Learn From Cigarette Burns

-|| FF Two Months ||-
I heard a faint crying in the distance, but at the moment I couldn’t muster enough energy to move, even if it were a life a death situation. I let myself be whisked away by the beautiful sleep that seemed to be a stranger to me in the past week and remained there until a loud knock on my bedroom door pulled me from my slumber.

“It’s open.” I muttered loud enough for whoever was outside to hear.

“Dee,” Jennifer said quietly, “Darren’s fever is back. You asked me to wake you up if it spiked again.”

Disregarding the sleep, I sat up and then rubbed the tiredness from my eyes. I gazed across the room and saw my first cousin holding onto my fussy son and then nodded my head.

“Dr. Stokes said to bring him into the Emergency room if his fever spiked again.” I said tiredly.

“Dr. Stokes?” Jennifer asked. “What about Dr. Wallace?” She questioned, referring to the twins’ pediatrician.

“He’s up in Washington state,” I said, “family emergency. It may be a while since Dr. Stokes included pediatrics in his practice, but he still knows what he’s doing.”

Jennifer nodded her head in agreement and then shifted her stance as she carefully moved Darren into another position in her arms. “I can take him in if you want. I know you have work tonight and stuff. If you want a little more sleep I’ll wait in the Emergency room for him to be seen.”

“No, that’s okay, Jen.” I said. “I already called in and told them what’s going on. They said its fine. We got a couple more bartenders in the past couple of weeks and they’re still sort of training them.”

“Training them to take over your spot?” My cousin asked hesitantly.

I shrugged my shoulders and then stood up. “Probably.” I admitted. “Ever since I came back after maternity leave, things have been … different around the bar.”

“Different?” Jennifer asked. “How so?”

“Well, I guess when I was out, Lana quit because she thinks the new manager is a dick, Ally was fired because she punched a guy who was drunkenly trying to grope her boobs. Travis just put in his two weeks notice because he doesn’t like the way things are heading.” I shook my head.

“Everything seems to lead back to your new manager, huh?” Jennifer muttered. “What happened to Carlos? Where’d he head off to? Maybe you can follow him.”

I smiled as I thought about the older Italian man who had been my boss for almost a year. “He retired.” I said. “Bought a yacht and now he’s cruising around the Mediterranean, looking for some tail to catch. I don’t think John would take too kindly to the idea of moving out of the country just so I can have a job.”

Jennifer let out a low whistle. “Oh, well, shit.”

I laughed at her response and then stood up, crossing the room quickly so that I could be with my sickened son. He stopped fussing as I held him in my arms, but I still saw the small tears falling from his hazel eyes. I frowned softly, not wanting my baby to be in so much pain, and then prepared for the trip to the Emergency room.

Jennifer was quick to stalk up the diaper bag, even throwing in some of Darren’s favorite toys and books, while I dressed him in some traveling clothes. Within a half an hour I had checked in to the Emergency room and waited patiently to be called.

Darren had fallen asleep once again, but his fever still raged on. I balanced his carrier carefully on my lap and rocked it gently, hoping him to keep him asleep throughout our wait. I watched others around me in curiosity, unable to help but wonder how they had sustained the wounds that they had.

After an unknown amount of time, my phone starting to ring and I answered it in a hurry so that it wouldn’t disturb the other people waiting. I answered it without looking at who was calling, and felt a smile pull across my lips when I heard my husband’s voice.

“John, babe,” I whispered, “I miss you.”

“I miss you too, love.” He said. “What are you doing?”

“Sitting in the Emergency room,” I said quietly.

“What’s wrong?” He asked hurriedly. “Is everyone okay?”

“Darren’s sick.” I informed him. “He woke up this morning with a runny nose and a fever. His fever went down a little bit and then spiked again. I called Dr. Stokes because Dr. Wallace is out of town. He said to bring him in if that happened, so here we are.”

“Does Doc have any idea what’s wrong?” John whispered quietly.

“Some kind of infection, most likely.” I replied. “Dr. Stokes said he’ll probably need some antibiotics. I guess this has been going around town, this … bug or whatever it is.”

“What about my baby girl?” John asked. “How’s Penny doing? Is she sick too?”

I shook my head, despite the fact that he couldn’t see me. “She’s fine. You should have seen the look on her face though when Darren was fussing around. She knew her brother was sick and it made her sad.” Although my son had a high fever, I couldn’t help but smile at his sisters concern.

“Aww, poor Penny.” John said. “That reminds me, I got the e-mail you sent. You know, with the pictures? I can’t believe how big they’re getting! At this rate they’ll be full grown by the time I get home next month.” He laughed. “The guys are pretty much in love with them, even though they haven’t met them yet. Justin really liked that picture of Darren curled up with Stitch. He said it was the cutest picture he’s ever seen.”

I smiled as I thought about the blue eyed California boy in question. “Tell Justin I said hi, and that I miss him, and that he has to come and visit us sometime soon.”

“I’ll tell him.” John assured me. “Any other messages you want me to pass along to any of your other lovers?”

“Tell Omar that I can’t wait to see him next time those boys are in town.”

“Omar?” John questioned. “Omar?!”

I giggled quietly to myself and then bit my lip in an attempt to keep my smile from getting any bigger.

“Seriously babe, Omar?!”

“Omar’s a silly boy.” I said.

“Shit … Omar.” John mumbled.

“Okay, okay, get over yourself, O’Callaghan.” I told him. I took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. “Babe?”

“Hmm?”

“I think I’m going to get laid off at work.” I mumbled.

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know. I just … have this feeling. Things have sort of gone to shit around the bar. Lots of people have either quit or been fired. I think I’m next.”

“What reason would they have to get rid of you?” My husband demanded to know.

“I don’t know.” I whispered.

“Well, they’d have to have a good reason if they let you go. They can’t fire you because you have to take time off to take care of the kids. There’s a law against that, I can’t remember name of it, but I know it exists.”

“I don’t know if it’s even worth sticking around there.” I admitted. “I don’t enjoy working there, now that everyone I used to work with is gone. All the new people are, well … fake, slutty,” I paused, glancing around to make sure no one was close enough to hear me, “bitches.” I whispered.

“Well fuck that place,” John growled, “turn in a two weeks notice and go work somewhere else.”

I contemplated his words, but I remained silent. On the other end of the line, John took a deep breath, letting it out in a soft sigh.

“Listen babe,” he said gently, “I gotta go, they’re getting ready to open the doors and I have to take care of a few other things real fast. Call me after you guys see the Doc though, okay? I want to know that our babies are gonna be alright.”

“Okay,” I said, “I’ll give you a call later. I love you.”

“Love you too, sweetheart.” John replied. “Take care.”

With that, our conversation ended and I slipped my phone back into my pocket. I looked into the carrier and saw that Darren was now awake. His skin was flushed with fever, but he wasn’t tossing and turning as if fighting off the ache in his body. Instead he lay there, watching me with curious eyes.

“Hey, my handsome man.” I cooed.

My son blinked slowly and then sighed softly before rolling his gaze to the side, watching someone else in the distance. I smiled as he did so, because it was a typical Johno move that he would do whenever he was bored.

“We should have named you John O’Callaghan Jr.” I muttered, more to myself than to my son. “Goodness knows, you’re every bit like that boy.”

In the distance, a nurse called us in, and I quickly gathered our things, wanting to get this visit over and done with so that I could get back home.