Lillian was broken from her thoughts by Lena moaning. She looked up to see her daughter sit up quickly, clutching her stomach. "What, um... what's wrong?" Lillian asked hesitantly, secretly dreading the answer. "My stomach is killing me..." Lena replied, holding back tears. Lillian awkwardly rubbed her daughter's back, in a desperate attempt to calm her down before she started crying and made herself sicker. "I think I'm gonna throw up, mother." Lillian internally cringed at that. She nodded and sprinted to grab a trashcan. She held it in front of her daughter, silently praying nothing would happen. Her heart felt like it could beat out of her chest; her phobia of vomiting was being reactivated and it took everything in her not to hide in a corner. Lena started coughing and Lillian quickly brushed her hair out of her face. "Just relax sweetheart, you'll be ok." she soothed. Lillian was visibly shaking now. "Are you ok?" Lena asked weakly. "Yes dear, I'm fine." she replied. Lena knew she was lying, but didn't have time to argue as she started uncontrollably retching. Lillian braced herself while consoling her daughter. Seconds later Lena threw up; Lillian wanted desperately to look away but she knew she needed to comfort Lena, she knew they were both equally scared as Lena was also shaking badly. When she finished, Lillian cleaned out the trashcan then returned to her daughter.
"Are you alright?" she asked. At that moment her second most dreaded moment became reality; Lena started crying, and she was crying hard. Loud, gasping sobs wracked the younger woman's body. Lillian hadn't heard one of her children cry so intensely since they were very young. She was no expert in comforting, so she did the first thing that came to mind, she picked her up. The last time she'd comforted anyone was when Lena was a young child so that was the only way she knew to do it. She was definitely louder now, surprisingly enough. She rocked her and shushed her until she finally calmed down. Lillian was a bit proud of herself for calming her down after years of having no practice. Lena fell asleep immediately after she stopped crying so her mother laid her back on the couch. The older woman sighed in relief and returned to her spot with her phone. Caring for anyone was hard work, especially Lena, who was much more of a crier than she'd ever admit, but exhaustion never felt so good to Lillian.