Kimber was watching Christian sleep. He looked peaceful, so innocent and weak. She'd seen him like that a lot and she had loads of time to mull over scattered thoughts. She hasn't been at any church meetings, this was much more important. She spent most of her time at the hospital, watching him getting better, watching him getting worse again holding the sick bowl for him and then watch him fall asleep exhausted afterwards and aided by the pain medication. He rarely left the bed and needed all his energy to fight this illness. To reduce the inflammatory process, he was on a high-dose steroids and parenteral treatment was suggested for prolonged periods of bowel rest as he didn't even tolerate the enteral tube. Although this wasn't how she'd imagined spending her honeymoon like but somehow, they got to be closer than they ever were in every way and being so close to him was good for them. When he was feeling a bit better they were talking about some stuff that they would've never mentioned otherwise, both about themselves, about their childhood, about how they'd become who they were. It was maybe the long hospital hours that forced them to concentrate inside, or Christian's personality changed due to the illness.
He started it when he first talked about how he was ill similarly when he was a child and it stemmed from there. Kimber had no idea that Christian needed to talk about it, he would've needed to tell her the truth and he was voicing some of his thoughts out loud, trying to figure out where these Munchausen tendencies he realised he had came from. He was scaring himself. What was he doing to himself? Many persons with Munchausen syndrome experienced long-term medical complications from illnesses they have induced. If it was a defence mechanism against sexual and aggressive impulses when he was little, was it partly a form of self-punishment now, not just something that escalated from him trying to make sure his initial faked illness when trying to get Kimber back wasn't found out? He wasn't open and honest even to himself about psychological issues, he liked to stack problems away and look what it led to. He was all confused, but he wasn't likely to admit what he had done, no way, quite the opposite; he was going to do everything he could so his deed remained a secret. Any Munchausen patient was limited only by their medical knowledge and he had a great advantage there! Although thankfully the sedatives didn't let him overthink this either.
Kimber was rather shocked by everything he had told her about his childhood and she wished she could help him. He seemed so cool about it, but she knew he really wasn't. And she felt what was happening to him now wasn't fair on him either. All she could think about how he was very ill and needed great care and attention and felt guilty thinking about more pleasurable past times sometimes, but sitting there next to him she couldn't help herself and took in his still good looking body, however pale he was and regardless of the weight he lost. She was wanting him to want her, missing his touch, his libido.
As an answer to her thoughts he turned to his side and muttered softly in his sleep, "panties."
Who's panties was he dreaming about? She could only hope they were hers. She smiled thinking about the prospect of him being interested in her panties again, but then her face turned serious again when pulled his legs up just like when he was in pain, to almost be in the foetal position. That's when it occurred to her. If Christian was this unwell, would his mother not want to know about it? Of course Gail'd refused contact, but the way things were going with all those complications of inflammatory bowel disease like peritonitis, sepsis, toxic megacolon and perforation they kept scaring her with, the situation would melt her heart too just as it was melting hers. If she could get her to come and she would see him in that hospital bed with all those tubes she would not be able to resist being concerned about her own son.
The anxiety must've been showing on her face because a quiet voice was to be heard behind her, "he'll be all right," Sean said from the doorframe. He had been coming every day too after work, even if only for a few minutes sometimes. He had put aside the animosity between them, especially when seeing her dedication to take care of Christian. "There's some news. Could you come out?"
Kimber stepped out staring at Sean with wide eyes, he didn't happen to mention yet whether the news were good or bad.
"I think he's gonna be okay," Sean continued, then tried to explain everything to Kimber in everyday terms, but not managing it very well. What word did ordinary people use for colonoscopy anyway? So he just gave up right away, she'll understand the jest of it. "As you know the colonoscopy produced relatively non-specific results. There were aphthoid lesions and small, round elevations and ulcers. Therefore we were looking for something else to give us some clues. Testing synovial fluid for bacterial antigens may be of some use in difficult cases. His synovial fluid contained 60,000 white cells per cubic millimeter, with a predominance of polymorphonuclear cells. Cultures were sterile and the samples tested for leukocytes produced positive results, but no invasive pathogens was distinguished. An elevated WBC count is common in patients with active inflammatory disease and does not necessarily indicate infection, but we were going for that and instructed the microbiology laboratory to use CIN agar, which is a differential selective medium with an increased yield. Yersinia Enterocolitica was found. Y enterocolitica is a gram-negative coccoid bacillus that is increasingly recognized as a cause of various clinical syndromes. I have no idea where he's picked it up, but he's got it. Treatment usually is supportive and directed at maintaining euvolemia."
"I don't understand. So he hasn't got inflammatory bowel disease?"
"I didn't say that, but till this organism is present in his body it's almost impossible to say for sure. I don't know. His history tells me yes, but it's probably very mild and practically dormant since he was a child. Whether this will aggravate it, again, I don't know, but not enough of his digestive system is involved to really create a problem. But as I said, I don't know."
"So when will he be better?"
"He should be starting now. He's most likely feeling worst now. If I'm right, he's going in the right direction. He has a long way to go though, especially if the bowel disease is present. Where are you going?"
"Could you stay with him for a minute? I need to make a call. Do you by any chance know his mother's phone number?"
"Christian's mother? What do you want with her?"
"He's been talking about her. I have this idea that she'd come if she knew he was very ill. Christian doesn't have to know about it if it doesn't work out. What have we got to loose? If you're saying he's gonna get better I have to call her now so she sees him at his worst. You know, a little emotional blackmail can't hurt?"
Sean watched her leave, the way she rushed down the corridor with her hips moving and her hair flying. She was hot as hell and hell was the right word to characterise her. Probably horny too, cause Christian couldn't give any pleasures just now. Now he knew what his friend must've felt when having Julia around. The forbidden fruit was somehow more delicious, but unobtainable. He shook his head and stepped into the hospital room.
Christian closed his eyes before Sean could notice he was listening to the whole conversation. However he was hoping they wouldn't, he really knew that sooner or later they'd find the bacteria in his body. It wasn't a bad thing, because he didn't mind getting the right treatment and better now. It wasn't fun the way he was feeling and Kimber probably felt attached enough to him to stay no matter what. He was also impressed by Kimber's idea to con his mother into feeling for him, bizarrely it was based on the same idea he used himself. He was going to play along with this first.