I Love You More

9

The doctor came back a little while later with a negative strep and flu test and promised to call them if anything came back positive. With that, they were sent home with nothing.

Once they were home, Ryan rocked Charley to sleep while Maddy put Lukas down for his nap.

"Did she go down okay?" Maddy asked as she came down the steps.

"She's out," he nodded, keeping her blanket around her and the little one against him. "I don't want to move her,"

"Has she been coughing?"

"A little bit," he nodded, patting Charley's back as she moved slightly.

"I hate the sound of it," she sighed, sitting down on the couch as she pulled out her laptop.

"Me too,"

She nodded and sighed as she looked at her phone, again, to see if her doctor had called.

They spent the rest of the day watching movies together as the kids played on the floor. Well, while Luke played on the floor. Charley stayed with her or Ryan all day.

——————

Maddy went to work around 7 and texted Ryan to check in every few hours so she could keep tabs on her little one.

Ryan let Charley and Luke sleep on Maddy's side of the bed so he could keep an eye on Charley. Lukas just wanted to and that was okay.

Around 2 AM, Ryan woke up to Charley coughing violently. Enough to make herself vomit before trying to catch her breath. That was enough for him to call Bubba and Amanda, and see if he could either drop Luke off or if they could come stay with him so he could take Charley to the ER.

As soon as Bubba arrived, he gave him a quick rundown of Luke's morning routine since he wasn't sure how long he'd be at the hospital with Charley.

"Just drop him off at Little Learners and one of us will pick him up," he said as he carried Charley to the truck.

"Yeah, no problem. Take care of the little one,"

He didn't bother calling Maddy since he was already in the car, listening to the awful cough that was sounding more like a wheeze.

"Almost there honey,"

"Dada!" Charley whined from the back, breaking Ryan's heart as she cried out for him.

"I know baby. I know you don't feel good," he sighed, wishing the light they were waiting at would turn from red to green.

As soon as it did, he went through and quickly arrived at the hospital as he still listened to Charley's cough.

"Alright honey, we're here. Let's go see mama,"

"Mama," she coughed, holding onto him as he carefully pulled her from the car seat.

"I know sweetie,"

As soon as they got into the building, he went right to the registration desk and waited their turn.