Spitting Image • TFC 3.0 • l.t. au

Chapter Twenty

20

"Mummy why are you crying?" The first words Blaine uttered when I entered his room.

The innocence in his bright round eyes is enough to make me feel thankful for what I have. I'm glad that every time something goes wrong, I'd take one look at Blaine and force myself to make it right. For him. For this innocent little boy before me who's completely clueless to the outside world.

I forced a smile and shook my head.

"Mum's just tired. Aren't you tired, sweetheart?" I ask him. He looks up for a moment then nods. "Let's go to bed then?"

I hold my hand out and he takes it immediately. He got to his feet and was even the one to pull me towards his bed. He got on and pulled his duvet over himself. I sat on the edge and stroked his hair.

"Why are you tired?" He asks softly, his bright blue eyes beaming at me. My chest swells as I stare into the identical blue eyes that calmed me down not an hour ago. "I'm tired too." He yawns.

I chuckle and run my hand through his dark brown hair. "Then you need to sleep." I tell him, stroking his cheek with back of my hand.

"You too." He says sleepily. I can tell he's forcing himself to keep his eyes open.

"Go to sleep, baby. You're going to get sick of you don't get enough sleep." I tell him and his bright eyes beam at me once again.

"You're sick. You sleep too." He says, smiling sleepily.

Now that he's mentioned it, my throat has never been drier and my headache has gotten worse. It's probably just temporary and it will go away in the morning. "Don't worry about mum, now. I'll be fine. Go to sleep now, sweetheart."

I sat there, stroking the little boy's hair until his eyes close and soft snores come from his mouth. I kiss his forehead and turn his lampshade off. I shut his door silently just as the room beside Blaine's door opens.

Emily comes out, her eyes red but what alarmed me was how pale she's gotten. Her lips have gone purple and cold sweat rolled from her forehead. I stood in front of her when she sways, holding her head was a struggle enough. When I held her arm, she's ice cold and I feel the panic rise to my chest.

"Louis! I need you here right now!" I yell and seconds later, Harry and Louis were running up the staircase and looked just as shocked. "She's cold... I don't know what to do." I admit just as Harry scooped her up. My voice trembling with fear.

"We're gonna need to take her to a hospital." Louis says, frantically grabbing his keys from the rack and throwing me me a jacket. I turned to Milly pleadingly but she shooed me away before I can say anything.

"Don't worry about Blaine, Em needs you more. Meg, Go!" She yells, pushing me out the door.

My mind went completely blank and all I can think of was this was my fault. If I didn't yell at her, this wouldn't have happened! Em would have been okay, we wouldn't be panicking and rushing her to the hospital now.

I don't know how I managed to get in the car but I did and I didn't even realise I was sat in the back seat with Em's head on my lap. Her brows are furrowed and skin is pale and cold just as before.

My mind went blank again the whole journey to the hospital. When I snapped out of it, we were already pulling into the emergency entrance and a couple nurses came out with a stretcher. They got Em, who's unconscious, out of the car and pushed her in the emergency room.

We followed behind them while the doctors rushed to her, injecting needles in her hand, checking her heart rate, her blood pressure and everything. "You're related?" I jumped when I hear the doctor's voice.