I'm With You

Chapter 9

"I'll talk to you on my way out about payment for the room," Wendy said and the woman nodded before walking out, Wendy shutting the door and Miguel walked to the bed on the left side of the room and Eira pulled the thin duvet back to let Miguel lay Mackenzie down and Miguel threw the duvet over Mackenzie, keeping the blanket around her too. "I'll make sure you have access to come and go to treat Mackenzie, I'll come and check in on everything but I have a feeling I'm just going to get in the way now," Wendy said, leaving the supply bag on the floor that had the leftover clothes and bathroom supplies in it.

"Thanks, Wendy." Miguel breathed, Eira giving her a hug without saying anything and Wendy hugged her back.

"Get out of those clothes, honey, you're soaking wet," Wendy said softly. "I'll be back later to check on you. Ask them to call me if there are any problems - they have my number." Wendy said and Eira nodded her head.

"Thank you." Eira choked out and Wendy just nodded, giving Eira's arm a gentle squeeze before she left to discuss the plan with the woman who ran the shelter and Miguel turned his attention to Eira. He could see her tense, being alone in a room with him but her eyes were constantly going to Mackenzie, checking on her.

"I need you to help me to help her whilst I go to the hospital - I'll call a cab for myself whilst you get out of these clothes," Miguel said.

"A-And then what do I do?"

"Under the duvet with Mackenzie, get under the blanket too - you need to help her bring up her core body temperature slowly and the easiest and safest way to do that is with body heat," Miguel said and Eira nodded her head, barely noticing that she was shivering too. Miguel could only hope that Eira doing as she was told as soon as possible would lessen her chances of having the same fate as her sister. He turned around, pulling out his phone and he could hear Eira moving around, hearing wet clothes dropping down onto the worn carpet. He was soon able to book himself a cab and he turned around when he heard her clear her throat and he could see her already under the duvet and he could guess she was under the blanket too. "Good... stay like that for me, I'll be an hour tops," Miguel promised.

"I-I don't know how long that is." Eira breathed and Miguel nodded, taking out his phone and he handed it to her, taking her by surprise.

"You can't get into it or anything, but if you need anything or if Mackenzie's condition changes, hit 'Emergency' and it'll dial 911 for you right away. Call an ambulance, I'll cover the costs if I have to." Miguel urged and Eira nodded her head.

"Thank you."

"I'll be back in an hour," Miguel vowed, before stepping out of the room and he shut the door behind him. Eira pressed the button to light up Miguel's screen, amazed by it all - she hadn't had a phone ever in her life, so just seeing what an iPhone was like was incredible to her. She saw a picture as his lock screen, a picture of himself and a little boy. She didn't pay it much attention, instead setting the phone on the nightstand and she locked her arms around Mackenzie, trying hard not to cry when she felt just how cold Mackenzie was. It had been raining on and off for weeks, it pained Eira to know that her little sister had been struggling and was hiding it from her.

"I love you, Mac... and don't worry, okay? We're gonna get you better. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you." Eira leaned in, kissing her bare shoulder. "Y-You remember when Mom was still around? How she'd wait on us hand and foot when we were sick? And how close were even then, that you'd always try and catch whatever I had so you didn't have to go to school either?" Eira laughed softly, tears slowly running down her face. "I'm sorry that I can't help you... that I can't look after you... n-no matter how much we try, something always seems to go wrong, huh? But I love you so fucking much." Eira held onto Mackenzie tighter on the small camp bed. She couldn't tell whether she was uncomfortable because of the old mattress or because she was too used to sleeping on the cold, hard ground. She was exhausted, but she refused to let herself fall asleep. She was too terrified to fall asleep in case something were to happen to her sister, especially in a new environment when they were surrounded by other homeless people. Others had done nothing but let them down - rob from them, try to take advantage, hurt them... Eira shook those thoughts from her mind, fighting to stay awake as she rubbed Mackenzie's arm to try and warm up her ice cold body.

She was waiting for Miguel to return, desperate for him to come back with something to help her little sister.

She could remember Mackenzie coming home from the hospital as a baby, she wasn't ready to watch her die.

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:)