word count: 1792
warnings: mentions of nightmares, angst
date: mon, 24th june 2019
the next morning, sage woke up fresh. sad but fresh. she looked over at her husband sleeping in their shared bed. sage was so in love with him. she loved the way his bleached blonde hair sat on the bed, fluffy and messy. she loved him with her whole heart. calum looked disturbed like he was having a nightmare or was extremely uncomfortable. his hair was matted to his forehead, as a result of sweating and he was squinting his eyes, grunting softly.
"calum, baby," sage murmured, shaking him lightly to wake him up. calum bolted awake with a gasp, sitting up straight from his previously lying down state. heavy tears immediately started flowing down his face at a fast pace. he brings his hands to his eyes, rubbing them intensely. sage sat there in astonishment, not expecting him to bolt awake. calum had never been a very emotional person. the only time sage had ever seen calum cry was when some of his cousins had been fatally killed in the christchurch mosque shootings and on their wedding day. he was never one to show his emotions, especially to his family. he wanted to be seen as the tough guy. the one everyone could rely on.
sage sat up in her spot, moving her hands to calum's back which was shaking with every sharp sob he let out. her hands rubbed back and forth on his bare back until she decided to bring her arms around him and hug him. calum jumped with the sudden contact, looking at her from behind his red eyes. sage pulled him down to the bed, pulling his body into her chest and running her fingers through his hair.
"do you want to talk about it?" sage asks quietly, looking down at him with sad eyes.
"i just saw her, on her death bed. i can't even imagine this happening to my girl, i shouldn't be able to think about it! i don't ever want to see her like i did," calum said, sobbing softly.
"it's alright, it's okay. she's in her room, probably asleep. she'll be in here any minute now for cuddles with her favourite people okay? she's okay," sage says, kissing his forehead. it was as if sage predicted the future, and their little girl walked glumly through the door, dragging her feet behind her and climbing up into bed with her parents, squishing her way between the two and snuggling her face into her father's bare chest, which is wet with tears. just like that, it was as if she was never awake, she fell right to sleep back in the presence of her family. calum and sage looked at each other with unsure stares. calum looked down at the small girl asleep on his chest and looked at her eyes, which were sunken down into her skull and black around the rims. she looked exhausted.
"i think we should make that appointment," calum whispers, sniffling lightly, looking down at his daughter, stroking her hair as she breathed heavily.
"alright, you make the appointment and i'll call the preschool and tell them that kora won't be coming in today," sage says, pulling the duvet from her body and forcing herself from the bed to her phone in the other room. calum lift's kora's head and rests it on his pillow. he reached for his phone on his bedside table. he swung his legs over the side of the bed sitting with his head in his hands and his phone between his ears and shoulder.
"uh yes, hello, i was wondering if you have any availabilities between now and eleven o'clock?" calum says softly to the receptionist on the other side of the line.
"alright, we'll be in for 9:30 with doctor blackwell, thank you," calum whispers, looking at kora's sleeping body. she looks so deprived and he wants nothing more than to let her sleep but he knows he has to wake her up.
"kora, sweetheart wake up," calum whispers, kissing her on the cheeks. the little girl stirs and blinks her eyes open, squinting at the sudden show of light and cracking a smile when she sees her dad above her.
