Ages (In years) :
Oliver - 12
Alhan - 6
Eran - 2
Erik - 2

Nathan

“It's okay. Let it out, love.” I smoothed my wife's hair back while she bent over the toilet bowl.

When she was done, she leaned into my arms, letting me carry her back to bed. I tucked her in, careful to not move her around for much.

When I was sure she was comfortable, I sat next to her, taking hold of a hand. It was warm, warmer than it should be. She was beginning to have a fever.

My stomach tightened with worry as I heard her groan again. For five days she's been sick and refused to go to a hospital, telling me she'd be better by morning every single day. That obviously didn't happen, instead, I watched as she got worse.

It started with a simple headache, then vomiting, now she can barely stand on her own. I was tired of seeing her so exhausted and unable to eat.

She didn't know but I already called a doctor. Dr. Richardson had retired but opened his own practice a while back. I signed one of the new doctors as our family doctor, he should be able to help us.

“I'll be right back, I just need to make a call.” I whispered to her.

I caught a glimpse of her weak nod before leaving the room. The call rang three times before the doctor picked up.

“Hello? Edmonds speaking.” He greeted.

“Hi Doctor Edmonds, it's Nathan Graham.”

There was a little background noise before he spoke again. “Oh, hello, Mr Graham, sorry I didn't have your number saved. How's everyone doing?”

“The kids are okay but my wife…” I sighed with worry. “she isn't doing well.”

“Well, what happened?”

“A couple of days ago, she started complaining of headaches, she took some painkillers and she was fine. The next day she said she felt nauseous but she didn't throw up, she did the day after though.” I explained. “Now, she can't even stand up by herself.”

“That sounds serious.” He expressed with obvious concern. “Why didn't you call earlier?”

I knew I should've and was already beating myself up for not being responsible enough. “She said there wasn't any need and I didn't want to force her to a hospital.”

I listened as he blew out a breath. “Sounds like she's getting progressively worse pretty fast. I really can't make a diagnosis without seeing her myself so I'll be at your house in an hour.”

“Okay, thank you.”

I hung up after that and went to check on her again. She was exactly where I left her. Lying on her back with the blanket to her chest and an arm draped over her stomach. Her eyes were shut but if she was as bad as I thought, she wouldn't be sleeping.

I sat by her head and placed it on my lap, running my fingers through her tangled up hair. She whimpered again as her body relaxed. At that point, I thought I was going to cry.

Seeing her in such a state was torture. She looked and sounded like she was in constant pain. The aspirin we had at home wasn't working anymore and I couldn't let her have any more.

For a while, it was quiet, she wasn't whimpering or crying and I thought she had finally relaxed and fallen asleep. However, the while didn't last long.

Alhan bounded into the room loudly, waking Alyssa up with a jolt.

“Mommy! The twins won't let us change the channel!” He reported.

The woman just sighed and rolled to the other end of the bed while I decided to handle the matter since she obviously wasn't able to.

“Come on Alhan, let's see what the trouble's about.” I followed him down to the living room.

Just as a thought at least one of the children was be crying. Eran, one of the twins, sighted me first and did a wobbly run into my arms.

His counterpart noticed me next and did the same as his brother. I balanced two of the four boys in my arms before asking what the problem was.

“We don't want to watch Bubble Guppies anymore but Erik and Eran won't let us put something else. They'll cry if we try.” Oliver explained, obviously annoyed at his younger brothers.

His face was a tad bit amusing to me, heaven knows why. I also felt bad for him. I knew how annoying it was having younger siblings even if I only have Julia; they are a real pain in the arse sometimes.

Oliver was a great big brother and a great boy altogether. He did good in school, had very, very few altercations with anyone, most of which were him defending Alhan or his friends.

He was very responsible toward his brothers and thoughtful as well. Alyssa and I have noticed him giving some of his snacks away or some other thing he loved just because his brother wanted it. Of course, we praised him and constantly give him more treats because he deserves it.

He does have the days were he doesn't want to take care of anyone but wants to be taken care of and that's also fine. Alyssa and I make sure that he is aware that his role in the family is not as a backup parent. He is still a child, might be independent but still a child.

The matter at hand was easy enough to solve. The two younger boys were going to be put down for a nap very soon so I was going to lay then down and stay till they fell asleep. Alhan would get a few minutes of TV time before he had to rest and Oliver could just continue from there.

Easy enough, right?

Wrong.

Erik and Eran did not want to leave the living room, mostly the TV. I let them finish the episode and by the story time, they were half asleep. After that, it was easy work getting them into their beds.

I was grateful they didn't make a fuss like they usually do because I needed that energy for Alhan who declared on his birthday last week that as a six year old, he didn't need naps because he could be doing something better.

The ‘something better’ was usually an activity that landed him in the hospital. He's been there so many times Dr. Richardson swears he's the reason the hospital is still running. We still make him take naps and he will till he stops being so adventurous.

I checked on Alyssa before going back to the living room. She'd fallen asleep again, it wasn't a peaceful one but at least she was sleeping.

A little while later, the doctor had arrived and I opened the door. Alhan, ever the curious one, followed me and beamed at the man who'd become a friend.

“Doctor Zac! What are you doing here? I didn't get hurt or did I?” He patted his legs, torso and head. “I didn't.”

The doctor laughed and shook his head. “Well thank God for that, Alhan. I'm actually here to see someone else.”

Oliver joined the conversation. “Are you here to see Mum?”

Before Doctor Edmonds could answer, Alhan demanded to know why the his mummy had to be checked out by the doctor.

“She hasn't been feeling well for the past few days, didn't you notice?” I picked him up, giving the doctor some room to come in.

“Days? But just yesterday we went to the park and she chased me around.” He argued.

“That was last week, Alhan.” Oliver corrected.

The boy's mouth formed an 'O' as he thought more. “Oh yeah. I really shouldn't have jumped off that shelf.”

He did that three days ago. “Well now you know not to do it.”

“No, now I know to put pillows down so I don't hit the floor.”

His response made Oliver and I groan while I begged for salvation. At least he learned a lesson.

“I think I'll give you a check up before I leave.” Alhan didn't mind that already use to doctors and their instruments.

I set him down on the couch while Zachary and I moved to the bedroom. I felt so bad waking her up but it was necessary. If she was able, Alyssa'd have to answer some questions.

“Afternoon Mrs Graham.” He greeted, once she was awake enough. “Your husband mentioned you were under the weather. Can you tell me when that started?”

“Thursday, I think.” She rasped.

“And have you taken anything to help?”

“Just painkillers, they don't work as well any more.”

Dr. Edmonds nodded. “Anything else?” She shook her head. “I don't want to scare you but this may be something serious. Are you sure you haven't ingested anything strange or you're not allergic to anything?”

“I'm sure.”

“Do you mind if I take some blood for work? Let's get some tests done and see what treatment you'll need.” He got out some pills from his work bag. “These should help with the headaches and vomiting.”

I took the pack of pills while he got a syringe and cleaned up her arm. It didn't take long to draw the blood and he also gave her an IV for an energy boost.
Alhan's head was okay. He just needed to stop jumping off things but knowing him, he wouldn't.

He said the test results would be back a few days from now so we'll just have to wait in worry and hope it's nothing too bad.

********

“Dad! Your phone's ringing!” Alhan yelled from the living room before a thud.

“I'll be right there!” I walked in from the kitchen, meeting him on the ground; laughing on a pile of pillows.

I didn't want to know why he was doing or why he was doing it. He seemed okay and at this point, that's all that matters. It was the doctor calling which was a relief. I'd been anxious for the past two days waiting for this call.

“Hello?”

“My Graham, good morning. I have your wife's test results back and they're not something to be discussed over the phone.” He got straight to the point. “Could you two please come to the hospital today?”

I was deflated after that. ‘Not something to be discussed over the phone’ meant ‘possibly life-threatening’. I could only pray silently that there was an easy enough fix.

Alyssa was feeling somewhat stronger. At least she was standing on her feet and able to take a shower. I informed her of what I was told and she was almost as disturbed as I was.

After dropping the kids at my mum's, we made our way to the hospital. I could tell Alyssa was antsy. She might've acted like she wasn't worried but I knew she was.

She kept playing with her fingers and tapping them on her knee. Her bottom lip was between her teeth, at great risk of getting split. I was no doctor but I knew that being anxious wasn't healthy for someone so sick.

“Love?” I called.

She finally let go of her lip and looked my way. “Yeah?”

I slid a hand down to hold hers while I drove with the other. “Whatever this is, we're going to get through it together.”

She blew out a breath, gripping my hand tighter. “I'm just scared. What if I have cancer or something? Or maybe I'm contagious and you and the kids could get sick?”

My fears went so far past that. It was relieving to know I'm the one more worried this time. “If any of that happens, we'll be there for you. Plus, we don't know what the problem is yet so we can't be sure it's so terrible. Maybe you just have the flu.”

That was an attempt to lighten the mood but it only annoyed her. “The flu? Do you think the flu had me so weak my legs constantly gave out, sleeping so little? Look at the bags under my eyes and tell me it's the flu.”

Her eye bags were huge. “Calm down, darling. I've just saying maybe we're getting too worked up.”

She leaned into her seat and mumbled. “Hope so.”

The hospital wasn't crowded and Doctor Edmonds was already waiting for us in his office. We shook hands briefly before he led up in. The next few minutes, he went through his desk and got a folder, more than likely containing the test results.

He opened the file and took a few seconds to look through it. When he was done, he looked at us with kind that made you think there was bad news coming.

“I'm just getting right to it, Mrs Graham you're pregnant.”

Part 2's gonna be up once this one gets to 20 votes.