"Wait, I think this is her!" A woman came out to talk to me. "Short, dirty blonde, green eyes from the food court, right?"
"Yes! Yes! Is she in there?"
"Yes, the poor thing has a stomach bug and is tossing her lunch in there. Must have eaten something that doesn't agree with her too much."
I breathed the biggest sigh of relief.
"Thank God! Thank you, ma'am. Can I ask you one last favor?"
"Sure, sweetheart."
"Can you ask her if she needs anything like water or a ginger ale..."
"Of course." A minute or two went by, and she returned. "Bless her heart, poor girl, she said she would like a ginger ale. I'll stay with her; you go get the drink. Go, go, she'll be fine."
I shakily blew more of the stress away and called Julian as I marched to the nearest vending machine.
"I found her; she's up in the bathroom near the food court."
"That's a long piss." His sarcasm made me laugh.
"Nah. She ate something bad; she was too busy blowing chunks."
"Ew... Hospital food will do that to ya."
"Yeeeah, meet me up here, will ya?"
"On my way."
He met me on the way to the bathroom with the ginger ale, and we both handed the soda to the nice woman, who retreated into the bathroom and helped nurse Ludo for me. A few moments later, she emerged from the bathroom.
"She's coming out now; she's just collecting herself. You two are mighty nice to help a stranger like that." I cocked my head and shot a confused look at Julian before turning to clarify with the woman when—
"Shit." My attention snapped to Julian, whose body was blocking Ludo's small frame from me.
. . . . . - . . . . . - . . . . . - . . - . . . . - - - . . . .