Page 39 of Liberating Lily

“Lily! Lily, it’s a bad dream! Wake up, baby.” He brushed her hair off her face. At least she no longer had a fever. He’d been close to letting Michaela put the IV in when her fever had broken.

He’d also managed to get some electrolytes into her, which she’d kept down during one of her more lucid moments.

But they didn’t know what was wrong with her. It didn’t seem that it was influenza. It could be some sort of virus. Michaela wanted to take more blood, but he wouldn’t let her.

However, he couldn’t hold off much longer.

“No! Get them off! Get them off!” She scratched at her arms and legs. “Off! Off!”

“Baby, stop! Lily, stop! There’s nothing on you! You’re going to hurt yourself.” He attempted to pin her down only for her to let out an ear-piercing scream that shook him to the core.

What had happened to her?

Michaela ran into the room. “I need to give her something to calm her down.”

“No!” he snapped. “I won’t break her trust.”

“She’s going to hurt herself.”

“I won’t let that happen. We just need to find out what’s wrong with her.” This was the second night of this. He’d barely slept or eaten. All he could do was try his best to help her.

“This isn’t a virus,” Michaela said as Lily started to calm. “It seems more like she’s detoxing to me.”

“Detoxing?” he said as Lily fell asleep with a frown on her face. “From what?”

“Exactly,” she said. “From what?”

“You think the pills she was taking could have been something else,” he said.

Michaela gave him a worried look. He was grateful she’d stayed. There had been a number of times when he’d been out of his mind with worry over the last thirty hours and she’d kept him calm.

“I don’t know. I’ll put some more pressure on my friend.”

“Tell him I’ll pay him a healthy bonus if he gets that information to us in the next eight hours.” It was currently four in the morning so surely that wouldn’t be too hard for him to do.

Michaela left and he settled back in to watch over Lily.

She woke up with a dry mouth and a pounding headache. She was exhausted yet felt agitated.

“Hey there, how are you feeling?” Harvey asked as he appeared in front of her.

“Horrible. I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all.” A whimper escaped her.

That was embarrassing.

Sympathy filled his face. “I know. I’m so sorry you’re going through this. Michaela wants to give you an IV to help. Is that okay?”

“Michaela? The Doctor?”

“Yeah, she’s been here, monitoring you. Is it all right if she comes in to check on you?”

She nodded, then winced. “My head hurts.”

“Probably because you’re so dehydrated. I’ll get her in here, okay? And she can check you over. She might want to take a blood sample as well.”

She bit her lip. Shit. “You’ll stay with me?” She didn’t know why he made her feel safe. He shouldn’t.

“Of course.”