Post by StoryGirl83 on Nov 10, 2011 22:56:52 GMT -5
Chapter Five – The Meaning of Love
Seth Silberman blinked open his eyes and looked across the room at where his dad sat staring at his little brother in the hospital bed. When Peter had come down with the diseases sweeping the continent two days before, Seth had been in a state of disbelief. Surely Peter would be fine. His little brother was hardly ever sick. Now that two days had passed, Seth had to admit, not only was his little brother not getting better, but no one was. So far everyone who had shown signs of being sick a week before was dead and every hour that passed more people got sick.
“Anything happen while I was asleep?” Seth asked with a yawn.
Derek shook his head. "He’s been sleeping restlessly.”
“And Danielle?”
Derek sighed. “She’s in Taiwan. So far there haven’t been any cases over there and she doesn’t want to be anywhere near it for as long as possible.”
“Why are you still with her, Dad?” Seth asked as he looked down at his little brother. “She’s not exactly a people person.”
“She’s still Peter’s mom,” Derek argued.
“Which, considering how she treats Peter, is one of the worst reasons I have ever heard,” Seth returned.
Derek sighed. “We can discuss it after the baby’s born.”
“We can discuss it now,” Seth argued. “She’s invited us to move to New York with her. When that baby is born, she’s moving. Now’s the time to decide if we are going with her.”
“Now, while your brother is sick?” Derek frowned at his son.
Seth nodded. “Now, while Peter is sick and Danielle is nowhere around. But then, she’s never been all that interested in him before. Why would she start now?”
“Seth!”
“Do you think going to New York with her would make her more attentive as a mother?”
Derek sighed.
Seth stood and walked around the hospital bed to where his dad was sitting. “Do you even want to go to New York?”
Derek didn’t answer.
“Dad?”
“I told Danielle we weren’t moving,” Derek informed him in a soft voice.
Seth blinked, surprise written on his face. “You did?”
Derek nodded. “I’ve been kidding myself if I think this is going to make a difference. That woman doesn’t have a mothering bone in her body. I think now that Peter is getting older, she does want to get to know him, but I don’t think she really wants to be his mother.”
“What’s going to happen to the new baby?” Seth asked, wondering how this decision would affect her plan for the baby.
“That remains the same,” Derek assured him. “Assuming there is still a population in New York when the baby is born, I will be joining her there for a few weeks.”
“But I thought . . .”
Derek shook his head. “I need you to watch Peter while I am gone.”
“I don’t understand,” Seth looked at him confused. “Didn’t you just say . . ?”
“That we are not moving to New York,” Derek confirmed.
“Doesn’t that mean that you are also breaking up with her?” Seth asked, hoping for clarification.
“When I told her that we weren’t going to move with her, she was annoyed,” Derek admitted. “I’m sure she thinks this is just temporary, but I mean to stand by it.”
“Then, why are you going to New York, even for a few weeks?” Seth needed to know.
“She’s still having my child,” Derek reminded him. “That baby needs to know, right from the start that he or she is wanted. I wasn’t able to be there when Peter was born. I intended to be there this time and she intends to go to New York as soon as this crisis is over . . . if it ever ends. That’s why I’m going to New York. Can you watch Peter while I’m gone?” The idea that his son wouldn’t make it was not to be considered.
“Of course,” Seth didn’t hesitate to agree. “If you really mean to stay apart from Danielle, be careful. You never know what she might do.”
“I know what she won’t do,” Derek admitted. “For all that she wants to keep me, she has still refused every time I have proposed. If I get so deeply involved in a relationship, I don’t want it to be with someone who refused to marry me.”
Seth sighed. “Relationship sure seem like a lot of hard work.”
Derek nodded. “They are, but when they work out they’re worth it.”
“How would you know?” Seth retorted. “You’ve been with my mother, who only wanted you as a sperm donor, and Danielle, who . . . well, yeah.”
Derek chuckled. “There was Abby Denison in fifth grade. That was . . .”
“Okay, I do not need to know about your elementary school . . .”
“We broke up when we were juniors in high school,” Derek corrected. “It wasn’t a bad break. It just became apparent that we’d become a habit. And I dated a couple of girls in college that were decent if short relationships.”
“Dad,” Seth protested.
Derek managed a brief smile. “Look at my parents. They have a good relationship.”
Seth smiled back. “That’s true.”
“And your friend, Wyatt,” Derek added. “His parents have a good relationship. And my relationship with your mother gave me you. It was worth it.”
Seth’s smile grew. “Thanks. It’s not everyone who can say that about someone who . . .”
“Who what?” Derek asked. “She never physically hurt me. She was a demon, yes, but she was not trying to hurt me. It was a result, because she took you, but I don’t think it was the goal.”
“You never talk much about her,” Seth commented.
His father nodded. “Perhaps later, once your brother is well and the new baby is born. Perhaps then we can talk.”
Seth nodded back. “I’d like that.”
“Do you think you can get us something to eat?” Derek requested, abruptly changing the subject.
Seth straightened up. “Sure, I’ll do that.” He headed out of the room and into the hall. He stopped at the nurse’s station.
The nurse on duty was talking to someone on the phone. While she filled out some papers and looked through cupboards for something a volunteer asked for she said, “I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t tell you information about a specific patient unless you’re family,” the nurse told the person on the phone. “I know we’re in an epidemic, but that doesn’t change the policy. There are,” she glanced down across the room at TV newscast with the latest statistics glaring across the bottom of the screen, “nineteen million people with confirmed cases of the witch’s fever and another fifty-six million with suspected cases. We have over one hundred thousand cases in this city and it’s just growing. Unless the patient you are trying to find out about is in stage five, I don’t even have time to look them up. I’m sorry.” She pulled a water bottle out of a small fridge and unscrewed the lid as she hung up.
Seth started to say something, but she only took a sip and put it back in the fridge. She grabbed something off the counter and ran off down the hall.
He sighed and walked away. Maybe if he wandered around long enough he’d find a vending machine or something like that.
“Seth, is that you?”
Seth turned around and grinned at the sight of his best friend. “Wyatt, you look like a zombie. When was the last time you slept?”
Wyatt yawned. “There’s no time for sleep. The hospital staff is getting sick faster than anyone else. There’s not enough people left to help the sick. They need me here.”
“You’re no good to anyone dead,” Seth informed him.
“How can I sleep?” Wyatt demanded. “How can I abandon the people here?”
“You wouldn’t be abandoning them,” Seth argued. “You would be getting back up to health. You aren’t even a doctor, Wy. You are a volunteer.”
“We have six doctors on staff who are not themselves in hospital beds,” Wyatt informed him. “One of them is an orthopedic surgeon. Another is a gynecologists. Ava’s a surgeon. We actually have one doctor who isn’t sick, but he broke his leg, so he’s kind having a hard time getting around, but he is. With him, that makes seven. They are dealing with this the best they can, but none of them are used to this. It’s not much better with the nurses. They need all the volunteers they can get.”
“Well, be careful,” Seth directed him. “Eventually, you will be too tired to function and I fear that time is coming soon.”
Wyatt exhaled slowly. “I’ll be careful. You be, too.”
“I will,” Seth assured him. “I’m looking for a vending machine. Dad’s holding vigil in Peter’s hospital room and he’s hungry.”
“Follow me,” Wyatt directed. “I could use something to eat myself.”
“I tried to see if I could learn anything in the under . . . um, well, you know where,” Seth commented as he followed Wyatt down the hall.
Wyatt cast a glance over his shoulder. With a yawn, he asked, “Find anything?”
“Not a whole lot,” Seth admitted. “It’s happened before, at least they think so, but nothing on this scale.”
“So there’s a cure?” Wyatt looked interested.
“Or the isolated it faster than we did here,” Seth countered sadly. “Whatever it was, when it happened, it barely registered with them.” He moaned. “I’m going to go back there after I give Dad something to eat. Maybe I’ll find something else.” He shook his head sadly. “What if they die? What if my brother and your dad and everyone else die?”
“Don’t talk like that,” Wyatt ordered him. “Don’t ever talk like that. There’s got to be something.”
“Nineteen million confirmed cases,” Seth mumbled.
“Nineteen!” Wyatt looked at him startled. “Last I heard it was four million.”
“When was that?”
“A couple of hours ago, I guess,” Wyatt admitted. Though to be honest it could have been much more. He couldn’t even remember what day it was any more. He figured he’d probably been up for almost three days straight, but it could be two or four. “What day is it?”
Seth gave him a strange look. “Thursday the sixth.”
Three days then. At least he had kept that . . . “The sixth?!”
Seth nodded.
“May sixth?” Wyatt groaned.
Seth nodded, again.
“I’ve got to go,” Wyatt informed Seth before he ran off down the hall without any explanation.
Seth sighed and glanced down the hall. All that and there still was no vending machine.