Once I've regained most of my strength, and Jess has just about squeezed every bit of information about last night from me, I prepare myself for the long checklist worth of things I still need to do today despite having the day off from work. I had checked my email as soon as Jess left my room and found an email awaiting me that assured me that it was fine that I had taken the day off, even on such short notice, but just reminding me to bring in a doctor's certificate if I wanted it to count as a sick day.

Knowing me, if it wasn't for the fact that I now needed a doctor's certificate I probably would have attempted to avoid visiting the doctor; putting it off with the excuse that I could fight off the sickness by myself and that if I take some antibiotics now when it wasn't too bad then when I do really need them I'll be too immune to them. I've always tried to put off succumbing to any sickness while others would eagerly take the opportunity to have a lazy sick day at home.

It wasn't that I too didn't want a chance to lay back and forget the world for a day with a marathon of one of my favourite shows under a blanket while eating some warm chicken soup. It was just that even if I was sick there probably wasn't a chance I'd get that type of day. I always had to have everything done, whether it be homework or work for Monique, and didn't want to risk the consequences if by some chance I wasn't given some leeway and didn't end up with the work done. I knew that I'd eventually have to catch up with my work so why not just stick through it so that one day of relaxation didn't land me another day of complete chaos.

Now that I had thought about it though, this type of attitude was probably the reason why things like me fainting in the middle of the city at night had the chance to take place. This thought instantly encourages me to reconsider my whole anti-relaxation sick day that I had planned so I only look at a few more emails and organise a few things for tomorrows work day before I retreat to a level of idleness I had not experienced on a weekday in an extremely long time.

I get the chance to catch up with Jess some more, which works out well since we'd both been so busy lately it had felt like forever since we'd spent a decent amount of time together- just the two us. We both lounge around on the couch, huddled under a cuddly blanket with Charlie squeezed between us while Friends reruns play on the tv.

Unfortunately, I'm overwhelmed with the urge to vomit one or two more times but Jess is thankfully there to come to the rescue, with a few worried licks from Charlie too to help. I'm promptly provided with a bucket though I find no use for it as nothing actually comes out.

Eventually, any feeling of sickness goes away but I know that I need to go to the doctor regardless and Jess volunteers to come along. I know that she's had a long night looking out for me, and was probably incredibly exhausted as it was from her long shifts at the hospital, so I kindly turn down her offer and order her to catch up on some sleep while I'm gone.

When Jess puts a pause on our Friends marathon to go have a shower I take the opportunity to call my Baba (grandmother in her native language) to catch up with her. It had been over a week since I'd last spoken to her and in our time that was a long time. She's my maternal grandmother and essentially the most present maternal figure in my life after her daughter decided to pick up and leave us to live a much more relaxed life back in Australia. But, of course, at the time my mother had said 'you  can both come along with me if you want once I settle down' to Lexi and myself like that was a completely sensible and easy thing to do.

When her daughter had failed some of the most important tests of parenthood after her divorce from my father, my Baba Emilija had been there for us in every way possible. She made the choice to stay behind with my sister and myself to help my father raise us here in America where we had grown up rather than follow my mum back home to Sydney, Australia where my mother had been raised. My Baba had only ever moved out here because her daughter had decided to make a life for herself here, so no one had expected her to stay once my mum decided to move back to Australia. Yet, she did and it had to be one of things I was most grateful for in my life.

My Baba and father were no longer bound by my mother or law and yet she stayed to help him through everything and still stayed in America to this day, even if Alexia and myself were both grown up. The level of respect which existed between the two of them was something I deeply admired and wished to model my actions in life after.

Baba would always love my mother— of course she would, a few rash and disagreeable decisions were never going to stop a decent mother's love— but she had sided with my father in every way but through words. She was there every day to take us to school and look after things at the house when Dad would have to work. She would cook dinner, clean up the house, help with homework as much as she could, and even sometimes put us to bed when Dad would have to work late.

Working late as a builder was something common for my dad since single parenthood put an immense amount of pressure on one financially. Dad didn't want to ask Mum for any money to help raise us so there he was working overtime, day after day, and Baba would always be there to help.

Regardless of whether Dad had to work a lot or if the family dynamics were quite confusing, it somehow worked with us and I wouldn't trade my peculiar upbringing with Dad and Baba for anything in the world. I was to be forever grateful and personally indebted to the both of them, no matter how unselfish the intention of their actions. A regular call to catch up with either my Dad or Baba when I couldn't get around to personally visiting them was the least I could do, even if sometimes I was so busy I unfortunately forgot to.

I had the chance to call Dad for a short chat over the weekend and it was always easier to communicate with him since he sort of managed to figure out the whole texting thing. But Baba most certainly did not understand texting on any level so it was always a call for her.

I take my phone off the side table and go to call Baba. It rings a few times and she still hasn't picked up but that's normal since she probably has to shuffle her way all the way over to the home phone next to the kitchen where its set up. Baba had a mobile but wasn't a big fan of it so she would leave it in her bedroom and rarely look at it unless she really had to, like when she left the house. Her home phone was the best chance of reaching her so I never even bothered to try and contact her on her mobile anymore.

After the sixth ring I hear the tone stop ringing and the sound of a throat being cleared on the other side of the call.

"Elizabella, my darling, how are you?" she sweetly answers, her persistently thick trademark European accent always endearing to me.

"Hi Baba. I'm doing okay. How are you?" I answer, doing my best to strengthen my relatively weak voice so as not to alert her of any sickness.

However, there's nothing like the instinct of a maternal figure as I seem to fail with her instantly recognising something different.

"I am okay but, my Bella, what is wrong? I can hear something is wrong from your voice?" she asks, worry quickly growing in the voice of the one who had taught me my overthinking ways.

"Baba, it's okay. I've just got a bit of a stomach bug. Nothing to worry about. I'm sure it'll all be better soon." I attempt to reassure her, knowing that when she begins to worry she's like a lioness who won't let anyone near her cub; protective and determined.

"Bella, I thought I told you to look after yourself more. You work so much but you never care for yourself. That's why you get sick like this." she lectures me, the rolling of her r's  and helpless pronunciation of 't' sounds using a d present in times like these when she would become quite passionate and stubborn, no matter how many years had gone by since she'd actually lived back in Europe.

Baba was always very adamant that I overworked and stressed myself out too much. Especially back in my high school and uni days, she couldn't stand to sit by helpless when I stressed myself  to the point of vomiting and sleepless nights when I'd get anxious over something.  She wasn't particularly fond of the idea of me doing the same thing now with my job even when I'm just an assistant.

"I know Baba. I know," I tell her, sounding like ever the guilty little child when she lectured me like this, even if I was miles away and a grown independentwoman.

"Are you at least looking after yourself now?" she checks. I can almost here the 'tsk.. tsk.. tsk' sound she's probably dying to make, if it wasn't for the fact that I could always hang up if I didn't have the patience to be scolded.

"Yes Baba," I answer in a slightly monotone tone as I attempt to repress this growing sense of being like a child in trouble all over again, "Plus, Jess is here to look after me if you don't believe me." I tell her in my attempt to relax her.

"At least I know that she will look after you. I like that girl Jess. She is good girl." she says, making me slightly giggle at her pure and random confession.

"I hope you are at home if you are sick Elizabella. No work with crazy lady today?" she ask with a warning almost eased in, like she's ready to come over and put me in the naughty corner if I did actually go into work in my current state.

"No Baba. I'm not. I took the day of work." I explain.

"Okay, good." she responds before she lets out a sigh and I can hear the sound of her resting herself into that ancient and squeaky floral patterned arm chair of hers that she has next to her fireplace with a bit of struggle.

"Anything new for you to tell your Baba?" she wonders. Where could I even begin if I actually wanted to tell her everything?

"Not too much. Lexi was here so we spent the weekend together and did a few things but I guess you'd know that. Work's busy, especially with the end of year issues coming around. A lot of thing's to do but hopefully it's a good opportunity to prove my worth to my boss. Besides that, nothing much." I recount to her, purposefully leaving out my break up with Derek.

Baba hadn't actually ever met Derek in the nearly seven months which we had been seeing each other, but she definitely knew of him. I had always said that I wouldn't introduce anyone to neither my father or Baba intentionally unless I knew that I wanted them around for a while. Plus, I knew they both kind of shared this perspective too, even if they never said it out loud. I never got to that point with Derek, hence the break up, so Baba never had the chance to meet him or get attached to him by even the slightest.

Nevertheless, Baba had her ways (most likely Lexi) and she had found out about him sooner than I would've liked. I reluctantly told her about him and she would bring him up everyone once in a while. She was just getting used to bringing him up in conversation every time we spoke so I hoped she hadn't gotten too used to the whole idea of him. Even if she hadn't, talking about my love life and breakups with Baba wasn't exactly something I wanted to do, hence the whole rule about not bringing them up until I was certain about them.

I hoped that she wouldn't ask about him today because I knew that I would either have to lie about him to him, which would be embarrassing since I'm a horrible liar, or be honest with her.

"Are you sure? Nothing new to tell Baba at all?" she asks me curiously and I instantly know that the little snitch who goes by the name of Lexi had told her about Derek. Lexi never seemed to know when to shut her mouth, and I knew that most of the time she never meant to do it intentionally but she always did and it could get quite annoying.

"Ugh, maybe just one little thing," I groan, "I broke up with Derek." 

There's a few seconds of silence which I'm sure she's using to think of an appropriate response for an awkward conversation, one that didn't usually come up between the two of us. Derek was only the second male that she knew I'd been romantically linked to, the first one being one that she was practically in love with too by the end of our relationship and now a hard standard to meet for anyone else. 

"I am sorry my Bella. Are you okay?" she asks me with the warm tone of her voice truly sincere.

"Yeah Baba. I'm okay. I felt like it was the right thing to do." I tell her, and I'm being honest. I'm completely fine about the whole break up and I know I should feel a bit more guilty about it all, especially since I'm now going on a date with Damon, but I don't. I think the fact that we weren't too attached to one another, and that I genuinely knew that it was the right thing to do for the both us in the long term, reassured me and prevented any regrets from forming in my usually anxious mind.

"Okay, if you say you are okay then I believe you. But, please call me anytime you want to talk. Alright?" she says.

"Alright."

"Maybe it is good thing that you are not seeing this Derek anymore. Now you can spend more time looking after yourself. Leave the silly boys for a little bit," she tells me, not giving up on her mission to get me to relax a bit more. We both probably know that if I wasn't so busy all the time that I'd probably have the chance to visit her a bit more often too.

"Maybe." I respond to her nevertheless, trying to keep her hopes up. She doesn't need to know that my workload is definitely not going anywhere and I seem to have already got myself caught up with some other guy.

"Okay, my Bella. You know your Baba love to talk to you but I have some pita in the oven," she alerts me guiltily, giving me the suggestion that she wants me to hang up since she's not too confident with the phone. At the mention of the pita I can just imagine as it cooks in her oven and fills her intimate kitchen with the delicious aroma, I instantly begin to crave the Balkan delicacy, even if moments ago I couldn't bear to look at or think about any food.

"Okay Baba. No problem. I'll talk to you soon." I let her know.

She says goodbye to me as I can hear the sound of the oven beeping in the background and I hang up. As I put my phone back down on the couch and look at Charlie with a defeated face, I hear the creak of the floorboards as Jess walks back into the room tousling her hair with a towel as she attempts to dry it from her shower.

"Who was that?" she asks, clearly continually curious about my interactions now after what's been going on in my life for the last week or so.

"Baba," I answer, presumably not the entertaining answer like she would've been hoping for.

"Oh yeah?" she replies as she sits on the arm chair across from me and drops a few things beside on her on the floor, "How's she doing?" Jess loved Baba which was probably due to the fact that every time they would see each other Baba would fill her up with a tonne of food she'd make for us when we visit and she would always call Jess a good girl.

"She's alright. She's just busy cooking so we said we'd talk more later." I tell her as I observe Jess while she moves around in her seat. 

"What are you doing?" I ask her as I see her tie the laces of her shoes. I also notice she's dressed a lot more nicer than I would if I knew I had an afternoon and night of complete laziness and reclusiveness set out for me.

"I'm tying my shoelaces." she answers, pointing out the obvious.

"I can see that. But why?" 

"Because I'm coming along with you to the doctors and there's nothing you can say or do to stop me." she reveals making me instantly shoot up from my seat and rush over to try and rip her second shoe out of her grip before she can finish the job.

"No, I'm not letting you do that," I tell her, "You've done more than enough for me and i'm extremely grateful for it all. But now you need to get some rest. I'm a big girl, I can go to the doctor by myself." I reassure her.

"Why? So you can faint again and your prince Theodore can come and rescue you again," she teases with her tongue poking out as she quickly snatches the remaining shoe from my grip while I'm taken off guard by her words.

I lightly slap her on the arm before she continues, "Just let me come with you to make sure you're okay. I need to grab a few things from the shops anyways." she tells me, attempting to convince me.

It doesn't take much since I'm not bothered enough to fight against Jess' stubbornness and wouldn't mind the company, so I give in to her and find myself with a companion to the doctors. Jess pushes me to go finish getting myself ready so I quickly rush to my room to change into a clean pair of jeans and a jumper and fix my hair up a bit before I'm shortly back in our living room ready to leave.

We both grab our things from the hall table and are soon on our way out of the apartment and on our way to the doctor a few blocks away. As I wait for Jess to lock the door behind us I decide to fill her in on a bit more of my conversation with my Baba.

"Baba found out that I broke up with Derek." I inform her, as she finishes up and places the keys in her bag.

"Oh yeah?" she curiously reacts, walking beside me as we walk away from the apartment. "I take it Lexi was her informant?" she comments.

"Who else?" I answer with a slight eye roll even if Jess can't see it, "You know what else she had to say?" I say, preparing to amuse Jess as we make our way down the stairs.

"What?" she asks, quickly taking a look back at me as she walks down the stairs in front of me.

"She thinks it's good. That I should use this chance to take a break from any boys." I tell her.

I instantly know that I've achieved my mission of amusing Jess as I hear her chuckle as she looks back at me over her shoulder to smirk.

"Oh Baba Emilija. If only you knew."

****************************

Oh wow, that was just meant to be a short chapter to show you more of Ella's world including more of her family before we leaped back into anything with Theo or Damon. But it somehow ended up a lot longer than I planned. Oops. Seem to keep doing that.

Hope you enjoyed meeting Baba Emilija. Hope you'll love her as much as I already do even if she's fictional. She's based on some really important figures in my life so I hope you'll come to see just how important she is to Ella too, or as she calls her 'my Bella'. (If you haven't noticed, Ella sure does have a lottttt of nicknames)

By the way, I'm starting to see a few more countries pop up for where my readers are. So excited to the diversity across the group of you. A whole chunk of you guys are from the U.S so hello to all of you and please feel free to let me know if I get any details about living there wrong since i'm not from there.

Let me know where you're from. I'm