It was maybe a few hours later when Ali finally pulled up outside the hospital. Switching off the engine, she stepped out of her car and into the frosty January air. She could see her breath misting in front of her face, and she felt the icy wind bite at her cheeks.

Snuggling further into her thick coat, she quickly made her way to the entrance of the hospital and immediately relished the warmth she felt as soon as she walked inside.

Relaxing a little as her body began to warm up again, Ali glanced around the reception area for a sign to point her in the direction of the surgical ward.

"Can I help you with something?"

Ali started at the sound of the voice just over her shoulder. Quickly turning around, she was relieved to see a nurse looking at her curiously, a kind smile on her face.

"Actually, if you could tell me which way to the surgical ward, that would be fantastic" Ali answered, putting her hands in her jacket pockets.

The nurse nodded and gestured down a corridor to their right.

"Just down that corridor there, up the first flight of stairs and then you should see a sign to the ward" she directed, still smiling.

Ali swore that all nurses were required by their contract to be smiley at all times while on shift - especially when dealing with relatives.

She gave the nurse a grateful nod and a quick word of thanks before she set off down the corridor.

Following the nurse's directions, it took her about two minutes to reach her destination. She knew she'd arrived anyway, because she saw Ant coming out of one of the doors a bit further down.

"Hey Al" he greeted, face lighting up with a big smile upon seeing her approaching.

Ali pulled her friend into a tight hug, more grateful than ever for his presence.

"How's he doing?" she asked as they pulled apart.

Ant smiled fondly as he considered his answer.

"Fast asleep last I checked - been asleep since we hung up" he replied, an affectionate glint in his blue eyes.

Ali couldn't help a fond smile of her own - she could just imagine.

"Poor thing" she murmured softly, shaking her head.

Ant smirked a little, before a yawn surprised them both.

"I'd best be off - Lisa's got family over for dinner tonight, and I'm supposed to be there" he decided after the yawn had dissipated.

Ali let out a soft laugh, clapping a hand on Ant's shoulder.

"Alright pet, you'd better get going" she agreed, pulling him into a grateful hug once more.

"Like I said, thanks so much for looking after him" she whispered into his shoulder.

Ant squeezed her a bit tighter at that, before he replied with "No probs, Al" - but his words said so much more.

And Ali heard every single one - beyond grateful that she and Declan had such a wonderful friend in Ant.

They soon pulled apart again, Ant turning to leave the ward with a cheery wave over his shoulder. Ali returned it with a smile, before turning on her heel and walking down to the door she had seen him come out of earlier.

Inside was a darkened room, set up for just one person. Ali closed the door silently behind her and tiptoed over to the lone bed, eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness.

She found Dec fast asleep on the bed - but, in contrast to earlier that morning, he looked so impossibly small and vulnerable; lying curled up in the hospital bed with an IV attached to his wrist and still looking rather pale and sickly.

Taking a seat in the hard chair that had previously been occupied by Ant, Ali took Dec's limp hand in her own, reaching up to rest her other hand on his head.

"Oh sweetheart, what are we going to do with you?" she mused sadly, unconsciously starting to card her hand through her husband's sweaty hair.

A quiet snuffle answered her, and she had to smile a little as she felt a push against her hand. It was then that she had realised that her hand had stopped moving, and she quickly resumed her petting.

"Hullo, I thought you were asleep" she mumbled amusedly, raising an eyebrow ever so slightly.

This time, her answer was a sleepy huff and another little nudge into her hand.

"Come on, sleepy-head" she encouraged, using her thumb to run back and forth over Dec's temple.

Finally, his eyes slowly started to crawl open - revealing glazed irises that wobbled a little as they struggled to focus.

"Hey you" Ali whispered softly, hand pausing in its stroking momentarily and coming to rest on the side of his head.

Hazel eyes rested at half-mast as lethargic eyelids blinked sluggishly up at her. It took a few milliseconds, but a tiny smile slowly started to curl at her husband's dry lips.

"Hey" he croaked back, making Ali wince sympathetically at the sound of his voice.

Resuming her stroking, she pressed a gentle kiss to Dec's forehead - frowning a bit at the warmth it still had.

"You doing okay?" she asked quietly, concern dominating her expression.

Dec smiled tiredly at her, eyes still struggling to stay open.

"Jus' really tired. M' glad it's out though" he replied, voice barely able to get above a murmur.

Ali's own smile turned a little sad.

"Yeah, surgery will do that" she agreed, before her gaze softened and she reached around to rub circles on the back of Dec's neck - smiling wider as he hummed contentedly.

"I'm just glad you're on the mend" she continued, relief clear in her voice.

"Mmm" was the sleepy reply she got - it was clear that he wasn't going to be awake for very much longer.

Ali couldn't resist a quiet chuckle at that. She leaned over and pressed a warm kiss to the side of her husband's head, nuzzling into his damp hair for a moment before pulling away.

"Go back to sleep, sweetheart" she coaxed in a whisper, half-smiling when Dec simply sighed and dropped right back off to sleep.

Something still niggled in the back of Ali's mind though - something that told her that their ordeal wasn't quite over just yet.......

*****

Dec woke up a few times during the night, and every time he was still very lethargic and uncharacteristically quiet. The doctors and nurses tried to reassure Ali that it was simply the result of the anaesthetic- on top of having been sick - that was making him so listless.

Ali had a sneaking suspicion that that wasn't quite the whole story; she saw the looks that the nurses tried to hide whenever they came in to check on her husband, and - in particular - to take his temperature.

In the end - at around 10pm - she went out on a limb and asked one of the nurses what was going on.

"The doctors are just a bit worried about his temperature at the moment - it hasn't settled down quite as quickly as we would have liked" the nurse had explained, frowning a little at her sleeping patient in worry.

Not quite the answer Ali had been hoping for, but not one she could really argue with. After all, these doctors and nurses were the ones with the medical degrees, not her: they knew what they were doing.

They ended up trying all sorts of methods to try and get Dec's temperature under control - cool towels, antipyretics inserted into his IV, even a cooling gel applied over the major blood vessels (Ali wasn't quite sure about the validity of that last one, but she had to give them props for trying).

Eventually - at around 4am - Dec's temperature finally looked to be stabilising, and Ali could get a little rest herself.

She never realised just how tired she was until she felt someone shaking her shoulder. Blearily blinking awake, she raised her head and was greeted with the sight of Lisa at her side and Ant standing just behind his wife. A quick glance at the clock above the door told Ali that she had been asleep for just under three hours.

"Oh pet, you look like you haven't slept all night" Lisa murmured mournfully, pulling her friend into a hug - which Ali gladly reciprocated.

"That's because I only fell asleep about half-four" Ali explained, rubbing a hand over her face tiredly.

At Ant and Lisa's confused looks, Ali let out a weary sigh.

"His temperature's been up and down all night - they've been trying all sorts to get it to settle. I've been awake more than I've been asleep cause the nurses were coming in every hour or so, and then Dec woke up a few times too" she yawned, scratching the back of her neck absent-mindedly.

Ant let out a low whistle and Lisa winced sympathetically.

"But it's under control now though, right?" Ant asked, leaning against the end of the bed.

Ali nodded "For the moment - they're still a bit concerned because it hasn't gone back to normal; he's still sitting at around 38.5."

Ant frowned "That's only just below what it was yesterday."

Ali shrugged tiredly, "It's been sitting anywhere between 38 and 39 all night, so not quite what the doctors wanted."

Not exactly what I wanted either to be perfectly honest she added in her head.

Silence fell between the trio for a few minutes - each of them pondering their own concern and worry. Then, the quiet was suddenly disturbed by the sound of shifting blankets coming from the bed, and they all immediately turned to watch its occupant.

Slowly coming back into wakefulness, Dec blinked his eyes open sluggishly. He smiled a little when he caught sight of the three of them, and rolled over a little to face them properly.

"Hullo" he greeted - voice still horrendously hoarse.

Ant couldn't help but grin at the sound of his best mate's voice.

"Hey kid, how you doing this mornin'?" he asked, perching on the other side of the bed.

"Bit cold" Dec replied, shivering violently as if to prove his point.

Ali frowned and reached up and put the back of her hand against his forehead.

"Oh darling, you're burning up again" she observed sadly, feeling the heat radiating from his skin.

Dec twitched away from her hand, grumbling under his breath.

"Your hand's cold" he muttered, though that didn't stop him from leaning back into her touch as Ali resumed petting his hair.

Behind them, Ant and Lisa both shook their heads in amusement.

"You seem to be enjoying it though" Ali replied, somehow hiding her own amusement.

"Mm, feels nice."

And with that, Dec was fast asleep once more.

Chuckling softly, Ali gave his head one last pat before turning back to Ant and Lisa - both of whom were watching them with fond amusement on their faces.

"What?" she asked, smiling warily.

Ant shook his head again, chuckling to himself still; while Lisa just shrugged, a grin still curling her lips.

"Nothing Al" Lisa assured her, "but you have to admit, he's a bit funny right now."

Ali laughed a little in agreement and was about to reply when she felt something squeeze her hand.

She turned back around and was surprised to see Dec awake again and blinking up at her - but something had changed. His eyes were hazy and misted over, almost as if she was looking at a hazel-coloured frosted window. His cheeks looked much more flushed than before, and a suspicious glisten in his eyes brought back her earlier worry.

"Pet? You alright?" she asked, bringing Ant and Lisa's attention back to them.

Worryingly, Dec didn't respond. He just appeared to stare right through her.

"Hey, Declan! You still with us?" Ant worriedly spoke up, clicking his fingers in front of his friend's face.

The response they got was definitely not the one they had wanted.

Dec's eyes suddenly rolled back in his head with a moan, and his limbs started to twitch and jerk on the bed; tensing and relaxing in a sickly rhythm that made sense only to his brain, muffled groans escaping through a tightly locked jaw.

Immediately, Ant reached over and pressed the call button, fear pounding in his racing heart.

Within seconds, Karen and a nurse appeared in the room - and Ant was so worried about his friend that he even forgot about his grudge.

All he cared was that a doctor was here, and they would fix everything up.

"How long ago did this start?" Karen asked immediately upon entering the room and seeing Dec still seizing on the bed.

"Uh, not sure....maybe about a forty seconds ago" Lisa replied, a frightened wobble in her voice, but still the only one of the three feeling brave enough to speak at that moment.

Karen nodded and turned to the nurse behind her.

"Right, let's get these frames down so he doesn't hurt himself" she ordered, and they both proceeded to lower the side arm frames on the side of the bed, before lowering the back of the bed as well.

The seizure lasted for maybe a further ten seconds, and once it appeared to have settled, Karen put a gloved hand on Dec's dry forehead, frown deepening as she felt the sheer heat under her touch.

"How high was his temp last check?" she queried of the nurse who had followed her into the room, taking the cap off a thermometer and placing it into her patient's ear as she spoke.

The nurse quickly consulted the chart, glancing back up with a glint of fear in her eyes.

"Um, last temp from 0730 was 38.4" she recited, biting her lip as Karen's face transformed to a look of grim resignation.

Removing the thermometer as it beeped shrilly, her eyes widened almost imperceptibly.

Ali caught sight of the numbers over the doctor's shoulder, and what she saw there made her heart plummet into her toes.

42.5 flashed scarily up from the screen. It had gone up more than four degrees in less than half an hour.

Karen turned quickly back to the nurse, giving the young woman an urgent order:

"We need to get to ICU straight away: he's gone septic...."

*****

TBC......

*****