22. Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
Juliet
W hat in the world was I thinking?
Piper’s quiet crying fills my ears as I sit on her bed next to her, my hand resting on her forehead. Her skin is hot to the touch now. Not just warm like it was before I left.
“I don’t feel good,” she cries before coughing.
My heart rate etches up as I hear the congestion in her voice. It’s stuck in her chest. I can hear how weak and labored her breathing has already become.
“I need to get her to the hospital,” I tell Leo as he stands a few feet away, worry clouding his face. “I shouldn’t have left her alone. I should’ve…”
“What should I grab for her? Clothes? Shoes?” Leo asks.
His words echo in my ears, but I can’t connect meaning to them. All I can do is hear my daughter’s crying.
Leo moves closer and puts his hand on my shoulder, drawing my eyes to his. “I’ll drive you both to the hospital. Tell me what she needs, Juliet.”
I swallow hard, biting back the sob that wants to rise up my throat. “I don’t want to worry about shoes. Can you get her a sweater in her closet? She sweated through her shirt.”
Leo nods and opens the door to Piper’s closet, flipping through different hung up clothes until he finds a cream-colored sweater with a kitten on the front. He hands it to me. “I’ll grab your purse and your keys in the kitchen. Meet you by the door when you’re done changing her?”
I nod, his energy spurring me into action.
Once he leaves the room, I change Piper into new clothes, trying to balance between lightweight ones so that they don’t trap heat but also are warm enough for the cold outside. Nothing feels perfect, but I can’t focus on that right now .
I need to get her to the hospital before she gets worse.
Much worse.
“Come on, baby. Mama’s here,” I tell Piper as I pick her up and rest her on my hip, cradling her close.
She leans her head against my chest, sniffling and coughing.
I carry her out of her bedroom and to the foyer where Leo is waiting with my things in his hands. “Do you remember where the hospital is?”
“Yeah, of course,” he murmurs.
I shouldn’t have asked him that. He’ll never forget the hospital where his mother died.
“Hey, Piper,” Leo says, giving her a small smile. “You’ll feel better really soon, okay?”
“Okay,” Piper replies weakly.
Leo opens the door for me so that I can carry Piper out of our apartment. He quickly overtakes me and opens every door until we reach his car. “Hold her in the back. It’ll be safer. ”
I nod and duck into the backseat. I hold Piper in my arms, brushing my fingers through her hair and trying not to let my hands shake too much.
She doesn’t need to see me scared, even if it feels like my world is collapsing right now.
I’m a nurse. I’ve seen terrible things, so I know how little things can easily get out of control. She could develop something worse if she’s not treated urgently enough.
What if I’m too late? What if I waited too long to take her to a doctor?
Every awful scenario runs through my mind as Leo drives us to the hospital. My heartbeat pounds in my ears as I keep stroking Piper’s hair, trying to help her feel just a little bit better.
But it feels like I’ve completely failed on that front.
How can I be a nurse and falter like this?
Leo parks in the brightly lit parking lot by the emergency room and gets out of the car, rushing over to the back door to open it.
I swing my legs out of the car and get to my feet. “Almost there, baby. You’ll get to see Aunt Lily. ”
Piper makes a sound of acknowledgment when she’d usually be jumping for joy. She loves seeing Aunt Lily and playing with her kids.
Leo sticks by my side as we rush into the emergency room.
“Lily!” I call out to her when I spot her looking at paperwork at the reception desk.
Lily drops the paperwork on the desk and hurries over to us. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
My throat tightens as a wave of emotion hits me. “She started feeling sick a few days ago. Coughing. Low fever. Some congestion. I thought I could get her to at least break her fever, but she hit 102 today, and I can hear all the congestion in her chest.”
Lily nods as she pulls her stethoscope off from around her neck. “Let me take a listen.”
I shift Piper in my arms so that Lily can check her breathing, my heart hurting when I see a shift in Lily’s expression. She’s good at making sure her concern doesn’t show on her face around patients, but I’ve known her long enough to see through her mask .
“I want to go ahead and admit her. I’m concerned about her developing pneumonia,” Lily replies before motioning for me to follow her. She already knows that I won’t let go of my child until I absolutely need to.
“Right behind you,” Leo tells me.
I pitch him a grateful look before hurrying after Lily. We enter a hallway and then take a right into one of the patient rooms.
“I’ve paged Maria to come help. You’ll have to give us some space to work, okay?” Lily tells me once I lay Piper down on the bed.
“I can—”
Lily shakes her head as she places her hands on my upper arms. “You know I can’t let you help out. She’s your daughter. Let me take care of her.”
My eyes sting. “It all happened so fast. I was going to take her to the clinic tomorrow if she didn’t break the fever tonight.”
Lily nods, her face softening. “I know. We’re going to help her.”
“I’m here.” Maria’s familiar voice sounds behind me .
I look over my shoulder at her, giving her a tiny smile. I haven’t seen her since I stopped working at the hospital.
“We’ve got her,” Maria assures me, squeezing my arm. “You know the drill. We’re going to check all her vitals first and assess her breathing. If she needs some help, we’ll start oxygen therapy.”
I nod and slowly back up, giving Lily and Maria room to work on Piper. My back eventually hits Leo’s chest, but I don’t move away. I lean back against him instead, my hands resting over my mouth.
Leo pulls me in and gently rubs my arms. “It’s going to be okay. I’ve got you.”
I blink rapidly, fighting off my scared, disappointed tears as Lily checks Piper’s lungs again. Why didn’t I check Piper’s lungs earlier today? I could’ve grabbed my stethoscope from the estate or dug around in my old nursing school box for an old pair.
“You’re doing so good,” Lily praises Piper as she encourages her to lay back. “We’re going to put some cool stickers on your chest, okay? ”
I breathe in sharply as they pull out the electrodes for the EKG. It’s such a simple thing, but it makes this nightmare feel that much more real.
“We’re right over here, Piper,” Leo tells her.
Piper turns her head to gaze at us. “I want to go home.”
“You need to get strong again, remember?” Leo replies. “There’s a bunch of cool stuff in this hospital that can help you get super strong super quick.”
“Then we can build the snowman.”
“The biggest one we can possibly make.”
A hint of a smile crosses Piper’s face, and it’s one of the most incredible things that I’ve seen over the past few days.
“From what I’ve observed so far, I’d say she probably has viral pneumonia, but I’d like to run some more tests to be sure,” Lily tells me before her mouth tilts down a little. “I need to draw some blood.”
Piper hates needles. She can’t even bring herself to look at them, and she always cries when she has to get any shots .
“I need your help,” I tell Leo as I look up at him. “She hates needles. Can you help me hold her still when they take her blood?”
A mixture of emotions crosses his face, but he ultimately nods.
Maybe I’m asking too much of him, but I can’t decipher his expressions right now. I need to comfort my child, and I know that he can help calm her.
I walk over to Piper’s bedside and pull her into a tight hug, feeling Leo move close behind me. I glance down to see his hand on Piper’s arm, gently squeezing.
“Everything is going to be okay,” I whisper to her.
I need to be right.
~*~
My head pounds as I slowly pace outside of Piper’s hospital room, letting her sleep without my fretting waking her up.
She didn’t like the blood draw at all, but between me, Leo, Lily, and Maria comforting her and distracting her, it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. They went ahead and hooked her up to an IV as well because she hasn’t been drinking as much as she needs.
Viral pneumonia was confirmed, so all we can do is wait for her to get better and help her immune system kick it as much as we can.
“Here.”
I turn to see Leo approaching me with a Styrofoam cup of hot coffee.
“Cream and sugar,” he says as he hands it over to me.
“Thank you,” I tell him before taking a long sip, needing the caffeine to keep me running.
I don’t think that I can bring myself to sleep tonight. I’m afraid something bad will happen while I’m asleep.
“Dr. Hollis said she’ll be fine in a few days,” he says in a gentle voice as he holds his own cup of coffee. “She’s tough.”
I lower my eyes to the off-white floor. “I know. I just feel like…I failed.”
He moves closer to me. “Kids get sick, Juliet. Even you got pneumonia once. Do you blame your mom for that? ”
“No,” I sigh. “But I’m a nurse. I should’ve known better.”
“She could’ve gotten better in a day or gotten worse. You couldn’t have known the exact outcome until it happened,” he replies. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You got her the help she needed.”
I raise my eyes to his. “I just hope she gets better soon.”
His free hand takes mine and squeezes. “She will. Evidently, her aunt is a kick ass doctor.”
A smile teases my lips. “She is.”
“Everything will be okay,” he reminds me. “And if either of you need anything, I’m here.”
He dropped everything to help us. No questions. No protests.
Just willingness to help no matter what.
He’d be such an incredible father, and just that thought nearly makes me drown in guilt.
“Oh, shit. I need to go check on your dad and do his nightly care,” I say as my eyes widen.
Leo shakes his head and rubs my arm. “Don’t worry about it. Stay here. I can take care of Dad for the night. ”
My surprise paralyzes me for a few seconds. He is going to take care of his dad?
“Are you sure?”
Leo nods. “Can you just text me a list of instructions? I can do whatever needs to be done.”
“Yeah, there’s not much to do,” I say as I pull out my phone to get started on the short list. “Thank you. For everything.”
“You don’t have to thank me for anything,” he reminds me.
I send him the list before tucking my phone back into my pants pocket, our eyes locking once more. “Really. Thank you. I probably would’ve lost it if you weren’t there.”
“I’m going to come by and visit tomorrow,” Leo replies. “If that’s okay.”
I have to stop getting choked up.
“Of course,” I say before wrapping my arms around his neck to hug him tightly, hiding my quivering bottom lip from view. “I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you. ”
“If she doesn’t feel up to visitors, just let me know,” Leo tells me as his hands sweep up and down my back.
It’s so soothing that I could fall asleep in his arms in a matter of minutes. Today has been so hectic and unexpected, and I have no clue what tomorrow will bring.
But right now, there’s no other place where I feel safer.