“I am right here, June bug,” Ethan whispered into her baby hair.

“I am staying right here with you.”

I stood up slowly from the armchair, my hip joints aching after sitting motionless in the cold room for so long.

A heavy wave of physical exhaustion washed over my mind, making my eyelids feel thick and heavy after sixteen straight hours of fever tracking and hospital noise.

“Her next antibiotic dose is two point five milliliters at ten o’clock,” I said, using the precise dosage numbers from Dr.

Owens’ chart.