I'm finishing up bagging some teenage girls make-up and hair dye when my phone starts buzzing in my pocket. I sigh softly and put my phone to my ear as the girl is paying. I'm really not supposed to use my phone while working but this is a pretty small store and my boss rarely comes around. Also Asheley would only really call me at work if its important.
"Hey, beautiful, I'm working," I say to Asheley with a small smile on my face.
"Aww, is that your girlfriend?" the girl who's buying stuff asks. I smile and nod lightly.
"Its Lief, I can't get him to stop crying! He thinks you're abandoning him," she says, obviously distressed and anxious.
"Uhm, okay. See if you can get him to like take a nap or something. If not then I guess text me and I'll be home soon?" I tell her.
She sighs. "Baby, I've been trying to get him to sleep for hours but he won't stop until you get here," she shouts a bit. I roll my eyes.
"Put him on the phone," I tell her.
"Aw, do you have a kid?" the girl asks.
I nod again as I hear a whimpering Lief say "Hewwo?"
"Hey, buddy. You okay?" I ask.
"Daddy!" he shouts happily. I smile.
"Hey, mommy told me you were upset?" I ask.
The girl pays before taking her stuff and leaving. I put my phone between my head and my shoulder as I help the next customer.
"Yeah, I-I to-tought you reft me," he whimpers. His speech problems come back when he's been or is crying.
"How could you think that? I love you too much to leave you," I tell him. He sniffles. "I'll be home in a little while, I promise."
"O-otay," he mumbles before Asheley takes the phone back.
"How's Dane?" I ask her.
Asheley tells Lief to go do something before she replies, "Sick as a dog. Poor guy can barely hold down water anymore," she informs me.
"As soon as I get home he's going to the hospital," I tell her.
"I don't know how he'll feel about that but we'll try," she says.
"I have to go now before my line gets too long and my boss catches me. See you in a little while."
-
As soon as I open the door, tiny arms wrap around my legs. I lift the little boy in my arms and he rests on my hip, his arms wrapping around my neck now.
"Hey, how was your day?" I ask him. He squeezes a bit. "You okay?"
"I love you, Daddy," he whimpers.
"I love you too, buddy. Now where's mommy?"
"Checking on uncle Dane," he mumbles. I set him down on the couch before I go to Dane's room.
I see Dane, totally red faced while having a horrible coughing fit and Asheley rubs his back gently.
Soon his coughing stops and he groans as he lays back down.
"Dane, we're going to the hospital," I tell him.
"No, Graham. I'm fine," he argues.
"Dane, you know you're not, now get up and put some pants on so we can take you to the fucking hospital," I argue in a stern tone.
He groans. "I'll be fine in the morning, I promise," he says.
I walk over to him and quickly grab him and sling him over my shoulder, making sure I bend my knees a bit when I walk through the door way so he doesn't hit the top of it.
"So this is what it feels like to be your height," Dane mutters. I chuckle.
I walk into the living room where Lief is sitting on the couch.
"Daddy, what are you doing to uncle Dane?" Lief asks.
"We're going to see a doctor so he can get better. Come on," I tell the boy. He jumps up and runs ahead of me out the door.
Once we get in the car I have Dane in the back seat with Lief in his car seat - also in the back - and Asheley is driving so I sit in the passenger seat. Yeah, I don't really have a license after I crashed a few months ago due to a seizure while on my way home.
We pull into the parking lot of the hospital and I open the back door to where Dane is and I help him out. He wobbles a bit and he looks a little queasy but he still walks ahead of us. Poor guy didn't even get to put pants on so he's just in his boxers now but at least he has a shirt on.
We follow him into the hospital and Dane checks himself in with one of the clerk ladies, his face looking a little green. I rub his shoulders gently while he sits in one of the chairs in the waiting room.
Dane's POV
I'm sitting in a chair in the waiting room, my stomach super upset and letting me know I might explode at any minute. Graham stands behind me, rubbing my shoulders when suddenly his hands grip me tight. I groan as I look up at my best friend to see him biting his lip so hard blood tickles down his chin and his face is blank.
"Graham?" Asheley says quietly as he starts shaking a bit and seeming to choke a little on his breath so I quickly lay him down on the ground and he soon starts full out seizing. He grunts and foam leaks from the corners of his mouth.
I hear a nurse come up behind us and call for some things as she quickly moves to the man on the ground.
"How long has he been seizing now?" the nurse asks as she feels his pulse.
"Maybe a minute now?" Asheley replies.
"Is he epileptic?"
"Yeah, and his meds are messed up," I mutter.
I feel Graham grab my knee tightly as he continues to violently shake and tense.
I see Lief hide his face in Asheley's chest as he sits in her lap but I see him glance at Graham every so often.
A few other nurses rush in the room and they struggle to intubate Graham so he can breathe before they give him a shot and soon he's calming down but his leg still twitches a bit. The first nurse is handed a rag and she wipes the blood off his face from his earlier bite.
"Graham?" Asheley says softly.
I watch as Graham struggles to take in a breathe, his body still shaking a little bit. He seems to be waking up but his eyes flutter for a bit.
Eventually he slowly opens his eyes and looks around and a groan is emitted from him before he coughs a bit from the thing down his throat which is pulled out once he starts breathing on his own.
"Graham, baby, can you hear me?" Asheley asks as she runs her fingers through his hair. He reaches up slowly and puts his hand on hers.
The room goes quiet except the sound of my stomach grumbling dangerously and I bolt to the bathroom.
