Night
I finally got the damn thing put together and we were able to move Hope from the bed to the bassinet thing, and get her all settled. Then I could finally go and get us some food.
I brought it back to the room, "I hope you like pasta, the girls made spaghetti, it's usually easy to make and is good for a crowd and the kids generally like it."
I handed her a plate and got us both bottles of water,"I like it just fine, I'm not picky about food." she said to me.
She paused for a sec and looked at me, "You said girls, do you all have club girls here?"
"We do after a fashion, but I can guarantee that they're not what you are thinking. The club girls here are usually college students, or on the street, but we offer them a job. They work for the club doing cleaning, tending bar, cooking, and child care sometimes. They are also the ones who set up everything when we have club parties. Now, they are all single, they have their own room, and if a man wishes to hook up he can ask nicely, if she says yes, okay they do their thing. If she says no, end of discussion, he looks elsewhere."
She seemed to relax at that, and I knew that The Devil's Hogs and The Savages were known to mistreat their club girls, and a lot weren't there willingly.
"Okay, that sounds good." She started eating, and it seemed like she was holding back from just shoveling it in her face.
"Baby, there will never again be a time that you go without food if I have anything to say about it. So you don't have to worry about not having enough, but you might not want to stretch your stomach too much, we don't want you getting sick. I have snacks and stuff for us here if you are hungry later." I watched her as she looked up at me and nodded, then she slowed down some.
"Yeah, I haven't really eaten much besides crackers and water, or maybe some peanut butter crackers for a few days. I was worried that my milk would dry up and I wouldn't be able to feed Hope." She paused and took a deep breath.
"You don't have to worry, our daughter will never go without either. I will make sure you both have everything you need, and I will try to fulfill a bunch of wants as well." I grinned as I said that.
She smiled a little shyly, which was an improvement to the scared, or gobsmacked, or just plain confused look she had been sporting for the most part. I thought to myself that I was going to get her to give me a real smile, and then I would work on making sure that was a common thing for her, smiling.
I could tell that she was getting sleepy, "Sweetheart, why don't you lay down and try to sleep for a bit. I will stay here with you and Hope so you know you are both safe. If anything happens and I need to leave I will wake you up first okay?"
She looked at me like she was trying to judge if I was telling her the truth, "Yeah, okay, I am really tired. Could you help me to the bathroom first?"
I helped her to the bathroom, and she pretty much blushed the whole time. Now, while I thought her blushes were cute as fucking hell, I didn't point it out. I just pretended I didn't see a damn thing.
It wasn't long after she laid down in the bed that she was out. I got out my tablet and started checking markets. I liked to do all sorts of stuff with stocks and our portfolio. I had actually helped make the club a good bit of money. I also had a pretty good nest egg set aside for myself, so I knew we wouldn't have to worry about money.
She had been asleep for maybe 30 to 40 minutes, when she started whimpering and tossing in her sleep. I figured she was probably having a nightmare, and with her background, I am sure, unfortunately, she had more than enough to fuel her nightmares.
"Baby wake up for me." I touched her arm gently not wanting to scare the shit out of her. I noticed her skin was hot. I felt her face and she was definitely burning up.
She finally opened her eyes and looked at me, but it took a minute before she spoke,"Hope?"
"No hon, Hope is still asleep and just fine. You were having a bad dream, so I wanted to wake you up. You feel like you have a fever darlin, I need to call Bones, you just rest okay." She nodded and closed her eyes.
I took out my phone and called Bones, "Hey, Night, What's up?"
"Bones, Rayne is burning up. What should I do?"
He sighed, "Let me come and check on her. I am worried about the state of that wound in her stomach. We might have to get her on some antibiotics if she starts showing signs of infection. I will be there in just a minute."
He hung up and I put my phone away. I walked over and checked on Hope, but she was still sleeping peacefully.
I heard a knock at the door and opened it for Bones and I was a bit surprised to see Shannon there as well.
"Hey Shannon, everything okay?" She smiled at me and walked over to Hope.
"Yes, Night, everything is fine. However, if Rayne has an infection and is really sick, she might have trouble breastfeeding, so we might need to supplement formula for this little one. We have some here, I think we should have enough, especially with the fact that Hope is so young. So I just wanted to let you know that we will help take care of that if it becomes necessary."
"Thanks Shannon, yeah I didn't think of that. I am probably gonna need quite a bit of advice if Rayne is out of commission."
Bones smiled, "You know Shannon loves the babies, just watch, she will have her away from you before you even know what the hell happened."
Shannon smiled and swatted his arm playfully, while Bones sat on the side of my bed and felt Rayne's forehead.
"Yeah, she's definitely burning up. Can you get a cool washcloth for us to put on her head?" as he asked, I hurried to do just that.
Bones had one of those electronic temperature things, so he ran it over her forehead and he mumbled,"Fuck, that's bad."
"What's up, Bones?" I asked as I handed him the washcloth. "Talk to me."
"Her temp is 103.4, so she's not doing so great. I should have insisted she take some tylenol earlier, I just didn't catch any signs of infection. I need to go and check my meds to see what antibiotics I have, and we will have to get her going on them. When I get back I will change her bandage and take a look at everything. Try to keep her as comfortable as possible, and hydrated if you can get her to drink."
Both Bones and Shannon left to go and check medications, and get bandage supplies. Now I just had to wait and see what we could do.
This was new for me. Normally I just handled problems, now here was one I was totally out of my depth with. Not to mention a new daughter that frankly I was clueless how to take care of for the most part. I knew at this age it was basically feeding, changing, and putting to sleep. So I would just have to figure it out, and thank god I had help.
Now, I had to get my woman well. I heard her start to whimper and move around again, so I crawled in bed next to her and just pulled her into my arms so she would know I was there. It actually seemed to help her calm down.
Then she opened her eyes and looked at me,"He killed my mom ya know."
What The Fuck?