Chapter 19
Kelly closed her eyes, resting her head against the cold wall behind her. Why was it that whenever something good happened in her life lately, it was quickly followed by another set of bad news?
By morning Ava's temperature has spiked into the hundreds, which could mean only one thing, a trip to the hospital for the threesome. Not even half an hour after they arrived Ava was admitted in as a precaution while the doctors run some tests to work out the cause, and bringing the fever down.
"Here you go." Dylan's voice made her open her eyes again and she saw him standing in front of her handing her a cup of much needed coffee.
"Thanks." She mouthed taking it from him, noticing Dylan looked just as tired as she felt.
"Are you sure you don't want to call Andrea?" He asked sitting down next to her and taking a sip from his cup.
"No, she left for vacation only yesterday, plus it still may be nothing." Kelly said hopefully.
"Okay." Dylan rested his head against the wall closing his eyes for a moment.
Taking a sip from her own cup, Kelly leaned back letting the tiredness take over and resting her hand on his thigh, which was almost immediately covered by Dylan's.
"I'm exhausted." Dylan let out his eyes still closed.
"Not my fault." Kelly laughed softly her head sliding down and resting on his shoulder.
Dylan let out a low chuckle before speaking again. "The way I remember it Taylor, you have a hell lot to do with my exhaustion."
"Me? I told you we should go to sleep after the shower we took at midnight, but you were still not tired enough." Kelly smiled her mind wandering back to last night.
"Can you blame me? It's been a while since I got my hands on the one and only Spring Princess of West Beverly High." Dylan leaned down kissing the crown of Kelly's head his eyes wide open again.
"Spring Princess?" Kelly let out a low chuckle. "That feels like lifetime ago." She watched Dylan intertwining his fingers with hers.
"We have come a long way since those days." Dylan noted, both their heads turning to the right as they saw the nurse and attendant returning with Ava.
"Yes, we have and there is still a long way in front of us." Kelly mumbled, the playful atmosphere gone in an instant as the ugly reality kicked in again. Letting go off Dylan she took one last sip of her coffee before throwing her cup into the bin.
"Mommy! Daddy!" Ava smiled up at her parents once they were again in her sight. She still looked flushed but not as feverish as she did when she walked into their bedroom early in the morning.
"Were you brave girl Avie?" Kelly asked taking her daughter's hand into hers watching as the little one nodded her head sleepily.
"She made it through all the examinations with flying colors." Helen, her nurse, confirmed smiling at the little girl as they wheeled her into her room. "The doctor should come to speak to you shortly; he is going through the results as we speak."
"Thank you, Helen." Dylan held the door open for her, before he moved to Ava's bed, sitting down on the other side and taking his daughter's hand into his. There were not any more words spoken as he and Kelly just watched their daughter drifting off to sleep holding her hands, there was not more they could do anyway.
It took another good ten minutes before there was a soft knock on the door and a doctor whom they've seen before with Andrea before walked into the room, both Dylan and Kelly standing up as on cue.
"I think we have met before, but I don't think we have been introduced, I'm Dr Atwood." The dark haired guy said shaking both Dylan and Kelly's hands.
"Have you figured out what's wrong with Ava?" Dylan asked impatiently.
The doctor smiled at his restlessness. "All her blood work and results came back looking good; there is actually no reason for her to be having fever."
"But she is having fever." Kelly looked at him confused.
"Yes, she is, but at this point there is not much more we can do except wait it out until the medication hits in and see if her temperature goes down to the normal and stays there." He explained.
"Does it mean we can take her home?" Dylan's eyes drifted to their sleeping daughter.
"I spoke with Ava's attending physician and she agrees that as a precaution it would be the best to keep Ava in hospital until her temperature is back to normal, it will likely be just an overnight stay but we don't want to take any risks as she is due for another round of chemotherapy in a week." Dr Atwood said and Kelly had to walk away feeling disappointed.
"Thank you, doctor." Dylan shook his hand waiting until he walked out of the door before he moved to stand behind Kelly who was staring out of the window.
"Another night in this hospital room, that's just so perfect." She mumbled leaning back against Dylan whose hands slipped around her waist.
"It will be just one night." Dylan tried to sooth her albeit feeling disappointed as well.
"Yes, just one night, before we will be back in a week." Kelly breathed out frustrated. "Why is it that we can't catch a break? Ava, me, now she is in hospital again for seemingly no reason, is it ever going to stop?"
"You know it will stop another round of chemo, a surgery, and she will check out of here for good." Dylan assured her holding her tight and hoping it will really turn out to be such a smooth ride.
"Who was that?" Brandon asked buttoning up his shirt as Andrea returned back to the bedroom.
"Work." Andrea replied shortly, setting her phone on the night stand grabbing the dress she quickly set on the bed when the call came.
"They could go on twenty-four hours without calling you for consultation, that's new." Brandon chuckled, but his smile fell quickly when he saw that Andrea was not laughing. "What happened?"
"Ava's back in hospital spiking fever." Andrea let out a soft sigh dropping down on their bed, the dress landing on the bed again.
"Is she going to be okay?" Brandon asked sitting down next to her.
"Hopefully, all her results came back alright." Andrea looked up at him.
"Do you want to fly back home?"
"God, no…we just came here yesterday. It's just, she is my patient and I hate not being in control." Andrea laughed softly.
"Oh, yes my perfectionist wife having to rely on others." Brandon chuckled sneaking his arm around her shoulders.
"Yes, it's hard, but I know she is in good hands with Jason." Andrea smiled up at him.
"Good." Brandon pressed a quick kiss on her cheek before standing up and heading to the dresser.
"Do you want to fly back home?" Andrea asked out of the blue, making him stop dead in his track.
"Why?" Brandon turned around confused by her question.
"It's Kelly's child we are talking about." Andrea explained.
"Yes, she is, but I'm sure Kelly and Ava are getting all the support they need from Dylan." Brandon's lips curled up into a smile once he understood what Andrea was after. "The real question is do I sense a hint of jealousy here?"
"Me and jealous? Never." Andrea laughed it off quickly.
"I'm glad we are clear on that, because while Kelly and I do share a lot of history and she is still one of my best friends we have both moved on. You are my wife and the mother of my children and that trumps everything." He grinned, sitting back on the bed.
"I did not doubt that you have your priorities set straight." Andrea smiled reaching up and cupping his face bringing him in for a kiss.
"I'm glad to hear that." Brandon mumbled going in for another one just as the door flew open and Hannah and Isaac run into the room.
"We are ready." Isaac announced excitedly.
"Just give us a few moments and we can go." Brandon replied turning his attention to their kids.
"Hurry up mommy and daddy." Isaac giggled skipping out of the room, while Hannah just rolled her eyes following her brother out.
"If you and mom were not making out like a couple of teenagers all the time since we came here, you would have been already dressed and ready to go." She uttered before the door closed behind her.
"I think you were right, there is puberty sneaking up on her." Brandon let out pointing to the door before he finally finished buttoning up his shirt.
"Yep, and it's going to be a hell lot of fun." Andrea chuckled quickly getting changed into her dress.
"Oh, yes...there's nothing better like having a moody teenager in the house." Brandon chuckled taking his wife's hand as they headed out of the room.
"Hey!" Dylan said softly walking into Ava's hospital room, noticing their daughter was still asleep just like when he was leaving.
"Have you found everything?" Kelly asked softly leaving her place by the window.
"Yes, you two have everything packed up for the night." Dylan replied placing the overnight bag on the chair by the door. "I bought the dinner too." He added placing another bag with Chinese takeout next to it.
"Thanks." Kelly mouthed moving closer to him.
"Did she sleep all the time?" Reaching up Dylan took a strand of Kelly's hair gently pushing it behind her ear.
"She woke up shortly after you left, finally ate something got some fluids in and then promptly fell asleep again." Kelly smiled.
"That does sound like she is on the mend." Dylan smiled down at her.
"Yes, her temperate is back down to the nineties too, so that's good news." Kelly breathed out feeling a lot more optimistic than she did when they were bringing Ava in the very same morning.
"Now it only needs to stay there until tomorrow morning and we can bring her home." Dylan noted wrapping his arms around Kelly and holding her tight for a moment.
"Did you bring her teddy bear?" Kelly asked enjoying their closeness even at moments like this when things were not going smoothly.
"Yes, it's in the bag." Dylan replied letting go off Kelly and moving to their daughter's bed while she went to find it.
"What's this, Dylan?" Turning around he could see her holding a dark leather folder.
"Why don't you open it?" He asked not elaborating any further for the moment.
Kelly raised her brow, but did as she was told. Reading through the first page he watched as she took a sharp breath looking up at him.
"I started writing it after I left LA, it turned out to be the only place where I could truly let out my feelings. I want you to read it." Dylan breathed out.
"Why?" Kelly asked wondering why he was asking her to read something that was undoubtedly going to be painful for both of them.
"I want this to work, Kelly. Me, you and Ava and for that to happen we shall not have any secrets." He said softly watching as she nodded her head in reply and set the folder aside for the moment; one thing he was sure about was that she'd return to it once he will be gone for the night.
It was after nine, when Dylan finally dropped down on the sofa feeling exhausted. It's been a long day at the hospital, with Ava and Kelly and once he finally got home he figured that if he was living there he should as well help around, so he loaded the dishwasher and threw in a batch of laundry, took him a good twenty minutes to figure out how the damn thing worked.
Closing his eyes for a brief moment he was interrupted by the sound of his cell phone vibrating on the table in front of him. Reaching for it he could see a text message from Kelly. "You know I really hate you for making me read this, McKay?"
After they said goodbye in the hospital he was expecting to hear from her that day once she'd get to his diary, took her a while though. "I thought you won't have the guts to open the damn thing today." He hit send letting the phone fall next to him on the sofa.
Dylan McKay had never been an open book, for a good reason, not even in front of Kelly who knew him probably the best so giving her his diary and with it full access to his feelings and thoughts for the past five years felt liberating, well at least for him as he was almost sure her opinion on it will differ.
He sort of expected to receive some more texts from her as she was presumably reading on, but there were none coming so he slowly drifted off to sleep on the sofa.
"I could quickly get used to this." Andrea let out a content sigh reaching up and playing with the hair on Brandon's chest. Their second day in Hawaii has been over and with both kids exhausted after the exciting helicopter tour, and fast asleep by nine; they found themselves alone in the big bed.
Brandon let out a light chuckle, reaching for her hand. "Then tell me why do I always have to drag you to any vacation we take?"
"I don't know might be the workaholic in me." Andrea laughed along.
"True words were spoken." He agreed. "How is the workaholic in you going to cope with concentrating on a baby if we get blessed again?" Brandon asked carefully.
Turning on her stomach Andrea looked at her husband in the darkness. "Do you think I'm not capable of that?"
"Well, not to single you out, having Hannah and Isaac has mellowed us both down a lot, but I don't think either of us is exceptionally good at turning off and concentrating on our family only."
"If you haven't noticed I did turn off and concentrate on our family only since we arrived here."
"Yes, until the call came this morning." Brandon pushed the lost curl behind her ear.
"Okay, where is this conversation heading?" Andrea asked, sitting up and holding the sheets against her body.
Brandon sat up too resting his back against the head of the bed. "While we agreed on a third one, I don't want either of us to have unreal expectations."
"Unreal expectations, good...I can only agree with that. So you expect me to stay at home and care about the baby and our family only?" Andrea questioned him.
"No, that's not what I mean." Brandon shook his head, surprised how she could even come up with that conclusion.
"Because the way you are hinting around makes it sound that way, Brandon." Andrea fired back.
"We both have our obligations when it comes to our family and having a third one is not going to change that. It's just going to make the logistics of our family a bit more complicated. I mean, Hannah has her hobbies that require that we drive her around, for Isaac it's simple so far, but as he grows older that will change too, the third one will have its needs too and not to mention we have our own needs and obligations as well." Brandon tried to explain, but Andrea was already so upset by his words that she was not even listening.
"You know what, Brandon…maybe you should finally make up your mind when it comes to another baby. One day it's let's wait, second day it's yes, and by the third day you are talking about logistics of our family. Thinking of it, maybe having another one is not a good idea at all if we still can't handle the two we have." She said disappointed.
"Andrea…" Brandon let out, but was cut short.
"Goodnight." With that Andrea laid down on her side of the bed discussion over, giving Brandon no other possibility just to do the same.
A/N: Happy New Year to everyone who still reads this story! Thanks for the feedback on my last chapter, knowing that people read and enjoy it despite the mostly irregular updates motivates me to work on the story further. This brings me to a topic where I'd like to hear from you. While I'm pretty much set on Brandon/Andrea and where they are heading in this story, I'm still going back and forth on Dylan/Kelly. So I'd like to hear from you, do you think Dylan and Kelly are moving too fast? This is something that I'm struggling with for a while, and while I do like my D/K, I can't shake off the feeling that I'm rushing them in a way, originally Kelly was not supposed to give in until way later. Let me know what you think.