Author's note: this chapter is inspired by this past week's "Jane The Virgin", so if it seems familiar, that's why. #TeamRafaelFTW
"Okay, cool!" Austin said into the phone. "Thanks again man, I really appreciate it!"
"Featuring on our next album? That would be pretty cool, we'd have to talk to our bosses, but yeah we'll talk, we'll talk. Have your people call my people. Yeah! Okay! Thanks again! Bye Kanye!"
Ally raised her eyebrows at him as he slid his phone back into his pocket.
"Kanye said he can't wait for the party!" Austin said. "He also said some stuff about wanting to feature on our next album, but we'll let Jimmy and Ronnie deal with that."
"The party is tomorrow. Isn't this a little last minute?" Ally said. "This isn't gonna be like the Christmas party last year, is it?"
"Of course not!" Austin said. "And I've told you a million times, we didn't see the koala! She just jumped in out of nowhere and wouldn't let go! Almost like-"
Just then, Ally's phone rang.
"Oh, it's the catering place!" Ally said. "Hello? Yes? Yeah, that sounds great! But no peas and no tomatoes. Great! Thank you!"
Ally hung up her phone and slid it back into her pocket just like Austin had.
"I still need to call the decorating place!" Ally said. "They're supposed to be here at like 6am!"
Ava sneezed loudly, causing Austin to avert his attention over to the living room where Ava was playing with her toys.
"Bless you!" Austin said, smiling down at Ava as she sneezed again. "Oh bless you again!"
"Can you go put her down for her nap?" Ally asked. "I still have to call the petting zoo after I call the decorating place."
Austin reached down to pick up Ava, who wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled into his shoulder as soon as she was in his arms.
"She feels a little warm..." Austin said to Ally.
"It's probably just because she was sitting in that one spot where the sun always shines in through the window." Ally said.
"Oh yeah." Austin said. "You're right, she's like a little kitten how she always likes to sit in the one spot where the sun is."
Ava sneezed again, wiping her nose on Austin's shirt.
"She even sneezes like a kitten!" Austin said.
He looked over to see that Ally wasn't paying one bit of attention to him; one hand was holding her phone to her ear as the other typed on her laptop.
Deciding to give Ally some space, Austin took Ava upstairs and put her down for her nap.
Austin went back downstairs after putting Ava down to see that Ally was now pacing across their kitchen, phone in one hand, note pad in the other.
"Austin! Great!" Ally said. "I need you to call the bakery and the florist."
"Do you think this is a little much?" Austin asked. "I mean, it's just her first birthday..."
"Just her first birthday?!" Ally said. "This is the birthday that will set the tone for the rest of her birthdays for her entire life!
"Okay, okay, you're right." Austin said. "It's just kinda funny because you were less stressed out the day before our own wedding day than you are right now."
"I just want everything to be perfect!" Ally said.
"And it will be!" Austin said. "But I can't call the bakery and the florist right now, I have to go pick up Dez and Trish from the airport."
"Okay, but hurry back!" Ally said. "We only have like 14 hours before the decorating crew comes in the morning!"
...
"I said LILIES, not petunias!" Ally yelled into the phone.
Austin, Dez, and Trish stood in the kitchen doorway wide eyed.
"Yeah, you better fix it!" Ally said angrily before she hung up.
"Hey, look who's here!" Austin said nervously.
"Trish! Dez!" Ally said happily, rushing over to hug them. "I'm so glad you guys are here! Now you can help too! I still need to call the fire eaters and ice sculptor-"
Suddenly they heard Ava's cries coming from the baby monitor sitting on the table, indicating that she had woken from her nap.
"She doesn't normally cry like that when she wakes up." Austin said slowly. "Something must be wrong.
The four of them rushed upstairs to check on the crying child.
They opened the door and found Ava standing in her crib, holding the bars on the side to balance herself, crying her eyes out.
"Aww, what's wrong baby?" Austin said, his heart breaking at the sight of his little girl reaching up to him from her crib as she cried.
"She's sweating like crazy." Ally said worriedly. "And she's burning up. I'll go get the thermometer."
"Shhh, shhhh, it's okay baby." Austin said softly as he held Ava close and swayed her back and forth in attempt to calm her.
Ally came back with the baby thermometer and ran it across Ava's warm forehead.
"101.6." Ally said. "I'm calling the doctor."
"Wait, what do we do?" Austin asked, starting to panic.
"Just calm down." Ally told him. "It's gonna be okay. I'm gonna ask the doctor."
Ally rushed out to the room to call the doctor while Austin sat down in the rocking chair to comfort the still crying Ava.
"It'll be okay." Austin whispered, more to himself than to her. "It'll all be okay."
"Okay, don't freak out..." Ally said slowly when she came back into the room. "But the doctor said with a temperature that high we should take her to the hospital."
"WHAT?!" Austin said. "We have to go now! Hurry! Grab the diaper bag! Call an ambulance! LET'S GO!"
"Austin, calm down." Ally said. "Everything is gonna be okay."
Austin nodded frantically before they all rushed down to the car.
Dez drove and Trish sat in the passengers seat so Austin and Ally could sit in the back with Ava.
They finally arrived at the hospital, Dez dropped Austin and Ally off with Ava and said they would park the car then meet them as soon as they could.
After explaining their situation to the woman at the front desk, they were escorted to a room by a nurse.
"We're gonna run some tests on her just to make sure it's not pneumonia or anything serious." the nurse told them. "We're gonna have to take some blood."
Austin and Ally turned to look at each other nervously before nodding at the nurse.
Ava was stripped down, wearing only her diaper as she laid on the little hospital table. She had sticky patches on her bare chest and was hooked up to various monitors.
The nurse tied a little rubber band around her upper arm and inserted the needle to draw the blood, causing Ava to let out loud, heart wrenching wails of pain.
Ally couldn't bare to see her like that, so she buried her face in Austin's chest; her own tears staining his shirt.
Austin reached over and held Ava's tiny hand with his own. He knew it wouldn't make the pain stop, but he just needed her to know he was there. He tried to watch, but it became too much for him, forcing him turn his head away and shut his eyes tightly, tears sliding down his own cheeks as he pulled Ally closer.
And then it was over. Ava's cries had stopped. The nurse had come back with the results and told them everything was fine, but they wanted to keep her over night just to monitor her fever.
The second the nurse left the room Austin and Ally both let out sighs of relief, tears streaming down both of their faces.
"It's okay." Austin whispered, hugging Ally tightly. "She's okay."
Ally stayed with Ava while Austin went out to tell Trish and Dez what was going on.
When Austin finally got back to the waiting room, he found that Trish and Dez had called both his and Ally's parents; all of them sitting anxiously in their chairs and bolting up when they saw Austin.
"How is she?"
"Is she okay?"
"Is something wrong?"
"Everything is fine." Austin told them. "Ava is okay, but they wanna keep her overnight to monitor her fever. You guys can go home, don't worry about us."
"No, we're staying." Dez said, everyone else nodded.
"At least get something to eat." Austin said. "You guys must be starving. I'm gonna head back to sit with Ally."
Austin went back to their room and found Ally sitting on the couch, staring blankly at the floor.
He walked over and sat down next to her, waiting for her to speak first.
"We have to cancel the party." Ally said, finally speaking up.
"I know." Austin said.
"We worked so hard on it!" Ally said.
"Ally, let's be real. This party was never for Ava." Austin said. "It was for us."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Ally said. "But hey, we've been parents for a whole year! That's something worth celebrating! Look at everything we've been through in the past twelve months!"
"Remember the day she was born?" Austin said, smiling fondly. "We had no idea how much our lives were about to change."
"How about when we brought her home?" Ally said. "We were nervous wrecks!"
"And what about all those nights we spent without sleep?" Austin said. "I honestly don't know how we did it."
"What about the first time we let Trish and Dez babysit?" Ally said. "Again, we were nervous wrecks."
"Remember when she started crawling? Oh and her first words!"
"I still can't believe those were her first words ever."
"What about when she started walking!"
"She's grown so much in the past year." Ally sighed, resting her head on Austin's shoulder.
"She really has." Austin smiled, resting his head against Ally's.
The couple stayed like that for a while, just gazing at their sleeping daughter.
"Hey Ally..." Austin said after a while sitting in comfortable silence. "Look..."
Austin held his phone up and showed her the time.
12:01am.
It was February 28th.
Ava's birthday.
"She's one." Ally said softly, tears filling her eyes.
"We did a pretty good job over past year." Austin said proudly.
"Yeah we did." Ally said. "And it only goes up from here."
Author's note: and that wraps up the week straight of updates! Just a reminder that a week from today there won't be any updates, but the next week I should be back with both this story and fiancés & fate.
reviews make me happy :)
