ZAK POV
I step out the shower and was instantly alerted to the smoke alarm screaming through my house. With tiredness and a splitting headache, I secure the towel around my waist and head straight for the kitchen.
Upon entering the kitchen, I'm met with a mass of smoke that has engulfed the kitchen and Katy as she stands over the pan in a complete trance.
"Katy!" I shout, regretting it instantly as she jumps and looks at me in fear.
Her eyes then move to the smoke cloud above us and before I can tell her no, she's grabbed the pan.
"AHH!" She cries dropping it into the sink and clutching her hand.
I shoot to her side and take hold of her wrist as I put on the tap and push her hand under it. She instantly begins squirming and struggling against me.
"It hurts! Stop it!"
"I know, I know but if I don't then your hand is going to continue to burn, we have to cool it down quick." I respond looking at her red palm, filled with anger.
Her struggling doesn't stop and I'm eventually forced to pin her to the kitchen sink, just so that her hand remains under the water. "Zak." She moans as her face contorts in pain.
"I know baby. Just trust me." I sooth rubbing her back whilst my other hand remains on her wrist.
"What were you doing anyway?" I ask looking at her face.
"B-Breakfast? Is it time for breakfast?" She asks causing my heart to weaken.
"We've had breakfast remember?" I question.
"We have? But why am I still hungry?" She responds.
I shake my head and wonder why too, when she ate twice as much as me and ate the bacon off my plate without realising it.
When I finally see some improvement in the redness, I take her hand away and grab the first aid box from the cupboard, guiding her to take a seat on the bar stool. "You're lucky, it hasn't done much damage but it will be sore."
Katy nods.
As I'm wrapping her hand up she gasps "Gracie?! Is she okay?! Where is she?"
"She's at my moms.. Remember?"
Katy smiles "Oh yeah. Ha. Silly me."
I try not to worry but I can't help feel my anxiety grow in my chest. "There we go." I smile pressing a kiss on top of the bandage. "All better."
"Well it was silly to leave a pan on. Honestly Zak, you need to be careful."
I blink as she slips off the stool and heads towards the door. "Goodnight."
My eyes are still locked on the kitchen door, long after she has left wondering what the hell to do. Should I be ringing Billy? Or the hospital? Is this one of her episodes?
I spend the morning on my phone looking up symptoms and problems that occur with Katy's condition, some relate and some don't, leading me to think that perhaps she is just tired after her walk last night.
So when Bacon turns up with the RV, I'm more than surprised to see Katy excited and back to her normal self.
"What's up man?" Bacon asks as we load up the RV.
I look back to the house "Something isn't right.. I have this feeling. In my gut.."
"With who? Katy or a feeling in general?"
I shrug not wanting to admit that my concern for her was building by the hour.
"Zak?" Katy speaks making me crane my head back to the house.
"Yes?"
"Did you pack all your inhalers?"
I smile slightly seeing the old katy "Yeah, I have them."
"Okay.. Hey what time does Nick's flight land? We should be at the airport by now right?" She asks.
I see Bacon straighten up slowly and look between myself and Katy. "Dude.."
"Don't." I warn him.
"He's not coming on this one. Get your bag." I encourage making her nod and disappear.
I sigh and lean against the RV rubbing my face. "Fuck man. I don't know what to do."
"Maybe getting her out the house will help? You know, routine with work, maybe it will click into place?" He suggests.
"Maybe.." I trail off.
Sleep.
Maybe that was key to getting Katy in the right frame of mind as I watch her sleep on the bed. She had curled up as soon as she got on the RV and had been fast asleep since. Through a fear, I had been checking on her every few minutes, from putting my finger under her nose, to checking her pulse and even checking her temperature with the back of my hand.
"Dude.. You're going to put yourself in an early grave." Bacon spoke as I sat back down in the passenger seat and looked back at her.
"I know.. I just. I can't stop the worry."
"You're going to have to, if you wanna work." Bacon responded.
"For once, work is the last thing on my mind." I replied looking back to Katy again.
+++
After 13 solid hours of driving and checking on Katy, we pull into a diner in Wolf Creek, Oregon.
Seeing Dakota, Aaron, Billy and Jay, I begin to worry about Katy as she sits on the couch with headphones in. I knew then I should have text one of them with what has been happening, but the idea of Billy being on my case as well as Katy's, led me to the decision of just keeping quiet..
I stand up and head over to her, removing the earphone gently from her ear. "Want some food?"
She thinks about it before smiling "Yeah. Hey are we here now?"
"Absolutely, the crew is outside."
She grins and ditches her phone into her bag before following after me as I open the door.
As soon as we step off, Katy grabs my elbow and looks around us "Where are we?"
"Oregon."
"Right.. Hey Aaron is from Oregon too."
"That's right."
She smiles and trails off greeting the team as I follow, my eyes catch Billy's as he narrows his glare at me before heading inside the diner.
7 of us are sat around a table in the centre of the diner, all chatting amongst ourselves as we wait for our food, Katy had been talking to Dakota with excitement and he seemed to make her laugh quiet alot. Whilst I was grateful, I was also becoming jealous as she completely ignored my tries at talking to her, in favour of speaking about some show both Katy and Dakota watch.
Waitresses appear with our food setting them down on the table and giving us all a friendly smile before leaving us. My eyes look to Katy who's head is cocked to the side watching one waitress that had put my food down and gave me a wink. Despite her indepth conversation with Dakota, Katy had picked up on that.
"You okay?" I ask her softly.
"Hm. Um.. I have a question." She speaks shifting closer to me. A movement both Bacon and Billy don't miss.
"What's wrong?"
"Who is that man?" She whispers.
I follow her eyes and see that she is talking about Jay. "That's Jay, he has been here a while. He does our sound. Jay Wasley."
Jay looks up hearing his name and gives Katy a smile "Right.. Jay. Jay." She repeats before looking back to her plate.
We are mid way through our dinner, surrounded by people when Katy stands up. She rubs her temple slightly before leaving us, to go to the bathroom. Within 5 minutes she is back and continues to eat her food when she grabs hold of her drink spilling it down her shirt.
"Shit." She cusses and grabs hold of a napkin trying to dab it dry. Her seat moves back and before any of us are quick enough to stop her. She pulls her top off..
I fly up from my seat, pulling my coat around her as she frowns. "What's wrong?"
"Babe. Just push your arms in the sleeves."
"Well I'm not cold. I don't want your coat." She frowns.
"I know. But we are out right now. Put it on for me.."
I know everyone in the diner is looking at us and why wouldn't they? A woman just took her top off in the middle of dinner. Standing in her bra to assess the stain on her shirt. None of them knew she was ill.
Eventually her arms slide down the sleeves and I zip it up quickly before grabbing the keys off Bacon and lead her out the diner towards the RV. "But I'm not done?! I'm still hungry!"
"We need to get you a shirt. Come on." I insist pulling her along with me.
Eventually, we leave the RV with a fully dressed Katy, in fact, I made her put on two shirts and hoody before even letting her out.
"Oh hey Bill." She smiles and walks back towards the restaurant when I'm confronted by him.
"You better start speaking.. Now."
"Well can I at least make sure she is okay first?" I ask and head to the diner as well.
I catch Bacon's attention and signal for him to watch her whilst I talk with Billy.
"What the hell is going on?"
I take a seat on the wall outside the diner and shake my head "I don't know man. Remember I told you that she was sleep walking?"
He nodded.
"Well last night I got a call and she was down at the main gates, security stopped her, but she was completely out of it. I mean fast asleep. It wasn't until I had her in the car that she woke up and freaked out thinking that she was in the crash still. Then this morning, we had breakfast and she ate loads, also ate my food and then when I was in the shower, she decided to make breakfast because she couldn't remember eating it, the smoke alarm started going off and that's when she grabbed the pan and burnt her hand. She's already asked me when Nick is arriving and she didn't have a clue who Jay was and you've just seen the lastest one.." I gesture to the restaurant.
"What the fuck have you done to her?!" He snaps.
My eyes shoot up "I haven't done anything! She was fine and then all of this started happening! Is it one of her episodes?"
"I don't know, she had a few moments but never to this stage. Have you rang a doctor?"
I shook my head "I thought it might be because she is tired, but she's slept most of the way here."
"Shit.. Shit!" He cusses.
"Just tell me what I am suppose to do Bill, I- Look man I know I'm not in your best books right now but I care about her too much to lose anything else of her. Please!" I beg.
He turns and pulls his phone out. "Get in there and keep an eye on her. I better ring her doctor and see what he says. But if she has to go back to Vegas-"
"Then I'll leave straight away." I answer instantly.
He nods and walks away to make the call, leaving me to slip inside the diner and join the rest of them at the table. It takes a while but Billy comes back and sits down at the table smiling across at her.
"You okay?" He asks.
"I'm good. You?"
He nods. "Yeah. Awesome."
Katy goes back to eating when Billy shoots me a look and shakes his head at me.
"Hey, where's Nick?"
My heart drops and I look over to her and find she's none the wiser about anything that has been happening. I was loosing her again and there wasn't a damn thing I could do to stop it...