48

                                    

                                          
(*intro written Thursday evening*)
                          
Guys, I've been watching Blue Bloods (well, okay, not so much watching as just kind of having it on in the background while I finished this update and worked on some other stuff) since I got back from class, and... well... I've lost track of how many episodes I've gone through. Yikes. Oh well, I survived my first week of RPW classes, and that warrants a lazy afternoon, right?
                          
Right.



                          
Here it is... 



                          
PS, there's two "bad words" toward the end but I used *s so they don't count, lol. Just a warning. Not that they're the worst words I know. Anyway...



                          
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"Dinner's ready," Jamison says, sticking his head into our room.
                          
Maeve, face-down on the bed and much more subdued now that the adrenaline from the snowball fight has left her, barely acknowledges him.
                          
"Great. We'll be there in a minute," I tell him.
                          
He nods and leaves.
                          
"Think he made chicken?" I ask Maeve.
                          
She hikes up her shoulders in a halfhearted shrug.
                          
"Come on, let's go eat."
                          
"Not hungry."
                          
"You just told me half an hour ago that you were hungry enough to eat five horses."
                          
She makes a noncommittal sound that's so muffled by the blankets, I have to wonder if she even made a sound or if I just imagined it.
                          
"Come on. Even if you aren't hungry, you should eat. And I'm hungry." I gently roll her over, and she flings her good arm over her eyes. "Maeve..."
                          
"I don't wanna."
                          
"Please? Jamison went to all this trouble, and he made your favorites."
                          
"I'm not hungry," she says again, and this time I can hear the rising emotion in her voice.
                          
"Hey. Look at me. Are you feeling okay?"
                          
She mumbles something, squirming, and on a whim, I reach over and touch her forehead.
                          
She's burning up.
                          
I'm just about to scold her for not telling me when I see, just for the briefest moment, my little brother laying where she lays, restless and disoriented, helpless in the throes of a fever.
                          
God, I miss him.
                          
"I'm going to go get you some medicine, okay? Hang tight."
                          
I take a detour down the hall to where Lis and Ori are waiting. "Maeve's sick."
                          
"What?"
                          
"I think..." I sigh. "I think those cuts on her arm are infected."
                          
Ori swears under her breath. "If Callum was here, I'd kill him."
                          
Lis doesn't say anything, but I can tell she's biting back a scathing comment.
                          
"You guys go eat, I'm going to get her comfortable and then I'll be there in a few. Okay? It's all under control."
                          
"If you say so." Ori gathers her curls for a messy bun, and then she turns and stalks down the hallway with Lis trailing behind.
                          
I find the first-aid kit in one of the bathrooms, relieved when I find something to reduce fever. I also grab the antibiotic ointment and fresh gauze, and then a wash cloth on second thought.