{Normal POV}

(Sunday, August 1, 2021-7:45 pm)

[Raseri Home]

"I do not understand why EVERYONE had to follow us here," Troy grumbled. Yes, he was annoyed that shortly after arriving at the house, and getting Hayden to the bathroom upstairs before he puked again upon parking, he saw his family, Rosanna, then Hayden's parents, Godfather/Uncle, cousin, and friends show up as well. The car ride home had been quiet with Hayden whimpering in pain almost, and he only threw up once. Getting to the Raseri Household, Troy rushed Hayden inside after he confessed he felt sick again. After another round of vomiting, three times, Troy suggested Hayden try to take a hot shower to see if it would help any. Troy got Hayden a towel, then hurried downstairs to get him a change of clothes. Exiting the bathroom once more; Troy found his parents, little brother, and Rosanna had pulled in. However, right behind them was Spencer, Vivian, Shane, Gabriel, and the other friends. Troy didn't understand this one bit; why did they all need to come?

"We're worried about Hayden," Spencer admitted.

"Concern does not cure illness," Troy rolled his eyes.

"But it does-," Avery started.

"Nothing. It does absolutely nothing, Avery. It's apparent that Hayden is sick, and that we don't know where it began. Alright? I don't know, Hayden wasn't up to talking in the car," Troy informed.

"That's all we want to know," Hailey offered.

"And that is information that could have been reserved for a phone call or text message. I'm sure Hayden doesn't appreciate everyone here and hovering for answers," Troy sighed. "He already doesn't like that he threw up in public, and felt like everyone was watching him,"

"They were," Rylee shrugged as Hailey elbowed her in the side. "Ow,"

"We just want to help, Troy. Hayden is our friend too," Fisher tried.

"And I understand that, but he's sick, so there isn't much you can do. It's not your responsibility to take care of him; it's mine because I'm his fiancée," Troy reminded.

"He's not incorrect," Gabriel lifted his hands a bit. "We don't even know what caused this. However, Troy; it is a little worrying that Hayden got sick out of nowhere," he added.

"You think I don't know that?" Troy arched a brow. "Hayden threw up three times at the beach, once in the care, and three mo-," he paused hearing Hayden puke again in the bathroom, then once more. "Make that five times here since we've been home," he corrected.

"Well, it's been a few hours since he ate, son. Is it possible he has food poisoning again?" Dustin suggested.

"Maybe; he did vomit a lot when he had that last time," Troy muttered, remembering April 2019 when Hayden got sick with that illness, and man was miserable through it. "I know he's exhausted; he nearly fell asleep in the car on the ride home. I told him to take a shower to see if it helped any," Troy felt his phone vibrate in his pocket as he pulled it out see a text from Hayden.

Fever, sore throat, nausea/puking, headache, exhaustion. {Received/Read; 19:51}

"I'm no doctor, so what do you think, Mom?" Troy turned the phone to his mother as she read it over.

"I might be just a paramedic, but that sounds like the flu to me," Rachel frowned a bit. "Usually the worst hits on day two or three, so little confused on the suddenness of it all. Can he tell me when it started?" she wondered. Hayden was heard throwing up again, coughing hard afterward. After it happened again, Rachel sighed. "But perhaps it could be something else. Even the flu wouldn't have him throwing up this much in one set period,"

"I agree with your mother," Dustin nodded.

"What do you mean?" Vivian asked.

"Hayden threw up at the beach at 7:15, it's now," Rachel checked her watch and looked back at Troy. "7:55 pm, and he's thrown up eleven times in only forty minutes; that's a little concerning to me. Do you think he might let me take a look at him?" she questioned.

"I can ask," Troy slipped his phone away, then went to the bathroom door. Troy knocked twice. "Babe? Can I come in?"

"Yeah…" came Hayden's sick reply. Troy opened the door and walked in. Hayden was sitting on the floor, arm across the toilet seat and his head laying on that. Hayden looked pale, and he appeared to be sweating a bit while his other arm was limp in his lap. Hayden seemed like he was in pain too; Troy didn't like it.

"Mom wants to know if she can come to check you over, and try to figure out what might be causing all this," Troy said.

"S-She ca-can…" Hayden responded. Troy nodded.

"MOM! You can come in," Troy called as quietly as he could to be heard but not make Hayden's headache worse. Moments later, Rachel entered and closed the door behind her. Rachel got on her knees to look at Hayden, and check his fever.

"Hayden, sweetie, can you tell me anything else you're feeling?" Rachel asked.

"Feel weak, body hurts," Hayden managed with a whimper and closed eyes, then jerking forward a bit, but not throwing up. Rachel got up and pulled the thermometer out of the cabinet; she turned it on and ran the piece across Hayden's forehead, from one temple to the other. The object beeped as she checked the screen; 103.9.

"I, uh, I don't like how high that is on top of everything else and how fast it came on," Rachel admitted. Troy looked at the read-out now, then at his mother wondering why she said it that way. "Anything ranging from 104 to 107 is considered dangerous," Troy didn't get the chance to respond as Hayden lifted his head a little and threw up another five times, coughing, then wincing in pain.

"I'm gonna take him to the hospital," Troy stated.

"I don't think we need to go that far, son," Rachel attempted to reason with Troy now.

"Hayden, on a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is the pain?" Troy asked.

"8 and ½ t-to 9," Hayden forced out, trying not to vomit again but it happened anyway, and four times almost back to back. Troy could almost see tears in Hayden's eyes as he threw up again, three in this bout.

"He's almost in tears, Mom. Hayden's running a borderline, dangerous fever, thrown up twenty-three times in roughly an hour…I don't like it; this isn't normal. You don't know what's wrong, neither does anyone else. That's the best place to find out," Troy stared intently. Rachel could see how worried Troy was, and in truth, so was she. Rachel put a hand on Troy's shoulder.

"I'll call an ambulance for him, and they might be able to determine if a hospital is necessary. Try to stay calm," Rachel consoled as Troy nodded. Rachel left the bathroom, getting her phone and dialing a number, then put it to her ear. "Kim; I need a bus at my home address, please?" Slight pause. "My son-in-law is running a high-grade temperature, in pain, and throwing up. I'm not sure what's going on, but I would rather be safe than sorry in whatever is causing this," Rachel remarked. "It started at the beach, and all symptoms came on within an hour, and have not slowed or stopped. Fever is reading 103.9, pain scale out of 10 is a 9, according to the patient. Thrown up twenty-three times in an hour, coming hard and in persistent waves of five to ten minutes of one another,"

Nobody liked how this sounded. "Thank you, my friend," Rachel ended the call after another few minutes. "See you soon," she finished, then put her phone away.

"That bad?" Hailey inquired. "I-Is he going to the hospital?"

"That is up for the ambulance crew to decide. Troy and I don't like how sudden this is with all the symptoms Hayden has mentioned," Rachel informed. "I'm a paramedic too, but I don't have any equipment here. I want to say it's the flu, but it seems like it's something else. Hopefully, we'll get a better idea when they arrive,"

. . .

Eight minutes went by before the ambulance arrived at 8:25 pm. In that time; Hayden had thrown up another five rounds, and at one point; he could be heard whimpering. Rachel let the other paramedics in and led them right to the bathroom. "Troy, the crew is here. I'm coming in with them, okay?" Rachel said while opening the door and walking inside. The two paramedics got past her to start checking over Hayden while Rachel pulled Troy back so they could work.

"Can you please tell me what's wrong with my fiancée?" he asked.

"We're trying, son," one informed as Rachel tried to have him calm down; it did little good when Hayden shifted away from them and threw up another two times. "It would be best to take him the hospital; they could provide something to ease the vomiting?"

"I believe you may be right," the other said. With help, Hayden was brought to his feet and carefully led out. One paramedic went to get the cart as Hayden was leaning against the wall. Troy was being assured by his mother that everything would be okay when they came out. However, at that moment, Hayden's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he began to drop.

"Hayden!" Troy got out of his mother's arms and caught Hayden before he hit the floor. Hayden had passed out, which only made everyone worry more. Troy knelt down, keeping Hayden up a little with one arm. "Hayden!...Hayden!" Troy shook him a little. No response. "Hayden? Come on, babe," Troy tapped Hayden's cheek a little. It took another few seconds, but Hayden groaned a bit, and his eyes blinked a few times before opening. "Oh, thank Odin…" Troy breathed out.

"Eve-Everything…hurts, and I'm so tired," Hayden said.

"I know, baby; it's okay. We're gonna go to the hospital and figure out why, I promise," Troy told him with a smile.

"C-Can you get me some water? M-My mouth is dry…" Hayden asked. Rachel grabbed a cup of water from the kitchen and brought it over as Troy helped Hayden sit against the wall so he could take a drink.

"Feel any better?" Hayden shrugged weakly with his head against the wall. Troy pushed some of Hayden's hair out of his face. "Can we not scare me by passing out again? You give me a heart attack every time you do. Wouldn't be the first time; you only did it three when we were deployed," Troy rolled his eyes.

"Excuse me; we wear layers of clothes while carrying at least sixty pounds in gear when it's eighty to ninety-seven degrees outside," Hayden forced a half-laugh. "The medic told you that,"

"And she told you to stay on the water when you're out in it for more than three hours," Troy remarked.

"I was dehydrated and one of those times was on the chopper after we were just a little busy trying to push back…Oh, I don't know…Wasn't it fifty enemies? I put the mission first like I'm supposed to. So fuck you," Hayden muttered.

Troy shook his head. "You're useless to the mission if you pass out during the fire-fight or get shot because you become disorientated from dehydration, dummy. And if you want to fuck, again; we can do it when you're better," Troy kissed his forehead, and noticed something. Hayden's skin was dry, and so were his eyes. How was it that Hayden had a fever, but wasn't sweating when Troy was because it was eighty-nine degrees outside?

"We really should get to the hospital, so this doesn't get worse…" a paramedic suggested.

Troy saw Hayden trying to catch his breath, but was having trouble and looked like he was going to knock out again. Troy could feel a rapid pulse too. Which is precisely how Hayden appeared the last three times he passed out from dehydration! "Son of a bitch," Troy's eyes widened. Everyone blinked as Troy got up and grabbed a Gatorade from the fridge, and twisted the cap off before handing it to Hayden. "Idiot! I know what's wrong with you now; you're fucking dehydrated, stupid,"

"Troy, you can't just make that diagnosis yourself…" Rachel sighed.

"Yes, I can because I've seen it before. You," Troy pointed to Hayden. "Drink that slow. As for why I know this is it for sure. Hayden's not sweating, and it's hot as shit in here, plus he's nauseated with dry mouth, eyes, and skin. Short of breath, rapid pulse, and he passed out for less than a minute because he's barely had anything to drink since lunch and it's almost 8:30 pm now," he explained. "He is sick; I have no doubts given the loss of appetite, fatigue, headache, achy body, cough, nausea with vomiting, stuffy/runny nose. All that, but the vomiting got worse accompanied by dehydration along with feeling weak, disorientated, and topping it off with passing out. Just. Like. In. Syria,"

"And…He's not wrong…" one of the paramedics stated. "Those are symptoms of the flu and dehydration. A mix of those two would give someone results like this with Hayden,"

"I should have figured it out after realizing how hot it was today with us on the beach. You've felt sick, so you barely swam, ate, or had anything to drink so you could keep the symptoms down. Right?" Troy looked at Hayden, who nodded. "As soon as Hayden and I started talking about the other three times he's passed out from the same thing while deployed in that ungodly heat; it hit me like a pile of bricks. Bet my next paycheck you start feeling better once you have that, and stay on the water through the time you're sick, which is probably the flu,"

"Great…" Hayden drew out sarcastically. "Guess you know me pretty well, huh?"

"I don't think I can call myself your best friend or soon to be husband if I didn't know you better than you know yourself," Troy winked as Hayden blushed a bit, nodding in agreement.

"So…No hospital then? Please? You know I hate them…" Hayden asked.

"You really should still go…" Rachel tried.

"He should, but it's his choice, Mom. Hayden is conscious and responsive; he can make that decision as long as he feels he doesn't need to go. I only said what I did because I didn't know what to do seeing him like that. If we go; the hospital is just gonna give him an IV line, then reassess and make sure he's doing better before releasing him. Hayden can drink on his own, and keep it down too it seems," Troy stated.

"Your son is correct, Rachel. Hospital is only going to give him something for nausea and start an IV line to replace fluids lost and watch him to make sure he's recovering. If Hayden can keep down at Gatorade, then he can manage water too, and that's all he needs to come back from dehydration. The flu can be handled here as well. I believe the passing out might have just been an overall because he stood up and got dizzy from everything. Hayden is awake now, and responsive; there's no reason to take him to a place that will do the very same as now. I think Troy has it covered; he knows what he's doing as he's had to deal with it before in the past," the paramedic smiled.

"He just needs to rehydrate, then get some sleep," Troy said.

"Quite right," the other paramedic nodded. "I'm sure if things don't improve or get worse, then Troy can bring Hayden into the ER or call us again,"

"Without a doubt," Troy replied. "Have a good night, guys, and thanks for coming even though we figured it out,"

"No problem; that what we're here for," the two packed up their things and exited the house.

"Come on you, time to get you downstairs," Troy enlightened as he carefully pulled Hayden to his feet, then helped him through the kitchen and down the stairs.

"Well, I guess that wraps tonight up for everyone," Rachel blinked.

"And we know Troy will take good care of Hayden," Dustin added as Gabriel nodded in agreement. "I'm sure Troy will let you all know how Hayden's doing tomorrow,"

"Aye; we're counting on it. Good night," Spencer replied, leading Vivian, and the others out with help from Gabriel. Dustin locked the door, then everyone sighed. Cole took Rosanna downstairs as Rachel and Dustin plopped on the couch with a heavy sigh, be relieved everything was okay. Indeed an exciting day for sure, but at least now, things were was calm and the rest of the night would hopefully remain that way.