The London Paradigm (book 4 of Adopted by the Josephs)

24. Tyler

"It's nice to see you smiling again," Jenna said as I got into bed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Nothing. Just, you were so worried about Samantha, I'm not sure you were truly happy. Until she got off that plane," she smiled.

"I missed her. And I worried about her. So sue me," I said, kissing my wife.

"You're sued," she smiled.

I woke up to an alarm sound. I sat up trying to figure it out. My phone lit up. I grabbed it and looked at it. 4:40 am.

The alarm sounded again. Samantha. Her blood sugar was low. Really low. I got up and ran to her room.

"Sam, Sam, wake up sweetheart," I said, shaking her. "Sam, come on honey. Wake up."

Jenna came in while I was trying to wake Samantha up.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Samantha's blood sugar is really low and she's not waking up," I said. Jenna came over and started helping me.

"Sam? Come on sweetheart," Jenna said tickling her feet. Samantha's toes curled up.

I kept shaking Samantha, gently, hoping to wake her up.

Finally she started groaning.

"Come on, Samantha," I said, pulling her into a seated position. "Wakey wakey."

"What?" She grumbled.

"Come on. Open your eyes," I said. She slowly opened her eyes.

"What?" She said again.

"Your blood sugar is low," I said, taking a juice box from the fridge we kept beside her bed. Jenna grabbed the glucose tabs.

"It's fine," Samantha said, closing her eyes.

"Nope, nope," I said. "Wake up. Eyes open."

She did and Jenna handed her the glucose tabs while I opened the juice.

Sam sucked on the tablets more than chewed, but that was okay. I put the straw in the juice box and offered it to Sam. She drank the whole thing in one go.

"Someone's thirsty," I said, wrapping my arm around her shoulders as she leaned into me.

"Mm," Sam said. Jenna was holding her hand and patting it, trying to keep her awake.

"Come on, baby doll," I said. "Eyes open."

"Whyyyyy?" She whined, her eyes still mostly closed.

"Because, I want to make sure you're okay."

"Come on, Sam," Jenna said. "Wakey Wakey."

Samantha groaned again.

We sat with her for a while and watched her blood sugar going up.

"What are you doing?" Samantha asked, sitting up.

"Treating your low blood sugar," I said. "You went really low, so we came in to treat it. You were so out of it."

"Oh. Can I go back to sleep now?" She asked.

"Sure thing, sweetheart," Jenna said. We tucked her back in under the covers and kissed her goodnight.

We went back to bed and I fell into an uneasy sleep.

In the morning, Samantha was already up and playing with Rosie.

"'Morning, Dad," she said as I came downstairs.

"Good morning girls," I smiled.

"Dada! SaSa!" Rosie said pointing at Samantha.

"That's right. Samantha's home," I said to Rosie.

"Can we have pancakes for breakfast?" Samantha asked.

"Sure. I'll get that started. You want to bring Rosie into the kitchen?"

Samantha nodded and picked Rosie up and followed me into the kitchen.

I watched as Samantha put Rosie into her high chair and turned around. Her face looked... off.

Suddenly, Samantha dropped to the ground and started seizing.

"Shit!" I said, pulling out my phone and starting the stopwatch. Rosie started crying and Jenna came downstairs just then.

"What's going on?" Jenna said, rushing to get Rosie while I sat beside Samantha on the floor. "Are you timing her?"

I nodded.

"Come on Sam, you're okay. You're going to be okay," I said soothingly.

Finally she stopped seizing and lay still on the floor. I rolled her onto her side to recover. She was breathing fine, so that made me happy. I waited a little bit, to make sure she wasn't going to seize some more, and then I picked her up and carried her to the couch, where I sat and held her. I was fighting back tears. One day home and she's had an extreme low and now a seizure.

I sat and rocked Samantha gently while singing softly to her. I was singing "Trees".

Rosie was still fussing and crying while Jenna was holding her.

"SaSa!" Rosie wailed, reaching for her. Jenna placed Rosie gently in my arm so she was sitting on Sam, basically. That seemed to calm her down a little.

We sat with Sam, waiting for her to wake up.

She only dozed for about fifteen minutes, which was better than at first, when she could sleep for a couple of hours.

"What happened?" Sam asked, as she opened her eyes and Rosie tapped her on the face. Jenna picked her back up.

"You had a seizure," I said.

Sam started crying.

"I didn't have one the whole time I was away!" She said. "Not even the day I got there."

"It's okay, sweetheart," Jenna said. "Maybe this was a one off. It didn't last long and you woke up pretty quick."

Samantha sighed.

"I was hoping I was done with these," she said. And then sat straight up. "Rosie!! I was holding Rosie!"

"You'd already put her in her high chair, right before you had your seizure. She's fine. See? Mom's got her."

Sam looked over at Jenna and Rosie. Rosie was grinning at Sam.

"All good?" I asked. Sam nodded.

"Hungry?"

"A little," she said. I helped her stand up and we went back to making pancakes.