Rush To Save Addie

**ERICKSON'S POV**

I had felt my heart jump into my throat when Catherine ran into the house and told me that Addie was sick near the stream.

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" She had been frantic when she called for me.

"What is it, sweetheart?" I ran to her side thinking that she must be hurt or something.

"Daddy, Addie is sick! She won't wake up. Arthur is with her next to the stream."

That made my heart stop and jump at the same time. My little Addie! My first, smart and precocious little girl was sick? What could be wrong? I didn't wait to find out though. I rose to my feet and was running out the door as quickly as I could, but then I remembered that I didn't know where by the stream she was.

"Catherine, show me where she is." I stopped and held my hand out for my youngest child.

"OK!"

With Catherine's guiding hand we hurried as quickly as we could into the trees and toward the stream. When I guessed that we were nearly half way to the destination I saw my son coming toward me.

Addie was slumped in his arms as he struggled to carry her. He was such a good big brother, trying to carry his sister back to the house. The only problem was that he wasn't fully grown yet and Addie was thirteen, so she wasn't as small as Catherine. These two issues combined made it hard for him to support her weight for much longer.

"Arthur!" I called out to him and then took Addie into my arms. Arthur didn't know what had happened anymore than Catherine or I did. This was a mystery to all of us. We were going to need to call in the village healer on this one, I just knew it.

When I got into the house I called for my wife as I started toward the stairs.

"Helen!" She saw what was going on and hurried ahead of me to Addie's room. She opened the door for me before I got there so that I could go straight inside and lay her on the bed.

"Erickson, what happened to her?" Helen's words were frantic as she looked at our daughter.

"I don't know, but she has a fever. Get a cool wet cloth and send Arthur to fetch Briar. I think we will need his help."

"Do you really think that this is serious enough to need the healer?" Her face fell when she heard who I wanted to bring in to help us.

"Yes, dear, I think that it is. Something is wrong with Addison and I won't spare a single expense to save her. Get the cloth for her, I will go fetch some fresh water from outside."

"Alright." She nodded at me and started down the stairs while I took off Addie's shoes and tucked a blanket around her limp body.

"We will get the healer, Addie, hang in there." I kissed her forehead and felt just how high her fever was with how hot she felt against my lips.

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**HELEN'S POV**

I was scared. Erickson had burst through the door carrying Addison in his arms. Then he told me that we needed to summon the town healer, Briar, to our home. Just how sick was my little girl?

"Arthur?" I called out to my son when I was back downstairs. "Arthur, go fetch Briar. Tell him that your father needs him here to help with Addison."

"OK, Mom." He nodded at me and was out the door immediately, even before I heard my husband coming back down the stairs.

"Mommy?" Catherine called out to me while I went to grab a clean cloth and wet it in the leftover water from dinner.

"Yes, sweetheart?" I tried to be calm when I answered her.

"Mommy, is Addie going to be OK?" I could see the fear and pain in her eyes as she asked me that question. I didn't want to see that look in her eyes, but I also didn't know what to tell her.

"I..I..I just don't know, baby girl. I just don't know." I pulled Catherine into my arms then, holding her tight and trying to make everything all better for her. The problem was that I couldn't make things all better like that. I couldn't make Addison better by myself. What I could do though, was make her as comfortable as I could.

Just as I heard Erickson running through the door to head outside, most likely to get the water, I was running up the stairs to my other daughter's side and placing the damp cloth against her forehead. She truly was burning up, this fever was so high that it was frightening.

Addison had only ever been sick once in her entire life. She never got the simple little colds that the others would occasionally get, she did not complain of any ailments. The only time she had been sick was the night of her sixth birthday when she nearly passed out at the table. If Erickson hadn't caught her then, she would have fallen right over and hit her head.

I truly didn't know what to think, I didn't know what was going on with my little girl. But I was worried. Scared and worried.

"Addison, please get better. Please let this fever go down and come back to us." I didn't know why I was saying those words to her, it's not like she had chosen to get sick like that. Still, I felt better saying them.

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**CATHERINE'S POV**

I was scared. I could tell that everyone was scared. Mommy was scared. And Daddy was scared and he was never scared. Even Arthur was scared and he was the bravest big brother that there was.

When he saw that Addie wasn't waking up though, I could see that Arthur was really, really scared. I didn't want to see my brother scared and I didn't want to see my sister sick. I wanted my family to be back to how they were.

Arthur had left to get the healer and Daddy ran back up the stairs with a bucket of water. Mommy was up there too, taking care of Addie so now I was all alone down here, scared like everyone else.

When Arthur came running back into the house he had a man behind him. The man was tall, like my daddy, and he had bright yellow eyes. He didn't have any hair though, even though he wasn't an old man. He was maybe Daddy's age, or that's what he looked like.

"Where is she?" The man's gruff voice asked as soon as he was inside.

"They took her to her room, up the stairs." Arthur pointed as he stopped next to the strange new man.

"A..a..a..are y..you th..th..the h..healer?" I asked him nervously.

"That I am, young one. I will do my best to help your sister." The healer man smiled at me quickly before he started to run up the stairs.

"Do you think that he will be able to help her?" I asked Arthur, my nerves beginning to get the best of me.

"I hope so." Arthur didn't sound like he thought it was going to happen, though.

"Oh Arthur, I don't want Addie to die." I threw myself at him, hugging him as I started to cry. "I don't want Addie to be sick and die like the boy did last summer."

"Mom and Dad won't let that happen, Catherine. Don't worry. Addie will be just fine. I am sure of that."

"Really?"

"Really."

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**ARTHUR'S POV**

Catherine had just reminded me about the boy last year. According to his family, he got a high fever out of nowhere and wouldn't wake up. He stayed like that, the fever raging and getting worse by the day. He was sick for a month at least, but he never got any better. One day, when his mother went into his room to check on him, he wasn't breathing. He had died in the middle of the night.

Was that what was happening to my sister? Was she going to be sick for so long that her body gave out and she died in the middle of the night? Am I going to lose my little sister? I didn't want that to happen to my family. I didn't want to see Catherine cry over her lost big sister. Things had to go differently for Addie, she had to make it. She just had to.