"mmmmmahhhhh" jess cried. she was still shaking with the hoodie on and gripping nick's hand painfully hard. he scooped her up sideways on his lap allowing her to curl into his shoulder. so that he could hold onto her tighter hoping she wouldn't jostle around as much. it wasn't until they got in the car that he noticed how wet his shirt was— wet with jess's tears. he cringed at the thought of how much pain jess was in. he noticed something else too, though. jess was burning up— badly. "jess!" he exclaimed. "you have a fever!" he kicked himself for not thinking of that when she started shivering back on the trail. "of course she has a fever" he thought. "there is a cooler in the back with some ice in it!" schmidt called back. "got it" responded winston and reached back to get it. "here" he said handing a bag of ice to nick who quickly set it on the back of jess's neck. she immediacy let out a cry and started to squirm trying to move it which in turn made her gasp and cry harder again. nick held both jess and the ice back firmly though "jess we have to cool you down" nick explained softly. "o-okay" she sniffed and rested her head back on his chest.
"n-nick i-i don't—" "shh" nick cut her off stroking her hair. "shh just try to breathe" he instructed her. she nodded while still shivering more violently than before. she took short shallow breathes that nick knew were not good for her. "jess, calm down" he urged or more like begged. "we are on our way; we'll get you to the er" he assured her. "try to breathe a little slower" he encouraged. he could feel her nodding into his shoulder and he reached up with his fingers to play with her hair. he knew that was calming for her, and she did slow her breathing down a bit with his comfort.
"i have service!" cece called from the passenger seat. "look up directions" schmidt said quickly. "the closest hospital is forty minutes away she announced and put her phone set up with the directions in the middle where schmidt could see. "thanks" he nodded. "jess, we are so close" cece said turning around and reaching a hand to touch her back. jess nodded. "i'm sorry sorry, sweetie" she added. jess just nodded again— too worried she would get sick again if she opened her mouth.
