redefine | calum hood

sixteen

Sixteen

Calum

"I think she got sick from the motel," Ashton mumbled as Maddie laid against me, "probably from the mold, that's why she has a fever, stuffy nose, and sore throat,"

"She's wheezing a little," I noticed.

"Did she take her inhaler this morning?" Ashton looked at me and I nodded.

"And her emergency one when we got home,"

"Good," he looked at Maddie. "You're just going to feel a little sick for a while, not a problem. We'll take care of you and get you back up on your feet," Maddie smally nodded as she kept leaning against me, obviously exhausted. "We're going to sign the papers next week,"

"Good," I lightly smiled.

"We'll have to meet around 11," Ashton said, "but seeing how Maddie's feeling we might have to switch the time,"

"Probably," I sighed and looked down to see Maddie drifting to sleep. "Get some sleep, sweet girl, I'll go make some dinner," I kissed the top of her head. She barely nodded, starting to fall asleep. Ashton and I left her to sleep and started to head back downstairs.

"She's allowed to get her stuff from her brothers," Ashton said and I sighed.

"I don't think she wants it honestly," I admitted. "She doesn't want to remember anything from there,"

"Understandable," Ashton shrugged. "We can always go grab it and let her choose what she wants,"

"That'll probably be best," I sighed and ran my hand through my hair.

"What's on your mind?"

"She just can't catch a break,"

"It's the aftermath of everything, it's going to be bad right now," he reminded me. "It won't disappear but it will settle down," I sighed, but nodded as we went down.

"I can cook dinner,"

"Want help?"

"No, it'll help me relax," I said and he nodded. In the kitchen I played some music as I began to cook some dinner for everyone. As I cooked, I just thought about everything that needed to be done. After an hour and a half I finished and started to plate things.

"THis looks amazing," Sierra said as she and Luke came down.

"I spent a long time on it," I told them. "Lentil baked ziti," I put the glass pan on the table along with a side salad. I went up to let everyone know dinner was ready, then went into the guest room where Maddie was fast asleep. "Mad, dinner is ready," I quietly told her as I rubbed her back. She woke up a couple of seconds later, still exhausted but now awake. I greeted her with a smile, though she just huffed and closed her eyes to fall back asleep. "Maddie, you have to eat,"

"Later," she mumbled.

"Not later, you didn't eat when we got back from seeing the house. We gotta get your weight back up," I reminded her. She was quiet for a minute until she realized I wasn;t budging, so she got up. She went downstairs as I told everyone else dinner was ready, then we were sitting around the table eating. Multiple conversations were going on, but again Maddie was quiet. I was too. The two of us sat next to each other as we listened to other conversations. When she finished eating, I excused her so she could go back up and rest.

"Why don't you bring her in tomorrow?" Ashton suggested. "I can give her a check up and also check out her breathing, maybe prescribe something,"

"Alright," I nodded.

"Bring her in around eight, I know I have an opening then," he said, which I agreed to. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't catch a break, and it was frustrating to see.