Royal Bitch

Fuck it, give me a Vicodin and give me a minute.

"Everything [about the left] is perception, manipulation, and lies. Everything. Everything is a structured deception." Rush Limbaugh

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Chapter 32

Fiore told Henry her diagnosis and what treatment was looking like. 

"So that's everything I think,"

"Fiore, you're welcome to take the time you need off."

"Henry, if I wanted the time off, I would have asked for it.  I need something to keep me focused."

Henry sighed. "Will you be well enough to maintain them all? I don't want paranoia sending us on a witch hunt."

Fiore sighed. "If I start hallucinating or having bouts of paranoia, I'll pull myself off. Kenneth can be my litmus test. He's been with me the longest and helped me before."

"So you'll allow him to help you?"

Fiore nodded. "Kenneth has been a shadow to me since my father hired him. He's earned my trust in these past years."

Henry let out a small chuckle. "I remember how much you hated him when he was first hired."

"Because he was able to predict me within a month. How was I supposed to raise hell with a guardian like him skulking about?" Fiore laughed, then stopped at the ache.

"Pain?"

"A bit. It won't be long before it's healed." Fiore shrugged off. "Now, I will need to get some rest. Can I do anything else to be of service?"

"Just get yourself some rest."  Henry dismissed.  "And get better soon."

Fiore gave a curt nod and gingerly rose and made her way back with Kenneth to her car unnoticed. Exhausted she laid down across the back seat and happily accepted when Kenneth handed her two more pills. "Considering last time, I'll hold on to these," Kenneth informed her.

Fiore nodded as she popped them in her mouth and swallowed them dry. "I understand."

Fiore was slightly out of it when Kenneth helped her to bed.  Fiore spent the next four weeks in and out of her own head, trying to keep focused, but between the exhaustion and the cocktail of pills she was on, it was difficult.  She managed to put off a lunch here or there, but Ian was beginning to suspect something was off. 

Kenneth appeared at her door.  "His Highness has stopped by."

"Ian?"

"Yes."

"Bloody hell," Fiore sighed.  "Did you tell him I'm sick?"

"I tried to."

"Fuck it, give me a Vicodin and give me a minute.  Warn him I have the flu, but if he wants to give it to his kids, be my guest.  I need about ten minutes."

"I can arrange that."  Fiore got out of bed and popped her pill and ran a brush through her hair.  She felt like dog shit, and she let it show.  The flu was the best excuse she could use.  It explained the nausea and fever she'd developed while healing.

Ian walked in and leaned against the door frame.  "You actually have the flu?"

"Of course." Fiore rolled her eyes.  "Why else would I tell you that?"

"I don't know, you just never get sick.  At least not anymore."

Fiore shrugged.  "I've had a lot of international travel.  Occasionally even I catch a bug."