Rose

"Rose! I was looking for you, can you come?" Caroline rushed her way over to me and took my jacket, hanging it up in the wardrobe within a few seconds.

I nodded, frowning slightly by seeing her rather stressed and worried, concern laced on her features. "Is everything okay?"

Caroline wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, "Two colleagues called in sick and I have to be with the kids but a few patients and Zayn caught a very high fever. Someone needs to watch him. We weren't able to call other colleagues to cover up for those who are sick. A little problem as you can hear." She sighed and shook her head in disapproval, chewing on her bottom lip.

"It's busy, but it's too expensive to get nurses from another hospital. His room is number 28, in case you forgot. Make sure he doesn't get too warm and make sure he drinks enough. Those are the most important things for now. You can do your schoolwork while watching him, alright? If you've got any questions just push on the red help button." She patted my shoulder and I tried to remember everything she just said.

It was early so it took me a little longer than usual but when I got it and remembered it, I nodded and made my way over to the hallways, feeling rather worried myself.

"Good luck! I'll come soon." Caroline said. I simply smiled at her and walked a little faster, knowing he was alone right now and I didn't want anything to happen in the minutes that he was.

Walking for quite a while, I finally reached his room and knocked on the door. Once I realised I didn't get a response, which I had already expected, I slowly and quietly opened the door and closed it behind me.

Walking over to the bed, I stared at Zayn, who slept. The sheets were covering him up till his chest and his arms were resting beside his body. His face and hairline were wet from sweat but I noticed goosebumps on both of his arms- he was warm and cold at the same time, a symptom of fever. He looked extremely pale, tired and restless, but despite the fact that he was looking pale, his cheeks were on fire from the heat the fever was giving his body.

There was a slight frown on his forehead and his lips were slightly pouted as his cheek was pressed to his pillow. I was wondering if he was dreaming because of the frown, but he wasn't making any noises or movements.

Looking around, I saw a glass of water and a straw standing on his nightstand and next to that an already dried up cloth.

I swallowed, not sure of what to do right now. He wasn't awake so I couldn't ask him a thing. She told me he couldn't get too warm and he had to drink enough. Did I have to wake him to drink something? Did I have to wet his face with the cloth?

Swallowing again, I started to feel nervous. I placed my hand on his cheek and felt that it was extremely hot and clammy. I grabbed the cloth, walked over to the sink and wet it in cold water, walking back over to Zayn and slowly pressing the cloth to his face.

A soft groan left his mouth when the cold cloth touched his hot cheek and the frown became deeper, making it seem that he was uncomfortable.

"Zayn? Are you awake?" I asked quietly, not wanting to scare him since I knew everything sounded about ten times harder when you were sick or sleepy.

He didn't reply, he instead let out some more groans and whimpers which sounded like he was in pain and not feeling well at all. It made me feel sad, even more worried than I already was.

A moment later Caroline came back into the room and sighed deeply. "Alright, somebody showed up for the kids so I can be here for a while." She observed Zayn for a while and turned her attention back to me.

"Is it bad? The fever." I wondered. It was kinda obvious, but he had been sleeping the whole time so I didn't know what he'd be like when he was awake.

Caroline licked her lips, "Well.. he told us he was sweating a lot down there and when I wanted to help him change into something fresh I noticed that he accidentally.. you know. Urinated."

I sighed softly. "Oh my goodness." I shook my head. "That's.. sad."

"Just don't tell him." Caroline said quietly. "He doesn't know and I don't want him to feel embarrassed or anything. It's not his fault. He's too sick to feel if he needs to urinate or not. It happens."

I honestly felt bad for him. He really wasn't feeling well and it scared me a little. If I got a fever, I knew I would be able to fight against it but he was already so sick from cancer.. how was he going to fight this fever?

"He's sleeping." Caroline grabbed a small box and handed it to me. "Here, a saturation meter. You have to do this for one of your paragraphs, right? Go ahead." She smiled at me. giving me a reassuring nod.

Nodding, I smiled back and opened the small box. The saturation meter, which was to check the amount of oxygen in a person's blood, was small and I had to add it to one of his fingers.

Walking closer to his bed, I grabbed Zayn's hand which felt also really clammy, but his skin was soft and smooth. I slid the saturation meter on one of his long finger and switched it on. The meter was doing its work and while it was doing so, I started staring at Zayn again.

He had slowly moved his head back so it was facing the ceiling, but he frown was still there. I heard deep but short breaths leaving his nose, his chest raising fast and his coffee colored skin looking pale but his cheeks still flushed red.

Caroline started to wet his face again with the cold cloth and she kept staring at him with a worried expression on her face, my heart sinking to my shoes because of it.

The meter showed eighty- two percent, and that wasn't good. A healthy person would have at least ninety- five percent.

"Caroline, it says eighty two." I held Zayn's hand up to her so she could see and she shook her head, her expression thoughtful.

She sighed deeply, biting her cheek in worry, "It means he isn't getting enough oxygen. What's his heartbeat?"

I stared at the small meter again and sighed as well, "Low."

Caroline looked more concerned and she walked over to Zayn, softly patting his cheek. "Zayn, can you hear me?"

He didn't answer, nor made a movement to let us now he did.

She shook her head in concern, "Rose, you can check his temperature. That's another paragraph, right?" I nodded again and grabbed the thermometer which we could use for his ears.

Slowly pressing the thermometer into his ear while lightly pulling at his earlobe, I couldn't help but swallow nervously, noticing how Caroline was getting concerned more and more each second.

When the beeping sound was there, I took out the thermometer and my heart started beating at seeing his temperature. It wasn't good, at all, it being way too high. "Fourty- one degrees." I showed the thermometer to Caroline.

"This isn't good. At fourty two degrees some people die. He needs antibiotics. I'm going to get the doctor. Stay here and watch him." She left me alone, rushing over to the hallways and I started panicking for a while.

I sat down beside Zayn and slowly grabbed his hand again. "Zayn?"

No reply. He was shaking, shivering and sweating all at once. I could feel the heat from his flushed face at the distance I was sitting in. He was extremely warm and I could tell he was in pain as he started making noises. The well known noises of being in pain, being half asleep half awake and dreaming a lot.

It was like he was humming along with his pain. There were long hums, short hums, loud or quiet. His expression changed. His frown became deeper and his face was now also showing that he was in pain, deep frowns visible on his forehead, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Zayn?" I could tell that he was awake, as he swifted a tiny bit. He slowly opened his eyes and tried to look at me, though it went right through me.

He looked drowsy and absent, like it wasn't reaching him that I was sitting beside his bed. He couldn't really process things- his eyelids were slowly falling closed again and more soft whimperd were leaving his mouth.

It was a heartbreaking sound just because I knew he was in extremely much pain. I couldn't handle seeing him like this, especially because he was still in such an early stage of everything. How was he going to get through?

Luckily the doctor and Caroline came back into the room not much later, but the doctor's face stood as concerned.

He walked over to Zayn and I watched him as he gently sat him up, holding him up with his strength as Zayn was weak and would fall back onto the bed if the doctor let go of him. His head was resting against the doctor's leg and the doctor took off Zayn's shirt and laid him back down again.

My eyes landed on the spot his tumor was on and I saw how it had grown. It was swollen, appearing and showing as a bump. It was terrible to see and I now could only imagine the pain he was in. It was constantly putting pressure on his guts and skin with all of its nerve cells. I felt myself tearing up at the sight of it, of him, being so sick but I quickly blinked everything away.

"He's extremely warm. I'm going to give him antibiotics through a face mask so he can breathe it in. We're going to cancel the chemotherapy for today. It's way too dangerous. He's in a bad state right now." The doctor explained.

I swallowed and watched him as he started up another infusion for antibiotics and he added the face mask to Zayn's face.

"Did he get the chemotherapy yesterday?" The doctor asked. I couldn't know. It was the weekend and I didn't have to work.

Caroline nodded. "He did. He did not really show any signs of the fever, that's what they told me. But.." She stared at Zayn. His breathing was more audible because he was wearing a mask now. "He hides everything. He'll go on until his body really cannot take it anymore. Which happened now. He really is sick. He doesn't give up easily so this proves that he went on even when he apparently was already sick."

"If he would've shown, I wouldn't have allowed him to have chemotherapy yesterday either." The doctor sighed. "This should help him for a while. He needs to be watched, though."

Caroline nodded and we watched the doctor leave, "Rose, if it's too much to ask you can just say it, but would you like to watch him?"

"I'll do it." I smiled at her, sat down on the chair and gave her my notebook so she could paragraph the procedures I had done on Zayn.

While I was watching him.