I was already late afternoon when his other kids came home back from school. He came out of his study to greet them.
"What are you doing home so early, dad," Danny asked?
"Good to see you too son," Frank replied.
"I didn't mean it like that, but it's unusual for you to be home so early," Danny explained.
"I know, son. Well, I got a phone call from Jamie's teacher informing me that Jamie was not feeling okay," he said.
"Oh my God, is he OK?" asked Erin, every motherly instincts in her already alerted.
"Well, the doctor said he has got a flue, so hopefully he will get better soon," informed his other children.
"In fact, I was just about to go upstairs to check on him," he added.
"I can go to check on him for you," Joe immediately offered his help eager to see that his little brother was doing fine with his own eyes.
"Thanks Joe, you can come with me if you want but I still want to see your brother myself," he stated firmly.
"I want to go to see him too," Erin shouted.
"Well, I don't. I have no interest to get it from him," Danny shook his head in disbelief that his younger siblings could be so stupid.
"OK, Danny in probably right," Frank said unexpectedly which made Danny to ... with pride behind his father's back.
"Alright, this is how we are going to do it. Both of you can come but try not to go near him too much. I really don't want all of you to get it, especially with your mother being away, understood?" he asked his children for agreement.
"Yes," Erin nodded.
"But...,"Joe started.
However he was quickly interrupted by his father.
"Understood?" he asked firmly.
"Ok," said Joe unwilling, but he knew better not to argue with his father and then three of them went upstairs to see how was Jamie doing?
Frank opened the door of his son's room quietly not knowing if his son was sleeping or not. He walked in slowly followed by his two other children. When he reached the bed with sleeping Jamie in it, he turned around and wordlessly motioned Erin and Joe to stay just where they were. He then sat down on his son's bed and started to stroke his back gently.
"Jamie," he called lightly trying to wake his son up.
Joe and Erin were just standing there right behind his back speechless.
"Jamie," he tried again. This time shaking gently his shoulder.
"Ehm...," Jamie mumbled, finally starting to wake up.
"You have to take your meds, Jamie," his father patiently explained.
"I want to sleep...," Jamie muttered. Obviously exhausted because of the high fever his body was dealing with.
"I know son, but you have to in order to get better," his father tried to talk some sense into him.
"Ehm...," Jamie mumbled again.
"You just have to take the pills and then you can go back to sleep, I promise you," Frank stated.
Frank handed him another dosage of pills and a glass of water.
Jamie took the pills unwillingly.
"Look Jamie who came to see you," Frank tried to distract Jamie while he was feeling his forehead to check his temperature. He still felt hot. But it could have been expected.
"Hey Jamie, how are you?" asked Joe.
"Hi Jamie," said Erin with a concerned look she gave her father.
"I want to sleep," sniffed Jamie.
"Ok then," Frank affirmed him.
"You heard you two," he stated towards his other children.
Erin took Joe's hand and directed him out of the room.
Meanwhile Frank look down at his son who was already falling asleep again in his father's arms. Jamie's pyjamas was wet thanks to the sweat.
"Hey Jamie, don't fall asleep just yet, let me change your PJs, " Frank said towards his little one, but he was already falling into a deep sleep.
***BB***
When Joe and Erin came down, Danny was still in the kitchen making himself a sandwich.
"So, how is he?" he barely looked up from the breadboard.
"Ah, Danny, he is not doing good," sighed Erin while she collapsed to the nearby standing chair.
Danny gave her an examining eye.
"Come on, it can't be that bad?" he tried to reassure his sister, but at the same time he felt nervousness building inside of him.
"Well, I don't know how bad it is, but it's definitely not good," she responded to him.
"Come on Erin, it's just a flu. Plus if Jamie was really sick dad would surely took him to the hospital, don't you think?" he stated firmly. But he still couldn't avoid an uncertainty which started to grow inside of him.
"Why do you care, you even didn't want to see him," snapped Joe.
"Excuse me," asked astonished Danny.
"You heard!" shouted Joe.
"What do you mean by that?" Danny demanded his anger growing every second.
"You know well what I mean! Since when do you care about Jamie?" Joe shouted at his brother.
"What the hell?" Snapped Danny back.
"You never pay attention to him. You always treat him like he was a burden to you!" yelled Joe.
"You will take it back!" Danny ordered him angrily.
"Sure I won't!" cried Joe.
"You will or I will make you!" threaten Danny.
"That's enough you two!" their father, who meanwhile came downstairs unobserved, ordered firmly. He wasn't shouting but it was the authority and calmness in his voice his kids feared the most
"Now, I don't want to hear you arguing anymore. And because you two obviously don't know how to behave, the two of you will prepare dinner tonight to learn how to get along with each other." he commanded.
When Danny just started to open his mouth to protest he was instantly cut off by his father's firm: "And I don't want to hear a single word about it anymore."
And with this he left the room.
Erin only whistled.
"Seems you pissed dad off," she stated the obvious.
"You think?" Danny snapped.