Chapter Twenty-three

Athena's POV

I pull the closest thing next to me which I assume is Colton's body as I keep on snuggling closer. My eyebrows furrow in confusion as soon as I feel the figure also pulling me closer and wrapping an arm around my waist—before staying completely still.

Opening one eye, I see the familiar dark brown hair which causes me to open both of my eyes in shock. I let out a gasp before pushing the body away and end up falling on the ground with a loud thud. The figure sits up straight, ''What's going on?'' His voice came out a bit worried and confused.

''Ask yourself.'' I roll my eyes as I sit up, holding onto the bed. I start to feel confuse as I see his eyes are a bit red and he has a darker shade of dark circles. He is looking straight at me before laying his back on the bed, ''What's gotten into you?'' I raise an eyebrow, poking at his calf.

Alex groans, ''I don't know.'' Then he faces the other side, pulling one pillow closer. He let out a few rough breaths.

My mind suddenly went to look around for Colton. Wait Colton! My eyes widen once more as I hurry myself out of the room, running toward the hall, ''Colton!'' I shout for his name, but my voice sounded more like a whisper. I quickly run down the stairs, searching the living room and the dining room.

All I find is the scratches from yesterday and spoons all over the floor—the same place as they are yesterday—in the kitchen so I walk out and my breathing stops as soon as I see Colton standing in front of me, his whole body is wet including the shirt he is wearing.

''Colton,'' I walk toward him and pull him closer, ''What happened to you?''

''I jumped in the swimming pool.'' Colton shrugs, ''I woke up an hour ago and I don't know what to do. Then when I try to wake you up, you ask me to wake Alex up and when I did, he did woke up.''

''Then what happened?'' I furrow my eyebrows.

''He went straight to bed and continue to sleep.'' He curves up his lips into a small smile.

I run my hand through his wet hair, ''You need to have a proper shower and you can change afterwards.'' Standing up, I pull his hand so that we are walking up the stairs side by side. Once we reach upstairs, I decided to open up the bag Clara gave me yesterday—she said this bag includes Colton's clothes for the next day.

Choosing a red plain shirt and a dark jeans before putting it on the ground. Colton walks inside the bathroom, ignoring me. I give him the shirt and he closes the door before locking it. After a few minutes, I hear the shower running.

Turning around, I see Alex is now frowning in his sleep. His breathing seems faster than usual so I decided to walk toward him. Slowly, I put the back of my hand on his forehead, feeling his skin burning. I flinch but I quickly put my palm on his forehead once more. This time, sweats are starting to form on his forehead.

I crouch down, lightly shaking Alex's shoulders, ''Alex.'' I say his name but he keeps on frowning, ignoring me completely. He let out a sigh and then it took me awhile to realise that he is having the difficulty to breathe. I keep on shaking him, ''Alex, wake up.''

His eyes shot open but to only close them back. He moves around, hugging himself as he starts to shake, ''Oh my god, Alex, wake up.'' I pull him toward me, ''This is not funny.'' When I touch his forehead once more, I started to get worry, ''Alex, come on.''

Alex touches my wrist and I feel his warmth spreading on my ice cold skin. He looks at me, ''I'm fine.'' His voice came out hoarse so I just lightly put his hand to the side, ''Athena, I'm fine.'' He repeats once he sees me running into the closet. I change into a sweatpants and a shirt before walking out and taking my phone.

''Where are the car keys?'' I ask Alex and see that he's trying to stand up. I walk toward him, helping him up, ''Alex, where are the car keys? We need to go to the hospital.''

''No.'' He groans before pulling me by the wrist, ''Stop, we don't need to go to the hospital.''

I try my best to calm myself down so that I won't shout at him, ''We need to go to the hospital. You're burning!'' I point at himself.

''I'm fine, god damn it.'' He looks straight at me and I can see his blue eyes seem dull and lifeless. When he grabs me harder onto the wrist, I pull him up, which is hopeless since he's heavy, ''Just go to be bed with me.'' He whispers into my ear once we are close enough, ''I'm fine,'' This time, his voice came out as a whisper.

''You're not.''

The bathroom door starts to open and I see Colton looking at us with a confused look. I quickly lay Alex on his back, seeing that he doesn't have more strength to hold me back. He just looks at me—trying his best to avoid me from taking him to the hospital.

''Tell me, the car keys.'' I look back at Alex.

He shakes his head. This stubborn little—

I groan, ''Fine, I'll find it myself!'' I storm out of the room and as I run down the stairs, I look around the living room to see that his car keys are nowhere to be found. I trip onto one of the pillows which causes me to groan and use my elbows and palms for support. When I look up, I see his car keys hanging near the front door.

Smiling in victory, I run toward it before heading back upstairs.

This time, I see Alex is on the floor and Colton is standing near him. Colton starts to hold Alex and tries to pick him up. I walk into the room, cupping Alex's face, seeing that he's half awake. I turn to Colton, ''Colton, I want you to wait for me downstairs.''

He nods before running down the stairs.

Instead of picking him up, it looks more like I'm pulling a dead body. As we walk down the stairs, he seems to cooperate when he takes one step at a time. I grip harder around his waist, ''Just a few more.'' He breathes a bit harder until we reach the final one.

Colton is right now standing as he wait for us.

''Open the door for me,'' I say.

Colton runs toward the door before pressing the button to unlock it and he starts to push the door open. I manage to get out of the house without tripping myself or Alex. Once we reach his car, I use my hand around his waist to press the button on his car keys.

Once the doors are unlocked, I groan when I realise that there's no back seats. My grip around Alex loosen when he steps inside the car and lean his head on the seat. Closing the door, I turn to face a confused looking Colton.

''Colton you need to sit at the middle.'' I mutter.

He frowns, ''But what if we get caught by the police?''

''I don't know, I'll just keep on driving I guess!'' I throw both of my hands up in the air in frustrations and I immediately pull Colton to the other side and pushing him lightly—a gesture for him to get inside.

He sits at the middle, ''This is a bad idea.'' And he starts to mutter.

I closes the door and turn to look at Alex who is now running his temples, ''My headache is killing me.'' He mutters under his breath. Well, he's in pain and I'm in confusion.

''Alex, how to drive this car?'' I start peeking around the steering wheel, the gears and the dashboard.

''You could just the easy way which is walking out of the car and not going to the hospital.'' Alex smirks, leaning his head further into the seat, he furrows his eyebrows as the pain starts to come.

''If you don't want to die, tell me how.''

''Just put the keys in the ignition.'' Alex points and I do as told, ''Then press the start button.'' And I find the car starts to life. As soon as it did, I hold onto the steering wheel.

''Now what?'' I raise an eyebrow at him.

Colton is sitting silently as he keeps on holding onto our seats. Alex sighs, ''Just drive. I've changed the gears and the mode so you don't have to worry about it, just drive.'' He clears his throat, before gulping, ''You do have a driver's license right?''

''Yeah.'' I adjust the gear to reverse, ''Can I change it to automatic?'' I press onto the brakes, waiting for his response and when he nods, I press onto the automatic button, leaving the manual button shining red. I press the gas—still in reverse gear—until we are finally on the road.

I press onto the gas harder, seeing that there's no traffic which is a bit odd. There would always be traffics. I feel someone touching my arm and when I turn around, I see Colton pointing at Alex.

''No shit.'' I frown.

Colton rolls his eyes at my curse. I turn to glance at Alex once more, ''You have got to be kidding me! Alex, don't you freaking pass out on me.'' I poke onto his hard chest, causing him to groan and open his droopy eyes, ''That's more like it! Stay awake.''

Sweats starts to form on the side of his temples, ''I think I'm going to throw up.'' He groans as he tries to hold back.

I make a right turn, ''Oh well go ahead, it's your car after all.'' Making sure to give him a teasing wink. He rolls his eyes at me before looking up, holding back the urge to throw up.

''Drive faster.'' Alex presses onto my thigh.

I press my lip into a thin line at the sudden gesture. My eyes glares at him, trying to not focus that his hand are on my thigh. I'm a bit ticklish on my thigh so it's never comfortable, more like making me want to pee.

''How fast do you want me to go?'' My voice came out a bit high as I hold onto the urge of slapping his hand away. I know he holds my thigh without him realising that it would effect me. ''I'm going one hundred and sixty kilometres an hour!''

''Faster.'' That was all he could answer before I see him biting onto his lower lip, ''God damn it, Athena! Just fucking press the gas.'' He curses and I turn to look at Colton who is now covering his ears.

I press onto the gas harder causing the metre to go up from one hundred and sixty to hundred and eighty, ''If I die—''

He cuts me off, ''Then I'll die with you!'' He says in anger as he massages his temples, ''Fuck.'' He mutters under his breath before leaning down at the pain.

I know when he said he'll die with me was out of anger. It was more like he will just as well die with me if I die. Well, then I might not rest in peace if I know Colton might die with us.

''We're almost here.'' I say as I press the brakes, turning left. My eyes widen at the red lights in front of us, ''Hell.'' I groan as I grip harder onto the steering wheel. People crossing the road eyes the car and some teenage boys start to whistle but I keep on playing with the lights, as a sign for them to walk faster.

I turn on my emergency indicators and as soon as the lights turn green, I press the gas—causing the car to go faster. I turn to see Alex holding onto Colton who is now at the edge of falling. I slow down the car as I enter the hospital's emergency section.

A hospital van stops in front of me. I take the chance to stop the car and I change the gear to P before stepping out of the car. When I arrive at Alex's side, he has already open the door but he drops onto the ground, letting out a curse under his breath as he keeps on running his head.

''God, you're fine.'' I say as I keep on walking inside, leaving them. As soon as I came in contact with two nurses. They turn toward me, ''I need help. My uh—husband is uh—can you please just come with me!'' I say as I pull both of their hands. They starts to stare at me with wide eyes but after stepping out of their trance, they start running with me.

When Alex came into view, the two male nurses seem to recognise Alex because they mutter something behind me, ''Isn't that Alexander Herrera?'' In hush tones.

I turn around, glaring at both of them, ''There's no freaking time, just help him.'' I say through anger and they nod their heads. After realising who I am, they keep on glancing at my direction as they help Alex up.

Alex looks up at me and before the nurses could help him up in a wheelchair, he holds my forearm, ''Colton is still in the car.'' He says and he closes his eyes, feeling the pain coming again.

One of the nurses pushes the wheelchair while the other one looks at me, ''Do you need any help?'' He raises an eyebrow.

I turn to face him before shaking my head, ''No, thank you.'' But then before he could walk away, I grab onto his wrist. He looks down at his wrist and I quickly let go of him, ''Can you just tell me where Alex will be send to.''

''Sure thing.'' A smile appears on his face as he walk away toward the entrance.

Locking the car, I grab Colton's hand into mine and we walk inside. Once we're inside, the same nurse approach me, ''He's in room 508.'' I nod at him and he nods back before walking away to the other side.

Right now, I am standing beside Alex as I watch him in his sleeping form. As for Colton, he's busy playing with the game on my phone. I let him so that he would stop whining and complaining about being bored. They put Alex into a deep sleep and they said that he would wake up whenever he feels like it—whenever he's energised enough.

He has been sleeping for the past five hours and I just somehow end up staring at him. During times like this, I can stare at him without getting caught. People won't question me or find it weird for me to stare at my own husband—wait what?

''Athena, when is mommy coming to pick me up?'' Colton asks, touching the back of my hand.

''Ma'am, there's someone that would like to see you. She said she knows you and she also said that she's Colton's mother.'' One of Alex's bodyguards open the door and say to me before letting Clara walk in. Then he closes the door, leaving us.

''Mommy!'' Colton's eyes went wide as he run toward his mother.

Clara chuckles before kissing onto his forehead, ''My baby, did you have fun?''

Colton nods and he starts to walk toward the sofa where he sat earlier. He continues to play with my phone and I just let him. I look up at Clara, ''Would you mind if we talk outside?'' I smile at her.

She narrows her eyes at me before chuckling, ''Why not.''

We walk out and three of Alex's bodyguards start to guard the other hall—after seeing us wanting to talk outside. Clara sits on the nearest chair and I follow her, ''Is there something wrong? Did Colton do something?'' She starts to ask.

Oh boy, how I wish I could tell her but I won't.

''I just want to ask—'' I frown, ''I know it's not my place but why is Colton asking for his daddy?''

Clara starts to stiffen as she look down, ''He just misses his daddy.''

''Don't they meet? I mean, you and Clark are doing fine right?'' I ask, ''I'm sorry,'' I say once I find that she's starting to get uncomfortable, ''I just feel sorry for Colton. He was asking for his daddy before he fell asleep.''

Before I could stand up, Clara holds onto my wrist, gesturing me to sit back down, ''Clark hasn't been back for a month now. I tried calling him but he would always say he's busy. Whenever I say that Colton misses him, he would say he'll be back soon but he hasn't.'' She sighs, ''I think he's with someone else.''

''I'm just worried for Colton and for you, of course. I want both of you to be happy.'' I rub the back of her hand with my thumb, giving her some strength.

''Don't worry, I'll find a way.'' She smiles. A smile that didn't exactly reach her ears, ''I will do anything for my son, Athena.''

''I believe you.''

An hour after, she decided to leave and take Colton out for ice cream. I let her and hug Colton. What surprise me next is that Colton manage to hug Alex around the neck before walking out with his mother. Clara seems surprise too but she covers it up with a chuckle. I know that she misses Clark and from the little gesture, Colton misses his daddy more than Clara misses her own husband.

I end up staring at my fingers, just waiting for the moment for Alex to wake up.

My eyelids starts to get heavy and without me knowing, I fall asleep right on Alex's hand.

''Princess.'' Someone calls and I grumble something under my breath. When the voice becomes nearer and louder, ''Athena.'' I move my head up but to only bump my head onto someone's chin. I look right to see Alex groaning and rubbing his chin.

i look down to see his five o'clock shadow. It's my first time seeing it and it looks attractive. Super attractive. Hell attractive. I gulp before blinking and looking back up into his eyes, ''Uh, you're awake. I should call the doctor.'' Before I could press the button, Alex holds my hand.

''Later.'' I nod and I sit back down.

His eyes are no longer red and his dark circles has lighten up a few shade. I run the back of my hand on his forehead, feeling his temperature are no longer higher than thirty eight degree Celsius. Alex looks up at me and I put my hand down, ''Looks like your fever has cool down.'' I mutter as I look down.

''I guess.'' He replies and he let out a weak chuckle, ''My head still hurts though but it's bearable.''

''Well, the doctor said you had an infection and your body acts as a respond.'' I shrug.

''Maybe, I haven't got sick in awhile.'' His eyes wander around the room—as if looking for someone, ''Where's Colton?'' He look back at me, raising an eyebrow.

''Clara came and pick him up earlier. He did say he wanted to see you again though,'' Alex chuckles then that's when I decided to ask him whether he heard what happened last night, ''Hey, Alex.''

''Mm?'' Alex raises his head but he is still looking down, examine his own hand.

''Did you hear what happened last night?''

''What happened last night?'' He looks straight at me, his eyes seem like they are trying to hold something back.

''Well—'' Before I could continue, I stop because I decided to let it slip, ''Nothing.''

Alex looks down, furrowing his eyebrows,

''He reminds me of myself when I was younger.''