Family Stories - the Sequel

chapter 23

still Friday, 16th September

Owen: 58; Amelia: 52; Luca: 23; Leo: 16; Lily: 16

Ryan: 27; Katie: 26; Riley: 10; Ian&Connor: 8

Liam: 24; Robin: 24; Victoria: 6; Audrey Blake: 4; Madelyn: 9 months

Finn: 24; Dennis: 24; Mason-Anthony: 2

Ruby: 24; Ethan: 25

Mira: 20; Harriet: 21; Eva-Maeve: 3

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"Hi, Baby.", Jacob could be heard through the phone. As in trance, Amelia had decided to accept the call, too curious to just ignore it. "I figured I should do something special since we have met each other ten years ago."

Amelia was frozen, just staring at the phone in her hand and hearing a voice she had wished to never have to hear again. Jacob continued flirting with her relentlessly and what actually were about ten seconds, felt like a lifetime.

"Leave us the fuck alone, Carter!", Owen threatened and reached over to his wife's phone to end the call for her. She was slowly waking up from her trance and started shaking heavily. "Come here, Love.", he softly ordered, wanting to calm the brunette down as he gently wrapped his arms around her shaking body.

"I...I can't breathe.", the neurosurgeon managed to get out quietly after a good two minutes of trying to speak. Her throat felt clogged, her lungs were aching as they were desperately in the need of air, and her breathing sounded very wrong.

"Hey. Hey, Amelia.", the redhead let go of her for a moment to look at his wife. "You're having a panic attack.", he informed her as he tenderly locked eyes with her while his hands were cupping her cheeks. Although he was being calm for her, there was a storm inside of him, because she was looking like she would pass out any minute now. "Let's breathe together. We can find a rhythm together. Deep breaths. Slow and steady. Like mine."

"I'm dying.", Amelia mumbled, using the last bit of air she thought was left in her lungs. A tear escaped her right eye and ran down her cheek, but Owen never broke eye contact.

"The hell you are, not under my watch.", the trauma surgeon replied firmly, really glad that he had been here with her when the bastard had called, but also pretty sure that Carter would keep trying to reach her. "Now come on, Babe.", he said. "Slow and steady breaths. In and out.", he guided her through the panic attack. "Yes, like that. This is good, Ames.", he praised her, when her face slowly gained some color again and her breathing sounded less dangerous than before.

Chewie also noticed that something seemed to be wrong with his owner, so he got up and positioned himself against her, laying his small head on Amelia's leg to watch her as he whined. Owen gently grasped his wife's hand and put it on the dog's body, letting her feel his breathing to synchronize hers with.

"Everything is fine, Honey.", the trauma surgeon pointed out once more and after a few more deep breaths, he realized that she had overcome her panic attack. "Okay?", he still wanted to check in with her.

"Yes.", the brunette finally confirmed, her hand still on Chewie's body, so she started petting him. "Can we try to sleep now?", she wanted to know, pretty sure that falling asleep would take a while for her.

"Of course, come here.", her husband once again offered, watching their dog move back to his original spot. His wife rested her right ear on his chest to listen to his slow heartbeat, which oftentimes would calm her down.

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Liam: 24; Robin: 24; Victoria: 6; Audrey Blake: 4; Madelyn: 9 months

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"It actually makes so much sense for you to be here this weekend. Grandma texted and said she would make two dishes, so we can take care of the rest.", Liam told his ex-girlfriend. "Let's go grocery shopping tomorrow and prepare the French food for Sunday as much as we already can.", he added.

"Yep, sounds great.", Robin agreed. "Alrighty Audrey, your sister is at her keyboard lesson, and we had a snack. What would you like to do? One of us needs to keep Maddy busy, but the other one can attend to only you for a while today."

"I really like it that way.", the four-year-old pointed out. "Getting to choose if I wanna hang out with mama or daddy again.", she cutely giggled. "Daddy, let's go to the playroom to use the trampoline.", she begged.

The girl was referring to a rather small trampoline, which could be used indoors and even had a handle to hold on to since there was no net around it. Audrey loved using it to practice her jumps for her training on Tuesdays.

"That's not going to be the norm, Sweetheart.", her father chose to be the bad cop. He didn't want his children to have expectations that couldn't get fulfilled. "But this weekend, you are lucky again."

"We are gonna watch you, I guess.", his best friend meddled, since the baby seemed very intrigued by her sister jumping up and down on the trampoline. She even started applauding her, although it also just could have been a randomly clapping nine-month-old. "So, how was school this week?", she asked Liam.

"Pretty good. The kids are rarely fighting, although two of them didn't really get along, which made R rather sad.", the young redhead replied to Robin, but didn't use Riley's name since they didn't want their daughters to know about stuff that was happening to their cousin at school. Especially, since the teacher wasn't supposed to talk about his pupils outside of school.

"Well, that sounds quite great, except for the last part.", the marriage and family therapist answered softly. "And what did you do in pre-school today, Audrey?", she addressed their four-year-old, who took a small break after jumping for quite a few minutes. "Here's your cup to drink some water."

"Thank you, Mama.", the little redhead beamed sweetly. "Pre-school was okay. We read a lot. And I really like books.", she reminded her parents, watching her father sit down next to her mother and sister.

"Yes, you do, Love.", Liam agreed softly. "Wanna read one before I'll leave to get Vicky?", he wondered, but his kid shook her head before she went back to the trampoline, happy to have it to herself since her older sister wasn't here right now.