Chapter 10 #3
Lee grabs the bunny that fits easily in the palm of his hand, and then we both end up in front of the mugs.
I grab one for myself just as Lee grabs his own.
We look around the large room, then find a small table for two in the corner that we make our way towards.
We set our ceramics down before heading over to grab the paint.
Lee takes a few minutes to look at paint before grabbing what he wants, and we return to the table with our arms full of paint.
“I hope Savannah likes the bunny. I’ll try to paint him like Buster.”
“Even the little black dot over his left eye?”
“Duh,” Lee says like I’m a total idiot. “He’s not Buster without the eye patch.”
“Pirate Buster.”
Lee laughs, loud and full, his shoulders moving with the sound. “Exactly.”
I decide to paint my mug with oranges all over it because it seems fitting.
Lee’s tongue pokes out of the corner of his mouth as he carefully paints ceramic Buster—he’s sort of a perfectionist at this sort of stuff.
My oranges end up looking like blobs, but it’ll always remind me of the orange groves and Lee’s laughter, so that’s all that matters to me.
Lee’s mini Buster ends up looking like a perfect replica, and his mug has a sunrise over what looks like his backyard, featuring the goats and Buster roaming free for yard time.
I want to lean over the table and kiss him silly, tell him I love him, ask him to marry me this instant, but I just barely contain myself because I think Lee would die of embarrassment if I did anything close to a public proclamation of love and devotion.
Just as we’re starting to check out, handing over our pottery for them to fire, my phone rings with Danica’s special ringtone that breaks through my constant Do Not Disturb setting. Lee turns concerned as he follows when I step away from the counter.
“Danica?”
“Hey, so, she’s fine, but we’re at the hospital.”
“What?” I ask, suddenly feeling sick.
“She has a hundred-and-three-degree fever, and I can’t get it down. The after-hours pediatrician told me to take her to the hospital just in case. Especially since she’s so lethargic.”
“She was fine on Friday!”
Lee hands my debit card over to the frightened-looking cashier as I attempt a smile to calm myself down. I enter my pin as I take deep breaths.
“I don’t know, Joseph, she came home from school yesterday sniffling and coughing. Now it’s a full-ass cold. I don’t know what you want me to say!”
I fight against the urge to scream and yell and watch as Lee takes a card with the date we can come pick up the finished pottery.
Lee works his hand into my pocket and takes my keys from me, then guides me out of the store and promptly helps me climb into the passenger seat.
I smile at him through my fear, and he smiles back.
My shoulders lower at the sight of his smile.
I pinch the bridge of my nose hard in frustration as Danica mumbles on.
“Listen, is she at the downtown children’s hospital?”
“Yes.”
“I’m already downtown, so I’ll come now until she’s released or admitted. Okay?”
“Okay,” Danica murmurs quietly but doesn’t hang up. “My boyfriend is here with us.”
“I would assume.”
“See you soon.” And then Danica hangs up.
“The children’s hospital?” Lee asks for confirmation, already pulling out of the parking lot and heading toward the expressway.
“Yes, downtown.”
“We’ll be there soon. She’s okay.”
“I know,” I say while reaching over to take Lee’s hand, needing the comfort of his hand against my own.
Savannah was frequently sick through preschool, almost to the point of needing tubes in her ears with how many ear infections she had.
But by kindergarten it had evened out, and now that she’s heading into first grade, it’s been a long time since she was really ill.
We always get our shots to lessen illness.
I try to not worry about it being something serious, something that I missed on Friday morning when I took her to school.
“She’s okay,” Lee says again with a hard squeeze of my hand.
I take a deep breath as we pull up outside the children’s hospital.
Lee gives my keys to the valet and shoos me along to head inside.
I stand still for a moment, watching him handle everything, but he gives me a pointed look that is impossible to argue with.
Two young women at the counter look at me as I approach them.
“My daughter, Savannah, I think she’s in the emergency room.”
“Driver’s license?” the blonde woman asks.
I hand over my license, tapping my fingers against the counter as the woman gets me a visitor badge. I glance over my shoulder to see Lee walking toward us. “He’ll need one too. This is my partner.”
Lee looks shocked for a moment but just dutifully grabs his wallet to dig his ID out.
The other woman takes Lee’s ID and makes him a visitor badge, then they point us toward the emergency room doors.
I take Lee’s hand into my own again, because fuck the possibility of someone getting upset in this moment.
My comfort means more than someone’s feelings.
Lee holds my hand in a soft grip, his thumb sweeping over my knuckles as we hurry through the emergency doors.
It’s not Danica who I see when I walk through the doors.
It’s her coworker, Dominic, who I met many times while Danica and I were together.
This makes a lot of sense. I always thought he was in love with her, and everything she would say about him was gentle and kind.
He waves me over, eyes dipping down to our joined hands, but his face doesn’t show any emotion beyond worry.
“I came up here to wait for you to show you back. Savannah is sleeping.” Dominic leans forward to shake Lee’s hand. “I’m Dominic. You must be Unc-Lee?”
Lee chuckles, but it’s uncomfortable. “Yes.”
Dominic nods toward the door. “Come on.”
We follow Dominic through the doors, past room after room. The walls are painted with ocean animals, and the lights on the ceiling are softer, less jarring than other hospitals. Lee’s hand squeezes mine again, and I squeeze his back just as we stop in front of a room.
“Nurses are making us wear masks in case it’s Covid.”
“Fuck, really?”
Dominic nods as he points toward the masks on the cart by the room.
Lee and I mask up, so does Dominic, before we enter through the sliding door.
Savannah is sound asleep in the bed, pale as hell, her blonde curls a sweaty mess.
Danica sits holding her hand, and she glances up at me, all tired worry.
Her eyes land on where I’m gripping Lee’s hand like a lifesaver, and her eyes do this weird sort of eye roll that isn’t anger, but sort of like relief.
“She was asking for you both.”
“Both of us?” I ask as I drop into the chair beside her. I let go of Lee’s hand to grab Savannah’s. Her hand is warm and clammy, and she lets out a cough that sounds like it could quickly turn into something in her chest if we had ignored this illness.
“Mhmm.” Danica glances between us, then focuses back on Savannah. “She wouldn’t shut up about the damn bunny Lee got her.”
“Buster,” Lee mumbles from behind me.
“Buster.” Danica snorts and closes her eyes, and I feel for the first time that maybe we can put Savannah ahead of all the animosity we’ve allowed to make coparenting difficult. “She calls Lee’s house home, you know.”
“It’ll be home soon.”
Danica looks over. “So you finally realized what everyone else has known for years?”
“Now’s not the time,” I say quietly, leaning down to kiss Savannah’s warm hand. “We can talk about it later.”
“They might admit her,” Danica says with an exhausted sigh. Her blonde hair is up in a messy bun, dark smudges under her eyes. “It happened so fast. I didn’t ignore anything.”
“I don’t think you did. She was fine when I took her to school. Neither of us could’ve known.”
The door to the room slides open to reveal an older-looking doctor in scrubs with safari animals all over it. I instantly relax at the calm, composed way he carries himself.
“I’m Doctor O’Malley. I have good and bad news.
It’s not Covid. But there’s a nasty respiratory illness going around for the past month or so.
I’d like to keep her overnight until we can get her temperature down, make sure she’s topped off with fluids.
When temps spike this high in kids, they hate to drink, then they get dehydrated, and it makes everything worse.
” Dr. O’Malley leans his hands on the end of the bed, clearly smiling at both of us despite his mask.
“I’d watch out for symptoms for yourselves just in case.
I’ll probably send her home on some steroids to prevent it moving to her chest, considering her history.
But you did everything right by bringing her in. ”
“Thank you,” I tell him, meaning every word.
“You’re welcome. I’ll get her sent up to a room soon, then she’ll be in the hands of an even better doctor than me until the morning. I will say usually only one parent is allowed to stay overnight, so maybe work that out while we work on admitting her.”
And with that he disappears.
Danica sighs tiredly. “I want to stay. I feel like it’s my fault. I won’t sleep at home anyway, so…”
“If you’re sure,” I say hesitantly.
“I’m sure. You can come get her when she’s discharged… Take her home.” Danica looks over at Lee, eyes kinder than I’ve seen them in years. “So she can see Buster. Her favorite Gatorade flavor is—”
“Light purple,” Lee interrupts.
“Light purple,” Danica agrees with another tired sigh. “I’ll call you in the morning with news. Dominic, you go home too.”
“Do you need anything before I leave?” Dominic asks as he rounds the bed, squeezes Savannah’s leg gently, then leans down to kiss Danica’s forehead. “I can grab you something from the cafe?”
Danica shakes her head profusely. “I don’t feel much like eating.”