It's Just A Fever…

part 2

Bright, blinding light filled his eyes, but it didn't hurt. It was just warm, like the perfect summer morning when there's sun on your back as you walk along the beach. Soft, calm, peaceful.

Her hand slipped through his, her fingers so much bigger, making him feel safe. He had to look up to see her face. She was so pretty- her crystal blue eyes, so warm and full of love.

"Can I stay with you, Mom?"

"No, sweetheart. It's not time yet."

His eyes narrowed as he looked up into her shining face.

"But I want to."

"I know, Zed," her hand ran over the top of his head, ruffling his unruly green hair. Her touch made his skin tingle, and he smiled up at her.

"I miss you."

"I know you do, Sweetheart. But you have to go back."

"But I want to be with you."

"You haven't done everything you're meant to do yet. You have so much more life to live."

"I want to stay!"

"Someone there still needs you."

CLEAR!

"Addison?"

She smiled and kissed the top of his head. "Go to her."

CLEAR!

"I need to be with him!" Addison cried into her father's shoulder as the doctor tied off the final stitch on the cut on her head.

"Shhh...I know….I know… We need to make sure you're okay first. You hit your head pretty hard when you passed out."

"But...but...is he okay?"

Dale looked over her head to the doctor, silently asking him for an update.

"Um...Dr. Anderson and his team are still with him. I don't know."

"I want an update as soon as possible."

"Yes, Sir."

"Daddy," Addison cried harder. "He has to be okay. I can't lose him. I love him. I want to spend the rest of my life with him. I can't lose him. Please….Please tell me he's going to be okay."

Dale kissed the top of her head and hugged her tighter.

Darkness. His limbs felt like they were trying to swim through some thick, viscous substance without any strength to push through. He couldn't open his eyes. Someone was talking, but he couldn't make out who it was or what they were saying. They were just meaningless fragments of sentences.

Extremely serious….close call….close to kidney failure….

Nothing made sense.

"Where's Addison?"

Implant…Surgery needed...Fever still too high...

"Was my mom here?"

He didn't understand anything. He let himself slip back into the darkness. It was safe there.

Zed could feel soft, cool fingers over his cheek and temple and then through his hair. He instinctively turned his head toward the sensation, and when he opened his eyes, he was met with her beautiful blue eyes.

"Hey there, Handsome," Addison said softly.

"Hey...Gorgeous," he managed to croak out. Addison picked up the cup on the small bedside table and held it up for him as he took a small sip.

"Zed- you're still really warm...But your skin feels like ice...scooch over."

Addison pulled back the blanket and the sheet under it and placed her palm on his shoulder, pushing him over. She pulled off her shirt and slid into the small bed with him.

"What are you doing?"

"We need to get your body temperature regulated. Can you sit up and take this off or do you need me to help?" she asked, pulling gently on the hospital gown he was wearing.

"Huh?"

"Zed, do you need me to help?"

"No, I can do it," he replied quietly. He slowly lifted himself up enough to yank the hospital gown over his head. He collapsed back onto the pillow.

Addison gently pulled him closer to her. "Come here. Dr. Anderson said skin to skin contact might help."

"Everything in me wants to make a joke about you trying to get me naked...but I just don't have the energy."

"I love you, Z. Try to get some more sleep."

"But what if someone walks in?" he asked sleepily.

Addison ran her fingers through his hair. "It's fine. I still have on a sports bra and leggings. I wear the same thing at the gym. Now, no more talking. Sleep."

Zed inhaled deeply, completely encompassed in her scent. He sank into the warmth of Addison's arms and the blankets she had pulled over them, quickly falling back asleep.

The light in the room was dim, and the clock on the wall said it was after eleven. He was warm and comfortable. He slowly looked around. Addison was on a small couch with a reading lamp beside her along with a bunch of books and papers. She kept going back and forth between the large textbooks and a notebook, where she quickly scribbled notes.

"Hey, Gorgeous," he whispered hoarsely. "Whatchya working on?"

"Zed!" she smiled. "Bree dropped off homework...How are you feeling?"

"Better...maybe hungry? Where...Where am I?"

Addison smiled and pushed the books aside. She stood up and walked over to the bed, gently sitting on the edge. She reached out and ran her fingers through his now green again hair. Zed closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling.

"In the hospital. Your fever finally broke a few hours ago and they had to replace the implant in your heart. I'm going to go get you some fresh water and call the nurse. After that, we'll try to get some food in you."

Zed's stomach rumbled in appreciation of the whole idea.

Addison laughed and leaned down, placing a gentle kiss on his forehead. "I'd say that's a good sign you're on the mend."

Zed lifted his hand up and gently ran his fingers down the side of her face, noticing the bandage on the side of her forehead for the first time. "What happened?"

"It's just a few stitches. Nothing you need to worry about."

Zed tried to sit up.

"Oh no you don't mister," Addison smiled, lightly pushing him back down to the bed.

"Addie. What is going on?"

Addison sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. "Your fever got really high and no one could bring it down. I found out how high your fever was and panicked. I ran out of school, called my dad, and ran to your house. When I saw you, your hair had lost all the green and...and..." tears started to fall from her eyes. "You looked so human. I fainted and knocked my head on your desk on my way down."

"Oh my God, are you okay?"

Addison laughed humorlessly as she dried her eyes. "You almost die, and you're worried because I gave myself a concussion…" she went to stand up but Zed reached for her hand.

"Stay...please."

"How could I ever tell you 'no'?" she leaned over and pressed the call button on the side of the bed.

The next morning, Zed woke up to a petite woman walking into the room. She walked over to the side of the bed, reached for the IV, and looked down to him.

"Zed? Are you awake?"

"Yeah," he managed to get out hoarsely.

"I'm going to get the doctor, okay?... Can you please get her to move out of your bed? She's not supposed to be in it."

Zed looked down to see Addison asleep, wrapped around him.

"No. She stays."

The nurse rolled her eyes. This obviously was not the first time she had tried to get Addison to obey hospital rules.

A few minutes later Dr. Anderson walked into the room carrying a tablet.

"Shhh…." Zed said, motioning towards Addison's sleeping figure.

Dr. Anderson smiled and shook his head. He quietly pulled a chair up next to the bed. "I'm glad to see you're awake. How are you feeling?"

"Really tired."

"Well, that's to be expected. How much of what happened do you know?"

"Just the bits Addie told me last night. High fever, wouldn't go down, she fainted and hit her head, I came here looking a little too human...and something about replacing the implant?"

"That's a very brief summary."

"Care to fill in the blanks?" Zed asked shifting slightly as Addison began to stir.

"I was actually hoping you could fill in some as well. Your father said something about you being outside in the cold Sunday morning, but he wasn't sure how long you were out there for?"

Zed let out a sigh. "I went to visit my mom's grave Sunday morning. It was probably about four in the morning. It started snowing while I was there. I think I got home around...maybe seven thirty, eight o'clock?"

"That long?" Addison whispered.

"Good morning, Gorgeous."

"Good morning, Addison. Thank you for not scaring off all the staff last night."

Addison smiled. "I told them I wasn't going anywhere. I only threatened to call my dad twice..." Dr. Anderson gave her a look. "Okay, maybe three or four times."

Dr. Anderson gave her a smile. "Well, now that we have that out of the way. Zed...so you were outside in the snow for approximately three and a half to four hours?"

"That sounds about right. I know when I got home my clothes were soaked through. I didn't really think much about it."

Dr. Anderson nodded his head and jotted down a note on his chart. "So, I guess I'll fill in your blanks now. Chief Dale paged me after receiving a call from Addison. Your fever was 104. We immediately called for an emergency vehicle to pick you up and bring you here. A normal fever would be one thing. But a sustained fever that high could have put you in major organ failure. Addison had fainted after seeing you mostly human and hit her head before your father could catch her...You can imagine my surprise when the paramedics called saying they were bringing you both in. On the way here, you had a febrile seizure. By the time we got you into the actual emergency department, you had another and started to code. Zed...we nearly lost you."

Addison hugged him tighter.

"Because of the defibrillator, your implant needed to be replaced. But we couldn't perform the operation until your fever was under control. We tried everything. We packed you in ice, we used blankets. Nothing was working and your kidneys were starting to show signs of failure. And then," Dr. Anderson looked over to Addison. "We went back to basics. Skin to skin contact. Slowly, we started to see an improvement. As soon as your fever broke we were able to replace the implant in your chest, and well...here we are."

"Wow…."

"You could say that again," Dr. Anderson said with a smile.

"So," Zed turned slightly so he was looking directly at Addison. "You saved me."

"I did help you know," Dr. Anderson laughed.

Zed smiled. "Yes, but...Addie..."

"I know. She was a rock star yesterday."

Addison blushed.

"Of course you may need to watch your back after making a comment about 'getting naked' with the Chief's daughter in front of the Chief…."

"I did?"

Addison laughed and shook her head yes. "It's fine….You were really out of it. He's not going to lock you up."

"Easy for you to say," Zed mumbled. Just then the door swung open and Zoey ran across the room throwing herself at her brother.

"I'm never complaining about you being sick ever again!" she said, throwing her arms around Zed's neck, hugging him as tightly as she could.

"Zo...oxygen..."

"Oh! Sorry, Big Bro."

Zed smiled. "It's okay, Zo. I missed you too."

"So...When can you come home?" she asked, sitting next to Addison on the bed with Zed.

"Ummm…." Zed looked over to Dr. Anderson. "Doc?"

"We'll definitely be keeping you for at least 24 hours. Maybe longer. We need to monitor your kidney function and make sure the new implant in your chest is fully operational. We also need to run some neuro tests to make sure everything is fine after those seizures."

"Oh, that's all?" Zed said sarcastically.

Dr. Anderson chuckled and jotted a note down in Zed's chart. "Glad to see your sense of humor has remained intact."

Zed's stomach growled loudly.

"Any chance I could eat something?"

Dr. Anderson paused. "What are you craving?"

Zed rolled his eyes. "Not brains, if that's what you're asking."

"Just checking. Your body's been through hell and back. I'm just trying to gauge your recovery. You went from stable Zombie to almost full human, to full Zombie, and then back to stable Zombie."

"I went full Zombie?! When?!" Zed screamed out, sitting up in bed.

"Woah, Son...settle down," Zevon said, walking to his son's bedside.

"Shouldn't you be more concerned with the 'almost full human,' part of that?" Zoey asked.

Zed shot her a look. "Honestly, I'm concerned with all of it. But I don't remember Zomming out."

"It was after your fever broke before we could get you set up for the procedure. Addison kept you calm the entire time."

"Please tell me I was restrained."

Addison smiled and kissed his cheek. "Nope. You didn't need them."

"Are you crazy?! Do you know how dangerous that was!"

"Trust me, she's been read the riot act by more than one person over it," Dr. Anderson said with a smirk. "But, she's right. You didn't need them. If it hadn't been for your coloring intensifying, it probably would have gone unnoticed."

"Still dangerous," Zed mumbled.

Addison rolled her eyes. "When are you going to believe that you'll never hurt me? I know it."

"But I..."

Addison placed her hand over his mouth. "Nope. You're not arguing with me on this. I love you. I'm not leaving your side. You're not a monster. You'd never hurt me. End. Of. Story. I chose you, all of you. The good, the bad, and everything in between."

Zevon chuckled and shook his head. "I told you she was your other half."

Dr. Anderson held his finger up, deep in thought. "You know, I never really put much belief in the Zombie lore of "soul mates" or "other halves", but after seeing how you two interact...It might be worth exploring scientifically. It could explain why you were in control back in December when we did the first procedure, and how Addison being with you yesterday brought your body temperature back down and kept you calm...Definitely worth looking into more..."

"Maybe if you doctors put more stock in old Zombie beliefs, we wouldn't be so hesitant to seek out treatment," Zevon said dryly.

Zed's stomach growled loudly. "Back to me getting something to eat…"

AUTHOR'S NOTE: So...fun fact...when I originally mapped out this whole story the chapter where Zed gets sick was just supposed to be a lighthearted "Zed is super whiny when he's sick" type chapter. It obviously took on a life of its own and went in a completely different direction. Thank you for putting up with the emotional roller coaster that these last few chapters have been!

Next up...the return of an M rating (yall...seriously, I just wrote 3,000 words of pure smut last night…and that's before actual plot and story development. I may need to clean it up and tone it down...apologies in advance if it's a little more hardcore than normal).

GO #TEAMWITLO (yes, that will be on every post until they win DWTS)

SMILE video premieres TODAY! Can't wait!