Max watched the television and waited for the time to pass on the clock until it got close to when the alarm was going to go off. He needed to make sure they both had time to shower and get ready. He felt her temple with the back of his hand and she felt much better than most of the night. She may still be a bit warm, but he knew she was going to be okay. He reached for the alarm clock and turned it off, and then got up from the bed. He walked around to her side and turned on the bedside light.
"Fran?" He whispered to her. He reached for her shoulder and gave her a little nudge. "Darling, it's time to start waking up, okay?" He rubbed her arm and squeezed her shoulder again. She groaned and started to stir, then turned her head towards him and squinted at him, trying to avoid the light.
"What time is it?" She croaked.
"It's almost a quarter to six. I'm going to run and get a quick shower. Can you start waking up a bit more and see how you feel? I have the TV on, you can sit up and try to focus on that."
"Mmmmm…" she groaned. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, then tried to roll over towards him.
"Here, sweetheart, can I help you sit up? Let me move these pillows back." Fran pushed herself up on her elbows and Max took the towel off the pillow, then pushed it back so she could sit back against it. He helped her sit up. "Here, drink as much water as you can. We need to get you rehydrated." He poured more water from the bottle into her glass and handed it to her. She chugged it. "Thirsty?" He smiled.
"Yeah. When do we have to leave? I don't remember when we are supposed to leave." Fran asked, trying to push her hair around.
"About 7:15. So after I grab a shower, I'll help you in there, okay? But you can't have a hot shower, it has to be just warm enough so you're comfortable. I don't want to risk you triggering another fever, okay?"
"Okay." He kissed her forehead and went back around to the other side of the bed. He picked up the TV remote and handed it to her, then went in to the closet to retrieve his clothes for the day.
"I'll be right back, okay? Don't fall back to sleep. Do what you have to do to stay awake. And when I come back out, I want to check your temperature." She nodded her head and yawned again, then took the remote and started flipping through channels. Max headed into the bathroom and got in the shower.
Fran sat on the bed, slumped against the pillows. She was trying to process what went on that night, but was having a hard time remembering. It was something to do with her fever. She had a fever, and Max was taking care of her. But why was she wearing different pajamas? She was having bits and pieces of images come back to her but she didn't know if she dreamed them or if they were real memories. Something about the bathtub? She remembered his cologne. She could smell it on the shirt she was wearing. And the cold water. A lot of cold water. She yawned again and rubbed her eyes. She found a channel playing Partridge Family reruns so she left it there. She was thinking that maybe a nice shower would help her remember. A few minutes later, when she was caught up in the show, Max hurried out of the bathroom with his wet hair. Then she realized what a mess she must look like and started to get self conscious. She tried to mash her hair down, it must have looked like a rat's nest. Max took his pajamas into the closet and came back out to Fran.
"Okay darling, thermometer and then shower. We need to watch the clock so we aren't late to the hospital." He picked up the thermometer and walked over to her bedside, shook it out, and was about to put it in her mouth.
"I must look horrible right now, I'm sorry. I can't imagine what I look like!" Fran whimpered, pushing her hair out of her face.
"You look beautiful, darling. You've just been through the wringer. Here, take this thermometer-" He placed it in her mouth, under her tongue. She sat there, forlorn, and he sat on the edge of the bed with her. He reached for her hands and then felt her skin all the way up her arms. A little warm. Then he put the inside of his wrist on her forehead. Still a little warm. "You still feel a little warm, but you also just woke up. If you still have a fever, maybe that will come down in a little while." She nodded her head. She looked at him in the jeans, and untucked shirt. He was so good looking. She just let her eyes wander across him. It was something to focus on. After a few minutes of Max watching her, caressing her hands, massaging her calves, it was time to take out the thermometer. He reached for it and slid it out of her mouth and checked it. Fran waited in anticipation. He squinted and turned it in his fingers. "It looks like it says 100.5. So you still have a fever, but it's lower than what it was. But no hot water in the shower, okay? And I want you sitting on the bench the whole time. You ready to get up and get in there?"
"Oh, if you insist. I wish you could carry me but I know you did too much last night. I need to get up and walk."
"Darling, it wasn't too much, not even close. I'll carry you any time you need me to, okay? But let's go grab your clothes in the closet and then get you in the shower." He helped her off the bed and then held her hand as they slowly walked to the closet to get her clothes. He carried the clothes for her as they walked back to the bathroom. "Here, hold on to the counter. I'll get the water ready, and then will you be able to get undressed on your own?"
"I think so. Not much to take off." She held on to the bathroom counter and he stepped over to the shower, opened the glass door, and turned down the water. It was still hot from his own shower, so he immediately turned the temperature down and checked it on the inside of his arm. It was warm, but not too warm. He hoped it wasn't so cold it would give her a chill. He turned around and came out of the shower and grabbed another towel for her.
"Okay, sweetheart. Check the temperature of it before you get too wet, okay? Here's a towel, where you can reach it. I'll keep an ear out for you if you need me. Please don't lock the door, though, alright? I need to know I can get in there if you have an emergency."
"Oh, yeah, I won't lock it. Thank you."
"And when you get out, you can sit on the toilet to get dressed, alright? You might still be a little woozy and I don't want you having a fall."
Fran noticed the worried look on his face. "I will, Max. I'll be careful. And I'll open the door when I'm dressed, okay?"
"Okay. Thank you. I'll be here if you need me."
Fran watched as Max stepped out the door and shut it behind him, then she turned to look at herself in the mirror. She was a wreck! Her cheeks were a little rosy, her eyes were puffy, and her hair- well that was a whole other matter. "Ug!" She huffed. She held onto the counter as she slowly pulled off her clothes, then set them in a pile on the counter where she could reach them later. She got in the shower and sat down, then picked up the wand and checked the temperature of the water. She adjusted it a little, then sprayed her body and soaked her hair, then got the shampoo. She knew she was feeling better than she previous night, but was still tired and was still having trouble piecing together what happened that night. She knew she had a high fever and that Max had to try to bring it down. But she still had weird memories that felt like dreams so she couldn't be sure what was real or not. She was grateful to him for everything he must have done for her. She lathered up her hair, and then grabbed the wand to rinse it all out. The shower felt good, but she wished she wasn't still feeling warm and could take a nice, long hot shower. Maybe tomorrow. She put the conditioner in her hair and grabbed her body wash and started to lather it up all over herself, then reached for her razor.
She was so happy they were together now, and that he was watching out for her. She was still mad at herself for keeping everything quiet for so long, for lying to everyone and hiding what was happening to her. Everyone was so forgiving. She owed them all so much. Especially Max. She didn't mean to scare him into becoming her boyfriend, but his reaction to everything assured her how he really felt about her. She remembered something about him apologizing to her, but she didn't know why he may have done that. Maybe that was a dream, too. But she remembered the look on his face when she woke up and realized what was going on. Just thinking about that look on his face made her stomach sink. He looked so scared and sad, and yet so happy at the same time- happy that she had woken up. He had said he couldn't get her to wake up before. That hurt her that he had to go through that. No wonder he looked so scared. She rinsed the suds off of her body and grabbed her washcloth, then washed her face, and rinsed the conditioner out of her hair. She wished she could lean over and hang her hair down to make sure she got it all out, but she knew there was a good chance she could get woozy and fall off the bench if she did, so she just made sure she rinsed it a little longer to be certain. She put the wand up and wrung out her hair, and turned off the faucet.
Fran got up and got out of the shower and wrapped herself in the towel. She took a deep breath and covered her face in the towel, slowly running it over her, then over her hair. She squeezed her hair in the towel, and then wrapped the towel around her body, slowly drying herself off and working her way down. She had to hold on to the counter so she could lift a leg, one at a time, to finish drying herself off. She ran the towel over her hair again, then hung the towel over the bar on the shower door. She stepped back to the counter and leaned her hands against it for a moment, getting her bearings. She looked over at her stack of clothes, trying to decide how she would get dressed. She started with her underwear and managed to get it on without having to sit down, then put on her bra. She put on her deodorant and perfume, then slowly pulled her soft sweater over her head and pushed her arms through the sleeves. She looked at her folded pants, then decided that she better sit down to get those on, so she headed for the toilet and sat down. That's when she saw the mess of towels and clothes in the tub from the night before, and it made her feel sad. She slid one leg, and then the other, into her pants, then carefully stood up and pulled them on and fastened them, then she headed back to the sink to brush her teeth. With her toothbrush sticking out of her mouth, she walked over to the bathroom door and opened it, and saw Max straightening the bed and cleaning things up. He looked over at her and she waved at him. He smiled. He walked over to the bathroom to see how she was doing.
"Will you be okay for a minute?" He asked.
Fran spit out the toothpaste and rinsed her toothbrush. "Yeah, I'm doing good so far."
"That's good to hear. I want to check if Niles might be down in the kitchen. I was thinking of seeing if he can help bring your dressing table in here so you can get your makeup on in the bedroom, sitting down."
"You don't have to do that, sweetie," she began.
"Well, it needs to be moved over here anyway," he smiled. "It's alright, darling," he kissed her cheek, "If he's not up yet, we'll move it later."
"Okay, go ahead. I'll be okay here for a bit, drying my hair." She turned to look at him as she rubbed the towel on her hair some more. He smiled.
"Okay, sweetheart," he kissed her lightly on the lips and squeezed her hand, then left the bathroom to go find Niles.
Fran turned back to the mirror and began combing her hair. She really looked worn out. She was going to have her work cut out for her when she put on her makeup, that was for sure. She could still smell Max's cologne in the bathroom, and it made her smile. She just wanted time to wrap her arms around him and stay that way, for hours and hours. The poor guy definitely needed some more sleep, too. Maybe when they came back to the house later she would be able to get him to rest a while, with her.
She sprayed her conditioning spray around her hair and combed it a little more. She wasn't going to curl it today, she would just keep it straight. She couldn't pin it up, unless she had something without metal in it. She put the diffuser on her hair dryer and began drying her hair, pulling it out in sections with the comb. She felt like she was under water- moving in slow motion. Her mind wasn't as muddled as it was earlier, but it was getting exhausting trying to hold her arms up to fix her hair. She finally shut off the hair dryer and put her arms down, letting them flop down to her sides. She checked her hair with her fingers to see if it was dry yet. Not all the way. Maybe she could get away with not drying it any more, maybe it would finish drying by itself before they left. But if it didn't- that might not be good to go out in the cold with wet hair. So she turned the hair dryer on again and continued, but this time without the comb.
Max rushed down the back stairs into the kitchen and found Niles, in his robe, removing things from the fridge and setting them on the counter.
"Niles! I'm glad you're here, I need to ask you a favor real quick before you get busy cooking."
"Absolutely, sir! Is everything alright? Is Ms. Fine alright?" He asked, anxiously.
"She's so much better, but she still has a little bit of a fever and she isn't steady on her feet. I wanted to ask you if you can come up and help me move her dressing table into the bedroom so she can sit at that to finish getting ready. I don't want her standing up or moving around a lot without someone holding on to her, or her holding on to something, you know?"
"Yes, sir, I can do that. Is she going to eat anything? Or even have a shake? I wasn't sure if I should make her something. I was going to make you a breakfast sandwich, so if you needed to you could take it with you."
"Oh, thank you Niles, that's a good idea. I'll grab her a shake, maybe she can work on that while she finishes getting ready." He went to the fridge to grab her a can of her shake, and saw the Thai tea and all of her Chinese food sitting there, waiting for her. He took out the shake and turned around. "I sure hope she'll be able to eat normally, I know how much she's going to love digging in to all that food in there."
"Yes, sir. It would be very good to see her back to her old self again. Well. Let's go move that table so I can get back to making your breakfast. It's not long before you both need to leave," Niles said. They both rushed up the back stairs to Fran's old bedroom to move the dressing table.
Fran had just turned the hair dryer off again when she heard the bedroom door open and heard the sounds of Max and Niles whispering as they fumbled with her dressing table and brought it into the bedroom. She picked up the makeup and perfume that she had in the bathroom and carefully stepped over to the bathroom door. She held on to the frame as she peeked around to see the two of them lifting the dressing table over the wood floors and setting it back down, then Niles stepped back out into the hallway to get her chair and brought it in, then set it at the table. He looked up and saw her at the bathroom doorway and almost gasped. She really did look a lot better, compared to last night. He clutched his chest and smiled.
"Good morning, Ms. Fine! You're looking so much better!" He tried to stifle his excitement so he wouldn't wake the children.
"Thank you Niles, good morning. Thank you for helping last night. I'm sorry I don't remember what you did. I hear I was a bit out of it," she smiled.
"I was glad to help. It's so good to see you on your feet! Oh, let me go grab the rest of the things from the top of your dressing table so you can use it, then I've got to get back down to the kitchen. I'll be right back!"
Max set down the shake on the dressing table and walked over to the bathroom to get Fran. She wrapped an arm around his waist and he draped his arm over her shoulders, and walked her over to the chair at her dressing table, then she sat down. She set her things on the table and began going through the drawers, pulling out what she needed to get ready. Niles came back in the door with his arms full. He set down bags of makeup, several cases of who-knows-what and then her makeup mirror. He was beaming as he looked at her. Then he looked at Max, who had his hands on her shoulders. They were both so happy she was awake and doing so much better.
"Niles," Fran said softly, "Remind me to hug you before we leave, okay?"
"Oh! Yes! I will! That will be lovely! Well I- I better- I'll just get back to getting your breakfast together. The car will be here at 7 to take you. Make sure you have everything you need to take with you, too. I'll have your coats ready downstairs. Well, I'll leave you to it." He nodded at them and backed out of the door, pulling it closed behind him.
"Thank you Niles," they both whispered. Max looked at her reflection in the mirror, and she put her hand over his, which was still on her shoulder. He leaned down and gave her a soft kiss on the lips and she sighed.
"I love you so much, Max," She whispered.
"I love you more, darling," He smiled. She loved that he used her saying to the kids on her. It made her feel special. "I brought you a shake. You should drink as much as you can, it might help with your unsteadiness, okay? We don't have any Gatorade or anything to help replenish you after that fever."
"Okay, I will. And I'm not a huge fan of Gatorade, anyway, so don't worry about that. We should ask the doctor later if I need to do anything else. I sure hope I don't get a fever again. I could really do without that."
"Yes, I don't want you going through anything like that again, that's for sure." Max got the sad expression on his face again.
"Hey, baby, come here!" Fran said, making him get down on his knees next to her chair. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him hard on the lips, then kissed him again and again all over his cheeks and forehead and back to his lips. "Thank you. I mean it. I don't know what I'd do without you," she leaned back from him and held his face in her hands and looked into his eyes. "Thank you for everything you've done for me. I mean it." Max smiled at her as he looked in her eyes.
"You're welcome. And just know that I'd do anything for you. A thousand times over. I love you, Fran. We're a team."
"I love you, too, Max," she kissed his lips lightly. "We're the best team." They kissed again and hugged each other tightly.
Max cleared his throat. "I better let you get back to getting ready. I'll get the papers together so we don't forget them." He stood up and she reluctantly let his hands go, then he ran them across her shoulders as he went past her to go to the bench at the end of the bed. As he sorted through the papers, Fran got out a headband she thought she would wear and put it on, adjusting her hair as she did. Then she picked up her foundation and began putting it on. Max read back through the hospital papers, trying to think of any more questions to ask. He read back through the paper they were writing questions on and added another two- How much longer was she at risk for fevers and why did this one get so high? Would the fevers continue if she had surgery to remove the tumor?
He wrote on the outside of the envelope a couple of things they didn't want to forget- to get CD copies of all of the imaging, and copies of any bloodwork results. He looked over at Fran and watched as she powdered her face, then got her eyeliner and worked her magic. She was very good at erasing the stress from her face. He watched her put on her mascara and just the right amount of eyeshadow. Then the best part- the lipstick. He watched as she traced her lips, smacked them together, and then checked them in the mirror. She caught him watching her and she turned to look at him. He was grinning at her.
"What?" She asked, a little self consciously.
"Nothing. I just like watching you do all that. You'd never know you just had a rough night. Maybe I should get you to put some of that on me. But, I mean, without it looking like I was wearing makeup, because, you know-"
"I know, I know. You produce musical theater, you don't star in it," she teased. Max laughed and got up off the bench.
"Come here, you!" He said, reaching for Fran's hands to pull her up from the chair. "I need another hug." They wrapped their arms around each other and stood there for several minutes in the quiet. Fran breathed in his cologne. Max breathed in the fresh scent of her hair products- a nice soft vanilla mixed with the soft scent of her perfume. He wanted to remember those scents forever.
"Mmmm…" Fran sighed.
"You got that right," Max agreed.
"Max?"
"Mmm hmm?"
"What time is it?"
"Oh!" He looked at his watch. "We only have fifteen minutes before the car gets here."
"Well then, we need to get you downstairs so you can grab breakfast. And I have a shake to finish."
"Okay, I've got the papers, you get your shake, oh, and your purse. Anything else?"
"Oh, my pills! In case they say I can take one for the fever. I think that's it." Max rushed over to the bedside table and found her bottle of her pills, grabbed it, then handed it to Fran to put in her purse.
"Okay, now slowly, come here." Max put an arm over her and they headed out of the bedroom and downstairs.