Lyla apologizes to her brother.
The only pink painted door in the entire loft creaked open, cutting through the deafening silence that stilled the entire place. Just like every normal house, the loft made noises at night; especially when the weather was changing and made the old wooden structure swell and constrict. It wasn't normal for the loft to make noises but the pink door in particular always made the most when it was being opened. Alex had oiled the hinges on more than one occasion and nothing was able to make it stop squeaking.
The door peeled open, creaking the entire time until finally, through the crack poked a tiny five-year old head. Her unruly, straight hair was frizzy and strewn all over her head from having just woken up and her eyes were still somewhat closed. Usually when she woke up, she made it a point to slip her tiny size three feet into the fuzzy purple slippers that her mommy bought her but tonight was an exception. Normally, she didn't wake up in the middle of the night the way she just did. Jo and Alex both made it a rule to not let Lyla have anything to drink for bed but before she had fallen asleep tonight, Alex allowed her to have a sip of his iced tea and of course, it had gone straight through her weak bladder. She had finally stopped peeing in the bed and sometimes when she'd wake up in the morning accident-free, her mommy would give her extra special kisses for being a big girl.
After what had gone down between her and her mother two days ago while her brother was still in the hospital, Lyla really wanted an extra special kiss from Jo. She needed an extra special kiss, in fact; anything to let her know that her mommy didn't still hate her for nearly killing her brother. There weren't many things that Lyla did that warranted a spanking. In fact, she could count on one hand how many times her parents had spanked her. Alex had only put his hands on her once, back at the movie theater when she was misbehaving and as far as she could remember, Jo had only truly spanked her three times. She had never been more frightened of her mother two days ago in the hospital though.
She dragged her bare feet down the hallway past both her brother's room and her parents' room and turned into the bathroom. Without turning the light on, she walked over to the toilet and lifted up her purple and pink Disney Princess nightgown. She slid down the big girl undies her mom let her wear to bed and climbed up on the toilet seat. Since she didn't know how to put her potty adapter on the seat, she held onto the sides of the toilet seat so she didn't fall in. When she was done, she unrolled an excessive, unnecessary amount of toilet paper into her hand and wiped herself from front to back like her mommy always told her to. She flushed the toilet when she was done and groggily headed for the sink. Personally, Lyla didn't see the point in washing her hands after every little thing she did in the bathroom but being that her mommy and daddy were both doctors, they made it somewhat of a rule that she had to. It had become somewhat of a habit for Lyla to wash her hands.
She dried her hands on her mother's towel and finally turned to leave the bathroom. She dragged her feet back down the hallway and passed her parents' room, which was quiet and silent with the sounds of them asleep. As she passed her baby brother's room, the sound of something beeping caught her attention. Although she was still pretty groggy and tired, the beeping caught her attention and Lyla couldn't help but saunter inside the room. Usually the door to baby Alex's room was closed so if he woke up during the course of the night, his crying wouldn't wake up Lyla but since he came home from the hospital, Jo refused to close it. Lyla crept into her brother's room and stood near the door, just staring at the brown wooden crib that he slept in. The walls in baby Alex's room were a shade of soft, pastel green and there were lion and giraffe cutouts hanging up on the walls. The beeping in the room was a little bit louder, which made Lyla go over to the crib. She found that the beeping came from a white box-shaped monitor sitting on the same nightstand that the lamp was on. The monitor had long white wires that extended and snaked through the bars of the crib.
Lyla snuck over to the crib and peered through the bars, trying to figure out if the beeping meant something bad or good. When she looked through the bars, she found her brother laying down shirtless with something that looked like a belt wrapped around his chest. His eyes were closed, his hands were clenched into fists and resting leisurely up by his face. His head was tilted to the side and his diaper appeared to be full and his chubby stomach hung over the waistband of his diaper. For the last two days, things in the Karev household had been fairly different. Two days ago, it was like Lyla went right back to being an only child. Her brother was in the hospital for observation, which meant he wouldn't be home and it seemed to Lyla as if things really had gone back to normal. She spent the last two months of her brother's life wishing that he would just go away yet, when he actually was away, Lyla actually missed him and wondered when he'd be back. She saw just how differently things were without her brother and she didn't like it.
Without her brother around, her mommy seemed to have been missing. It was like Jo was there but not really. Her ear was constantly glued to the phone, she cried a lot and she mostly spent her time holding baby Alex's blankets. Her daddy seemed better than her mommy, but not much. Alex's ear was glued to the phone just like Jo's but he didn't cry. He mostly just waited to hear word from the doctor about when his son would be able to come home again. Lyla couldn't help but wonder if her parents would act the same way if it was her in the hospital instead of him. Either way, she noted that her parents were really very sad without her brother and she realized that she was too.
She slipped her hand through the crib bars and touched her brother's hand. She was nervous to touch him, considering the fact that every time she did, he would end up hurt but she took her chances. Carefully, she pulled her brother's hand over to where she stood and kissed his hand by putting her lips against the bars on the crib. "…You feelin' better, Ally?" She tilted her head to the side and watched her brother sleep. "Your neck hurt?" She glanced at the two stitches he still had in his neck from his tracheostomy and poked her lip out.
Back in their bedroom, Jo began to stir in her sleep. Before she had become a mother, Jo used to sleep very hard. So hard that she used to pride herself in being able to sleep through a freight train. But soon after she had Lyla, her sleeping habits changed and these days, she couldn't sleep through much of anything. Even the minutest noises caused her to stir. Her eyes fluttered open and she took a breath, careful not to disturb Alex because for the first time in a long time, he was actually holding her in his sleep. He had his arm draped across her waist and admittedly, Jo was sleeping very well in his arms again. She was glad that she had let him come back to the bed and of course, Alex was glad to not be sleeping on the couch as well. She yawned softly and turned her head towards the baby monitor that she kept on her nightstand. She was relieved to hear that the apnea monitor was still beeping properly, but she heard something strange in the baby monitor.
Being careful not to disturb sleeping Alex, she leaned over slowly and picked up the monitor. She held it to her ear and wrinkled her brow. "I sorry, Ally. I sorry I hurt you, I sorry I mean. I want you to forgibb me a cause you my brother and I will be nice again. I pwomise I be nice. I never hurt you again, kay? I never hurt you again. I be a good big sister. No more givin' you chippies and no more hitting. I sorry. I be really sad if you not here no more so I stop. And mommy and daddy be sad too…you a good brother. You a real good brother, Ally… I lub you. And I sorry." Jo's lips inherently turned up into a smile and she felt a tear trickle down her cheek when she heard the soft smooching noise of a kiss through the monitor. "Night Ally."
Jo swiped away her tear and put the monitor back on her nightstand.
"Yeah, you should've heard it… She was really apologetic. I think we should do something for her…maybe take her out somewhere, just us." Jo tested the temperature of the breastmilk against her forearm and shook the bottle up some more. "Maybe we could take her to the movies or something...maybe out to dinner. Just something with us. I'll have Steph watch bubba." Jo was uncomfortable with the thought of leaving her son with someone else, especially when he had just been released from the hospital, but she really felt as if Lyla needed quality time with just her and Alex. With a mouth full of scrambled eggs, Alex nodded his head, agreeing with Jo about taking Lyla out. Jo leaned down and picked up the baby boy from the swing he was resting in, mindful of his stitches. "Come here, bubba…you wanna go stay with aunt Stephy for a couple hours?" She pressed her lips to the baby's head and cradled him like he was the most precious thing in the world. "Yeah, you can go see aunt Stephy for a little while. She loves you."
Baby Alex laid his head down on his mommy's chest and closed his eyes. He was glad to be back in his mommy's arms. Mommy was his favorite person in the entire world; he loved her so much. When his tummy hurt, mommy was there. When he was sad, mommy was there. When his diaper was wet, mommy was there. Mommy was amazing. Daddy was almost as amazing as mommy but not quite. "Yeah, we should take her out." Alex swallowed his food and spoke up. "I was thinking we could—" He stopped talking just as Lyla's bedroom door opened. A very tired Lyla emerged from the room and stomped down the hall, tired and cranky.
"Good morning, bubbles." Reluctantly, Jo passed baby Alex off to big Alex and headed for her daughter. "Did you sleep well?" She picked Lyla up and let her lay on her shoulder. Lyla nodded her head and wrapped her arms around her mommy. "…Baby Alex told me to tell you something." She rubbed her back. "…He told me to tell you that he loves you. He told me to tell you that you're an awesome big sissy and he loves you so much." Lyla lifted her head and looked at her mom. "Yep…he told me to tell you that he loves you. He said he forgives you." Lyla raised her eyebrows. "…You wanna give him a kiss?" She nodded. "Go give him a kiss. Go 'head." Jo put her on the floor and let her rush off to give the baby a kiss.
Lyla walked over and gave her baby brother a kiss, which made him smile. Baby Alex's lips curled up and his usual happy, bubbly demeanor took over. Lyla kissed her brother on the lips and rubbed his hair. "I love you too, Ally."