This chapter contains lots of hurt/comfort/whump to Cameron. It is definitely the low part of the story.
Kay awoke as the sunlight flooded the room. She slowly opened her eyes and blinked as she began to recognize that she was in the Archives. It had not been a dream after all. She sat up, stretched, and rubbed the sleep out of her burning eyes. It was barely 7 am. She remembered that it had been after midnight when she finally tucked Cameron in for the night. He had slept all night. A tiny smile came across her face as she recalled how successful her actions had been. She quietly made her way to his door to peek in at Cam. He was curled up facing the door. Her presence seemed to awaken him, and he opened his eyes slightly to look at her. As she approached the bed, he turned onto his back and immediately grimaced from the movement. He began coughing and propped himself up on his elbows to stop it. Kay immediately gave him a drink from the glass that had been left for him. It seemed to ease the cough, but Kay could tell from the look on his face, that he was not better. He dropped his head back onto the pillow, squeezing his eyes shut, 'I think I'm gonna throw up' he reported.
'Oh no,' Kay said as she abruptly ran to get a bowl to hand to him. She then went to get the nausea lozenges and unwrapped one on the way back and popped it into his mouth. He just laid there quietly for a few minutes while it dissolved, and Kay gently stroked his hair back out of his face. Finally she asked, 'Are you in pain? Do you want a pain pill?'
Without even opening his eyes, he replied, 'Yes, Maybe I can just take them all and be done with this.'
As a knee-jerk response, Kay said, 'Don't say stupid things, Cameron!'
'I am stupid! I didn't even know Johnny hated me…despised me all of this time.'
'We are going to find him and then we will figure this all out. Now do you want 1 pill or 2?"
'2 -everything hurts'.
She grabbed the bottle and counted how many were left, and gave him 2 with some water. 'Do you want a banana to have something in your stomach', she said as he swallowed the pills.
"No'. 'Maybe toast, or anything…' "No" "How about some Ginger Ale?'
He nodded and took a few sips. Kay offered to help him get up, or to find Gunter if he wanted….'No I just want to go back to sleep.' and she watched as his eyes closed and he drifted off to sleep.
As she left the room, she found Dina making some coffee. 'How is Cam?'
'Awful—I just gave him 2 pain pills and the nausea medicine, cuz he felt like he was gonna throw up. He seems better now and is sleeping again.' After a pause, she started back up, 'I need to mention one more thing. He asked to take the whole bottle of pills. He said he would be better off ending this all, because Johnathon hates him.'
Dina looked shocked. Her hand flying up to cover her expression as her jaw dropped.
'I know,' Kay said, acknowledging the look. 'I have the pills and I counted them. There are 18 left. We need to keep them with us. Are there any other pills in the house?'
'I dunno, lets go look' They made their way to the medicine cabinet and cleared out anything they found.
'Ok, well at least that's under control,' Kay said. I'm gonna go into the office for a little bit to see if anything has come up about Johnathon. I'll be back soon, and I'll bring my laptop so that I can check in from here. Here is the bottle in case he needs more.'
'Kay-Thanks for everything,' Dina said as she left.
Gunter and Jordan soon came into the kitchen to make breakfast. They chatted quietly about the situation and speculated as to where Johnathon had gone and what he planned. With no real leads, the conversation just became silent. They finished up, and Gunter went to the workshop and Jordan put his headphones on, leaving Dina to mess around on the internet.
Around 11 am, Dina heard Cam coughing again and rushed in to check on him, thinking maybe he was throwing up. She had the pain pills and the nausea ones safely in her pocket, should he need them. She found him on his stomach, with his head hanging over the edge above the bowl, There were tears streaming down his cheeks and he was gasping in between coughs. 'Cam, come on, sit up, turn over.' 'GUNTER', she called 'WE NEED YOUR HELP.' Cam tried to push himself up onto his hands and knees, but didn't seem to have the strength and he flopped back down on the bed in a coughing fit. 'Here Cam, take the nausea medicine. Let it dissolve in your cheek. It might help.'
Gunter arrived and helped him to sit up on the edge of the bed. Cam held onto Gunter for a few minutes until his Head Rush passed, swaying only slightly.
'My head is pounding. It feels like my brain is gonna pop through the stitches'.
'Oh Cam darling, I'm so sorry. Let me get you a cold washcloth for your headache.'
'Don't bother, it won't help. My chest is killing me too. Just give me the bottle of pills and I'll take some and be fine.'
Dina and Gunter looked at each other, silently reading each other's thoughts.
'Sure Cam, Do you want 1 or 2 pills. The bottle says you can 1 or 2.'
'2' he mumbled, and Dina gave him some Ginger Ale. Cameron sat leaning on Gunter for a few minutes until the medicine started to work.
'Cameron, you need to drink more Ginger Ale.'
'I'm not thirsty, or hungry' he added. 'I can see that you feel awful, but you need to eat and drink or you will end up back in the hospital for dehydration. Come on, let's get you to the couch where there is more sunlight and you can watch TV.'
'I just want to go back to sleep and stay in the dark.'
'Cameron, you need to eat something.'
'I just want to die.'
'Come on Cam, I know this has been hard. It sucks! but you will feel better soon.'
'I don't care how I feel, Johnny lied to me. He hates me. I let him down all of these years. I let Dad hide him. He wouldn't be in jail if I hadn't begged him to do the New York trick AND I should have just given MW the diamond and he would be free.'
'And just like I told you in the bank, I would find you and haul you ass to jail.' Kay said. He looked up at her with a surprised expression and he grimaced a bit as he jumped a little when she startled him.
'I brought you some cinnamon raisin oatmeal. Do you want to eat it here, or on the couch?' she asked.
'Here, really I just want to stay here. I don't have the strength to get there.'
'We will help you.'
'No, I am dizzy and just want to stay here.'
'Fine, Gunter, can you help him get situated and I'll bring it in here with some tea.'
Dina adjusted his pillows and Gunter helped him prop his legs up on the bed and put a pillow under his knees to ease the pain.
As Kay entered the room with the bowl of oatmeal and tea, on a tray with a stand, she could see that he had dozed off again. She positioned the tray across his lap and Dina rubbed his cheek to awaken him. He gazed at the food and turned his head away from it.
'Hey hey hey, you need to eat,' Dina nudged. 'Come on just a few bites and I'll let you sleep. OK?' He turned his head and opened his eyes and tried to focus on the spoon that Dina was now holding up to his mouth. He accepted the food and laid his head back as he swallowed it, grimacing a bit.
'Oh my throat hurts-from all the coughing and gagging.'
'Here take a sip of tea, it's not too hot. I put an ice cube in it to cool it down a bit.'
'That still hurts,' he said as he sipped a tiny bit down.
He shook his head and put his hand up to show that he was done.
'You need to drink a bit more, Ill get some honey.' Dina interjected. 'You know how the song goes and she started, 'A spoonful of honey makes the medicine go down, the medicine go down.' She returned and squeezed a dollop of honey into his cup and stirred it up. The honey seemed to helps sooth his throat a bit, because he took a few more bites of oatmeal and finished the cup of tea before he began coughing again.
Dian sprung up,'Are you going to throw up? she asked as she handed him the bowl.
'No' he whispered as he shook his head. " Gosh I feel awful.'
'Are still hurting,' Dina asked. 'Did the pills help?'
Cam just shrugged his shoulders and closed his eyes.
Dina and Kay again adjusted his pillows and helped him get comfortable on his good side and gently pulled the blanket up over his shoulders as he immediately fell back asleep.
The two women, left him to sleep. They had lots to talk about.
Jordan had offered to make everyone a Latte, which everyone enjoyed as they all sat around the table to discuss the situation. Kay pulled up the file on her laptop. She printed out a copy of the map that MW and Cam had found under the Archives and gave it to the team to ponder and solve. Gunter and Jordan were like kids in a candy shop. They were delighted to have something tangible to work on.
MW had been set up in a witness protection program and her new life was to work in a library in Newark. Turns out she came to work for 2 days and never returned. The name that she was given was Marcelina Webster, keeping with the MW theme. So while the FBI worked on locating MW, the Federal Marshals were on the case to find Johnathon Black. Both had reported some leads and felt that they were making good headway.
Kay pondered a thought in her head— let the agencies do their work for now, until Cameron was better and didn't need any help. But for now, the most important topic was Cameron—his physical state as well as his psychological state.
Kay was brought back to the conversation by Dina's question,' Is he Ok to leave alone?'
'He can hardly move around in the bed. Yes, I don't think he can hurt himself—only with pills and we have those here.'
'How are we gonna snap him out of this?'
'I think if he felt better, he could cope better.' Kay replied.
'Ya this damn coughing is keeping his from sleeping and eating and drinking. Dina said 'Not to mention the painful ribs and stitches' " and of course the concussion could be making him more emotional," -What I Googled it' exclaimed Dina.
'So then lets all just agree to help him through the next few days and see how it goes. We will all just be here for Cameron.' Kay announced.
Around 4 pm, the coughing started up again. When Kay and Dina entered his room, Cam was again tearing up, crying in pain. He sobbed, 'Why does it have to hurt so much? Am I that bad of a person? Do I deserve this? Please make it stop,' he whined as he coughed. They helped him to sit up. As they touched his arms and hands, the fever became apparent.
'Oh no, Cameron, I think you have a fever!' Dina said as she laid her hand on his forehead.
'No this can't be happening. How can I get sick when I am already miserable from being beat up. This sucks! I just want to die. Just leave me alone, just like Johnny did. I will just die here,' he sobbed.
Dina sat down next to him and guided his head onto her shoulder as she continued to rub his head and support him while they rocked back and forth.
Kay went to get the thermometer that she had found when they were cleaning out the medicine cabinet.
'Cam, here, open your mouth so I can check your temperature. C'me on, under your tongue.' He did and continued to rest on Dina's shoulder with only an occasional cough around the thermometer. At the beep, Kay announced, '103.' 'Cameron, you need to go back to the hospital! 103 is very high. Something is not right!'
Cam didn't move. 'I'm not going.'
'You have to,' Dina whispered in his ear.
'No I don't,' he firmly replied.
'Then I'm calling an ambulance.'
'I'm still not going.'
'You must be delirious from the fever. You are going!' said Dina. With that, he abruptly adjusted himself, pushing himself off of Dina and snuggled down into his pillows and pulled the blanket up over his head.
'How childish!' Dina exclaimed, and she pulled the warm comforter off of him, leaving him with only a sheet covering him. 'You are too hot. We need to get the fever down.' she said as she marched to get a cool washcloth and put it on his head. He fussed a little, but feverish sleep over took him quickly.
Kay and Dina stepped to the doorway. 'What are we gonna do?' Kay asked.
'I dunno. Johnathon is the one who helps convince him to go to the doctor.'
'Ya, I get that, ' said Kay. 'He should go back to the hospital. Something must be infected.'
'103 is really high. Do you think he could get the flu on top of everything else?
'His immune system is probably pretty weak at this point... He has been through a lot.'Kay replied as she looked over at him, becoming teary herself. 'Cameron doesn't deserve this, neither does Johnathon, for that matter.'
'Ok here is what were are going to do,' said Dina. 'They have a doctor that has come here when one of them has been hurt, to keep it out of the media. I only recall them calling him Dr. B. I'm gonna look in Cam's contact list to see if I can find his number. Good thing Jordan backs his phone up on the laptop all the time. I'm gonna call him and see if he will come check on Cameron." She hangs up and reports that he will come around 6, after he is done in the office.
One tiny knock was all it took to alert the team that the doctor had arrived.
'Hi, I'm Dr. Brown.' Please call me Dr. B, everyone does. It's been a while since I had to stop by here. Is Cameron back to performing? I didn't realize that he had started up again with Johnathon still in prison.'
'No he hasn't started any actual performance yet.' Dina responded.
'Then what's going on?'
'Well he was beat up pretty badly a few days ago. We took him to the ER and they said he had 2 broken ribs, a concussion and that he needed stitches for a gash on the back of his head. That was about 2 days ago. Today he is coughing and has a fever of 103. He won't go to the hospital, so we called you,' said Dina.
'One more thing, he and Johnathon had a terrible fight and now he seems depressed and very sad and hurt over the change in the relationship with Johnny.'
Kay and Dina looked at each other as they decided what else to tell the doctor, when Kay blurted out, ' Ya, he says he wants to die. 'Just let me die' is what he keeps saying.'
'He must feel pretty lousy with that high fever and injuries. Let's just see what's going on,' said Dr. B.
Dina and Kay showed him to Cameron's bedroom. He was still sleeping. Dr. B. sat on the edge of the bed, and put his hand on Cam's forehead and nodded. He put a Pulse Ox on his finger gently and noted the results. His heart rate was very fast and his oxygen levels were pretty low. He could see that Cam was breathing very fast. He removed the device and laid his hand on his shoulder. He gently nudged Cam while calling his name to wake him up. 'Cam, you need to wake up."
Cam slowly respond and opened his eyes, and said, 'How did you get in here? Where am I?'
'It's OK, Cam,' he replied, 'you are at home in your own room. Remember me? I'm Dr. B. I took care of you when you fell last time. Your friends were worried about you and asked me to come see you.'
Cam started to cough a bit, as if on cue.
'You are a 'Hot Mess.' Dr. B said.
'I'm fine, ' Cam replied. 'I don't need a doctor.'
'Hmm, from what I can see you are not fine. I want to listen to your chest. and your back. Can you sit up?' Cam huffed but finally started to move. He struggled to do that, even with help, until finally Dr. B said, 'never mind , just lay still so I can listen.' He reached up under his t shift and laid his stethoscope on his chest and listened in between the coughing. He noticed the dark bruises on his side and commented, 'Man whoever did this looks like he is a professional.'
Dr. B checked on his stitches and gave him the once over. He put the pulse ox back on and the numbers were still the same.
'Cameron, I am sure you have pneumonia. Probably because you have been laying around not taking deep breaths at all.'
'It hurts when I do that.'
'I know Cameron, the broken ribs make it very painful and the pain meds make you sleepy. Both which contribute to your current state—sick. You need to go to the hospital for stronger antibiotics. I can make arrangements so that you can go directly to a room and skip the Emergency Room.'
"Can't I just take stronger pills? I'll take 'em, I promise."
'No Cameron Black!' he said emphatically. 'I'm going to call Johnathon, and let him know. He can use his magic on you to convince you to go.'
Cam whispered, 'Go ahead call him, he won't care and he won't answer'.
Dina interjected, ' Johnny is hard to get a hold of lately.'
She turned and looked at Cameron, 'Don't give us any trouble, you need to go and you are going!' He started coughing again.
'Ok' he replied when he caught his breath.
Dr. B said, 'I'll call the ambulance.'
'NO" huffed Cam. 'I can just go in the car. Kay, will you drive me?'
'Don't be silly! You can't even sit up, ' she replied 'It will be much quicker at this time of day, ' Dr. B gently replied.
'Fine, ' whispered Cameron.
The team scurried around Cameron to gather everything that he would need. Dr. B gave him some Tylenol to help with the fever and after a quick ambulance ride, Cam was admitted to the hospital. Within a few minutes, he had the Antibiotics started, an oxygen mask was applied, he was given a special button to give himself tiny doses of pain medicine when ever he needed some, and he was put on all sorts of monitors to make sure he was OK. He was told that the infection would likely take at least a few days to clear up, so this would be his home during that time. 'Well at least the bed goes up and down, so thats something!' he exclaimed.
His mind wondered as he relaxed. 'Johnny may hate me, but at least my friends don't, he thought. He relaxed and did what he wanted to do all day, settle in for a nap on his own comfy pillow.
Kay, Dina Gunter and Jordan, all found comfy spots and settled in as well. They wouldn't be another place until Cam they were Cam was safe and ready to go home.
