Alexander Nathaniel Rozzi

"Ella." I whisper, brushing back her hair. It was wet with sweat even though she was shivering and had her blankets pulled together around her. Her forehead was burning up and I knew she was sick. Ella didn't answer me, instead she let out a soft whine, trying to get me to leave her alone. "I just want to check up on you, my love, then I'll let you sleep."

We had done this many, many times before. Ella got sick easily, she was normally better the next day but I did have experience taking care of her. Ella rolled onto her back, blinking her eyes open, she looked miserable. Her eyes were red and her cheeks had a flush to match.

"I don't feel good." She told me, her voice husky proving her throat was sore. Her watch had alerted me not too long ago about a spike in her fever and it was pretty high. I had medicine for her but this was the hard part. I needed to get her to eat first. Ella's appetite on a normal day was small but when she was sick it was none existent. It was one of the many repercussions we had got from being kidnapped. Ella had never gained an appetite after being starved for the first few years of her life.

Ella holds her arms out and I do what she wants, circling my arms around her, holding her tight. I lift her up with me and hold her in my lap. My favourite thing about sick Ella was her clinginess, that and her lack of filter.

"I know, love."

I rock us back and forth slowly. Liam was sick as well so Eleanor was back at the house taking care of him. When I saw the spike in Elle's temperature that had been getting worse through the night and her restlessness which had also been recorded I told Eleanor and Lilliana we weren't going to school. Eleanor didn't mind and I don't think Lilliana cared.

"You need to eat something, Amore."

"No thank you." She brushes me off, expecting that answer. I stand up with her in my arms and move to the bathroom, setting her on the counter and handing her her toothbrush. I turn her so she's sitting cross legged facing the mirror so I can do her hair while she's brushing her teeth. Ella's eyes follow me in the mirror as I pull out her hair tie and braid a single plait down her back.

"Do you want to go next door?" I ask. "Liam's home sick as well and Eleanor is there making soup and such."

"Yeah, I like being there more than I do here." I felt the same, the Taylor parents were nowhere near as welcoming as Eleanor and James. Eleanor looked after me like I had never left and she took Ella in like she was hers.

Ella hopped off the counter but she stood still and closed her eyes for a second. My arms immediately circle her waist holding her up. "Dizzy."

"A little bit, yeah."

"Would you like me to carry you?"

"No thanks." Ella walks into her room and wraps a light pink fluffy blanket around herself. She's had that blanket since we were in the hospital after being rescued. I had the same one just in navy blue. She slips on slides. "Can you bring my laptop for me?"

"Please." I tease. "Watch your manners Ella."

"Or what." Even when she was sick she never lost her want to banter. If she ever did that would be the day I truly worried about her, but as long as she never lost her spirit I knew she could handle anything. Even though Ella didn't want me to carry her, I still held her hand. We descended the stairs together. "Is everyone at school?"

"Yeah, I came up and checked on you when I got up. I let you sleep another hour though so you should be grateful."

"I didn't wake up?" Ella asked, slightly surprised, she was the lightest sleeper ever.

"You did but you were delirious so I don't expect you to remember it." It happened like clockwork whenever she was sick, unless you fully woke up. She was in and out of a state of consciousness and she never remembered it. Ella hated this because she often said things she wouldn't normally say. Nothing bad, just the things you don't hear from her on a daily basis.

Auriella groaned. "What did I say, nope never mind don't tell me I don't want to know."

She changed her mind when I smirked at her. "Would you like me to tell you, Love? Tell you about how you were going about how handsome I was and how you wanted to have babies with me."

Ella covered her head with the blanket that had been resting around her shoulders, probably to hide her flaming cheeks.

"I told you not to tell me."

"Aww don't worry my love, as soon as you're ready I'll have kids with you." I coo.

Her face scrunches up. "When I'm twenty-five and have a massive diamond on my finger then we can talk."

"Deal."

"Oh sweetheart, I heard you were sick as well." Eleanor coos, when we walk into the Walker house, pulling Ella into a hug. Ella in her clingy stage hugs Eleanor back and hides her head into her shoulder, soaking up the attention she was now getting.

"I'm sick too, and you don't talk to me like that." Liam protests from the couch. He and Auriella looked like they had picked up the same bug. They both looked scarily pale skin with bright red cheeks. They also both had fever. Liam had started throwing up which I assume Ella will start to do once she actually had food in her system.

Completely disregarding her son Eleanor spoke to Ella. "Would you like something to eat, sweetheart?"

Ella catches my eyes, I know she wants to say no thank you but says yes when I narrow my eyes at her.

"Just a little bit please, if I don't your son might force it down my throat." Ella jokes, she flops back onto the couch on the opposite end to Liam while I go and help Eleanor in the kitchen.

"What will she eat?" Eleanor asks.

"Fruit, toast, crackers and tea." I list the four things that I know she won't fuss about.

"I don't know if I have tea."

"I have some." I made sure to stock up, like a proper Brit Ella loves tea. Her go to is hot chocolate but tea is her next option. "What flavour of tea do you want, Ev?"

She pauses her conversation with Liam and looks into the kitchen "Cherry, please."

"Try again." She pouts.

"But it's my favourite."

"And you're also allergic to cherry, amore."

"Yet I still drink it. I'm not severely allergic, it only makes my tongue tickle."

"Not when you're sick." I can see she wants to protest. "What flavour besides cherry."

"Strawberry please."

"I didn't know she was allergic to cherries." Eleanor frowns.

"It isn't severe, she still eats it but if she eats too much her throat tightens and her skin welts. It isn't dangerous but I like to be cautious when she's already sick. It's weird though that her favourite tea is the one she's allergic to."

We take out the food for Liam and Ella, who were talking but as we enter their conversation comes to a halt even though they looked like they were in the middle of talking.

"Thank you." I sit next to Ella but she moves so she's sitting in between my legs, with her head resting back on my chest. My phone was out and I was doing some work and talking with Erika, my cousin who was doing a couple things for Ambivalent. Ella was watching some series on the TV and she and Liam debated about what's going to happen next.

Over the past few days Ella's relationship with my biological siblings has improved immensely. Her and Harper hit it off on the first meeting. Her and Liam have been getting closer ever since they started playing tennis together some afternoons and her and Madi have been civil, which is better considering Madison and Emmeline are best friends and the twin sisters do not get along currently.

I have never met people so different in my life. They are complete opposites in everything from personalities to likes to looks. Their parents are also a source of tension. Nicholas had been trying, I can see that. He has been going out of his way to talk to Ella and help her with things but Lilliana has forgotten about Elle like she had with the rest of her kids unless she is trying to figure out a way to get money out of Ella.

"Eat Ella." She takes a couple bites of her toast before abandoning it again to watch the screen resorting to me picking up pieces of fruit with her fork and popping pieces into her mouth when she finished chewing.

Normally she would have been bothered by me feeding her but she looked exhausted, she was blinking slowly and her head was fully relaxed on me. All that was moving was her mouth to chew.

"Enough." She pushed the fork away when she was full.

"Okay." I accepted since she had finished most of the food. "You do have to take medicine though, don't worry though it's the one you like. Do you want to sleep in my room or go back to your room?"

"I want to stay here if that's okay." Liam was pretty much passed out on the couch and Eleanor was somewhere else in the house so I picked up Ella gently and ascended the stairs with her in my arms. I set her down on my bed, pulling back the covers and setting her on my sheets. As I was moving to stand up her fist grips my t-shirt and pulls me down. "Stay please."

"Always Ella." I answer automatically. "Let me just take my shoes off."

I slide in the bed next to her and Rory rolls up as close as she possibly could next to me. "You should be at school."

"And leave you sick. I know being sick makes your brain slower but it shouldn't make you stupid Ells."

"That's mean." She flicked my chest where her hand had been resting. "What if something happens, we need to look after them?"

"And you are always my first priority, you know that, the agency knows that. Everyone knows that Elle. It is always you over any mission or business deal, always." I lift her higher so she's more comfortable. "And besides I had a little chat with Grayson before he left, if anything happens I gave him one of our watches."

The Ambivalent watch I had given Grayson had a tonne more modifications than the ones we sell to the public even if they look identical. The one I had given Grayson had a panic button as well as a taser gun he could shoot an attacker with from a distance and it would immobilise them for a good twenty minutes on average without doing irreversible damage to any part of their body. There were a lot more features that the watch had but I hadn't give in Grayson the clearance to be able even to find them.

And if someone managed to get a watch, or any of our devices then both Ella and I could shut them off remotely with a single click of a button.

Since Gray knew a little of our past we had now recruited him to make Ella and I's lives easier and I knew he liked being in the loop and helpful.

Ella burrowed further into me. "Hmm I love you."

"I love you too, baby." Auriella was so much more vocal about her feelings when she was sick. I knew how she always felt but there was something about her saying it out loud.

"More than Emmeline?" I knew we were going to have this coming. We had talked about Lucas a week prior but the week had only briefly mentioned Emmeline, but I knew it was coming since she had upped her flirting tactics in the five days since the party.

"What I feel for Emmeline doesn't even make a spot on the feelings I have for you." I told her honestly. She knows that but due to our upbringings we both needed reassurance sometimes.

"She has a crush on you." Rory mutters, half asleep already.

"I figured." I reply, stroking Ella's back making her arch into me. "It's too bad my heart belongs to her blue eyed, brunette sister."

"Not into blondes?" Ella asked amused. And even though we were talking about my type and someone who had a very obvious crush on me there were no ill feelings. We knew it happened but we also knew neither of us were stupid enough to leave the other.

"I'm not in to anyone but you Ella, it doesn't matter if they're blonde, brunette or anything in between. You're my person and nothing will ever change that.".

"I don't blame her, I have a crush on you too." Rory mutters.

"Oh?" Rory's half asleep and has a fever, that means she is talking more freely, allowing me a glimpse into her brain, something I normally struggle with. Her brain runs at a million miles an hour and I struggle to keep up. But I left her to sleep. Instead I opened my tablet and tried to do some work since Ella was wrapped around me and I couldn't use my laptop.

I didn't take any calls knowing how light of a sleeper Ella is but I went through blueprints for my architecture firm and went through contracts and new hires. Work was never ending, but our loads were slowly decreasing the more we expanded.

Ambivalent had been open for four years and Optimum and Ètinceler for three. Ambivalent was a multi-billion dollar company and the top leading tech company currently in the world. Our competitors didn't even come close. Optimum and Ètinceler were worth multi-millions but they were nearing the billion dollar mark.

But as the time went by we found our trusted employees and who we could trust to help us lead and more responsibility went to other people. We could just monitor as our companies ran themselves at this point. We could have taken a step back and let it do that but we didn't and we weren't going to. The companies were our babies.

The only time we would take a step back was when we had children and they were our focus. I couldn't wait for that time, sometimes I felt so mature, I mean I was doing things that people could only dream about. I felt ready for children but I knew Ella and I both weren't ready for that. We needed to have a semblance of a normal life first.

No one is trying to kill us, no building up companies.

We needed time just for the two of us, no one else to interrupt.

Ella started tossing and turning an hour into her nap, her face screwing up and she started mumbling. I had been through this routine many times to know what it was.

"Ella." I coo, brushing back her sweaty hair out of her face. "Come on, baby. You need to wake up. Ella."

She was in a nightmare and I needed to snap her out of it, but doing something like shaking her awake wouldn't help instead send her further into a panic. I needed to talk to her and hope she distinguishes my voice from her dream

"Ella, love, wake up." I was firmer, as panic started taking over e but that did it. She woke up with a bit of a start, scanning the room until her eyes landed on me, her eyes were red and brimming with tears she wouldn't let fall. I reached out and grabbed her, pulling her onto my lap so she straddled me now. She was hidden in my arms when she let her tears fall. "Oh Ella."

"I hate it." She whispers. "I hate that I have no control over what I dream about, I hate that I keep reliving the memories I hate the most and I hate my mind twisting them into so much worse than they actually are."

"They're okay, Ella. He's okay." Logically she knows that but her brain is stuck on her awful dream so I do the only thing I can do at that moment. I dial the number and when someone answers I hand the phone to Ella, and even though it isn't on speaker because of our close proximity I can hear what the other person is saying.

"Hey Princess."

What are your predictions?

This chapter actually took me a while to write. I had written this chapter a couple months before but I scrapped it and rewrote it which took me a while. 

What do you think of a Grayson POV next chapter? 

I wrote Ella's cherry thing as something that actually happened to me. I always found cherry a little spicy but like a nice spice but anyway one day I had cherry tea and then a cherry ice lolly and I think it was too much and I was itchy. And I saw on a TikTok that if you are allergic to something you might find it spicy and when I asked my mom if cherry was spicy she looked at me like I was crazy so yah. I still drink cherry tea though, what doesn't kill you.

I also started school yesterday. I have no idea what my schedule is going to be like so I'm not promising anything on updates but I will try but I do have the outlines for the next chapter and I've written half of chapter fifteen.

Have a great day and please don't forget to vote and comment

Ara <3