Friday evening
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Everything was in place.
Her can of Diet Coke was behind the keyboard in front of her, the box of pizza was open, sitting beside her on a stool she had pulled from her small bar/counter in her kitchen. A roll of paper towels sat upright on the floor beside her, and a piece of pizza was held in her hand as her other hand moved to sign on AOL in the manner one of her fellow doctor had told her.
She was dressed in her comfy cotton pajamas and cozy, warm socks. A classic Dave Matthews album was playing softly from her stereo in the den she had where her computer was set up.
She logged on AOL, getting a eerie familiarity to the whole scene she was greeted with. But she didn't let that phase her.
She went on with her instructions, trying so desperately to not worry with that weird feeling in the pit of her stomach and to do as she was asked.
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Justin panicked. He bit his lip and his hand was holding on his to forehead. His eyes were closed and he held the phone to his ear, tightly, as if pressing the device closer to him would make the voice on the other end come closer. "Mom...what did you do when I got sick?"
"I just gave you grape Dimeatapp. You loved that stuff." She chuckled slightly.
"But..." He sighed, opening his eyes and staring at his reflection in the window across from the kitchen table. "Hunter doesn't do good with that. He just spits it up and his doctor isn't in town." Immediately the sounds of his poor small son's rough, strained coughs filled his ears and he sighed. "Listen to that momma, he..he's SICK."
Lynn was trying her best to comfort Justin, but right now he was being quite difficult. "Baby, he probably just has a little cold or sinus infection. Just give him some cough syrup or children's Tylenol."
Justin pushed away from the table, making the wooden chair squeak against the hard floor. He started to pace. "I DID! Like two hours ago and he still sounds like he is dying."
"Justin just calm down." His mother tried to soothe him.
He was lost. He had never had to deal with Hunter being sick before. And if he was sick his mother was there to help and in the beginning, Britney was there. He had two younger brothers, but he hadn't been around that much when they were young and getting sick like child, and this was his SON, and that made a world of difference. "But..but...he's sick. And he's never been like this before. Like just a runny nose or something. This is bad mommy."
Justin was now being whiny, and her firm voice tried to direct him in the right sat of mind. "Justin, put him to bed. Tell him to go to sleep. If he isn't better in the morning, give him some more medicine. ok? I'll be back in town tomorrow, but baby I cant just drive from Nashville to Memphis just to tell you what I already have ok?"
He waited a while before whispering, "Will you come by tomorrow when you get back?"
"You know I will."
"Ok. Sorry I bothered you."
"Justin..." She cooed. She knew this was hard on him. Being a single parent was never an easy task, especially when you were as lonely as Justin seemed. "You never bother me. I love you honey."
"I love you too mommy."
"Get your son to bed, then get yourself to bed. Ok?"
Justin pinched the bridge of his nose and nodded like she could see him, his eyes shut tightly. "Yes ma'am. Night ma."
"Good night baby."
Justin waited for the click on her end to sound before he put the phone on its cradle and rubbed his hands over his face. He stopped when he noticed the house was quiet.
For the past 2 hours his house had been filled with the echoes of Hunter's sickly, pitiful little coughs and now there was silence.
His eyes opened and he turned his head to look around the kitchen. They landed on a short figure, sucking on his thumb, starring back with big watery eyes.
"Hey buddy, how you feelin?" Justin smiled and walked over to where he was standing in the doorway.
"Thoat hurt." He said, rubbing his eye with his tiny fist.
"Grandma says you need to go to bed." He bit the inside of his cheek. He never thought he would ever be calling his mother "grandma." It was almost a surreal moment for him. He had down it before but this was the first time he really REALIZED it.
"Noooo..." Hunter pouted.
Justin's figure slumped and he sighed. "Hunter please."
"Dadddyyy..."
With that, Justin got fed up. He picked him up in his arms, Hunter clinging to him with a smile. "Come on."
"What?"
He carried him out of the kitchen and through the den. "We are going to make you better, come on."
"Where are we going." He asked mischievously, trying to clear his throat.
Justin plopped down on his computer chair in his small office connected to the den and situated his son so that he was sitting in his lap. He moved the mouse to get the screen back up and moved his pointer to the AOL icon on his desktop. "To get help."
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Liz clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth, and pressed enter, sending her perfect piece of information through the chat room. She sang quietly with her DMB CD. "Fade away..ohh fade away..ohh that so...la la mmm.."
A take out small pizza and two diet cokes later, Liz was stuffed, but happy as ever. This Internet doctor advice stuff was more fun than she thought. Everyone had a different question that challenged her thinking and made her use all of her knowledge. She was happy because as of right now, she had given a lot of worried parents good advice.
The chat room was pretty full, a lot more full than she had expected. It was getting late, well not really late on her clock. Her body right now was pulling all niters at the hospital, so 9:30 on a Friday night was practically early afternoon to her.
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and smiled. "Come on muffs." She patted her lap and moments later her old cat Muffy was curled up on her thighs, being petted by her owner.
Muffy was one of the only remembrances she had kept of Trevor. Trevor was a word/ person/ time/ life she never liked to speak of. He had killed her, in a sense. Her old, carefree, oblivious self had died and a new, sophisticated, caring woman had emerged.
Trevor had shattered the world she knew, and she had to create her own. It was a hard task, but she managed to do it, successfully. She loved Muffy though. She didn't know if it was the fact that Muffs had been with her for almost 7 years or if it was because the cat absolutely hated Trevor and had given him more than his fair share of scratches in her time.
Elizabeth smiled at the thought. Who would have thought that a birthday present to your girlfriend could have been so brutal? She truly did adore that cat. But truth was, she was lonely and on Friday and Saturday nights the only thing that kept her from being depressed was her lovely little cat. She had a friend, she had a companion. And she knew it was hard begin in a new city, not knowing anyone. She just hoped that soon she would begin to find her place in the world in Memphis.
She shook her head of her thoughts and went back to the screen in front of her face, Muffy still in her lap and a faint smile on her face.
----
"I cant believe I'm doing this." Justin mumbled looking at the screen.
Suddenly there was a slight bit of movement against his chest. "whut?"
Justin looked down and ran a hand over Hunter's back, comforting him and hoping he would nod off again. "Nothing Hunter, just shhh."
"I'm sleepy." The boy whispered, barely audiable.
"I know buddy, I know."
His son snuggled deeper into his body and Justin just sat there, staring at the screen. He was already at the place where he hope he could get some help. He hated hearing and seeing Hunter like this. Just as he thought that, Hunter coughed lightly into Justin's sweatshirt.
Justin closed his eyes and began typing. He was halfway done with his sentence when he open his eyes again and then he pressed send.
LakeJ0321: I have a 5 year old son, he's sick and I don't know what to do to make him better.
He stared at what he had wrote and felt like a complete idiot. Most of the questions in this pediatric chatroom were a lot more specific, with people shouting out symptoms and medications and big diseases.
He was just a horrible father. That's what he felt like writing. "I am the worst father, help me."
A minute later, his questioned had not even been noticed in the chatroom. No one had taken notice to him, especially the moderator. He was about to give up. Other people were getting their questions answered, why couldn't he? Or was he just doomed to watch the one thing he cared about more than himself, suffer?
But when he glanced back up at the screen, from staring down at the top of Hunter's head, he had been responded to.
Drliztn: LakeJ, what seems to be the problem?
Justin sighed and began to type feverishly. Maybe Drliztn could help him.
-------
Liz felt so sorry for this parent. They seemed so worried. The chat room was rather busy at this point, and it was getting hard to work with everyone asking for her expertise. From what she could gather from LakeJ, his or her son had a bad case of the cold, and she kinda found it amusing that they were this worked up about it.
This parent didn't know what they were doing, and probably needed more help than their son right then. So Elizabeth took matters into her own hands, and brought their convo out of the chatroom.
Drliztn: The chatroom is getting kinda busy. I think IM will work better. Is this ok?
She didn't want to scare the poor parent off, so she waited anxiously for them to IM her back. She really wanted to help this person, for some strange reason.
She let out a huge breath of relief and slouched in her seat when they IMed her back. She pushed Muffy off her, who jumped down with a meow, and sat on the edge of her seat typing quickly.
LakeJ0321: That's fine. I feel like an idiot, I know I sound (type) like one too.
Drliztn: Oh no. It's ok. Are you a single parent?
LakeJ0321: How did you know?
Drliztn: I deal with them all the time, they always seemed to get worked up and anxious when their children get sick, more so than if both parents were around. It's a dependency thing. You depend on your son and your son depends on you. Sorry, the doctor in me got carried away.
LakeJ0321: Quite all right. Yeah, I never knew being a single father could be so tough. Hunter's really the only thing I have right now.
Liz bit her lip. A single father, how amazing. She felt so sorry for this LakeJ guy. He seemed kinda down, but she didn't want to dwell on that. He needed her help, and she was there to give it.
Drliztn: So you say he is coughing bad and has a sore throat?
LakeJ0321: Right, he doesn't have a fever and he says his stomach is fine. He sounds really stuffy though.
Drliztn: He's probably got a really bad sinus infection. Probably a little sinus drainage too. All the mucus and infection from the nose and sinus is draining to his throat and making it sore. That's my guess.
LakeJ0321: That's...disgusting.
Drliztn: Oh, what will be disgusting will be if the drainage travels to his stomach. Then he will be throwing up everything he eats. My suggestion, give him lots of orange juice, and he needs some type of medicine.
LakeJ0321: He wont take any medicine. That's the problem. He's too young for pills and he just spits up dimeatapp or anything else.
Drliztn: Does he like orange juice?
LakeJ0321: Of course.
Drliztn: If you have any Tylenol at home, like just regular old Tylenol, nothing special. I suggest taking one pill and crushing it, then putting the crushed medicine into a small glass of OJ, stir it and let him drink it. He wont even know its there. Most kids cant swallow pills and if he wont take a liquid medicine, this is the next best thing.
LakeJ0321: Hmm..I'll try that.
Drliztn: Let him have that and then put him to bed. If he's not better in the morning you can make him another glass of OJ and Tylenol and if that doesn't work...contact your child's doctor :)
LakeJ0321: Thanks for your help. I was kinda freaking out there for a second. But, he's snoozin now.
Drliztn: Well it was no problem. Email me and tell me if it worked ok?
LakeJ0321: Sure thing. Bye Dr. Liz.
Drliztn: Bye
Justin signed off AOL and picked up his sleeping son in his arms. He would try Dr. Liz's Tylenol and OJ concoction tomorrow. Right now all that mattered was that Hunter was sleeping peacefully and not coughing up a storm.
Dr. Liz had eased his mind, somehow. Just by talking to him and telling him her ideas on what was going on, his anxiety and his worry had seemingly diminished into nothing. Not many people had been able to do that for him, since Britney had left. And he barely even talked to his Doctor person.
He shook his head, carrying Hunter to his room. He had gotten wrapped up with the Internet once before, it had burned him in the end. He wasn't going to make that mistake again. Especially when he was just looking for some help, some comfort on this sleepless night.
Justin had found a sense of relief in that 3 minute Internet conversation he had just had. And that was all that mattered.