One last Chance

hospital bed talk

*Evi*

I nervously paced up and down next to the bed. Aly's fever had been rising ever since we got back to the hotel. I had already called the front desk and asked them to get me some children's medicine. Something else I had not thought about. As soon as we were back in Monaco I would buy half the pharmacy empty to make sure I was prepared next time.

I kept casting worried glances at the little creature in the bed, but she was asleep and breathing calmly every time I looked.

Fuck, did people always worry so much about their kids?

I felt totally overwhelmed.

I wondered if I should just call Seb. Maybe he could come here. I'm sure he knew his way around something like this. And with my big brother by my side, I would have felt better by now.

Maybe his idea of me moving in with him and Hanna wasn't so wrong. Maybe I could at least move close by, then my sister-in-law could surely help me a little. Especially in such situations.

But before I thought this thought further, I thought again that this was only a temporary thing. I would not stay in Aly's life forever.

And when I thought about what almost happened between Charles and me before the training, it really couldn't happen fast enough for him to find someone else.

If we hadn't been interrupted, I'm sure I would have kissed him. And probably we would have gone even further. I had simply forgotten everything at that moment. But especially the pain that the breakup had left behind. I had forgotten everything and had almost gone way too far.

That would not happen again.

Never again.

But Charles was also doing a pretty good job of making sure of that himself, because I had been waiting for him to respond to me for what seemed like an eternity now. I had written to him that Aly's fever felt like it was getting higher and higher and I would be glad if he could at least come over so that I wouldn't be alone in case. But he still hadn't read the message. Presumably he was busy.

What else had I expected? I was here for just that, to take care of things like this. Charles wanted to be a father, but he couldn't do it alone. That was the only reason he had asked me to help. Not because there was anything else between us.

Whatever almost happened in his driver's compartment wasn't what I thought it was. It was nothing that connected us anymore. Without Aly, I wouldn't even be here. Without Aly, we wouldn't have even been talking again. Without Aly...

I winced as I noticed her twitch out of the corner of my eye.

"A febrile seizure," it immediately popped into my head.

I knew what was happening, but seeing it was the worst thing I had ever witnessed. How this little body was writhing under the cramps. And there was nothing I could do about it. All I could do was stand by and make sure she didn't hurt herself while I called the front desk again and asked them to call an ambulance.

I knew what I had to do. And to my chagrin, that was extremely little. Febrile seizures sometimes occurred in children. Especially when the fever rose quickly. Maybe she had had something like that before and I just didn't know because I didn't really know anything about her medical history. Something else I urgently needed to find out.

But now my attention was on her.

The spasm was subsiding. I immediately checked her breathing and consciousness. She was crying and immediately stretched out her arms to me "Evi." she cried and I immediately lifted her up.