The thump on the floor was what woke Dimitri and I up. The loud noise echoed through the quiet home followed by whimpering.
Dimitri and I sprung out of bed and towards the sound to find Liz on the floor of her room.
"Oh, God," I said, enveloping her in my arms. Her face was red, so red she looked like a tomato. Her skinny fingers scratched at her chest and I yelled at Dimitri, "Get her machine."
Dimitri flew toward the closet in her room and pulled out an oxygen machine. We put it on her, but she still couldn't breathe.
"We need to get her to the infirmary," I said, lifting her up. She didn't weigh very much, so it was easy.
"Take her, I'll get the others and meet you there," Dimitri shouted, and without any further encouragement I raced out of the house and towards the hospital wing.
"Please, help her!" I cried, bursting through the doors, "She can't breathe!"
The doctors rushed her off to the small operating room that we had at the Academy and I was left waiting.
I hadn't realized I was crying before I raised my hand to my face, "Oh, God."
These kids had taken over my life, and the thought of losing one almost killed me.
Dimitri entered with Alec on his back and Mary beside him, "Christian's agreed to take care of Charlie tonight as long as we update him when we find out anything."
"Okay," I said. Alec got down from his father's back and ran as fast as he could to me, "Don't cry, Mommy! Whatever you need me to do, I will do!"
My sweet boy, my sweet, baby boy. He didn't even know what had happened but he was going to do everything in his power to make sure I was okay.
I kissed his cheek and he sat down in my lap.
Mary sat down beside me, "Is she going to be okay?"
"I don't know, honey. I don't know."
Mary nodded slowly, accepting that information, before looking at me, "Can I borrow your phone?"
I gave it to her silently and she went into the hall.
Ten minutes later, she came back in and handed it back to me. I didn't ask what she had done, but when the people started trickling in, it was obvious.
"Lissa," I breathed as my best friend hugged me.
"Mary called us," Eddie said from behind her, "Have you heard anything?"
"Nothing for twenty minutes," I said.
Stan, Alberta, Kirova, and most of the senior class showed up within minutes, followed by the off duty guardians, who brought some of the kids' friends from the elementary and middle school.
"Jill," Mary said, getting up and going to the small, brown haired girl I had seen the first day of school and at the sleepover.
"Half the school came out," Dimitri said beside me.
"Yeah..."
The doors to the operating room opened and the doctor came out. It was a new one, one I didn't know, but I went up to him anyway, "How is she?"
"I can only tell parents," he said.
I stopped for a second, "I AM her parent."
Dimitri put his hand on my back, trying to keep me calm, but my baby was in there, and he was refusing to tell me how she was.
"Her legal parent," the doctor said, "The orphanage still has legal rights over her."
I didn't mean to, but suddenly the doctor was pressed up against the wall, my hand around his neck, "My daughter is in there, and you will tell me how she is or I will snap your neck."
"Rose!" Dr. Olendski called, nearing me, "Thank you, doctor, I'll take it from here."
I let the man go and looked at the woman, "Is she okay?"
The whole waiting room held their breath until Dr. Olendski nodded. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as she continued, "Yes, she had fluid in her lungs, that's why the machine didn't work. We drained it, and she should be fine."
"Can we see her?" Dimitri asked.
The doctor looked us over, "Not tonight. Go home. Get some sleep. You all look like you need it."
"No. We'll stay here," I said.
Dimitri tugged on my sleeve, "No, Mama Bear. She's fine and we need sleep." As Kirova began to hustle the students back to their rooms a shout echoed through the room.
"Rose!" Christian yelled, running through the door with a crying Charlie, "He won't stop!"
He threw the baby at me and I said, "What's wrong, baby?"
He stopped and looked at me, my voice calming him down.
"That's it?" Christian threw his hands in the air, "That's all I had to do?!"
"You're such a Mama's boy, Charlie," I told the baby and he laughed at me.
The morning after, I woke up the kids for school and Christian came up beside me, "So, I'm not going to go to school today," he declared.
"Are you sick?" I asked.
"Yeah, I might have to spend all day in the infirmary," he said.
I smiled at him, "I'm not going to let you skip school so I can see Liz."
"I'm not skipping school," he faked coughed into his hand, "I'm taking a sick day...by Liz's hospital bed."
I smiled at him, "Thank you. Thank you so much."
"1-B, 2-A, 3-C, 4-E"
"Rose? Can I borrow you?" Dr. Olendski said from the doorway.
Christian stood up, "Here, I'll grade, you go. Which one were we on, Liz?"
Liz continued to read off answers to Christian as he marked right and wrong. While they were doing that, the doctor and I stepped outside.
"Have you thought of what you are going to do about medical expenses?" Dr Olendski looked at me and I knew someone, probably Lissa or Stan, had filled her in on how tight money was.
"No. Dimitri and I haven't discussed it," I tried to hide my face from the cameraman behind me, giving the doctor a perfect view of my concerned face.
She frowned for a minute, "Well...there are a couple options you could try. Of course, there is going into debt, but you could also set up a Go Fund Me account and get money from the students at school-"
"No. Absolutely not. Dimitri and I will not take hand outs."
"Then you risk going into a huge deficit that you can not pay off with the money you all are currently making." Dr. Olendski took a step closer to me, "You understand that, don't you?"
"Yes, I do, but there has to be some other way than taking money we didn't earn. The job I have with Stan gets me a $140 a week. How long would it take to pay off the debt only using that?"
"10 weeks." I sighed and she continued, "Rose, I know you all depend on that money to eat. You can't do that."
"I know."
The doctor looked around the busy infirmary, "I know you're good at wrapping wounds from training. We get dhampirs in here all the time and we really don't have time to care for them in the way we should with the Morio coming in sick. If you come here in your free time you can pay off the debt."
