Chapter 2

Willow

The next morning, Alex drove them down the mountain and through the Rockies. As they wound their way along the twisting roads, Alex kept sending Willow worried looks, like he expected her to start spontaneously combusting or something at any moment. As far as Willow was concerned, he was overreacting, but the look in his eyes yesterday night told her that he needed this, even if she didn't.

To make matters worse- or at least worse to Alex- when we got up this morning, he pointed out that she had big grey bags under her eyes, and Willow was forced to admit that she hadn't been sleeping well the past few days.

But that wasn't what was annoying her; at least not really, she knew that even with all of his unnecessary fussing, his heart was in the right place.

No, it was the fact that he wouldn't let her pack her stuff into his bag that he'd brought with him to the cabin. Willow knew it sounded silly, but when she asked him about it, he just said that it was nothing, that he just didn't want her doing anything too strenuous in case she was really sick.

Whilst she believed that he was worried about her, Willow was also still a little bit psychic, so she had a feeling that this wasn't the main reason he didn't want her to go through his stuff, especially because he blushed ever so slightly when he said it.

And Alex never blushes.

It was worrying her a little, but she had been feeling funny for weeks now, from pretty much as soon as they had gotten to the cabin.

By the time we had reached the bottom of the mountain, Willow was really starting to wish she had eaten something for breakfast. She hadn't had anything in the morning because she hadn't wanted to add originally non-existent car sickness to Alex's diagnosis list. Willow was now feeling faint, and adding that to her rather persistent tiredness, now seemed like it would be the perfect time for a nap, if she didn't have a pounding headache.

Alex glanced at her as Willow rolled her head for the third time against the window. "Are you ok?" he asked, clasping my hand in his and resting them both on my thigh. "Yeah, I'm fine," He gave her a sceptical look, because he could almost always tell when she was lying.

Willow sighed. "Ok so I have a little bit of a headache, nothing to worry about, promise." she tried to smile, but it felt a strained on her own face. He gave her that worried look again, and she could see him filing it away to tell the doctor later.

By the time we reached the nearest hospital, Willow still hadn't been able to sleep, and was beginning to feel really terrible. Maybe coming to the hospital might not have been the worst idea there had ever been, Willow thought grimly as Alex helped her out of the car.

He caught sight of her pained expression and looked like he was going to be sick himself. "Oh Jesus babe, you look like hell." Willow snorted quietly, and then winced slightly as pain shot through her lower abdomen. "Well gee, thanks for that sweetie!" she said as sarcastically as humanly possible, unable to help herself from trying to lighten the tension surrounding them.

"Got any more compliments for me in there?" I poked his stomach gently and he gave me a small smile, but at least this time it was a real smile rather than the forced ones that she'd been getting since she had agreed to go to the doctors.

He led her into the hospital, keeping one arm around her waist and getting all the doors for her. Willow felt like a little kid again, people not believing that she didn't have enough strength to do simple things like this herself. Willow might have been annoyed at this, but she feared that he might be right.

As if to prove a point, Willow was completely blindsided by a huge dizzy spell as they walked up to the front desk. Willow flopped against Alex and he had to catch her weight to stop her from falling right over. Alex swung her up into his arms and ran straight to the nearest nurses, who were startled into action by his sudden appearance and urgent shouts for help.