We Are Free

Sweet Jestures

The next morning we go in for her appointment. Halo and I are both allowed back. Andrew was at Anna's house. She covers up with her blanket and they put an Iv in her hand.
     She holds my hand and Halo gives her her stuffed animals. Then they give her her loopy medicine. When she is talking funny they take her out. Now we get to wait for her.
*30 minutes later*
They bring her back in she was sleeping. They said she did good and she was set to go when she woke up. We have to call the nurse and let her know.
     We wait for her to wake up she wakes up soon. We call for the nurse and the nurse takes the sticky pads off her chest. She wasn't paying attention to them. I help her get dressed she was loopy from all the medicine given to her.
     I pick her up and we leave. I put her in the car. She goes to sleep. I stop at the store and run in. I get her a funny card, some flowers, and a stuffed animal to cuddle. I check out and go back out.
     We go home and Halo lays her on the couch. I put the flowers in a vase with water. I put the stuffed animal in front and the card in its lap. We wait for her to wake up. She starts moaning. She sits up and looks at me.
     "Jace." She says in a weak voice.
     "What baby?" I ask her.
     "Can I have a popsicle?" She asks her eyes closed.
     "Yeah." I get up and get her a popsicle I hand it to her and she looks on the table. She sees the card that says Emily on it and smiles. She puts the popsicle in her mouth. I hand her the card and she reads it. She smiles and giggles. She grabs the stuffed animal.
     "Jace." She says.
     "What?"
     "Can you get my bear?"
     "Yeah." I go to her room and grab her bear I give it to her and she watches cartoons. I play on my phone. Halo went to get Andrew. He comes home and puts a bunch of cards on the table.
*3 Days Later*
Emily is doing good she just eats popsicles, watches tv, colors, and sleeps. Andrew has gone to school and Halo was at work. I get a call from her teacher.
"Hello." I say.
"Hi is this Jace?" Her teacher asks me.
"Yes it is." I respond.
"Um I wanted to call to see how Emily was doing."
"She is doing good."
"That's good. Um the class made her a bunch of cards and signed them. I also went out and got her a present. I was wondering if you could come get them?"
"Oh I um wasn't expecting that."
"Yeah don't worry about it I wanted to do it so don't worry."
"You sure?"
"Positive."
"Okay well my girlfriend gets out of work at 2:30 could she go get them."
"Of course."
"Yeah it would make sense and I don't wanna make Emily get up when she isn't feeling that good and she needs me. I don't wanna leave her here and I wouldn't do that."
"I understand and it's is fine that Halo comes and gets it."
"Okay thank you so much."
"You are very welcome." I call Halo and tell her what's going on. She said she would go get the cards and stuff. Emily wakes up and asks for something cold. I get her some frozen yogurt. She eats it. Halo comes home a couple hours later. She had a yellow envelope and a bag in her hand. Emily was building legos.
"Guess what." She says to Emily.
"What?" Emily says looking up at her.
"Everyone in your class made you a card and your teacher got you something."
"Really!" She says a smile on her face.
"Yeah, here."
"Yay!" She takes the bag and envelope. She opens the envelope. She dumps all the cards onto the table. She starts looking at them. Some had pictures drawn that she could color. Some had mazes glued into them and coloring pages. She smiled.
Then she opens the bag. She pulls out the tissue paper. I video tape it. She unwraps the first present. It was a stuffed animal blanket. It had a hood and little paws and it wrapped around her. She smiles.
"You like it?" I ask her.
"Yeah I love it." She continues and finds another item. It was a Barbie doll. It was a gymnastics one and it was wearing a leotard. Then attached to the box was two more outfits with shoes to chose from.
"I love it." She says.
"That's good." I say. She knew I was taping it.
"Thank you." I stop. "Jace can you open my Barbie?" She asks me.
"Yeah."
"And my blanket?"
"Yeah." I open her Barbie and blanket. She cuddles with the blanket and plays with the Barbie. She spends the next few hours playing with it. Andrew plays with her.
     She soon wants to go to sleep. She goes to sleep. Halo makes dinner. Zac asks if he can come over with Chloe. I say sure. They come over and Zane was with them. Zane plays with Andrew.
     Chloe was wearing a tight tank top under a hoodie. She wasn't showing yet but Emily was looking. She is so excited. Chloe and Halo start talking.
"We told her family the night we went to the dinner." Zac says.
"What happened?" I ask.
"Everyone was excited her dad was to but he pulled me into the hallway and told me if I hurt her or the baby I will regret having balls and the day I was born." He says.
"Yikes!" I have never here that threat but I already know better. Zac does to.
"Yeah. I won't hurt her or the baby though. I already can't wait to hold it and love on it. I want to cuddle up to her belly and feel the baby move and kick. I didn't get that with Zane so I want it with Chloe." He says.
"Yeah, you are an awesome dad and you will be a great one yet again."
"Thanks man." We start talking and he asks me to go outside. We talk a little bit more. He wants me to help him with something. I agree to it. We go inside.
"So I was thinking." Chloe says.
"What?" Halo says.
"You, me, and Emily should go out and get our nails done." Chloe responds.
"That sounds like a good idea."
"Emily would you like if Halo and I go out to get are nails done with you?"
"Yeah but not right now. My throats hurts." Emily says.
"Yeah when you feel better."
"Okay."
"Okay."
"That sounds fun." Halo says.
"We can go shopping to." Chloe suggests.
"She loves shopping."
"That's okay."
"Should we ask them?" Zac asks.
"Yeah." Chloe says.
"What's going on?" I ask.
"Well Zac and I were talking and we wanted to ask you guys if you would be both kids godparents. We will put it under one person and if you guys get married we will change it.
"Of course." I say.
"Yeah that's such an honor." Halo says.
"Okay."
"Are you excited?" Halo asks Chloe.
"Oh yeah. I want to show you something."
She pulls a picture out of her purse and it was in an envelope. It was a pic of the baby. "I went in for my first appointment today we had a strong healthy heartbeat."
"Awww."
"Cute." We show the kids and they were so excited.
"That copy is for you guys." Chloe says.
Halo:Really?
Chloe:Yeah.
Zac:We want to give a picture to family and you guys are family.
Jace:Well thank you.
They leave and I put Andrew down for bed. I give Emily some cottage cheese and she eats it slowly. She then goes to sleep. I go to bed and Halo stays up a little longer.
     Tomarow I go to work then Halo stays home. Unless she wants me to stay home it all depends. I go to sleep and fall asleep quickly. She often wakes me up at night because that's when it hurts the worst.
*2 AM*
     "Jace." Her voice soft as she gently shakes me to wake me up but not wake Halo.
      "What?" I ask half asleep.
      "My throat hurts." She says. She knows how to get popsicles but doesn't like cutting them open without help and she ran out of the easy open ones.
     "Okay." I get up and yawn I kinda fall asleep. She shakes me awake again. I get up and go into the kitchen. I get her some ice cream. I do it mostly with my eyes closed and give it to her.
     I sit in the chair and cover up with a blanket. I fall asleep once more. She doesn't bother me again though. I wake up in the chair and Halo at work. Andrew wasn't home and Emily was coloring.
     "Where is everyone?" I ask.
     "I want to stay home with you." She says not looking up from her coloring book. This whole not sleeping thing has taken a toll on me but she seems fine and alert.
     "Okay I think today you need to work on some homework." I say.
     "I did. I got it done." She says. I find that hard to believe because she has not touched it since she got it. I grab her folder off the table and look at every page of homework.
     "I will be damned yes you did. How and when?" I ask her totally confused.
     "I woke up again a little before Halo did. She got me some more ice cream and I did my homework while you were sleeping." She announces proud of herself for being so grown up.
     "What time is it?" I ask like she would know. I look at my phone it was 1:00 in the afternoon.
"What the hell." I announce.
"Yeah I have been eating popsicles." She says.
"Do you want some eggs?"
"Yeah but I don't want any crunchies on them it hurts."
"Okay." I make us both some eggs and give it to her. Her gymnastics coach calls and says that everyone made her a card. Halo will go get it once again. Emily plays peacefully but doesn't vocalize much. She just does everything in her head. I hear her giggle a couple times though.
"Jace."
"What?"
"Can I put my coat and hat on and boots and go outside on the porch? I wanna see the snow." She asks me.
"Sure do you want me to go with?" I ask her.
"Yeah."
"Okay." We go to the door I put my shoes on and she puts her boots on over her fuzzy socks. She tucks her pj pants leg in each boot and I help her with her coat.
     I put my coat on and she puts her hat on. We go outside on the porch. This is the first time she had been outside since the surgery. She doesn't like being cooped up in the house.
     She has been so good with it it can't hurt to let her out for a couple minutes. We watch the snow fall lightly. We see it cover the yard and deer tracks.
     We see a deer come into the yard. It quickly goes back to the woods though. She giggles.
"You know in 2 days it will be December first." I say to her.
"Yeah, I love Christmas." She says.
"Yeah."
"Yeah my favorite part of it is going to Anna's. I love going to her house and playing in the snow. I love going sledding and drinking hot chocolate.
     My favorite part though is when we have dinner. Anna is a really good cook and I like listening to all the dumb things you did when you were young."
"Thanks." I roll my eyes. She giggles and looks at me. Her hands were in her pockets and her cheeks were a rosy red.
"Okay I wanna go in." She says.
"Okay." We go in and she takes her stuff off. She cuddles under her blanket and watches Tom and Jerry. Halo comes home a couple hours later with Andrew and dinner. I give Emily some pudding and we eat dinner.
     Halo gets Andrew in the shower. I do some house chores. I check Emily's throat. She was looking good still red and sore. It will be that way for at least 2 weeks. She has a doctor note so she can't be held accountable for it.
     Anything after that doctor note she will be held accountable for. The coach says she can do the best she can and if she wants to be in the next competition she can if not then she don't have to.
     We give her all the cards. Her coach had gotten her a stuffed animal to. She was so happy. I talk to Halo. When both kids are sleep we talk about the day.
     I usually work on stuff for work and school. I got my school stuff done and I am doing stuff for work. I work as we talk.
*1 week later*
It is December 5th and Emily is doing much better the doctor said if she up to it she can go back to school next week. She really wants to. She misses it a lot and wants to see Ava and go to practice.
    The season is over for Andrew considering there is snow on the ground. Emily is the only one who has after school practice. I have been going to work. I'm still doing awesome in my classes and I have been doing it for a month and a half about.
    I have all A's and B's. what B's I do have a close to being A's. I am keeping up with work to. When I finish with work I do school work in the office I can usually get both done while I'm at work.
    It's only Monday. I get all my assignments on Monday and they are due Friday. The assignment is taught to me the previous week. I get all my work done and work and go home. Emily was playing with Andrew. I had to laugh. Andrew doesn't want to go outside because Emily can't. He is so protective of her. It is so sweet. He actually sleeps in the living room with her. He got upset because I wouldn't let him during school nights.
"Jace." Emily says.
      "What?" I say.
      "I got my work done."
      "Okay sounds good put it in your bag and the next time you have work is Monday. Tuesday you go to practice."
     "I know." She says.
     "I washed your leotard and clothes for it."
     "Okay."
*Monday Morning*
We get up and we get the kids up. They get dressed. I check Emily's throat and is was a little red but she said she felt fine. She gets her back pack.
     They put their boots, coats, hats, and gloves on. We go outside and wait for the bus. When the bus comes they get on. Emily is so excited that she can go to school.
    Halo and I go to work. I go all day and no phone call to go get her. Zac tells me that Chloe is starting to get a little belly.
    If she takes her shirt off you can see a bump. She is excited and so is Zac. Zac says she wants a huge belly. It looks like everything is really turning up at this point and I couldn't be happier.