drowning

34

Ashton.

Over the next few days, Ava seemed to get worse and worse.

At first, she convinced me to dismiss it as a sinus infection, getting her on a simple antibiotic until I was making her walk downstairs with me and I noticed she was short of breath, which caused us to immediately leave the house and go straight to the hospital, searching for Calum.

After several chest x rays, a physical exam and multiple lecturers from Calum about "you should've both known better", she was diagnosed with pneumonia.

Thankfully, it wasn't to a horrible point yet, but it was much further than Calum wanted it to be.

I should've taken her here the second day she was sick with no improvement.

Calum gave her a steroid shot, prescribed stronger antibiotics, an inhaler to help the shortness of breath and strongly encouraged that I make her take extremely steamy baths or sit until a humidifier to help open her lungs.

And then he sent us home, telling us he would come by later to check in.

I picked up her medicines, letting her sleep in the car as I did before going home, getting her favorite lunch in the process.

I helped her inside, which caused her to quietly thank me before I gave her, her medicines and made her eat a little bit to ensure that she wouldn't get sick.

"I can't." She spoke firmly as I held another note of soup to her mouth.

She hadn't eaten half of what I had been wanting her to eat the past few days, I knew it was because she was sick, but it still made me worried.

"I just want cuddles." She whined out, reaching for me as I closed her soup, exhaling

"We have to do a steam bath or the-" before I could even finish, she was crying, immediately catching me off guard.

"What's wrong, angel?" I asked her, immediately pulling her almost fully into my lap, where she finished straddling me, laying her head on my shoulder, facing it into my neck.

Even her crying sounded congested.

"Talk to me, baby." I spoke calmly, patting her back as I held her gently.

"I just want you to hold me, I don't want to do anything right now." She cried into me.

I squeezed her tighter.

"I know baby, we just have to do what Calum says so that you don't get worse, I don't want you to end up hospitalized over this." I told her calmly.

"Ash?" She spoke after I let her go silent, myself rubbing her back gently.

"What baby?" I asked her.

"I miss my mom"

I hugged her tighter

Everyone misses their mom a little more when they're sick, no matter the age.

"I'm sorry that she isn't here to help you through this, love." I told her calmly, kissing her cheek gently.

"Thank you for being here" she told me, making me kiss her yet again.

To say the least, I couldn't get her to do the steamy bath because before she even took her clothes off she was saying she felt like she was suffocating from the heat.

So I resulted to the humidifier with a blanket over it, where she immediately panicked, saying she felt like she was suffocating.

It took me laying under the blanket with her, holding her the entire time and promising her that she wasn't going to suffocate for her to actually do it correctly.

"I'm sorry if I'm acting like a big baby." She told me calmly as I pulled her closer to me, putting on a movie.

"You're really sick. You have the excuse to act however you want. Either way, you are my big baby."