Birdie

22. Shiggles

She missed riding home from work with Chance. There wasn't anyone else to talk to, and having the radio on to fill the silence wasn't the same. Carmen couldn't wait to get home and see him, and the twenty minute drive felt like twenty years without their playful banter.

The apartment was dark when she walked in at seven fifty after having worked a few hours of overtime. The sky outside was a heavy blue that would fade to black with time, but the curtains were drawn, so that didn't count for anything when Chance only bought black-out curtains. It was a chilly night, and Carmen expected the house to be warm and toasty, but when she entered, it was just as cold as it was outside because the windows were up.

What the hell?

He was curled up on the lower half of the couch in the fetal position, and that made Carmen frown. Chance slept wild, every limb going a different direction, and he usually slept on his stomach. He didn't snore, but that night, he was.

"Chancellor?" Carmen squatted down next to him, and tapped his bare arm. He didn't move, so she called his name, louder, shaking his arm as she did so. His skin was burning up in a way that scared Carmen, and when he sat up with a groggy,"What?" Carmen knew that he was sick.

"Are you feeling okay? You're burning up." She pressed the back of her hand against his cheeks, then his neck, and finally his forehead, before standing up, and walking towards her bathroom. As she left the living room, she flicked the light switch next to the hall entrance, and listened to Chance's hiss of shock when she did so. Who knew how long he had been in the dark.

In the medicine cabinet, Carmen pulled out the bottle of Nyquil, along with another fever reducer, then went under her sink, and pulled out her thermometer before heading back to Chance. When she sat down next to him, he shook himself from the trance he seemed to be in, staring blankly across the room as his body trembled, and now that the light was on, Carmen could see the sheen of sweat that covered his upper torso.

"Open up," She commanded as she held the thermometer poised in front of his mouth until he did as she said, staring at her with that dazed, glassy look to his gaze.

97.

98.

99.

100.

101.

"Oh no," Carmen mumbled as she watched the temperature reading rise to 102, stay there, and then rise again. It didn't stop until it got to 103.9.

"What?" Chance asked as she pulled the thermometer from his mouth.

Carmen told him his temperature, then watched his eyebrows raise in shock, "How long have you been feeling bad?"

Chancellor shrugged as he leaned back into the couch, "I dunno. Few days, I think.... No a week. Just figured I had a cold because I was out workin' in the rain."

That's probably why he had been sleeping so much, but Carmen had brushed it off, thinking he had just overworked himself once more.

"Take this,"

Chance immediately shook his head, and pushed the fever reducer away from him with a scowl, "No. I'll just drink some water, put that up."

Drink some water?

"What the fuck is water going to do?" Carmen snapped as she uncapped the medicine and filled the top with the amount to match his weight. He'd have to throw back two little cup-fulls to get the desired reaction. Carmen always forgot how big he was until she did something like that.