The Intriguing Emotions of Ford

Chapter Six: Emergency Action (And a lot of truth powder!)

Do you remember when I said about sleeping peacefully until dawn? Well, it wasn't that peaceful after all. At around five in the morning, I awoke to an obnoxiously loud banging on my front door.

"Dr. Ford. Dr. Ford! Are you in? Please come help!" A shrill voice begged.

"Yes? What brings you here so early in the morning, Miranda?"

"It's my darling Noel. She's fallen ill!"

"Noel?! I'll be right there." I dialled the number on my telephone to call Morgan for his support.

Paru had tagged along too, which was all the more useful.

"Ugh... It hurts."

"She's been groaning like this for the past hour. I've no idea what to do!"

"You standing there panicking won't be any help. Morgy, hand me that thermometer. Hrm. It appears she has a fever. I could make it go straight down with this medicine, but it's far too strong a dose for a child such as Noel. We will take a step backwards and see how this develops. We must give her a small dosage of this weaker medicine. Miranda, would you mind administering that?"

"Sure thing. Sit up a little if you can, Noel. We need to give you this little bit of medicine."

"Ugh. It tastes terrible. But I feel terrible too."

"Now could you hold her hand until she falls asleep?"

"Of course." We stood back and awaited her slumber.

"Out cold. Her fever's beginning to go down already. She'll be sweating a lot, so make sure you change her clothes quite a bit today. Now, we need something easy for her to eat... Ah, what was it you made for me when I needed the same sort of thing?"

"Porridge? Already made a bowl." Morgan and Paru returned from the kitchen with the bowl.

"Haha! You know just what to do, you two. How can I thank you all?"

"Honestly, we don't need repayment. It is my job to help sick patients after all. Oh, you two want something, don't you...?" I sighed.

"Hehe... Yep. We'd like to play with your cat, Miranda!" They chorused.

"I'm sure Lucia will be happy to have someone to play with!"

Once the two were satisfied, we all headed over to the restaurant. Except, Paru wasn't looking too well.

"Is everything all right, Paru? You seem a little pale. You haven't caught Noel's fever, have you?" We came to a halt.

"Hmm. I think I'll be fine... Or not..." He stumbled a little, but Morgy caught him before he fell to the ground.

"Ohh. I see. Morgy, would you mind us simply eating at the clinic?"

"How come?"

"Well... Paru isn't very good with loud noises and the like, and the restaurant has quite a considerable amount of people already in there. You could go and buy something and the three of us could eat it at the clinic. Does that sound any better?" Paru was close to tears, but he nodded. "Don't you worry. It'll be much quieter when we get home."

Unfortunately for us, we were close by to the marching parade that was occurring today. Morgan was stood, clapping along to the beat. I was keeping my eye on Paru, who had his hands over his ears. I grabbed his shoulders and brought him inside.

"The loud sounds are gone now, Paru." He wiped his tears off his face and gave me a hug.

"Thank you."