Counting Paths

Chapter 21.

The next day...
Russell and I share uneasy glances as Sterling groans and props herself on her elbows. We're standing on either side of the bed, caging her in so doesn't attempt to crawl away again. "Kid, if you're not going to eat, then get some rest," I tell her. She hasn't eaten anything all day and in the last few hours she's been so dangerously goofy, it's annoying. I stepped away from her for two minutes to use the bathroom, and when I came back, she was dangling head-first off the bed.

"I want to take a shower!" She demands.

"You can't stand for more than three minutes!" I argue.

"Then a bath! I want to take a bath...and I want to watch Ice Age-the dinosaur one! The one with Buck!" She bursts into laughter and collapses flat on the bed again. "Rudy!"

"Sterling, go to sleep."

"Bath."

I look at Russell. "You wanna try?"

"I got it!" She abruptly jolts up, makes a face like she just swallowed puke, then a dazed grin spreads across her face. "I'll take a nap in the bath!"

"No!" Russell and I yell in unison.

She flinches...then she begins to cry.

"Jesus!" I press the palm of my hands to my temples as if that would actually stop my headache. Then the idea comes to me. "Watch her!" I order Russell. "I'll be right back!"

I rush out of the room and downstairs to the living room where Kevin, Luna, and Moose are on the couch. I call Moose. She jumps up and bolts to me. I allow her to go upstairs, and she barks happily before running away. I grab my laptop, assuring Kevin and Luna everything's fine, then I follow Moose.

Ten minutes later, Sterling and Moose are cuddled up on my bed, watching Ice Age on my laptop. Russell takes this opportunity to call the other two upstairs and pull me into the hallway. The four of us stand outside my closed bedroom door.

"I thought you said everything was fine," Luna says to me.

"It is."

"For now," Russell cuts in. "But Sterling needs to go to the hospital. I touch her forehead and she's warm, but her temperature is now a hundred and four. I didn't know that was possible. Now she's acting strange."

"No hospital," I growl. "She just needs another day or two to feel better."

"Her temperature is a hundred and four, boss, a hundred and eight can kill someone-"

"So we get her to take medicine."

"Oh, because that went so well last time," Kevin mutters. I get his frustration. Almost every time Sterling threw up, he had to clean it.

"Can you go to the medical room and grab what we need?" I ask him. He nods almost reluctantly and asks Luna to go with him. They walk away together. "She'll fight through this," I tell Russell.

"A hundred and eight," he reminds me.

"Don't think just because Sterling cares about you that I won't make your life a living hell outside this house. You don't have a fucking magic bubble around you, so watch yourself."

He looks away. "Yes, sir."

Kevin and Luna return almost as fast as they left. I decide to try the pills first. I remind Luna to wait out here and the three of us enter my room...

...only to find Sterling sleeping.

Luna insists I should go lie down and get some proper rest since Moose is with Sterling and Russell and Kevin can check on her. I don't see how I can argue, I probably got three hours of sleep in the last thirty hours. She takes my hand and leads me to Sterling's room, which I don't know how she knows where it is.