Keaton Will

Chapter 11

I wake cold and shivering, yet sweating. I feel a blanket around me and warmth around my head. I feel fingers softly caress my hair and instantly know I'm in Vivian's lap. I let my eyes flicker open and see a spinning, bright room so I close them again. I try to say, "How long was I out?" But instead, a long stream of coughs racks my chest and my body tenses, and I lift myself to slow the coughing, and when it stops I lower myself back down into her lap, unable to hold myself up anymore. Well, I'm not doing that again. I think.
(How long was I out?) I ask Vivian through telepathy.
"Not too long compared to normal, it was only a few hours this time." She answers. I nod and she goes back to caressing my hair. "How are you feeling?"
(Horrible, my throat hurts and is dry from breathing through my mouth, my headache is worse than normal, I'm fatigued, cold, and hot all at the same time, and I'm extremely dizzy.) I answer through telepathy, the only way I seem to be able to communicate for the moment. She nods, "Dr. Sheldon over there said that you only have a cold." A cold?! I can't have a cold! We have too much to do and not enough time as it is! And why would a cold make me feel this bad?! Vivian feels me tense up. "Is the almighty Keaton afraid of having a cold?" She teases.
"No," I manage to croak out which leads to more coughing. (We just have a lot of ground to cover and I don't have time to be sick! I-I can move!) I sit up and manage a step before nearly falling over because of being so dizzy. Luckily Vivian was prepared to take me on and she was there to catch me. She leads me back to the bed and sits down, I collapse onto the bed and end up right back where I started, in Vivian's lap. I'm breathing hard and still majorly dizzy for a few minutes and coughing hard when Vivian gets a call from Miranda.
"How's it going? Is he awake yet?" I hear Miranda ask.
"He's awake, and upset because he has a cold, and still miserable" Vivian answers.
I manage to not cough up a lung and relax into her lap again. She offers her hand and I press it up against my face, it's cool and relaxing.
"Sorry, I have a clingy, and feverish assassin on my lap. I'll call you back when I've convinced him that a cold doesn't mean he's dying." I hear Miranda laugh a little and say,
"What? Is he afraid of having a cold or something?"
"I asked him and he said we don't have time to wait for him to get better and tried to get up than nearly fell." I frown at her. She looks down at me and realizes I'm not happy with her spilling everything that's going on and she quickly apologizes to me in her thoughts and tells Miranda bye then hangs up. She goes back to gently caressing my hair and I relax at her touch. "Key, you are burning up, let me go see if I can get you some NyQuil." I hear myself groan. The fever is clouding my thoughts and I start to lose track of what's going on. I wrap my arms around her and telepathy her, (No! Don't go! You're warm!) She frowns down at me then sighs.
"I'll tell Sheldon to pick some up and to pay for it." She brings out her phone and texts Sheldon but I don't remember what happens next because sleep overtakes my poor feverish self.

The next few days are a blur and I don't remember much. There wasn't much to remember anyway. They kept me so drugged up I was asleep most of the time. I also had an average fever of 102 degrees and I was miserable. Adding to the list, I rarely got sick, I never got headaches, never had panic attacks, and I never was unconscious. My life just keeps getting better. We changed hotels three times while I was sick and every time we moved I got worse. I'm pretty sure it wasn't just a cold because halfway through I started throwing up, I also felt like I had fluid in my lungs. That hurt a lot to try and cough up and it hurt worse to try and survive it without doctors. It was more like the flu or pneumonia and it was horrible. When the fever finally broke we started traveling again, we had to move fast so we got on a train that went to Switzerland, not trusting how I would do on a plane. The train ride lasted three days and I almost picked up the fever again but luckily we stopped before then. My recovery was slow going and since we couldn't stop moving I was miserable the entire time. By the time I was almost feeling myself again we were in Bern, Switzerland, three weeks after I first got sick. Needless to say, that was one of the longest three weeks of my life, and I felt pathetic because I couldn't even talk without coughing or stand upright from being so dizzy. I was stuck with the fever till the second week then it finally broke, and I'm not forgetting the time while I was hiding it, that was for the first day before it hit hard. Vivian stayed with me the entire time. I'm surprised she didn't stay away so she wouldn't get sick. Anyways, moving on, we're now in Bern and hiding out in a cheap motel hiding from anyone who looks a little too innocent. We never know who could be working for Black. I'm still not feeling perfect but I'm better than I was. Our hotel is cheap. Like, the room is tiny with cockroaches all over the room, the light is yellow and keeps flickering, the window has blinds and they're broken, the walls and carpet is stained, all in all I'm surprised there's hotels this bad. I've read in books that there's some nasty hotels but I've never experienced one. At least when I choose the hotel it's not a disgusting one. I choose one that seems appropriate for a college trip. Sheldon claims a bed reluctantly and looks over at me in disgust.
"Dude, when's the last time you showered?" I think back trying to remember, but my memory of being sick is so fuzzy I'm not entirely sure. "That's too long. Go shower." He commands. I stare at him mildly amused and slightly confused that he would tell me to do something.
"Can't I at least wait until a decent hotel? I mean. Do we even know if this water is clean? I know I'm not drinking anything that comes from within this building." He has the nerve to glare at me,
"You've been sick Keaton! You need to shower and wash your clothes so you don't relapse. Again." I blink at him,
"I didn't think you cared,"
"I don't. You just slow us down when your sick,"
"Then leave me."
"No, your the most powerful out of all of us,"
"But why keep me around if I'm such a burden to you?"
"But you're not, you're not a burden. You're really smart. You lead us,"
"No, Michael leads you. He just follows me"
"Same difference,"
"No it's not, you all look up to Michael. He's good and knows how to help, meanwhile I'm just someone who notices things and has a useful power. Hes a leader, I am not." He sighs and rubs his temples as he wonders how I can be so stubborn.
"Just go take a shower, you stink." I chuckle,
"Didn't realize you smelled me," I tease.
"I didn't have to be next to you," he teases back at me. I smirk and shrug. I walk into the bathroom with my backpack and look around. It's disgusting. Everything is moldy and yellow, the sink drips, the shower head- well there is no shower head. Great. Just awesome. This is gonna be fun. Note the sarcasm. I can already feel my chest tightening at the idea of taking a bath. My skin feels clammy and my lungs tighten at the memory of drowning. My throat closing, water surrounding me, my heart beating hard to compensate for the lack of oxygen, breathing on impulse and coughing up water only to breathe in more. The cool sensation of liquid against my skin, the panic coursing through my veins to compete with the adrenaline, as I realized what was happening. My breathing is fast, too fast. My head is fogging up and vision is closing in darkness. I hear a thud and Sheldon running in. He looks at me in confusion, then looks towards the tub and back at me and realization.
"Panic attack? Because of the threat of a bath?" I glare half heartedly at him. He helps me to sit up again and I move against the moldy wall.
"Can-can't breathe," I force out through hyperventilation. He nods at me.
"I know, try focusing on your breathing instead of thinking about the past alright?" He keeps his tone even like he's talking to a scared child. I'm not a child. I'm just struggling a bit at the moment because the memory of drowning is so recent in my mind. He shifts to cover my vision of the tub which distracts me from the idea of water surrounding me again. His breathing is slow and even and I try to focus on matching it. My heartbeat is irregular and hammers on my chest as if it's going to break out. The idea intrigues me and I focus on trying to calm my erratic heartbeat. My breathing slows, my heartbeat becomes more regular, and I start wheezing. It seems I'm not as recovered as I thought because my lungs are tight and I feel like coughing. Sheldon hears me wheeze and pats my back sympathetically. I sigh and rest my head against the wall and try to keep my coughing inside my lungs. He stands quietly.
"Well, I guess I won't force you to bathe if it means another panic attack." He teases.
"You just had to poke me at a place with no showers," I sarcasm at him. Yes, sarcasm is a verb. Judge me I dare you. Sheldon chuckles,
"We'll, you stink Mr. I've - been - sick - for - three - weeks."
"That's not my fault!" I protest which leads into a coughing fit. He laughs at me and I glare at him.
"Well, you are the one that jumped into the lake without telling us you can't swim," I roll my eyes at him and struggle to my feet. Are legs supposed to feel sore after a panic attack? I guess so since the lack of oxygen would start preserving the blood around the heart and brain first. I clench and unclench my hand to test my hypothesis and find that my hand is sluggish as well. So I was right, the heart stopped pumping blood to the limbs as much to preserve the heart and brain so I would stay alive. Interesting. I remember what Sheldon taunted me with and exaggerate a sigh,
"I'm never going to live that down am I?" He gives me a cheery smile,
"Nope! Especially not with the girls but they may not find it as entertaining as I do." I roll my eyes again.
"Ha ha, let my suffering be your entertainment,"
"I will, thanks!" I glare at him and he seems unfazed, he walks out of the bathroom and I follow him. I lay on my bed, and a familiar ache flows through my body. I sigh quietly and relax into the bed. A spring pushes into my back, what a cheap old bed. Sheldon turns out the light, "now that you can't shower how about you go ahead and sleep?" I laugh humorlessly.
"I'll try but I make no promises. This bed is wildly uncomfortable for a hotel." He smirks and climbs into his own bed. I know he's still trying to distract me and keep me from falling back into panic and I'm grateful because my lungs still feel so tight and are easy to clench. My thoughts replay what happened as I fall into a light sleep.

(2093 words)

I have to say, sick Keaton is one of my favorites. He finally lets some of his walks down and his true personality shows. There's a lot of time skipped here but to be fair he was very drugged because of being sick. If you remember everything that happens when your sick comment and tell me about it!