"Are you coming to football today dad?" Ollie cheerfully asked as he ran into Nick and Zoe's bedroom dressed in his football kit ready training. He loved it when his parents came to watch him play and recently they had managed to take it in turns around their work schedule to go and watch him.
"No I'm afraid not" Nick disappointingly told him, he hated letting him down but right now their priorities had to be with Oscar "We've got to be at the hospital today" He added.
"Why?" Ollie moaned. At 8 years old he understood that his baby brother was seriously ill in hospital but what neither he or Phoebe could get their heads around was as to why their parents had to spend so much time there and not with them. " But you always come and watch me" He sulked.
"And I will be there in a few weeks" Nick promised "But Oscar is still poorly isn't he" He continued to remind him. The children had all been to see him numerous times now since he was born and always showed affection towards him, but now no longer being the youngest of the family was effecting both Phoebe and Oliver and they were both now extremely jealous for their parents attention.
"You're always with Oscar" He shouted, storming out of their room and into his own, slamming the doors in a sulk as he went.
Nick shook his head, glancing over at Zoe who was applying her makeup "When are they going to understand the concept of sharing?" He sighed. It was really getting to him that he couldn't balance spending time with all of his children. Now that he had just completed his first week back in the ED, balancing work, spending time with Oscar and Zoe and his other children was proving a difficult task.
"They will come around eventually" She tried to reassure him "It's going to be hard for them no matter what" She said, trying to let Nick see that this wasn't his fault, she knew he was blaming himself for the way they felt right now.
"I hope so" He sighed, pulling on a t shirt "Are you ready to go?" He asked her, eager to get back to the hospital again.
"Yeah" Zoe mumbled as she continued to apply her makeup clearly not ready "Go and check on the girls would you" She said, hearing screams from the both of them, she knew they would be arguing once again.
Nick quickly hurried downstairs as it sounded as though World War III was breaking out, "What's going on in here?" He shouted, breaking their argument as they pulled away from grabbing onto one an-others hair.
"I don't want to go grandmas with her" Phoebe pointed at her sister, who sat smirking with her back to Nick.
"Well you are going to grandmas whether you like it or not" He firmly ordered, not having the patience to deal with their petty arguments right now. They were constantly arguing lately and now that Phoebe was growing up too, both girls were starting clash more in personalities "Now go and get ready please" He ordered, sending them upstairs to get dressed.
Once they were all ready and had finally managed to persuade Oliver to go to his football training, they headed to the car, driving to Marie's house first to drop off both girls for the day and then proceeded onto the football ground to drop Ollie off. He never spoke a word to his mum or dad all of the journey and they both knew they were going to have to address this issue soon.
"We're going to have to try and find time to spend with him aren't we" Zoe looked at Nick as they pulled away from the football ground. His jealousy was definitely affecting him more than they had first thought, it was extremely difficult for them right now to try and resolve this.
"Yeah I'll try and speak to him tonight" Nick agreed, knowing that he hadn't been giving them his full attention over the past few weeks that they needed.
"Who knew having kids could be so stressful" Zoe joked, trying to make light of their situation.
When arriving at the hospital, they parked in their usual spot in the ED car park, just so that Nick could check upon his staff whenever he arrived and they then soon headed up to Neonatal for another day sat by Oscar's incubator. Each day he was continuing to grow bigger and stronger, his doctor was extremely pleased with the progress that he was making and both Nick and Zoe were now starting to relax more knowing that he was improving slightly. Although he was still very poorly and needed help breathing, they were now able to hold him and feed him most days.
As they arrived, Nick's phone began to ring "You go in, I'll join you in a minute" He said, pulling his phone out of his jacket to answer as Zoe entered the room.
"You're not going to believe the phone call that I've just had" Nick said, wandering back into the NICU 5 minutes later, where Zoe now sat by Oscar's incubator.
"What?" She quickly asked, seeing the surprised look upon Nick's face.
"My mum and dad are in England"
"You have got to be joking" Zoe choked, matching the shocked expression upon Nick's face. His mum and dad had never even mentioned that they were coming over to visit anytime soon. They both knew that Oscar had been born and was in intensive care, but visiting was never brought up because of this.
Nick shook his head in response.
"Great" Zoe sighed "That is all we need right now, they can't stay at ours" She quickly added. As much as she liked her in laws, she knew they were going to get in the way. This wasn't the right time for them to turn up at all.
"I'll have to go pick them up" Nick said, quickly walking over to Oscar's incubator to check on him before he left. As much as his parents turning up out of the blue had annoyed him slightly, especially at this busy and difficult time, he knew that he couldn't leave them when they had flown all the way from Italy to visit their new grandson.
"Nick" Zoe exclaimed "You can't be serious?" She asked.
"I'll be an hour at the most" He assured her, quickly kissing her before walking off.
"Fine, just go" She agreed "but make sure they get a hotel out of Holby" She firmly ordered, not wanting her in laws interfering now that they had the new baby.