16. Grace

Chapter 16

Grace

T he next evening, I sat out on the deck, trying to soak up the last rays of sun and burrowing in my hoodie for warmth. I'd been freezing all day today. I was ignoring all the signs telling me to get back into bed because I didn't want to. And because if I saw my mama or Micaela or Rafe, or even Sebastian, they would gently nudge me into bed, so I was avoiding everyone.

On the deck that was seldom used, in the section everyone on the ship seemed to have forgotten existed, I sniffed, which turned into a rattling cough. When I could breathe again, I tried to hide my swollen face behind sunglasses and a raised hood.

If no one could see me, or my glassy eyes and runny nose, I wouldn't get dragged off to the infirmary for the billionth time, and my picture wouldn't get plastered above cot number five, as it had been for cots one through four. The pictures looked like wanted posters gone wrong. My face in the first one looked stunned. My face in pictures two through four looked like I wanted to reach past the camera and punch the cameraman's lights out.

Kazi was with me, keeping an eye out for bad guys, or bad girls, as the case had been lately, like the good boy that he was.

I sneezed into the hanky I'd borrowed from Sebastian earlier. It had his monogram on it, and I had to laugh. We were from completely different worlds, but I didn't care anymore. I wanted to be with him. Heck, I was even willing to sail around on these tin cans with him. That, to my mind, spoke my devotion quite elegantly.

I sneezed again, loud enough to wake the dead. My eyes ran along with my nose, and Kazi whined in sympathy. I patted his back as I wheezed.

"Thanks, boy," I croaked. He snuffled my side, making me giggle and push his face away. Then I started coughing and coughing, unable to catch my breath. When the attack was finally over, I slumped back into the lounge chair, completely exhausted.

Sebastian suddenly stood next to me, looking concerned, as though he'd heard my hacking cough all across the ship and had followed the sound to me. I wouldn't put it past him. He was a vampire, after all. He peeled my hood back enough to see my crimson nose and my red, watery eyes, then kissed my forehead and picked me up and gently let me rest against him as he sat back down.

I sighed in relief. I'd been sure he was going to drag me to the infirmary.

He chuckled at my obvious relief. "You might be thinking prematurely that I'm not going to take you down to the infirmary. You'd be incorrect. I'm just letting you rest again before you have to face your wanted posters."

I sighed in acceptance. It was miserably cold in my hoodie and sweatpants. It was eighty degrees outside, despite it being nighttime, and I was shivering like it was twenty. I at least had the flu, possibly worse. I'd been getting looks from others for the last hour or two. Looks that were clearly questioning my sanity because I was wearing sweats. I understood. I really did. I wanted to whine that I'd already been through enough on this trip. Did we really have to add she froze to death in the tropical sun to my list?

I'd been doing my due diligence in keeping away from people. I didn't want to infect them with whatever I had, but every once in a while someone came down to the section I was in, took one look at me and scuttled off. I had to laugh. It was the first time in my life I'd ever been deemed scary.

I started falling asleep in Sebastian's arms, so I barely registered when he stood up and we started moving. I thought I heard the elevator, but I couldn't keep my eyes open enough to check where we were. And then I heard Dr. Groffinger's deep voice, "What has she gotten herself into now?"

"Careful, Dr. Groffinger," Sebastian said, with no tone whatsoever. Which, to me, was way scarier than if someone had shouted those same words. Sebastian gently put me down on one of the infirmary beds, which were covered in what felt like butcher paper, and were really uncomfortable... and lest I hadn't whined enough already, freezing.

The nurse wrapped a blanket around me and checked my temperature.

"103.7, Doctor."

I could not only hear the doctor's sigh, but I could feel it as well. I could also feel his gentle hands encouraging me to lie all the way back on the bed. His hands were cool to the touch and made me shiver. He wasn't a bad guy. I just wished I'd seen a lot less of him on this trip.

"Let's see what big, nasty bug has flattened you, Miss Liora." To Sebastian, he said, "We'll need to keep her for a bit to determine what's causing her illness. Depending on what she has, she might need to quarantine in her room for a few days."

I groaned in dismay. I had ports of call to visit! Lazy rivers to conquer! I felt like crying. You know that point where you've silently listed the many terrible, no-good things that have happened to you in the last month of your life, and you decide that you feel really sorry for yourself?

Yep, I had hit that point.

And I was feeling massively sorry for myself.

Sebastian leaned close to my ear, and I shivered as he spoke into it. "You can stay in my room."

"Mama," sneeze "is going to hit you with her bat."

He chuckled as he stood. "She'll have to catch me first."

The next few days were not kind to me. They weren't kind to Sebastian either, as he got to see me at some of my worst moments. It turned out that I'd somehow caught walking pneumonia and the flu at the same time. Lucky me. I hated, absolutely hated , when I got whiny. And I was feeling super whiny at the moment.

Sebastian was kneeling next to me in his swanky suite filled with expensive-looking things, putting cold cloths on my forehead to help keep my fever down. I weakly pushed the cloth away. It was freezing. "You really are trying to kill me," I wheezed.

"Stop talking. You'll be unable to catch your breath again."

He held my hand, kind of sweetly, if I must admit to it, and switched out the cloth warmed by my forehead with a cold one. I shivered and closed my eyes. Talking earlier had necessitated the need for an oxygen tank. The dumb little oxygen thingies were currently stuck up my nose, but I was feeling less light-headed, so that was a good thing.

"I don't like being sick," I said.

"Nobody likes being sick."

"But I don't like it more than everyone else."

I opened my bleary eyes to see laughter dancing in his eyes.

"Are you laughing at me?" I croaked.

"Of course not."

"It's not nice to lie to a woman who's very sick."

"I'm sorry, angel. I hope you'll forgive me."

I pondered it for a moment. "Maybe. Do you think they can send me warm ice cream?"

He grimaced at the idea of warm ice cream. "How about vegetable broth in a mug? That's nourishing."

I took the cloth off my forehead and slyly dropped it off the side of the bed while he was fishing his phone out of his pocket. Kazi made a disgruntled sound, and I winced. Sorry, Kazi! But it's for the greater good!

He was texting someone, so I thought he missed my grossed-out face at the thought of vegetable broth, but he seemed to have eyes everywhere because he fished another cool rag from the bucket, squeezed it out, and outmaneuvered my protesting hands to place it gently on my forehead. Then he continued his texting as though he were used to putting up with whiny females. He even went as far as patting Kazi in commiseration and removing the wet rag from his fur.

"Go get some sleep," I said exhaustedly, slumping back against my pillow. "You've been here with me for two days. Rafe must want to murder me because he's been carrying your load as well."

Sebastian looked up from his phone. "He doesn't. He told me to tell you to get better, or he's going to toss you in with the sharks."

I smiled a feeble smile. "He realizes they'll just play with me, right? That it's not a threat?"

Sebastian finished his text and put his phone away, reaching for my hand again. "I believe that's why he says it. I've ordered you a sample of things. It will be here soon."

I shivered and tried, weakly, to burrow deeper into my cavern of blankets. "Are there more blankets?"

Sebastian frowned at me, then put a hand to my forehead. "How are you still burning up?"

"Is that a rhetocrical question?"

"You mean rhetorical?"

"That's what I said." Wasn't it? I was having a hard time following our conversation.

I blinked, and a nurse was hovering above me, taking my temperature. "103.3, sir." How had she gotten into the room? When had she gotten into the room?

Sebastian looked concerned. "She didn't want to go to the island's hospital. Can you and Dr. Groffinger handle her illness safely on the ship?"

"Of course, sir. She'll need to quarantine here for at least five days, likely a bit longer until her symptoms resolve."

I groaned and covered my head with the nest of blankets I was secretly calling my cavern of darkness.

"Her cavern of darkness?" The nurse sounded confused, and I blinked in surprise when she spoke my thoughts. Was she telepathic?

"She's been speaking her private thoughts off and on unintentionally."

Sebastian announced this like it was no big deal, but my cheeks burned in embarrassment. How dare my mouth betray me like that!

"It's the fever, sir," the nurse responded, her voice sounding like she was trying not to laugh.

I was offended. Offend! And it felt like everyone was laughing at me. I groaned and closed my eyes. "I'm being hypersensitive because I don't feel well. I'm sorry," I apologized to the room in general.

"No worries, ma'm. If I were in your shoes, I'd be whining and complaining something fierce!"

I squinted up at her, feeling like I had found a comrade-in-arms.

"So, is this a female thing?" Sebastian asked.

There was dead silence in the room.

"Tell me he didn't just say what I think he said."

"He did, ma'am," the nurse nervously said.

I glared balefully at Sebastian and was about to give him an earful when I caught the spark of laughter in his eyes. I weakly threw a pillow at him instead. "Boo! Hiss! Bad show, old chap!"

Sebastian laced his hands and rested his chin on them. "Are you British now? You've been Canadian and Australian already today. I was wondering when another nationality would present itself."

I groaned, smacking my hands over my eyes, accidentally gouging one of them. I grumbled as I blinked quickly to keep my eyes from tearing up. "Why am I such a loon when I'm sick? This is so embarrassing!"

"Let me check your oxygen concentration," the nurse said.

Sebastian laughed. "Her oxygen is fine. This is just the wonder and beauty that is Grace."

Awww.

His sweet words almost took the sting out of my eye. They didn't really help my lack of visibility, though. I grumbled, closing my eyes. I didn't like it when life ganged up on me.

The nurse gave me some more ibuprofen to reduce my fever, and Sebastian helped me sit up when the food came. I got most of the yuck vegetable broth down, and some Jello with whipped cream. I didn't get warm ice cream, but I was given a frozen fruit bar instead and it was even better than the ice cream would have been. It was freezing, but still yummy.

I was wiped out after I ate that little bit of food, but I didn't want to be alone, so I patted the bed next to me. "Let's watch a movie."

Sebastian gently picked me up, slid into his bed with me, and, leaning back against the backboard, settled me between his legs until I was resting against him comfortably. He then pulled all the blankets up to my chin, even though he was probably roasting underneath them all.

We settled on a White Christmas. I loved the comedy, and the singing and dancing.

"I think I'll keep you," I said to him before I drifted off halfway through the "Sisters" number by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.

"I hope so," he whispered back.