Again ~ A Luke Brooks Love Story

Chapter 30

LUKE'S POV:

It was so hard trying to get Ava ready without waking her up, especially when I was so excited. Ideally, she would sleep during the half hour journey to the hospital meaning she wouldn't be grouchy tonight and the schedule Mum planned out for me wouldn't be messed up.

Ava was even more uncooperative when she was sleeping, like a rag doll. Perhaps it was just because I was being impatient. She had on about twenty layers: She had her clean nappy on first and then a little white vest embodied with butterflies because it was a bit nippy. It looked very sweet on her but she didn't like getting dressed in it and grumbled and moved away. Eventually though, I managed to fasten her in and she stopped complaining.

On top of this, was a long sleeved white top which fastened round her nappy. I still wasn't sure what the purpose of this was but it seemed like a necessity and she was pretty much always wearing them. She had what seemed like 300 stockpiled in my chest of drawers.

Then, she had a kind of orange jumpsuit thing which had a giraffe peeping out of the pocket. It was cute but more importantly, one Paisley had bought for her. That seemed like the most appropriate thing to do.

Next, I had to force her chubby little arms into the sleeves of her fluffy cream cardie. It was a bit dressy for a trip to the hospital but I wanted her to look her absolute best for her mum.

To finish, I carefully put her matching giraffe hat on her head and dinky baby socks and bootees on her feet. When she was done, she very closely resembled a barrel. She seemed to be able to tell something was going on because she was wriggling and writhing all over the place.

I carried her downstairs carefully so as not to disturb her even more. Everybody was waiting downstairs for me, all looking pretty excited. I forget how much Paisley means to all of them as well.

We all piled into Mum's car: Beau at the front, Me, Jai and Ava squashed into the back. It wasn't very comfortable but I barely even noticed. Mum drove relatively well paced but to me, it felt like we were going unbelievably slowly as Jai kept up a constant one-sided conversation with Ava.

"Are we going to see Mummy now?"

"Oh yes we are!"

Finally, after what seemed like hours, we got to the hospital. It took another ten minutes to find a parking space as it was ridiculously crowded and then another five for mum to fumble in her purse for change and curse under her breath when she saw the prices at the ticket machines.

By the time we actually got into the building, I was giddy with excitement.

"Come on!" I goaded the others. "Hurry up!"

We didn't go to the place we were waiting in before because Paisley had been moved to another ward. She had been in intensive care but Mum said she'd been moved to another general ward. This encouraged me greatly. Surely that meant Paisley was on the mend.

Mum spoke with the secretary whilst me, Beau and Jai sat in the seats which were firmly attached to the floor.

Beau looked uneasy; hospitals give him the creeps. He'd never been comfortable here, even though we'd been here nearly every day last week for hours on end. Jai was tapping his foot anxiously. He was obviously as worried about Paisley as I was. Ava was sitting on his lap, apparently not bothered by his fidgeting and looking, even if I do say it myself, absolutely angelic. Giraffes really were her style.

Eventually, once Mum had filled in our forms, we were greeted by a friendly nurse. Jai passed Ava over to me and we were led away from the waiting area down a corridor. It looked identical to millions of others and I'd probably never be able to find it again, but I knew it was important. Paisley was down here.