A Fishy Tale, The Sequel - Fanfiction for H2O Just Add Water

Chapter 71

Chapter 71

“This is Charlie,” Rikki began, “And this is Leila,”

Charlie offered her hand to her father resolutely. He shook it gently.

“And these trouble makers are Alex and Jay,” Rikki continued. “And the little girl in the pram is Fi,”

“I never thought I would have so many,” Zane said quietly.

‘Trust me, neither did I,” Rikki said in a jovial tone, however, the light behind it never met her eyes.

After about quarter of an hour of idle chatter, the nurse came in to check on Zane and Rikki decided it was time to leave.

OoOoO

“I have something for you,” Jay told his father. Rikki had brought the kids in again the following day at the same time. The little boy produced a piece of paper from behind his back, presenting it to Zane.

‘Get well soon,’ was written messily, the ‘e’s and‘s’s wrong the wrong way. Beneath it, a tall stick figure with brown hair was holding hands with a stick figure with a blonde mop of hair and a shorter stick figure with a light brown mop. With arrows, these figures were labelled, ‘Daddy,’ ‘Mummy,’ and ‘me,’ there were four other figures drawn also.

“Thank you,” Zane said as he took the drawing from Jay. Why was he so unnaturally emotional? Rikki watched the emotions flash across Zane’s face. She had a lump in her throat as she watched Jay innocently pass the ‘get well’ card across. Alex quickly produced his plastic castle and soldiers, putting them on Zane’s bed and clambering on too. Zane was practically forced into participating in the five year olds game. Rikki pulled Fi from the pram as she had woken up.

“This is Fi,” Rikki introduced. “Do you want to hold her?”

There was something extremely familiar about this baby. He nodded almost subconsciously. Rikki felt excited, she was making progress. The old Zane would never have accepted, let alone be civil about it. She passed Fi to him gently. Zane was surprised at how natural it felt to hold her. He looked into Fi’s eyes and suddenly he did not feel too good. He saw white and suddenly fell back against his pillows. Rikki grabbed Fi from his arms and pressed the emergency button. She placed Fi back into her pram. A nurse came in a second.

“He, he’s passed out,” Rikki said frantically. The girls looked on worriedly but the boys were too submerged in their game to really notice.  The nurse checked Zane’s vitals while asking, “What happened?”

“He was just holding Fi and…”

A few seconds later Zane regained consciousness and tried to sit up. The nurse pushed him back down gently.