Reckless Paradise [a descendants story]

Chapter Fifteen | Illness

Three more kids were down with a cough a week later and Quinn did her best to keep up their spirits as they laid in their hammocks. While she was grateful for the distraction from everything that had happened with Seamus, she was starting to get concerned; this seemed like more than a regular cold.

She was brewing another pot of tea when Jax came into the galley. He could see the tension in her forehead and hopped up onto the counter beside the kettle.

"How are they doing?" he asked.

Quinn leant against the counter across from him, brow creased. "Their symptoms seem to just indicate a cold, but Cai has had a bad cough for two weeks now, without a sign of getting better."

Jax looked at her suddenly. "Is it a dry cough?"

"Yes?"

He grabbed her hand and nearly ran into the doorframe in his hurry. Quinn, confused, scrambled after him as he led them to the forecastle, where Cai and the others were lying in their bunks.

Cai was in the middle of a coughing fit and between coughs, he gasped for air, high-pitched in a way that made Quinn wince sympathetically.

"What is it?" Quinn asked Jax, whose jaw tightened at the sound. He moved farther away from the sick kids.

"I think it's whooping cough," he said quietly, so only she could hear him.

Quinn frowned. "Whooping cough? But there's a vaccine for –" Her realization struck her like a punch to the gut, followed by a wave or rage at the Auradonian establishment unlike any other she had had. "There's no medicine on the Isle," she said quietly, more to herself than to Jax. She closed her eyes for a moment and drew her hand through her hair, then looked at Jax. "How bad is whooping cough? Have kids caught it here before?"

He nodded. "Every few years there's a bunch of bad cases. One year, a while back, three kids died." Quinn's heart plummeted like a rock to the bottom of her stomach. "But if you have a vaccine, you won't have to worry about catching it," he said.

Quinn nodded. "Alright, if it's this bad, we need to separate the sick people as well as everyone who helped me take care of them."

"We'll move them above the shop," Jax said.

"I'll move them," Quinn said. "You need to be careful too. And the younger kids especially. If I remember correctly, it's more dangerous for young children."

They were not happy to have to move, but Quinn got everyone who was sick up to the room above the shop. Cai, she moved last and every so often, they had to stop when a coughing fit overtook him. Once, when they were nearly at the door of the shop, the fit was so bad that he vomited. Quinn jumped back at first but stroked his back as he retched through his coughs. "It's alright," she murmured.

She led him up the steps to where several make-shift beds lay spread around the room.

•••

Quinn was not extremely familiar with whooping cough since it was mostly eradicated in Auradon. But if it was reasonably common here, perhaps there were records of it, and hopefully some treatment instructions.

"Jax?" she asked one morning as they got ready for the day. "Where would I find an archive or records?"

He frowned thoughtfully. "The library at the school, maybe? It's the largest collection of books on the Isle that I know of."

An hour later, Quinn and Sheela were inside. "You know," Sheela said, putting her lockpicking supplies back in her pocket. "I never thought I'd be breaking into school."