On Tour

Chapter 48

Lily's POV
"6 creams, extra sugar." I say handing Josh a coffee, jumping down into the chair. He takes a sip, and tenses up over the hot coffee. "I think I've gotten everything packed. Blankets, pacifiers, bottles," he starts looking around as do I, we look up at each other, our eyes widen, "Eloy the Elephant!" We yell in unison. I reach over the crib on my tippy toes, grabbing the small grey elephant. I hand it to Josh, he grabs it and raises his eyebrows, putting it in the bag. "Are we ready to take this baby home?" Our doctor says, walking in. "Definitely." "Bout time!" The doctor slides down one of the rails to the crib and first starts to unwrap her from her blankets. She was napping, so she starts to stretch and it's the cutest thing in the world. "Good morning!" The doctor says in a babyish voice, bopping her on the nose. "You get to go home today!" He says again, in a kiddish voice. Well, not home. On Tour, but soon home. He takes her IV out, and then takes off a monitor off her back and chest. She finally looks like she's not sick! I smile and josh puts his arm around my shoulders. I put my hands together and rub them, clapping, and jumping up and down. The doctor picks her up with an umph, and hands her over to me. I take her in my arms, her big blue eyes are fully open and it's exciting to see her happy. She smiles and rubs her eyes. "Ready to go home?" I say and she giggles as Josh tickles her tummy. We laugh, thank the doctor, and start walking to the elevator. We walk into the elevator and as I'm looking down at Amara, she's smiling, until the elevator starts and her face drops. She starts to wail and I bounce her, patting her back, "It's ok baby, it's just an elevator. I'm scared of them too, sometimes your dad will jump on them, just to boost my anxiety." I say glaring at Josh, he starts hysterically laughing and I laugh too. The elevator stops and on cue, Amara stops crying. We start walking towards our personal room, and while I'm holding Amara I'm constantly rubbing my hand through her soft gold locks. We open our door and the first thing I hear is Jenna squeal, "Aweeee! Let me see my beautiful little niece!" She says running over to me jumping. I laugh and hand her over to her. "Hi!" She says in a kiddish voice, much like the doctors, walking over to the chair with her. Tyler struts over to us, "Ready to go?" He says and I lay my head on Josh's shoulder sighing, "'Ready' is an understatement." I say and josh laughs bringing his hand up to my hair. I smile warmly at Tyler and then we start grabbing things like our keys, wallets, phones, all the goods. Everyone starts packing up and Jenna walks over, holding up Amara. "Lily, something very bad has happened." I grab her confused and then it hits me, literally. "Ohhhh! Amara!" I hiss holding her seven feet away from my body, exaggeration? I think not... "Hey Josh!" He's bent down grabbing stuff off the floor. "Do you want to be the FIRST parent to give Amara her diaper change?" I say making it sound appealing. He stands up and fixes his yellow hair, "When you put it that way, It actually sounds appealing." My point exactly... He grabs her and rolls his eyes at me. I blow him a kiss and mouth the words 'I love you', he mouths something and swipes the baby bag up, storming into the bathroom. I turn around and cock my arm, "Yessss." I mutter, bending down, finishing picking up what he was. I pick up small pieces of paper and throw them in the trash. I smack my hands together, dusting them off, and standing up. I exhale strongly and look around the room for the car seat carrier. I see it on the chair and I walk over to it, picking it up. I walk it over to the bed and set it down. I push the handle back and fluff the seat. "Tyler hand me a blanket would ya?" I say flicking the dangling plush fish on the handle. He throws me a small purple blanket and I sniff it, it smells like lavender and I relax. I coil in a half circle and place it around the pillow area. The door shoots open and Josh walks over to me, Amara in his hand, the baby bag in his other. "Thank you," I say batting my eyes at him, grabbing Amara from his arm. "We're taking turns, you're next." He says pointing at me, walking away. "Aaaaand what he means by that is, you won't poop till it's his turn again." I wink at her and She laughs as I throw her up in the air and I catch her. I rub our noses together and she giggles, GOD HELP ME SHES SO ADORABLE I CANT. I laugh, gently setting her smiling face into the car seat. I buckle her up and she starts to get fussy, maybe she's a bit claustrophobic. "Here," Tyler says spooking me over my shoulder. He hands me Eloy the Elephant, "Life saver!" I cough out, I bend down and get in her face. "Here, hold this tightly whenever you get nervous or scared." I say handing her Eloy, I know she didn't understand me, but maybe she does, I don't know what she's thinking in her little peanut brain. She happily grasps the small elephant and thrashes it up and down laughing. "We ready?" Josh says, squatting down next to me reaching for Amara's chubby little cheeks. She's still laughing and grabs Josh's finger. I grab his arm and I melt when I feel his muscles, fine, I guess I'll admit it, I'm 25 and still a hardcore fan girl. "Ready than ever." I say, he looks at me and tips my chin up, kissing me passionately. Amara stops laughing and begins getting fussy again. And just before she's about to cry We end our kiss, our noses still touching we start laughing hysterically. "Don't worry there's a lot of mom to go around." Josh says, still laughing, looking at Amara. She looks unsure, but nonetheless goes back to smiling, playing with Eloy. We both stand up and I pull the handle up and lock it. Josh puts his hand on the handle and I bend down, grabbing what's left of our bags. "Ok," I say looking at Josh, then at Jenna and Tyler, "Lets go!" I say exhausted for it has been a long, excruciating two weeks. We all smile and start to pile out of the room. Josh first, me next, followed by Jenna and Tyler. We head for the front desk, passing by many families and patients. We pass by the front desk and we all stop, a red headed man with a head FULL of hair looks up at me, "Do we need to check out?" I ask, he shakes his head at me and warmly smiles. I take a sigh of relief and my smile widens. "Thank you." I say genuinely before we start walking towards the doors. This is it, once I leave this hospital, my life with Amara and Josh as a family, finally, begins. I start quickening my pace towards the door and so does Josh. We must be thinking the exact same thing. The first set of automatic doors open and then are followed with the other. We reach outside, the soft breeze of summer brushing my skin. We stop, and I shut my eyes, freedom. My smile becomes infinite and I let all my feelings flow. I open my eyes and look over at Josh, his eyes are closed too, but almost simultaneously he opens them, looking over at me. "We did it." He says smiling, "We did it!" I yell and we drop everything, Josh gently sets Amara down, and we embrace each other laughing uncontrollably, I start snorting. This, this feeling, this is something I want to hold onto forever, and ever.