Chapter Two-Hundred and Sixty-Four
Clarissa gasped when she saw the rash on Claire's back, rushing to look at the bumps on her skin. "Claire, you have chicken pox." She picked up a bottle of calamine lotion, dabbing it over the spots on her skin. She paused for a moment, her brow furrowing with realization. "John hasn't had them yet… and he's an adult now…" Her eyes widened, remembering the few little kisses the two had shared, the hugs, and every form of close contact that they'd had in the last few days. "Claire, if he gets these, it could make him infertile or even kill him."
Claire bit her lip, fear rising in her chest with her mother's words. "What do we do?"
Clarissa shook her head, standing and rushing to John's bedroom where she could hear him playing his acoustic guitar. "I'm gonna check him to see if he already has them. If he doesn't, I'm gonna quarantine you."
John looked up as his door was pushed open, smiling when Clarissa sat on his bed. "Hey."
She touched his bare side, examining the scarred skin of his body as if she were inspecting him for new wounds. "You haven't been itchy anywhere, have you?" She looked over his stomach, pushing on his side so that he would roll over onto his other side to let her see his back.
"The back of my head… why?"
She dug her finger's through his hair, sighing in relief when she saw that he just had dandruff. "Thank God…" She sat back down, holding him close to her as the reality of how close they'd come to him getting sick hit her. "Claire has chicken pox…"
His brow furrowed, unsure as to why she'd been so freaked out. "And…?" He asked, scratching Chance's ears as she whimpered beside him.
"Now that you're an adult, if you catch them… they could kill you." She dared not tell him about the risk of infertility, she didn't want him to worry about not being able to make babies on top of everything else he was dealing with.
He nodded, swallowing the fear in his throat. "Claire will be okay though, right?"
She smiled, kissing his head and tracing her finger over the fading scar on his cheekbone. "She'll be fine. But if you get any bumps or start getting itchy, I want you to let me know as soon as possible."
He closed his eyes, leaning against her as his body tried to force him to get the sleep he needed while he could. "Okay…"
Dominic laughed as Jade ripped one, yelping when she slapped his arm. "OW!" He gripped her hands in his, kissing her fingers and moving over to her neck. "I'm not laughing at you." He whispered, his dark chocolate eyes meeting her green ones with all the love that a father and husband could hold in his heart. "I'm just laughing at the fact that they're making your body do weird shit." He placed his hand on her belly, leaning down to speak to his children. "Stop making momma fart." He chuckled as Jade pinched his ear, resting his cheek on her baby bump as she combed her fingers through his hair.
She bit her lip as her uterus contracted, hating how they felt on the rare occasions she actually felt them. "Oh, Lamaze class got canceled this week. Karla's kid is sick and she can't make it."
Dominic nodded, counting back to when they'd gotten pregnant. "You're about… what? Seven months along now?"
She nodded, wincing as another contraction hit her. "I'm thirty-two weeks."
He looked up at her, his brow furrowing as her behavior changed. "You okay?" He asked, jumping to his feet when she shook her head. "Where's the stop watch?" He tore through the house, opening every drawer until he found the little watch. He rushed back to their living room, paling when he saw the big wet spot on their sofa. "Let's get going." He helped her to her feet, placing his hands under her belly as an attempt to take the pressure off of her pelvis.