Eli and Clare were lying in bed. It was about 2 am when they heard Ariana crying in her room. Clare groaned and pulled the covers off which woke up Eli.
"Why are you up?" He asked tiredly.
"She's crying."
"I got her, just go back to sleep." Eli kissed her cheek as he walked next door to her room and saw Ariana crying in her crib. He sighed as he picked her up; trying to get her to fall back to sleep but the crying wouldn't stop. Eli sat in the rocking chair for about a half hour and she was still crying. He began to grow worried because no baby cries for this long without falling asleep especially at 2 am. He decided to walk back in their room to tell Clare, "Babe."
"Hmmm?"
"Can you feed her? I think she's hungry, she won't stop crying."
Clare sighed as she sat up wiping her tired eyes. She took her daughter out Eli's arm and held her. She lifted her shirt up to feed her but it didn't do anything. Clare tried to put her breast in Ariana's mouth but she didn't want it and continued to cry.
"What do you think is wrong with her?" Eli asked.
"I don't know, should we take her to the hospital?" Clare asked.
"Its 2 am."
"So…? Hospitals are open 24|7."
"Alright." Eli took his daughter in his arms, "Get dress, I'll get her dress." He told Clare and she nodded. She slipped on some sweats and a hoodie while Eli was in Ariana's room putting her clothes on. He grabbed some of his own clothes, slipped them on and they wasted no time in heading for the hospital.
They put their names on the list and impatiently waited until the doctor called their name. The doctor led them to the room and asked what the problem was.
"She has been crying for like the last 2 hours."
"Okay, lay her down." Eli gently laid his daughter down and the doctor ran a remote type object over body as she cried even more. It scanned the inside of her body, basically the skeleton of her body and the doctor stopped at her arms.
He went over it several times, "Your daughter has cerebral palsy."
Clare's eyes widened, "What? The doctor said she wouldn't even get it until she's like 3."
"It seems like it came much earlier than expected."
"Is it really that painful where she's gonna keep crying?" Eli asked the doctor.
"She just needs to stay in her for a couple days, we need to give her some medicine and see what we can do to get her muscles moving. Her joints are messed up."
Clare nodded as tears filled her eyes, "So what now?"
"Either I can start working now or you guys can come back in the morning for your usual doctor?"
Clare turned to Eli, "What do you wanna do?"
"Well we can't just let her cry all this time." Clare nodded and turned to the doctor, "Can you guys start now?"
The doctor nodded, "We just need you guys to wait in the waiting room until we at least get her sleeping with the medicine." Clare nodded as her and Eli walked out and sat in the chairs. She instantly leaned into his shoulders and began crying, "I can't believe this."
Eli ruffled his hands through her hair, "It's gonna be fine, they're taking care of her." He kissed the top of curls, "I love you and everything's is going to be fine. I promise."
Clare sobbed in Eli's shoulder until she soon fell asleep in them.
About 5 hours later, approx. 7 am, the doctor came back out.
"Your daughter is asleep, the medicine is working, and do you want to come in?" Eli nodded and woke Clare up.
They went to their room and saw their child sleeping with an IV in her arm. "I can't believe this is happening and she was practically just born." Clare said.
"Your daughter will be fine, we just need for her to stay here a couple days and her joints will be working normally." Clare and Eli weakly smiled at the doctor as he stepped out of their room.
"I have a feeling it was something I did during the pregnancy that made her this way, it doesn't just happen." Clare cried.
"You didn't do anything and it does just happen. It's neither of our faults." Clare sighed and wiped her tears as she fell asleep again next to her daughters' hospital bed.
3 weeks later~
Ariana was just fine, the doctors helped with her joints and her arms were moving normally. She had to stay in the hospital bed for about a week and it was worth it. Everything was going smoothly.
Eli and Clare were cuddling on the couch and Ariana was in her high chair eating.
"Eli, when are we gonna get married?" She asked.
"I don't know, I wanted to wait until Ari was at least 3 or something, when she's able to walk so she can be our flower girl."
Clare smiled and turned to him, "I agree." And gave him a peck of his lips which caused Ariana to laugh.
Clare turned to her daughter," You think that's funny?"
And Ariana giggled. Clare slammed her lips to Eli's and they slowly moved over each other and Ariana was heard in the background laughing. Clare pulled back from Eli and ran over to her daughter, "You think that's funny? Huh?" She said tickling her causing the baby to laugh hysterically.
Clare smiled and held her daughter on her waist. Ariana began to playfully hit Clare's breasts.
"I think she's hungry." Eli pointed out.
"She is going to be so fat when she's older." Clare said as she sat down feeding her baby.
"Fuck." She muttered to herself.
"What happened?" Eli asked. "She bit me."
Eli softly laughed, "I taught her well." Which caused to playfully glare and slap him on the arm.
"You better stop with the dirty jokes."
"Fine." He responded as he stuck his tongue out at her. "I need to get ready for work." He said as he went to their room. Clare took Ariana out of her highchair and sighed as laid down on the couch with her knowing Eli was going to start working a lot now to take care of them.
Eli came down stairs with just sweats and shirt, nothing fancy considering he would be working with cars.
He kissed her and kissed his child's forehead, "I'll be back tonight, and I love you."
"I love you too." She whispered considering he was already half way out the door.
XXXXX A week later~
It was about midnight and Clare was laying in her and Eli's bed with Ariana at her side sleeping. He got off of work at 9 and she was trying to figure out why he wasn't home yet. She couldn't go to sleep knowing he was safe in the house. As if on cue, she heard the front door open.
She heard him walking up the steps and into the room, "What are you still doing up?" Eli asked.
"Where were you?"
"At work…"He said as if that was the obvious answer.
"You get out at 9, what took so long? I couldn't go to sleep."
"I'm sorry." He kissed her forehead, "I went to the bar."
"Why?"
"I wanted a drink, it's a long day. Calm down." He said as he stripped down to his boxers."
He tried to get in the bed but she gently shoved him back, "What?" He asked.
"You're not sleeping in here, you're dirty."
"Seriously?"
"Yes, and she's sleeping, you're gonna wake her up, just go downstairs."
"You're seriously kicking me out of my own bed?" He questioned.
She didn't respond and began to look down at her daughter and began to tear. Eli noticed it and sat at the edge of the bed, "What's wrong? What did I do?"
She shook her head as she wiped her tears, "I'm fine."
"You're not just crying for no reason, please tell me."
She looked up to him and began to tear again, "Are you—are you cheating on me?"
"What? No, why would you think that?"
"I know you didn't go to the bar, you don't even smell like alcohol."
"That's because I only smell like it if I get more than one drink and I only had one."
"Why does it take you 3 hours to go to the bar?"
He sighed, "I was just hanging out there, watching the game. There's no one else, I promise." He kissed her forehead.
"Okay." She muttered.
He smirked, "I'll see you in the morning." He kissed her lips and headed downstairs.
XXXXXX
Eli was at work all day, obviously. Clare didn't want to stay in the house and decided to take Ariana out. She was about 5 weeks old now. She got her dressed, put her in the stroller and left the house.
They were on the way to the park when Clare walked past the bar Eli always goes to. She went in to the bartender. It was about midday so there was no one really in it.
"Hi Reggie. Was Eli in here last night?"
"Your boyfriend Eli?" Reggie asked and Clare nodded in response.
"Not that I know of, I haven't seen in a while."
"Were you here last night?" She asked.
"Yea, all night."
"Uhmm-" She hesitated. "Okay, Thanks." She walked out the bar with her daughter, her eyes filled with unshed tear.
She took out her phone and called Eli, "Hello?"
"Hey, where are you?"
"At work."
"Can I come by?"
"I don't think that's such a good idea."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm working and it's not good for Ariana to be around all this stuff."
"Okay."
"You alright?"
"Yes, bye." And she hung up making her way to Eli's job anyway.
She got to his job and saw the manager she assumed because if his different attires from everyone else, "Hey, do you know where's Eli?"
"Who are you?"
"His fiancé."
"Uh yeah, he's in the back. You can't go back there with the stroller." She took Ariana out the stroller and held her on her hips as she walked to the back of the mechanic shop. She saw a room that said employees only and assumed this is what the manager was referring too.
She twisted the knob and opened the door and she immediately felt pain rush over it. Eli had a girl sitting on his lip, her shirt was off and they were making out.
Clare couldn't even move, she stood still waiting for someone to pinch her to tell her it was all a dream. But it never happened. The tears fell down her cheek as she walked out.
"Clare, wait." Eli called out.
So longer chapter than usual. Don't hate on Eli, well you can because he obviously made a mistake but I just love him so much. But yeah, how was this chapter? It was kinda a lot of topics in it. But review. And I got the beginning from emilylake90 SO HUGE THANK YOU
