eyes. “Excuse me!” I huff when Kyle walks into the room. “Thanks a lot, tattletale.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Kyle says as he stares down at me.
I wrap the towel tighter around my body and frown at him.
“Didn’t say anything about what?” Caine asks, looking between me and Kyle with his hands on his hips.
The poor man is wet from getting me out of the shower. I also see that Kyle changed his shirt.
Neither Kyle nor I say anything in answer to Caine’s question.
“Why are you here, Kyle?” I ask, seeing an opportunity.
“I asked him to check on you,” Caine says. “Why was there a chair in the shower?” He raises a brow at me.