Reagan's Readings

Chapter Eighteen

"Reagan," Legend whined at me from the living room, for the umpteenth time. I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth to curb my frustration, and tried to block him out for a second. 

Legend and Venice were unbelievably well behaved most of the time. However, when one of them got sick and needed more of my attention,  it just so happened that the other one would decide it was a good time to act out and be needy. Of course, this was turning into one of those times. 

Venice dropped the thermometer from his mouth for the third time now, and I looked at him, exasperated. 

"Venice, you have to have the thermometer in your mouth for it to work."

He looked at me dazedly. "Huh?"

He was hitting the point of delirium, and, while I felt bad, I really needed to get a read on his temperature. I pushed him back lightly and placed the thermometer in his mouth, holding it there for him myself. After a minute or so, it beeped and I checked the reading. 

99.5.

Poor kid had been spiking and falling with his temperature all day, and it was finally holding steady at 99. I let out a sigh and replaced the cool rag on his forehead. I figured I'd let him rest a bit more before running him a bath to see if we could break the last of his fever. 

Venice had just laid back down and started to doze, allowing me to relax, when I heard the sound of small feet coming towards us. 

"Rae," Legend said dejectedly from the doorway. 

"I swear to God, kid," I mumbled under my breath, looking at him with what I'm sure were tired eyes. "What's up, Ledge?"

He sniffled at me, and my heart gave a tug. Legend was never one for waterworks. 

"I just need help with my homework, but you keep ignoring me."

He sniffed again and looked away with watery eyes. I sighed and made my way over to him, grabbing his hand and leading him away from our sick brother and back to his homework. I sat down with him in front of the table and smiled encouragingly.

"I'm sorry if you feel like I'm ignoring you, Legend. Ven is just really sick, and needs more of my attention right now. You don't want him to get too sick, do you?"

Legend shook his head at me, casting his eyes downward.

"I don't either. So I have to give him a little bit more of my time when he's like this so he doesn't get worse. I'm sorry, though."

I pulled him into my side tightly and that seemed to bring out his playful mood again. 

"Ugh, Rae," he exclaimed, pushing me away. "You're hugging me too tight."

I laughed and squeezed him more. "You asked for it, Ledge."

We were both giggling when we heard Ven's voice from the hallway.

"Rae," he called out through a thick voice. "I don't feel so go-"

He cut off as he started retching and I jumped to my feet to go to him, calling to Legend over my shoulder, "Please call Yoshi."

Yoshi showed up about twenty minutes later after I had got Venice into a cool bath and cleaned up his sick. I was sitting with my back against the tub, halfheartedly racing Venice's toy boat with my own around the tub when his face popped into the bathroom. It softened when he saw the expression on my face. 

"Hey, Ven. How you doing, bud?" Yoshi asked quietly. 

Venice shrugged sleepily and continued moving his toys over the water.