Five Little Words

Part 5

The sun was just barely starting to peek through the deep blue curtains in Ant and Lisa's bedroom, the quiet noises from the street below hinting at a potentially busy morning ahead.

Lisa ignored all of this, lying awake with her exhausted husband asleep on her chest. Ant had been plagued with horrible nightmares for most of the night, and had barely slept. The last one he'd had was so bad that it had made him sick, and then he'd wept for nearly fifteen minutes in her arms, before he eventually cried himself back to sleep.

She knew he was feeling guilty, and extremely worried about his best friend, but it broke her heart to see him so broken and upset - especially over something that wasn't his fault.

Sighing, Lisa bent her head forward and kissed Ant's forehead tenderly, smiling as he snuffled contentedly in his sleep and snuggled closer into her arms.

"What am I going to do with you, hey sweetheart?" she whispered fondly, stroking his dark hair and toying with the messy strands.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of her phone ringing on the side table. Quickly reaching over and grabbing it, trying her hardest not to wake Ant, she smiled when she saw the caller ID.

"Morning Al, you're up early" she whispered, hearing a relieved laugh on the other end of the line, and she felt her own relief swell in her chest at the sound.

"I should be saying that to you" Ali replied, still chuckling lightly.

Lisa raised an amused eyebrow, lips just starting to curl at the sides.

"You're in a good mood this morning, what's up?"

Another laugh, and Lisa heard another familiar voice in the background, but they were too faint to completely recognise.

"Karen's back, and she's just given me an update that I thought you two would want to hear."

Temporarily forgetting that Ant was currently using her as a pillow, Lisa quickly sat upright, ignoring the sleepy grumble from the direction of her husband. She reached out a hand and shook him impatiently awake.

"Ant, wake up sweetie, Ali's on the phone" she hissed, seeing green eyes suddenly shoot open and he shuffled under the blankets as he too sat up.

"Okay, the master is awake" Lisa quipped, getting another laugh out of Ali and another grumble out of Ant as he nudged her shoulder with his head, "Lay it on us."

Still smiling widely, Ali could hardly keep the relief and excitement out of her voice.

"Well, Karen organised for a steroid anti-inflammatory drip to be set up last night, she said that it would hopefully help the swelling come down a bit quicker, and she's just said that they'll go off for another MRI to see how it's going."

Lisa and Ant exchanged an excited look, before Lisa prompted her friend for a bit more information.

Excitedly, Ali replied almost immediately.

"She said that - if everything is healing well - they could be waking him up by lunchtime."

Upon hearing that, Lisa and Ant grinned at each other - and Lisa was relieved to see some of the guilt and fear dissipate from the green eyes before her.

"Oh Ali, that's wonderful!" She gushed, hardly able to keep the relief out of her voice. "We'll get ready and come and join you as soon as we can" she promised, laughing as Ant wrapped his strong arms around her and tightly squeezed her against his chest.

"I'll text you when the scan's been done" Ali promised in return, and they rang off.

There was maybe a second of silence in the room before the two of them let out a joyous whoop and hugged each other in pure relief and excitement.