"How’s Mattie?" Bette said looking up from the couch where she was reading a newspaper and sipping her coffee. We had taken turns all night calming down Mattie’s fever and making sure he didn’t scratch. We did the same thing when Angie got the chicken pox and in fact even Angie helped out with her brother.

"The fever has gone down and he’s not as itchy," I said.

"Good," Bette said with a sigh, "I just got off the phone with Alice, she says ‘fuck you.’"

I chuckled and plopped down on the couch beside her in exhaustion, "I’m not the one who got her sick, it’s not like she knew what would happen when she walked into our house."

"Yeah but it’s much worse when you get it as an adult, so Tasha was driving her to a hospital."

"Oh my God, is she okay?" I said worriedly.

"Yeah, she just has a fever that won’t go down and Tasha’s worried, she left the kids with Helena and Emily," Bette said. "I could hear how sick she is through the phone."

"We gotta go see her," I said.

"Of course, we’ll go in the afternoon, you need to get some sleep," Bette said, "I’ll call Kit to watch Mattie."

I smiled at her, God she’s so considerate. I grabbed her hand and kissed it. "Come on, let’s get a few hours of shut eye, I’m sure Angie can handle herself and Mattie for a few hours," Bette said standing up.

"Why don’t we sleep here?" I said with a worried smile.

Bette smiled and sat back down beside me, "you’re such an overprotective mother."

"Look who’s talking," I said.

Bette kissed my forehead and said, "I’ll go tell Angie to watch Mattie, you get some rest."

+

I was woken up by the doorbell ringing. Bette was laid back on the couch still asleep with her feet on my lap and it was much darker then it was before. Angie walked out of Mattie’s room and towards the door.

"Hey what time is it?" I said.

"You’ve been asleep for a while mom," Angie said, "don’t worry I’ll get it you go back to sleep."

I couldn’t, so I listened to see who was at the door. "Hi, can I help you?" Angelica said.