Family Ties

Chapter Twenty

Harry

I call my doctor from the hallway, he doesn't need to hear Eve's puking noises. After I ended the call, I go back to Eve, her eyes are open but she is staring at the ceiling, not giving me or anything else her attention.

"Getting my general practitioner to do a house call wasn't as easy as I thought it would be." I tell her but she keeps staring above her, it's like she doesn't hear me.

"He wanted to be sure he would get his money and because you are a tourist and I don't know anything about your insurance policy, so he is a bit wary. But I told him I would pay the full amount he asks and we will arrange things with your insurance later. If they end up giving us a hard time it is no problem. It is just money. You and your health are what is important." still no reply, it is kind of frustrating to talk to her, I know she isn't ignoring me but it's just weird to get no recognition at all.

I think I hear something outside and when I look out the window I see a car turn into the driveway and I go downstairs to let the doctor in. We greet each other and while I lead him upstairs I tell what has happened.

"Eve, this is doctor Alonso. He is going to take a look at you." I put my hand on her shoulder, maybe that will help to get her attention.

"I'm going to step out in the hallway so he can examine you." Eve briefly looks at me before her eyes close. I explain to Doctor Alonso that Eve doesn't speak Spanish and that he can call me if he needs help with a translation. He nods his head in understanding before I walk out into the hallway and start to pace around, I'm so worried about Eve, I really need her to be okay. It feels like we have gone back in time, when we were younger I was always worried about her, even more so than her mother and Jonas were. When she was sick or was in a fight with a friend I would try to make her feel better and I always wanted to take her emotional and physical pain away.

It feels like it takes hours before Doctor Alonso appears in the doorway with troubled look on his face and calls me inside.

Walking inside the corners of my lips immediately turn up when I see that Eve's eyes are open and her gaze follows me around the room.

"I will explain everything to you both in English because it spares a little time then explaining it once to Miss Williams in English and once to you, Harry in Spanish. I also am sure Miss Williams won't be able to concentrate that long to understand everything I say." Doctor Alonso tells us in fluent English. That's why he didn't ask for help to translate, he didn't need it.

"Miss Williams is suffering from a heat exhaustion or possibly even a heat stroke. You told me she has been outside a lot, I assume she didn't cover her head?" the doctor turns to me and I shake my head.

"You told me she recently arrived from London, she isn't used to the hot weather, especially not the extreme heat we had today. That, plus she has been outside, exposed to it for a long time and doing physical activities was probably too much for her body to take." Doctor Alonso explains more to me than to Eve who already has closed her eyes again.

"Miss Williams body is overheated and her temperature needs to go down as fast as possible. She is shivering constantly, this increases the body temperature so I have given her a muscle relaxant. If she can stop shivering, it will be easier to help her body cool down. You have to give her baths or showers with cold water or even ice water, also ice packs at her groin, armpits, neck and back are important. Maybe she can rest somewhere where there is air conditioning or a fan and maybe a little less clothing would help." Poor Eve, looks like me taking her out for the day caused this. Suddenly guilt washes over me, I swallow and turn back to Doctor Alonso.

"That's all I can do? No medication?" I ask, this is my fault and I need to make sure she gets the best care as possible.

"No medication, only what I just told you. If her body temperature goes up and is more than forty degrees you have to go to the Emergency Room. If it's higher than forty degrees she has a high risk on having a seizure." That's not good, I have to do everything to get her temperature down.