Just Hold Hands

Chapter 15

As soon as they went inside, Catherine got sick. She murmured something about a headache, Theo furrowed her brow, and onto the couch she stumbled, curling up. Theo placed her hand on her forehead. She'd never been good at this, finding people's temperatures. In school if someone were sick they used to all take their temperature, playing doctor with no consequences. Now, as Theo pressed the back of her hand to her little sister's forehead, she thought back through her belongings, what she'd brought and what the house had held, and realized that she had nothing if Catherine was sick. No Advil, no children's Tylenol, not even a bandaid. A growing realization dawned on Theo, she had no water. She'd brought one bottle that was long since finished, and another had been given to her by the kids. If Catherine so much as got a bad cut, she was done for. They wouldn't even have the water to clean it out. She was burning up, the heat radiating through Theo's hand.

As footsteps echoed through the doorway, Theo grabbed Catherine, wincing on the couch, inspecting her arms and legs for some sort of cut. She pulled her hands away as Catherine pulled her limbs back into herself, and realized that her hands were shaking.

"Did you get cut?" With no response, Theo repeated, louder, "Did you get cut?"

Catherine let out a noise between a grunt and a whine. "I'm fine," she breathed.

"Is she okay?" Saiyr whispered from behind her.

Theo spun. "I-" She looked down at her shaking hands, and then at Catherine on the couch, "She'll be fine," she said firmly. "She'll need hydration, but I think it's just a bad cold."

Saiyr nodded and quietly climbed the stairs and disappeared around the corner, towards the upstairs battle. Jonah reached into his bag over his shoulder to produce a fresh bottle of water. "Here." He smiled and Theo hesitantly smiled back.

"Thanks." She motioned for Catherine to sit up and drink. Catherine tried to wave her off but eventually gave in.

"She'll need to get strong if she wants to come with us, right?" His kind smile morphed into an exaggerated dashing grin.

"You're fucking joking, right?" Jonah cocked his head. Theo continued, "You still want me to agree to let her go on a suicide mission while she's on the couch with a fucking fever? Fuck you, Jonah."

"His fake grin morphed into genuine anger. "You're being selfish, Theo."

She was taken aback. The room was empty save for Catherine's light short breaths.

"No, you're being selfish. You don't want to save the world, you want to be a hero. You're going to kill yourself just so you can call yourself a hero and you can bring those kids down with you, but not my sister. No way."

He walked over to her, ensuring that he'd tower over her in his tight black shirt. "You care more about her than the world."

"Absolutely I do." Theo hoped he wouldn't hit her in front of his gang of kids. He stared her down.

Footsteps came from behind her and they both turned to look at the stairs, where Saiyr was descending She reached the bottom of the stairs, a bottle of generic medicine in her hand. "I found medicine," she whispered.

Saiyr started walking towards Catherine, reading the instructions on the back of the bottle. "You should take two pills," she said.

Jonah glowered. "Don't give them shit."

Saiyr, facing away from him, shook her head, gently shaking out two pills as she kneeled. "No point in stopping the aliens if she's too sick for it to matter."

"They'd let us die for their own benefit."

"Clearly, so would you." It was a normal volume, but it stood out to Theo.