Adopted by Hamilton

Chapter 123 - Home Sick

"Abigail, sweetheart, wake up." I felt an arm on my arm, shaking me awake, "Niñita it's 10:30."

"I'm, up, I'm up." I turned over, weakly pushing myself up in bed, my throat was painfully dry, and my voice weak, and my hair stuck to my sweating forehead. I was sick, I mean, I had had a cough and sore throat for a couple days now, so, I wasn't surprised.

"Kiddo it's 10:30, you okay? You look, like, you died." He said, sitting on the edge of my bed.

"No, it's okay, I'm just sick that's all." I said, moving my hair off of my forehead.

"You're sick?" He asked, immediately replacing my hand on my forehead with his. "Oh crap you have a fever." He said quickly.

"It's okay, I've been sick for a couple days." I said.

"A couple of days?" He asked, tucking loose strands of hair behind my ear. "Why didn't you tell me?" He asked, seeming genuinely confused. I didn't get it, it was probably just a bug, should go away in a couple days, not a big deal.

"I didn't realize I was supposed to say anything, it's not like I needed medical treatment, I have a cough."

"Generally kids tell their parents when they're sick." He said.

"I didn't know that." I admitted, hanging my head a little.

"You're saying you never told anyone when you got sick?" He asked.

"Well, when I was really little I used to tell my, um, I used to tell Ryan and Linda, but Ryan kept telling me to suck it up, that there wasn't anything I could do but wait it out. They got annoyed whenever I said anything, and well, since then, I just don't tell people unless it's serious, and it's never been serious." I shrugged.

"Well, you're supposed to tell your parents, we can help, and you get sick day benefits, so, I'm gonna try and make you soup, and you're going to sit at the couch with five or six blankets, and you're going to watch old Disney movies. Come on." He grabbed my arm, and started pulling me out of bed. Eventually, I managed to get up, and he led me out of my room and into the living room. "Now sit." He instructed, gesturing to the couch, I sat down, trying not to laugh at Lin being all dad-like. Just as I was thinking this he pulled blankets over me. "I think this is how I deal with a fever. Right?" He asked himself. "Oh crap I don't know what I'm doing."

"No, it's okay, I don't know what you're supposed to do either." I tried to reassure him.

"So, like, no one has ever taken care of you when you were sick?" He asked, sitting down next to me on the couch, "no one made you soup, or brought you more tissues, or made you specially timed meals because you can't eat?" He asked.

"I don't know people did that." I admitted.

"What did people do?" He asked, obviously concerned.

"Ryan and Linda would occasionally keep me home from school, if it was obvious I was sick. But, none of the foster parents did anything about it, kinda just looked the other way."

"They wouldn't even keep you home from school?" He asked. "What if you were contagious?" He asked.

"If I was contagious, I would be sent to the nurse, who would call my parents, they alway had some excuse, like, I'm in a meeting, or something like that, then depending, I would go back to class or sit in the nurses office all day. "

"Okay, well, that's gonna change." He said, getting up from the couch. He walked over to the TV, "Hercules or Mulan?" He asked.

"Um," I had thought for maybe 4 seconds before he cut me off.