Let Me In ( Anne with an E fanfic)

Chapter 66

It all happened very fast, looking back. Or that's what Gilbert thought as he was sitting next to Ella still in the labour room as Fred was with Alicia in the NICU. Four hours ago he hadn't even thought his friends would be having a baby that day. Heck, Ella hadn't even been in labour four hours ago, her due date still almost two weeks away, uncertain as it may be. And yet here they were. Baby born and Ella quiet, sore and concerned, longing to have Alicia in her arms. A precipitous labour, of all things. And not the fast and furious with easy ending, but...

His phone started vibrating and he looked at it. Carrots .

"Is that Fred?" she asked, her expectations clear in the air. He shook his head.

"Anne," he replied.

"Go ahead and take it, Gilbert," Ella said. "It's not like anything is going to change, and if he needs to contact us he knows I have my phone here as well." He nodded and answered the call. "God, I just pray Alicia is doing better," she murmured, folding her legs with a wince and resting her forehead on her knees.

"Hey, Anne," he said, his voice quiet, extending his hand to hold Ella's.

"Hey, Gil," she said happily. "I was thinking, how does lasagna sound for dinner? I'm sorry I'm calling you, I don't even know if you have a patient now, but we would need to get the ingredients..."

He hadn't even had time (or the mind, if he was honest) to call her yet. She had no idea Alicia was born. It was all so recent- Fred had gone with Alicia, the neonatologist and the nurses not half an hour ago, and Ella had been trying not to lose her mind for that time, on the verge of crying as she delivered the placenta. He knew he had been left alone with her only because he worked in the hospital and they trusted him to call as soon as something happened before her next check-up... Which hopefully, it wouldn't. Not anymore. It was enough that Alicia wasn't doing well now. He looked at the clock, frowning slightly. A nurse should be coming soon to check Ella again.

"That sounds good, Anne, if you want it" he replied, not thinking much about it and distracted. He was trying to divert his eyes from the myriad of monitors and IVs connected to Ella, from thinking about how Alicia was doing (was no news from Fred something good? Bad?) but focusing his mind on the steady way in which the second hand moved in the clock of the wall.

"Gil, are you ok? You sound... different," she said. "Is everything going well?"

"It's..." he said, sighing. He didn't even know how to explain what he was feeling. Frustration? Impotence? Worry? Joy, that everything had gone... well, seemed to be controlled? Was it even controlled? Why hadn't Fred said anything yet? He didn't know. He honestly couldn't say how he was feeling. He caressed Ella's hand with his thumb, absent minded.

"Gilbert, what happened?" Anne asked again, clearly worried. Ella was looking at him, her head still resting on her knees. She did look slightly pale, but she didn't have much color usually and it was February. The dead of winter. Still.

"Give me a moment, Anne, please," he said. "Ella, are you feeling ok?"

"Kind of dizzy?" she said, unsure.

"I'll call you back," Gilbert said before hanging up as he stood up and walked to check the heart monitor and frowned. "Ella, I'm sorry, I just need to check something."

"Gilbert, you've seen about everything there is to see about me by now, do whatever you need," she said tiredly, rolling her eyes as she dismissed it, and he could see her point. He had seen about everything as she had insisted she wanted him there as she delivered Alicia. He had basically run to the delivery room once Fred had texted him, and not two hours later Alicia had been hurried off to try to get her stable. He also knew Ella by then. They had been very close, after all, for over ten years, and he could take a look at her and know when she was feeling sick. She wasn't feeling well, not that anyone would blame her. He nodded and moved the sheets covering her as she leaned back and spread her knees, the tiredness and discomfort evident. He didn't even have to look much and pressed the red button on the side of the bed.