At barely six the next morning, the phone rang while Lucas was in the bathroom getting ready for practice. He bolted out of the small room to grab the phone but it had already woken Peyton, who was beginning to stir.
"Hello," she demanded grumpily. "What do you want Nathan?" Her voice was gruff from sleep and complemented by a bit of anger and some whining. Lucas took the phone from her and greeted his brother.
"What's up?"
"Hey Luke. Sorry about the early call. I'm just not sure what to do." Nathan sounded concerned and that worried his older brother because he knew there was only one thing Nathan worried about; Haley. "Haley's coming down with something. She wasn't feeling great last night and she's worse this morning. There's a fever and everything. I don't want to leave her here by herself."
"Coach will bench you for a week for missing practice," Lucas said.
"I know, but I don't know what else to do."
"I'll talk to Peyton."
"Talk to Peyton about what?" She was sitting up in bed, looking awfully grumpy after being awoken. Lucas put his hand over the mouthpiece and spoke to her, allowing Nathan to only hear the murmur of voices.
"Hales isn't feeling well and Nathan doesn't want to leave her by herself all day."
"I'll be over in a few minutes," Peyton said wearily. "But I'm going back to sleep when I get there."
"Fair enough," Lucas said with a smirk, knowing she would never be able to fall back to sleep once she got dressed and ready. The two of them walked the short distance to Nathan and Haley's apartment in an understood silence. Peyton was grumpy and if Lucas didn't want his head bitten off, it was in his best interest to remain quiet.
Nathan was ready when they arrived and thanked Peyton for helping, to which she waved him off and kicked them both out of the apartment before locking the door. Wandering down the hall, she stuck her head into their bedroom and noticed that Nathan had placed a heavy comforter over Haley; not something helpful when a person had a fever. Peyton gently folded it down and replaced it with a thinner sheet. The other girl was obviously burning up; her cheeks red and her forehead gathering beads of sweat. Peyton bit her lip, trying to think about what her father had done when she'd had a fever. It was difficult; she had rarely been sick as a child.
"Peyton?"
"Hey," she said with a smile as she sat down on the edge of the bed.
"What are you doing here?"
"Nate had to go to practice. He won't be gone long," she lied. Haley seemed delirious enough not to know the difference, so she thought she might get away with stretching the truth.
"You didn't have to come," Haley said drowsily, her eyes closing again. "You have other stuff to do."
"Let's not kid ourselves," Peyton said gently. "Now get some sleep. I can't deal with the Scott brothers on my own so you have to get better."
"Don't worry," Haley said weakly.
"And still I do," Peyton said lightly. "Did you take anything?" Haley shook her head sleepily, her eyes still closed. "Alright. I'll see what I can find." Twenty minutes later, after Haley had taken Tylenol and fallen back asleep, Peyton wandered into the living room. It surprisingly wasn't as homey as her and Luke's apartment, but that was probably because the two of them had never experienced the same type of home. Haley and Nathan were both left alone quite often, despite her large family, and their houses were houses, not quite homes. Even though Peyton's father was away for work quite a bit once she started high school, she always felt of her home as her safe haven. That was what her apartment was becoming as well.
Realizing there was nothing worth watching on the television, Peyton picked up her book bag and sat down at Nathan's computer, planning to get some of her homework finished. There was a paper she needed to write for intro to Art History, comparing different versions of Madonna of the Rocks. Sighing, she opened a word document and began typing. She was writing the conclusion two hours later when the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Hey Peyton. How's Hales?"
"Still sleeping," Peyton said as she stood up and stretched. She peeked into the bedroom to see that Haley was, indeed, still asleep. Slumber in this instance had nothing to do with rest since the girl was tossing and turning, looking incredibly uncomfortable as a result of the fever. "You guys on break?"
"Yeah," Nathan said with a sigh. "Not long enough to get home though."
"We're fine. Don't worry about us."
"That's for doing this—"
"Could you stop thanking me?" Peyton interrupted. "Haley's my friend too."
"Yeah, I know. You're a good friend."
"Surprisingly, you're a good husband."
"Thanks," he said dryly. "Hey, gotta go. Coach said ten minutes. Twelve minute ago."
"Okay, see you later." Peyton hung up the telephone and sat on the edge of the bed, feeling Haley's forehead and frowning; she actually seemed warmer now. She left to get the thermometer from the bathroom and when she returned, Haley was attempting to sit up in bed.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Haley attempted to answer, but as soon as she drew a breath, she began to cough. It didn't last long, but it was so deep that it sounded like a bark. It was evidently a painful cough. "It take that as a 'not too hot,'" Peyton joked lightly as she sat down across from Haley with the thermometer. Haley glared as hard as she could with the blaring headache, but reluctantly put the thermometer in her mouth. "Sure," Peyton said flippantly. "Glare at the one with the pills. Not your best idea."
"You're enjoying this way too much," Haley said with a groan.
"Yeah," Peyton agreed with a nod. "It's not often you look worse than me."
"Thanks," Haley said dryly.
"Anytime. Wow," Peyton said in half surprise, half concern. "You don't do anything half way. Even your fevers are top of the scale."
"High?"
"103 is pretty high," Peyton answered with playfully stern look, "let's try to be a little less ambitious next time, alright?"
"Whatever you say," Haley mumbled tiredly. She curled up again under the covers and closed her eyes but switched positions right away, not seeming to find anything comfortable.
"Can I get you anything?" Haley shook her head. She began to cough once more, each bought shaking her tiny frame a bit more than the last. After an entire day of cough medicine, Tylenol, and Motrin, Haley seemed to be getting worse by the minute. Following a quick lunch, Peyton actually stopped leaving the bedroom because she was worried every time she left that Haley's labored and raspy breathing might stop altogether. She was getting worried enough to call for help but she wasn't sure where to turn. If she called Karen or her father, it would alarm everyone in Tree Hill and that wouldn't be helpful. Lucas and Nathan wouldn't know anymore than she did.
She settled eventually for calling the student health center. If they had advice, she could take it or leave it; it was at least a place to start. After sitting on hold for fifteen minutes, she was finally put on the line with a nurse. She was startled when, immediately following the explanation of Haley's symptoms, the nurse urged her to take Haley to the hospital. Not the doctor's office or the health center; the hospital. Now.
Peyton hung up the phone and looked at Haley, who was still tossing around in a light sleep bothered by coughing and the heat from her fever. "Hales," she said gently as she tried to nudge her friend awake. "Come on sweetie, wake up." After a few minutes, Haley's brown eyes did flutter open and she seemed to recognize Peyton, but didn't say a word. It took quite a bit of effort, but Peyton eventually got Haley dressed and ready to go. Walking with her to the hospital was going to be a bit more of a challenge. She knew the hospital that they were covered under with the school's health insurance, but it was at least a ten-minute walk. Deciding there was no other choice, she realized they would have to take a cab and worry about the cost later.
Once inside the emergency room, Peyton realized that they had a long wait ahead of them. She sat in one of the hard plastic chairs, Haley leaning against her, for almost an hour before they were called. Inside a private little cubical, they waited for another half an hour before a doctor came in and asked what the problem was. Haley coughed once and he required no more explanation.
"A little early for pneumonia," he said casually after asking her to take a deep breath. After probing around and asking questions for five minutes, he suggested they do a chest x-ray to make sure it was pneumonia. Peyton was allowed to stay with Haley the entire time and for that they were both thankful; the kind nurses who continually looked in on them weren't sure which girl looked more frightened.
"You're a lucky young girl," he said as he reentered Haley's little cubical an hour after the x-ray. "You got here just in time. A few more days and you'd have landed yourself with a hospital stay."
"I want to go home," Haley said weakly as she buried her face in Peyton's shoulder.
"Give me five minutes to fill these scripts, and you're on your way," the doctor said kindly. "You need to take the entire prescription for both medications, even after you start feeling better. And the inhaler, you should use twice a day for about a week, until breathing becomes easier. If you have any questions, my phone number and email address are on this card. He handed Peyton a card and left them alone so that he could fill the prescriptions.
As they headed out the door with the filled prescriptions, Peyton heard someone calling her name. They turned to see Nathan and Lucas, still in their practice jerseys, running toward them. There was an immediate passing of Haley from Peyton to Nathan, who actually picked her up and saved her the trouble of attempting to walk in her weakened condition. Lucas, after seeing that his friend was alive and in one piece, turned his attention toward Peyton.
"I got your voice mail," he said sheepishly.
"Apparently," she said with a smile. "Your timing was good. A few more minutes and we'd have been home. How was practice?"
"Uneventful compared to your day."
"It was sort of crazy," Peyton agreed with a nod. "Haley has been ordered to bed for at least two weeks," she told Nathan emphatically. Haley started to argue but was cut off by both Peyton and Lucas, who explained to her that there was no choice. They both planned to make certain that she followed the doctor's orders to their strictest letter.
The title is taken somewhat from the song "Who needs Sleep?" by the Barenaked Ladies.