That's a Childhood Disease...Right?

We're Only 48 Hours Into This?

It had been several hours since medic Daniel Johnson had administered the corticosteroid injection into Dec's IV port to help with the swelling in his throat due to the sores now taking residence there. He had entered into, what Dermott described as, a rather fitful sleep. Disturbing images plagued his unusually vivid dreams and, more than once, he had awakened with a frightened yelp, his eyes darting about before slowly closing as sleep pulled at him.

Dermott had chosen to again take the late evening watch and had been able to calm his brother time and time again with quiet words and gentle touches but he was starting to become concerned. It seemed that with each episode, Dec's temperature seemed to be slowly, but surely, climbing. Dermott finally decided to wake Martin up and have him help in cooling Dec down. Dermott wet a large bath towel then squeezed out as much water as possible while Martin was busy stripping Dec down to his boxers. It was a little bit worrisome that he wasn't getting much protest as he quickly undressed him. He was explaining what he was doing and why and it seemed that Declan was just barely aware enough to understand what he was saying and even help, somewhat, by lifting his hips when Martin pulled his pajama bottoms off him. "Not going to be pleasant, titch but we need to get your temperature down..." Martin said, sitting down at his brother's side before grasping his left hand, watching as Dermott entered the room then lay the damp towel on his brother before making a quick call to Dr. Shannon to let him know what was going on, cringing when he saw that it was nearing 5 am. Once off the phone, he went down the hallway to get Ant, who had just been lying in the dark, staring at the light shining underneath the bedroom door.
About 20 minutes later, he let the doctor in and they quickly ran up the stairs to Dec's bedroom.

"What's happening," Kerry asked, sitting down at Dec's side. He could see that although Dec seemed to be asleep, his flushed features were pinched. He gently grasped Dec's overwarm wrist to check his pulse, noting that it seemed to be racing.

"Nightmares...he sleeps for a bit then shouts himself awake," Martin answered, watching as the doctor reached into his medical bag for his stethoscope, b/p cuff and thermometer strip. After checking Dec's blood pressure, listening to his heart and breathing, Kerry placed the stethoscope behind his neck then gently fingered the younger man's neck before checking the thermometer strip. "Okay...between 101 and 102," he said with a shake of his head.

"It was actually higher...103, when we called you," Dermott said, pointing to their own strip that Oliver had supplied them with.

"It's on its way down then," Kerry said with a nod before witnessing first hand what had been described to him. For a few seconds, Dec moaned as he squirmed under the bedcovers before jerking and shouting out in fear, his eyes popping open then darting about before recognition hit then he reached out and Dermott grasped his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze while glancing up at the doctor who nodded in understanding. Dec murmured something...his voice so quiet and the words too jumbled to be understood as his eyes slowly slid closed once again. The group quietly remained in place and it wasn't 2 minutes later when the same thing happened again. Hearing the cry and seeing the confusion and fear prompted the doctor to make some quick decisions especially after rechecking Dec's temperature only to see it higher than it was just minutes earlier.

"Okay...I'm going to sedate him again, lads," he said, quickly standing up to look at the brothers and Ant. "If he keeps this up, his temperature will spike and I'll be forced to take him to hospital," he added before looking through his bag, insuring he had what he needed.

"Has he had much to eat or drink?"

"He's had a glass, or two, of water and half a bowl of chilled cucumber soup," Dermott answered, glancing over to see Ant standing with his arms crossed, worry clearly written on his features.