A/N: Thank you so much for all the support and reviews thus far. I hope you keep the love coming and continue to enjoy the story :)

Chapter Ten

Beth emptied her stomach into the plastic vomit bag the nurse had thrust into hands. It didn't seem fair, she hated how weak she felt especially since she wanted to be better straight away. Or at least some semblance of better to prove to herself things were getting better. The morphine wasn't doing her any favours either as her head spun on the lowest setting. She knew a higher dose would probably be better in the long run but she didn't want to become dependant on something that wasn't going to stay.

It was a real internal struggle for her ever since she developed the disease. She craved to healthy, she craved to be pain free and be able to like everyone else. But she was stuck in a never ending cycle of pain, fatigue and drugs. Panadiene Forte at least didn't get her high, she vaguely remembered a time when she was semi functional human being. She missed that woman, sure she had bad flare ups but she'd held a job and managed to get to the bathroom without assistance.

She just hoped she could find that woman again, but where she was now to that woman in the past there was a long distance to traverse. It wasn't going to be easy. Life never was, but at least she had a goal to reach to. Hell, she needed to get better just to be able to look after herself and the girls not to mention Kaito. She hoped she was making the right choices. Not just for herself but the others too.

"It's ok." Rios assured Beth as he came into the room to help. She was pretty sure he was saying it was 'ok' because she'd hadn't vomited on herself or anyone else. At least there wasn't any blood. She shivered in disgust as she hated vomiting.

"I feel horrible." Beth said, hating that she admitted as much but there was no point in pretending everything was ok.

"We can't give you tablets if you're going to throw them up. I'm going to give you a shot of Maxolon hopefully that will help you keep down liquids." Rios said gently as he passed on the order to the nurse.

"Why can't it be easy and quick?" Beth complained with a wry smile as she blinked back tears. She missed her Mom at this moment as she remembered how she would have come in and taken care of her and stroked her hair telling her everything was going to be ok. That it would all pass, that kind of reassurance coming from a woman with the same health issues was more reassuring than Rios' but then she'd feel fairly uncomfortable if he showed that kind of intimacy with her.

"I know, but you told me this wasn't going to easy or quick. So let's just get you through the next month on. I'm increasing your morphine drip to the dose I prescribed." He told her as he moved to her machine and set it to it's original setting.

"I don't want to get hooked." Beth informed him.

"You won't, you don't have the personality for it." He told her.

"Are you mocking me?" Beth asked with a wry smile.

"A little, but it made you smile." Rios said with a smile as he injected her IV line with the Maxolon. "We might have to try a different nutritional supplement as that one didn't sit well but for now you need a decent rest and meds. Maybe once you're body is a little more relaxed, you'll be able to stomach food." He commented as he went through his own checklist and checking her vitals and speaking to the nurse multitasking.

"Yeah ok." Beth said deferring to him and relaxing some of her control on the situation. She had to trust him at some point, she just had to hope she wouldn't wake up missing half her intestines which was one of her biggest fears in being here.

"For now, you'll take the medication as prescribed. You need to give your body time to repair and being in pain doesn't help that. It just puts undue stress on you. So, for now full pain med regime and we'll slowly ween you off the morphine and switch to the Panadiene forte. By then you should be on solids so it'll work out better for your system overall. Ok." Rios told her.

"Ok." Beth said as she felt the pain slowly fade from her body and everything become blissfully smooth as the morphine moved through her system.

"Good." Rios told her with a kind smile.

"I'm not going to wake up somewhere else missing my organs am I?" she asked her words slurring as fatigue and medication had their way with her.

"No, you'll be in this room until we kick you out." Rios assured her.

"Ok." Beth said drifting to sleep.

"I think we're done." Kara said as Sasha and Mia had joined Sienna and her in the women's section of the store.

"What about Beth? Can we get her some clothes too? I can put some of mine back, so we can afford it." Sienna said, Sasha and Kara exchanged looks unsure of what to say but gave a shrug as they couldn't see the harm in a little extra shopping.

"No need for that, we got enough in our budget to get her some clothes too. Do you know what size she is?" Kara asked Mia and Sienna as she nor Sasha had met the woman but were fairly interested in meeting her given the girls talked about her a lot. They obviously cared about Beth being looked after otherwise Mia wouldn't have said anything.

"I don't know, she's tall like Sasha but skinnier but we have food now so I hope that will change." Sienna said careful not to insult Kara or Sasha as she really like them. They were beautiful, strong and they saved her the embarrassment of shopping with her Dad. Like she wanted him to be around when she bought her knickers and other supplies. She also liked that they picked a small but generic shop where the clothes were cheap but good quality. She liked that Kara cut out a lot of indecision and stress of wondering if she was allowed the clothes or not. She knew she was but her brain was so heavily wired to not expect something for free, that you lived with what little you had and made it work. So the idea of going out and buy a whole new wardrobe filled her with anxiety and guilt.

"Ok, let's see she's not feeling great so definitely loose fitted and stretchy clothes." Sasha said thoughtfully.

"lounge pants." Kara said with an excited smile. Sasha chuckled at her.

"You're obsessed with them." Sasha commented as she was pretty sure the only time she saw Kara in other style of pants was at work. Today she was in loose chambray pants with a lightweight grey jumper over the top just proving her point and it was autumn.

"I'd wear Harem pants if I could but Danny calls them 'Poopie catchers'." Kara said making a face, Mia and Sienna exchanged looks not sure of what to make of Kara's comment while Sasha laughed.

"Anything that's stretchy and I say small for top and go with medium on the bottom as long legs are a curse." Sasha said in amusement.

"Alright, thanks for the call." Mike said as he hung up the phone, he blew out a breath as he didn't like the news Rios had given him. Kaito was blissfully sleeping in his stroller and he and Tom were in the middle of their lunch. It helped Mike gave Kaito a bottle, full stomach always guaranteed at least an hour and half of peace and quiet.

"What is it?" Tom asked as he took a sip of his beer, they were at one of their favourite bistros as it was spacious Al Fresco dining where they served boutique beer on tap. It was hipster hot spot and Mike wished half the people would wake up and realise that they needed a haircut and that wearing a bow tie wasn't something original. But the service was good, the steaks cooked to perfection and the beer always cold, better still it was a five minute walk from work which made up for a lot.

"Rios. Beth isn't in the best shape for a visit. The girls aren't going to be happy." Mike said as he started typing out a text message to Sasha.

"Can't be helped. No one recovers overnight." Tom said diplomatically as he knew all the facts but because he wasn't there first hand he couldn't really make any real insight on how to help Mike.

"I know, I'm texting your girlfriend." Mike told him.

"Making her the bearer of bad news?" Tom asked wryly.

"Yep." Mike said not bothering to lie, he was tired of being the bad guy with the girls and he knew if he told them, then they'd think he was against them. It all felt like a downward spiral he didn't want to happen.

"And you're going to see her?" Tom asked referring to Beth.

"No, she's conked out on morphine." Mike said as he sent the text to Sasha. He looked up at Tom who wore an expression of that one wore when they believed their friend wasn't making the right decision. "She's not going to be on morphine for life. So give me a break." Mike said as he put his phone away.

"You don't know her." Tom said.

"I have a name that is being run as we speak and the girls know and trust her. That's enough for me." Mike argued, equally amazed at how true the words are when he said it was 'enough' as it was. He didn't know her but he had a good sense about her.

"Doesn't mean you have to install her in your life." Tom said playing devil's advocate.

"True, but when did you lose your faith in people being as advertised?" Mike asked him.

"Somewhere around Baltimore and when it was reiterated to me by Allison Shaw." Tom said, Mike and he had discussed this at length before but hadn't come to any conclusion where both parties were happy. So he said nothing, letting silence descend between them before he'd change the topic.