Taylor opened the door the following morning to her kitchen to be met with a smell of maple syrup and the steam of the waffle iron heating up. No sign of her kids, but her mom was standing their pouring batter onto the iron. Taylor smiled, and hugged her.
“How is she?” Taylor hugged her mother, finding comfort she had only felt with Ed in the last twenty four hours.
“Specialist is coming in a few hours to discuss her blood work. Her fever went down over night and has stayed down but still not what they consider a normal temp. The doctor didn’t seem to let us know if it was good or bad, but to prepare ourselves either way.” She looked around the room, “Where are they?”
“Watching old home movies from when you were a kid.” Andrea smiled, “Go to them, I’ll call you when breakfast is ready.”
Taylor nodded, “Thanks, mom, I really appreciate all you’ve done these last two days.”
Taylor slipped off her shoes and tiptoed from the kitchen, wanting to sneak up on her kids to make it an even better surprise that she was there for breakfast. Laughing on the couch on either side of her dad were her younger children, Chris with his curly blonde mop of hair and Emily with her frizzy messy red hair. Their backs were still to Taylor, so she sneaked up behind them and crouch down so her head was level with back of the couch, “What are you watching?”
With that instance, her kids shot up and turned around, jumping on Taylor. As exhausted as she was, not sleeping at all last night with the beeping of monitors, of the nurse checking in every half hour, and with Ed taking up most of the twin sized couch bed, she caught both her children and kissed them both. She carried them to the couch adjacent to the one her father was on and cuddled her kids close. Chris spoke first, “Mommy, I missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too, Christopher.” She kissed his head and turned to Emily and kissed her forehead, “And I’ve missed you, Miss Emily.”
“How is Amy?” Christopher asked with concerned eyes. “When is she coming home? When can I see her?”
“Sweetheart, I’m not sure. We are seeing a lot of doctors today to give us some answers. When we know what’s going on, we’ll tell you I promise.” Taylor tried to give a comforting smile to her son.
“I miss my sissy,” Emily looked up at her, her sister was her best friend, her playmate, the one she looked up too.
“I know, Em, maybe if the doctor’s say it’s okay then we can all have dinner together at the hospital.” Taylor hoped this would be alright.
“Yay!” Emily squeezed her mother.
“I have to ask the doctors first, sweetheart.” Taylor kissed her head, “Come on, I think breakfast is ready.”
They ate breakfast together and Taylor drove Chris to school - a rare treat. She met with his teacher and filled him in on everything that was going on, before going to meet with Amy’s teacher and the principal. She held back tears and received sympathetic hugs before going to the hospital. She pulled into Vanderbilt University Medical Center and took the elevator up to the pediatric floor, she chatted with the nurse that was there yesterday when they were admitted - thanking her yet again and catching up with her as she had really taken a liking to her as she kept coming to check on Amy. She bough coffee from the cart for herself and Ed before continuing on to Amy’s room.
Ed was sitting on the now transformed back into a couch from a bed, wearing new clothes and Amy was awake, but looking tired, eyes barely open. “Hey beautiful!” Taylor said as she passed Ed the coffees and took a seat on the edge of her bed, kissing her forehead. “How’s my girl doing this morning?”
