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Lazarus roused himself, sitting up to look at his brother. “You’re right,” he replied as he stretched his tired, aching muscles. “I’ll help you.”
He got up, much to the woman’s displeasure. She patted around the space he’d left like she was looking for him, then rolled over and scrambled closer to Jeri.
Jeri bundled her in the blanket so she was swaddled, like a baby, then got up himself and picked her up, cradling her to his chest where she nuzzled into his neck, while he and Dante moved the mattress out of the way so they could put down the tarp.
He couldn’t help noting what an affectionate little thing she was, as he worked.
The makeshift bed was a lot warmer when they’d finished. Noticeably so. Lazarus also commandeered the cushions off of the sofa, so they could use them for their heads and sleep on the mattress sideways, making it wide enough for all four of them to be moderately comfortable.
When they were done, Dante made the hot chocolate, and they shared the two tin mugs he’d found between them.
“Do you think we should try and rouse her to have some?” Jeri asked. “She could do with the warmth, the sugar, and the liquid.”
“We can give it a try,” Lazarus agreed. He hefted his arm under her shoulder and pulled her into a sitting position.
She grumbled and tried to burrow back into the warmth, but he pulled the sheets up to her chin and murmured softly in her ear. “Hey, sweetie. Do you think you could take a drink for me?”
She grunted a response, which he took as an affirmative and brought the mug to her lips. “Here you go. Small sips. Take it easy for me, now. There’s a good girl.”
He was gratified that she did as she was told, although her eyes never opened. But she made small sounds of pleasure and drew her hands out of the bedding to clasp them around the warm cup.
“Here…” A small package landed next to them, and Lazarus recognized it as a bubble strip of Ibuprofen. “I found these in her bag. She wouldn’t have been carrying them if she couldn’t take them. You should try and get a couple of them into her,” Dante suggested, despite his reticence.
Jeri picked them up and popped a couple of them out of the foil, before handing one to him and throwing the strip back to Dante.
Lazarus brought the tablet to her lips. Thankfully they were the smallest size, so there was less chance of her choking on them. “Can you try to swallow this painkiller for me?” he murmured to the girl, keeping his voice low and soothing. Her lips opened and he slipped the pill inside and offered more hot chocolate before taking the second tablet from Jeri and repeating the process.
She drank more than Lazarus expected and he was glad they’d made the effort to rouse her. Plus, the ibuprofen would help ease the swelling in her ankle which would only get worse without the cold and the compression of her boot to support it.
“Tha’koo,” she slurred before slipping back into the sleep of the exhausted and curling back into the warmth of the little pallet they’d made.
Lazarus handed her off to Jeri as he fetched the new blanket Dante had discovered which they’d hung to warm and air a little. It was heavy and incredibly itchy, but it was huge. Big enough to cover them all. And it would be warm; that was the most important thing.
He threw it at Dante. “Here, add this to the bed while I bank the fire. If we put it over the top of the mylar sheet, it will anchor that into place and stop it from slipping off of us.”
Dante did so, but when Lazarus had finished with the fire, he still stood there staring at the sleeping pallet.
“Get in,” Lazarus growled. It wasn’t a request. He could see his brother was reticent, but Dante was also shivering himself, now that night had settled in, and the temperatures had dropped even further. “Come on Dante. You can keep your clothes on and climb in behind Jeri. No one’s asking you to do anything you aren’t comfortable with, but I don’t need a second casualty on my hands because you’re being pig-headed. And if you stay out there any longer, you’re just going to sap even more of Jeri’s body heat, and she’s already doing enough of that.”
Dante sighed but said nothing as he unhooked the lamp and turned out the flame.
In the vague light thrown out through the sooty panes of glass in the log burners door, he watched as his brother's shadow crouched down, then scooted under the sheets. Jeri cursed quietly, telling him how cold Dante was.
The girl - he wished he knew her name and could think of her as something a little more intimate, since they were cuddled up as good as naked together - jammed her freezing fingers into his armpit and sighed almost happily. But none of them said a word as they all settled down to whatever sleep they could get.
Morning would be soon enough to work out what their next steps might be.
