Baby Deyes: A Zalfie Fanfiction

Week Twenty Three: Ankles and Ambulances

The first week of April passed largely uneventfully and except a minor heartburn-induced night of agony I hoped this week was going to pass normally.
On the Sunday morning we were rushing out to the hospital to see Anna and Elara, who'd been re-admitted due to complications in Elara's reflux.
"Zoe! Are you ready yet?"
"Yeah, just coming - hang on!"
I hastily grabbed my phone and hurried from our bedroom. As I rushed towards the stairs I slipped, tumbling down a flight of stairs and crashing into the wall. My leg gave a sickening crunch and I screamed in pain.
"Zoe! Oh my God - are you ok?"
"Do I sound bloody well okay?" I sobbed. My ankle was excruciatingly painful. I tried to get up and collapsed. I caught sight of my foot, twisted at an odd angle, and gave a fresh scream of horror.
"Alfie... Please... Help me!"
"Zoe, I think it's broken. I'm calling an ambulance, don't be scared."
I felt waves after waves of nausea and dizziness coming over me and masking the blinding pain. I clung onto Alfie's shoulder and began a full-scale panic attack.
When I had calmed down a little Alfie dialled 999 and explained that I'd fallen down the stairs, and that I was pregnant and had just had a bad panic attack. We were waiting for an hour and a half, in which time Alfie managed to pick me up without hurting my foot any more and put me on the sofa with a bag of frozen peas on my lower leg.
When the ambulance finally arrived I heard Alfie yelling. "What the HELL kept you? My wife is pregnant and has previously needed oxygen after a panic attack as bad as that one."
"Traffic. What can you do?" The paramedics shrugged.
"For the extortionate amount of money they pay you, you can get your arse in here a bit quicker!"
When the paramedics - Carolyn and Philip - saw me, they realised how bad it was. After carefully manoeuvring me onto a stretcher they gave me a shot of local anaesthetic in my lower calf and an oxygen mask.
"Sorry for yelling." Alfie said sheepishly.
"Eh, we get a lot worse." Carolyn grinned. "Now let's get Mrs Deyes into the ambulance, shall we?"
"Thank you." I said weakly as the anaesthetic began to kick in. "Thank you so much."
We rushed up to A&E and were seen within an hour. The young student doctor, Chloe, was female and coincidentally a fan of ours.
"So Mrs Deyes. What happened here?"
"I was running gown the stairs, overbalanced because of Kelsey here, and -"
"Kelsey?"
In a jolt of shock I realised that we hadn't yet told the name to any fans. Alfie had edited out any mentions of her name.
"Oh God please don't tell anyone." I begged.
"Calm down Zoe. Patient confidentiality, remember?! But between us, I think that Kelsey is a beautiful name."
As she took me for my x-ray I began shaking uncontrollably.
"Okay Zoe, take deep breaths. Just lie down here, shut your eyes tight if you want, and I'll do the x-ray. Why don't you tell me about why you chose the name Kelsey?"
"Well, Alfie and I put one name from each letter down, and we chose Kelsey from a shortlist. Alfie wanted to call her Felicity Willow Jade but I stuck with Kelsey Willow Grace. We tossed a coin and I won."
"Wow." Chloe typed something into her machines and a sheet of plastic shot out. "So Zoe, you have a clean break at tue top of your ankle bone. I'll take you to the casting room and Jagdeve here will put it in a cast for you. I'll fetch Alfie."
When Alfie arrived he was vlogging as he had been before. I was pale but better, and Jagdeve gave me a plain white cast before explaining that in two weeks I'd come back and have it changed and re-x-rayed and get a colourful cast we could sign.
"What colour will you get?" Alfie asked, wheeling me outside. I'd been fitted with crutches but I wasn't quite steady yet.
"I think pink, for Kelsey. Wait! We didn't see Anna and Elara..."
Alfie sighed comically and turned me round.
When we arrived at the ward we saw Anna sitting on a bed with Elara sleeping peacefully in a small plastic crib. It was the only the second time we'd seen them, and I was struck by how much she'd grown in a week.
"Oh Zoe!" Anna stood up as I approached. "What did you do?"
"Long story short: Stairs are hard whilst pregnant." I laughed. "Broken ankle. How's Elara?"
"Better. We're being discharged tomorrow. Her reflux was just a minor blip, something to do with colic? I wasn't really listening. They had her on a drip yesterday, and they want one more good feed in her before she can go. She's only just had one, so she's passed out."
Alfie wheeled me a bit closer and I transferred myself to the bed. "Can I...?"
"Go for it." Anna nodded.
I cradled Elara as we chatted, and when she woke up and whined I put her on my shoulder.
"You're a real little mummy already!" Anna laughed.
"I've had practice with Darcy, and Emilia and Eduardo." I explained. Elara let out a small burp and shot a stream of milky vomit down my jumper.
"Oh God!" I jumped a little in surprise. Anna and Alfie burst out laughing.
"Guys!" I squealed. "Stop it!"
"Take your jumper off. I've got some nappy bags, put it in one. You'll be a bit cold, but it's better than having vomit on your back." Anna said through her laughs. "Trust me, I know."
"I'm never having children." I joked. "Never ever."
We left soon after, my vomity jumper in a peach-scented nappy bag.
"That was a successful day, I feel." Alfie said.
"I haven't eaten since breakfast!" I said. "Apart from some orange juice and a packet of Sour Patch Kids from the vending machine."
"I'll cook pasta when we get home." Alfie promised. "And Zoe?"
"Mm?"
"Sleep on the sofa. I'm not carting two of you and a cast up the stairs."
"Fair enough."

I'm very disappointed in you guys. You have not suggested any names for our little reader community! Fuck that idea then *tosses piece of paper over shoulder*. What's good is I'm past 7K! Read, share, comment, vote, yeah, you get the idea, I think I'll stop now, bye.