Sick For Them

Screams

Jax

She's amazing. She had fun taunting Chase about stealing Blake. I don't think I have ever seen Chase worry about losing one of us as much as he did at that moment.

My phone buzzes, and I take it out. Glancing at the text, I reply quickly and place it away. All they have done is complain about the film. Apparently, there is no storyline, just murder, blood, and guts, which is me.

Dhalia doesn't seem phased by it, though. These sorts of films phase most people, but not her.

At some point, she changed into something more comfortable. By the end, she had fallen asleep against me; that's how unaffected she was by it.

"So what do you think?" Blake slouches back more into Chase. I know he means Dhalia, but I'm still not sure.

"We need to keep her here to keep her safe. I'm pretty sure she will run screaming and find her ex, and the risk of death is less scary than me." I point out the facts.

I lose myself, and I accept that I do. I'm lucky to have Blake, someone who isn't scared or freaked out by my likes and wants. Something tells me that Dhalia is too sweet. Too f*****g innocent and pure. When I touch her, she will change, become dark and hate me.

"She could be fine." Chase looks at me now, trying to fight the corner with Blake.

"Remember Luna? You said she could be fine. That cost you a lot of money to make her forget, Chase." Too much f*****g money. I went slow, and I made sure I wasn't myself. Then I told her I said what I liked, and she laughed and said she was okay with it.

It wasn't until we were in that room and I started that she realised I meant it, then it was too late.

"Stop. I can see you bringing it back up. She said she liked it, and she said she had done it before. It's not on you that she lied." Chase strokes my neck, and I nod. He's right, but I still feel guilty.

"Not yet," I say as I stand, lifting Dhalia. I take her to bed, leave her there, and go to my room. Working from my phone, an hour passes, and I know that Chase and Blake are busy together. I don't want to interrupt them, especially when Chase has hurt Blake so much recently.

The scream has me jumping up and running through to Dahlia's room. She's thrashing and screaming. Grasping her face, I look at her.

"Dhalia!" Screaming, I shake her and watch her eyes focus. "Are you okay? You were screaming like you were being murdered." She was awake. What the hell?

She pulls the blanket around her.

"I'm cold; I'm fine," she mutters, and I laugh.

Fine? I feel her face. She's not fine. "No, you're not fine, and you're not cold." I go to pull the blanket away, and she pushes me back.

"I'm freezing. I think I know my own body."

"No, you're burning up," I pull and rip the blanket from her, and she frowns. Grabbing her, I lift her.

"What are you doing, giant man-ape?" she thrashes and tries to break free of my hold.

"You're burning up. You need to cool down. How do you feel?" I look at her and place her next to the sink.

"I'm okay, just cold; give me back my blanket."

That's not happening. I laugh and run a cloth under the cold water. Pushing her legs open, she moves back and glares.

Laughing, I push them open again. The nighty she is wearing raises more. "I'm not trying to f**k you, Sweetness." I place the damp close on one of her thighs, and she complains. "Now, honestly, how do you feel?"

"Like s**t," she moves, resting her head against the wall as I place a second damp cloth on her other thigh.

"Well, you won't like this, but you need to remove this." I pull on the thick, woolly nightgown. She tilts her head and glares. Sighing, I remove it from her, and she complains about it being too cold.

As it drops to the floor, I groan. She's not wearing f**k all under it. My eyes move across her body, and the bead of sweat rolling down her breast captures my attention briefly before my eyes go lower.

Why is she entirely naked under it? Forcing my eyes back to her face, she is smirking.

"Behave, why were you screaming?" I look at her as I place another damp cloth on her chest.

"I thought I was having a nightmare, but then I realised I was hallucinating." Her body shakes, and I look at her, worried. She was fine when she went to bed, but now she isn't. If she was hallucinating, that's proof her temperature went too high.

"What were you seeing?" I wait, and she shrugs.

"Nothing."

Nothing? Is she going to try and say it was nothing when she was screaming? "You know you screamed Carl's name, right?" She did, just before I rushed into her room.

"It doesn't matter. Can I have my blanket and sleep?" She looks at me.

"No, Dhalia, no blanket until your temperature comes down."

"I'm fine, Jax. You're overreacting," she mutters, and I laugh. Sure, I am, Sweetness.

"Let me grab you something. Don't f*****g move." I step back, and she nods.

"As if I could run away right now anyway." She groans, and leans into the wall more.

"I thought you were fine?" I step closer, and she glares at me.

"Tiredness. That's what I meant. I'm not sick, but I'm too tired to move."

Yeah, bullshit. Laughing, I walk through to the main bedroom and take out the box; hunting through it, I find the tablets. Walking to my room, I open the windows and turn on the fan to cool it before I walk back to Dhalia. Filling a glass with water, I hand her the tablets.

She doesn't argue; she takes them instantly and rests her head against my shoulder as I stand between her legs.

"Thank you," her words are whispered.

"No thanks are needed, Sweetness. You needed looking after." She hums in response. Now, what were you seeing?"

"Something from the past, but it's fine now." Her words are quiet and heavy. "Can I go back to bed now?"

"Not yet. If you're tired, fall asleep here on me. I'll keep your temperature down until the pills kick in." She can't be left alone; if it gets too high, it can be deadly.

She doesn't reply, and I feel her growing heavy against me. I try not to move too much other than to run the clothes underwater again once they have heated up.

Slowly, she stops shaking and sweating.

"Well...Well...Well..." Chase laughs from behind me.

"You two were quick to get time alone." Blake walks in, laughing. "We heard her screaming like you were having your usual fun." He stops when he sees her.

"Is she okay?" Chase moves closer.

"She has a fever, and her screaming was a memory, hallucination or whatever, not me cutting her for fun." I bite back, and they stare. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap."

I've never seen anyone get this ill before, and she scared me.

"You can't stand in the bathroom all night." Chase sighs, and I know he's right.

"I'm not planning to. One of you check if my room has cooled down enough. It will be better if the room is cool in case her temperature rises again.

Blake walks out, likely checking on my room.

"So you got her fully naked?" Chase chuckles.

"I didn't know she was naked under her nighty. I assumed she would at least have some underwear on." That was my mistake, but something that thick wouldn't have helped her get her body temperature down.

"It's cool enough. Let us know if she needs anything else." Blake looks at me, and I nod.

"She's with the best person out of us all; you're the best at taking care of people." Chase smiles and kisses me lightly before walking out.

"He's not wrong, you know, Jax. You might like blood, pain and stuff. You're sadistic and a hard Dom, but afterwards? You're the best career. She will be fine if you're looking after her." He smiles and walks out.

Standing, I waited a bit longer to ensure her temperature wouldn't spike again. When I was convinced she would be fine, I removed each cloth before lifting her.

Carrying her into my room, I place her in my bed and throw a lighter sheet over her body. She doesn't wake up. She stays asleep the entire time. Climbing in bed, I watch her sleep.

I try to sleep but fail; I keep feeling her skin to check that she isn't overheating again. I want to know what she saw, what made her scream.

Something tells me she hasn't been honest with us. Those screams were of someone fighting to survive—not just survive, but fight to be heard and saved.

It's a good thing she didn't tell me; I would kill Carl within seconds if I knew what she had seen that made her scream like that.

After about two o'clock, I give up trying to sleep. Instead, I sit up and work, constantly checking her and ensuring she is fine. She sleeps perfectly, never waking, and her temperature stays down as well. She wraps her body around mine at some point, and I can tell she's cold.

Moving, I throw the thicker blanket over her. She snuggles closer to me, and I let her. I'm not sure if her burning up caused the hallucination or if the memory and hallucination caused her to get a fever.

Strangely, she was fine when I put her in bed, then suddenly she wasn't. She said it was a hallucination, so what if it was a PTSD attack? Depending on how bad it is, that can cause you to have a fever. Sighing, I opened the messages on my phone, and when I found a name, I typed out a message.

Find out what you can about Carl, Dhalia and her father. Anything at all, no matter how small.

When I hit send, I instantly regretted doing it. Sure, I want to know everything, but this is not giving her time to tell me; instead, it's going behind her back—something I feel she will hate me for.

Forget that, don't do it.

I hit send on the message and relax. I shouldn't be sneaking around and looking into what happened to her. She should have the right to tell people when she feels she can trust them.

Those screams, though, confirm she is safer, far away from me and my sadistic tendencies. She has already suffered so much trauma from something, which proves she won't survive with me.

Chase and Blake may think she is going to fit into our world and our relationship, but this is all proof she won't. The door opens, and I glance towards it.

"How is she?" Chase leans against the frame of the door.

"Seems fine, which confirms my assumptions on what caused the entire situation." She's not ill; her fever was spiked by her having a bad episode of PTSD.

"Which is?" He waits, and my head shakes.

"I'll explain later. She needs to eat, so can you or Blake cook, please?" My plan is to talk to her about what happened, and hopefully, she will tell me everything this time—not half-truths, lies, or cover stories.

Chase simply nods and walks out. I'm not sure this will work with her living with us.