The Pack and Sidemen Oneshots

Sidemen + Lachlan- Chronic

Lachlan's P.O.V.

"Hey, you gotta be gentle with him kiddo, he's tired." There was a small hand on my arm and the chair I was lying on had begun shaking, so I assumed the boy had been trying to climb up the side of the chair and onto me. "Leave him alone, he's sleeping okay?"

The boy began to whine and I heard him squirming to try and get down from Josh's arms and back to me. But still, Josh held onto the complaining boy and kept him away from me, which I was forever grateful for because I was exhausted and couldn't deal with him right that second.

My eyes flickered and Josh must have seen it because he shushed the boy, rocking him from side to side to keep him quiet.

"See." He whispered. "He's sleeping."

"Sleepy." The boy's voice piped up. "Blanket!"

"Do you want to give him a blanket?" Josh asked, shifting from foot to foot.

"Yeah! Blanket!"

Small hands tucked a thick blanket around my waist with Josh's help and then a now happy little voice piped up again, sounding very pleased with himself.

"Warm now!" Josh picked him up and slung him over his shoulder carrying him away.

"Yes, Lachy's warm now. Can he sleep now?"

"Mhm." He mumbled and finally I managed to drift off to sleep.

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"Hey Vikky." I whispered, scooping the small boy up into my arms. He was grinning happily and the cheesy smile made me chuckle because he had no reason to be super happy, it was a normal day surrounded by the normal people and nothing of importance was happening, but still he grinned away. "What's up?"

"Nothin' " He said brightly, squirming out of my arms to run and play with the toys. There were several baskets in the living room just of his toys that had been accumulated since his adoption, most of them from other members of the Sidemen.

I sighed and leaned against the counter, rubbing my forehead tiredly. Vikk might have been almost three, slept through the night, was never really fussy and hardly talked but I was still exhausted. I had slept quite a bit and the other Sidemen had been looking after Vikk almost all of the previous day but I was felt tired and drawn, faint even.

"You alright?" Simon asked, having just come in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Yeah." I said, waving my hand dismissively. "I'm just tired I think."

"Lachlan." He said sternly, coming a little closer. "You slept ages last night, what's going on?"

"I don't really know." I mumbled, almost sheepishly. "I'm just tired and feeling a little faint but I don't know why."

"Lachlan..." Simon said, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. "I think you should go to a doctor. You can't be a dad to Vikk if you aren't well."

I glanced down the hall where Vikk was playing happily with his toys, oblivious to myself and Simon standing only a few metres away. He was my little boy, my entire world and although he was only two years old I felt like I had known him my whole life and if I didn't have him then I didn't know what I would do.

"I know I should but... I don't want to make a fuss if nothing's wrong. I'm only tired so it's probably nothing and I'd just... rather not." I was well aware that I should get a check up just in case but it was embarrassing and probably nothing. If it was nothing like I thought, then I didn't need to.

"Look... Lachlan I don't think it's nothing anymore. You've been exhausted for days, weeks even and it isn't good for you or for Vikk. If it's that bad then I'll go with you, I need a check up too and to refill a prescription because I think you really need to go. Just... please..."

He really was begging me at that point, desperately telling me that he thought something was wrong and for Vikk's sake, my little boy, I agreed. If something really was wrong like he thought then it would be good to catch it and maybe get something to relieve the exhaustion, nausea and faint feelings.

"Alright." I sighed, looking at Vikk. "I'll go."

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I sat in the doctors office bouncing my leg, pale and my palms sweaty. Simon sat beside me, his appointment at the same time as mine and Vikk being looked after at home by Josh and JJ. The boy loved his uncle Josh and especially his uncle JJ, crazy and wild who spoiled him rotten.

I was called up first and Simon gave me a reassuring smile, squeezing my thigh. He would be there after my appointment, I knew, but that didn't stop my heart from pounding away in my chest as the doctor smiled, greeting me and introducing herself, leading me to a room down that hall.

It took me a few minutes to explain exactly what was going on, my life situation with my little boy and the problems I had been having. The flat out exhaustion, nausea and fainting spells, struggling to mention the one time I had actually passed out when getting up one morning. I had fallen back onto my bed so no harm done, but I had been out for several minutes at least.

The doctor seemed concerned when I mentioned the nausea and fainting and quickly set about doing some physical exams, asking me questions as she went. I answered them quietly, almost shamefully. She sat back down after a few minutes.

"I'm going to organise a blood test for you as I'm slightly worried about your blood sugar levels and white blood cell levels. But remember that there is a chance these symptoms come from something like anxiety- something that may be entirely phycological."

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The results came back a few weeks after my blood test, which I had reluctantly sat through.

"Hypoglycemia. Your body isn't converting carbohydrates from foods into sugar molecules, glucose especially, like it shoulder. The symptoms you have are because of low blood sugar levels and as far as we know it's because of a hormone deficiency. It's not something we can fix and it shouldn't effect you in any other way, you'll just need to keep an eye on your sugar levels and have high sugar drinks or foods when they drop too low."

It was a shock, but it was treatable, and that was what kept me going.

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Living with a chronic illness while trying to raise my little boy was difficult, but I coped with it. I had my little blood sugar lever machine in my pocket at all times, taking it out whenever I was feeling tired or at least once every two hours even if I wasn't feeling tired or nauseous.

Vikk, my precious little boy, noticed the change, the machine I always had in my pocket and my sudden habit of snacking on things that he wanted. He was always so observant so one day I sat down and explained to him what it was and what was going on with me. I wasn't entirely sure he understood but he got very good at reminding me to use the sugar level machine when I hadn't done it in a while. His time management also wasn't very good, but I appreciated it.

A few weeks after I got my diagnosis and everything was sorted, I went to Simon.

"I just wanted to say thanks I guess." I whispered, Vikk up on my hip. "That could have gone really badly if you hadn't gone through with making me go the doctors so... yeah... I guess you were right." He smiled back.

"I didn't do anything. You did it."