Read Online Listed: Volume II by Noelle Adams - Free Book Online Page B

blackness of sleep.
    *
* *
    She was jarred awake by
a gentle hand on her shoulder and a soft voice saying, “Emily? Can you wake
up?”
    She
groaned as the world closed in around her with hot, achy heaviness.
    “I’m
sorry,” Paul said, pushing her hair away from her face. “The doctor’s here.”
    She
tried to make herself focus on his familiar face. His gray eyes were soft like
before as he straightened up. Then she shifted her gaze to another man standing
beside her bed. He was middle-aged and balding and smiling at her.
    “Hello,”
she managed to croak. Her mouth was painfully dry, and she fumbled for her
water until Paul moved the bottle into her hand.
    “Sorry
you’re feeling poorly, Mrs. Marino,” the doctor said, reaching over to take her
temperature with a thermometer similar to Paul’s. “I talked to Dr. Franklin,
and he updated me on your case. This will only take a few minutes, and then
I’ll let you rest again.”
    Emily
nodded, deciding that would do for a response, since her throat was aching and
she didn’t feel like talking.
    “102.9 ⁰ ,”
the doctor said, reading the thermometer.
    “It’s
gone up almost a whole degree since I called you,” Paul said. He was speaking
softly and to the doctor.
    “It
may keep going up.” The doctor smiled pleasantly as he took Emily’s blood
pressure, listened to her chest, and checked her throat. “Everything looks
fine,” he told her. “You’re going to feel sick for a while, but it’s early yet
and it shouldn’t last very long.”
    She
nodded mutely again, her teeth starting to chatter as her body shifted suddenly
from hot to cold. Her neck hurt, her thighs hurt, her fingers hurt, her eyes
hurt. She heard herself making a helpless sound through her shivering.
    “Find
her another blanket,” the doctor said. He’d turned his back to her now and was
talking to Paul. “Don’t let her shiver like that—it increases the core body
temperature and could raise her fever.”
    Since
her part of the ordeal seemed to be over, Emily closed her eyes and huddled
under the covers. Someone walked over and put another blanket over her—it
smelled like Paul but it would hurt too much to open her eyes, so she didn’t
actually see him drape it over her. The extra blanket helped. She stopped
shivering almost immediately.
    A
minute later, she heard voices again. They were farther away now. Outside her
room. She could hear them, though.
    “Keep
checking her temperature regularly,” the doctor said, “Every half hour. If it
gets above 105 ⁰ , give me a call and we’ll decide
if we need to take her to the hospital. But, if she follows the same course as
her aunt, then I don’t think the fever will spike that high this time.”
    “What
can I do for her?” That voice was obviously Paul’s.
    “Stagger
the dosages of acetaminophen and ibuprofen, so she can take something as often
as possible. Try to keep her comfortable—with cool rags or maybe a tepid bath.
Don’t let her shiver. Keep her hydrated. She can eat if she wants to, but don’t
make her.”
    “Okay.”
    “I
know you’re worried about your wife, Mr. Marino, but I don’t think this fever
should last very long. The early ones her aunt had didn't. Give me a call if you
have any questions today, and I’ll check in with you tomorrow regardless.”
    The
voice disappeared then. Emily was curled in a tight ball and thought she was
still listening. She couldn’t quite figure out what happened to the disembodied
voices.
    She
was concentrating so hard on listening that she jumped when Paul’s voice
sounded from just above her. “Emily?”
    She
opened one eye and glared at him malevolently out of it.
    “I’m
sorry. Can you sit up and take these pills? Then you can go to sleep, and no
one will bother you.”
    Paul
didn’t really give her a choice, since he pulled her up gently into a sitting
position and put what looked like Advil pills in her hand. She swallowed them
obediently with the water he