| Phase 53 //I suddenly felt very sick. I got up and ran to the restroom right before my breakfast and lunch came back up the way they�d gone down. I flushed the mess away, then washed my mouth out and went to get some of my bed things. I set up my makeshift bed on the floor, just in case it happened again. I wrapped myself in my blanket as wave after wave of chills ran through me and let out a frightened whimper. What was going on? It was only a few minutes before the others returned. They called for me, but I felt too weak to answer. A frantic search began and Sigurd finally found me behind the large wastebasket by the restroom door. � There you are!� When I didn�t move or speak, he knelt down and reached out to me. � Kris? Are you all right?� His fingers came into contact with my forehead and he jerked his hand back as if he�d been shocked. His hand returned, though, and covered my forehead, his skin wonderfully cool on mine. � Oh, Kris . . .� � What is it?� Jesiah asked. Sigurd glanced back. � She has a fever. A bad one.� His attention was on me again. � How long have you been like this?� � Just since a few minutes ago,� I chattered. Hyuga appeared with something in his hand. � Open your mouth, Kris.� I obeyed and he put the end of the thermometer under my tongue. A few seconds later it beeped and he removed it. He blinked in surprise. � Well, either this thing is broken or you are amazingly resistant to death.� � Why?� � According to the reading, you are at exactly one-hundred-twenty degrees. And usually, someone with a temperature that high is dead.� I had gotten to feeling more miserable as the day progressed. Sigurd stayed with me and cradled me the whole time, catching the bag of ice that had been on my forehead when I ran into the restroom. When I came tottering back out in my near-delirium, he resettled me in his lap with the bag of ice and the covers and stroked my hair until I fell into a restless sleep. Sometimes, when he thought I was asleep, I�d hear him crying and feel his tears on my cheek. That happened all night, when he thought I was truly asleep. I wanted so bad to hug him and tell him it would be all right (his murmurings about me dying and it being his fault scared me), but I knew he�d just be embarrassed about crying in front of me and so I offered comfort in the best way I could. I snuggled against him, hiding my face in his side. He seemed to take some comfort in this, though it wasn�t enough to make me feel better about his self-loathing. He continued to go on about how it was his fault that he hadn�t noticed before and how he should have been paying more attention to me and other such nonsense. Kahr was made aware, though he was unable to visit because of his duties, but he sent get-well wishes and I appreciated the effort. Jesiah and Hyuga were quick to notice Sigurd�s growing fatigue and tried to coax him into getting some rest and letting them take care of me, but he only held me tighter and shook his head violently. Even Jesiah�s order did no good; Sigurd ignored him. Within a week I had gone into a near-coma and was struggling for life. My body was too weak to do much more than breathe. Sigurd finally broke down in front of the other two and cried himself into an exhausted, jittery sleep. Hyuga volunteered to stay with me, since Jesiah was the leader and had to attend several meetings and turn in reports and such. Kahr finally had a chance to visit and pleaded with me to stay alive. But he only stayed for an hour or so and then duty forced him to leave again. Sigurd slept for two days straight and when he woke, the first thing he thought was that I�d died, even though he hadn�t bothered to look for my pulse. He just acted as if he�d known it. His hysterics brought Jesiah and Hyuga from bed at two a.m. and they had to show him that I was still alive before he would even consider believing them. I was in this near-coma for two weeks. When I finally woke, I was alone and in a blank, featureless room. My panic made me scream with what little energy I had and then a bunch of people in biohazard suits entered and tried to restrain me. I fought viciously, but my illness prevented me from doing much more than a weak wiggle. I don�t know how long it was that I was left to myself. But after what felt like years, a single person in a biohazard suit entered and came over to the table I laid on. I smiled when I saw who it was. � Hyu!� He leaned down on the table. � Hello, Kris.� � Hyu, what�s going on? What are you doing in a biohaz suit?� � No one is quite sure how, but you caught a deadly virus. It is a wonder you are still alive.� � Is it contagious?� He nodded. � Very.� � Is everyone all right?!� I cried, horrified. � Once it was identified, they made us all come in to have a scan. Jesiah, Kahr, and I are fine.� � Oh, good.� I frowned. � What about Sig?� � . . . He had it, but it is treatable in its early stages. He is still in quarantine as of now, but they should release him soon.� I allowed a relieved sigh. � How long have I been here?� � Close to a month.� � Will I die?� He let out a breath and shrugged. � If you were going to die, you should have already. But that does not mean that it is not a possibility.� I nodded. He smoothed my bangs back only to have them bounce forward again. � To keep you updated, though, they say that you are recovering well and there is a good chance you will be all right in another week or so. Less than that, if you keep going at the rate you are.� � Will I be able to do my job?� � Of course. But you should not be worrying about that now. Just focus on getting better.� � I promise.� He smiled and held my hand briefly, as he usually did. Then he left. Hardly a moment later, someone else came in. I sat up, surprised. � Jesiah!� � Ankle-biter,� he said by way of greeting. He leaned on the table and let out a snort. � You�re supposed to be dead, kid.� � So I hear.� � Yeah, well, Billy and Racquel send their get-wells. Kahr does also; they won�t risk him coming in here even with a biohaz suit on. And I spoke with Sigurd while Hyuga was here. He promises to visit as soon as they let him out.� � All right.� He patted my head. � Look, kid, I need to be in a meeting in a little while. So I�m going to say bye for now, okay?� � Okay.� He left and I fell asleep a little after. I woke to gentle strokes of my cheek and looked up. � Sig!� I leapt up and he hugged me. � Hey, Kris,� was the soft greeting. He sat me back down and leaned on the table to be eye-level with me. � How are you feeling right now?� � Better than you, I think,� I replied with a raised eyebrow. � Frog in your throat?� He laughed. � You could say that.� � You were sick too.� � I�m all right, though. They said I�d still have the symptoms for a while, which is mainly a cough.� � Funny. I don�t have a cough.� Pain flashed across his face. � You did,� he said, voice catching. � Sometimes you couldn�t stop. You�d cough for hours . . .� I put my hand on the plastic that protected his face. � Stop it. I�m all right. There was nothing you could�ve done before to prevent this.� He let out a harsh breath and blinked rapidly to keep from crying. � I suppose you�re right.� � Aren�t I always?� He snorted to hide his laughter. � You wish.� He stayed with me and talked to me for the rest of the day. He would have slept in the room with me, but the technicians chased him out. He brushed the backs of his gloved fingers against my cheek and frowned in disappointment. � I wish I could take this biohaz suit off, but they�ll just panic even more and I don�t want to be quarantined again.� � It�s all right,� I assured him. We hugged and he pet me a moment before leaving. Oddly enough, I was deemed not contagious by the next day. They let me out and I decided to surprise the others. I paused outside the room to figure out what to do, then entered. Jesiah was sitting in front of the television and didn�t even bother to look up to see who it was. Hyuga was nowhere to be found; he was probably reading in the bedroom. I could hear Sigurd moving around in the kitchen and waited by the door for him to come out. He appeared a moment later with a glass of something yellow and started to sit in a chair that was also in front of the television. � Who was it?� Jesiah shrugged. � I don�t know. Maybe the door�s on the fritz. I didn�t hear anybody come in and nobody said anything.� Sigurd rolled his eyes. � You couldn�t take three seconds to even glance over there? What�s the matter with you?� � Well if you�re so anxious to know who it was, why don�t you check the cameras and find out?� Jesiah snapped back. � Fine then, I will.� Sigurd turned and saw me immediately. The glass fell from his hand and shattered on the floor. � Good one, Sigurd,� Jesiah snorted. � Make the floor sticky with that damn lemonade-flavored sugar water.� I smiled at Sigurd. � Oops,� I said for him, since he didn�t look too inclined to speak--considering how his mouth was hanging open like that. He rushed over and fell to his knees, pinning me against him. He murmured into my hair and stroked the back of my head, pulling back to give me a tiny little kiss on the lips before clutching me tightly to him again. � You�re back,� he whispered into my hair, tears of relief tracking down his face. He still sounded a little sick, but I wasn�t worried. � You�re back.� Jesiah, who realized that Sigurd hadn�t made a noise after dropping the glass, turned toward the door. There�s really no way he could�ve seen me unless he saw my arms around Sigurd�s neck. However, he seemed to and was quick to get to his feet and run over, abandoning the television. Sigurd let me go so I could hug Jesiah briefly. Now Jesiah has never been one of those affectionate types. He practices what I like to identify as �tough love�, which he even does to Billy. But this time he squeezed me in a gentle hug and kissed my head, tugging softly on my ponytail. � Hey, Ankle-biter. Nice to see you around again.� � Nice to be around again,� I answered. Then Hyuga came out of the bedroom for some reason. He went for the kitchen, presumably for a glass of water (he�s a health freak and it drives the rest of us crazy). He noticed Sigurd and Jesiah knelt by the door and briefly wondered what they were doing before noticing me and dashing over to us. � Kris!� � Hello, Hyu!� I giggled, pulling away from Jesiah to hug him. He held me tightly but gently against his chest and kissed the top of my head. � They let you out early.� � They said I wasn�t contagious anymore.� I was eventually passed back to Sigurd, who got up and carried me to where the television was. But Jesiah turned it off and he and Hyu sat in their usual chairs and began to talk, telling me of what had been going on recently. Sigurd put in small bits here and there, but mostly he sat in silence, holding me in his lap with his cheek resting on my head. And it was then that I finally realized we were more than teammates. We were our own little family, watching out for one another and making sure no one got into trouble. And when one did, we pulled together to get them out of it. There was no reason why we had to--replacements were nearly a G a dozen--but we did because that was the way it happened. And I�m sure that if one of us dropped out or got kicked out, the rest would give it up too. That�s just the way we were. � Hey, guys?� They all looked at me. � Could we eat sometime soon? I�m starved!� Jesiah and Hyuga laughed. Sigurd chuckled. � That�s all you need, isn�t it?� � Food makes you better,� I told him.// <--Phase 52 Phase 54--> |