"My belly hurts." McKenzie said as she turned over in her hospital bed. Peyton automatically got up and went over to her side rubbing her back. She knew what was coming, grabbing the pink bucket she helped Kenzie sit up just in time.
It broke Peyton's heart to see the little girl so sick. Watching her as she dry heaved and coughed into the bucket. Once she was done she leaned back against Peyton as tears feel from her eyes.
"Where is Mommy or or Lucas?" She asked Peyton. She was breathing heavy and there were little beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Peyton rubbed her head only to feel the warmness of her skin.
"They went to go grab something to eat." Peyton told her as she placed the back of her hand on her forehead. "Kenz you're burning up."
"I'm tired." She said sleepily as she tried to keep her eyes open. Peyton laid the bed back down and pulled her cover over her tucking it in tightly. She had to go find a nurse or Dr. Carson, something wasn't right.
Once she was sure that she had fallen back asleep she slipped out into the hall. She spotted the nurse that was on call for the day Sam, and walked over to her. "Something is wrong with Kenzie." Peyton said once she reached the nurses' station. "She woke up sick from the chemo and she is burning up."
"Alright ill page her doctor and then be in there." Sam said with a smile as she grabbed the phone to page Dr. Carson.
Peyton nodded before pulling out her phone to call Brooke and Lucas.
Brooke practically ran through the hospital to get to Kenzie's room. She had been in the middle of picking at her salad when Peyton called her. She automatically discarded her food and after explaining to Lucas that something was wrong the two quickly made their way up to the 4th floor.
When they reached her room they found Peyton sitting there holding a crying Kenzie while Dr. Carson was in the process of drawing some blood. Brooke ran over to them sitting down next to the two trying to sooth the little girl.
"Hey bug." She said smiling. "Mommy is right here."
"I. want. My da-daddy." She said through sobs.
Brooke looked up at Peyton then over at Lucas who had been standing in the doorway. "She's been crying for Lucas."
Standing up Brooke walked over to Lucas. "She wants her daddy." She said with a smile.
Luke stared at her shocked. "Me?" Brooke nodded.
Lucas walked over to where Peyton and Kenzie were and sat down wrapping his arm around her. Kenzie grabbed ahold of his shirt and buried her head into his chest. "Daddy's here." He said softly as he rubbed her back.
Dr. Carson walked over to where Brooke was standing. "I'm going to put a rush on these blood tests. I think her counts are low and she might have an infection. We gave her some antibiotics and if her fever doesn't break soon I would recommend we get her some ice packs. It's pretty high right now."
Brooke nodded. "Thank you."
Forty minutes later and McKenzie's fever still hadn't broken. Sam had brought ice packs to place around her body and they kept giving her cold washcloths. The last time they had done this with Kenzie she hated it, but this time was different. She was completely out of it. All she did was sleep and she would not let Lucas leave her side. Anytime he moved she held onto him tighter. Every once in a while a little whimper could be heard from her but that was it.
"I'm going to go get her another blanket." Peyton said as she got up and left. They already had two blankets on her but with the ice packs; Lucas could still feel her tiny little body shivering.
"How's are princess doing?" Dr. Carson asked as he came back into the room.
"She is pretty out of it." Brooke said with a sigh. "Her fever has yet to break so they have her on icepacks."
Dr. Carson pulled out his thermometer and stuck it into the sleeping girl's ear gently. "Well it seems like these are working." He told them as he read the reading. "She was at 104.2 earlier and now she is down to 102.3. We will keep her on the packs for another hour or so and then check on her fever again."
"Did her blood test come back?"
"They did and her counts are in fact low. There was no sign of any infection so were going to keep a close eye on her and see if we can figure out what brought about this fever."
The rest of the day dragged on. McKenzie was pretty out of it. After being on the ice packs for nearly three hours they finally removed them her fever had gone down to 100.4 so they were hoping that the antibiotics would do the rest. At one point it seemed she was having trouble breathing so they hooked her up to oxygen as well as a heart monitor.
Lucas laid there next to Kenzie stroking her head. He was new to this. He didn't know what he was supposed to do, how he could make her more comfortable. This was Brooke's area; she knew how to make Kenzie feel better. But for some reason, unknown to Lucas she wanted him and not Brooke.
"You're doing great." Brooke said breaking the silence.
"I just want to make it all go away." He said as he looked down at the sleeping girl. "She should be running around playing. Nobody should be this sick."
The two were interrupted as McKenzie woke up coughing and gasping for air. Lucas helped her sit up while Brooke reached for the oxygen mask placing it around her mouth. "Breath baby girl, breath."
It took a good five minutes but Kenzie's body was no longer starving for oxygen. "I'm going to go get her Dr. Carson." Brooke told Luke once they had gotten McKenzie comfortable again. Worried was an understatement, Brooke was scared to death. Watching your child fight for a breath of air was one of the worst things a mom could see. Watching them as they gasped for air and there face turned blue.
Brooke was lucky when she saw Dr. Carson talking to a nurse at the nurses' station. "She is having trouble breathing still." Brooke told him. "She woke up coughing and gasping for air."
"Alright ill come take a closer look at those lungs of hers." Following Brooke the two walked into Kenzie's room. "McKenzie I'm gonna need you to sit up for me ok?" Dr. Carson asked as he woke up the little girl. Lucas helped her sit up by allowing her to lean back against his chest. "Good girl. Now when I say so I want you to take a deep breath ok?" Kenzie nodded sleepily, her breathing still heavy. Dr. Carson placed his stethoscope onto her chest. "Alright, deep breath." McKenzie took the best deep breath that she could and in the process she let out a cough that once again left her gasping for air. Reaching for the oxygen mask like Brooke had moments early he placed it around the little girl's mouth. "You're doing great Kenzie." He said with a smile before turning to Brooke. "From the sounds of it there is fluid in her lungs. I want to get a chest x-ray to verify but I think Kenzie may have pneumonia. I want to keep her hooked up on the oxygen and I'll be back soon to take her down for x-rays."
Brooke, Peyton and Lucas all sat around anxiously waiting for Dr. Carson to return with McKenzie after her x-rays. It had been nearly an hour and Brooke new that x-rays did not take that long. To say she was impatient was in understatement. For the last twenty minutes she had been passing back and forth.
"Brooke you're going to make a hole in the floor." Lucas said as he walked up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Brooke sighed as he guided her over to the couch.
"She should be done by now." She told Lucas as she began to bounce her leg.
"I'm sure everything is alright." He said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder pulling her close.
"Brooke, Lucas?" Dr. Carson said as he stood in the doorway.
"Where, where is Kenzie?" Brooke asked as she jumped up from were Lucas had been holding her. From the look on Dr. Carson's face something was wrong.
"You might want to sit down Brooke." He said as he walked into the room. Brooke shook her head. Lucas came up behind her placing a supporting arm around her. "McKenzie's x-rays showed fluid in her lungs, which is a sign of pneumonia; because her immune system is already shot she has no way of fighting it off. Things got pretty bad within the last hour so we had her moved to the ICU."
"Oh my God." Brooke said as she covered her mouth and her eyes began to water.
"She, she's going to be alright though right?" Lucas asked.
"She might not make it through the night." Dr. Carson said sadly.
Brooke felt like her world had just crumbled right in front of her eyes. The world began to close in on her and she was starting to have trouble breathing. Maybe this was what it felt like for Kenzie as she tried to breathe, a tightness in her throat that seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. She felt her knees give out but someone had caught her and guided herself to the small couch against the wall.
"Brooke I need you to breath." Dr. Carson said in his calm soothing voice as he walked over to her and Lucas. "You're having a panic attack."
Brooke tried to do what he was saying but every time she tried it felt like the oxygen was being sucked right out of her lungs. She felt Lucas's hand rub gentle circles on her back trying to calm her down. It seemed to help because soon the only sounds coming from Brooke were her sobs as she cried into Lucas's shoulder.
"Brooke I need you to understand that we are doing everything we can for Kenzie. We have her hooked up to a ventilator to give her lungs a rest as well as morphine for the pain and a handful of antibiotics."
Brooke lifted her head up from Lucas's now tear stained shirt. "I want to see her."
"I'll take you guys up there." Lucas and Peyton who had been silently crying and trying to calm Brooke down helped her stand up as Dr. Carson guided them down the hall and to the elevator.