(H)itchy

[DrFever]

Hi ! 

Here is my first caregiving/fever fiction. I've not thought about a part 2...but if you kindly ask me...why not?

 

(H)itchy

I met Amber in a bar...It was the Palm 24, on Remmington Avenue….And you know what’s happens betwen free and open-minded adults who are helped by a gregarious booze-fueled spirit meet...

She was a tall girl, with long red hair. As far I as know, her both parents come from Killkenny county, in Ireland...Yeah it’s maybe a cliché but when such a wonderful gal goes with you for the night….You can speak about numerous of things to remain smart in her mind….Even mendelian genetics.

Anyway, I look at her calm and round face. Her freckles were like small rubis on the white sand of her pale skin. And behind her closed eyelids, her emerald green eyes, in which I spent lifetime to drown in….

Leaving away this wonderful vision, I push away slowly the thick covers before going to the kitchen. While putting a kettle full of water on the gascooker, I suddently feel a small, growing tickle in my nose. My nostrils begin to flare as my troat suddently begin to scratch, scratch. My breath becomes wheezly and...’Hatchooo ! Hatchoo ! Hatchooo’ Symphony of sneeze in Cough Minor. Dear ! Why the hell did I left my duffel-coat & scarf at the cloakroom of the Palm 24 ! Yeah...I remember now : My night-snorkerling in Amber’s eyes…..and what has followed it….

- Bryan...

Amber’s voice was small and croaked, a little muted by a second volley of cough bursted from my inflamated lungs. Even if I begin to shiver, I go back to the bedroom.

My dear Amber is awake, her red hair hanging heavily as she stares at her tiny and cute feet.

- Amber ? What’s wrong ?

She looks up and spread her intermixed and knotted hair….

Her face was white like snow and, above all, covered with red spots. From her large forehead to her small, triangular chin, every square centimeter was full of them.

- Bryan...I’m cold, I’m so cold….and it itches !.

She begins to scratch her cheeks nervously….as I cannot speak for a few seconds, stopped by my burning throat. I clear it violently and I take the small mirror from her black leathered powder compact laying on the nightstand.

I give it to her as she opens it trembling.

 

- Oh my gosh...What is it ? What do I have !

 

Haatchoooo ! Hatchooo ! I clean the small drops of snot flooding from my pink apple-like nose and I take softly her chin. Thanks God i’ve studied exanthems in Dermatology class !

 

- Mhhh (cough, cough cough)...small, rose and white papules….and (Hatchoooo) !

I manage in extremis to sweep my face away from her before the sneeze comes.


- Dear, you’re also under the weather !

- Yeah ! We shall make a competition ! What’s the award ?

She gives me back a small and pitfull smile

 

- A day off in bed….together…

 

- Why ? The night wasn’t enough !….More seriously...Did you had a contact with (cough) any toddler or young kid ?

 

- Yeah...I was baby-sitting some days ago….

- And the chickenpox is virulent these days...I suppose you weren’t vaccinated
- I am….Oh dear I’m so cold !

She begins to shiver violently as I kiss her hot forehead.

- Don’t worry, I’ve already had it, sweety…And thus we can mutually take care.

I smile weakly as I go to the pharmacy cabinet. Coming back to the bedroom escorted by huge, heavy and glairy cough, I hold two electronic thermometers.

- Leave me a place….

She steps aside as I come back under the covers. Gently, I put one of the thermometer under her rasperry red tongue, before doing the same with myself.

- Oo you thik chicknpo’ is dang’rous ?

- Fo’ ad’lts and sic’p’ople yes…

 

She moans grumpily. With the thermometer in her mouth, this face was absolutely hot...but I do not feel excited...and the only heat which run trough my whole body is probably a low-grade fever induced by continuing shivers.

Both thermometers beep nearly simultaneously. With a small and accomplice look, we both take the thermometers out from the other one’s mouth.

- You’ve 39°5C (103,1°F)

- And you 38,2°C (100,76°F)

- So, you’ve won the award ! I’ll take care of you

- Are you sure ? You should rest...and it’s only itching !

- Shhhh… !!!

 

I put a thin finger on her wonderful red lips, closing them. Looking in the drawer from the nightstand, I manage to find a pot of cold cream.

- A guy with cold cream in his nightstand….Am I delirious ? Did she say chuckling weakly

- No, I care take of myself...Put yourself on the belly.

 

She obeys silently, laying her long and flushed chine. Gently, I dip my fingers in the pot and begins to spread the cold, white cream on her burning skin

 

- Mhhhhhhhhhh that’s good….

 

Smiling, I continue to spread gently the white oily paste from her shoulders to the long of her spine, overlaying the small hill-like spots.

 

- It’s not calamine lotion but that’s all I have….

- It’s wonderful...Please go on….

I do. My agile hands arrive at the level of her kindneys, caressing the depression under her coccyx.

Strangely, my cough seems to have vanished while I take her of Amber…

 

Arriving at her intimacy, I become hot and I’m not sure it’s because the fever…..

- I love you...Dr Hitch….

- Doctor Hitchy...I prefer….
 

[Anonymouse]

This certainly is

[Reader]

The caretaking was lovely! And it was cool to read it from a medical standpoint and have the clever line at the end tie it all together! 

[DrFever]

Here's part 2 (and final ! )
 

Despites of the fact I’ve taken some Tylenol and Nyquil, I still have an heavy and productive cough. Gosh, when I breath, I have the feeling to swallow cold water..And then this burning feeling of cat’s scratch in my throat.
I’ve slept all night long with Amber’s arm around my chest and the long and her gracious curves next to my body. Putting the back of my hand on her forehead, I feel she’s still feverish, despites of a lower temperature. The spots on her adorable face became pink, leaving behind the dark red color they had yesterday. It’s seems the cold cream was a good solution…

- Mhhh

Her thin eyelids shiver like shaking water on a fire and she stares at me with her wonderful eyes.

- Morning Bryan….

- Orning Amberrrr


Gosh I have a quiet wheezeing voice. And I have a speech to make for the local Union of Dermatology Students !

- Oh poor thing...You’ve lost your voice.

 

*Hush, hush, hush * I began to panic as fewer and fewer of fresh air go into my irritated lungs.
She’s quickly goes out of the covers,

- Keep calm down and Get back to bed !

I feel dizzy as I see her going to take the phone in underwears, full of dried ready-to-fall spots. In another day, this view would be probably sexy but the nauseous feeling to hear my fast heartbeat in my ears impedes me to enjoy this perfect view. I frantically try to swallow my saliva in order to gain fresh air
Picking a small Proventil-dispenser from her bag, she runs back to the bed, putting the plastic end in my mouth. With a quick move of the tumb, she activates the device.

I feel the salvaging aerosol spreading in my palate, with the metallic-sodic taste of the propulsive gas assaulting my oral tastebuds.

 

- Gosh...i….I….

Amber put a firm hand under my chin and forces me to have my mouth closed

- To have an one-night stand who has asthma yes ! So now shut up and take back your breath !

I felt her authoritative, worried tone like a burst of wrath exploding in the room, splitting up in tiny pieces the cosy and sweet atmosphere that Lord Alcohol, our chief decorator, helped us to create yesterday….
But with this grumpy, still full of dried chickenpox spots face, Amber was absolutely hot….

Taking a thick tartan scarf of mine from the closet, she rolls it twice of three times around my neck.

- Is it okay ? You can still breath ? Nod and don’t speak, you’ll worsen the thing.

I nodded affirmatively as she covers me and put my pillow in place.

- D’you have something planned ? I cannot let you go out with such condition !

By gesture, I show her the mural calendar…

- « Speech at the USD….I have no idea what the USD is but you certainly cannot attend or make a speech...without your voice ! Thanks, I have nothing planned on Saturdays...I am free to take care of you….

A smile bursts on my face, as well as on hers….And a sparkle of desire flourishes in her look…

- Yeah I know what you’re thinking about...I have...thanked you this night….But….But I want more than a simple one-night...You’re so nice, clever...and fragile….


I chuckled nervously...She was the asthmatic, I was the doc...And I am the one who is now « fragile ». Mixed feeling invaded me : Yeah even if my majors were Paediatric and Dermatology, I was also supposed to know the risks of the respiratory system….And smoking 3 Cohibas on the bill of Mommy-Daddy since I am 18 isn’t really the best way to take care of my lungs.

But there was not antecedent of asthma in my family and maybe this episode was isolated….Anyway, I still feel a huge box of small and thin stings invading my throat and bronchial tubes. Dear, the pain was so acute that it gives me nearly a precise cartography of each little bronchiole !

- And don’t be worry for me...It nearly doesnt itches me anymore….

- I do….Chi’enpo’ i’ anderous  ‘or you...

I swallow pieces of the words but I dont pay attention. Even she pretended, Amber wasnt at her best I have rarely seen a case of chickenpox in adults which would be in remission in only a few hours. This would have been a medical miracle...and she was an asthmatic...So her lungs were more fragile than mine.

- I know I know Bryan ! (Her looks was severe and she sighed heavily)….But two of my cousins have a cystic fibrosis...and my little brother died from Infant respiratory distress syndrome. SO I F***ING KNOW the risks of a fragile respiratory system ! Now stop thinking and let. Me. Take. Care. Of you, stubborn  !


I sigh and go deeper under the cover while my favorite nurse disinfects one of the thermometer we used yesterday with a tissue full of alcohol.


- Your mouth….

I obey as the put the electronic device in my mouth and kisses my forehead. The thermometer beeps


- 104°F (40°C)...I’ll call the doctor...

Her face is half grumpy, half worried….making her the most sexy girl I’ve met….Putting her mouth near my ear, she wispers...

- ...Don’t worry Doctor Hitschy...Even most skilled physiciens need their...personal nurse…

As the leaves the room to call the doc’, I smile weakly….Yeah...I think Amber is definitely more than a one-stand night….