Long road ahead.

Day 3

Justins POV (still)

I coughed all night long last night, and woke up even weaker than before and lethargic. I couldn't even move without someone helping me, so either my mom or Scooter were by my side all the time. Thankfully, though, my stomach felt a lot better and I had an appetite, though I was much too weak to feed myself. My mom fed me some more soup for breakfast, then again for lunch. I think she noticed I was getting tired of eating soup all the time, and experimented with some toast to see if I could keep down solid foods. I could, and held it down long enough to convince her.

4:17 P.M.

"How you feeling, Sweetheart?" my mom asked, coming over and feeling my forehead. I opened my eyes lethargically.

"Awful," I answered honestly.

"You want me to call the doctor and see if you can eat some regular food tonight?" she asked, brushing her fingers through my hair. I nodded weakly.

"I'll be right back, Scooter," she said to Scooter, who was sitting in a chair next to my bed.

"Okay," he answered, and my mom left. I draped my right arm over my eyes and coughed weakly, too weak to even move my hand to cover my mouth. Once again there was the cracking sound of more mucus breaking up in my chest. I covered my mouth with my left hand and launched into a severe coughing fit, feeling and hearing the congestion breaking up. I stopped after a minute. I coughed twice, paused, took my hand away, then coughed once more, but kept my mouth closed.

"You sound awful, Juss!" Scooter exclaimed. I nodded weakly and drifted off.

Pattie's POV

I went up front and called the tour doctor.

"Hello?" he answered. I sat on the couch to talk to him.

"Hey, it's Pattie," I said.

"Oh, hey! How's Justin feeling?"

"Um, that's kind of why I called. He's not doing well at all."

"Well, what's going on?" he asked, concern in his voice.

"Well, he's been nauseous, having nosebleeds, he passed out three times yesterday, and his fever's almost 104."

"Hm. Does he have chills?"

"Yes. And, most of all, he is so weak he honestly cannot move on his own, and he's got a really bad cough," I explained.

"Oh, gosh. I'm coming over there to check him out again, do you mind?"

"No, not at all. Can I ask you a quick question, though?" I asked.

"Sure, what is it?" he answered.

"Well, yesterday, he was coughing, and I went to rub his back, and I felt something moving, and when he coughs it sounds like someone crumpling paper," I said.

"Oh, dear. I think I know what's going on. Let me come check him out, and we'll go from there. Is there anything else going on?" he asked.

"Well, yes, two things," I answered.

"Ok, go ahead."

"Um, well, he has really bad allergies, and he's supposed to take medicine daily, but he forgot it in Atlanta, and they're really acting up."

"I'll write him a new prescription. What does he take?" I told him the name of Justin's medicine.

"Ok, and the other thing?" he asked.

"Ok, so, he's really, really weak, but he has an appetite and his stomach really isn't bothering him too much today. The thing is, he doesn't have the strength to feed himself, so we have to feed him. He's getting kinda tired of soup, so I was wondering if I could give him solid food yet? I gave him some dry toast today to see if he could keep it down, and he did," I explained.