I forced my lungs to take a deep breath. “What…what is wrong with her?”
“It appears that she’s caught some kind of virus. There are some really nasty ones going around right now,” the doctor said, and when I simply stared at him, he smiled reassuringly. “I’m Dr. Michaels, by the way. I’m not sure if we’ve officially met.” He extended his hand.
My gaze dipped to his palm, and then I reached out, shaking it. Might’ve been my imagination but his smile faltered a bit, but then all I was focused on was the fact that I hadn’t killed Kat. “What kind of virus?”
“That’s what Dr. Michaels is going to find out,” Ms. Swartz said, placing a hand on the doc’s arm. “It’s a really, really good thing you guys brought her in when you did. Her fever was—” She broke off with a sharp inhale and looked away, swallowing hard as she dropped her hand. “It’s just a good thing you brought her in.”
Dr. Michaels reached over, gently squeezing Ms. Swartz’s arm. “It is. You two did great.”
“We knew we needed to bring her in.” Dee glanced at me. “She was so…out of it.”
“Well, we have her now,” Dr. Michaels assured us. “We’re going to keep her for observation, maybe for a couple of days, just to make sure everything is okay.”
Ice knotted in my gut. “For a couple of days? That doesn’t sound like everything is okay with her.”
Her mom stepped closer, patting my arm, surprising me. “She had a really high fever—still does, but it’s going down. It will be a wait-and-see sort of thing. Hopefully we won’t have to keep her in here long.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “Can I— Can we see her?”
“That wouldn’t be wise,” Dr. Michaels answered. “Not until we’re sure what type of virus she has and if she’s contagious.” His pale blue eyes met mine. “We wouldn’t want you or this young lady catching something and getting sick.”
That wouldn’t be a problem.
“Understandable,” Dee replied and then faced Kat’s mom. “Will you let us know how she’s doing?”
Kat’s mom promised that she would and then mentioned that it was late and that we should be getting home before our parents worried. I was reluctant to leave, wanting to see Kat with my own eyes, but that wasn’t going to happen. Not without causing a small riot, and that was the last thing anyone needed. Dee looped her arm through mine, tugging me toward the doors. Dr. Michaels’s voice stopped us.
“I’m going to take good care of her,” Dr. Michaels said, watching us with a patient smile. “Don’t you worry.”
I was behind the wheel on the way back home, my jaw aching from how tight I was clenching it. It took everything in me not to turn back around and find a way to see Kat. Went against my very grain.
“She’s going to be okay,” Dee said for what had to be the twentieth time. “It’s just some kind of virus. She’ll be fine.”
I didn’t lose my cool with her, no matter how many times she said it, because I knew it was making her feel better about everything. So she could keep on saying it.
“You know, she wasn’t acting right at lunch.” Dee was staring out into the darkness beyond the window when I glanced at her. “She didn’t eat anything. Not until you brought the smoothie and cookie in.”
My hands tightened on the steering wheel as I flicked my attention back to the road. “She’s been tired the last two days, too.”
There was a pause. “Poor Katy.”
I didn’t respond, because I was busy mentally punching myself in the face. She’d been exhausted yesterday, not eating, and had said she didn’t feel well earlier, and I’d pushed her to work off the trace. Freaking pushed her when she had some kind of virus. I might’ve made her sicker.
“You okay over there?”
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “I…”
A moment passed. “What?”
“I was worried that I…that I’d done something to her,” I said after a moment.
Dee twisted in her seat toward me. “What could you have done to her to make her sick?”
Healed her on what had felt like a complete cellular level, bringing her back from the brink of death. That sounded about right, especially since there had to be a reason that was forbidden other than the possible exposure risk, but Dee didn’t know that and it needed to stay that way. It had to. “I was just pushing her to work off the trace.” Which was true. “So I worried that I did something, you know?”
Silence.
So much so, that I glanced over at her briefly, finding her watching me.
“Did you…did you do something else?” she asked quietly, her voice small.
“No,” I said, and I lied. “I didn’t do anything else.”
Kat didn’t wake up.
Not on Saturday.
She didn’t open her eyes on Sunday.
On Monday, her mom said that her fever hadn’t gone down far enough, but her vitals were better. Dee and I visited her, and she had…she wasn’t really there. She murmured words a couple of times. Once I thought she said my name. It was hard to see her like that.