Oblivious
Her face was as pale as the pale white toilet she leaned over, holding one gentle hand to her stomach as it cramped beneath her fingers. A small blow of air escaped between her lips, aimed upwards towards her forehead which felt like it was on fire. She closed her eyes briefly, leaning her head against the back of the toilet seat, trying to calm herself down. Thinking of anything that would help her to rise from the staff toilets and help her to walk into Michael's office to ask to be sent home.
Yet nothing came to mind, all she could think back to, was when she first noticed she was sick... Not that it was very easy to pin point that moment.
Flashback
"Madi! Zack! Dinner!" Jez Diamond shouted up the stairs, heading to the table and setting some cutlery down by each place setting.
Sian stood in the kitchen, putting up the four meals, part of her considering only doing three and heading off to bed early. A soft shake came to her head, reminding herself that she promised Jez a 'family night'. She cursed herself for even agreeing to such a thing. Carefully, she carried two of the plates to the table, setting them down at Madi and Zack's places before bringing her and her husband's in. Welcomed by the sight of her two step children sitting at the dining table as she walked back in.
She flopped onto the wooden chair, longing to bury her head in her arms and to fall into a sleep, God, she was so exhausted, but she had no idea why. Going to bed early seemed to be her new thing this week, but she still managed to want to curl up in bed at seven tonight.
Light conversation passed around the table, Madi was complaining about the amount of homework she had compared to the social life she could not have because of it and Zack was challenging his father to a game on the PlayStation after dinner. Sian's eyes looked at the dinner she really did not want to eat.
Not to say it did not look or smell amazing, in fact, it quite did. But something about it did not appeal to her.
"How about you, Darling, do you want to come and mess around in the Games Room with us?" It took Sian a moment before she realised Jez was actually talking to her.
Looking up, her eyes met his expectant ones, his eyebrows raised, it was that moment she knew he had been talking to her, all she did was shook her head, picking up her cold glass of water and gulping the cool liquid down greedily.
"Are you sure?" He spoke again.
"Yeah." Sian finally said, putting the glass back down and pressing the cool of her hand against her slightly warm forehead, "I think I'm going to head to bed early." She announced.
Madi looked at her, amused, "Is that all teachers do? Mark, work and sleep? Get a life! Geez!" She complained.
"Madi!" Jez scolded, turning his attention to his paling wife, "Sure, are you feeling okay?"
Nodding, Sian began to clear her place away, "Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just going to head up now." Depositing the plate and glass in the kitchen sink, Sian climbed the stairs to their bedroom, leaving behind an accusatory Jez.
"Madi! You've upset her, I think after dinner you need to go an apologise."
The teen rolled her eyes, not one to amused with her father's accusations. "I haven't done anything to upset her, Dad." She argued back.
All he did was shoot her another look, "You'll apologise after dinner." And then he began talking to Zack about his game again.
Carefully Sian slipped into her pyjamas, tying her hair back before walking over to the bed. She patted the pillows down, turning over the cover of the bed before putting the lamp on. Sian turned the main light off, walking back over, only to stop, one hand on the bedside table, the other on her stomach; A small cramp grew from her belly button outwards. To stop herself from wincing, she bit her lower lip, eyes closed tightly. Slowly it passed, and she managed to blow out a steadying breath before climbing herself into bed.
The corners of her eyes had begun to fade, welcoming her into sleep, when she heard the slightest knock at the bedroom door. Not too happy, she mumbled a quiet, "Come in."
Sitting herself back up, Sian watched Madi walk into the room, a small look of guilt on her face, "Hey, Madi. Are you okay?" Her eyebrows creased, studying the girls expression.
Madi gave a small nod, "Yeah, I just came to apologise for upsetting you earlier." She found a recent fascination in the webbing of the carpet at her feet, studying it for all it was worth.
"Don't worry, Madi, you didn't upset me, I really am just tired, I'll tell your dad that too. Now why don't you go and do some of your homework, yeah?" A timid knock came from the girl, and Sian began to wonder at which point did the teenager stop being so aggressive towards her, and became almost afraid of her... Was it Jez she was more afraid of? "I'll tell you what, lay off of your biology homework, I know you haven't done. But I want it done by Monday. Go and finish your English essay."
"Thanks." Madi gave her a smile, Sian could now tell she had made it into her good books.
"But don't go thinking I'm going to delay all of your homework."
That familiar cramp welled from inside herself again, making her groan slightly, one hand connected with her stomach as she leaned forward to lessen the pain somewhat.
"Are you okay?" Madi now asked, worry etched on her face.
Sian nodded, sitting back as the pain died down, "Yeah, don't worry about me. I think I'm just coming down with the flu or something."
Handing the glass of water off of the bedside table over to Sian, Madi still looked concerned, "Are you sure? You really don't look well."
"I'll be better after some sleep." She informed the worried girl, putting the cup back down.
"Good night then."
"Night."
Madi lightly shut the door to the bedroom, making sure she did it as quiet as possible before walking down the hallway to the Games Room. Shouts from her father and brother could be heard.
"Dad." She said, opening the door and walking in.
Jez barely looked up from his game to acknowledge her, "Hmm?"
"I think Sian's sick. She doesn't look to good." She informed him.
He did not even bother to look up again, "She's just tired, Madi, don't worry."
Madi rolled her eyes, mumbling, "Men." Before tucking her fringe behind her ear, "I just went to apologise and she looked like she was in pain, she's really pale, Dad."
With a sigh, Jez paused the game and put the controller on the floor, which Zack protested too, "I'm just going to check on her, but don't worry, she is fine."
Madi replaced him on the sofa, watching as Zack began to cheat on the game so he had more goals than his father.
Mumbling, Jez rubbed the back of his head, frustrated for having to leave his bonding time. Soon he reached his bedroom door, and opened it, taking in the softly moaning form of a sleeping Sian. She did look pale. Carefully, e reached out and pressed a hand to her forehead to feel she was slightly warm.
Her eyes fluttered open, "Jez?" She asked, looking around to see if she could find out if she had overslept for work.
"Hey, Sshh, Madi just said you weren't too well. You feel a bit warm... Is there anything I can get you?" He tucked away a piece of her hair that had fallen out while she was sleeping.
"Mm." Sian moaned, pressing her hand to her stomach again, she waited a moment before speaking, "Can you get me some Ibuprofen? And see if we can find that fan?"
His hand fell onto her forehead again, "Sure, I'll get them now and then we'll go to sleep, yeah?"
Sian shook her head, "No, go back and play your game with Zack, I'll see you in a couple of hours."
He ignored her protests, gathering the cup from the side and filling it with more cold water before grabbing the box of ibuprofen. "Take two." Popping the pills into her left hand, Jez placed the cup in her right hand, watching her take them before tugging a box out from under the bed.
Ruffling around in it for a moment, he tugged the small white bedside lamp from the box, pulling on it's cord until the entire thing was free. He kicked the box back under the bed, and walked back over to his wife. Offering her a small smile, Jez plugged the fan in at the wall, putting it on the bedside table and turning it on at it's lowest.
"Is that better?" He asked, sitting himself on the edge of the bed.
Sian gave a small nod, pulling the covers back over herself and closing her eyes before mumbling, "Go back to Zack, I'll shout if I need you."
The door gently closed and Sian took that as her permission to lay down in the foetal position, trying to lessen her stomachs pain. The last thoughts passing her mind before she fell asleep were on how fast she could make it too the toilet if she needed to throw up.
Jez had just finished restoring the order back in the games room. Zack was fast asleep, and, when he checked on Madi a few moments ago, she was just finishing her homework up. Now he needed to check on his wife. She had not called for him all night. That did anything but reassure him. Now, eleven at night, he crept into his bedroom. Sian lay fast asleep, the fan blowing her face cool, her eyebrows were creased as if she were in pain.
"Sian? Are you up?" If she were, she gave him no signal that she was. Still lying the exact same way.
Tenderly, he knelt at the side of the bed and pressed his hand onto her forehead; It was still warm, but no warmer than it were previously, not significantly anyway, which was good. Rising from his knees, Jez turned the bedside lamp off, a groan came from the woman lying in the bed.
"Sian?" He asked, quietly, not wanting to wake her if she were still asleep.
"Yeah?" She answered back, even quieter than his whisper. It was amazing he could hear her over when whir of the fan.
He knelt back at the side of her, "I'm coming up now, I've just got to call Michael and tell him you won't be in tomorrow."
She shook her head, "No, I'll be fine. I am already feeling better."
"You've still got a fever, Sian. You can't go in like this." Jez informed her.
Sian looked at him through the darkness, "I am going in, but if I don't feel right tomorrow I'll go home and I'll stay here the rest of the week, deal?"
She was a hard person to bargain with, so Jez gave in, "Fine, deal, but the first sign of you getting worse and you're coming home."
"Good, now hurry up and climb in so I can get back to sleep." Laughing slightly, she felt the bed dip as Jez climbed in, wrapping his arms around her. "You mightn't want to do that, we don't need you getting sick too."
Jez only held her closer, "Sshh, don't worry about me. Go back to sleep." Laying a gentle kiss on her flushed cheek, her eyes slowly fell shut and her breathing evened out.
The alarm rang throughout the bedroom. Jez woke up slowly, turning the alarm off, regretting not turning it off the night before as Sian also began to stir awake.
"Good morning." She greeted to Jez, rolling over to face him, a small smile on her face.
His hand felt her forehead, which seemed to be a little less warmer than it were the previous night, "Feeling better?"
"Yeah." Sian nodded, "Much now that you mention it." Rubbing some of the sleep from her eyes, Sian sat up, "I'll start to get ready."
It was only as she locked the bathroom door that she could finally exhale, a stronger pain than last nights one filling her body. Sian almost cried out in pain, but stopped herself from doing so, holding tightly onto the bathroom sink. Surely she did not feel like this only ten minutes ago. Maybe standing up had jogged the pain again. This time it had moved to the further right of her abdomen, making her rub the sore spot and knead it tenderly, not that it helped.
It did not even seem to be lessoning, just sitting right there, trying to slowly kill her it felt like. Sian told herself there was no use in moaning about a small stomach ache, and set about getting ready for her day of teaching. Planning any form of avoidance in her head that would help her from not having to stand up. So much for the experiments she had planned out for year seven and eleven. No, they would just be doing some copying from a book or watch a documentary or something.
Suddenly she remembered the meeting she had with Michael and Tom this morning. Her mind went blank, what was the time now? Quickly, Sian got herself showered, leaving the bathroom in a rush.
"Where's the fire?" Jez commented as she raced down the stairs.
"Meeting. I forgot all about it." Swiftly she gave him a kiss on the cheek, "I'll see you later though, yeah?" Without waiting for a response, she raced out of the house, driving over to the school.
She did not seem to be very late, in fact she was early, but knocking on Michael's door, she knew he and Tom were already in there. "Morning, sorry I'm late." Sian apologised.
Michael glanced at the clock, "You're early, don't worry about it."
Frowning, Tom noticed her chalky pallor, "Are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah, just got myself worked up thinking I was late." She passed them a reassuring smile, sitting down at the table.
"Okay, it's been brought to my attention that the music department had well overspent their budget for this year, but maths have under spent." Michael informed them, handing out the sheets to each of them.
Sian looked at the paper for a moment, before the words became blurred and she had to blink the cloudiness away. Her stomach began to ache again so her hand pressed into it, trying anything to lessen the pain, but nothing was working. Her cheeks began to flush slightly with warmth, and Sian started to feel as if she would throw up. A soft shake of her head came as she tried to tell herself that she would not throw up, no, she would not let herself, especially with Michael and Tom there.
Maybe she should ask to go home, after all, she really was not feeling too great. A part of her knew that it would take them almost two lessons to get a substitute teacher in to replace her classes. God, no, she would not let her classes suffer like that. As soon as the meeting was called apart, she rose from her seat and headed off in the direction of the staff toilets.
End of flashback
Her body heaved into the toilet once again, as the content of her stomach was forced into the bowl. She attempted to keep the vomit down, but nothing worked, better in than out, as they say, so she let herself throw up again and again, until her body surely told her there was nothing left. At that point her stomach was killing her, whether that was because of the throwing up or just because she had a stomach ache, Sian would not know.
Carefully, she pressed her hands on the sink and rose to her unsteady feet, padding her boiling face with some cold water and rising her mouth out with it. After drying the droplets of cold water off of her cheeks and forehead, Sian left the bathroom.
The corridors of Waterloo Road Comprehensive School were dead, and each classroom she passed on the trip to her own were full with students. Pulling the phone from her pocket, Sian tried to focus on the time, but it just seemed blurry to her, nothing being able to focus in her eyes.
Her own classroom was full of students, her year 13's.
"Well look who decides to show up!" Commented one of the pupils as Sian rushed over to her desk.
"Sorry, I was a bit pre-occupied. If we can all turn to our revision though, and quietly get on with that." She sat at the front desk, trying to do anything but look around at the blurred mess in front of her. Why were her eyes even messing up with her?
"But, Mrs. Diamond, you said we could do an experiment today!" Another pupil complained.
Sian sighed, "Unfortunately we haven't got the equipment for the experiment today, so we're just going to have to make do with revision. I promise we will do the experiment next week."
A click of heels could be heard as someone walked up to the teachers desk, Sian could make out the blurry form of Vicki MacDonald standing in front of her through her squinted eyes, "Can I help you, Vicki?" She asked, pretending to busy herself with some marking, although she could not read a single word on the page.
"You said you would help me with the revision on Enzymes." Vicki informed her.
Sian scratched the back of her head, thinking hard, "I did?" She tried to remember, but could not piece together the moment she had actually said it.
"Yeah." Vicki placed the revision book on the desk, "Miss, are you okay? You don't look well."
"Mmm Hmm." Sian nodded, "I'm fine, Vicki." She gave her a forced smile, "Why don't you move onto revising something else? I'll help you tomorrow on that, I'm a bit swamped today."
"Okay." Vicki replied, picking her book up and sitting back at her desk, eyeing Sian carefully.
If she could have gone any paler, Sian Diamond swore it had just happened. A welling of pain built in her stomach, followed by another wave of nausea. Stomach acid rose in her throat, and she knew she was sure to throw up.
"I'll be back in a moment." She hurriedly told the class, one hand clutching her mouth, the other over her warm forehead as she raced to the toilets once again.
Vicki grew worried once again, looking around at her confused class mates, she walked out of the classroom, following in her favourite teacher's footsteps. Failing to find her, Vicki ran into Mr Byrne along the English corridor.
"And what do you think you're doing out of Mrs. Diamond's lesson? I do believe she had a thrilling experiment planned for you all." He told her.
Vicki looked around, trying to spot the teacher and failing, "I don't think she's very well, Sir. She told us to just do revision and has just ran out of class a minute ago looking as if she were about to be sick."
"Do you know where she went?" Vicki shook her head, "Alright, get back to class, I'll send another teacher down."
He began to look around the school in a panicked frenzy. Checking with Tom to see if he had saw her passing. No. He had sent Linda down from the staffroom to cover and went in search of her.
Sian slumped in the pupils toilets, having not made it far enough to reach the teachers one. Her head against one of the toilets walls. Not able to stop herself, she winced with every small movement she made that jarred her stomach. God, how she wished to be back home lying still in her own bed right now.
Jez Diamond walked towards his wife's classroom, just to make sure she was okay, when he ran into Vicki MacDonald.
"She just ran out of here. I don't know where she has gone, but Mr. Byrne is looking for her."
"Thanks." Without another word he went in search of his wife.
Passing the girls toilet, he heard the slightest wince and moan in pain. The teacher side of him wondered what he should do... What if it were a female pupil? That would be completely inappropriate. But what if it were Sian and she needed him? His mind was made up as he opened the toilet door, welcomed by the sight of his extremely sick wife.
"Sian!" He raced to her side, touching her forehead. "God, you're worse. You said you would tell me!" Jez scolded her.
Her blurry eyes fell onto Jez's face, "Jez?" She weakly asked.
"Hey, yeah it's me. Sshh." Carefully he helped her to stand up.
"Ahh!" Sian cried out, doubling over and landing back in a heap on the floor in pain. Her breathing quickened, Sian's eyes slowly closing.
The bell rang and classes began to pour out, Madi headed towards the toilet before going to English, walking in, she was shocked at the sight, "Dad?" She asked, dropping her bag at the sight of her step mother.
"Madi!" Go to the office, tell them to call an ambulance!"
Stunned she nodded and raced out of the room.
A small crowd began to gather around the toilets, Tom walked in to investigate what was happening, "Okay, everyone needs to leave this corridor, if you have a class here head to the gym!" He began to force the pupils away.
Michael and Linda soon walked into the toilets as well.
"What's going on?" Michael asked, bending down on the opposite side of Sian.
Jez looked up at him, "I really don't know. She wasn't well last night, was better this morning and now she's like this."
Michael felt Sian's forehead and cheeks, "Okay, she's really warm. Sian? Can you hear me?" He asked.
She did not respond, instead she held her stomach tightly, letting out another wince.
"Sian, you need to try and calm down, you're breathing is too irregular. Try and take nice calm breaths." Jez told her, "Madi has gone to get Janeece to call an ambulance." Michael nodded.
"I've sent the classes from this hallway into the hall." Tom informed him.
Michael looked up, "Okay, Linda, will you go and sort the classes in the hall? Tom, wait outside for the ambulance."
They were out of the toilets and off doing their jobs immediately. Jez took Sian's hand in his, letting her squeeze his hand as much as she needed to. Standing up, Michael wet some paper towels in cold water and put them on Sian's forehead.
"You need to stay awake." He told her, watching her fight her eyes closing.
Only a moment later, the ambulance could be heard entering the school, and soon Tom had escorted them into the toilets. Both men set about around her, one setting a gurney up.
"Miss? Can you hear me?" Another one asked, shining a torch in her eyes which Sian tried to back away from. "What's your name?"
She tried to answer, but nothing seemed to come out, only another cry of pain.
"Sian." Jez informed them.
"Okay, Sian, we need to know where hurts the most?" Trying her best to tell them, Sian gripped her stomach tighter. He seemed to notice, "Alright." Removing the towels from her head, he felt the boiling skin, "She's got a high fever, probably appendicitis." He told the other paramedic, "Warn surgery."
With a nod, the other paramedic repeated the words into his walkie talkie.
"Alright, Sian, we need to move you onto the bed, it's going to hurt, but I promise we'll have you all fixed up soon."
The second paramedic walked over, and they helped pick her up and put her on the gurney, "I'll assume you're coming with us?" The first paramedic asked, while pushing the gurney off to the ambulance.
Jez tightly held onto Sian's hand, "I'm her husband." He nodded, looking to Michael who was trailing along behind them, "I'll call you if anything else happens, make sure Madi and Zack get home safely."
Michael nodded, "Call when you know anything."
They loaded her into the back of the ambulance, Jez sitting on a bench facing her. Paramedic number two was rustling around the back of the ambulance, administering some painkiller into Sian and placing a breathing mask over her, "You need to take slow and steady breaths."
It seemed that all of the fighting she was doing against the tiredness before caught up with her, and Sian's eyes finally closed, "She's going into shock, we need to be faster about this!"
Sirens rang out and the ambulance raced down the road.
Jez watched as the other paramedic started to give Sian other injections and set her up on a drip, "We need to get her ready for immediate surgery." He had told Jez.
Worry filled all four corners of his mind as Jez watched the fragile Sian get poked and prodded in the back of an ambulance. She looked so sick. He tried to wonder why he had not noticed how sick she was this morning. Why had he not checked on her this morning before her first lesson? He wiped a tear away from his cheek, swearing to himself that he would not cry.
Every thing seemed to happen so quickly.
They pulled in at the hospital, and immediately took Sian into the hospital, Jez walked in and sat in the waiting area, fiddling his thumbs for a while. He did not know what to do, all he wanted to know was if she was okay. Walking up to the desk in the middle, he asked the middle aged woman, "My wife's just been rushed into surgery, is there anyone that can tell me anything?"
"Your wife's name, Sir?" She opened a page up on her computer.
"Sian Diamond." Jez told her.
Her fingers flew over the keys on the keyboard, and then her eyes scanned the page of information, "She's in surgery, but as soon as she is out, a doctor will come and talk to you."
So there was nothing she could tell him then. He thumped his head against the wall, sitting back on the chair and resuming the task of fiddling with his thumbs.
She was in there for two hours, but to Jez it felt like a few days. He had worried himself so much that now he was pacing back and forth on the floor. Someone sitting in the waiting room had commented that he would probably burn a hole in the floor.
Then finally, he heard the words, "Sian Diamond?"
It was like all the pacing he had been doing was a warm up for this, because in two seconds flat, he walked the length of the waiting room, and was at the doctor's side, "How is she?"
"You are?"
"Her husband."
With a nod, the doctor lead him through the white doors to another corridor and told him to sit down, sitting next to him, "Your wife suffered from a appendicitis. That's why she was in so much pain. Normally we would perform a simple procedure to remove the appendix, but because it had burst some time ago, she was going into shock from the fluid, so we have had to clean out all of the liquid as well as remove the remainder of her appendix."
"When would this have happened?" Jez asked, confused.
"I'd say her appendix ruptured around about fifteen hours ago."
Jez shook his head quickly, "But she was perfectly fine this morning." He informed the doctor, who only nodded.
"Yeah, normally she would have had a small fever, some nausea and light cramping, and when the appendix ruptures it would relieve the pain for an hour, maybe two before she starts throwing up, experiencing unbearable pain. Sian was lucky you found her in the toilet otherwise we could have lost her."
His eyebrows raised, "She could have died from an appendicitis?" He exclaimed.
The doctor nodded again, "If she was left in that condition any longer, yes. But she is okay. We've given her some strong painkiller and settled her in a bed. She should be out in a few days, but she needs plenty of bed rest. Two weeks minimum."
"Sure, anything."
"Okay then, do you want to see her?"
"Of course!" Jumping up from the seat, Jez followed the doctor down the hallway until he came to a white door.
"She's in there. Try to be quiet though, she needs to be resting."
Jez nodded, and opened the door, walking into the room.
Sian looked so small in the colossal white bed, a hospital gown hanging loosely off of her. In her hand was another drip, obviously the pain killer. A soft beep emitted from the machine next to her, it's wires connecting to her chest, beeping with each heartbeat.
"Is that really necessary?" He asked the doctor who was writing on Sian's file.
"It's just to make sure she is okay, she should be off of that by tonight." He resumed the writing in the file.
Jez sat on the chair next to Sian's bed, holding her hand warmly. He sighed.
The doctor placed her file back at the end of the bed, "We'll be back to check on her soon, but if she needs anything or she wakes up, press that button there." He pointed to a little clicker placed within reach of Sian's hand on the bed.
"Thanks." Jez mumbled, and then he went back to watching the slow rise and fall of his wife's chest, "God, you gave me such a scare." He said to her, "Never do that again." Tenderly he kissed her fingers.
"I promise." Came a groggy voice.
"Sian?" His eyes locked onto her own.
She gave him a small smile, "Hi. What happened?"
"Your appendix burst."
Sian rolled her eyes, "Sorry for scaring you."
"Don't worry about it. All that matters is that you are fine. Now get some rest."
Lightly he kissed her cheek again, rubbing the soft pad of his thumb over her hand in a rhythm. Watching as her eyes slowly began to fall shut and her breathing began to even out.