Chapter Six, Part One

"Ugh.." I groaned as I forced myself up into a sitting position, swinging my legs out of the bed to rest my feet on the carpeted floor of my bedroom. Six o'clock in the morning couldn't have come at a worse time. My perfectly vivid dreams of walking around in the countryside of Champs Les Sims had been interrupted by my phone alarm going off, that I quickly shut off the moment my eyes had flew open. Today was another normal Tuesday, which meant I had to work, not that I'm complaining since I love my job and everything... But today I just wasn't feeling it. My stomach flipped and flopped, and ached, it was one of the worst feelings in the world. There was no time to feel sorry for myself and wish that I could just crawl back into bed and sleep in.

Jay had apparently gotten up much earlier than he normally does, since he was completely dressed for the day and already hard at work painting a piece to sell once it was finished. He's a self-employed Painter now, and has been for about a month and a half and he even has a new look to go along with his new job. As artistic as he is, he should have no problem with making this his career. After all he has the passion and drive to become a famous painter one day, and I definitely have faith in him. He's already completed a few paintings for different clients.

"Good morning, sweetie." I chirped, trying to hide the fact that I felt absolutely horrible.

"Morning, love. How did you sleep?" Jay asked, turning to me as he lowered his paint brush for moment so we could talk.
"Pretty good. Wish it was Wednesday, so I could have that mid-week break from work and we could spend some time together." I replied slowly, a smile stretching across my lips.

"Ah, me too.. It seems like we haven't seen much of each other lately."
"I know. I'm sorry, but you know how my job is..." My voice trailed off as I looked down at the floor for a second, before my phone started beeping again, alerting me to what time it was now. "Six-forty!? Ugh, sorry hun, I have to go eat really quick and get a shower in."
"Okay, then. I'll be here when you get home, I'm going to make autumn salad tonight, what do you think about that?"
"Mm, sounds good. I'll see you around three then. Love you!" I said as I quickly gave Jay a peck on the cheek before starting into the kitchen.
"Love you too!" Jay called after me as I exited the room.

When I made it to the kitchen, I opened the fridge hoping that there was something interesting to eat for breakfast besides leftovers. Much to my disappointment though, there wasn't anything in there that sounded even remotely appetizing to me, so I ended up settling on a bowl of cereal -- cornflakes to be exact. They were good and filled me up enough that I could make it until my lunch hour at work. My stomach even felt like it was feeling better now that I had gotten some nourishment into it. Soon the bowl was empty and I quickly took the now empty dish to the sink and washed it. Now all that was left for me to do was take a quick shower and get dressed for work, then I could sit and relax for a couple of minutes before I had to take off for the day. So within a couple minutes I was in the shower, and definitely enjoying my shower, in fact I think the warm water was a little too enjoyable since it relaxed me and refreshed me so much that I lost track of time. By the time I got out of the shower it was almost seven fifty, which left me very little time to dry my hair and get dressed.

Thankfully I did have enough time to get my hair dried and brushed, as well as get dressed for work before the carpool arrived. I had only just finished getting into my work clothes when the carpools car horn sounded, signaling that it was time to go. As I was walking towards the front door though, my stomach began to feel very weird again, much like it had earlier that morning when I first woke up. Thinking that the feeling would go away, I went ahead and walked outside, but walking around seemed to make it worse and I began to feel dizzy, and a little warm. The carpool was waiting, and honked again, but I couldn't move. This weird feeling had me frozen, and when I stopped for a moment to see if I could shake the weird feeling in my stomach, it was too late.

Without a warning, I threw my body forward, leaning over as vomit came spewing out. The seconds before it happened, I had tried to make it stop, but there was no way that my body could have stopped it. It took a good two minutes before the vomiting stopped, and I was able to stand upright again, that was so gross, not to mention embarrassing. However, there was work to be done and not even vomiting was going to stop me from getting to work and doing my job (luckily there weren't any surgeries planned for today).

"You okay?" The driver asked, sending me a concerned look as I got inside the car and buckled my seat belt. She had obviously seen the violent vomitting episode I had.
"Oh, I'm fine! It's probably just a little twenty-four hour bug that's going around. I'm not contagious, I don't have a fever or anything." I replied, offering a smile to the girl. After I replied to her, the car became silent and the whole three minute drive to work was underway. At least my stomach was once again feeling better now that I had vomited, perhaps the cereal didn't sit right on my stomach or something. I didn't have much time to ponder about what caused my sudden puke-fest, because the car pulled to a stop infront of the hospital almost as fast as I had gotten in the car back at my house.

Undoing my seat belt and opening the car door, I thanked the girl for driving me and slowly got out of the vehicle. A small sigh escaped my lips, as much as I loved working here, today just was not a good day for me. However, I sucked it up and made my way into the hospital to go clock in, only to find out that I had to go do Free Clinic duty.

As much as I didn't want to do Free Clinic duty today, since my stomach has been acting up the whole day and that queasy feeling that I had just moments before I vomited earlier in the morning as now back with a vengeance; I was still very fulfilled when I could help make other people feel better. Helping and healing others has been my life since I moved to Twinbrook for a chance to work at the hospital. I'm very pleased to say that there were a lot of happy patients leaving once they had been treated. All of them thanked me for my time and for listening to them about what was ailing them. I'm happy that I buckled down in medical school and finished early, and it also helps that I have a very understanding husband who believes in my ability as a doctor. The Free Clinic was a success and the hospital was also very pleased to hear how many patients I had treated during the day. However, two o'clock in the afternoon couldn't have come any sooner than it did, I was ready to get out of here!

As soon as I checked the time and confirmed that it was indeed, two o'clock, I told everyone that the clinic was over and apologized to the patients who hadn't gotten treated yet, there were only a couple left waiting. Then I told the few who were left that the hospitals' clinic wing was still open and would be until five o'clock. Once I was sure that the people were informed of this and after answering a couple questions, I ran for the company car.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the company car, because my body decided that right this moment was the perfect time to vomit some more. I could feel the acidic liquid coming up, but again tried hard to fight it off, yet there was no use. Now I was starting to get a bit worried, why was I all of a sudden so sick? The day had been long and tiring, and now all I wanted to do was go home to my loving husband and cuddle with him on the sofa to get my mind off of this weird sickness. It was just the unexplained nausea that was bothering me, there weren't any other symptoms that were pointing to one thing in particular, so again, I just shrugged it off and chalked it up to something that I had eaten for lunch or it was a stomach bug.

Once I had made it to the company car that the hospital lets me drive around in now when I have to do vaccination clinics and free clinics, I sat there for a moment taking in a deep breathing and calming down from the events of a few seconds before. Tomorrow was Wednesday, and it would give me a chance to rest up and maybe even break down and go to the doctor if things got worse than they were now. After calming myself down and clearing my mind, I began to drive home. Jay is probably finishing up a painting and about to start on making that yummy autumn salad he mentioned this morning. My mouth began to water at the thought of digging into the salad, but then a sudden thought occurred, what if I throw up again? That wouldn't be pleasant at all, and Jay would most likely be worried.

As I drove down the road, I thought myself in thought, only to be pulled from them a few seconds later by my beeper going off. Quickly, I checked it when I came to a stop at a stop sign in the middle of town.

"Oh for the love of... UGH!" My voice was full of disappointment and anger, it wasn't like me to feel this way about being called back into work. Tonight wasn't my night to be on call, but apparently the on call doctor was unavailiable which meant I had to go in. This most definitely was not my day at all. I wanted so badly to call the hospital and tell them that I wasn't feeling well and I needed to go home and rest, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead, I put my beeper away after checking it and then headed in the direction of the hospital, totally forgetting to call Jay and let him know. In all honesty, I just wanted to get there and solve the issue, then get home as quickly as possible.

------ Jays' POV (Point of View)

My whole day, and every artistic fiber in my body went into creating this work of art. This was one of the best paintings I have done since beginning my journey into becoming a famous painter, or at least a well known one. Hopefully this one sells for my asking price of four hundred and eighty-five dollars. It may not be much, or the best yet, but I know that I will one day be painting must have masterpieces. Thankfully, I finished the painting around three o'clock, the same time that Estelle said she'd be home by.

So after putting the painting in a safe place for storage until I could get around to selling it, I made my way into the kitchen to get started on that autumn salad I had told Estelle I would be making for us tonight. It didn't take very long to chop all the vegetables, and it only took about two or three minutes to get everything evenly mixed into a large salad bowl. Then it came time to add in mine and Estelle's most favorite Italian salad dressing to the mix. I only hoped my salad tasted half as good as the ones Estelle makes, she's one of the best cooks that I have ever known whether she wants to admit it or not. Soon though the salad was ready and I placed it on a serving plate, then washed out the bowl I mixed the ingredients in. It was now about four thirty in the afternoon and Estelle was still not home.

By the time five thirty rolled around, I couldn't wait until Estelle made it home from work. My stomach had been rumbling from hunger pains for a while now and I could feel myself start to feel a bit sick from not eating anything. I scooped a good helping of autumn salad onto my plate and grabbed a fork from one of the counter drawers then made my way over to the kitchen table, placing my plate full of salad onto the wooden surface. I then sat down and began to eat the salad that I had prepared, after a few large bites my stomach stopped rumbling as much and I felt a little better now that there was at least a little bit of food in my system.

When I had finished my plate, I immediately got up from the chair and took my dish to the sink and washed it. A sigh escaped my lips as I looked out the kitchen window, it was getting pretty late now, it was almost six o'clock in the evening. It took every fiber in my body to keep from calling Estelle's cell phone to make sure she was okay, but I didn't want to call in case she was in the middle of a life saving procedure. That's when I made the decision that I would call the hospital and ask for her if she wasn't home by seven. Feeling a little better about my decision, I quickly placed the leftover salad into the fridge so it wouldn't go bad before Estelle could eat any of it. Now what was I going to do with myself?

I decided that maybe if I painted something it might help the time pass by quicker and help me not miss my wife so much, but it was hard, because she is the world to me. Somehow I managed to get into my zone though and begin painting something a little different, and smaller than the last few paintings I had done.

------------------ Estelles' POV

 When I finally arrived home, I walked up the steps, and through the front door. At first I didn't see Jay anywhere, but within a few seconds my eyes focused on my husband who was smiling a huge smile at me as he came to stand just a few inches in front of me. Despite how bad I was still feeling, a smile managed to push itself onto my face as I reached my hands out and grabbed his.

"Hey there. Sorry I'm late.. I got called back in pretty much as soon as my shift ended."

"It's okay.. I understand... Oh, I made that autumn salad that I mentioned to you this morning, the rest of it is in the fridge, I hope you don't mind, but I already ate without you..." Jay replied, shooting me a worried look, afraid that I would be upset with him for not waiting on me to get home.

"Mmm, salad, yes.. It sounds so good right now. Don't worry about it Jay, I'm not mad at you for eating without me. I would expect you to eat without me if you're hungry and I'm not here."

"Good. Okay, so do you want me to sit with you while you eat?"

"Sure." I replied softly, but then I suddenly remembered, I needed to tell him about my nausea issues just in case something happens after consuming the salad. "Oh, Jay.. Um, have you been feeling a bit under the weather?"

"No, why?"

"No reason... Just wondering." I said quickly as I let go of his hands and went to the fridge to get some salad. Something inside of me just couldn't bring myself to tell him about how bad I've been feeling today, I just didn't want him to worry if it was nothing and I didn't want him to worry if it was something... I guess I just didn't want him to worry at all. Surprisingly he didn't pry for a better explanation or why I suddenly just dropped the subject and went to get my food, that was okay with me though.

My autumn salad that Jay made for dinner was excellent, he definitely could make a great salad. It's a rare thing for Jay to make dinner, since I'm normally home to cook and if I hadn't had such a passion for helping people and saving lives, I would probably have my own cooking show and be a well known chef right now. Jay still sat down at the table with me while I ate, and we talked about the painting he had finished earlier in the day and the smaller one that he just started working on before I got home. I then filled him in on the free clinic I had to do today and talked about the latest going ons in Twinbrook. Before I knew it though, it was almost time for bed, as well as our show that comes on at nine o'clock. Jay washed my plate for me so I could hop in the shower and get out of my work clothes.

After my shower the two of us sat together on the couch and began watching our favorite television show. However it didn't last long since a local news broadcast interrupted the show, right in the middle of it too. The news broadcast lasted forever it seemed like, and right when the news went off and the channel flipped back to the show we had been watching, we only caught maybe two minutes of the end and then that was it. So we decided that it was best for us to go to bed for the night. It had been a really long and tirind day. And even though we didn't spend much time together on this particular day, we couldn't have been happier spending what time we could together, after all, that's what life is all about... Spending time with the person or people who mean the most to you.