I hope you enjoy! This chapter isn't as...sad as the last one, but there are some moments. Thank you to kbeto for being lovely, and to everyone who has every reviewed any of my stories. Just a sidenote - if you don't ADORE Nurse Smith by the end of this, what's wrong with you?!
"Tom, all this is tellin' me is that we need the file even more. I'm not letting you get it – I'll get it." Danny's voice was quiet in the still blackness of the night, and sounded almost as if it was a natural part of the stifling room.
"I'll get it, Dan. I promised you that I'd get it and I failed, so I'll try again." Tom's voice, by contrast, was sharp and abrasive, quite the opposite to his usual sweet tones. It felt almost as if Tom was cutting the night air with a knife, slicing the supposed safety of sleep with his words.
"Tom, I can do it. I'm used to...lashes. You aint. I doubt you could take another eight, or ten, or twenny."
Tom was forcefully reminded of the painful marks on his back, a mixture of weals, cuts and bruises. The whip had done its job well. "Danny, seriously, I can do it. It's the least I can do."
In the warm bed, Danny slipped out a hand and gently pushed it up the back of Tom's pyjama top, resting it on his abused back. His finger were cold and felt pleasant against the hot, healing skin. Tom gave a hiss of relief at the coldness before returning to the topic.
"Please, Dan, let me try and do it."
Danny sighed. "I love ya, Tom. That's why I can't."
"And I love you, and that's why I have to."
"Look, we'll talk tomorrah. Just sleep now, Tom. It'll make ya feel a bit better."
Tom was fairly certain it wasn't morning, and yet his shoulders were being violently shaken. He was lying on his side to avoid back pain. Blearily, he opened his eyes, and saw Danny looking equally as sleepy but also very frightened next to him. The light was burning brightly.
"What's wrong?" Tom asked, sitting up straight and turning with concern to the shaker. It was his father.
"Carrie is seriously ill...we need to go to a proper hospital."
"I'll go and ask the proper leaders if we can take one of th'a buses – get her to the medical ward first." Danny immediately replied. Sliding out of bed, he suddenly remembered that he slept naked, and froze for a second in front of the two wide-eyed Fletcher's before grabbing a pair of boxers from the floor and yanking them on as he left the room, on his way to see Soldier Miller or perhaps another leader.
"I'll show you where the medical room is." Tom quickly said, stumbling out of bed in his haziness. As he headed to the door that joined his and Danny's room to his family's room, a hand came to his shoulder.
"Tom, about what happened earlier...we know that you're not to blame for it all. You didn't deserve what happened." Bob spoke slowly, as if chastened by unhappiness. Tom looked taken aback.
"Let's concentrate on Carrie right now, and talk later." The younger man managed a small smile at his father, who returned an equally as small smile. Upon entering the room, it was clear that something was drastically wrong. Stretched out on one of the sofas was the small, crumpled figure of Carrie, who's face was ghostly white apart from a small spot on each cheek burning hot and red. Her eyes were too bright, and appeared tearful, and she seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness. Debbie was kneeling on the floor beside her, dressed in a pair of baggy, green and white striped pyjamas.
"Let's go to the medical ward, then." Tom suggested, trying his hardest not to look into Carrie's poor little coffee coloured eyes. Bob lifted the child, while Debbie stood on one side, holding her hand and stroking her hair. Tom walked over, intending to guide them to the medical ward, but stopping suddenly beside his little sister.
"Hey, bumface." he smiled, using an old nickname that he had given her when they were very small that they had used interchangeably for each other's names for years.
"Hi, poonose." Carrie's voice was a croak, nothing like its exuberant norm, but the other three were all relieved to hear it come out of her lips, which stuck out like red slugs against her pale face.
"This little girl needs to go to a proper hospital as soon as possible. It may only be influenza, but I am fairly certain that she needs a drip and some stronger medicines then I have access to." Nurse Smith was in charge of the medical ward at the complex, and it was difficult to tell exactly whether she was on your side or against you. When Tom had turned up with a bleeding back, she had wiped away the blood with a tender touch, carefully treating each wound so that it stopped bleeding. However, when he'd made a cheeky, flirty comment at her, she hadn't hesitated to whack him across the back of his boxers (his jeans were lowered so that she could access the lower wounds) with the ruler she was using at the time to measure the length of the marks.
"Next time you say something like that." she had said, folding her arms, "I'll have you across my knee."
This had made Tom laugh, as well as Danny, which is turn made her give a smile. Even though she was being deadly serious (Danny knew this from experience), she had said it to get a laugh out of him, and to try and make him a bit happier. Of course, good doctors and nurses are always nice, but the best ones are distracting as well as nice. Distraction is often the best painkiller.
"Thank you so much, Nurse." Tom said, with a smile. She turned to him, one hand still gently stroking Carrie's hot forehead.
"Don't forget my threat, young man." she told him, making Tom himself blush beetroot. Moments later, Danny banged the door open loudly, startling them all.
"Soldier Miller says that we can't take one of the buses or one of the drivers at this time in the nigh'." he breathlessly informed them.
"We're going to have to." Bob grimly replied, before Nurse Smith stepped forwards.
"Carrie can probably wait a couple of hours, but that's about it." she told them, before turning to Danny and bellowing, "Excuse me, young man, did you not see the 'knock and wait' sign on the door? No buts, I know you did! I know it's an emergency, but common courtesy doesn't cost a penny! You step right back outside of that door, knock on it and wait for me to let me in, or you'll find yourself standing in that corner!"
Danny fled the room immediately, closing the door behind him. The Fletchers all laughed, including Carrie, who had been awake long enough to witness the entire exchange between the stern woman and the young, regardless man. There was a meek knock at the door. After a few seconds, Nurse Smith gently called,
"Come in!"
Danny entered, blushing hard and staring at his shoes.
"Do you have something to say to not only me, but to the patient in the middle of her medical exam, and her family?" Nurse Smith crisply asked. Danny glanced up and saw that she had picked up her ruler, and gulped before quietly but profusely apologizing, much to the amusement of them all.
"Good boy! Now I don't have to use this!" she smiled, before telling them, "And this child definitely needs hospital. My advice, lad, is to go and take a bus and driver anyway."
Five minutes later, Danny and the Fletcher family were boarding one of the smaller buses, a driver who also happened to be quite matey with Danny sitting in the driver's seat.
"The nearest hospital is about half an hour away. You just sit tight back there." he called, before revving the engine and beginning the journey. Across the back seat, Carrie was stretched, her head on Debbie's lap and an assortment of pyjama tops, jumpers and a fire blankets that they had on them tucked over her. Bob sat at her feet, leaving no room for Tom or Danny except in front.
"You sit at the front of the bus, love. I think you two might need to have a chat about keeping that Nurse in your good books." Debbie suggested, with a weak smile. Tom obediently loped down to the front of the bus with Danny, and sat down.
"What now?" Tom asked, biting his lip.
"What what now?" Danny replied, confused.
"You stole a bus. What's going to happen?"
Danny chuckled, a dry, humourless chuckle. "Whips, chains...the usual."
"It'd sound kinky if you didn't know the context." Tom's voice, despite his humour filled words, was flat. Danny's laugh at the comment was more genuine than his previous one.
"Maybe we can go back to your old house, stay there." Danny suggested. "I mean, your stuff is all still there..."
"Here are some words that I never thought I'd say: Danny Jones, you are a genius."
"Oi! I am a complete and utter genius, thank you very much!" Danny indignantly replied.
"Do you mind if I suggest it to my family after Carrie's been sorted out? They're focused on her right now, and so am I to be honest."
Danny nodded. "Do you really think it's a good idea?"
Tom's confirmation was a soft, sweet kiss on the mouth, gentler than most and yet still firm enough to distinguish it from a peck. "I do."
I'm sad to report that that was the only time Tom said that to Danny above the ground.
"It's influenza, with a fairly serious secondary infection that is attacking Carrie's nervous system, meaning that she may be feeling extreme pain in odd parts of her body, like her knees or her toes. We've put her on a drip, and administered oral medicine. After a long night of sleep, she'll be okay to go home, along with some medicine to take orally every two hours for a week." The doctor spoke as if he had better things to do than to treat poor Carrie, but the Fletchers and Danny accepted it gratefully.
"Is there a family room where we can stay overnight?" Debbie asked. The doctor sighed heavily before consulting a plastic wallet under one arm.
"There are two beds available in ward H, which is one of the family wards. I can accompany you there now."
The four said goodnight to the already fast asleep Carrie before walking to the small room that was ward H. It had eight beds, six of which were already filled with sleeping bodies.
"Danny had a really good idea, earlier." Tom quietly murmured to his parents. "He suggested that the five of us go back to our house tomorrow, and live there instead of at the complex, at least for a while."
Debbie and Bob turned briefly to each other, before turning back to the two teenage boys and nodding. Then, the four allowed themselves to sleep well in the springy hospital beds, resting with their one true love.