Surrogate in Love - Richard Madden

Chapter 27: Exhaustion hits

*Richard P.O.V*

Weeks passed after Jess was put into rehab and Ris was running on empty. She was running around trying to get things ready for Jess to return home as well as trying to visit her and support her, help with the twins, work and also prepare for Christmas. It was 11 am and after having to force her to sleep early the previous night she finally slept for longer than 2 hours. I was in the kitchen trying to make breakfast when I heard someone move upstairs. I guessed that either she had finally woken up or Blue had made his way upstairs bored of waiting for her to wake up. 10 minutes later I heard the shower running which was weird. Iris never showered before breakfast. I finished cooking and made my way upstairs to check she was okay. When I got there, she was sitting on the ottoman at the bottom of the bed. She looked exhausted, all the color was drained from her face, her usually bright blue eyes were dull and the bags under her eyes were more prominent than ever.

"Everything okay love?" I asked her quietly as to not startle her. She looked up and gave me a faint smile.

"Yeh, I guess I just wore myself out to the point I made myself sick" so that's why the shower was running she had been sick and didn't want to feel gross. I put down the Tea I had brought her up and made my way to my knees to hug her. When I did, she burst into tears and cried for what felt like forever. She hadn't cried since before the day that Jess showed up at the house. She hadn't let herself feel any emotion because she thought she needed to be stronger for everyone. I held her and rubbed her back whispering little soothing things to her until she finished crying and the sobs became little whimpers eventually, she finally fell asleep in my arms, so I put her back into bed and made towards the bathroom to clean up. She had managed to tidy almost everything, so I just quickly disinfected everything and then sprayed some air freshener. I got the bucket out of the cupboard and put it next to the bed just in case, kissed her forehead, and then left her to sleep, God knows she needed it.

As I got downstairs the door opened and in walked Taron.

"Hey, I got Iris' present through at the office today. It looks insane do you still want me to keep it at mine?" he asked me. I had found the perfect present for Iris, and I couldn't wait to give it to her.

"yeah please that would be great" we made our way back into the kitchen and I put the kettle on to make a fresh cup of coffee and one for Taron.

"How is she today?" I had been telling Taron about my worries about Ris and how I couldn't help but worry about how she was jeopardizing her own health for the sake of Jess. I knew it was the right thing to do and that if it wasn't for Ris Jess would never have come back and got the help she needed but it wasn't fair on Ris to have to deal with everything.

"she's okay although she was sick this morning and last night actually. She either got a bug or she's worn herself down to complete exhaustion" Taron nodded his head and took the cup of coffee out of my hand as we made our way to the living room.

"She needs to take a break and get some rest. It cannot be healthy for her to be doing this" Taron answered.

"No, it isn't" we sat in silence for a few minutes before Taron broke the silence.

"So how is Jess now. I went to see her a few weeks ago and she seemed okay" we had all been taking it in turns to go and see her to remind her of why she was doing it. Only Tom and Ris had been going almost every day.

"She's okay, getting better every day but she's still not 100% ready to come home. She's coming out for a few days for Christmas as a test I believe. Tom and his whole family are planning it all so that they can have their first Christmas with the Twins" we had decided to do Christmas separately and then do boxing day as a group. Jess would be out until the night of Christmas Day and then would be back by Boxing Day so we thought it would be easier to do the big friends party on boxing day. We didn't want to overwhelm her.

"I just hope it all works for Tom and Ris' sake" I nodded my agreement and we turned back to the show that was on in the background. We sat there all day whilst Ris slept I wanted her to sleep as much as she could to try and get her feeling better. She woke up at about 6 pm at which point Taron decided to go so that she could just chill out. Ris was not one to just chill often when people were round, she always felt she had to put a face on when there were people there. We sat on the sofa and watched Lord of the Rings until she fell back asleep, so I put her back into bed. She slept through the night except for one hour she woke up and threw up again. Maybe it was more of a sickness bug than exhaustion. Who knew but she needed rest and that's what I forced her to do for the next few weeks. We spent the next few weeks whilst Ris was feeling unwell preparing the house for Christmas and just enjoying each other's company