One last Chance

hospital talk again

*Evelyn*

I had slept for the first time in days while we had flown from Switzerland to France. And that was only because of Charles. I trusted him enough to know that he would watch Aly while I slept. I hadn't wanted to at first, but when Liliana had snuggled up to me on my lap, I had simply given in to fatigue.

It had been a little over an hour, not even close to what I'd needed, but it had felt infinitely good not to have to be awake with one ear. I had simply relied on Charles as well and it had all gone well.

In France, we had driven directly from the airport to the hospital. However, this hospital seemed more like a hotel than a hospital. No comparison to what we had seen in the last weeks.

It was a big room with real beds. Two small ones and a big bed in the next room. We had our own bathroom, a beautiful view and the kids felt right at home and also the food looked really better than in the hospital we had been in until just now.

I was immensely grateful to Charles for doing this for us.

We spent the rest of the afternoon talking to the doctors. Charles' friend listened to everything that had been found out so far. At least the things I could tell him. But he promised to look into the other doctors' reports as well. He would get in touch with experts and Aly's body temperature was constantly monitored via a sensor that sounded an alarm in the room as well as to the ward nurses when there was a change....

It was an incredible luxury and I could hardly believe my luck when, after putting the children to bed (Aly slept in one of the small beds, Liliana would sleep with Charles in the big bed), I stood under a warm shower and felt like I didn't have to rush off.

Charles was with Aly and if Lily was asleep, absolutely nothing could wake her up.

So I could really enjoy the shower for the first time.

Some of the tension fell away from me in the process and as I put on my pajamas after the warm shower to lie down in the second small bed so I could be with Aly if anything happened tonight, even though Charles' friend was sure she wouldn't get a cramp tonight because he had gotten the fever here well under control.

For me, that meant that maybe for the first time in a while, I would actually get a full night's sleep.

I crept back into the room. Charles was sitting next to Aly's bed. He lifted his head only briefly when he noticed me, but then immediately looked back at Aly.

"She's gotten so big." he whispered.

I settled down next to him "She is.", I replied, looking at our daughter.

"Why did you leave? Without a word?" he literally stared at Aly, avoiding my gaze.

"When I was with you in Austin, you were like... You seemed like you didn't even want me there. Like you were...I don't know, like everything was too much. I just wanted to give you some space at the time so you could have some time to... I don't know. I just didn't want you to feel smothered. I didn't expect you to break up with me then," I lowered my eyes.

We hadn't spoken in the last two years and accordingly we hadn't talked about the breakup.

"Evi, I thought you broke up with me! I thought you decided you didn't want me to be a part of your lives anymore because I...", he lifted his gaze and looked at me "I've spent the last two years just trying to survive. I've been trying not to go under. Evi, I didn't know what to do without you. I..."

"You had a new girlfriend right away and I..."

"I tried to fill the void because without you I couldn't..." his voice broke "Evi, I was just trying to move on somehow. If I'd known... If I'd just seen a chance... Evi, fuck, all I wanted was for you and the kids to be happy.", he ran his hand over his face.