Owens said, stepping over to the stainless steel sink to wash her hands with medical foam.

Ethan sat in the vinyl armchair beside the crib, his hands clasped tightly between his knees.

“Is it bad news?” Ethan asked, his voice thin and hesitant.

“She has an acute pediatric urinary tract infection,” Dr.

Owens said, drying her hands thoroughly with a paper towel.

“That explains why her core temperature spiked so rapidly to 104.1 degrees tonight.”

I leaned over the crib, resting my palm gently against June’s small chest to feel the fast, shallow rise and fall of her ribs through her cotton sleeper.