I'm With You

Chapter 15

Eira slowly pulled away from Miguel, wiping her eyes."You don't have to... be like this with me, you know... I'm used to people being assholes. As long as Mackenzie is being cared for, I don't care how you treat me." Eira said and Miguel shook his head.

"You may be used to people treating you badly, but that doesn't mean that everybody is that way," Miguel said.

"I just..." Eira sighed.

"I'm not doing this because I think of you both as a charity case, Eira. Everybody needs friends." Miguel said, but he could tell that Eira was still hesitant about it. She didn't want to trust anybody in case they let her down, the way that others had before. Her main priority would always be Mackenzie, her life would always revolve around her.

"I'm not used to friends," Eira admitted and Miguel gave her a small smile.

"Well, it'll take a while for Mackenzie to be fully recovered and I want to make sure your iron levels are normal before I let you go anywhere," Miguel said simply, but Eira stayed silent. He pushed the burger back towards her. "Keep eating." He encouraged, taking another bite of his burger and he got up to check on Mackenzie's pulse, but it was still high. He knew she could use an oxygen mask, but it would have been impossible for him to be allowed to leave the hospital with an oxygen tank and a mask.

"Is she okay?" Eira asked, eating another bite of her burger even though she felt full and uncomfortable.

"Her pulse is lower than it was, but it's still much higher than it should be... it's coming down, though, these things just take time." Miguel tried to assure her. He stayed sat beside her, even though she was silent. He didn't want to push her into speaking if she wasn't ready to and if she wanted to sit in silence, then that was what they'd do. He kept stealing glances at her, watching her as she very slowly ate her food but she gave up when she had half of her meal left.

"I can't eat anymore."

"That's okay, you can save it for tomorrow. I'm sure you can warm it up here in the kitchens." Miguel said. "Plus, it's McDonald's. In a nuclear attack, I'm sure the only thing that survives will be cockroaches and McDonald's food." He joked, smiling when it worked to make her crack a smile and he checked the time on his phone.

"What?" Eira asked, looking over at him when she heard him sigh.

"I have a shift at the hospital in like, six hours and I haven't slept yet," Miguel said.

"You have to go?"

"Yeah, but I'll come back to check on Mackenzie. Her IV bag is almost finished anyway, so I'll stop that and put her on saline to keep her hydrated." Miguel said, getting up from Eira's camp bed and he walked across to Mackenzie's, watching as the sodium solution finished and he took the needle out of the cannula, replacing it with saline and he turned to see Eira stood up.

"Thank you... for everything."

"It's no problem, okay? I'll call here, to check on everything and I'll be sure an ambulance crew stops off here in a few hours to run some observations on her... if she needs a doctor, I'll come back myself." He vowed.

"You won't send anybody else?"

"She's my patient... you're both my patients." Miguel promised. "I'm going to take the blood samples with me and I'll ask the lab to run them in more detail," Miguel said, picking them up from the floor.

"When will you be back?"

"Before it gets dark, I promise... I'll bring something to eat." He said softly, wanting to hug her but he knew that it would be too much. Eira had gone through so much in the space of a day, he didn't want to make it worse. Instead, he checked on Mackenzie's pulse one last time before he walked out of the room but he kept the clamp on her finger, telling Eira what her pulse should ideally be before he left completely and Eira shut the door to the room, locking it and she turned back to look at Mackenzie.

"I love you so much." She breathed, walking over and kissing her hair as she lay unmoving on the bed. Eira then started to go through the supply bag that Wendy left behind, grabbing shampoo. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was the basics and that was all she needed - it would have been Eira's first shower in a long time. She took one last look at Mackenzie before heading into the bathroom, shutting the door and she stripped out of her too-big clothes, starting to shower and she tipped her head back, closing her eyes as the warm water hit her bare skin. It felt better than she could ever have imagined, to just feel truly clean and to be able to wash her hair with more than just water from the public bathrooms in the park.

It was when Eira was pulling her clothes back on, her hair still damp, that she heard something that shot a wave of shock through her body.

"Eira...? EIRA?!" The familiar voice screamed.

Mackenzie.

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