Hiraeth [GxG]

Chapter 14

"Momma, mommy?" I hear the voice of Alyx whisper out from beside the bed. I groggily propped myself up on my elbow.

"Yes, sweetie?" I heard a little bit of sniffling.

"Are you or mommy going to die?" Her voice cracked when she said, and I saw her small frame shaking with sobs. I waved her to me.

"Come here, my little bear." Finally, she got close enough to where I could finally pick her up and bring her up on the bed with me. She snuggled into me and continued crying. "We aren't going anywhere." I looked over and saw Emma finally awake and giving a sad expression. She sat up and pulled both of us closer to her.

"Momma's right; we aren't going anywhere." Not too long after Alyx had cried herself to sleep, Aleksey and Asha walk in. Emma and I took each side of the bed while all the kids laid down in between us. I looked over and shared a concerned look with Emma.

"I guess Asha finally told them." I heard Emma's voice appear in my head.

"I just hope the kids don't worry too much." I saw her softly nod her head.

"Me too. As you said, we will get through this together." This brought a reassuring smile to my face.

"Together. Goodnight, my love. I love you very much." She smiled at me back.

"Sweet dreams. I love you very much too." I didn't let my negative thoughts run rampant as they have been recently. Instead, I held on to what my mom said and focused on manifesting the good things.

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The next morning we all woke up and didn't really speak of what happened last night. I wanted to talk to the kids more about what happened with Asha's mom and their fears about how that could happen to Emma, me, or to the both of us. But they acted as if those fears didn't exist, as if Alyx didn't come in there and cry herself to sleep. It concerned me even more how they were acting completely fine. It made me wonder if they were as good at acting as Emma and I are if they have hidden how they really felt to us before.

While the kids were upstairs playing in Alyx's room, Emma and I went to our offices to get some of our work done. I can only imagine how hectic work must be for Emma dealing with a deadly virus because dealing with the new construction of my work building was absolute mayhem. Trying to get ahold of who is actually in charge was like pulling teeth. Well, I guess if you were a dentist pulling teeth might be easy... Never mind, I'm getting sidetracked. My mind keeps going down these random rabbit holes, and it has become more frequent and more difficult to stop. I keep losing focus.

"Okay, Mila, focus." I looked at my reflection on the computer screen, then took a deep breath. I've got this; we've got this, as long as the family is together. I am definitely going to need more coffee and hot sauce if I am going to be able to get through the rest of this work.

Instead of making coffee in my office, I decided to go to the coffee maker in the kitchen. I needed to stretch my legs and have a break from work anyway. So on the way there, I decided to stop off at Emma's office.

"Hey, love, do you need anything from the kitchen?" She looked up from her computer screen, and she looked like she could pull all her hair out.

"Yeah, I'll come with you. I need a break." She closed her laptop with a huff, and the rest of her monitors went dark. She walked with an urgency as if she couldn't get out of her office quick enough. She grabbed my hand as she made her way past me and pulled me at her pace.

"You trying to outrun work there, my love?" I said with amusement laced in my voice. She brought down two cups and grabbed the jug of blood from the fridge, and started filling them up.