Althena Book 2

29. Lotion

I wake up in the morning and Mike has his hand on my belly. I hold it and wiggle. He rubs it until I get up. The IV is out and it's empty. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm starving to death.

Cyrus is sitting in the dining room.

I plop down beside him. "Do we have food?"

"Are you hungry?"

"Yes. Can I eat?"

He hands me a pill. "Let it dissolve in your mouth. I'll get you something easy for your stomach."

"Are you sick?"

"No. I am perfect."

"I'm sorry I got sick on you."

"Don't be sorry. It was my fault for pulling you up like that." He kisses my head and goes into the kitchen.

I run to answer the door. "Good morning."

Dr. Attis smiles. "You look a lot better."

"I feel a lot better. I'm hungry."

"That's a good sign. Always good when my patients' appetite comes back. So, who are my patients this morning?"

"Mike and Monte." Cyrus brings me some oatmeal with bananas in it.

"I figured. But that is a good breakfast. Did you give her a pill?"

"Yea."

"If you eat that, some broth for lunch, something easy for dinner, and keep it down, I won't put in the IV tonight."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Lots of fluids too. And nobody cook food with a strong smell here. The smells will linger and set them off. Get a different room if you have to." The doctor goes down the hallway.

"Can I eat around you?"

I giggle. "Yea, but I might steal it."

"That's alright. You can have little bits of stuff to make sure your stomach is getting better." He gets his phone out.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to get another room for cooking. We won't have to hide in the office to eat this way."

I can't help but laugh. "I'm so sorry."

He winks as he talks to them. After a few minutes, he leads me into the room next door. "We'll cook and eat here for now."

I sit at the kitchen bar while he makes us some eggs and toast. Then we go back to the sick room. The boys are sitting at the table. Mike has an IV on a pole hooked to him.

Cyrus sits with them. "No IV for you?"

Monte lays his head on the table. "I had it last night. Where were you?"

"We got the room next door for cooking."

I rub Mike's head. "I'll get some stuff going over there soon. Do you boys want anything for now?"

Mike puts his head against my belly. "I need to lay back down, baby."

I try to heal him with magic. "Magic's not doing anything."

Monte nods. "Different healers can heal different things. You can heal trauma. Like when the girl fell out of the tree. I'm not really sure why it helped with the hangovers."

Cyrus smiles. "My brother's bear attack. She may have been healing the damage the alcohol did. That is weird. She didn't cure the hangover though, only made it less."

"Nothing for a virus." Mike stands up and kisses my head. "We'll make it, babygirl. I'm going to lay down."

I get him tucked in and make sure his phone is beside him. Then I do the same thing for Monte. These boys are miserable.

"I'm not sure what to do." Cyrus has his feet up on the coffee table staring at his phone.

I sit in a chair. "Want to do something?"

"Yes. But we should wait to make sure you're better. We don't want to spread germs all over the resort."

"That's true."

"Sit with me. We'll watch tv."

"I don't want to make you sick. I made Monte sick." My phone rings so I accept a video call. Drogon's in his office.

"I miss you, babygirl."

"I miss you. You and Conner didn't get sick?"

"Nope. We stayed away from it. Your school got hit hard though. They closed today."

"Too bad I was sick for it."

"Yea, sick days are always better when you can go do something. Are you feeling any better?"

"Yes. I ate this morning. I was starving."

"Make sure you're eating stuff that's easy on your belly. Are Mike and Cyrus with you?"

"Mike, Cyrus, and Monte. Mike and Monte are sick. Cyrus doesn't seem affected by it."

"Hopefully it stays that way. It doesn't sound very fun. I'll send everyone some pajamas and comfortable stuff. I know nobody took clothes with them."

"Yea, I need to shower and change too."

"I'll send the clothes. Can you order the soaps?" He gets on his laptop.

"Sure."

"You have 2 rooms?"

"We have 1 for cooking and eating. The sick don't have to look at it or smell it that way."

He chuckles. "I know it's bad when that happens. I sent the clothes to one of them. Give it an hour. You might have to track them down."

"Thank you. I love you."

"I love you, babygirl. You need anything else?"

Cyrus steps behind me. "Phone charger."

"Alright. I'll send those. Laptop's ok?"

"Yea, Mike has his charger. I didn't even bring my laptop."

"Do you want me to send it?"

"No. I'll survive one night."

"If it's longer than that, I'll send it."

"Thank you."

"My pleasure. I need to get off here now. I love you, woman. I'll call again when I get out of work."

"Talk then." I blow him a kiss, and he winks as he shuts it off.

I find a soap shop that delivers. We're all going to smell like a spa. It works. I don't think we should smell like food. I can't wait to try the shampoo.

"Can you put some razors with that? My face itches."

"Yea. There are like 10 kinds though. Come pick. And get 3 sets. 3 of whatever you need. They're going to need it too."

"Fair." He checks my phone. "We don't need bubble bath and bath salt."

"You can give whatever you don't need to me."

He laughs. "Did you put everything in the spa scent in the cart?"

"Yes. 3 of each. Mike can share with me."

"Did you remember soap and shampoo?"

"Yes."

"In that case, you did perfectly. What is body butter?"

"It's a thick lotion. Put your stuff in the cart. I want to take a bath."

"Deodorant?"

I shake my head. "They didn't have it in the spa scent."

"So, you didn't put any in the cart?"

"Right."

He smirks and takes over my cart. "Did you remember a hair brush?"

"No, but I'm picky. I need to pick that."

He hands my phone back after a minute. I search brush and 300 things pop up. I did forget toothbrushes though. 30 minutes later, I finally get the order in as someone knocks. I fling the door open and a man hands me bags of clothes. I drop them on the table and pout.

"What, woman?"

"I want the spa stuff."

"It's going to take longer than 6 seconds to have it delivered. Help me sort out the clothes." He digs a charger out and plugs his phone in.

"Fine." I put the boys' clothes on each of their dressers and plug in their phones. Monte's was dead. Mike's had like 6% left. They should be happy when they wake up.

The spa stuff is on the table when I come back. Cyrus is scratching his head and staring at it. "I don't even know."

"I got this part." I get everything divided up and put away. Cyrus is reading a book when I get back. "I want to read that."

"I thought you were going to take a bath?"

"Oh yeah."

I run to Mike's bathroom and make my bath perfect. I add bubbles, oils, and salts. I lay back and relax. Then here comes Mike and his IV pole.

"I love it when you're naked."

I laugh. "You can barely walk."

"My eyes still work, woman." He climbs in with me.

We spend half an hour washing and cuddling. Then we put on clean pajamas and go to the dining room.

Cyrus looks up at us. He smells like he took a bath too. "You forgot half your clothes."

Mike nods and sits down. "We're not done with the lotion routine and I can't get my damn shirt on with the IV anyway."

"Lotion routine?"

I jump up. "Go get all the lotions."

Mike smirks. "Now you're going to do the lotion routine too."

"Never mind. I'll get them." I run to his room and get his stuff. He only took a shower. He did not use the bath stuff.

I get out and nearly run over Monte. He's standing there with a basket of stuff. "I don't know what any of this is, woman."

"UGH. You're all impossible. Go to the table."

Monte goes in, and I carry Cyrus's stuff behind him. Cyrus cracks up laughing. Mike shakes his head. "Woman, did you make him get up so you can show him this stuff?"

Monte laughs and sits with his basket. "No. I got up and found her. I don't know what any of this is. Well, soap. I know what 1 thing is. There's shampoo. I guess I could have taken a shower without help."

I give him a dirty look and start with the bath directions.

"Honestly, this is not hard. It says on the bottle what they are."

"This says face wash."

"Yes, you wash your face with it, Cyrus."

Mike hasn't been able to stop laughing for 10 minutes. "There are 8 different kinds of soap in my bath at home. Just wash what the bottle says on it. Nothing else."

"So, body wash is everything else?"

"Yes."

"Got it. And this stack goes in the bath water?"

"Yes. Good. Now we can move on to lotions."

They crack up, laughing.

I roll my eyes and pick up a bottle. "Face cream. It says it on the bottle." I point at it, then put some on my fingers. I rub it on Monte's face. "You're very dry."

"Sorry."

"Ok. Body creme. This goes everywhere." I rub some into Mike's shoulders. "Arms, legs, stomach, wherever. Body butter goes on really dry patches. Think elbows. Or if you're very dry, anywhere. But you guys aren't that bad. Use it on your elbows and feet." I put some on Mike's elbows while I'm explaining. Then I sit on the floor and do my feet. "Next is cuticle oil. I like rubbing it into my fingers. Do that." I watch them do it. "Good. Lip scrub helps to get rid of the dead stuff. Scrub it in, then wipe it off. Then put the lip balm on."

"No, babygirl. Nothing sandy near the mouth." Mike shakes his head.

"Fine. Put the lip balm on, for now. Any questions?"

"There's still more." Monte pulls another jar out of the basket.

"That's a scrub. Use it on your body. It's like a lip scrub. Helps to get the dead stuff off. This is a clay mask. Put it on your face while you're soaking in the tub. Once it gets hard, you wash it off. This tube is eye cream. Put a dot under each eye and rub in. This is room spray. You can spray your pillow or blankets."

"I can do this. I'm going to take a bath now."

"You want anything to eat, Monte?"

"Hell no."

"Broth and crackers? I held that down."

"I'm not there yet. No food."

"Ok."

Mike nods and stands up. "Same here, baby. I need to lay back down. Thank you for the bath."

"Thank you. I love you."

"I love you too." He kisses my head and follows Monte out.

I plop down by Cyrus and rub the butter on his elbows. "What do you want for lunch?"

"Let's order some sandwiches. Then I'll give the bath a shot."

He orders some lunch and when it gets here, he takes off down the hallway. I eat my food in the kitchen. This sucks. I search around for his book, but he must have taken it to his room. His door is shut. I can't barge in.

Monte comes out 20 minutes later. "That was actually nice. Where did Cyrus go?"

"He's sick too."

"Come on. We'll watch a movie. Will you rub some lotion on my back?"

"Sure. You like it?"

"It's amazing. I've never tried it before."

"Lotion?"

"Yes."

"You've never had lotion?"

"I've never tried 98% of that stuff. That was different. My skin feels nice now."

"I'm glad you like it."

He lies on his stomach and I rub it into his back. He goes right to sleep. I should have seen that coming. I snuggle in between him and the back of the couch. I fit so perfectly. I try to watch the movie, but I can't stay awake.