Like Minds • jb

38; Back to Normal(ish).

Justin's P.O.V

"Baby," I said softly as Lily lay on her stomach, still fast asleep and breathing deeply, barely even moving apart from her chest rising and falling. She had been sleeping like she was close to death every night for the past five days, I didn't know if I was meant to be worried but according to her and google - apparently it was the pregnancy hormones knocking her out. It makes her really tired and grumpy, sometimes really over excited too, like when she almost cried over a creme brûlée that we ordered the other night because it 'smelt like happiness'. But in the mornings it was hard to wake her up, sometimes I had to really poke her, but then I got snapped at or swatted at. "Babe," I repeated, leaning over the bed and touching her arm gently but got no response.

I had been up for about an hour, had a swim in the pool and some coffee to wake myself up, and waited... I wanted to let her sleep since then she would be more willing to go swim with some reef sharks with me... I was too scared to do it on my own and I knew she would be cross if I did it without her.

I had a cappuccino in my hand to help Lily wake up, the white foam sprinkled with chocolate, the steam rising from the mug as I fanned some of the smell towards her to try and stir her. "Lills?" I asked again, hearing her groan quietly and sniff the air. Her eyes shot open and I smiled, "I brought-" she cut me off my jumping up and shooting towards the tiny en suite toilet room to the actual bathroom whilst almost knocking the cappuccino out of my hands. She kicked the door shut whilst holding her hands in front of her mouth, the distant sound of her relieving her morning sickness in the background now present.

I hummed and took the cappuccino away, knowing it was the smell of coffee that probably triggered it. She had been the same with alcohol the past few days, so I should have expected that. Wine got her the worst, the slight tinge of the smell anywhere near her made her turn green. So, I've been alcohol free for the past week - to make her happy... And to stop her from vomiting on me. Because it will be like a chain reaction and we don't want that to happen.

"Water?" I called into the toilet room door as I heard her groaning.

"Yes please," she whined back and I walked away from the door, knowing that she hated it when I saw her sick so I didn't bother opening the door even though I wanted to know if she was okay. She gets weak afterwards but never complains... I can always tell because her knees shake a little. I just wanted to wrap her up in a blanket and sit outside all day but at the same time I wanted to do all these activities now with her so we could build up some new memories together. I had changed my mind about the relaxing thing.

I got the chilled water in a plastic cup because holding glass now made Lily's skin feel weird and itchy. I swiped up a banana on the way back and then hovered outside the toilet room door... Grimacing a little as I heard her retching up again. "Babe, are you alright?" I asked softly, feeling worried that she was vomiting more than once. It was normally once, right? Then you felt better? The website I read said nothing about how long it was supposed to last each time.

"I'm fine," I heard her croak back and I furrowed my eyebrows as I heard the toilet flush. I decided after a few seconds to push open the door so I could see her, I was a little concerned for Lily that the sickness would start getting worse as time passed... She had bad luck with these things and I wanted her to be as comfortable as possible."Don't," she whined quietly as I opened the door but didn't bother to look up as she leant her head on the edge of the toilet seat, her arms folded over her stomach as she knelt over the floor.