Two Week Later
"Get up, Tammy!" Shelby says, knocking on the door of her sister's room. She and Teal'c got a house a couple of weeks ago.
"Sissy, can you make me the 'tarts like Teal'c does?" Becky Lynn asks.
"Tarts? He made you tarts? For breakfast?" Shelby says, more shocked about her husband cooking than about anything else.
"Yeah!" Becky Lynn says with a grin.
"Well, I don't have time to bake. Your sister is still not out of bed. Go eat some cereal."
"I want a 'tart! Teal'c would make me a 'tart!" Becky Lynn protests.
"Well, Teal'c is traveling, and I'm your sister; go eat," Shelby says, opening her door.
"I don't feel good," Tammy protests.
Shelby sits down on the edge of her sister's bed, and feels her forehead, "What kind of sick are you?"
"My stomach hurts."
"Well, you don't have a fever. Are you nervous about something, honey?" Shelby asks softly.
"No, I'm just sick," Tammy says.
"I can't stay home today, it's going to be busy at work. Come on, you can get to school."
"Please, let me stay home today."
"You can't say home alone."
"Mommy used to let us all the time."
"Well, I'm not Mommy," Shelby says, "Come on, I'll bring you a couple of tums and you're going to be fine."
Tammy pulls the covers over her head, but doesn't say any words of protest.
Shelby heads back into the kitchen where she finds her youngest sister chomping merrily away on a pop-tart.
"Tarts taste good cold," she says cheerfully.
"Teal'c made you a pop tart. Yeah, that actually makes a lot more sense. Do you want me to warm it up for you?"
Becky Lynn nods her head eagerly.
Shelby takes the uneaten pop-tart from her sister, and puts it in the toaster. Just before she puts it down, she remembers that her other sister could do with a piece of dry toast, and she puts a piece of bread in the toaster. She pulls the slot down, and turns back to her little sister only to see a look of despair painted on the small face before her eyes.
"Teal'c uses the microwave," Becky Lynn protests.
"But pop tarts are made to go in the toaster," Shelby says.
Tammy Lynn doesn't say anything she just sticks out her bottom lip. Shelby grabs another pop tart, and puts it on a paper towel in the microwave. She grabs a couple of tums, and heads back to Becky Lynn, who has gotten out of bed, and pulled some clothes on.
"Feeling better?" Shelby asks.
"Whatever," Tammy replies.
That word feels Shelby with quiet despair. After all, she is far from mastering parenting children, and she is far from ready to parent a teenager. She's seen Daniel and Janet deal with Cassie during team nights, and she's pretty sure all of the whatevers and eye-rolling would drive her batty. Tammy isn't going to be a teenager for a couple more years, at least not technically, and if she starts this early Shelby isn't sure if she's going to be able to endure it.
"Ok, well grab your stuff, and we can eat the toast in the car. We're late again."
-0-0-0-
"Shelby, there is a phone call for you!" one of the other nurses call out.
Shelby finishes drawing and labeling the blood from her patient before coming over and taking the phone out of the woman's hand.
"Hello," she says.
"Are you the mother of Tamara Dunn?"
"I'm her legal guardian. I'm her sister, Shelby Dunn."
"She asked me not to make this call, said you were too busy to come and get her. But I feel so sorry for her. She don't feel one bit of good, and she's gotten sick all over her clothes."
"She got sick. I'll be right there to pick her up," Shelby said hanging up the phone.
She walks into Janet's office, "Tammy is sick, and I've got to go take care of her."
"Of course you do," Janet says. Then she sees the young woman's face. "What's wrong?"
"She told me she was sick this morning, and I didn't believe her. What kind of nurse am I if I can't even tell when my own sister is sick?"
"It's a lot harder to tell if your family members are sick then a patient. You're not emotionally invested in a patient," Janet giggles, "Well, here, you usually are. The point is you can do everything right, and still arrive at a wrong diagnosis, even if you were the best nurse in the history of nurses. Trust me, you're not the first mom to send a sick kid off to school, and it certainly wasn't anything life-threatening."
"She threw up."
"Kids throw up. You're a good mother. Now go take care of her."
"Thanks," Shelby says heading out of the room.
-0-0-0-
"Hi, I'm Tammy's guardian, is she with the nurse or something?" Shelby asks awkwardly as she stands in the office, "I should know where the nurse office is shouldn't I?"
"We actually don't have a nurse at this school. Tammy is just lying down in our waiting area."
"Well, I should have known that you guys didn't have a nurse. I'm really new to this whole parenting thing. I promise that I'm going to get better."
"You're fine. You can go see her now," the women says, gesturing toward a doorway.
The sight that Shelby sees next absolutely melts her heart. The girl is sprawled across three hard plastic chairs with her eyes closed, although she is not sleeping. Her shirt has been scrubbed but bears the undeniable remains of vomit, and the scrubbing has done very little to get rid of the smell.
"Tam?" Shelby asks softly.
"You came," Tammy says, completely surprised by this development.
"Of course I came. You were sick. I brought you an extra pair of my scrubs. They'll be ridiculously big on you, but I didn't have anything else with me at work, and I didn't know if you would want to change before you went home."
"I just want to go home," Tammy says, sounding very small.
"Ok," Shelby says offering her a big smile.
Shelby returns to the secretary, and signs her sister out. When the two of them are walking out of the school, Shelby says, "Do you feel like you need to go to the doctor?"
"No, you can just drop me off at home and go back to work."
"That isn't going to happen."
"I'm eleven. By the time you were eleven, you were looking after Becky Lynn and I."
"Well, Teal'c and I are going to wait until you're a couple of years older before we start leaving you alone, and I'm certainly not going to leave you alone when you're sick."
"Sorry you lost a day's work."
"You are way more important than a day's work. I'm sorry that I didn't believe you were sick the first time that you told me you were," Shelby says.
"It's ok," Tammy says.
Shelby doesn't buy it, but by then they have both gotten into the car, and Tammy lays her head on the coolness of the window, so Shelby lets her rest.
-0-0-0-
"Are you feeling better?" Shelby asks as soon as Tammy is situated in her bed in clean pajamas with a trash can next to her. Tammy nods as her sister inserts a thermometer into her mouth. Shelby is relieved to see after the beep that her little sister has an absolutely normal temperature.
"Do you want something to eat?"
Tammy scrunches up her nose at the thought.
"Dry toast? Ice chips? A glass of water?"
"Crackers?"
"Sure," Shelby says, standing up. Then she grimaces, and sits back down on the edge of the bed, "Actually, we don't have any saltines. What kind of parent doesn't have saltines?"
"Whatever you have is fine," Tammy says.
-0-0-0-
Shelby lays down on the bed next to Tammy, as her little sister eats her crackers, "Just tell me if you want me to leave so you can get some sleep."
"You took the day off work so you can be with me. I guess the least I can do is actually let you be with me."
"Honey, don't feel bad about it."
"Mom never did that," Tammy says bashfully.
"There are a lot of things that mom didn't do. I'm really sorry that I didn't listen to you. The next time you tell me you can't go to school, I'm going to believe you."
"Ok, I can't go to school tomorrow."
"We'll see if you feel better by then."
"I'm so embarrassed. I never want to go back to that school."
"What happened?" Shelby asks.
"I threw up all over a boy," she says, hiding her face.
"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry!"
"And he was the one that I had a crush on," Tammy says, completely mortified.
"Wait, are you old enough to like boy?"
Tammy rolls her eyes.
"I really wish I'd kept you home from school today. I'm not very good at this taking care of kids thing, but I'll try to get better."
Tammy lays the crackers she's been snacking on on the night stand, and curls up next to her sister. "You're here, and that seems pretty good to me."
Shelby smiles at her, "I love you," say says, and she wipes the hair away from her face.
Tammy smiles at her without opening her eyes, "I love you too, and you're the best big sister I could ever hope to have."
-0-0-0-
Teal'c rushes into the house looing completely frantic, "I heard that Tammy has undergone some illness, and was sent away from her educational institute."
"She's fine, it's just a bit of the flu."
"Has she been examined by a doctor?"
"No, but I'm a nurse."
"You are a nurse which sent a sick child to school," Teal'c says. This information had been given to him by Janet in an attempt to make him more sensitive to his wife's feelings. The attempt failed.
"I know, but she's fine, really," Shelby says.
"I really am," Tammy says, grinning at her guardian from the couch.
"I think we should provide her with a symbiote," Teal'c says seriously.
"Classified!" Shelby shouts.
"She should not have to endure discomfort," Teal'c says.
"She also shouldn't have to endure the… side effects of what you're suggesting, besides it's not like we've got a whole bunch of those things just laying around."
"What is Teal'c talking about?" Tammy asks.
"There is an experimental treatment that Teal'c wants you to have," Shelby lies, "But it's not a treatment for the stomach flu," she says, glaring at her husband.
"Would we ever consider this treatment if she had something more serious?" Teal'c says.
"If one of their lives were at risk, we would talk about it," she says.
"I did not before know that you were so opposed to something that is a part of me," he says grumpily.
"Well, I'm not opposed to you," she says, giving him a peck on the lips.