From another point of view (Outtakes from 'Trust me')

Outtake #1: Because ice would melt

The moment we entered the living room where Jasper, Alice, and Esme were waiting for us, Jacob woke up. Our discussion needed to be quick; the boy was already trying to gain my attention through his thoughts, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold him off for long.

“What do you think, Carlisle?” I asked my father.

Carlisle was rubbing his temples with his fingers as he considered ways we could determine how serious Jacob’s fever was.

“You will need to take his temperature, or rather, he will need to; if the thermometer makes contact with your skin, it will bias the reading.”

“Right,” I agreed, then immediately ran into our kitchen and raided through the first aid kit for a thermometer. Finally my fingers grasped around the thin, plastic container which housed the glass instrument I was looking for. Carefully I held it in my hand, and then returned to the living room.

“Without knowing the severity of his fever, I cannot determine the best course of action. So, please ask Jacob to place the thermometer under his tongue, make sure he extracts it from his mouth so he can read the scale before returning it to you. Finding out his average core body temperature is also important. If he is more than 2 degrees warmer than he should be…” Carlisle sighed, Esme reached over to rub her husband’s back. “We will need to act quickly.”

I was about to ask my father what we would do in the worst case scenario when I heard Jacob’s thoughts force their way into my mind; I had been trying to ignore him during my important conversation with Carlisle, but now his requests were impossible to disregard.

“Jacob is calling for me; he wants me to turn the air-conditioning up,” I reported to my family.

“It’s on 10 degrees!” Alice protested. “That is cold for a human,” she insisted.

“Evidently not cold enough for a feverish wolf,” Jasper hissed rather uncharacteristically, and I could tell Jacob’s irritation was starting to influence Jasper through his gift. “I hope his fever doesn’t last for long,” Jasper vocalised, his eyes tense. I placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“I will assist him as fast as I can,” I promised my brother as I stood up and ran up the stairs to Carlisle’s office, the thermometer safe in my hands.

Jacob glared at me when I entered the room; he wondered what took me so long, and he was annoyed that the air-conditioning had not been turned up like he asked. But I ignored him. Upon closer inspection, he was still completely drenched in sweat.

This was serious.

But I maintained my composure and showed Jacob the thermometer.

“Do you know what this is?”

Jacob narrowed his eyes at the small glass tube, and then at me.

“Of course not; I’ve never been sick in my life,” he snapped at me, thinking that I would consider him stupid for not knowing the function of the instrument in my hand.

I ignored his sarcasm, and pressed on, quickly explaining the function of the thermometer and the reason why I wished for him to use it.

Naturally, Jacob wanted to know why he would even have a fever. It pained me to outline our reasons, knowing that Carlisle could hear me, and would once again feel guilty for not considering the value of nutrients to one’s immune system. Once he understood our reasoning, the boy started rattling off multiple ways to reduce his body heat; it was so obvious (to all of us) that he had a fever that he found the thermometer unnecessary. Apparently getting better was as simple as turning the air-conditioning down to 5 degrees or chucking a bucket of ice on him. As much as I wished things were that simple, I knew they couldn’t be; the heat radiating off him was significantly higher than normal, but how much higher I wouldn’t know until Jacob took his temperature. The air-conditioner could be reduced to a lower temperature as he requested, but it would take time to be effective... perhaps more time than he could afford. And as for the ice… it would be useless; it would melt. Therefore, neither idea was a viable option given his current state.