<b>Chapter </b>148


    I reach out to my youngest, gently taking her chin in my hand as her pain filled eyes meet mine.


    “Make it go away. Please daddy, it hurts.”


    Madilyn whines as her sobs renew. I open the bottle of Ativan and take two of the soft dissolving pills out. Lilly has never seen me take medication unless I was injured and cocks her head to one side as I ce one whole pill under my tongue before breaking the second in half.


    “Lynnie baby, I need you to open your mouth and lift your tongue.”


    Her sobs have calmed enough for her toply and I ce the half a pill in her mouth.


    “It’s okay.” I nod and smile gently as she closes her mouth. “It will melt away. You shouldn’t taste anything, you just need to swallow the saliva that builds in your mouth.”


    Madilyn nods silently as Lilly looks at me again, this time there’s worry in her eyes as I do the same thing with the Zofran.


    It’s after I put the second medication in Madilyn’s mouth that I slide my hands under her arms. I wait for Lilly to loosen her grip before bringing to my chest, gently encouraging her toy on my shoulder.


    Instinctively, she settles into the spot giving her the best ess to my scent but I know the medication will take time to take effect- and I’m feeling guilty that I didn’t catch on sooner.


    “Ow, ow, ow. My tummy. Make it stop.” Madilyn wails as she tries to curl into a ball in my arms.


    “No, no baby. Don’t curl up.” I soothe as I use my hand to gently block her legs. “Grab my shirt Lynnie. Squeeze it hard.”


    I feel her little hands turn into fists as she cries into my shoulder.


    “Follow my count.”


    I whisper as I hold her tight to my chest knowing my body heat will act as a natural heating pad for her. She follows my lead as <b>I </b>gently slow down her breathing.


    I know I owe Lilly more of an exnation than I’ve already given but I want tofort Madilyn who is even more lost than Lilly.


    “Is this why you said you thought it was a curse?”


    She nearly whispers as I slowly rock Madilyn. Her fists are still gripping my shirt tightly but at least her sobs have quieted into soft whimpers. I nod as I start quietly exining what I never thought I would need to exin.


    “I’m not certain how old I was when it started. I just remember that I would suddenly have a queasy feeling in my stomach for a day before going into cramping and throwing up. When I was young my parents always thought it was a stomach virus because it would onlyst a few days before it disappeared. I was in school when it started happening more frequently,sting longer and bing more painful. They didn’t understand what was going on and the doctor couldn’t find any evidence of illness so they started punishing me for it instead of supporting me through the painful cramps. They thought that I was trying to get out of school even though I liked school and wanted to go.


    I got a bit more sympathy from the school nurse but eventually that waned as well. I was ten when I made the corrtion between dad bringing a sick, injured or abused wolf into the territory and my intense and sudden illness. I attempted to tell dad about it for two years but the more I tried to convince him of what was going on with me the angrier he got with me. It was a hard two and a half years.


    My dad had always been close with all four of us but my constant sickness wore him down a lot. It was two in the morning when a sudden need to hurl woke me from my sleep. I spent an hour in the bathroom throwing up and I was in so much pain that it took everything I had to get up and go to my parents‘ room. But I didn’t find thefort I was looking for. Instead my father was livid that I woke him up over it.”


    I stop my story as I feel Madilyn’s whimpers increase and her feet dig into me as if she’s trying to scramble up a tree. I ce my hand on her head.


    “Try to rx Lynnie. I know it hurts.”


    The Son of Red Fang