Denial is the Way

The baby's first sick day:

 

Ender and Nevan almost freaked out this morning. When they went to the twins to get them ready for breakfast, Vera was burning up. 

 

Ender picked her up, feeling how hot she was. Vera was also breathing hard, as it sounded like her nose was congested. 

 

When Nevan went to get a thermometer to check Vera's temperature, he did not get far out of the room because Vera threw up on Ender. 

 

That was when they both started freaking out and instantly decided to go to the doctor. 

 

Emil watched them, only to start crying when he saw Vera throwing up. Nevan picked up Emil, trying to quiet him down. 

 

Ender ignored the barf on him as he picked out clothes for the twins to wear. Once he found them, Nevan took the clothes and Vera so that Ender could change. 

 

When they left for the doctor, knowing it would be a long ride, Ender sat in the back with the twins. He gave Emil a pacifier to keep his cries down while checking on Vera each time. 

 

Vera kept her eyes closed, too tired to stay awake. She also felt too hot, wanting to cry, but felt too tired to let it out. Plus, breathing was a bit hard for her since her nose felt stuffed. 

 

Ender grabbed a sippy cup filled with a small amount of water inside and tried to make Vera drink some. Finally, she did, but with a bit of difficulty. 

 

Once they reached the doctor and got Vera checked, Ender and Nevan started to calm down when the doctor said it was not bad and would calm down the next day. 

 

They got Vera some baby medicine to take while also getting a nasal thing that will help with unclogging her nose. 

 

When they reached home, they laid Vera on the couch, letting her rest while giving her more liquids to keep her hydrated. 

 

Ender and Nevan were also only able to feed her a bit of food, as she did not feel hungry. 

 

Emil crawled towards his sister, holding her hand as he checked on her. 

 

He laid down next to Vera, wanting to cry again to let out complaints because his sister did not look good. 

 

"Ah, Emil, you cannot be near Vera right now. What if you get sick too?" Ender spoke, trying to move Emil away from the now sleeping Vera. 

 

Emil started loudly crying as he held onto Vera. He did not want to go anywhere. He wanted to stay with Vera. 

 

Ender sighed, not knowing what to do as he let go of Emil. Once he did, Emil would quiet down and rest next to Vera. 

 

"Emil," Ender tried to reason with his son. 

 

Nevan came over, holding a cloth in his hand to wipe Vera's face. He looked over at Ender's expression, "What's wrong?" 

 

"Emil doesn't want to move from Vera. I don't want him to get sick, either." Ender explained. 

 

Nevan looked at Emil, who glanced at him. His eyes almost looked like they said, 'I am not moving.' 

 

"Maybe we can put a blanket between them with their hands at the top of it so that Emil can still hold her hand." Nevan thought. 

 

Ender hummed, "We can do that." 

 

Ender left the living room to grab a blanket while Nevan bent down to wipe Vera's face. Vera had a frown on her face as she was snoring. 

 

Her temperature was still high, but, checking earlier, it went from 102 to 100. 

 

Nevan looked at Emil, who continued to stare at him. His son is probably watching to see if he is going to separate them. 

 

"We are not going to separate you two, but you need to be more understanding, Emil," Nevan spoke. 

 

"Eh," Emil replied, even though he did not understand most of the things his daddy said. But he would not complain anymore if he got to stay with Vera. 

 

Ender returned with a blanket. He grabbed Emil and Vera's hands, picking them up as he put the blanket between them. He set the holding hands back down once he finished. 

 

Emil almost cried, thinking his papa would separate them, but kept quiet when he didn't. 

 

"There. Now you cannot complain anymore." Ender said. 

 

Ender and Nevan sat on the floor, next to the couch, as they watched the twins.

 

Emil ended up falling asleep, not once letting go of Vera's hand. 

 

Later on, when Vera and Emil woke up, Ender and Nevan pulled them into their lap. They sat close to each other so that Emil could still be near Vera. 

 

Ender fed Vera a bottle, trying to get more food into her stomach since she did not feel as hot as before. Vera looked up at Ender as her eyes drooped down; she was still tired, and her body felt heavy. 

 

Nevan fed Emil some baby food as Emil watched Vera, making sure that she ate. Nevan stopped halfway when he noticed that Emil wanted to pay more attention to Vera rather than eating. 

 

He sighed with a resigned expression, "Well, at least we know he will be a good, caring brother." 

 

Ender nodded, "Yep. Hopefully, he won't be too overprotective. Kay wants to cover that part." 

 

After feeding the twins, Ender pulled out a book and started reading to them. Nevan joined in on the reading, doing voices for the dialogue part. 

 

They read a fairy tale story that did not have many pictures. So Nevan and Ender had to exaggerate their reading to illustrate a photo for Vera and Emil. 

 

Vera listened for a while, but ended up falling asleep because she couldn't open her eyes for too long. 

 

Emil held onto Vera's foot as he stayed up to listen to the whole story. Maybe he could tell his sister later when she is feeling better. He knew that Vera loves fairy tale stories. 

 

Once Ender and Nevan reached the end of the story, Emil fell asleep, still holding onto Vera's foot. 

 

Ender and Nevan smiled at them, feeling relief as they got through their scare of Vera falling sick. If Emil ended up the same, they now knew what to do. 

 

They got up, bringing the twins to their room. For today, Nevan and Ender wanted Vera and Emil to sleep with them. 

 

Even though they felt better from before, it still gave Nevan and Ender peace if they had the twins closely with them.

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