“Nice man bun,” Kate said with a roll of her eyes.

“Happy wife, happy life,” he said, looking like he hated it as much as she did. “How are you feeling?” Before she could answer, he held up a hand. “And don’t tell me fine. I can see you’re not fine. Be honest with me. I can take it.”

She sighed, feeling the defenses she put up on a daily basis start to weaken.

“I’ve been better,” she said.

“Andy says the doctor talked about chemo.”

She bristled. Even hearing the word made her anxious and scared. “It won’t come to that.”

Ryker rubbed her hand. “I’ll pray every day it doesn’t. So, what are the mad doctors doing to get you better?”

She told him about the treatment and the shots in and around her spine. He winced.

“Jesus, I’m sorry you had to go through that. That must have hurt like hell.”

“That’s putting it mildly. And naturally it’s experimental because nothing about me is ever close to normal.”

His fist thumped the mattress. “I really wish I could take all of this on for you. It’s totally unfair that you have to get every damn genetic disorder our dysfunctional family can muster, and I can’t even catch a cold.”

She smiled. “That’s what older siblings do. We protect the young and weak.”

They shared a quiet laugh.

“Are you at least still meditating?” he asked.

That made her remember the first time she’d tried to meditate in the cottage and the weird feeling that had come over her.

“As a matter of fact, I think even you will find this kinda trippy.”

She recounted the entire session to him – how she conjured the word fever and chipped away at it, willing it to depart from her body. The raging fire that had erupted within her, coalescing into a hot ball of agony in her gut before bursting from her, leaving her spent and cold.

When she was done, his brow was furrowed and he was lost in thought.

“Oh, and I have a new kind of feel. I call them microwave feels,” she said.

“Microwave feels?”

“Whatever they put into my spine surfaces every now and again, and it feels like I’m being cooked from the inside out. Hence…”

“Microwave feels.”

“Yep. They feel way worse than bad feels, but without the lingering shadow man.”

Ryker shook his head. “You still see the shadows?”