10 years later [Tayvin AU]

Part 30

August 29th 2025

TAYLOR POV

"Charlotte Wiles, please get downstairs as fast as you possibly can. We have to get to the airport to collect your father." I called down the hallway of our apartment.

"I don't think Lottie is feeling good.... she looked really....ummm...pale and kept pressing on her stomach earlier like it was hurting her." Mia said, coming up next to me drinking a juice box through the new gap in her front teeth.

This worried me. She had seemed fine earlier at breakfast, although she was picking at her food a little. We were meant to be going to collect Adam from the airport and then drive for a couple of hours to our lake house for the last week of summer vacation.

"I'll go check on her... can you get your shoes on Bean and check the cats haven't escaped from their carriers? Then keep Jamie busy for a little while." I asked my second youngest, smiling at her cute little grin as she skipped away to get her shoes.

Lottie was now a teenager, at 14, which was slightly terrifying but luckily she wasn't moody or difficult...yet. Mia had just turned 8 and was just as obsessed with dancing and drama as her older sister, always following her around and imitating her, as well as being an avid reader. James Alexander Wiles was out little man. He was almost 4 and was a little troublemaker, from dumping out the bag of cat food to finger-painting all over Lottie's ballet costume (luckily after it had been worn for the show), but his charming smile and puppy dog eyes somehow made everything okay again. Adam and I decided that 3 kids was enough for now, although the longing for a baby never seemed to quite go away completely for me, especially when my friends starting having kids.

I opened Lottie's door slowly and found her curled on her bed, facing the wall, with her arms around her waist and her legs bent up towards her chest.

"Hey bug, what's wrong sweetie?" I asked, sitting next to her and brushing her long hair out of her face.

"My stomach hurts really bad mommy.... It's like someone is punching me from the inside out." She said, tears coming to her eyes.

I knew immediately what was wrong. Lottie had started her period about 3 months ago, which was scary all around since she was at her dad's photography studio getting photos taken for dance at the time and Adam freaked out, and was unfortunate in the fact she got really bad cramps.

"Okay bug... How about I go get you a hot water bottle and some ibuprofen?" I offer, getting a nod in return as I left the room.

I walked towards the kitchen, hearing the two youngest laughing at something on the TV in the breakfast nook.

"Is Lottie ok mommy?" Mia asked as I past them.

"Yeah, she just has a bad stomach ache. We are still leaving soon, so please don't let Jamie take off his shoes or jeans again sweetie." I told her as I helped Jamie get dressed again. He had a constant desire to be in just his underpants, which wasn't helped by the Captain Underpants books Mia read to him sometimes or Adam's propensity to walking around in just his pyjama bottoms on the weekend.

I got a hot water bottle and some tablets, as well as some ginger ale, for Lottie and returned to her room.

20 minutes later we were in the car on our way to the airport to collect Adam. He had been gone for 2 weeks in Europe shooting new fall collections for a variety of magazines and brands.

When we got to arrivals he was standing there waiting for us. He waved as we pulled dup next to him, and laughed as the kids piled out of the car onto him with a chorus of 'DADDY! I missed you!'.