A Whole New World | Octavia Blake [1]

Chapter 42

~~~~~~~~unedited~~~~~~~~

    Liam

Liam jolts, feeling the help of someone prop his body a certain way. The warm metallic taste of blood stains the tastebuds on his tongue as he peers over the edge of the hammock at the small puddle under him.

A comforting pat on his shoulder has Liam glancing at the person, and catches a glimpse of Dawson. "How you doing, cowboy?"

"Worse than you," Liam gets out weakly, and is down on his back again.

Dawson chuckles and slightly cocks his head to the side, "That's obvious."

"Well, you asked..."

Dawson re-dampens the fabric Addison tore from Liam's shirt in the bowl beside him, and defends, "I was being nice."

Liam responds with a breath of air that was meant to be a chuckle. Dawson begins to wipe the fresh blood off his chin, "What are you doing in here? Where's Addison?"

The hoarseness of his voice had Dawson wanting to protest, but he didn't, and answers nonetheless. "I am a fellow sick brother, and as for Addison..." he trails off with a small sigh, removing the rag from Liam's face, and locks eyes with him. "She's resting."

"What?" Liam tries to get up, but Dawson easily forces him back down.

"Don't worry. Girl's got nine lives, remember?" Liam wasn't taking no for an answer and tries to get up again, Dawson pushing him more roughly back in the hammock this time. "Liam," he warns, "Octavia's got her. You need to worry about yourself."

You need to worry about yourself, Liam internally repeats like a broken record. It was hard hearing those words when it came to Addison. Worrying about her is all he's ever known. There is no such thing as 'worry about yourself' when it comes to Liam—he's the definition of selfless, and Dawson knows that as well as Addison from their many hangouts in between camp duties.

"I mean it, Liam." Dawson's demand has Liam frowning and relaxing his muscles in defeat. "Rest." Against his own wishes, Liam listens, and drifts into a dreamless sleep.

__________________

    Addison

"This is boring," Addison says hoarsely, staring at the ceiling that's the floor to the middle level.

"I'll get you some more water," Octavia says before she leaves Addison's bedside.

"So, so boring..." she mutters under her breath that's followed by dry coughs when her throat tickles.

She covers her mouth with a hand and retracts it, sighing when she sees blood spots coating her palm. Octavia is by her side in a matter of seconds, helping her sit up to drink the clear liquid.

Once Addison gets her share, she leans back into Octavia's hand, signalling she's finished. "Thanks," she situates herself again.

Sweat had begun to break her continuing pale face that had Octavia's check ups becoming a lot more frequent. In a matter of seconds, her body's jolting forward and blood is splattering once again.

Octavia gathers her hair with one hand while the other rubs her back. Addison groans, leaning more on her elbows since the strength in her arms weakened. "This is worse than food poisoning," her voice shakes and her eyes snap shut, lips pressing together as she tries to contain the stirring in her stomach.