Don't Talk About Mickey

24 - Super-Posessive

"Carly, wake up."

Carly felt a warm hand cup around her arm, shaking her lightly.

"I think Eliza might have alcohol poisoning. She's really sick."

It wasn't enough to make Carly budge, but she managed to pry her eyes open and find Sebastian sitting on the side of her bed with a worried frown.

"Obviously you don't know my mother very well," Carly said, recalling the many times Eliza drank entirely too much and lived to tell about it.

  

"She's spent the last three hours hugging the toilet."

"What time is it?"

"It's five A.M.," he said. "I've been up all night with her. She's shaking."

"First," Carly said, lamely picking herself off the bed, "we've got to take her to the resort infirmary. They'll have what she needs."

"Okay," he said, yanking her arm. "Come on."

Carly stumbled to her feet and jerked her arm out of Sebastian's grip. "I need to change first!" she said, pointing to the pajamas she had on.

"You look fine, Carly," he growled, sternly grabbing her again and pulling her out of the bedroom. As they made their way across the suite, Carly could already hear the violent gags and moans coming from the master bathroom.

"You might want to cover your nose," Sebastian said, twisting the doorknob to the bathroom.

Carly placed her hand over her nose and mouth and walked inside. Eliza was lying in the fetal position next to the toilet. Her arms clutched her stomach, her lips lazily hung open, and her hair was matted in the back—most likely from Sebastian holding it while she spilled.

"Mom?" Carly lightly called as she hunched over her mother. "Mom, you've got to get up. We need to take you to the infirmary."

"No need," Eliza groaned. "I'll be fine." She was anything but convincing.

"You're going to have to carry her," Carly told Sebastian, who was watching impatiently from the doorframe.

"Okay." He slowly strode across the ceramic floor, carefully sliding his hands underneath Eliza's limp figure. Picking her up bridal style, he maneuvered her carefully through the bathroom door. "Where do we need to go?" he asked.

Since the Jenkins' family trips to Cabo always resulted in one kind of injury or another, Carly knew exactly where the infirmary was—first floor, past the front desk, the second door on the left. So they rushed out of the suit and down the hall to the elevator, where Carly frantically pressed the down arrow button until the metal doors glided open.

Sebastian quickly occupied the elevator and sat Eliza on the floor with her back up against the wall. Carly followed right behind them.

As doors closed and the descent to the lobby floor began, Carly couldn't help but notice the way Sebastian was cradling her mother—carefully and almost...lovingly. It should've made no difference to her, but that was the first time she'd ever seen them remotely intimate.

It hit her like a ton of bricks. And it hurt.

The only thing she could do was fixate her watering eyes on something else—the bent railing on the walls, or the scuff mark just below her bare foot—sparing herself before they reached the lobby and the moment was finally over. She literally gasped for air as they left the suffocating 9x9 elevator.

***

A bath and room service were all Carly could fathom after she left Sebastian and Eliza in the hotel infirmary. After giving the nurse all the information about Eliza, she went back into the hotel suite, sank herself inside the Jacuzzi bathtub, and let the steaming-hot liquid wash away the last hour; or at least she tried, anyway.