Buck thought he'd never see that look on Chris' face again, that look of disbelief mixed with grief and anger.
"Diphtheria?" Chris asked - demanded - of Nathan.
Nathan had to tell him the truth. "Looks like. If we're lucky though, maybe just a bad case of quinsy."
"And that ain't as bad, is it?" Buck asked, trying to ease the situation. But the silence that preceded Nathan's answer told the story.
"We just gotta wait n' see." Nathan said. "Vin's general condition ain't been all that good lately. More'n anything else, Vin's got to want to get well. And I just don't see that in him."
"When will you know?" Chris asked.
"Could be two days, could be two weeks. We just gotta wait."
M7*M7*M7
Vin had never gone from feeling so middlin' to so poorly so fast in all his life. When he fell asleep riding behind Chris, his throat hurt bad. Now, his throat, his back, and his head all hurt with the same stabbing sharpness, and he had chills so bad the frame of Nathan's bed shook. Not only did it hurt to swallow, it was getting downright hard to do.
"Ez? You reckon Nathan's got anymore - anymore blankets 'round?" It took two breaths to get the sentence out. Ezra was with Vin while Nathan talked with Chris and Buck, and JD and Josiah went to wire Nettie.
"Well, if he doesn't, I'm sure we will be more than able to appropriate a sufficient number to -" Ezra spoke less than calmly as he opened cupboards and looked under shelves. "- ah, here we are. One more anyway." He pulled a quilt from a bottom cupboard, feeling no small amount of relief, and shook it out to lay on top of the three blankets Vin already had over him.
"Th - th- thanks." Even his teeth were chattering.
Ezra wasn't sure what he should be doing for Vin, but he didn't want to interrupt the conversation taking place out on the balcony. He'd heard the word, diphtheria, but he didn't let himself dwell on it. After he spread the quilt and tucked the edge under the mattress, he turned to the stove. "Perhaps there is some way to make this phlogiston exude more warmth."
Vin nearly choked just hearing that first word, but understood the second. "...'p-'p-'preciate it, Ez..." Ezra gave Vin a quick smile, and for some reason, Vin felt he had to ask: "Y' -y' -y'mind bein' called 'Ez', Ez?"
Puzzled by the question, Ezra turned back. "No, I don't mind at all." In fact, he actually enjoyed it.
"I wouldn't want to c- c- call y'somethin' y'didn't like."
Ezra inwardly shook his head. Vin was quite possibly dying, and yet he took the energy and the breath to make sure he wasn't being troublesome. "You may believe me Mr. Tanner, when I tell you that I have been called every name under the sun in my lifetime, yet none have settled quite so affably on my person as 'Ez'."
Vin had to ask. "Hunh?" and Ezra smiled again.
"There is no name dearer to a person's heart than that name by which he is called a friend." And Vin blinked a few times.
"So - so -" he shivered. "Y'don't mind?"
"No Vin. I don't mind."
"'kay."
M7*M7*M7
After JD and Josiah got a telegraph off to Nettie, they made their way back to Nathan's. JD was so intent on something going on inside him that he ran into three different people. He tipped his hat - "Sorry, Ma'am" and was about to take up his journey again but Josiah stopped him.
"Son, you're gonna get somebody killed you don't watch where you're going."
"I'm sorry Josiah. I just got a lot on my mind..."
"You're worried about Vin..." Not a question.
"No - I mean yeah, I'm worried about him - - it's just..."
Josiah waited a moment for JD to get his thoughts together. It was almost impossible to not read every thought and emotion that ran through JD's mind because they simultaneously ran across his face.
"You think you caused this? Vin gettin' sick?"
"I made him wade into the creek with me."
"You held a gun to his head?"
"No."
"You tricked him?"
"No..."
"Pushed him then."
"NO." JD was getting annoyed, he thought Josiah was just making fun. "But he wouldn't have gone in and got all wet and cold if I hadn't suggested it. Then he got sick." He waited for - expected - Josiah to agree that splashing in the creek was the cause of all of Vin's malady, but he didn't. Josiah put his arm around JD and led him toward Nathan's.
"Son, whatever is wrong with Vin, it started a long time before he played with you in that creek. I seen you around him all this past week, I don't think any one of the rest of us tried so hard to cheer him up. From what Buck told me, before Vin got so sick yesterday, he was the happiest Buck has ever seen him, not just the past week, but ever since he met him. You did that JD. You didn't make him sick. You mighta just given him a reason to want to get well."
M7*M7*M7
Between the stove, the quilt, and the tincture of aconite in sweet spirits of nitre, Vin slowly stopped shivering. The pains all over his body dulled some too and he drifted off in the soft warm bed and soft warm pillow. Ezra sat in the chair near the bed and watched him sleep. He was tired, he'd been awake now over twenty four hours. But there was only one thing on his mind right now.
Diphtheria.
Good Lord.
The door opened and Nathan, Chris, and Buck came in. "How's he doin'?" Nathan asked as he laid a gentle hand on Vin's forehead.
"He has improved greatly, which is in itself a frightening thought, given his current appearance."
"Ezra, how long has it been since you slept?" A quiet, concerned voice asked. Ezra was surprised to realize that it was Chris who asked that question.
"Well, it has been awhile, Mr. Larabee, now that you ask."
"Go on home then Ez', and get some sleep." Chris lightly pressed Ezra's shoulder. "There's any change, we'll let you know."
"I believe I may take you up on that suggestion." Ezra unfolded himself from the chair. "Do let me know if there is any way I can be of assistance."
Buck decided Chris would be too preoccupied with Vin to notice who else was in the room. "Come on Ezra, I'll walk that way with you. I'll check back in a while Nathan, see if y'all need anything."
As they left the room, both with a long look back at Vin, Chris took Ezra's chair.
"Has his fever gone down?"
"Some, not as much as I'd like...you ain't got much sleep either by the looks of it."
"I'm fine."
"Uh hunh." Nathan ran his eyes over Chris, assessing his condition. "I don't need but one patient at a time."
"I'm fine."
"Uh hunh...I gotta go to Mrs. Potter's, get some supplies. Guess I don't got to ask you to watch him for me till I get back."
"Guess not..." Chris agreed. Nathan left and after he shut the door the little room was quiet and warm. Chris retrieved his jacket from the neat pile of clothes tucked next to the bed and as he straightened up he found that Vin was looking at him. "Hey Cowboy... how y'doing?"
"Feel like I got caught in a buffalo stampede." The same raw, scratching voice. No energy behind it.
"Yeah, you look like it too...warm enough?"
"Guess...Nathan's all outta blankets anyway..." Vin wasn't comfortable being tucked away, sleeping in the middle of the day, in bed while his friends were up and around. "I ain't all that sick y'know. Y'don't gotta nursemaid me."
Chris didn't mention the nightmares or sleeplessness or the look Vin got in his eyes whenever he was even thinking about his grandfather. He opened his jacket and laid it over the quilt. Just as he was trying to think of what he could say, the door opened and JD poked his head around. His expression brightened when he saw that Vin was awake.
"Hey, Vin. I just wanted to see how you're doin'."
"Hey kid, I'm holdin' on. C'mon in 'n shut the door, you're lettin' all the heat out."
"Sorry..." JD added that to the list of what he seemed to keep doing wrong. He shut the door, took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair. "Y'need anything? I met Nathan on his way to the store...is there anything I can get you?" He sounded almost desperate to be useful.
Vin was about to say no, but Chris cut in. "Think you could round up a few more blankets? And we'll need a steady supply of firewood too."
"Sure. I'll go right now." JD was grateful and flattered to be needed. He was about to turn and go when Vin called him back.
"JD? I just wanted to tell you - I ain't never had so much fun's I had yesterday - was it yesterday?" He asked Chris. "Not in as long as I can remember, I ain't never laughed that much or nothin'...I just wanted to tell you. Way my throat feels, I might not be able to tell you later. That was just the best day a' my life."
JD grinned. "Me too."
tbc