A/N: Guess whose back! I'm so bad at updating… I'm sorry! Technically this is a part 1 of the chapter I was planning, however I realised it's been quite a while since I updated. So I'm publishing this part 1 now, whilst I work on writing the part 2! Thank you for your continued support of this story, and please keep following, favouriting, and reviewing :) XX
Chapter 8
I'll tell you how today should have gone. I should have woken up bright eyed, bushy tailed, and with a spring in my step. Instead, I awoke sick and disorientated, and with a forehead sweatier than the Devil's bum crack.
Upon waking, I had a pounding headache and an extremely dry mouth. But worst of all was the feeling that my forehead was sweating and overheating, yet the rest of me felt like I was surrounded by the Arctic. I sluggishly brought my duvet over my head and tucked all my limbs under it trying to shut off the cold air.
There was a loud knock on my door, which sent me flinching further into my bed.
"Good morning!" Bella peered her head around my door, somehow already dressed and ready for the day.
"Is it? Is it really?" I mumbled croakily, my voice muffled into my pillow. I heard a couple of footsteps cross the gap to my bed, before a gentle hand peeled back the duvet.
"Luce? Why aren't you up yet? What's wrong?" Bella stroked away the damp hair plastered to my sweaty forehead. She laid her palm against it, feeling my temperature. "Oh my god, Luce, you're so hot!"
"Awh, thanks man, you're hot too," I garbled, patting Bella's hand.
"No, no, Luce, I mean you're burning up. You've got a really high temperature," Bella worried over me, carefully manoeuvring me over onto my back. "Hold on, I'm getting Charlie."
Barely a second had passed before Bella returned, this time with Charlie at her heels. He took one glance at me and said, "Ah, shit." He knelt down beside me, moving close. "Hm, your first week in Forks and you're already ill. Your parents are gonna think we're not feeding you properly."
I cracked a lopsided smile at that. "Tut tut, Charlie," I murmured softly.
"Do you want to go to the hospital, Luce?" Charlie asked me, quietly.
"No, I want to go to a restaurant." At my reply Charlie shot me a deadpan glance.
"We're going to the hospital."
"Spoilsport," I smiled softly, and closed my eyes tiredly.
As I tried to go back to sleep, and ignore the pounding in my head, I could hear Charlie sending Bella off to school, reassuring her he'd look after me.
"Bells, don't worry. I'll phone up the station, let them know I can't make it in today. Then Luce and I will head round to the hospital and get her a check up."
"Are you sure you can manage her? She seems kinda… Out of it…"
"I'm a grown man, I'm sure it'll be fine."
"Ha," I let out a snort under my breath. Famous last words.
After Charlie had made a phone call to the police station and then notified the school that I wouldn't be making an appearance today, he helped me up and briefly left me to change out of my PJ's before he collected me once again and assisted me into the Cruiser to head to the hospital.
The journey there passed within a blink of an eye, at least it seemed such to me. I glided through the hospital with all the elegance of a newly sedated giraffe. And by glided, I mean stumbled, with a tight grip on Charlie's arm. I found myself needing to rely on Charlie to guide me, as my pounding headache and tired limbs appeared unable to support me properly.
When I somewhat regained a sense of my whereabouts and focused my eyesight, I found myself perched on a hospital bed. I looked down at myself, blinking slowly, before I languidly took in my whereabouts.
Charlie stood next to me, leaning against the hospital room wall.
"Charlie?"
He looked at me worriedly. "What is it, Luce? How do you feel?" Charlie asked me, pushing off from the wall. But before I had the chance to reply, a nurse popped into the room, clutching a small packet of pills, and a plastic cup of water. She smiled cheerily at me.
"Hello, Lucy! How are you feeling now?" I couldn't help but think she smiled somewhat maniacally. Which apparently I told her to her face; my mouth talking and my brain taking a back seat… Whoops.
The nurse frowned at me, quickly losing her smile. She thrust two pills into my mouth, before giving me a swig of water to help swallow the pills.
"Wait, have I already talked to you? W… w… why are you giving me drugs? You… pill pusher!" I sloppily pushed her hands away from me. Charlie sighed, and smiled to himself.
"Nurse Cameron saw you a few minutes ago, when she took your temperature, Luce." He glanced over at the Nurse, whose face had puckered in annoyance. "Also, I think you owe Nurse Cameron an apology."
My bottom lip jutted out to make an appearance.
"Soz."
Charlie sighed, "Properly."
"Dear Madam, I sinly… sinerly… sss…"
"Sincerely," Charlie corrected.
"I sincerely apologise for my utter lack of manners and my most ghastly, contemptible, loathsome, execrable, most atrocious-"
SLAM.
"-behaviour! I have brought dishonour upon myself, dishonour on my cow, dishonour on my whole family! I beg of your forgiveness for my wretched, most heinous act, which will render me-"
"She's gone," Charlie interrupted me. "Maybe next time, apologise a little less sarcastically."
"Humph. That wo… woo-man," I waggled a finger at the door, "was wholly deplorable."
"Her only crime was feeding you your medication."
"Haha, crime. You made a cop pun."
Charlie groaned. Loudly.
"You really don't handle your meds well."
I simply beamed at him. It was then that a very, very, pretty blond-haired man in a doctor's coat walked through the door, holding a clipboard.
"Woof," I whistled to myself quietly, as my eyes took on a life of their own, roaming over the pretty man.
"Ah, so is this the patient who has been terrorising my nurses?" He inquired warmly.
"Wait, nurses… Plural? How many have I met? Oh my god, I'm losing my mind," I babbled to myself. Charlie and the pretty man ignored me. Rude.
"Are you an angel?" I asked him, a little delirious.
The angel chuckled. "I'm afraid not, Miss Roux. My name is Dr Carlisle Cullen. I believe you know my daughter. I'm Rosalie's father."
"I can see where Rose got her good looks from," I slurred, grinning dopily at Carlisle. I sent him a wobbly thumbs up, grin still in place, and my head lolling to one side.
Carlisle smiled readily at me, as if placating a young toddler, before turning back to Charlie. The two of them walked over to the door to talk.
"Miss Roux is running a low fever, luckily nothing serious. Although it seems to have made her somewhat delirious. Additionally, she seems to have had a slight reaction to the medication we have given her. It's nothing serious, she's just, ah…" Carlisle trailed off, and glanced back over at me.
I shot Carlisle and Charlie some finger guns, "Sup, my bitches!"
"… A little out of it… Make sure she takes one of these every three hours hours, and hopefully that will bring her fever down. Also make sure that she drinks plenty of fluids to stave the risk of dehydration. I'll drop by your house to check on her on my way home from work later."
"Thank you, Doctor Cullen. Are you sure it's not out of your way?"
Carlisle smiled and shook his head softly, as the two men shook hands.
A sudden crash and a yelp of pain broke the moment, bringing their attention back to me. I'd tried to manoeuvre myself off the hospital bed, however I somehow ended up falling off, landing on my plump behind. The drugs seemed to have numbed most pain I might have felt from such a fall, however, as I sat slumped on the floor, only one thought was lethargically making its way through my brain.
"Finally, my willingness to eat lots of food and gain weight on my bottom pays off." I sniffed, my eyes watering. I raised my gaze to stare sadly at the Doctor. "My bum hurts," I told him, sorrowfully.
Carlisle hid a smile, as he told me that apart from a possible bruise, my bottom would recover to full health. I sent him a watery smile, "You're a good nut," I sniffed.
Charlie sighed once again. "Well, as enthralling as that conversation was, Luce, I think it's time for me to get you back home."
