divulgence // luke hemmings au

57

It was a cool crisp fall day. Luke had an off day and Eloise's school was closed due to teacher conferences so she decided to go out with her dad for the day, which mainly consisted of them walking around town, window shopping and grabbing a quick lunch before heading home.

It had been a long time since they were able to have a day like this, especially since Eloise was constantly busy with schoolwork and her extracurricular activities.

Luke loved having days like this because then he could catch up on life with his daughter, she was fifteen now and it felt like the years were just flying by.

"Last one to the front door has to clean the dirty dishes in the sink!" Eloise exclaimed starting to fast walk, getting a head of her father on the sidewalk leading up to their house. "Oh it's on Eloise!" Luke laughed trying to catch up to her but she was already half way up the entrance way, giggling loudly.

"I'm totally going to beat ya!" Eloise exclaimed again, before suddenly stopping, going silent. Her body went limp instantly and she came crashing to the ground.

Luke's smiles went from smiles to frowns and he scurried over "ELOISE!" He yelled her name trying to get her attention but she was passed out cold on the cement. "ELOISE!" He yelled again as he got on his knees feeling his daughter's face with his hand, he felt her little exhales against his skin but can feel how clammy and warm she was to the touch. "Eloise!! Can you hear me?" He screamed again, trying to tap her awake but she didn't respond, luke taking out the phone to dial for help.

The operator answered immediately "hi—yes, I need an ambulance, it's my uh daughter!" As he was on the phone giving information and directions, he noticed Eloise starting to shake, his eyes going wide. "SHES SEIZING I NEED HELP NOW!" he screamed into the speaker before hanging up, beginning to do first aid measures on his daughter. He managed to maneuver her on her side, as she seized for two minutes (according to Luke's watch)

"Eloise, baby girl, please wake up." He whispered as he heard the sirens in a distance. She was still unconscious and still breathing and proceeded to seize again, Luke biting down on his lip, as he securing held his daughter on her side so she wouldn't choke.

Soon enough, help arrived, and by Luke's surprise Elliot was on call, running over to his dad and sister, bag in hand with his partner Alisha.

"What the hell is going on?" Elliot asked seemed very concerned, "your sister collapsed after we had our walk, she seized twice I don't know."

Alisha started hooking up Eloise to the monitor, and Elliot sat down, proceeding to try and get an IV in his sisters arm.

"She looks a little flushed dad, was she sick today?"

"I don't think so, she didn't appear sick at all"

"Has she sounded congested? Stuffy?"

"No"

"Has her breathing sounded off?"

"Not that I've noticed"

Elliot was asking a thousand questions as him and Elisha took care of Eloise, and as Luke helped to put her on a stretcher she seized again, Luke yelling for Elliot to push the proper meds immediately.

They loaded her up in the ambulance right away, Elliot in the back with Luke as Alisha drove. "Dad, I know you're worried about Eloise but please just be dad for today, to play medic or nurse just be there for her. She's going to need you."

Luke took his eyes off the monitor when he heard Elliot's words, now looking at his unconscious daughter, he didn't say anything but he moved over getting as close as he could to her, taking her hand, squeezing it tight. "Baby girl I got you. I got you, I'm rooting for you and I love you." He whispered, Elliot watching, the emotions starting to hit him, but he sucked it up, using the back of his hand to rub his face, taking a deep breath in order to stay professional.

"Yeah do that, be her comfort, be her voice. She'll be okay, I promise."

Minutes later, they came to the ambulance bay rushing in, immediately getting taken in by the doctors, one of the doctors noticed a rash by Eloise's neck and motioned for a nurse to take her temperature. The nurse's jaw went agape when she got the reading —

The temperature was nearly 105° and the scene immediately got chaotic forcing Eloise and Luke into an isolation room until this illness was figured out.

A few hours later —

Eloise still has yet to come to, and her fever hasn't come down much and the test results still haven't come back but, she was on ten different antibiotics in hopes of one of them curing whatever infection she had.

Meanwhile, Luke was sat in the other bed, masked up, with an IV in place just in case. He was in a panic, because he's immunocompromised from his transplant and from cancer so getting sick can make him really really sick.

He complained to the on call infectious disease staff who came in the room all geared up, "I don't get why I have to be in here too, I'm not sick, I don't have a fever, my vitals are fine"

"Whatever your daughter has, you were probably exposed to, that's why you're hear and when we find out what's wrong with her, we'll find out what's wrong with you too and treat it"

"I'm not sick. I have no symptoms!"

"Not yet!"

"I don't care about anything else, but my daughter. Just fix her please."

"Don't tell us how to do our jobs Mr Hemmings, we're waiting on a ton of test results to come through and then hopefully we'll have an answer. In the meantime, are you experiencing any aches or pains, sore throat, fatigue, sweats or rashes?"

Luke tried to ignore them looking over at Eloise frowning over this entire situation.

"Sir, pay attention, we need to document. Lift your arms up and stand up." The doctor demanded and Luke rolled his eyes standing up lifting up his arms, and they were trying to find any indication of a rash.

They pulled his gown down, looking at his chest, neck and shoulders and couldn't find anything, scoffing at being wrong.

"See I told you I'm not sick." He said again, rubbing it in their face, but they ignored him, jotting something down and left. Leaving Luke alone with Eloise in this windowless white isolation room; it felt like he was in some kind of movie.

Now it was a waiting game, so he sat there sighing, looking around, fiddling with his IV tubing as a way to pass time.

6 hours went by.

12 hours went by.

24 hours went by.

36 hours went by.

48 hours later...