He stumbled forward, his eyes half closed.
“Whoa, babe, you look worse than you did when you went in.” Ava hurried to his side, dropping her coffee cup on the nightstand.
“Yeah,” he answered with a shake of his head, sweat beading on his brow “I didn’t sleep. “How’s it looking at the hospital, Doc? Can Ava and I have a free pass to stay home?”
Kyle frowned at him, his eyes narrowing as he took a step closer. “You feeling okay?”
Ava had the same question. Something didn’t look right with Alex, and it wasn’t just a lack of sleep. Worry twisted her insides into a knot.
“I’m tired. I didn’t get much sleep. And I have a stiff neck from that stupid chair they have. Remind me to bring my own chair next time I have to save the world from a deadly virus.” The lopsided grin he tried to give them amped her worry up to the next level. He looked like he was too tired to even smile.
Ava pressed a hand against Alex’s cheek, her stomach lurching as heat burned through her fingertips. “Babe, you’re burning up.”
“Probably hot from the shower.”
But Ava didn’t buy that explanation. She’d seen the feverish people in the hospital last night, seen how quickly family members fell ill while tending to their loved ones, and how quickly they’d gone downhill.
Had Alex contracted the deadly flu virus?
“Uhh, you may want to sit down, Mav,” Kyle suggested as he swayed on his feet, his eyes barely open.
“Yeah, maybe. I feel really tired. I’ll just–”
“Ace?” Ava asked when his words stopped short.
He collapsed forward, crumpling into Kyle who managed to catch him before he hit the floor.
Ava’s heart skipped a beat as Kyle dragged him toward the bed with Sebastian’s help. “Alex?!” she cried, tears stinging her eyes as the very real possibility that he could be sick with a flu virus designed to quickly kill him shot through her.
“Doc, tell me this isn’t what I think it is,” she said, her voice trembling.
“Let me grab my bag. I’ll be right back.”
Ava grabbed Alex’s hand as she climbed onto the bed next to him. “Alex, come on, babe, you need to wake up.”
She gently patted his cheeks until his eyelashes finally fluttered open. With bleary eyes, he stared up at her. “Avs?”
“Hey, Ace,” she said, her features pinching as she fought the urge to cry. “You gave us a little scare.”
“What happened? I wanted to sit down, and then I don’t remember anything.”
“You got to do that,” Sebastian answered. “The hard way. Doc dragged you over to the bed after you passed out.”
“I fainted?” Alex asked, his eyebrows pinching.
Ava nodded as Kyle hurried back into the room. “Yeah, babe, you did. How do you feel? Are you sick? Sore throat?”
“Uhh,” he started as Kyle pulled his stethoscope from his bag and shoved it into his ears, pressing the other end against Alex’s chest. “I’m just tired. I feel…kind of bad. And I have a headache.”
“Achy?” Kyle asked.
“Yeah, I guess. This bed stinks, though. I mean, seriously? I don’t think they’ve changed it since the motel opened.”
Ava shot Kyle a worried glance, her lower lip trembling.
“Okay, let’s not jump to any conclusions here, okay? I’m going to grab a blood sample from you, and a throat swab, okay?”
“Throat swab. Why would I…oh, no. No,” Alex said, his eyes going wide. “No, you can’t think that I have this flu, right?”
