Crystal had passed out in the hallway, and by the time she was awake, it was late in the evening. She was surprised to see that someone had put a blanket over her, and there was a bottle of water within reach of her arm. She smiled when she realized that someone had taken the time to care for her. It was not until she saw the bottle that she realized how thirsty she was. She was hungry too, but she knew that her stomach would have to wait until after she had checked on Nathan.
The water was divine, and she drank it much faster than she meant to, and when she tried to stand, she realized that she would be sick if she moved too soon. While she waited, she did a quick body scan. Everything hurts. Her back had been ravaged, and she thought that she would need surgery, but nothing was broken, and she thanked God for minor miracles.
Finally, she got on her hands and knees and crawled into Nathan's room. He was lying on his side, and he saw her right away. She made her way over and collapsed in front of him. I need to get out of here - she thought. She looked up at him and pleaded her case with her eyes. "There," she cried. "Please tell me that our score is finally settled."
Nathan's brows furrowed, and he said, "I am sick. You need to take care of me."
****
Crystal took the thermometer out of Nathan's mouth and checked the reading. His temperature was 39.6 degrees, which meant he had a serious fever. Thankfully, they had everything they needed to give an infusion, and some of the servants were trained nurses. Once she told them what his temperature was, they rushed off to get everything prepared.
While Crystal was waiting, she helped Nathan take off his wet clothes. Then she brought out a cloth and a bucket of warm soapy water so that she could clean his body. He accepted all of this without complaint, but he flinched when she touched the area around where he had been shot. "I think that it's infected," she muttered, and she applied Polysporin to it. Once that was done, she bandaged it up. Just looking at it had made her feel guilty.
The servant returned with the infusion, and before she could get to work, Crystal said, "Give it to me. I will do it."
The servant gave her a skeptical look. "Are you sure?" she asked. "I am a trained nurse."
Crystal nodded and said, "Leave it to me."
The servant nodded. She handed the infusion to Crystal and took a step back. She knew her place in the house, but she was obviously wary. The look on her face said, "Do your worst. I will be here to clean up your mess."
Crystal straightened Nathan's left arm, wrapped a rubber band around his triceps, and inserted a needle into his forearm. Then she attached the needle to the IV, put a buŧŧerfly on the IV to keep it attached to his arm, and removed the elastic. Finally, she gave the nurse a dirty look and said, "Mission accomplished, bitch!"
The servant frowned and left the room without saying another word - and just like that, Nathan and Crystal were alone again. She turned to look at him and smiled. The expression on his face made him look like a naughty boy who had played on the beach for a long time, and she could not help but laugh.
Suddenly, Crystal remembered her sketchbook, and her laughter died in her throat, and her face turned white. She knew that he would never stop looking for it, and when he found it, he would use it against her. She looked at him again, and in that instant, she hated him more than ever. She thought - A man who would do this to a woman is no man at all!
There was morphine in the IV solution, and Nathan fell asleep immediately. Crystal threw a quilt over his body, and then she went back downstairs. Now that he had passed out, her first instinct was to run, but she thought better of it. There was nowhere to go, and even if she had a place to go, she had no way of getting there. Without Nathan's consent, she was stuck.
What to do? What to do? - thought Crystal.
Ideally, she would be asleep, but she was too wound up for sleep. Suddenly, she remembered that she had a spare sketchbook in the living room. Drawing would be a good way to kill time, and it would help her relax.
Crystal smiled as she went into the living room. She sat on the couch, pulled out her book and a pen from the coffee table's drawer, and began to draw. She had only been drawing for a short while, though, before the cut on the back of her hand split open. She bit her lower lip as searing pain ran up her brain. Luckily, the wound was covered, so she did not bleed on her book, but red roses pressed through the cotton. Fu*k it! - she thought, and she kept on drawing.
An hour went by, and Crystal had completely forgotten about her wound, that is until a drop of blood dripped down the side of her hand and splattered in the upper-right corner of her page.
Crystal felt extremely disappointed when she saw that, but she refused to let it get her down. The drawing had helped her relax, and it would still serve its purpose, so there was no point in getting all riled up again. She went into the washroom, took off the old Band-Aid, cleaned and treated the wound, and put a new Band-Aid on it. This time, she put a second wrapping over it to ensure that this did not happen again. Then she went back to the living room and cleaned up. She looked at the paper, tucked the sketchbook under her arm, and smiled. Even with the bloodstain, it would do.
She was tired now, and she was ready to sleep.
****
When Nathan woke up the following day, he could not believe his eyes, and at first, he thought he had another Fever Dream. Just in case, he pinched himself. When nothing changed, he knew that he was awake and what he was seeing was real.
Crystal was lying on the bed next to him, asleep. Her eyes were blotchy, and he could see that she had been crying, but that didn't matter to him, not when she was sleeping right beside him!
Crystal stirred and opened her eyes. "You're awake," she said as if there was nothing out of the ordinary here. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock. "You have had a high fever. How do you feel?"
Nathan raised his head, and he saw that there was a book between them. "What is this?" he asked.
"It is my sketchbook," Crystal replied. "The one with your portrait. I hope that you like it!"
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