a second chance - Hotchniss

I'm good [Aaron]

In the evening, Emily started to feel worse again. I had expected that, since a human body gets weaker and exhausted during the day and it hits its lowest point in the evening. Her temperature was rising again and I knew that every word she spoke hurt her throat like hell. Mostly she just slept on the couch, curled up in a blanket. She did not want me to come too close, fearing that I would get sick, too. I didn't care about that, I just cared about her.

Alaska was still at Jonas' place and I was okay with that, maybe it was even better since Alaska had a very weak immune systems due to her weight problems. Staying with Jonas would at least ensure that she would not get sick again, even though I knew that they mostly skipped school - but what do you expect from young teenagers, madly in love with each other?

I had just prepared another tea for my wife and walked back into the living room. She was still laying on the couch, everything of her body covered by a blanket, apart from her head. I smiled to myself as I watched her sleeping peacefully. I put the cup down on the small table, she woke up.

"Oh, sorry", I said. "I did not want to wake you.."

"It's fine", she whispered. "I was just light sleeping. I'm to cold and my head hurts too much."

"I cannot do anything against the headache", I sighed. "But I could lie with you, I have a warm body."

"And by tomorrow, you'll lie here as well, freezing, with a terrible headache? I don't want that to happen", she mumbled.

"I won't get sick", I assured her. "I have a very strong immune system."

She didn't reply, so I sat down next to her and lifted up my arm, so she could snuggle up to my body. As soon as she was clinging to my torso, her head resting on my chest, I grabbed the blanket with my other hand and covered her with it.

"Better?", I softly asked, but she had already closed her eyes and fallen asleep.

I closed my eyes as well, but I did not fall asleep. Too many thoughts shot through my brain, considering our relationship. We still were not together again, but we had decided to fight for us. It gave us some kind of security, but where would this lead? We were slowly and carefully starting a relationship at the moment, both of us very shy but in some moments, it felt like in early times again. That was good, wasn't it?

Again, I asked myself how it could have come so far. I loved this women with all my heart, she and our daughter were my everything. How could I ever wanted to be apart from them? I had been so stupid. But realizing this only now wouldn't change the past anymore, it could only affect our future. I could get back together with Emily any minute, but I knew how hard this had been for her as well, and if she needed time, I totally understood. We had been through a lot, maybe even too much, but this made us so strong, didn't it?

I once more opened my eyes and looked down at Emily, making sure that she was still asleep, before closing my eyes again and falling asleep, as well.

-

I small noise made me wake up shortly after I had fallen asleep. I opened my eyes and directly scanned the room, finding my daughter slinking through the living room.

"Since when are you back home?", I whispered, making her jump.

"God, Dad!", she hissed. "I thought you were asleep!"

"Shhh!"

I lowered my head to check if her mother was still sleeping, since I did not want her to wake up.

"Don't worry, she's been sleeping like a stone all the time", Alaska whispered.

"Good", I smiled. "So, what are you looking for?"

"I forgot my charger in Jonas' room and I'm looking for Mum's", she sighed. "I don't want to go to school with an uncharged phone tomorrow!"

"Oh, look who is going to school again", I grinned.

"I was sick the last two days!", she argued.

"One of them you were, the other one you took a day off and your boyfriend surprisingly did as well", I answered.

"That's not true", she hissed, but grinned as well. "So, do you know where this damn charger is?"

"It's in the kitchen", I said. "Do you know what time it is?"

"It's nearly 6:30 pm", she answered before heading to the kitchen. Some seconds later, she climbed up the stairs to her room again, the charger in her hand.

I looked at Emily again, who was still sleeping peacefully. I carefully put a hand on her forehead in order to check if she still had a temperature. She did, but it felt like it had gone down a tiny bit. She was still clinging to my torso, like she was crawling for every inch of warmth she could get in order to heat her shivering, weak body. I just hoped that my arm with was laying around her gave her some warmth as well.

After quite a while, she woke up again and looked up to me, not saying anything.

"Hey", I whispered softly.

She just smiled weakly, remaining silent. I guess she was scared that talking would hurt her throat again.

"Are you thirsty? Hungry? Do you wanna watch another movie? Or something else? Read a book? You can just nod if you don't want to say anything.", I asked and she laughed.

"You're adorable", she whispered. "But at the moment, I don't need anything. I'm good."

"How's your head?", I then asked.

"The headache is gone for the moment, I hope it's going to stay like this", she smiled.

"That's good", I nodded. "Maybe we should put on some music? Maybe it cheers you up, you know, making you feel better?"

"Later", she answered. "But right now, I just wanna stay here, with you, moving as less as possible."

And when she said these words, I knew that we would make it. I knew that we did not have to fight for our relationship anymore, I knew that we would make it, no matter what was gonna happen. And even though she was sick and probably really infectious, I leaned in and kissed her. Just like that.