Oblivion

Chapter Six - The Night is young

Third Person

Vito continued to hold the little girl in his arms, feeling her collarbone beneath him with concern. Once she was with them, the first thing they would take care of was her weight, he decided grimly. And a therapist. And the custody matters.

"Okay," Josephine said, unconsciously leaning more on Vito.

"Okay," Vito repeated. He looked at his brother, who stood unchanged where he had been the whole time. Domenico looked from him to Josephine and his gaze became inscrutable. Whatever was going on in his mind, he didn't show it. Vito, on the other hand, was relieved that Josephine wanted to stay voluntarily because the alternative would have been to force her and he was reluctant to do that. He knew how much work would lie ahead of them, but he had no doubt that they could manage to do it.

Someone disturbed their mild moment of peace by knocking at the door and entering into the room without even waiting. "Hey sweetie, I just wanted to check your vitals and look what I found in our kitchen.", smiling, the nurse from before pulled out a pudding from behind her back while trying to completely ignore the two men. She didn't miss the girl's swollen eyes and the soaked shirt of Mr. Marini, but she also didn't miss the little girl leaning against him. She also didn't look as scared as before, which really reassured the nurse. The whole time she had struggled with herself because she had left the child alone with the two men and had constantly kept an eye on the monitors from her place. She was about to go to her twice, but her pulse had regulated itself each time. "How are you feeling?" she asked as she handed her the pudding.

"Thank you. I feel good.", the girl responded shyly.

"I'm glad to hear that. If you feel tired, you should really try to sleep. Your body just needs a lot of strength right now and that can be very exhausting. May I take your temperature?" She deliberately decided not to take a rectal measurement as to not disturbing the girl any further. "Thanks, sweetie. So it's possible that you'll start shaking very badly later (*). That's completely normal and even good, because then your body will start to fight the hypothermia on its own. You'll need the electric heat blanket for a while, exactly like the infusions here." She pointed with her chin at the bottles that were hanging in a warming box, flowing from there into her arm and at the same time measured her temperature. "Don't worry, the catheter can come out as soon as you can walk safely again. 86°F (30°C), that looks better," she tried to cheer the girl up. Although josephine said nothing, she listened carefully.

"What temperature did she come with?" Domenico chimed in.

"I'm sorry, I'm only allowed to give information to her parents or a legal representative," she replied, more sharply than she had intended.

"That's okay. Just say it," the girl allowed and the nurse tried not to show her increasing confusion about this whole situation.

"She came to us at 84°F (29°C). I know that doesn't sound like much progress, but our goal is 33°F (0.5°C) per hour to avoid organ collapse. This means that a normal temperature should be reached again in about twelve hours." The girl probably didn't realize how lucky she was to have had 'only' grade II hypothermia given her physical condition. Who knows how long the poor girl must have been outside.

"So I'll have to stay here until tomorrow?" the child asked worriedly and began to eat the pudding. 'Very good!' thought the nurse as she saw her patient eating. She could still be wrong, but so far it didn't look like an eating disorder. However, it also meant that she must have lost so much weight due to external circumstances. Did the Marinis have something to do with it?
"I'm even afraid, my heart, it will take a little longer than that. Your circulation should definitely continue to be monitored and your weight worries us. We have also sent a blood sample from you to the laboratory and are expecting the results soon. Depending on how they turn out, it may be necessary to start another treatment."