"Dad..."
"Dad, please wake up..." you hear with the usual accompanying nudge against your shoulder.
You brush whoever's hand it is off of you and wave them off. "Just make some cereal. I'll be down in a minute," you say lethargically.
"Dad!" Adagio shouts. Her urgency snaps you right out of your trance and you shoot up straight in bed. You blink a few times as your vision focuses on her. The look on her face is one of desperation, like the house is burning down or something.
"What?"
"I think there's something wrong with Sonata. She won't get up," Adagio says, her voice edging on panic. You push the covers off of you and quickly move out into the hallway to check on her. Adagio follows you close behind.
"What do you mean she won't get up?" you ask, your heart pounding at the sudden possibilities that might imply. Without waiting for an answer you burst into Sonata's room, looking to her bed and fearing the worst. Instead, you just find her writhing in bed, holding her stomach and letting out a few low moans. You let out a sigh of relief at the sight.
"She just keeps saying it hurts and won't talk to me. I tried to get her up but she won't do anything else." Adagio stands close by you, fidgeting her hands together with worry plaguing her face. You shake your head.
"Adagio, try and open with something a little less serious next time," you say as you walk up to Sonata's bed and kneel by it.
"What do you mean? Sonata won't get up. Something's really wrong with her, Dad!" Adagio almost sounds like she's about to cry. She's looking down at her sister like it might be the last time she ever sees her.
"Adagio, calm down, honey. Sonata is going to be fine, okay? Just take some deep breaths."
Adagio nods to you. "Y-yes, sir."
You turn back to Sonata, who's still tossing and turning in bed, holding a harsh grimace on her face. "Sonata, honey, what's wrong?"
"It hurts, Daddy."
"What hurts, sweetie?"
She lets out a little groan of pain and turns over. "Everything," she says. You can definitely hear how congested she is in her voice.
"You're gonna have to be more specific than that, sweetie, or Daddy can't help you."
Adagio taps you on the shoulder. "I heard her crying in the bathroom last night. I think she was throwing up."
You put a hand over Sonata's forehead. The heat radiating off of her is intense. A frown crosses your face, as you do not have the time to deal with this right now. You turn back to Adagio for a minute. "Can you go grab me the thermometer out of the kitchen drawer by the fridge?"
She nods to you then is off like a bullet out of Sonata's room. You shake your head again as you hear her stomp down the stairs so fast you're sure she might fall. The last thing you need is to have to deal with two incapacitated daughters. Before you can even yell out the door at her to be careful, she runs back up the stairs and is in Sonata's room holding out a hand to you with the thermometer in it.
You give her a raised eyebrow as you take it from her. "What?" she asks you.
You stick it in Sonata's mouth, having to put a hand on her shoulder just so she doesn't rock around her bed and spit it out. As soon as it beeps, you pull it out to see it flash the number 104.9.
"Oh, Jeez..." you say as you look at the little screen. Sonata was complaining of a stomach ache the day before and had a bit of a cough, but she seemed fine when you dropped her off at school, and only marginally worse when you picked her up at the end of the day. You've never really seen it get this bad this fast though, and you chastise yourself for not catching this sooner. How could you expect her to get this sick after only a couple weeks of school, anyway?
"Is she gonna be alright, Dad?" Adagio asks as you stand up again, her voice growing even more worried after hearing what you said.
"Go wake up your sister and get her dressed and tell her to grab her game thing. Go grab some books or something of yours for the day and meet me in the car, okay?"
"What? Where are we going?"
"We need to go to the hospital," you say. You realize a little too late that might have been the wrong way to say that.
"What?!" Adagio nearly shouts. Her breathing goes erratic as she looks up to you. "She's gonna be okay, right? We don't really need to go to the hospital do we? Dad, please say something! Is Sonata gonna die?!" Adagio rattles off faster than you can even keep up with.
You kneel down next to her and put your hands on her shoulders. She is way too old to be freaking out this badly over her sister getting a little sick. "Adagio, deep breaths, honey. Your sister is going to be fine, okay? I just don't have the medicine to deal with this, so we need to go see a doctor. Now just calm down and get your sister out to the car for me, okay?"
Adagio closes her eyes and tries to take a few deep breaths. She calms down a little bit, but you can still see some pretty intense worry in her eyes when she looks back up to you. "O-okay."
"Good girl." You give her a little push out of the room and pick up Sonata out of the bed. Sonata lets out another moan, and writhes in your arms.
"Daddy, it hurts..." she says, then rattles off a couple of really nasty coughs. You hold her close and pick up a few of her things to take to the hospital.
"I know, honey. We're gonna go to the doctor's and they're gonna make it all better, okay?"
She just lets out a little whine in response. You take her into your room so you can get dressed really quick and grab a bag to take to the hospital for you and the girls. You hope you wouldn't be there for more than a day or so, but you can never really know for sure. You curse whatever pestilence gods there might be for not waiting at least a day later until Sunday since you'd have to call into work and take off... again.
Once you get out to the car, Adagio and Aria are out there waiting for you thankfully. You thought Adagio might actually break down and have a panic attack before she could get to Aria's room. She's still looking through the window at the two of you with worry. As you open the door to the car and strap Sonata in, she still looks at the two of you apprehensively, especially Sonata, who is still moaning in her little six-year-old agony.
As you drive to the hospital, Adagio seems like she's on the verge of breaking down as she keeps looking back at Sonata. Aria, on the other hand, can't seem to care less as she sits beside her sister and gives her an occasional glare at every pained moan she lets out. Aria just goes back to playing on her handheld thing and pretty much ignores Sonata's cries for help. Thankfully it looks like she's too tired to give her sister any lip, so you thank whatever gods there are for the little things.
You put a hand on Adagio's thigh to try and calm her down. "Honey, she's gonna be alright. Stop worrying, okay?"
"But what if something goes wrong at the hospital and they can't do anything and then she gets worse and then we--"
"Adagio!" you say, shaking her a little bit. "She's going to be alright. Don't freak out on me, okay?"
Aria perks up at her sister's outburst. "Wait, why are we going to the hospital?"
You raise an eyebrow at Adagio. "You didn't tell her?"
"No, I just told her she needed to get in the car."
Aria unbuckles her seatbelt and leans towards the front seat. "Why do we need to go to the hospital?"
You nudge Aria backward. "Put your seatbelt back on, honey. Sonata's just a little sick and I don't have enough medicine to take care of her, so we're just going to the hospital to see a doctor, alright?"
"Is she gonna die?" Aria asks, a little bit of concern growing on her face as she looks over at her fidgeting sister; though not even in the same galaxy as the amount of worry Adagio is going through. "She sure looks like she's gonna die," Aria says, scooting away from Sonata towards the door.
"No, Aria, she's going to be fine. Now put your seatbelt back on already."
When you finally get to the hospital, Sonata looks even worse than when you put her into the car. She started sweating pretty heavily on the way over, and all the color has drained out of her face. Moving her around probably didn't do her any favors, but you would rather her get a little bit sicker than be miserable for the next couple of days.
You check into the ER and fill out a couple of forms. Luckily, since it's so early in the morning, no one else is really there to slow the process down, so you get into a room pretty quickly and get to see a doctor.
After a few back and forth trips from several nurses and a doctor, Sonata finally stops squirming and is resting peacefully in one of the hospital beds. Adagio looks like she just missed getting hit by a truck as she stares at her sister with a relieved smile on her face. You roll your eyes at her hysterics. It makes you happy that she cares about her sister so much, but even she could go a bit overboard sometimes.
Aria, on the other hand, isn't happy at all as she sits beside you in one of the chairs, her arms crossed over her chest and her face is slowly being overcome with frustration. "Aria, why don't you play your game or something?"
"I don't want to."
"Are you hungry? We could go down and get something from--"
"No," she says harshly.
"Then what's wrong, sweetie?"
"I want to go home."
You put a hand on her shoulder. "Honey, we can't go home right now. Sonata's sick and we need to stay here with her until the doctors say if we can take her back or not."
"Well how long do we have to stay here?" Aria asks.
"I don't know. We might have to stay here overnight if--"
Aria jerks out from under your hand and jumps up out of the chair. "I am NOT staying here overnight!"
Adagio's relieved smile quickly turns to a furrowed glare at her sister. "Sonata's sick, Aria. The least we could do is be here to help her."
"She's over there sleeping! She doesn't need our help," Aria says, giving her sister a glare back.
"She'll feel better if she sees us all here for her when she wakes up."
"I don't care! I just want to go home already. This is stupid! Sonata's stupid, and I don't want to be here anymore," Aria says, stomping her foot.
"Sweetie--" you try to say.
"The whole world doesn't revolve around you, Aria!" Adagio shoots back, getting angrier by the second at Aria.
"Yeah? Well the world doesn't revolve around that baby either. Maybe if you weren't so boring you would know that."
Adagio scoffs. "What? I'm not boring."
"Are too," Aria says. "That's why you don't have any friends. All you ever do is read and no one wants to talk to you."
Adagio lets out a little, frustrated growl at her sister. "Yeah? Well maybe you'd keep a friend longer than a few days if you weren't so awful to be around. Sugarcoat was right, you really are bratty," Adagio says, giving her sister a once over and using an extremely conceited tone. You have some uncomfortable flashbacks of how Sunset was before the Fall Formal at that. That's definitely not a trait you want your daughter to pick up.
You stand up. "Girls, that's enou--"
Aria lets out her own frustrated growl and then finally yells out "Shut up!" loud enough to make you wince. She sprints over to the door and jerks it open, then runs out into the hallway.
You shake your head and sigh. "Adagio, stay here with Sonata," you tell her as you chase Aria out. Adagio looks a little shaken up, but that's not something you can really deal with this instant.
You run after Aria and finally grab her by the sleeve in the hallway. "Let go of me!" she shouts as she turns around and tries to fight you off. She gives your shin a few weak kicks and slaps at your arm grasping hers. "Let me go already!" she shouts, making a scene to everyone around her. The other people in the hallway are starting to stare, so you bring her in closer to you.
"Aria, calm down!"
"No! I want to go home! Let me go!" She lets out a scream as she fights against you, making you let out your own agitated grunt as she continues to fight against you.
The urge to smack some sense into her creeps into your thoughts, and instantly shocks you out of your rage. You bring Aria into a tight hug so she can't struggle as hard, gently shushing her as you held her. She keeps struggling until finally she doesn't have the energy to push against you any longer and finally goes limp in your grasp. Her little head rests against your chest, and her voice shakes with a sudden sob. You can see a few tears running down her cheeks. She also grasps your shirt tightly, as if letting go of it might find her lost to the world forever. You pick her up off the ground and keep her held against you, gently stroking her as she starts crying. "I just want to go home..." she says in a cracking voice.
"Shhh, it's okay, honey. We'll go home soon."
You walk back to Sonata's room with Aria in your arms, feeling ashamed of yourself that you thought for even a split second about hitting her. You close your eyes, thinking of the promise you made to Sunset a long time ago that neither of you would ever resort to hitting your kids. You hate that your mind even played with the idea of breaking that promise. You intend to keep it until the day you die, no matter how bad any of them get.
You sit back down in one of the chairs, stroking Aria's hair as she lays there against you. She didn't have time to pull her long locks into their usual pigtails, so her disheveled head of hair is laying frayed against you. "I just wanna go home, Daddy. Please..."
"Shhh, I know, honey. Daddy's here. I'll take you home soon."
Adagio looks over from Sonata's bedside with a pained expression on her face. She looks at Aria and bites her lip with worry. "I... I didn't make her cry, did I?"
You shake your head at her, though you are a little disappointed that she got into it with Aria. You usually try to stop Aria and Adagio fighting as quickly as you can, since Aria basically gets crushed every time. Adagio could be absolutely vicious with her words, and Aria never seems to learn. You felt lucky Adagio doesn't take up the same attitude as Aria does.
After a long wait for Aria to finally stop crying, she falls asleep against you and starts to quietly snore. You figure it's pretty early in the morning, and she definitely wore herself out fighting against you and crying so much. You gently set her into one of the other chairs and inspect the tear stains on your shirt.
"Dad, is she okay?" Adagio asks.
"I think so, she was probably just tired from being woken up so early on a Saturday."
Adagio looks over at her sleeping sister with a tentative glance. "You don't think I really upset her, do you?" she says, looking back up to you.
"No, sweetie. I'm not sure what got into her..." you say, but as soon as you think about it, you instantly know why. The last time Aria was in a hospital, this hospital specifically, all three of you were waiting to hear the news of how the surgery went after Sunset's accident. Those memories are hardly bearable for you, you can't imagine how Aria is handling it.
"How are you doing?" you ask Adagio. This is the first time she's been back into the hospital too since then.
"Huh? I'm okay."
"Are you sure, honey? You aren't thinking of any bad memories?" you say, leaning forward towards her. If anything you'd think she would have the worst of it. You'll never be able to forget that look on her face after the second surgery when the doctor told you and Adagio that Sunset was gone. You felt lucky that you had left Sonata and Aria with a friend at the time. You didn't know if you could actually deal with all three of them at once.
"Oh... well, I've been trying to think about Sonata. It... it hurts thinking about that," Adagio says, her eyes drifting to the floor.
"I know, honey. I'm here if you feel like talking about it."
Adagio is silent for a moment as she stares at Aria. "Do you think I could go down to the cafeteria to get us something to eat?" she asks innocently.
You smile at her. "Of course, honey," you say as you slip your wallet out of your back pocket and give her some money.
She shoots a quick "Thanks!" at you before running out of the room, leaving you with a sleeping Aria.
You let out a sigh of relief that it's Saturday. You didn't know if you could really let the girls miss any more school this early without falling behind. As you start thinking about it, you wince once you realize it had been a few hours and you hadn't even called into work to tell them you couldn't make it.
After a pretty heated discussion with your boss about absence etiquette and how much work you've missed recently, you step back into the room, even more stressed out than when you left. On top of Sonata getting sick, Aria getting in so much trouble, and already having to worry about the future, the last thing you need is to have to bring your own job security into question.
You sigh when you see Aria sitting there sleeping, all curled up with her knees against her chest and her mouth hanging slightly open as she leans against the wall. She looks so peaceful despite her tearstained face. You run a hand across her cheek, smiling at the little girl you and Sunset made. A twinge of guilt hits you again when you think about contemplating hitting her. She was only scared of being in the hospital again and didn't know how to deal with it; you can't even imagine how much a smack might have made that worse for her. You brush her bangs back and give her a quick kiss on the forehead before you sit back down beside her.
Adagio makes it back with a few bags in her hand from the cafeteria and is quick to hand you the change from the money you have her. The crinkling of the plastic bag soon wakes Aria up. Adagio picks up a cup out of one of the bags once she sees Aria's eyes fluttering open.
"Aria," she whispers.
"Huh?" Aria says as she slowly sits up.
"I got you some ice cream. It's some cookie dough with crushed Oreos on top. The ice cream place didn't have crushed up Oreos so I bought a roll of them and crushed them up myself. I hope that's okay."
"O-oh..." Aria looks into the cup that Adagio gives her. "Thanks, Adagio," Aria says, a little bit of wonder in her eyes.
"I'm really sorry about what I said. I don't think you're bratty," Adagio says, giving her sister a smile.
"It's okay..." Aria says as she blinks her puffy eyes a few times and takes a bite of her ice cream. You shoot her a quick, stern glare as the silence hangs in the room for a few moments.
"Oh, I'm sorry too, Adagio. You're not that boring."
You shake your head and nudge Aria. "Okay, you're not boring."
Adagio leans forward and wraps her sister in a hug. "Thank you, Aria."
The exchange leaves a smile on your face. Adagio hands you a sandwich she got from the cafeteria and pulls out one of her own to eat. After a few minutes she perks up and pulls her own bag over to her side. "Oh, Dad, I got the mail for you before we left."
"Thanks, honey," you say as you take the stack from her. You flip through it, frowning at the pile of bills and junk mail, that is until you see a yellow and pink decorated envelope.
"What's that?" Adagio asks.
You pull it open and pull out a very nice piece of pretty expensive paper. It takes you a bit by surprise as you read over it. "It's a wedding invitation."
"To whose wedding?" Adagio asks.
You have to read over the names a few times. You're a little surprised the two of them finally ended up together. They were quite an odd pair in high school, and you really couldn't see them lasting much longer than that, but you've been wrong before. "Fluttershy and Bulk Biceps," you finally answer.