From The Ground Up

Fifteen

Once the 2 of them were allowed in the room, Ryan took a seat right next to the bed while Tim sat across the room. Kam looked extremely pale and fragile in the bed. She had an IV stuck into her right hand, the blood pressure cuff on her left arm, and the nasal cannula that was helping her breathe as she slept.

Tim and Ryan sat and scrolled through their phones until the sound of rustling sheets made their heads snap up from the technology.

Kamdyn moved a little, seeming like she was waking up but ended up adjusting and settling back into a relaxed state. It was only a few more minutes before she was waking up again, to the annoying sound of the EKG monitoring and the blood pressure cuff squeezing her arm. Her hands instinctively went to the cannula in her nose, starting to pull it out due to her disorientation.

"I don...I don want that," she mumbled, trying to pull it off but was stopped by Ryan as he put it back on and moved her hands away.

"I know you don't want it but it's helping you breathe," He whispered, "How do you feel?"

"Where am I?"

"Hospital,"

"Hmm?" She asked, looking at her boyfriend like he had 3 heads.

"Yeah. You had an allergic reaction," he nodded, "You had something with nuts,"

"All I ate was the chicken chili Mac," she mumbled, trying to rub her eyes but again, Ryan stopped her with the hand that had the IV sticking out.

"I know. Tim's looking into it,"

"Okay," she whispered, grabbing his hand.

"Go back to sleep,"

"You won't leave?" She asked, trying to hold back a yawn but failing as soon as she finished her question.

"I'll be right here," Ryan promised, squeezing her hand.

It didn't take too long for Kamdyn to fall back to sleep and now Ryan couldn't move.

"She okay?" Tim asked, coming back into the room after making a phone call to a few admins.

"Yeah. Just won't let go of my hand. She was pretty out of it, didn't really know where she was," Ryan said as he squeezed her hand while she slept. Even if she was asleep, he wanted her to know that he was still there.

"They're gonna start going over the camera now and see what happened to her lunch,"

"I know there were no nuts in anything that we used. She's so careful," he sighed, pulling the blankets up a little bit more to cover Kamdyn.

"We'll figure out what happened. If it was foul play, we'll take action and get it sorted,"

"I want her to rest. I don't want her doing anything more than she needs to," Ryan said as Kamdyn rolled over and actually let go of his hand. "Since she let go, I'm gonna run to the house and get some of her stuff so she's a little bit more comfortable, they're keeping her overnight aren't they?"

"I think so," Tim nodded, "Would you rather me go so you can stay with her? In case she wakes up?"

"Do you know where her room is?"

"Yeah. What do you want me to grab?" He asked, getting up and grabbing his things so he could head out. Thankfully someone from Penske had dropped off his car.

"She has a plaid one that she loves. It's usually at the end of her bed, the pillow in the front. She has a whole drawer of yoga pants and t shirts so a pair of those too. Thanks, Tim," he nodded, moving back to the chair by Kam's bed.

Kamdyn moved several times, tangling herself up in blankets as she was trying to comfortably sleep. Ryan was hoping the blanket and pillow Tim was on his way to get would help her through the night and help her relax with items that smelled like home.

A nurse came in while she was sleeping, giving her the next dose of Benadryl and taking vitals before leaving. Tim was back soon enough with her favorite pillow, blanket, and some comfier clothes. They weren't going to wake her up to switch anything out, just change it and hope she'd sleep through it.

Ryan carefully peeled the white hospital blanket away, replacing it with the plaid one before pulling the hospital blanket back over her. He wasn't going to mess with the pillow until she was a little more alert, especially with her sleeping like she was.

"I can't believe she slept through that," Tim whispered, sitting back in a chair as Ryan did the same.

"I'm honestly not surprised," Ryan said as he shook his head, "They just gave her more Benadryl before you got back. Shes also usually a heavy sleeper to begin with,"

"Explains why she locks her office door when it's her lunch hour sometimes," he chuckled, now realizing that she's probably napping.

"Yeah. Since she moved in, it's amazing how many times I catch her asleep on the couch or something,"

"Speaking of moving. Didn't she find a place in Huntersville?" Tim asked, noticing how Ryan's face changed.

"She did. She's supposed to move next week but I don't know how fast that's gonna go when she's like this,"

"How long is she usually down?"

"I don't know. We haven't talked much about what happens, she's extremely careful and we made sure everything that had any trace of nuts was out of the house. All I know is where her EpiPen is at home and what to do if she has one,"

"Maybe she can answer that question for us," Tim nodded as he looked over to see Kamdyn awake.

"What question?" She mumbled, looking between Ryan and Tim.

"The apartment in Huntersville?" Ryan asked, looking at her as she looked back at him.

"It fell through. So I'm back to square one," she sighed, coughing a little bit before taking a sip of the water that Ryan gave her.

"Don't worry about that now. Just resting"

"Mhm," she nodded, rolling over while Ryan instinctively sat on the bed, rubbing Kams back until her breathing evened out and she was asleep again.