“Well, now you know. Her meds are at Walgreens and she likes the chicken noodle from Panera Bread. Holler if you need anything else.”

“Where is she at?”

“Home.”

“She told me she went to Jodi’s,” he said through his teeth.

Harper laughed.

“She’s scandalous as hell. No, she’s at the house.”

“Wonderful.”

“Do you have a key?”

“No.”

“Well stop on by because she won’t be able to unlock the door, she’s really weak.”

Shea’s heart broke knowing that Elli couldn’t even move to answer the door.

“Alright. Thanks, Harper.”

“No, thank you. See ya soon.”

Shea didn’t know why he was nervous when he pulled up in front of Elli’s house, but he was. After packing his bag for the next couple of days, going to get Elli’s meds, and picking up five things of her favorite soup, he ran over to the studio for Elli’s key. Harper was busy and told him to grab it off the desk and go, so he did.

The whole drive over to Elli’s he thought about what he would say to make everything better between them. He wasn’t sure if she was mad still or if she was really just trying to hide the fact that she was sick, which he was not happy about and would address when he saw her.

After unloading the truck, he unlocked the door and started bringing things in. Adler came barreling out of the back room and barked happily as he jumped around and between Shea’s legs. Shea grinned as he bent down, loving on the dog. Shea had missed Adler just as much as he missed Elli.

“Hey, buddy,” he said quietly in case Elli was sleeping.

The he noticed the house.

It was trashed and something smelled. It was probably all the dog shit by the back door. He walked into the kitchen to find that something must have died in there because it stunk badly. He also saw that Adler had torn into the dog food bag and food was all over the floor.

“Harp, just leave everything in the kitchen. I’ll get it later.”

Shea barely heard what she said, it was muffled and she was groaning between words. He left everything in the hall and started down the other hall towards her room. When he opened the door, Elli laid face down in her bed, in only a bra and panties. Her body was flushed and she was sweaty.

“Harp, please go. I look terrible,” she groaned, still not moving. Shea moved towards the bed, sitting on the edge and running his hand down her burning hot back. Elli moved her head, looking up at him. Her eyes widened and after a moment, a tear ran down the side of her face.

“Shea,” she groaned, turning her head back into the pillow.

“Harper called, she was busy and asked me to go get the soup and everything.”

“Please just go, Shea. I don’t want you seeing me like this.”

“I’m not going anywhere, so you can stop telling me to leave. Have you taken anything for the fever?”

“No, I can’t move.”

“You don’t think we should go to the ER?”

“No, this happens sometimes. I just need to lay here, it’ll pass. I just need the new meds I was prescribed, there should be an antibiotic in there.”

“Alright, I’ll be right back.”

Shea went into the front hall, grabbing the bag with her meds and tearing open the package. She was right, an antibiotic was in there, along with her new hormone medication. He went into the kitchen, pulling open the fridge to get a bottle of water, but what he found was a great big pan of green stuff that he was sure wasn’t supposed to be green.

Well at least he found the source of the smell.

He shut the fridge and went to the bags he brought in. He had bought a bottle of water at the gas station, so he grabbed that and went down the hall to Elli’s room. He sat everything on her nightstand, and moved her hair off the side of her face. She opened her eyes, and he could see that she was hurting badly.

“Can you sit up?”

She slowly shook her head. Shea moved himself into the bed, picking her up slowly, leaning her against him as he grabbed one of the meds and the water. Her body burned through his shirt to his skin, and he shook his head. How could she not call him? How did she do this by herself before?

“Open up, sweetheart.”

She did as he asked and he popped the pill in her mouth, then put some water in afterwards. He repeated the same thing with the other med, and then slowly laid her down.

“Thank you,” she whispered as he covered her up. He smiled down at her, moving the hair that was stuck to her forehead off and to the side.

“Anything for you, baby, anything,” he said as he finished tucking her in, “Maybe after I’m done cleaning up, you’ll wanna take a shower? The fever might be broken by then.”

She nodded before closing her eyes. He slowly moved from the bed and shut the door quietly as he walked out. When he entered the living room, he looked around and then he slapped his hands together.

Off to work.

It took almost three hours to get the house spotless. He kept checking on Elli between cleaning, making sure she was fine, and she mostly was. She was moving a lot as she slept which wasn’t really new, but she kept kicking the blankets off and he was afraid she would get cold, so he would cover her back up, just to come back to find the sheets on the floor. He checked on her one last time before heading to the dump and then the local store for food.

When he got back and unloaded everything, he made his way to the bedroom, where Elli still lay with her face in the pillow. He was really worried about her, but she seemed to know what was wrong, so he didn’t push the hospital. Plus, Harper said this happened sometimes. This bothered him, because when he asked her about it a while back, she said she was fine as long as she took her meds. Shea moved into the bathroom and saw that her bathroom was just as bad as the house had been. She must have been really sick because there was vomit all over the toilet and some in the bath and on the floor.