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“Hmm. Let’s get you x-rayed. I want to see what’s going on in there.”
He had to take her arm out of the sling to be able to see all of her lung. It was painful for her, but not like it was before she left the hospital. I stood to the side and tried to help her with the pain as much as I could. It worked better when I could touch her. She didn’t have tears in her eyes this time when I walked back to the table she was lying on. I strapped her arm back in the sling and helped her sit up, so we could put my oversize sweatshirt back on her. At least she’d been staying warmer with the clothes we got her through all this.
Dr. Williams told us to wait in the exam room while he looked at her x-rays. He had a concerned look on his face when he walked back into the room.
“Have you been feeling fatigue lately, Sephie?” he asked, sitting on a stool in front of her.
“She’s done nothing but sleep the past few days. She’s only been awake a few hours each day,” Ivan said. “Literally everything wears her out.”
“She’s also lost her appetite again like she did before when she took pain meds,” Misha said.
“She was starting to breathe better after the first days of being at home, but now she’s struggling to breathe again like she did when she was still in the hospital,” Andrei said.
Dr. Williams looked to Sephie for confirmation of what they’d all just said. She simply nodded her head in agreement. “Any sharp pains in your chest?” he asked as he put a stethoscope on and listened to her breathing.
“Just my ribs.”
“What about a rapid heart rate?” She shook her head no. He wheeled himself to the cabinet on the opposite side of the room, grabbing a needle and syringe. “You’ve got fluid building up in your lung again. I’m thinking you’re in the beginning stages of pneumonia, but I want to run a blood test to make sure it’s pneumonia.” He looked at me, then to each of the guys. “Have you heard her wheezing again when she breathes?”
“No wheezing. She’s coughing again occasionally though. Usually when she tries to talk too much,” Andrei said.
“It’s becoming more frequent,” I said.
Dr. Williams took blood from Sephie’s right arm, then stood up. “I’m going to put a rush on this, so we’ll know for sure whether this is pneumonia. I can send her home with antibiotics, but that’s not going to make her stomach any happier. If the antibiotics don’t begin to resolve it, she’s going to need to be admitted again,” he said as he stepped out of the room.
She had tears in her eyes when I looked down at her. “I don’t want to go back to the hospital,” she said quietly. I pulled her to me, so her head was resting on my shoulder as I wiped away the tears. She closed her eyes, leaning on me. “I’m so tired of this,” she said so quietly that I almost didn’t hear her.
The guys were quiet, not knowing what to say, but clearly worried about her. Sephie sat quietly beside me, with her head on my shoulder until the doctor returned. I thought she might’ve fallen asleep, but she heard him come in the room and lifted her head from my shoulder.
“The good news is it’s pneumonia. That’s also the bad news. I’m going to send you home with antibiotics for now, but I want to see you again in seven days to make sure it’s not getting worse. If you start to have trouble breathing at any point, you need to come straight here. Your lung is still healing and this could cause it to collapse again.” He looked at all of us, saying, “If you hear her start wheezing again, or she has any sharp pains in her chest, her pulse starts racing, she starts turning blue, or has shortness of breath, bring her here.” We all nodded. “The antibiotics will be easier to handle if you can eat something when you take them. Yogurt is usually a good choice, if you can’t manage anything else,” he said, looking back to Sephie. She nodded her head. “On the bright side, your bones look like they’re healing well. How’s your shoulder feel?”
“It’s not as painful when I take it out of the sling now. It still hurts, just less,” she said.
“That will continue to get better. Your ribs look good, but they always take the longest to heal because they’re constantly being moved.” He looked at Ivan. “Seven days, bring her back. Don’t miss a dose between now and then. We hopefully caught this early enough that it won’t progress into something worse that means she has to come back here. Let her rest as much as she needs, but stay diligent about her antibiotics.”
“We’ll take care of her,” Ivan said. The doctor stood up to leave the room. I helped Sephie stand up, then reached down and picked her up. I could feel her exhaustion. She didn’t protest, she just wrapped her good arm around my shoulders and rested her head against my shoulder and neck as we left the hospital.
She was asleep before we made it back to the penthouse. Once we walked in the door, I walked to one of the couches with her. She didn’t even wake up when I pulled her from the backseat. Viktor read the prescription on the antibiotics. “It says she needs to take this every eight hours until she’s out of pills,” he said, taking out two pills from the bottle.
“At least we know she’ll be awake three times a day now,” Misha said as he was looking through the refrigerator. He grabbed a carton of yogurt and a spoon and walked them over to me. Andrei had gotten a glass and was filling it with water for her.
She was still sound asleep in my arms. “Sephie, love, you need to wake up,” I said, brushing my hand across her cheek. She started to eventually stir, then opened her eyes. She looked momentarily confused before saying, “I fell asleep again, huh?”
“You were out almost before we left the hospital, princess,” Ivan said, softly.
“You need to take your first dose of antibiotics, gazelle. Then you can go back to sleep if you want to,” Misha said, grinning at her.
She made the move to sit up slowly. I helped her, but she was getting stronger on her own. “I wouldn’t exactly say that I want to go back to sleep, but that seems to be all I can manage right now,” she said, taking the pills from Viktor and the glass of water from Andrei.
“Here’s yogurt, so the antibiotics don’t upset your stomach. You don’t need any more reasons to not eat right now,” Misha said, handing her the carton. She turned up her nose at the yogurt, which made Misha sit on the coffee table in front of her. “Don’t make me do the airplane trick to get you to eat this. Because I will.” He was trying to look at her sternly, but he couldn’t keep his smile hidden. He ended up laughing, which made her laugh. “Come on, just a few bites and then I’ll go away,” he said.
She groaned quietly, but ate a few bites before handing it back to Misha, who finished it. We all looked at him as he ate the rest of it. “What? Who doesn’t love yogurt? It’s cherry flavor too. This is the best kind.”
I pulled her back against me once more. “Do you want to go lie down in bed, love? Or stay out here with all of us?”
She thought for a moment. “I don’t want to be alone, but I don’t want to keep you trapped on the couch with me either. You guys are gonna have to come up with babysitting shifts. Rotate duties,” she said, smiling.
I couldn’t help but laugh. We’d already discussed that on the ride back from the hospital. She leaned her head back to try and look at me. “Let me guess, you already discussed that option?”
