“Slow down, bredda.”
Erik practically growled at her. “Is she in there?”
“Calm down. She fine, Erik. She okay now. Di worst is all over now.” Gabrielle’s voice was low and soothing while her fingers gently massaged Erik’s arm. She pulled him toward the small sitting area next to the bedroom, holding his eyes with hers. “Come sit wit me for a while.”
“I want to see her.”
“You will. She sleepin’ now. Come sit wit me. I tell you what happened.”
José appeared at the top of the steps, first wary, then just annoyed as he glanced back and forth between Erik and Gabrielle. He took a seat on the couch beside Gabrielle, facing Erik, who stood before them with his hands on his hips, eyes focused and blazing.
“What’s wrong with her?” Erik asked him.
José looked at his folded hands. “Started on Friday morning. I thought it was strep at first. We had a wave of cases this week once we opened the doors. She tested positive and she was burning up. Gave her some antibiotics and told her to go to bed and rest. But then the rash started, and the vomiting. Until she had nothing left. All through the day on Friday. My biggest concern was that she couldn’t hold down the antibiotics. She couldn’t hold down tea—”
“Couldn’t hold down no water,” Gabrielle said. “I find her on de bathroom floor, all passed out, on Friday night. José, he carry her to de bed and we do de IV antibiotic. And poor dumplin’, she sleepin’ all day yesterday and most of today. De rash look bad, Erik, but she outta de woods now.”
His heart was racing with this news, and his stomach rolled over, picturing an IV line coming out of her arm. “So, what was it? Was it strep?”
José shook his head. “It started that way. But it progressed into scarlet fever.”
Erik’s face froze. The only reference he had for scarlet fever was books in which patients weakened or died. “Scarlet fever! Scarlet fever? That’s fatal!”
José raised his eyebrows then shook his head. “Used to be. But not anymore. It’s pretty easy to treat with antibiotics now, as long as you can keep them down. I admit I got worried when the vomiting kept bringing them up, but the IV took care of that. She’s holding them down now orally. She’s on day three, and she’s going to be just fine. She’ll lose the rash in a few more days. She just got a really, really angry strain of strep.”
Helplessness this overwhelming was foreign to Erik and deeply disconcerting. “Why didn’t you call me?”
José regarded Erik with barely concealed anger. “Last I checked, Erik, you’re not her family.”
“I’m all she has up here, and you know it. Why didn’t you call me?” he demanded with a growl.
“You’re not all she has. She has us,” José said, tilting his head toward Gabrielle. José’s emphasis on the word us wasn’t lost on Erik. “Anyway, I called her brother. He and Ingrid were comfortable with the way we were handling things. They offered to come up, but by this morning she was improving. They knew she was in good hands.”
“Ingrid didn’t tell you to call me?”
“You’re a fool if you don’t think Ingrid knows what’s going on between you two.”
Erik took a step forward and snarled, “I should punch you in the face.”
“Don’t try it.” José was quick to stand up across from Erik, bronze arms crossed over his broad chest. “She didn’t want you here, Erik. Which shouldn’t be a big surprise after the way you treated her on Sunday night.”
Erik swallowed, his worst fears encroaching. She hadn’t texted back. She didn’t want him. He had lost her.
It made him want to smash his fist into José’s smug mouth. “That’s none of your business.”
“Actually, it is. She made it my business when she told me about it. She’s my patient. She’s my co-worker. And she’s my friend.”
Gabrielle stood up placing her hand on José’s arm. José turned to her, and Gabrielle held his eyes for a moment. “José.”
“I want to see her,” Erik said.
Gabrielle shook her head. “Erik, she still sick.”
He spoke more gently. “I need to see her, Gabrielle. Please.”
Gabrielle looked at José again, searching his eyes, still holding his arm. Erik watched as her face softened and she smiled at him gently. José stared back at her and finally sighed in resignation. “Well, maybe you have the antibodies, although I was shocked as hell that she didn’t. Being a nurse and all.” He looked at Erik squarely, as if he was trying to figure something out. “If you upset her, I’m throwing you out.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
“I mean it, Erik. I know she cares about you, but don’t make me regret this.”
José looked at Gabrielle, and Erik almost turned away from the intimacy of his gaze. José reached down to touch her hand, caressing her fingers before he removed them from his arm and left the room, heading downstairs.
Gabrielle watched him go and then gestured for Erik to follow her to Katrin’s bedroom door. “She look a little rough around di edges, Erik. Just so you know.”
“I don’t care,” he whispered.
Gabrielle nodded, pushing the door open for him. “I see how much you care ‘bout her. Maybe it’s time she sees it too.”
He walked into the dimly lit room where Katrin lay sleeping soundly on her back, covers tucked up under her chin so that only her face was visible on the white pillow under her head.
