I woke the next morning as Ranger was lifting the kids to give me a morning hug and kiss. I smiled as I opened my eyes. "Are you the three who are responsible for all my good healing?"
"We've been giving you healing hugs and kisses, Mommy", said Grace.
"I know, and two days ago I was this sick", I said as I held my arms wide. "But because of your healing kisses and hugs, I am now only this sick", I said as I halved the distance between my arms. "I'm getting better fast and Grant and Kai were shocked at how fast I'm getting better. But I know that it's because of your healing hugs and kisses that I am getting better so fast."
The three little girls grinned.
"What happened, Mommy?" said Tia.
I thought for a moment. "Remember when you had a sore throat last year?" She nodded. "That was caused by germs causing an infection. I got the same sort of thing as you, but my infection was on my sore legs. And just like we gave you medicine to make the infection go away, Grant and Kai have been giving me medication to make the infection go away as well. The medication makes me feel like throwing up, but it is stomping out the infection and making it go away fast. Can you stomp your feet and make the infection go away as well?"
The three little girls stomped their feet. I grinned at them. "Just like that", I said. "That was good stomping, and I'm sure that will help the infection go away quickly. Between your healing kisses and hugs and the stomping, I'm going to get better soon."
The girls grinned again, and I smiled. The three little ones loved to help and feeling like they were making me better would make them feel good. Like Ranger and me, they didn't deal well with feeling helpless.
Grant walked into the room and smiled at me. "How are you feeling?" he said.
I smiled. "Much better than I was. I'm sorry, Grant. I know that you've been doing good doctoring, but I think it was the healing hugs and kisses that have made the most difference. I have extra help now because the girls are stomping out the infection as well, and making it go away. Girls, can you show Grant how you are stomping out the infection?"
The girls started stomping the ground again, and Grant smiled. "Yes", he said, "that is a good help and I think will make a big difference in how your mom is feeling. I know that I checked her legs this morning when she was sleeping, and her legs are looking much better. I also think it was the healing hugs and kisses, and the stomping that you've been doing. You three are an incredible help."
Tia looked at Grant seriously. "Is Mommy going to get better?" she said.
Grant crouched down to her level and looked her in the eye. "Your mom is already much, much better. But, she is going to have to sleep lots to continue to get better. She is going to have to take her medication and she is going to have to do what she is supposed to do. And because she is doing so well, I am going to let her up for a short while to go to a meeting up here as long as she sleeps the majority of the rest of the day."
Alix frowned. "Is the meeting important?"
"Yes, sweetie, it is", I said. "I will be giving Noah a new job so that he can help me more at work, and that means that I won't have to work as hard as I normally do. It will be a short meeting, but it will make my life easier and will allow me to take the time to properly recover and heal, so that I don't get sick again."
Alix thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "Good", she said.
"Maybe you can stomp out the infection all the way into the kitchen", said Ranger. "It's time for breakfast."
The girls smiled. "Daddy, Annie Tay-Tay brought monkey bread for breakfast", said Grace. "I don't know what monkey bread is. Is it shaped like a monkey?"
"No", said Ranger. "However, it is very good and I think you will like it very much."
"Save me a piece", I yelled out. "I love monkey bread." I smiled as they stomped their way out of the room. "They are going to call Tracy 'Annie Tay-Tay' for their whole life, I suspect."
Grant grinned. "How does Tracy feel about that?"
I smiled. "I've never asked her, but somehow I suspect that Tracy would feel good knowing that she had a special name that the girls called her. She's the kind of person to like that."
Grant laughed.
"Are my legs really looking better?" I asked softly.
Grant smiled. "Yes. I've already changed your dressings. I thought I would take advantage of the time when you were sleeping. Besides, I wanted to see the change and I didn't really want to wait any longer. Last night the infection had improved thirty percent. This morning it is more like fifty percent. I'm predicting that, in another three days, you will have been able to clear up the infection completely and two days after that, the course of antibiotics will be over and you'll regain your stomach. How is your stomach anyway?"
"Let's talk about something else."
"That good?"
I sighed. "As much as I talk about wanting monkey bread, I'm not hungry and it feels like it will come up again. However, on the plus side, it feels like my fever is gone and I will take whatever gains I can get."
Grant smiled. "I have already dispensed the antinauseants, but they will probably take another half hour to work fully."
"Thank goodness there is some hope it will get better."
Grant smiled again. "What are your pain levels?"
"About a nine on my left leg, a seven on my right, a six on my abdominal tear."
"How do you feel about taking a milder painkiller so that you are awake for your meeting and can hold it in the kitchen or dining room?"
I thought about that for a second. "I think that's an excellent idea. The pain in my legs is more like it was a couple of weeks ago in Scotland, and I took a milder painkiller then and it worked well. I might take the higher-intensity painkiller when I go to bed tonight, but during the day I would like to take the milder painkiller option."
"Keep your options open, Steph. I know that you are feeling a bit better now that you've had a good sleep, but it might make sense to take a higher-intensity pain reliever this afternoon as well. The sleep is doing you so much good that I would hate for you to lose the benefits by not taking a pain reliever that is strong enough to allow you a quality sleep."
I sighed. "Okay."
He dispensed the medication into my IV and looked at me. "Now that your pain is taken care of, do you think that you could drink a meal replacement drink?" I sighed again as he patted my shoulder with a sympathetic smile and left for the kitchen to get the shake.
When he came back, I was looking at my phone. "Ranger has sent out a meeting invite to the team for half an hour. Would it be possible that you could help me change into some clothes that would be suitable for me to wear to a meeting? I don't particularly want to meet people in my nightie."
Grant smiled and looked at me assessingly. "It's not a revealing nightie though. Besides, we could wrap you in a robe. You would look snuggly."
I smiled. "You could wrap me up in my Wonder Woman cape as well."
Grant laughed. "You have a Wonder Woman cape?"
"Yes. My friend Lula got it for me one Christmas. The next Christmas she got me a shirt that said, 'I'm not saying I'm Wonder Woman. I'm just saying that you've never seen Wonder Woman and me at the same time.'"
Grant laughed again. "What do you want to wear?"
"Let's let the children pick. They always get such pleasure out of picking clothes for me. I have to tell you, I am glad that they are getting better at putting clothes together. Once they selected a green top with an orange skirt and, when I asked them how they went together, they told me that they both had flowers on them." I shook my head.
Grant smiled. "Let me guess – you wore it."
"Of course. They were very proud of it. It was for a family reunion with Ranger's family, and I was a little embarrassed. However, hearing the children proudly tell everyone that they had picked my clothes for the day? Worth every ounce of embarrassment that I felt."
Grant smiled. "You are an incredible mother. Most mothers wouldn't be so sensitive to their kids' feelings."
"Kids are just people. Little people, but people, and they take such pride in everything they can do. They are often more sensitive than adults. They haven't developed that 'fuck you' attitude yet, and that sensitivity has to be taken into consideration. I often think that, if you can treat them with respect and you value what they can do, they will in turn treat other people with respect and value what others can do. I think they have to be treated as people rather than kids and loved for who they are."
"Whatever you are doing, I think you should keep it up. Your kids are amazing. They are well-behaved, and they have the ability to bring a smile to everyone they meet."
I smiled. I thought my kids were something special, but at the same time I realized that part of my pride was based on a mother's love. It was nice to hear that people agreed with me and appreciated my kids as well.
Grant left the room, and a few minutes later he walked into the bedroom doing a duck walk. The look of joy on the kids' faces as they followed him, quacking, was priceless. Ranger followed behind, grinning, and he looked at me and winked.
Grant smiled at me as he straightened out, and the kids stood up and hopped up and down on their feet. "Mommy", said Tia with a grin, "Grant said that we could pick your clothes for the day."
"Absolutely", I said. "Grant wanted to leave me in my nightie and wrap my robe around me. I want to get dressed for my meeting. I don't want to meet people in my robe."
"You never wear your robe", said Alix. "You wear Daddy's."
"Yes. I keep offering to let Daddy wear mine, but he hasn't taken me up on it yet."
"Your robe is pink", said Grace.
I smiled. "I know. It would match his toenails."
The girls laughed, and Grant looked at Ranger in surprise. "The girls wanted to practice painting toenails", said Ranger with disgust. "They picked a vibrant pink shade and went to town. Unfortunately, my nails are porous and it doesn't come off. I'm having to wait and grow it out like a bad dye job."
Grant swallowed back a laugh. "You know that it takes about a year for toenails to grow out?"
I snorted as Ranger sighed. "Thanks for the good news", he said.
Grant laughed.
The kids went into the dressing room, and I could hear them talking about the selections. I said loudly, so that they could hear me, that I wanted something comfortable but loose on my legs, something that looked professional.
Minutes later, the three agreed that they had picked out a very pretty outfit. They came out with a purple maxi skirt with white flowers and a day-glo pink Hawaiian shirt that Kai had given me as a joke. It had large orange flowers on it and would be kind of cute with a pair of jeans. However, with the purple and white maxi skirt? Questionable.
I sighed and Ranger looked at me and grinned. "Kind of makes my clothing selection look good, doesn't it?"
I snorted. "Never said your clothing selection was bad."
Ranger laughed. "After looking at this clothing selection, I think I could be a fashion designer."
"It's all in the eye of the beholder. I'm sure the kids think they could be fashion designers as well."
Ranger snorted. "Ouch", he said as I laughed.