Snow Lodge
Chapter 22
Brian raced through the cabin looking for something to help bring AJ's temperature down. He knew the medicine he had given him would help, but he needed something else. He briefly considered putting AJ in the shower for a little while, but quickly discounted the idea when he realised how dangerous it could be if he tried to move him too much.
He needed something cold.
He rushed over to the fridge, looking to see if he had any ice. He slammed the door shut in disgust when he found none.
He rested his forearms on the counter top and dropped his head into his arms. 'Think Brian, think' he told himself. He opened his eyes again and stared at the snow beating down on the window.
"That's it!" Brian exclaimed.
He turned on his heel and shot out of the kitchen, heading for the front door, grabbing a couple of hand towels on the way. He yanked the door open and went out on the porch, ignoring the biting cold and dropped to his knees in the crisp, white snow.
He lay one of the towels out on the ground, and quickly scooped as much snow as he could onto it. Suddenly, he heard the sound of AJ coughing painfully from the bedroom. It sounded awful, and Brian was immediately worried. He grabbed his make-shift ice pack, and ran back into the cabin.
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After Brian had left, AJ had laid his head back on the soft pillows and allowed his mind to drift once again. His whole body ached like a sonofabitch, and so he tried to put it out of his mind by thinking about something else.
He tried to imagine himself on a nice sunny beach somewhere, but failed dismally, as the sand in his dream turned to snow.
His breath sounded loud to him in the silence of the room, and he could hear the rattle in his chest every time he breathed. He had a good idea what the rattling meant, and knew that Brian did as well. Pneumonia. Not a good sign. If he didn't get treatment for that, it could get very serious, very quickly.
That scared him, but he couldn't let Brian know, because he was scared enough already, and AJ didn't want him to freak out completely and blame himself.
He knew that he didn't blame Brian for what had happened, but he also knew that no matter what he said, Brian would blame himself for everything that had happened. He had already started to, and AJ couldn't stand to see any more pain in Brian's eyes.
As he lay there, AJ could feel a tickle building in his chest. He wanted to cough, but tried to stop it, because he knew it would hurt to do so. Instead he tried to ignore it, but he could feel the need to cough growing, as the irritation built.
Eventually he could no longer hold it, and he began to cough, a powerful, hacking cough that made his ribs burn and pain rip through his already abused body. He weakly wrapped his arms around his chest and rolled onto his side, trying to alleviate the pain, but nothing worked, until the pain became too great, and he fell back into a blissful state of unconsciousness just as Brian raced back into the room.
"Alex!" Brian called, panicked as he entered the room just in time to see AJ's body go limp. He rushed to the bed, and carefully rolled AJ onto his back again. He gasped as he saw a thin line of red falling from the corner of AJ's mouth.
Panicking, Brian shook AJ, forgetting about his injuries, trying to wake him up.
"Jay. Wake up. baby please!" Brian begged him, as tears fell from his eyes and dropped onto AJ's chest.
But AJ didn't respond, and the only sounds in the room were Brian's sobs and AJ's rattling breath.
