Chapter 9

Emma's POV:

Mila had fallen asleep on me, so I carried her up to our room. I know when she wakes up tomorrow, the effects of her taking away not only Asha's pain but also mine will be catastrophic. I already let Lance know I may not come to work today and instead do work from home. I needed to be there for Mila today.

I looked at my watch and saw that it was already three in the morning. I'm

debating on if I should even try to sleep. But, when I looked over at Mila shaking in her sleep, I already knew my answer. I would be staying in bed with her till I needed to get up and get breakfast ready and the kids to school.

I stealthily made my way under the covers and over to Mila. I wrapped my arm around her and brought her as close as I could get her to me. As soon as her back hit my chest and we fit the mold of each other perfectly, her shaking had stopped. Her whole body finally relaxed, and that made me feel better, knowing that me being here with her today will help her immensely.

I woke up to a tiny poke on my back. I looked over my shoulder to find Alyx already dressed, staring at me. I looked at the clock beside the bed, six in the morning. Why so early? I don't know where they got it from because neither Mila nor I like waking up early.

"Okay, sweetie, give me five minutes, and I'll be downstairs," I whispered. She gave me a thumbs up and tiptoed out of the room.

I carefully unwrapped myself from Mila and got out of bed. I stood there for a few seconds watching her to make sure she was doing okay. When she didn't show any signs of distress, I quickly got ready. I just threw on some comfy joggers and a plain t-shirt, then put my hair into a messy bun. I shrugged at my appearance in the mirror; I looked just fine. I didn't need to impress anyone anyway.

"Alright, my little larks, what do you want for breakfast?" Aleksey looked at me like I was crazy.

"You're calling us birds? Also, we'd like waffles, please." I laughed at the tone of his voice.

"No, I'm not calling you a bird. I mean, larks are a type of bird, but when you call someone a lark, it means that the person is a morning person. You know, really energetic people in the morning? Like you two." I pointed to the twins. I then looked over to Asha, and she looked like she was about to fall back asleep.

"I feel your pain, Asha. They, too, wake me up extremely early all the time." She looks up at me, barely able to hold her head upright. I wanted to giggle, but I refrained.

"They're crazy, Mrs. Emma." Emma finally put her head on the island, and I could tell she was already starting to fall back asleep. Alyx lightly rubbed her back while giggling at her sleeping friend. Aleksey propped his head on his hand while staring at me with a bored expression. I just shook my head and made the rest of their breakfast.

"Alright, let's start heading out. I'm just going to leave this note on the bedside table, so momma doesn't freak out when she wakes up, and we aren't here." I hurriedly made my way up to the bedroom, tiptoed as quickly and quietly as I could, and placed the note on her bedside table. I gave her a small kiss on her forehead then made my way back downstairs.

"Mommy, we should have left earlier. Now we only have five minutes to get to our new classroom and get to our seats." I looked into the rearview mirror, making eye contact with Alyx.

"Mommy is very sorry, sweetie. I'm not used to this routine; I'll do better tomorrow." I saw Asha pat Alyx on the shoulder.

"It'll be okay. I'll get you and Aleksey there super quick. You're in the same classroom as me. So we can all sit together." Alyx smiled at this and seemed to be less stressed now.

"Okay, I love you all. Be good, and I'll be right here to pick you up after school." They all said their goodbyes and I watched them till they entered the school. I don't know how Mila does all of this and still goes and does her job afterward. My time management sucks, though.

When I pulled into the driveway, and I hurried inside to Mila. When I got inside, I noticed how quiet it was; Mila was definitely still asleep. And you know what, I'm going to go back up there and sleep with her. I'll worry about work later today.

Mila was knocked out cold. She hadn't even moved from the spot she was in when I got out of bed this morning. It's probably for the best, though. She really needs the rest. I slid under the covers and wrapped my arm around her. She, of course, turned over and faced me. Peeked with one eye and then quickly shut it. She wrapped herself around me and snuggled deep into my neck, and was right back to being asleep. I kissed her on the top of her head and then focused on the slow, steady pace of her heart. The peaceful sound of it lulled me to sleep.

Mila's POV:

I feel like complete shit. My head hurts so bad. As much as I didn't want to, I peaked one of my eyes open. To my surprise, I found that I was lying on Emma. She had her arm wrapped securely around me, and our legs were a little tangled. She must have sensed that I was awake because she brought me closer to her.

"Try to get more rest. I know you're going to need it. I'll be right here the whole time." Her words were just sleepy whispers. Knowing she wasn't going anywhere helped me find some relief. I snuggled into her and let myself fall back asleep.

I woke up again to the smell of coffee and blood. It was very hard to sit up because my body was exhausted.

"Hey, love, I brought you some coffee and a glass of blood. You need to drink all of the blood; it will help you heal quicker." I reached out for the glass and noticed my hand trembling. Emma looked down, concerned, and instead of handing it to me to hold, she sat beside me and held it up to my lips to drink.

"You know, I can do it myself." She wasn't taking no for an answer and held it up closer to my lips. I wasn't about to fight her on this and just let her help me drink. No matter how much this wounded my pride, I did appreciate how much she cared.

"Thank you. You really didn't have to." Emma handed me my coffee. Then she kissed my forehead.

"I know, but like I always say. I don't do anything I don't want to do. Just let me help you these next couple of days." I nodded and took a drink of my coffee and was completely surprised to taste the hot sauce in it.

"Wait, there's hot sauce in here." She looked at me with an amused smile.

"Can't believe you would think I didn't know that you did that. You're the love of my life Mila; I strive to know everything about you." I couldn't help but smile big at this and leaned up to kiss her.

"Do you want to come with me to pick up the kids?" I looked down at her watch to find that it was already 1:30 in the afternoon.

"Oh my god, I slept that long?" I scrambled to get out of bed, and when I stood up, I stood up way too fast. I felt pretty dizzy.

"Are you okay? You can stay back here and rest." I felt Emma holding on to my arm just in case I were to fall.

"No, I need to get out and do something. Distractions and moving around will help me recover quicker." She just gave me a reluctant look but decided not to protest. Which I'm grateful for.

She stuck close to my side while I changed clothes just in case I were to fall. I felt extremely depressed, and it was having a huge impact on my body. I really didn't want to do anything, but I knew that I would dig myself deeper into a dark hole if I didn't force myself.

She was giving me special treatment. She opened the car door for me and helped me into the car. She even buckled my seatbelt for me. As much as I appreciated her pampering me, she's starting to take it a little too far. She better not try to feed me later at dinner.

"Is Asha going to be staying with us again?" Emma looked at me with a solemn look.

"Yeah, I hope that's okay with you. Her grandma refuses to leave the lab until Melissa passes. She doesn't want her daughter dying alone without any family there." I couldn't help but feel the depression seep further into my bones.

"I couldn't imagine having to watch our kids die." Emma reached across the car to grab my hand.

"We won't have to do that." She gave my hand a heartbeat squeeze of reassurance. I just did the squeeze back and continued to look out the window. All I need now is a sad and relatable song to my current song to be playing on the radio, and I would officially be the main character doing the whole sad window scene in a movie.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn't realize we had pulled into the loop of the kids' school till I heard Emma's door shut and saw her walking around the car to wait for all of them. I noticed the kids as soon as they left the door. It seemed that Emma had to because she stopped leaning up against the car. She opened up the doors for all of them and closed them once they were all settled.

"Alright, is everyone buckled in?" We heard a yes from everyone and, with that, made our way back home.

"How was everyone's day?" Like most of the time, Alyx answered first. She was very extroverted.

"Amazing! Mr. Young is a very nice man and a great teacher. I actually learned a few new things today." Aleksey just hummed in agreement.

"What about you, Asha?" It seemed she was a little more introverted than Alyx and always needed to be asked the question directly. Or maybe that's just how she is before she gets to know the person really well. We were still kind of strangers to her.

"It was really good. It was great having friends in my class." I could see the small smile adorn her face as she said this.

"I'm so glad to hear that. Anything else any of you wanted to share?" Aleksey actually spoke up.

"Jazmine is in the second grade as well. I thought she was in first, but apparently, she skipped a grade too. We all played at recess together; it was surprisingly entertaining." I totally forgot Jazmine was in the second grade.

"Oh, yeah, that reminds me. If they can, would you mind Chloe, Julian, and Jazmine coming over for dinner tonight?" Emma glanced at me before turning her attention back to the road.

"Is that a good idea? I'm concerned you'll be overwhelmed." I heard her voice in my head.

"Yes, I'll be fine. It will be a good distraction. I also miss them." I spoke back to her using the mind link.

"Yeah, that sounds good to me. Let's call them now." She responded this time aloud. She then pressed the button on the steering wheel to activate Siri and asked her to call Chloe.

"Hey there, Emma!" Chloe responded in a cheerful tone, and that made me smile.

"Hey, Chloe! I'm here with Mila and the kids and their friend Asha. We were all wondering if you, Julian, and Jazmine wanted to come over for dinner tonight?" I had my fingers crossed, hoping she said yes.

"A free home-cooked meal, how could we say no to that? What time would you like us over there?" I chimed in at this point.

"How does 6:30 sound?" I heard some shuffling in the background.

"Yeah, our schedules are open at that time. Anything you need us to bring?" I shook my head as if she could see me.

"Just yourselves." Even though I said this, I knew she would bring something over anyways. She never shows up at my house empty-handed.

"I'll bring the dessert. I've got to get back to work now; see you all later." I just shook my head, amused. I'm surprised she actually told me she was going to bring anything. Usually, she just shows up with something without mentioning it.

We all said goodbye to Chloe, with Alyx saying goodbye the loudest. This earned a laugh Chloe. Once she officially hung up, the car was filled with conversations coming from the kids. They were all talking about some new toy trend that every kid is obsessed with. It was called Mini Brands, I believe is what I heard them say. Great, first it was pop-its and fidgets, and now it sounds like my kids are about to be obsessed with another toy. I hope this isn't an expensive obsession. Nothing will compare to the hoverboard phase; there were many broken bones that I had to heal, and let me tell you healing broken bones sucks.