Jessica yawned and stretched as she woke up. She looked over at the clock on the nightstand, it read 9:45. Jessica smiled as she looked over at her sleeping husband. It was Saturday and there were no plans for the weekend so far. Jessica got out of bed and went to the nursery to find Sophia on her way out of the crib. The 13-month-old little girl had been climbing out of her crib every day since she had learned how to almost a month ago.
"Sophia, you should enjoy this opportunity to get out of the crib on your own because it'll be your last. Daddy has bought a new crib with higher rails." Jessica smiled and grabbed her daughter's hand.
Sophia grinned and went with mommy to the kitchen. While Jessica made breakfast Sophia waited in her chair. Just as breakfast was done Kyle came down the stairs and dragged his feet as he walked to the table and sat down.
"Good morning Kyle." Jessica smiled.
"Yeah, good morning." Kyle mumbled as he had laid his head down on the table and closed his eyes.
Jessica chuckled and gave Kyle a glass of milk, which he always had every morning. Eventually Kyle became more alert and noticed that his father was absent.
"Where's dad?" He asked.
"Still sleeping. I figured I'd let him to that for as long as he likes." Jessica smiled.
Kyle frowned and looked at the kitchen clock. His father was usually an early-bird and would be up to eat breakfast at seven in the morning almost every day.
"He must be very tired." Kyle said.
"Yeah, well he needs the sleep." Jessica said.
It was after everyone had finished their breakfast and Sophia was dressed in casual clothes that Jessica became slightly worried about Horatio. She peeked inside their bedroom and saw that he was still asleep. She went to his side of the bed and as she sat down next to him she could feel the heat radiating off him. She placed her hand to his forehead and her eyes widened. Horatio was burning up.
"Kyle, can you get me the thermometer from the bathroom?" Jessica called out.
She heard Kyle mumble a yes and he soon walked in and gave her the thermometer.
"Dad okay?"
"He has a high fever." Jessica said and put the thermometer in Horatio's mouth.
Her eyes widened as she read what his temperature was.
"It's 104,6." She said.
"That's way too much. I'll call Alexx and ask her to come over." Kyle said and left the bedroom.
Jessica gently shook Horatio to wake him up. Horatio groaned, but didn't open his eyes. Jessica barely got any contact with him.
"Baby please wake up." Jessica pleaded, "Open your eyes, please."
Horatio did not respond. Kyle told Jessica that Alexx was on her way and while they waited for her arrival, Jessica and Kyle tried to cool Horatio down with ice packs, while also trying to wake him up. When Alexx arrived she took one look at her friend and knew it was bad. When she put her hand on Horatio's forehead she grimaced.
"We need to get him to the hospital." She said.
"He's going to be okay, right?" Jessica asked, suddenly fearing for her husband's life.
Alexx looked between Jessica and Kyle. She decided to be honest with them.
"A fever this high is very bad, most likely it will rise too. I don't think it's anything fatal but the truth is he could have any sort of virus or infection right now that is causing this." Alexx said.
Jessica nodded and then helped Kyle and Alexx to get Horatio to Horatio's hummer. Horatio woke up slightly as Alexx and Kyle started pulling him up to his feet and he managed to move his feet on his own to the car. Once he was in the car he fell asleep again. Alexx drove the hummer to the hospital and when they got there, Horatio was put on a gurney and taken to a room. Jessica, Kyle, Alexx and Sophia had to wait in the waiting area.
-I-
The flu. That was what Horatio had. His doctor Clark Baron, who was a good friend of Alexx's, was optimistic though. He believed Horatio would recover completely in the end, but the journey to that complete recovery was what was dangerous. Horatio now had a fever of 105,3. A nurse was putting ice packs around his body to cool him down. The flue had also caused Horatio to have trouble breathing and he had an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. Jessica held her husband's hand and watched as he slept. Kyle was on the other side of the bed, holding his sleeping little sister. Alexx had gone home for a few hours, but had promised to return later in the evening.
"Dad doesn't get sick very often, but when he does he always gets very sick." Kyle said quietly, "Do you think he is aware that he's sick?"
Jessica shook her head. Dr. Baron had told her that Horatio was too sick to fully understand what was going on. He might not even remember being sick once the fever went down and he became more awake.
"I'm just so shocked it happened so fast. There was no warning. Nothing that would indicate he was beginning to be a little bit sick." Jessica said.
"Yeah, it just happened overnight." Kyle sighed, "Do you think he got the virus from Ryan?"
Jessica shrugged. Ryan had been home sick with the flue for four days, but his flue was not as bad as Horatio's.
"Does the team know that dad is here?"
"Yeah, Alexx called them." Jessica said.
Horatio started to stir and opened his eyes. The nurse shone a light in to his eyes and got a reaction, but when she tried to make eye contact with him it was as if Horatio looked right through her.
"He's not so coherent yet." The nurse said, "He's too sick still."
Jessica nodded and gently squeezed Horatio's hand. He didn't squeeze back because he didn't comprehend what she had done.
-I-
"His fever is down to 104." Dr. Baron smiled.
Jessica smiled back and looked over at Horatio who was sleeping. He had been at the hospital for three days and yesterday his fever had risen to 106. But then quickly gone down again. Horatio wasn't good enough to go home yet and Dr. Baron wanted to keep him at the hospital for at least two more days.
"He's also more awake and he knows he's sick now." Dr. Baron said, "The only problem is that he's not willing to eat as much as he should."
"I'll keep on pushing him to eat." Jessica said.
Since he was sick, all food tasted bad for Horatio, but he ate as long as Jessica or Kyle kept an eye on him and they made sure he always ate at least half of every meal he got.
"Good." Dr. Baron smiled and then excused himself.
Sophia and Kyle were at home. Sophia had been hard to put to sleep while daddy had been sick. She had of course known that something was wrong with daddy and therefore demanded that he was the one to put her in the crib every night. Sophia wouldn't actually fall asleep until she had cried herself in to exhaustion. The door to the room opened and Kyle and Sophia entered.
"You've only been home an hour!" Jessica chuckled, "I thought I told you not to rush."
"We didn't." Kyle grinned.
Sophia reached her arms out to daddy and sighed when mommy told her that daddy was asleep and couldn't hold her. It wasn't until an hour later that Sophia was held by daddy for the first time in three days.
"Dada!" She exclaimed and hugged him.
Horatio was still weak from the virus and he didn't feel like he had any strength left. However, he was still able to hug his little girl.
"I don't want to get her sick." Horatio said.
"If it was going to happened it would have long ago." Jessica smiled and gave her husband a kiss.
"I'm sorry I scared you." Horatio said.
"It's not your fault." Jessica said, "But next time there's a flu-season you're taking a flu-shot."
Horatio just laughed.
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