"Nancy, look who's here."
Nancy began to sit up to greet her visitors with a smile, but that quickly fell from her face when she saw Megan, and Fuller coming around the corner.
"Hi Nancy. How's your first day home going?"
"Fine. What are you guys doing here?"
"Nancy don't be rude. Phoebe invited them over. They are going to do some studying and celebrate your homecoming with us."
"Yea right!"
Somehow Nancy didn't believe her. Something wasn't right about them being here, but she would leave it alone for now. Around 6:30 everyone joined around the table for a peaceful dinner. Piper had prepared some of Nancy's favorite foods. The first thing that Nancy did was notice a small plastic cup on the side of her dish that contained two pills, her antibiotics. She took them down right away, and then dove into her dinner.
"Everything looks great Piper."
"Thank you so much for inviting Megan and I. You don't know how long it's been since we had a home cooked meal."
"It's our pleasure."
Nancy was actually enjoying their company for a change. Not once had they mentioned the hospital, or Nancy's medication. She didn't mind this Megan and Fuller, as long as there were no needles around. They continued to chat casually throughout the dinner. Nancy remained fairly quiet, she was to busy eating to say much.
By 7:30, Nancy was feeling somewhat full, and a little uncomfortable. They had just cleared the table, and Piper was bringing out desert, a chocolate cake, with the words welcome home Nancy, spelled across the top. Piper cut a nice size piece for Nancy, and then dished out the rest.
"Nancy is something wrong with the cake?"
"Of course not Piper. Just resting my stomach so I can really enjoy it."
In reality Nancy's stomach was really starting to hurt, and her back was aching in ways she couldn't really describe. She didn't want to say anything that would ruin the nice evening they were having. Her stomach felt like a ten pound weight came crashing down; she knew that at any moment she was going to be sick.
"Could I be excused for a minute? I just want to wash my hands."
"Do you need any help?"
"No I think I can handle it thanks."
She quickly left the table and rolled herself into the downstairs bathroom. Closing the door, she rolled over to the toilet and began to pray that her stomach would settle down. Seconds later the acids in her stomach became too much and she felt the contents of her stomach emptying into the toilet below. Several minutes later, her stomach had calmed down, but her back was aching from trying to lean forward so her head was over the toilet. She leaned back into her chair, grabbing a towel off the rack next to her. She was jolted back to reality by a knock on the door.
"Nancy? You alright in there?"
"Fine. I'll be out in a minute."
She began to wipe her mouth, and realized that she had some vomit on her shirt. She knew that Phoebe was still standing in the hall, and knew she wouldn't be able to hide that. She couldn't even reach the sink to get some water on the towel.
"Phoebe? You still out there?"
"Yes. You need some help?"
"Yes please. Just you though, no one else please."
Phoebe opened the door, and was not too surprised by what she found. Somehow she knew that Nancy wasn't feeling good.
"Why didn't you say something before?"
"I didn't think I was going to be sick. Besides I didn't want Piper to think it was her cooking."
"Did you eat too much?"
"I think so. I guess my eyes are bigger then my stomach."
"Well, let's get you upstairs, and changed."
"Can you ask Piper to save my cake till tomorrow?"
"Of course."
Phoebe rolled Nancy out of the bathroom and put her in the chair lift. Taking her upstairs, Phoebe noticed Nancy's slightly sweaty face, and her clinched teeth, and unusual silence. Once in Nancy's room, she got her cleaned up, into pajamas, and into bed.
Nancy thought she had won when Phoebe left the room, kissing her goodnight. When she didn't return right away, Nancy got as comfortable as possible, and prepared herself for what would probably be a rough night, but it was worth it if she didn't have to have another needle today.
"Pheebs, where's Nancy?"
"In bed. She wasn't feeling real well."
"What?"
"I think she ate too much, she got sick to her stomach. She said she didn't want Piper to think it was her cooking. I also think she's in a lot of pain."
"And she wanted to avoid the shot right?"
"You got it. So Piper, Prue which one of you want to do the honors?"
"Prue why don't you do it, I haven't had enough practice yet."
"Piper besides celebrating Nancy's homecoming, Phoebe wanted us to help you guys get comfortable with giving Nancy her shots. You watch her doing the day right?"
"Yea."
"Then we should show you tonight, and Prue tomorrow. You'll need to give her one sometime tomorrow afternoon."
"We might all need to go up there. I don't think she is going to like this one bit."
One by one they started upstairs. Piper and Fuller went into the upstairs bathroom to get the medication and supplies. Once they walked out they all took a deep breath and entered Nancy's room. Megan and Fuller were not too surprised by what they found.
"What's up guys? Come to say goodnight?"
Nancy's voice was very shaky; she had sweat rolling down her face. They could see that she was getting rather pale, and in a lot of pain.
"Yes, but Piper is also going to give you a pain shot."
"Why? I don't need it."
"Yes you do. You know it."
"NO! I'M FINE!"
"Nancy please don't make this difficult."
"MOM I'M JUST FINE. PLEASE DON'T DO THIS. NOT TONIGHT!"
"Prue we are going to need to hold her down. She is in to much pain to think rationally."
"Jamie, maybe you should give her the shot. I really don't want to mess up."
"No Piper, you guys need to know how to do this in any situation."
"Fine."
Megan, Phoebe, and Prue approached Nancy getting her rolled on her side. Nancy was using every ounce of energy she had to fight them off.
"I've never seen her fight this much."
Megan placed her hand on Nancy's forehead and could tell she was starting to get a slight fever.
"Phoebe you said she was throwing up in the bathroom?"
"Yea, I didn't want to make a big deal about it. She was kind of embarrassed. Why?"
"That means the medication didn't stay in her system. Prue you need to go downstairs and get another does. One of her antibiotics helps fight off fever, and she's going to need that pretty quick."
Phoebe took Prue's place holding Nancy as still as possible. Prue ran out of the room and got another round of Nancy's pills. Once she returned she found Fuller talking Piper through the last of the steps before the actual injection.
"Good, now tap the base of the needle to make sure there are no air bubbles in it. Good, now place a little of the skin cleaner on the cotton and clean a small spot on her hip."
Piper's hands were visibly shaking, and Prue was glad that Nancy had her back to her. Phoebe was trying as best she could to help keep Nancy calm. She had stopped fighting by this point, but was crying very loudly. They all knew that a lot of the tears were from the pain she was going through.
"Good Piper, now remember, don't hesitate. Just put the needle in, push in the plunger, and then pull it right out."
"Right."
Piper took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Fuller noticed and leaned in to whisper in Piper's ear.
"You can't close your eyes. You have to see what you're doing."
Reluctantly Piper opened her eyes, steadied her hand, and inserted the needle. Nancy didn't even flinch, so Piper quickly pushed in the plunger, pulled the needle out, and re-cleaned the area as instructed.
"Good job Piper."
Prue walked behind Piper, kissed her on the cheek and then walked over to Nancy.
"Here's her pills."
"Can't give them to her just yet. We need to wait till the painkiller kicks in, or she might get sick again. Let's get some cool cloths, and take a few of these blankets off her to make her more comfortable. Once she is a little more level headed, we can give her the pills."
They followed Megan's instructions, and each of them thanked God they had been there to help.
"Maybe Lucy was right. Maybe we did bring her home too soon."
"Prue you can't think like that. This could have happened, in another week, or another month. I'm just glad that Phoebe knew when to ask for help. That's the important thing right now."
"Megan's right. We know that you are just learning to be a Mom, and now you have to learn how to help a sick child as well. That's a lot for anyone, as long as you ask for help when you need it, there shouldn't be any reason you three can't handle this."
They sat for a while with Nancy till the pain killer kicked in. Once she was physically comfortable they gave her the antibiotic before leaving the room. The girls thanked Fuller and Megan for their help, said goodnight, and walked them to the door.
"She should be fine now, you guys might want to watch her tonight, make sure her temperature does go down. If it starts to rise, get her to the hospital right away."
"Thank you so much."
"It's not a problem. Phoebe has our number if you need us. We'll be back tomorrow to help out."
"We don't want to put you guys out."
"It's no trouble. We'll keep coming back until you guys can do this in your sleep. That's what friends are for."
They each let out a small chuckle, shook hands, and then went their separate ways.
"Phoebe, you were so smart to ask them to come over tonight."
"I just figured that you guys are my big sisters, and although I may like trying to boss you around, this was way too important."
"We would have listened you know."
"I know, but I'm only comfortable with me doing it. I'm not ready to teach someone else yet."
"We better get the kitchen cleaned up."
"Leave it to Piper to talk about house work on a night like this."
They entered the dinning room, cleared the last of the dishes, and worked together to get them washed, dried and put away. They took turns though out the night, watching over Nancy, and were grateful when around 3:00 in the morning; her temperature was back to normal.