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 unsure.

“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 shot up so quickly to 104.1 degrees tonight.”

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

“Has the infection affected her renal function?” I asked, using the precise clinical terms that always came out automatically whenever panic threatened my focus.