I sit on the edge of her bed as she swallows the two tablets and hands me back the water with most of the contents still in it.
“I’m going to make you some soup, and if that fever doesn’t come down I’m taking you to the hospital.”
Her eyes fly open and she’s furiously shaking her head. “I ca-ca-can’t…”
“If it’s for your health, you can and you will.”
“N-n-n-noooooo,” she wails through chattering teeth.
“Allyn, I can’t leave you here like this.”
“I’ll ca-ca-ca-call m-my m-m-mom-m.”
“I’m here now and I’ll look after you. But if I have to, I’ll take you to the hospital myself.”
She’s still shaking her head, but if the time comes and she’s not getting better, then I’ll do what I must to ensure her safety.
“I’m going down to make you something to eat. I want you to try and sleep, okay?”
She nods and curls further into herself.
“Allyn, you can’t have all these blankets on you. I need to take them off so your body cools down a little. Your fever’s too high.” She makes a pained mewling sound, but allows me to take all the blankets off her.
She’s wearing little sleep shorts, socks, and a tank top. Her legs have got scars all over them and her top is riding up so I can see her flat stomach. There are scars and bite marks all over it. I pull her socks off and her feet feel like an inferno.
“Don’t cover yourself up, okay? Let your body cool down.”
“Hmmm,” she moans as she turns over.
The thing I’m most worried about is pneumonia setting in. I’ll stay with her and monitor her, and if I don’t think she’s improving I’ll definitely take her to the emergency room. But being a doctor has its advantages, too.
I go downstairs and call Lauren.
“Hi, Dom. Everything okay?” Lauren asks.
“No, Allyn is quite ill. I need you to call the pharmacy and get an antibiotic shot and a pack of penicillin ready for me. Tell them I’ll bring the prescription by when you bring me the medicine. I need you to bring my stethoscope and medical bag too.”
“I’ll call Charlie down at the drug store, that old dog owes me a favor.” She laughs. “I’ll be over soon with all of it.”
“Thank you, Lauren.”
I go into the kitchen and start opening all the cupboards. There’s not much here. Maybe her parents are due to bring her groceries, but either way there’s definitely not enough here to make soup for Allyn.
I look through her fridge and find even less. But I hit jackpot in her freezer. She has some frozen home-cooked meals, two of which are labelled ‘chicken soup’.
I take one out and start defrosting it in the microwave.
As I’m waiting for it I hear a huge thump from upstairs.
I run up the stairs, taking them two at a time until I’m in Allyn’s room. She must have rolled and fallen out of bed because she’s in a fetal position on the floor.
“Allyn,” I try and wake her.
“Hmmm,” she murmurs.
“Can you get up?”
“Hmmm.”
I easily scoop her up in my arms and place her back on the bed. Her body is sweaty, her damp hair is all over her face, and her jaw is chattering from the fever.
I push her hair back from her face, and when I smooth it away from her cheek she leans into my touch. It’s just the smallest of movements, but she definitely leans into my hand. She lets out a soft purr as she moves against me and accepts my warmth.
Fuck.
What’s going on?
What does all this mean?
Fuck.
I move away from her and retreat to the door, leaning up against the jamb to watch her.
The microwave’s been beeping for a few minutes, indicating that the defrost cycle has finished, so I go back downstairs to see if the soup’s ready for Allyn. Stirring it around, there are still some frozen lumps left in it, so I put it back in the microwave to finish defrosting.
I hear someone at the door, and assume that it’s Lauren. I open it and Lauren greets me with a huge smile and a white paper bag containing the antibiotic syringe and the penicillin tablets.
“Charlie said to take your time, but I brought your pad over so you can write the prescription out and I’ll take it to him on my way back to work.”
“Thank you for doing this, Lauren. She’s pretty bad, but if I can get the medication and some food into her, maybe she won’t need to go to the hospital. You’ll need to cancel the rest of my appointments today.”
Lauren walks into the house and looks around from the foyer. “Not to worry, Dom. I already did that when you called me.”
The microwave sounds and I look toward the kitchen.
“It’s chicken soup; she needs to eat.” I answer Lauren’s inquisitive eyebrows.
Lauren follows me to the kitchen as I head back to get the soup out of the microwave.
“I know it’s not my business, Dom, but what are you doing?”
“I’m helping a patient.”
“Is that what you’re telling yourself?”
“I am.” Aren’t I?
“Chelsea is barely out of your life. I think you need to go out and have a bit of fun before you get serious about someone again. I mean, you don’t fuck around, you don’t ‘play the field’ as you young kids say, you don’t drink, you don’t smoke, you barely do anything except come to work and occasionally go out for dinner with that cute brother of yours.”
“Lauren, I’m turning thirty-nine this year. I don’t want to party, I don’t want to go out, and I don’t want any flings.”
“Not to be harsh, but I doubt she’ll be able to give you much of anything,” Lauren says as she points upstairs to where she assumes Allyn is. “She’s so badly broken, Dom.”
“I don’t expect anything from her. I’m merely her psychiatrist.”
“Okay, Dom. I’ll let you think that until your mind catches up and you finally realize what you’re doing.”
I look at her and tilt my head to the side.
“There’s nothing to realize.”
“Okay.” She backs away and holds her hands up, palms facing me. “Well, can you write the prescriptions out so I can go torment Charlie? It’s so much fun to screw with his head. I may even let him take me to dinner, if he’s a good a boy,” she says and laughs a small, evil giggle.
I write the prescription and Lauren happily takes it and moves toward the front door.
“Take good care of her, Dom.”
“I will,” I answer her honestly.
I let Lauren out of the front door and lock it, then take the stethoscope and the antibiotic syringe upstairs to check on Allyn. I need to examine her to determine if she needs antibiotics or this is just a cold from being out in the rain.
“Allyn,” I say gently, trying to rouse her from her sleep.
“Ummm,” she answers as she turns toward me.
“I need to listen to your lungs, so I need to touch you with the stethoscope.”
“Okay,” she murmurs and turns away so her back is to me.
I should be putting the stethoscope directly on her skin, but I don’t think she’s ready for that. Instead, I place it over the thin material on her back and listen to her lungs as she breathes. There’s a slight rattle, which tells me she’ll soon have an infection if I don’t intervene.
“Allyn, I need to put the stethoscope on your chest too. Can you turn around so I can listen, please?”
“Okay,” she mumbles and moves so she’s lying on her back.
I put the stethoscope on her chest and she flinches in her stupor. “It’s just me, Allyn. I’m listening to your lungs. I’m going to move the stethoscope to a different position,” I say as I smooth her hair again, trying to reassure her that I’m not going to hurt her.
“Alright, I’m tired.” She falls into a light sleep as I listen to her chest.
There’s a definite slight rat
tle, and I need to give her the antibiotics so she doesn’t end up with pneumonia. I don’t think she needs the injection, the tablets should be enough.
I go downstairs to check on the soup. When I return upstairs, I bring the penicillin with me. She’s still lying in the same position I left her in.
“Allyn,” I softly call her.
“Yeah.”
“Can you sit up for me? I’ve got something for you to eat so you can take some medicine.”
“I don’t have medicine,” she says, groggy.
“No, but I got you some. Can you sit up, or do you need help?”
“I’m okay.” She shuffles a little and sits up in bed. Her eyes are bloodshot and her skin is pasty and almost transparent.
I sit on the bed and she reaches for the soup.
“Nope, doctor’s orders.” I wink at her and lift the spoon to feed her.
“I can do it.” Her objection is weak.
“I didn’t say you couldn’t. What I said is that I’ll look after you – doctor’s orders.” I hold another spoonful of soup up to her lips and she smiles faintly before accepting my offering.
“I’m sorry you’re stuck here. I’ll call Mom to come help me,” she mumbles.
“Allyn, I’m here because I want to be. Now can you eat some more soup so you can take your medicine? It’s not good to take it on an empty stomach.”
She has three more spoonfuls of soup then yawns. I bring my hand up to her forehead and I can tell the fever is coming down.
“I don’t want anymore.” She starts to slide down the bed so she can go back to sleep.
“Sorry, you can’t sleep yet. You need to take these pills.” I pop two penicillin tablets out of the pack and pass them to her. When she has them in hand, I pass her the bottle of water that sits on the table beside the bed, unscrewing the lid first.
She pops the pills in her mouth and swallows them with a gulp of water before lying down.
“Dominic, thank you for being here,” she whispers before closing her eyes and falling into an instant sleep.
I move to sit on the chair near the bedroom window and look outside.
Allyn’s trust in me is beyond anything I could ever have expected at this stage. She has allowed me into her home while she remained in bed, completely vulnerable. She ate from a spoon that I held and she took medication from me without questioning what it was.
She may not know it yet, but she’s begun to embrace her healing with open arms.
My gaze goes to the lovely blue sky outside and I think about the promise of a happy future for Allyn.
Just then a blue jay lands on the window sill and looks inside.
What an intense and incredible color.
Chapter 13
The sun is flowing in through the window and shining directly on my face, making me uncomfortably warm and making sleep impossible.
When I open my eyes, I see Dominic slumped in the chair across the room. His head is back and his mouth open, and he’s softly snoring. One leg is over the arm of the chair and his arms are crossed over his chest.
Seeing him in my room hasn’t freaked me out. It’s actually quite comforting knowing he’s here.
I try to slide out of bed without waking him to go to the bathroom but the moment my feet touch the cold floor, Dominic stirs and jumps out of the chair.
“Allyn, are you okay? Where are you going?” he says as he blinks tired eyes.
“I’m just going to the bathroom. Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I wasn’t asleep. I was just waiting to see how you’re feeling.”
I stand and put a hand on the footboard to steady myself, my head suddenly woozy. “Dominic, you were snoring.”
He runs his hand over his eyes and then stretches his back straight and raises his arms above his head, almost touching the ceiling. “You going all sassy on me? I said I wasn’t asleep.”
“Yeah, alright.” I take a shaky step toward the bathroom, “You may want to wipe that little bit of drool away then.” I gesture to his mouth and giggle to myself.
Dominic wipes at his mouth and when he finds there’s nothing there, he shakes his head and grins with that cute smirk of his. I walk into the bathroom and notice that I feel so much better than I did yesterday.
When I’m finished, I go downstairs and warm up the coffee machine to make Dominic and myself a coffee.
He comes into the kitchen a few moments later and sits in the chair he’s assigned to himself.
“Can I help you with anything?” he asks.
“No, it’s just coffee and toast.”
“That’s fine with me, seeing as you really don’t have anything else here. So how are you feeling today?” He comes over to feel my forehead, something that I remember he did often yesterday. Even throughout the night, he persistently checked on me.
It was strange at first that it wasn’t Mom here to care for me. But Dominic is very gentle, and I’ve really learned to trust him in the short time he’s been coming here. It just felt so natural.
“I’m better. My throat’s not so sore, and my body doesn’t hurt as much as it did yesterday.”
“You still feel a little warm to the touch, so today you take it easy.”
“Of course,” I say as I look down at the cups I’ve gotten out.
“What is it?” Dominic asks.
“I had a dream last night and I’m just thinking about it.”
“What was it about?”
“Before everything happened, I had a very best friend who I pushed away when I came home from the hospital. She tried, but I just couldn’t give her the friendship she deserved, so I pushed her away until she stopped calling me.”
“And what do you want to do about that?”
“I’m not sure,” I begin saying. “I think I’d like to call her.” I continue making the coffees.
“Then why don’t you?”
“What if she’s forgotten about me?” I take Dominic’s latte over to him. He looks down at the coffee then looks at me before picking it up and taking a sip.
“Then you remind her.”
“But what if our friendship is too far gone?” I take my coffee and sit on the chair opposite Dominic.
“Are you trying to find an excuse not to call her? Because what you’re saying doesn’t really make sense. It sounds like you’d rather not know than take the chance and call her.”
“Hmmm,” I say. I’m deep in thought, mulling over Dominic’s words. Am I making excuses?
“I’ll make us breakfast, Allyn. Why don’t you try calling her?” He gets up to get the bread out of the bread box. “What’s her name?”
“Faith. She was my best friend all through school, and even after school we were still pretty tight. Until…” I don’t have to finish the sentence; Dominic knows what ‘until’ means.
“Well, I’ve got the bread in the toaster. Why don’t you try calling Faith? I think her reaction might surprise you. And I’m still right here for you,” he says with his back turned to me as he works on breakfast.
“Alright, I think I will.”
“There’s no ‘I think’. Either you will or you won’t. So which one is it?” he says casually, glancing at me over his shoulder.
“Okay, I can do this.” I walk into the family room, sit on the sofa, and pick up the phone. I dial the only number I have for Faith. The thought of talking to her again is sending my nerves into overdrive. What if her number has changed? My palms are beginning to sweat, I’m so damn nervous.
“Hello,” Faith answers.
“Faith?” I recognize her voice instantly.
“Yeah. Who’s this?”
“It’s Allyn.” My voice breaks and tears well in my eyes. My heart is pounding.
“ALLYN!” she screams into the phone. I move it away from my ear a little, but I smile at how happy she sounds.
“Yeah, I missed you,” I blurt out, not really knowing how to start this conversation.
“Oh my God! Al
lyn, I miss you so much. How are you? What are you doing? Where are you? Can I come over to see you?” She’s firing questions at me so rapidly that my head is spinning with her enthusiasm, and it makes me laugh.
“I’m still living in my home and I think I’m doing okay.”
“What’s been happening? Have you been getting treatment? Are you still seeing a doctor? Have you left your house yet? Tell me everything.” She pauses for a moment to allow me to talk.
“Um, I’ve got a new doctor, and he’s really quite good. He’s helped me so much, but I’m calling because I was wondering if you’d like to come over. I mean, only if it’s okay with you.”
“Ahhhhhh!” she screams through the phone again. “Are you crazy? Of course I want to come over, but I can’t come until Sunday. Can I bring lunch and come Sunday? I can’t wait, Allyn, I’m so excited.” Faith always talked more than me. I’m so happy that she’s going to come see me.
“Okay, well Sunday it is. Thank you, Faith. I can’t wait to see you.”
“I’ve got to go, or I’ll be late for work. But Sunday I’ll be at your house about eleven-ish.”
We hang up and I sit on the sofa with a huge smile plastered on my face. Of course, I can’t see it, but I can certainly feel it. It feels as if I haven’t used some of the muscles in my face in a long time. And boy, does it feel unbelievable.
“Breakfast,” Dominic calls. I merrily skip into the kitchen.
Without even thinking, I throw my arms around him and hug him tightly.
His arms come up and he returns my embrace.
Something passes between us.
I feel it.
And I’m sure Dominic feels it too.
His arms tighten around me and I automatically sink further into his encircling arms, resting my cheek on his chest.
One of his hands weaves into the hair at the nape of my neck. His thumb gently strokes the skin and I close my eyes. I take a deep breath in through my nose, inhaling his masculine aroma.
His other hand moves to press against the small of my back. My own hands gently trail up his taut back, feeling the muscles tighten slightly, then ease as I continue my slow exploration.
“Hmmm,” I moan ever so slightly. It feels so right to be standing here with Dominic.
“Allyn.” His voice comes out all crackly and hoarse, obviously he’s tense. But he doesn’t let me go, and I savor this raw, intense moment with him.
A Life Less Broken Page 7