Chapter 56

Saturday night Kim was sitting in her office at the hospital. She still couldn’t believe that she blocked Nigel’s attack from her mind and simply forgot it. All the time she was wondering why she couldn’t let Jon come close and the answer was right there. That bastard scared her more than she thought. She sighed and looked at her watch.

Shortly after 2 a.m.

It had been a quiet evening…way too quiet for her taste. It felt like the calm before the storm. She sighed and leaned back in her chair, maybe it was just because she was getting tired of doing this paper work. Another reason why she didn’t like quiet evenings; she had to do all the paper work that came along with her job.

Absently she picked up the phone when it rang.

“Dr. Anderson, children's medical unit.“

“Kimi?” Jon’s voice came from the speaker.

“Hi, baby.” She said with a smile. “Why are you still up? Everything ok?”

“No!” she could hear the concern in his voice. “Nothing is ok. It’s Romeo. He has a high fever…and it’s like…it’s like…” Jon stuttered. She was sure he was standing next to his son’s bed and was watching him.

“Jon, calm down. Take a deep breath and tell me what’s going on.” Kim told him with strict, but soothing voice. She could hear him breathing deeply.

“He has a high fever and nothing we did so far is working. I can’t get a hold of our stupid pediatrician and he’s like…Kim, it’s like he’s falling into coma or something and when he wakes up he’s confused. It really scares me!” She could hear his panic.

“Ok, listen… bring him here. Try to talk to him on the way to keep him awake or better let him tell you about school, what happened during the week. Meet me down at the ER!”

“Ok, we’ll be there in a minute.” He said and hung up.

Kim hurried out of her office. “Fran!” she yelled when she saw her friend at the end of the hall and waved her over.

“Come down with me into the ER, Jon will bring Romeo. He has a high fever and seems to be dehydrated. Jon says he’s barely responding.” She explained.

“Shit!” Fran cursed and they both hurried down the hall to the stairway. The elevators simply took too long.

“Is he having the kids this weekend? Where is his ex-wife?” Fran asked while they were sprinting down the stairs.

“I don’t know where she is. I didn’t ask. All I know is that he wanted to spend the weekend with the kids before the ‘madness starts’ to say it with his words. You know the premiere of the documentary, Album release and performance at New Meadowland Stadium. And now he can’t get a hold of his pediatrician.” Kim answered.

“Oh, I hate those doctors!” Fran cursed with twinkling eyes. Kim shot  her a look.

“Yeah, I don’t like those persons either.” She replied dryly. Her patients could always get a hold of her. Especially as a pediatrician it was very important in her opinion. Parents wanted their sick kid with the doctor they trusted and not a stranger.

They only had to wait for a few minutes, before Jon was racing in with Romeo in his arms and Steph by his side. Kim hurried over to him. His face spoke volumes, he was close to panic. She knew he would only calm down when she could tell him Romeo wasn’t in real danger.

“Hi.” She simply greeted him and turned her attention immediately to the little boy in his arms. Softly she tilted his chin up, so she could look him in the eyes. His face was really warm and he was barely able to hold his head up on his own.

“Romeo. Romeo.” His glassy gaze slowly focused on her. She smiled. “Hi buddy. Do you remember me?” she caressed his cheek gently.

He nodded lightly and whispered “Fire Helicopter” before pressing his head back against Jon’s shoulder. Kim grinned shortly. He remembered what present she gave him the first time they met.

But nevertheless you could see the bright lights and all the noise around him scared him. Light and sound sensitivity typical symptom for high fever, Kim thought.

“How high is his temperature?” she asked Jon.

“103.6°F…the paracetamol and calf packing didn’t help at all.” Jon said worried.

“Ok, I understand. He’s five now, right?” Jon nodded.

“Ok, …Fran…” Her friend stepped closer to her. “We can go up to the children’s medical unit.” Fran nodded and turned to stop one of the elevators for them.

“Kim?” Jon asked nervously.

“I’ll examine him in a minute. Upstairs it’s much calmer, he’ll be more relaxed. Because of the fever he reacts sensitive to the bright lights and the noise here and it’s not that bad that I will need any help from the specialists down here.“ she explained when the elevator doors closed behind them. He sighed relieved.

“So, he’ll be ok again?” Steph asked worried still holding Romeo’s stuffed animal in her hands. Kim smiled at her.

“He’ll be ok again. I’m sure about that. We’ll find out what’s wrong with him and then he gets some medicine and he’ll feel better soon. You’ll see.” She softly squeezed Steph’s shoulder.

“Are you ok, Steph? You are really pale.” Kim asked concerned. Jon’s head snapped to his daughter.

“Babygirl?”

“I’m fine. I just didn’t know what was wrong with him and it was scary when he was so confused and didn’t recognize us.” Steph whispered tears shining in her eyes.

“It’s because of the fever, Steph. It’ll be ok.” Kim explained. The girl nodded sniffing. Even though her brothers were most of the time bothering her, she couldn’t stand the thought of them being sick.

“Oh, baby…it’s ok.” Jon pulled her close with his free arm and kissed her forehead. She nodded and relaxed slowly. Fran smiled at Kim. Jon was the great father she always imagined.

“This way.” Fran said when they reached the children’s medical unit. Jon followed her down the empty hall. Kim was right. It was much calmer up here, the lights in the hall were dimmed and the few people walking around tried to be as quiet as possible. It was evident that the kids on this unit were sleeping.

They entered a small examination room with colorful comic paintings at the walls and an airplane-mobile hanging above the examination couch. Fran dimmed the lights immediately when they entered the room. No need to hurt that little boy more.

“It’s our boys room.” Kim explained smiling. Jon chuckled.

“I see.” And put Romeo carefully down on the couch. The boy was sleeping again and breathing rather normal. That calmed Kim. She was already worried he might also have problems with the breathing.

Gently she pulled the covers from Romeo’s warm body and leaned over him. “Romeo. Wake up.” The boy stirred, but didn’t open his eyes. She looked at Jon.

“Come buddy, wake up.” Jon said and ran his hand through Romeo’s hair. Slowly his son opened his eyes and looked at him.

Kim smiled. “Hi. You are tired right?” Romeo nodded. “Ok, I promise you can sleep again, but before you have to help me a bit, ok?”

“Ok.” He mumbled.

“Good. So, tell me does anything hurt? Your head or your throat maybe. Your stomach?” Kim asked smiling.

“Head and here.” Romeo whispered and touched his throat.

“Your throat hurts?” Kim asked. He nodded sadly. You could see he was not a happy boy right now, but definitely more relaxed than downstairs with all those people around him

“Ok, so let me have a look.” Kim turned around to Fran and she handed her a wooden scoop and a little flashlight.

Romeo frowned and turned his head to hide in his father’s arms. Jon smiled and pushed him back gently. “Come on Ro, you know that.” Jon said and pointed at the small wooden scoop in Kim’s hand.

“I promise it doesn’t hurt Romeo. I will only look.” Kim assured him. “Ok?”

“Mhh.” Romeo nodded and opened his mouth.

“Perfect.” Kim pressed his tongue down a bit and got a good look at his tonsils. They were red, swollen and already had some white pus patches. No wonder the little boy was so down. She knew from own experience that it really hurt. Plus the first signs of dehydration were there as well. His tongue was dry and coated and his lips were rough. She removed the scoop from his mouth.

“See, that was it. Well, done, Romeo.” She compliment him. Jon kissed his cheek.

“Ok, can you sit up once, Romeo. I wanna listen to your heartbeat and your breathing.” Kim said and helped Jon to take off Romeo’s pyjama-shirt. The shirt was soaked with sweat.

“Fran, could you bring us a new pyjama.” Kim said. She nodded.

“Would you like transformers or airplanes, Romeo?” Fran asked smiling.

“Transformers.” He said shyly. Jon smiled.

“You know you won’t get that one back, right?” he said chuckling. Kim’s calm way of examine Romeo assured him that his son wasn’t in real danger and he could finally relax a bit.

“We are prepared for that.” Fran laughed. “I’ll be right back.” Kim nodded and turned her attention back to Romeo.

The breathing was normal. The heartbeat a bit increased, because of the high temperature, but nothing to worry there. Carefully she touched his throat and could feel the swollen tonsils. Romeo pulled lightly back.

“That hurts, right?” Kim asked apologetic. He nodded.

“Can you move your head really far in your neck and look up at the ceiling…” Romeo followed her direction without hesitation. “…good, and now all the way back to the front till your chin is on your chest.” He also did that. “Very good.” No signs for a stiff neck, no signs for meningitis.

“Ok, you can lay down again.” She covered him with his blanket and turned to Jon. “He has a bad Tonsillitis, I would guess because of streptococcal bacteria, but we will know for sure, after we took a swab. His tonsils are really swollen and already have some pus on it…” Jon looked at her shocked.

“…don’t worry, he’ll get some antibiotics and it’ll be fine again in a couple days. But it’s good to know that he reacts so extreme when he says the next time that his throat hurts, make sure he gets the medicine before it turns that bad.”

Fran entered the room again and started to dress Romeo in his brand new transformer-pyjama.

“He didn’t say anything.” Jon said and watched his son lay down again.

“He said it on Friday, before you came over.” Steph said silently. “Mom thought he would be fine again the next day or so. Jesse just had a little cold with pain in his throat, but it was over the next day.” Jon looked at her surprised and Kim could see anger in his eyes.

Kim nodded. “I see, well everyone reacts different to it and when you say Jesse had a cold it can be that Romeo’s immune system was already weak and it hit him harder.” Kim explained.

“She couldn’t know it, Jon.” She added in a low voice, so only he could hear it. He nodded, but he was still a bit angry.

“Why I wanna keep him here, is simply because of his high fever and the first signs of dehydration. We have to make sure he’s getting enough liquid.” Kim continued. Jon nodded.

“How long will he has to stay?” he asked and took his son’s hand. He could see Romeo wasn’t happy about the fact to stay in hospital.

“Well, at least tonight and tomorrow. It depends at bit how much he drinks on his own.” Kim smiled at the boy. “But I can understand that he doesn’t want to swallow right now, it simply hurts.” Jon nodded understanding.

“He didn’t eat much today either.” He said.

“Well, food doesn’t matter for one or two days, but drinking is very important with such a high temperature.” Kim answered.

“I want Mommy.” Romeo suddenly said. Jon leaned down and hugged him and Steph was at his side immediately too.

“Mommy is on the way, I called her. Till she’s here I stay with you, buddy. I won’t leave you alone, ok?” Jon assured him. His son nodded.

“Where’s Floppy?” he whined. Steph held up the little stuffed rabbit.

“He’s right here, Romeo.”

“Want.” He reached out his small hand and Steph handed him the rabbit.