It was the night she received the drugs: the day the doctors told her the pain would start to intensify. They had warned us both, so I knew that Dawn may tell me or I might be able to tell from her face.
It was nearing midnight and I was having trouble falling asleep as if I knew something would happen. I heard a strange noise coming from Dawn's side. Since I'd never been awake when she was sleeping deeply, I thought maybe it was her sleep talking or something like it.
But after a few minutes, I heard a sound that didn't sound anything like sleeptalking. It sounded like… someone was in pain?
At that, my eyes shot open and I hurried over to Dawn's side, worried that she was in too much pain. I was hoping she wasn't in too much pain, as it would be hard to call anyone at this point.
She was keeping her face hidden in the sheets, so I lightly tapped her on the shoulder, letting her know I was already awake. She flinched at that and slid the blanket over her head, turning away from me.
I knew she was trying to tell me to go away and back to sleep. But I was having none of that today.
"Dawn, I'm not ignoring you in a state like this. I'm going to pull that down, so don't resist."
I slid it down, the blanket surprisingly pulling down without any objection.
Her face was wet with tears and she bit her lip strongly, trying not to let the sounds escape from her mouth. "Did they give you a painkiller?" I asked, mainly out of concern. I knew they would, but I was just worried that they may have given her too little that it didn't change anything.
She nodded, so I looked into my iPad to see the dosage. It — of course — wasn't too little, just the Goldilocks amount that was recommended for the dose of the combination she had received.
But Dawn was definitely in too much pain. She was sweating a lot and her brows were knitted from the pain. She was trying to hold in her groans.
I slipped inside her blanket and hugged her tightly, sharing my warmth with her. She tried to resist a bit, but soon she just leaned into me, her tears wetting my chest.
I tried to comfort her as best as I could, hugging her tightly and whispering a lullaby into her ears. Dawn was crying and trying to hide her groans, so I told her that she didn't need to.
At that, Dawn broke down again and hugged me tightly, crying and letting her groans escape.
She eventually cried herself to sleep, but couldn't sleep deeply; she ended up waking every hour.
I called my uncle as soon as I knew he would be up, but he didn't answer. So I called Dr Jones, but one of her colleagues answered instead, telling me she was taking a shower.
So as my last resort, I called Catherine. Thankfully, she answered.
"Lucas? Is something wrong?' She sounded quite surprised that I had called her… the reason I couldn't tell.
"Could you bring my uncle or Dr Jones here as quickly as you can? Dawn woke up near midnight in pain."
"Is she asleep right now?"
"For now, yes, but she'll wake up soon. She's been waking up every hour because of the pain." I told her, trying to keep my voice down so as not to bother her short sleep.
"Okay, I'll check with Dr Jones."
"She's in the shower. At least, when I called her, she was."
"'Kay, then I'll check with her and bring your uncle if she's not ready."
"Thanks." I ended the call, and Dawn precisely woke up, hugging me tightly again.
"Catherine is going to bring Dr Jones or my uncle soon. Just hold on a little bit more, okay?"
Dawn was close to reaching her panic mode. I could tell the pain was pushing her to the limits. But she tried to act strong and nodded, burrowing her face in my chest.
She tried to breathe a bit steadier, but it didn't work well.
The door suddenly barged open, and in came Catherine and Dr Jones at her heels.