Together (Demi Lovato Adoption)

Chapter Sixty-Two

ELLIE'S POV

"Baby girl," I felt myself being shaken awake by my mother, whose weight was making my body dip towards her involuntarily as she ran her finger up and down the arm that had fallen right beside her thigh. "Wake up, you can go back to sleep in the car, alright?"

"No," I groaned, turning myself back over so I wasn't facing Demi anymore. "It  sleepy time."

"El, I'm not gonna be able to get away from the studio at all until 9pm. It's 6am right now, you'll be home alone for too long." 

"Too early," Whining, I pulled my covers up over my head with small whimper. "I want to sleep."

"I know I was horrible and I did it in the past, but I really don't want to leave you here all alone. Not for that long."

"But I wanna stay and sleep!"

"Ellie, I told you — actually, you know what? You can stay here only if Marissa is able to come over and watch you."

I didn't respond as I felt myself drifting back into a state of unconsciousness, my head sinking into the pillow as I fell back to sleep once again, not even noticing when Demi got up off of the bed and kissed my forehead with a whispered goodbye as she left the house.

♡○♡○♡

The smell of something cooking in the kitchen woke me from my slumber as I blinked my eyes open, the light peeking through my blackout curtains making my head sear in pain and my eyes burn. I was suddenly made aware of the nauseated feeling that was living within my abdomen and the sweat beads that had caked my body during my sleep, not to mention the fact that my throat was hurting so badly that it hurt to breathe. I cried out as pain erupted throughout my entire body, tears rolling down from the corners of my eyes onto my cheeks as I clenched my body into a ball.

"Lovato, Marissa says you need to wake up to take your meds and — holy shit, what's wrong?"  Grace came over to me with a concerned expression as she noticed the pained expression on my face, only intensifying with movement. "What hurts?"

"Everything," I whimpered, dragging my palms down my sweaty and tearstained cheeks as I hugged my blanket to my chest. "I feel like fucking shit."

Grace placed a hand to my forehead before taking it away quickly, clearly even more worried now by the way she pulled the blankets off of me much to my dismay. 

"Grace," I said angrily. "I'm cold!"

"Elle, you're burning up, like really bad. Come downstairs with me, you've gotta see Marissa. You might need to go to the doctor like. . . now."

"Nooo," My words dragged out in a longwinded whine as Grace attempted to help me sit up. "No, it hurts." 

"Can I carry you then?"

I simply nodded as that was the only thing I could bring myself to do, allowing Grace to pick me up and hold me, her arms supporting my body as the two of us made our way downstairs, my eyes resting shut as opening them was too much effort. 

"Marissa? I think Ellie's sick. She's really, really hot." Grace called out to the blonde headed woman, who poked her head through the gap that connected the kitchen to the dining room. "Do we have a thermometer?"

"Oh Ellie," Marissa frowned as she saw me, her sympathetic nature getting the best of her as she raced over to me, taking me out of Grace's arms and transferring me to hers. "What hurts?"

"My throat and my head. I feel sick in the stomach. All my muscles are aching, Rissa."

"Alright sweetie, it's okay. Come on, you can lay on the couch." Marissa decided, biting her lip with worry. "Grace, could you get me her meds and some water please. Or even some sprite if it's there — it'll stop her from feeling sick. And yeah, there's a thermometer underneath the sink in Demi's bathroom."

As Grace fetched what Marissa had asked her to get, the older woman attempted to pry the robe that I had fallen asleep in last night. I had nothing but a singlet on underneath and didn't exactly want to be stripped of my sleeves when I knew what was living underneath. I kept tossing and turning away from Marissa as she fought with me, but I wasn't giving up that easily.

"Bug, come on, I need to get your body temperature down." Marissa reasoned, taking the thermometer from Grace before placing it underneath my tongue. "Shit. 104.8." Ellie, the robe has to come off.'

"I'm cold!" It wasn't a lie — I was freezing. "I want it on."

"Elle, if you're fighting it because of — you know — please don't. I'm not going to judge you or anything, and I'm sure Marissa won't either." Grace said gently, a frown on her face as she looked at Marissa, searching for confirmation that she too knew what she was hinting at. 

"Grace is right Ellie. You know I'm not going to judge you." Marissa started. "We just want to get you better, and making yourself overheat when you have a fever this high really isn't good."

I finally stopped fighting against Marissa as she pried my robe from my body, covering me with a thin blanket after taking into account my complaints of being cold. I was still uncomfortable and let out a loud whine when I swallowed my medicine for the day along with some cold and flu tablets that would hopefully help.

"Hey Dems," I looked to Marissa, who had her phone pressed against her ear before taking it away and putting it on speaker. "You're on speaker."

"Hey Mar," Demi responded, the sound of Oak and Sam gigging about something being the only thing that registered in my foggy brain. "Is everything okay? I can't talk for long, I have uh. . . three minutes until I have to go into another meeting."

"Listen, Ellie's got a really high fever and isn't well at all. I just thought I'd let you know because if it gets any higher, I'm taking her to the hospital."

"Shit," Demi cursed, her playful and lighthearted tone switching to a more serious one. "Do you need me to come home?"

"I've got it under control. Worst case scenario she has to go to hospital, I'll call your mom or Dallas to come with us so that they can't refuse her care because she's not got a relative to sign off on forms and stuff."

"Her temperature can't be that high can it? She seemed fine this morning," Demi said. "What's it at?"

"Demi, it's really high. It's nearly at 105⁰F."

"Oh fuck -- yes, I know theres a meeting! I just need one more minute, god!" Demi cut herself off as she told off one of her managers and asked for some more time.

"Momma?" I rasped out, my throat burning with every sound. "When you get home. can we cuddle in your bed?"

"Yeah my baby girl, we can cuddle in my bed. I love you okay? I'll talk to you later."

As Marissa hung up the phone, Grace went upstairs to get my pillow from my bed while Marissa came closer to me, a "we need to talk" look on her face.

"Ellie," She began. "When was the last time you self-harmed? Honestly."

"End of April," I mumbled. In my delirious state, I couldn't even try to lie if I wanted to. "I'm tryna stop."

"Good," Marissa squeezed my hand gently. "I love you Ellie. You know you can call me whenever you need me."

"I know Rissa." I pulled Marissa's hand up to my head and gestured for her to play with my hair, hoping the comforting gesture would help me feel better. "Luf -- love you m-most."

Hi! 
Shorter chapter today, but still an important one... heheh you'll seeeeeee
I hope you all enjoy, please let me know what you think!
Izzy