When he woke, he knew three things.
A significant amount of time had passed.
The pain in his abdomen had returned with a vengeance.
And he was burning up.
He tried to call for someone, but his voice hadn’t quite woken up yet.
It took some effort, but he managed to get to the en suite bath under his own power, just in time to empty the meager contents of his stomach into the bowl.
Even as he tried to control the roiling, the irony struck him.
Once it felt safe, he sat back leaning against the cabinet until he could gather the strength to stand.
His phone would come in handy, but it had been left downstairs.
That alone was a testament to how poorly he’d been feeling - he was never without his phone.
It took even more out of him to grab the quilt to wrap around himself then walk downstairs.
“Ricky!” The use of his nickname shock in Elise’s voice told him what he must look like even more than the shocked tone. “Call the doctor!” In seconds, she stood in front of him as he leaned on her.
Her hand felt cool on his forehead confirming his suspicion about his temperature.
“You’re burning up!” Elise wrapped an arm around his waist and steered him toward the sofa.
Frederick started to shiver. “So cold.”
She tucked the quilt more tightly around him.
“The doctor is on his way.” His mum sat across from him. “He’ll be here in a few minutes.”
He let his head fall backward with his eyes closed against the brightness of the lights.
Elise stood, and he felt her absence, but a few seconds later, the light on the other side of his eyelids began to dim and he could relax just a bit.
He heard the outer door open and quiet voices in the distance.
“You should have called me last night.”
The voice wasn’t the local doctor, but his usual one. Someone must have decided to contact him.
“Fortunately, for you, I was staying at the resort on holiday.”
Frederick managed to open his eyes. “Thank you for interrupting your time away.”
“It is, quite literally, my job, young man.”
Very few people could get away with calling him that.
“But not on holiday.”
“If you were at the palace, that would be true, and someone else would fill in. However, since you’re not and I’m nearby, I came as soon as your team reached out.”
While he spoke, the same nurse from earlier took Frederick’s vitals. She wrote them down then showed them to the doctor.
He listened to Frederick’s heart and lungs then asked, “Do you have a place on this floor where he can lay down properly?”
