Chapter 25

Horatio made his way to the hospital and up to Stevie's floor. As he walked into the boy's room, he asked Mom. "You ready to go, Jessica?"

"I will be, in just a second." She told the man as she stood up.

Horatio walked over to the bed.

"Thanks for coming to get her, H." Stevie looked up at him.

"It's not a problem, Stevie." He reassured the boy, quickly.

Jessica came out of the bathroom. "I believe I'm ready, Horatio." She picked up her jacket and her purse, and came over to the bed. "We'll see you in the morning." She leaned in and kissed Stevie on the forehead. "Please try not to give the nurses too much of a hard time."

"Aww, Mom." The boy sounded every bit of the 12 yrs old that he was. "That's no fun." Once the laughter died down, Stevie added in a more serious tone. "Besides, I'm not sure I've got that much energy."

Horatio and Jessica shared a look, then he turned back to Stevie. "That's going to change, Partner." He reminded the youngster.

"I know, H. It's just that this is so…..frustrating. Not being able to go work out, or to school, or anything. I'm just laying here and it hurts."

"I can get you a pain killer, a Tylenol, from the nurse. It will help you sleep and it isn't addictive." Horatio explained.

The boy looked up, confused. "You're sure? I won't get hooked?"

"I'm positive, Stevie. Please, let me get you some relief. You don't have to be in pain." Horatio urged the boy.

"That's probably a good idea, since I really want to be awake tomorrow. Ok, H, yes, please." Stevie agreed.

Horatio and Jessica shared a surprised look, then when Jessica grinned and winked at him, Horatio looked down, trying not to blush, then turned and walked out the door and down to the nurse's station.

Dr. Fitzgerald stood at the nurse's station with one of the nurses, a brunette young woman. They both turned to acknowledge his approach. "Lt Caine, are you still here? Shouldn't you be headed home?"

Horatio cracked a grin. "It's only more like 'again', Dr Fitzgerald. I came back to pick up Jessica, to take her home." When the Doctor looked puzzled, Horatio continued. "Right this instant, I'm actually on an errand of mercy. Stevie has asked for a Tylenol."

The doctor's eyes grew wide. "He's what?" His surprise was complete. After a moment, once the shock had settled, he replied. "Ok." Fitzgerald turned to the brunette young woman beside him. "Go take a 500 mg Tylenol pill in to him, please, Tina?"

"Yes, sir, Dr Fitzgerald." She turned to walk away, but Horatio's voice stopped her."When you go in, you may need to reassure him that he won't get addicted to it, but he is willing to take it." Horatio advised.

"Thanks for the warning, Lt." Fitzgerald nodded to the nurse. As she walked away, he turned back to Horatio, as he reached for Stevie's chart. "What I'd really like to know is what magic power do you have that got him to ask for one?"

Horatio looked down just for a minute. When he looked back up, it was with that shy, embarrassed grin. "I only used common sense, a bit of logic, and a lot of reassurance that he wouldn't get hooked on it, that's all."

"Uh, huh." Fitzgerald commented, with a grin, as he wrote the dosage in the boy's chart and the time. "We've got it handled, Lt. Go home. Try to get some sleep. You've got a long day tomorrow."

"I'm ok, Dr. I'm taking Jessica home, and picking her up in the morning." Horatio admitted. "One question I had for you, Doctor, is how quickly after the cleansing do you think he'll be able to get back into the pool?"

"Probably not for a couple of days. We'll have to see if there are any problems with the cleansing solution." Fitzgerald also added. "He may need more than one treatment, as well. We'll just have to see what sort of reaction he does have, if any."

Horatio nodded thoughtfully, then looked back up at the doctor. "Dr Woods was explaining earlier that his white blood cell count is going down, fairly quickly. How quickly will we know if the treatment works and his WBC count begins to go back up?"

Fitzgerald also nodded. "His WBC count should level off for maybe a day, two at the very most, but then, when the treatment starts to work, it should start to go back up, but that's why we may need to do more than one."

"Ok." Horatio replied thoughtfully. "Thank you, Dr Fitzgerald. We'll see you tomorrow."

"I'll be here." Fitzgerald replied with a grin.

Horatio chuckled as he turned and walked back towards Stevie's room. He walked in to see Stevie take the pill cup from Tina, the Nurse, then also took the cup of water she offered and swallowed the pill. Stevie turned to Tina and showed her that he had, in fact, swallowed the pill. "Thanks, Tina."

"You're welcome, Stevie." She took the cup from him and set it on the table beside her, then turned back to the boy. "You should relax now, and get sleepy. Just go with it, ok?"

"Ok, Tina."

She turned and went toward the door.

"Thank you, Tina." Horatio added softly.

"You're both welcome. We'll see you in the morning, Lt."

"Yes, ma'am." He replied with a grin. He moved back into the room, and up to the bed, as Tina left the room and went back to the Nurse's Station. "I'm taking Mom home, Stevie. I'll also pick her up in the morning. Is there anything special we could bring you?"

The youngster thought about it. "Other than my swim trunks, probably just some 'hospital' and 'gym' clothes, my laptop, maybe a couple of DVD's, and my drawing materials. Anything else that Mom might think I would want."

"Ok. We'll see what we can do." Horatio told him.

"Ok, H. Thanks a lot."