Feverish

Evie woke up to the sound of quiet, rhythmic beeping. She felt confused and exhausted, but at least her head wasn't throbbing. She remembered her head hurting, not much else. It was dark and there was a light sheet covering her. She felt a weird sensation in her left hand and slowly opened her eyes to look down at it. There was an IV with tubing running from the machine next to her and she saw a clear fluid dripping slowly at the top. It was dark and quiet. She moved to sit up, but found it difficult and a little painful. She groaned and felt a hand stop her from moving.

"Easy, Evie,"Cor whispered.

"Where am I?" She asked hoarsely, still too dazed to remember what had happened.

"The infirmary," he answered softly. She looked up at him, but it was too dark to see much more than his outline. "Ignis brought you here when you passed out."

"Oh," she was too tired to say more so she laid back down on the bed.

"Why didn't you tell someone you weren't well?" He asked, covering her with the sheet again.

"I didn't know," she answered honestly, "I thought I was just really tired."

"Evie," he sounded concerned, "You had a high fever. They thought you were going to start seizing. The medics finally got your fever down, but when chest x-rays came back they said you have a bad case of pneumonia. You may be in bed for awhile while they are treating you."

"I'm sorry, sir," she started crying, feeling both ashamed and delirious.

"Sorry?" He just stared at her in surprise, before picking up her right hand, "Evie, I'm not angry with you. I was worried. I'm just glad you're okay."

"But I lied to you, and I wanted to make it right," she said softly, tears still streaming down her face.

"We can talk about all of that later, Evie. When you're better. Now get some rest."

She drifted back to sleep rather quickly, her hand still in his.

Cor sat back down in the chair next to her bed. It was getting late, but he couldn't bring himself to leave just yet. He watched her sleeping peacefully, remembering that just a few hours ago, the room was in chaos. He was with Monica still when he got Ignis's call about her. They had been performing evaluations for the latest recruits that would be promoted soon. He knew he could have had Evie with him as well, but he was still frustrated about what had happened the previous day. He knew her business was just that: her business. But the idea of someone frightening or hurting her in any way angered him. He was mad at himself for trying to pry into her personal life and for being annoyed about her reluctance to let him in. She was his assistant and that was it. even if a part of him wanted more.

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When Ignis told him that she was unconscious in the infirmary, he stopped what he was doing and quickly made his way there. They wouldn't let him in or give him any updates, but he could see they were busy working on her. The room she was in was filled with doctors and nurses, hooking IVs up to her, taking blood, and covering her with cool, wet cloths. He could tell they were worried about her condition and it made him even more so. She was not making a sound, but the machines around her were. He could see the monitors through the window. Her temperature had risen to 103.7, and they were trying desperately to bring it down. Her heart rate seemed high as well. Cor felt helpless and he hated it. He sat with his head in his hands, unaware of the presence behind him.

"Marshal?" Ignis had come back from getting coffee, and sat next to Cor.

"Ignis," the older man greeted him with a weary nod. "What happened? I want to know everything."

Ignis explained how unwell she had looked from the time he met her in the hallway, throughout their time at the cafe, and up until she passed out.

"She just kept saying it was from lack of sleep. I don't think she ate anything today, either. I figured it was low blood sugar, until I felt how hot she was. I carried her here and they have been working on her ever since."

Cor was quiet, looking at their progress through the window in front of them. They had now managed to get her fever down to 101.0, and they seemed less tense about her. One of the doctors finally came out to give them an update on her status.

"We finally got her temp down," he started, "and got some lab results in. They've radioed in her x-ray results as well."

"X-ray?" Cor asked.

"Yes, sir. She seemed to be having trouble breathing so we took a chest x-ray to rule out any chest trauma or other issues," he explained, "she has quite a bit of fluid in her lungs and her white blood cell count is higher than normal, indicating infection. She has pneumonia."

"Is she going to be okay?" Cor asked impatiently.

"Yes, sir," the doctor answered, "but she will need antibiotics and rest. We'd like to keep her here overnight, at least, to get in some IV antibiotics and to monitor her condition now that we have her stable."

Cor nodded at the doctor and closed his eyes as relief flooded him.

Ignis went back to his duty, asking Cor to let him know if anything changed or if he needed help with anything.

That was an hour ago. Cor had been in the same chair since then, and had no intentions of leaving her side. He felt bad. He should have been with her today. If he had seen her, he would have known she was unwell and made her come in sooner. He squeezed her hand lightly and sighed. She was going to be okay.