Por Siempre Y Para Siempre: A Sequel to Take Your Time

Ch. 7 - This is Serious, Please

When they finally make it to the hospital, Olivia picks up Noah from his booster seat and rushes into the Emergency Room. Still carrying her son, she heads straight to the front desk and starts speaking to the nurse sitting behind it frantically, "Hi, my son, Noah, has pneumonia. He needs to be seen immediately. This has been a problem for him in the past and you need to get him in to see someone as soon as possible, please." She pleads with the woman staring back at her who then nods calmly.

"Okay," she starts to answer and holds out a clipboard for Olivia to take, "you'll need to fill out these forms and bring them back up here."

"No, you don't understand," Olivia's tone is growing more serious, "this is serious, please."

"You need to fill these out first, ma'am," the nurse presses, "I'm sorry. But he will be seen as soon as possible once you finish them, I promise." Sighing dejectedly, Olivia takes the clipboard from the nurse and finds two empty seats for her and Noah. She puts him down in one and sits down in the other. He slumps down into the seat and she starts to fill out the forms in front of her. Suddenly, she realizes that she hasn't talked to Rafael about having to pick up Noah yet. She rushes through the papers and double-checks them to make sure she didn't miss anything before she takes them back to the desk. She keeps her eyes on Noah the whole time she isn't next to him. Once she sits back down, she pulls her phone out of her pocket to text her husband.

Liv: Hey, no need to worry but I had to pick Noah up from school today. No need to leave work or anything. I just wanted to let you know that we are at Mercy Gen. I think he has pneumonia again. I'll keep you posted on everything. Love you.

Rafa: Shit. Just left my meeting with Stone. Was about to call. I'll head over right now. I love you too, nena.

Liv: Could you stop at home on your way and grab Eddie?

Rafa: Of course.

She slides her phone back into her pocket as she hears a nurse call her sons name, "Noah Porter-Benson?" Olivia shoots up from her seat and picks Noah up from the chair he'd been curled up on.

"Yes, right here, hi" She rushes over to the nurse and follows her down the hallway to an empty room. The room is cold and the fluorescent lights make it look even colder. The nurse leaves the room for a moment so Olivia can help her son into the pediatric hospital gown that was laying on the bed. She tries to lift his spirits by commenting on the dinosaurs that decorated the fabric, but it wasn't helping. Once he got changed, she picked him up and put him on the bed, "Okay sweet boy, some people are going to come in and talk to you. They're going to try to make you feel better soon, okay?" He nods and wipes sweat from his brow. She brushes his hair wet back and kisses his damp forehead. A few minutes later, the nurse walks back in and Olivia moves to sit in the chair across from her son.

"Okay Noah, my name is Kate," the nurse introduces herself to the boy, "I need to get some vitals from you. Your mom put your weight down already, so we don't need to do that. I need to check your temperature first, okay?" Noah nods again silently as the nurse places the thermometer in his ear. When she pulls it out, she makes a concerned look as she reads the number on the screen.

"What is it? Where's it at?" Olivia is fighting every muscle in her body to not jump up and stand right at her son's side.

"It's uh," Kate pauses for a brief second before continuing, she tries to steady her expression to not worry Olivia more than she already is, "it's at 104.5 right now." She continues to check the rest of his vitals before address Olivia once more. "His blood pressure is pretty low right now, too."

Noah sits up slightly in his bed, propping himself up shakily with his elbows, "Mama will I be okay for school tomorrow? Mrs. Martinez said there's a firefighter coming into class and I really want to meet him."