My Christmas Star ( A Santa Clause Story Ft Bernard x OC)

Chapter 8: Expression

It's been raining a lot lately since it turned from February to March and I've been kind of afraid to go outside. Even though I absolutely love it when it rains, I need to take precautions. I've already had the flu and bronchitis, I didn't want to catch anything that could be worse than those two. But, of course...it ended up happening anyway.

I was working a night shift Friday night at Osso Buco. It had been storming all night and we got really busy due to the fact that people like to eat our soup when it's raining. Speaking of which, I could really go for a bowl of Bernard's Chestnut soup, even though I'm not sick at the moment. Or...not yet.
It was starting to get pretty overwhelming. People were going on a forty-five minute wait just to get sat. I decided to suggest people to go to Olive Garden to avoid a wait since they also have soup as well.
Once we got the lobby emptied, I started to feel a pain in my chest. I winced and rubbed my chest with my hand.
"You okay?" my coworker, Julie asked.
"I think I'm coming down with something again," I said.
"Again? This is the third time in the last three months," Julie said in a concerned tone.
"Yeah, I know. I think I need to get to the hospital. It feels worse than what I've gotten before," I said, taking a seat at one of the lobby seats.
"I'll get a manager and have them check you out," Julie said before she left the host stand. I sat there for a minute and massaged my chest. I tried not to breathe in too deeply but because of that, I was restricting the blood flow to my brain and I began to feel dizzy again. In order to avoid another fainting episode I placed my hand on my diaphragm and looked up and inhaled through my mouth. It helped with the dizziness a little bit. Just then, my manager, Janet came into the lobby.
"Stella, are you okay?" she asked, kneeling down to my level.
"I think I need to get checked in to the hospital," I wheezed. "It hurts to breathe."
"Do you need someone to drive you? Do you need an ambulance?" Janet asked.
"I think I might need an ambu–"
I accidently inhaled a little too deeply, which caused the pain in my chest to get worse and I burst into a coughing fit which hurt even more.
"Okay, okay. Julie. Call an ambulance," Janet told Julie.
"On it," Julie said. She grabbed the phone at the host stand and called an ambulance. Soon enough, an ambulance came and the EMTs got me into a stretcher and took me to the hospital.
"Do you want us to call anyone for you, miss?" one of the EMTs asked.
"My dad, Scott Calvin," I replied. I gave her my phone and she called my dad.
"Okay, he said he's on his way. Can you describe the pain on a scale from one to ten?" the EMT asked.
"Eight," I replied with a wheeze.
"Is it only the chest pain and cough or are there other symptoms?" the EMT asked.
"Have you checked for a fever, yet?" I asked. The EMT took my temperature.
"105. That's definitely high," the EMT said.

"Damn, I'm hot," I said, jokingly before going into another coughing fit. I then looked down at my hands. My fingertips were turning blue.
"Uhh," I said, holding up my fingertips.
"Lips and fingertips are turning blue due to lack of oxygen," the EMT announced to the other EMTs. Oh, great...
"Also, rapid breathing, sweating and pulse rate," the EMT said. I hadn't noticed then but I was definitely breathing faster and shallower breaths than normal.
"Oh, jeez. Am I not going to survive this one?" I asked, half-heartedly to the EMT.
"We just need to run a couple of tests to make sure," the EMT said as we arrived at the hospital. The EMTs took me out of the ambulance and wheeled me into the hospital where they took a chest x-ray. Turns out it was double pneumonia, which is worse than regular pneumonia. This definitely wasn't one of the illnesses listed in the manual.

Once I got checked into a room, they immediately started breathing treatments on me. My dad arrived and entered the room.
"Stella! What's going on, sweetie?" my dad asked.
"Double pneumonia. She'll be here for a few days. Maybe a week," the doctor spoke for me before he left the room to give me and my dad some space. I was unable to speak at the moment due to my breathing treatments.
"Oh, no. What am I going to tell your mom?" Dad asked as he buried his face in his hand. The other was holding his briefcase. I shook my head as a way to tell him not to tell her. My dad groaned when he seemed to have understood my gesture. I then looked him up and down. He has put on a few pounds since the last time I saw him. That must mean the transformation is starting to set in for him. I took the ventilator out of my mouth.
"Dad, I'm fine. Just don't let mom know. She's already stressed enough," I said before I went into a coughing fit.
"She's going to find out eventually. The hospital sends her the bills, remember?" my dad said. "Fine, but just tell her I got pneumonia by playing in the rain or something. Not just from out of the blue," I said with another wheeze. My dad sighed.
"Fine. This is the last time I'm covering for you," my dad said as he pointed at me. He then got out his phone and called my mom. He stood right next to me so I was able to hear the phone call. I put the ventilator back in my mouth.
"Hello?" I heard my mom's voice. "Guess who's been playing out in the rain a little too much," my dad said.
"Oh, what happened now?" I heard my mother's voice.
"Well, I got a call from the hospital saying our daughter got herself double pneumonia," my dad replied.
"She WHAT?!" my mom screamed. My dad took the phone away from his ear for a moment. "How could you let this happen?" my mom asked. Oh, hear we go...
"I'm sorry. How could I let this happen? It's not my fault our daughter likes to dance in the rain. And it's not like she chose to get sick on purpose," my dad argued.
"Every month for the past three months has always been something different. First the flu, then bronchitis and now this. We need to check her for an autoimmune disorder like Neal suggested or something," my mom said.
"No, no, no. I'm sure this will be the last time. The rain has been dying down, the weather has been getting warmer, I'm sure she'll be fine once this passes on," my dad said.
"But, it's never been this bad. She's only ever gotten a cold during this time of year. It's never been three different serious illnesses in three months. That's just not normal for her," my mom said.
"She's a teenage girl, Laura. Bodies change. You know that," my dad said in my defense.
"You know, what? We'll talk about this later, Scott. I gotta go. You stay there and don't leave her side until Neal and I get there tomorrow morning after we drop Charlie off from school," my mom said. Before my dad said anything else, my mom hung up.