Seventeen Days Until Christmas
Tenor
They're taking her to a doctor and he wasn't going to hear any arguments about it. When Eden woke up the next morning, his mate could hardly even croak out a whisper.
Her fever hadn't returned since it broke yesterday and her coughing didn't sound quite so violent, but her voice is gone. And when she does try to talk, he can feel her pain radiating through the bond, grating and sharp.
"I'm okay. It's just a cold. You don't have to fuss," she whispers urgently.
But what if it's some sort of infection that damages her vocal cords and he never hears her voice again? What if she gets pneumonia? What if her throat swells up and she stops breathing?
She resists and protests as much as she can, but the three of them had like 600 lbs on her, most of it muscle, and she's outnumbered three to one.
She loses the fight and they pack her into the truck, wrapped in her heavy puffer coat plus a down duvet from her nest.
They pack her multiple thermoses of tea and soup for the ride, thrust a tablet in her hands that's playing the current season of Love is Scentless on Netflix, and then they take off to the nearest town.
Julius calls around to the local doctors' offices, trying to find one who will see her today. When he finds one, he programs the address into the truck's GPS and Luke guns the ignition.
"This is overkill," he hears Eden mutter before turning back to her show and putting her earbuds in.
He sits in the back with her, arm around her shoulders, letting her lean on him while the sound of Luke drumming his fingers on the wheel and Eden's mouth breathing fill the car.
The clinic is located in an old strip mall and the furniture in the waiting room looks like it's original from 1986. But it's quiet at least and the nurse quickly ushers Eden into a room after handing them all paper face masks.
Luke lifts Eden onto the exam table and Julius fusses over her, offering her sips of tea and broth in turn until she practically hurls something that feels like a baseball of overstimulated frustration into them in the bond and he settles down in one of the seats next to Tenor.
Luke paces in front of her, looking twitchy. He doesn't like leaving the cottage but he's always been kind of a hermit so this is nothing new.
When the doctor finally enters, a middle-aged beta woman with massive gold earrings and clicking high heels, she seats herself in the swivel chair at the desk and her eyes skirt over the four of them, the lower half of her face covered with a mask.
Her voice is no-nonsense. "So, what can I do for you today? "
He, Luke, and Julius all try to speak at once.
"She's had a high fever for three days, she woke up this morning and lost her voice–"
"She's barely eating, hasn't even eaten anything this morning, she keeps getting worse–"
"I mean, I think she just has a cold, but–"
They stop, looking at each other and scowling about the interruption. The doctor takes their momentary distraction as an opportunity to turn her head to Eden, waiting for her to speak.
"I'm not getting worse, and I am eating," She whispers, trying to offer a reassuring smile behind the flimsy paper mask covering her mouth. "It is just a cold and my alphas are... anxious."
He thinks he sees the doctors’ eyes roll. She gets up and takes Eden's vital signs, looks in her throat and ears, and then turns on him and his pack.
"It's a virus," she says. "Very common this time of year. She needs lots of rest, plenty of fluids–"
When he and Julius start protesting again, the woman squeezes the bridge of her nose with her fingers, muttering something that sounds like 'overprotective alphas.
..' and 'I don't have time for this' and then looks at them again.
"I have other patients to see today. Your mate is going to be fine in a few days.
If I write her a prescription for antibiotics, will that reassure you that she's going to be fine? "
Tenor shrugs and agrees. Antibiotics will make her better, right? Fight whatever infection this is? His mom always wanted a script for them anytime she got sick.
The doctor scribbles out a nearly illegible prescription for Amoxicillin and hands it to him, along with what looked like an entire book's worth of instructions for caring for sick omegas.
"Read this. If she starts to have difficulty breathing or her fever comes back and isn't controlled by over-the-counter medications, take her to urgent care.
Call the office back if you have any other questions. "
Eden slides off the exam table and thanks her and then leads the way out the door back to the truck. He thinks he hears her whisper "told you so" as she passes him.
They stop at a pharmacy and Julius goes in to get the prescription filled while Tenor sits in the front seat, the wheel clutched hard in his hands.
He can hear Luke in the backseat commentating on the show that Eden's turned back on on her tablet.
"Girl, come on. There's no way you're letting a man who has frosted tips tell you that he's not sure if he's ready to commit yet," Luke mutters. Tenor fights the urge to massage his temples.