Echo Book 2

16. Bladder Infection

I stretch and I'm back in bed. The doctor meant it when he said I would sleep a lot today. I go to the kitchen. Malax and Tim are sitting on the couch.

"Don't eat, woman. We'll take you to dinner."

I run and jump on Malax. "I missed you."

"I missed you, baby. Did you get something to eat earlier?"

"Victor's nuts."

He laughs. "He does have good nuts. Tim was telling me about your idea."

"Other planets can vacation here too."

"Then you could put a small town for people from all planets to visit and meet each other."

"That's a good idea. But it's not mine. I was going to put them next door and give them snacks together."

"We could build a little town. Put in restaurants and stores."

I nod. "Snacks and dancing on the beach together. They could meet each other that way."

He smiles. "That's where your idea ends, isn't it?"

"Yes." I giggle and run to the kitchen.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm hungry."

"Let's go to dinner."

"Where are we?"

"My room." Tim stands up. "You kept falling asleep so I kept putting you in bed. It worked."

"Yea, I guess that would work. Thank you."

He winks at me. Then we go to the food place. The boys sit with me. They keep planning out the resorts and ships. Starlet brings me the drink list. It has the wine Malax likes on it.

Then we go to a meeting with Frank and his other planet leader. Half of Nadine's boys show up with my boys. They get in their regular seats in the meeting circle room.

A couple of other planet leaders come in with Alden. I must have a good idea.

I take the floor first. I don't think they wanted that. But I do it anyway, it's my idea. "Thank you for coming. This meeting is a discussion, not a negotiation. It's for sharing ideas. I will keep us moving. I am not afraid to interrupt you. I am not very nice. We don't have all night. I want to hear ideas. We will move forward later with negotiations."

Tye gives me a standing ovation. I laugh and run to the balcony.

Malax takes the floor. "She woke up finally. We're going to start with the resorts. Each planet participating will purchase the materials to build their resort. It can be built to their specifications."

"What?"

"We all seem to be about the same size. But if a planet of giants wanted a resort here, they would plan out the rooms to fit them."

Tim stands up. "Also, Echo purchased this resort for her people. These rooms have 1 bed in them. Big enough for 2 people. If you wanted to build your resort to accompany families as well, that would be fine. You will purchase the material to build it. You can control how your resort is built. We will give you the price and build it once it's paid for."

"How many people can we put in a resort? How big can it be?"

Dipak looks at Malax. "We have 72 rooms in each building. 5 buildings. That's 360 rooms. 2 person occupancy, that would be 720 at most here."

"72 rooms a building?"

"12 rooms per floor. 6 floors."

I put my hand up. "I'm ok letting parents bring up to 2 kids with roll out beds."

Malax nods. "So if everything was completely full, with children and adults. The occupancy would be 1440. The ship would have to hold that. We will put a maximum of rooms at 288 for other resorts. That is 12 rooms per level. 6 levels. 4 buildings."

Tim stands up. "Next is food. The ships will be made with a kitchen, animal, and farm area. They will each produce the food they need for your people, for the week." I watch him. He is so sexy. "You will be following our menu. We have 3 meals and snacks provided daily. The meals are from other planets. People don't want to go on vacation to another planet and eat their own food." He glances at me and his eyes go dark. He stops talking.

Tye laughs and jumps up. "In conclusion, the ship deals with your planet's food. They would also need a back-up meal choice, from your home planet, because we don't want anyone to starve."

Tim nods and blurts out, "Also, a doctor from your home planet is required to stay on the ship for the duration of your stay." Then he plops down.

"Why?"

Tim throws his hands up.

Malax takes over. "We were very lucky today. Echo was injured. She needed a doctor. By sheer luck, their ship had a doctor on it that could treat her. We did not bring one of our own. This is not negotiable. You would have to pay a doctor to stay in the medical area for the duration of your vacation."

"Do they have to be a certain length?"

"No. You will rent a ship for the length of the vacation. 7 days, 10 days, 20 days. We don't care. People are paying you for the vacations. You pay the doctor. You buy the food. You pay for the cleaning. You pay us for the ship rental. The rest of the money is yours."

I want to get my hands on Tim. I need to feel his muscles. Get my hands in his hair. Kiss him. Kiss his neck and lips.

He is staring at me with black eyes again. I love his eyes on me like that. I can feel them in my bones.

Dipak clears his throat so loudly, both of us jump. I run out. I have to pee. I go pee and it burns. I don't know what the hell that is about. I go back to my spot and watch them talk some more. I try not to stare at Tim.

I must fall asleep. I wake up with Malax in the morning. I run to the bathroom and pee again. It burns really badly. I look, and the toilet water is red. That's not good. I flush it fast and brush my teeth. Then we take a shower and sit down for breakfast.

"What's wrong, baby?"

"Nothing."

"Drink your juice."

"I'm not thirsty."

"Come here." I curl up on his lap. "Why are you about to cry?"

"It burns when I pee."

"It's a bladder infection, baby. Get some medicine from the doctor today and you'll be fine."

I snuggle against him and nod. I don't want to talk to the doctor about that.

Then Tim comes in. "What's wrong?"

I try to hide and Malax answers, "It burns when she pees. Hopefully they have the medicine, or I'll have to take her home for it."

"I'm sure they do. They have everything on that damn ship."

"Eat." Malax puts me in my seat again. "You'll be fine. You want me to go with you?"

I shake my head. "You yell too much."

"You really do."

"Well, they're idiots."

Tim refills his coffee. "No. It's because you have no control at the doctor's office. You don't like that."

"All they had to do was fix her so we could leave. But we had to sit through a speech and surgery. Just fix her so we can go."

Tim nods. "They have to figure out everything wrong first. Let's go, baby."

"They missed this."

Tim rolls his eyes. Then we go up to the ship.

The doctor sits his papers down. "Is your leg hurting?"

"No."

"Good. You seem to be good and awake as well. Did you take naps yesterday?"

"Yes."

"I'm clearing you. You still need to take it easy for a couple of days. The medicine was hard on you."

"Ok." I try to run out.

Tim pulls me onto his lap. "It burns when she pees."

"Hop up on the table, Echo. Let me feel your stomach."

I give Tim a dirty look and lay down.

The doctor pushes on me weirdly. "Any pain?"

"No."

"More than likely a bladder infection. I need you to pee in this cup and bring it back. I'll check for traces of blood and run some tests so we can get the correct medicine."

I pee in the cup. I'm pretty sure he'll be able to find blood. It's red.

The doctor gives it a double take when I get back. Then he jumps up. "Sit that down and hop up on the bed again. Are you on your monthly cycle?"

"No."

The doctor puts a clear shield over my body. Then types something into a computer. "I'll be right back. Going to run some tests on that. Stay as still as you can. This will take 5 or 10 minutes." He runs out with the cup.

"Does it hurt now, baby?"

"No. It only burns when I pee. I could have waited. I didn't want to tell. And he's a boy."

"He's a doctor and you're peeing blood. You're right where you need to be."

The bed beeps after a few minutes and the doctor lifts the shield. He does something on the computer and compares it with his papers. "Quite a nasty bladder infection. You're going to need a shot."

I dive from the bed. I straddle Tim and hide my face in his neck. I shake my head so fast.

Tim puts his papers down. "Where?"

"Shoulder or hip."

Tingles go through me as he lifts the side of my skirt up. Then he wraps his arms around me tightly. "Little poke, baby."

I feel it go in and I squeeze him. Then it hurts. It feels like fire in me.

"Massage the area. It'll help the medicine absorb faster. Now that shot comes with a very high chance of a v****a infection." I freeze solid. "What you're going to do..." I plug my ears.

Tim pulls my hands down. "Go outside. I'll figure out how to fix it."

I run to the desk and Dipak is standing with the nurses. "You good?"

"Yep. Perfect. All healed."

He puts an eyebrow up and Tim comes out with 3 boxes.

The doctor glances at Dipak. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"It's been an hour. I wanted to make sure everything was alright with her."

Tim looks up from a box. "We're coming back tomorrow too."

The doctor nods. "I need to do another follow-up with her tomorrow, and you know I can't discuss her medical information."

A nurse puts the boxes in a bag with some papers. "We'll see you tomorrow."