When Jimmy woke up on January 3rd, he smiled happily as the sun floated through his apartment window and came to rest on his bed, only half blinding him this time.

For a moment, he let himself lie in the comfort of his bed; his arms wrapped around the woman on the other side of him, and revelled in the feeling of ignorant bliss that came with waking up, where you feel like everything around you is completely and utterly normal, though you get the sudden realization moments after that it’s not. He sat up, rubbing the sleep away from his bright blue eyes and glanced over at Ellen, who was stirring in her sleep beneath him. The sound of whispers and clatters from the kitchen could be heard from the apartment, and he knew that Matt and Kennedy were probably awake.

He had offered to let them stay at his apartment while Matt looked for a new home for the two of them, and so far they’d been the best house guests he’d ever encountered. Today though, they were going to look at apartments and Matt was going to a job interview in the afternoon.
Beneath him, Ellen groaned softly as she opened her eyes and stared up at her boyfriend, who was already wide awake and raring to go, but still a little dopey from sleep.
“How do you have so much energy in the morning, crazy bastard?” she mumbled as she rolled onto her back, stretching her arms out above her head to ease the cramping in them. Jimmy rolled his eyes and leant down, pressing their lips together softly until she was fully awake, and then pulled away, replying,

“And a good morning to you too, honey. I’ll give you a minute to wake up, I think Matt and Kennedy are up” he said, running his hand through her long hair and then jumping out of bed, pulling on a pair of pants and disappearing into the kitchen.
Matt was sat at the kitchen counter opposite Kennedy, a biro in one hand and the job and housing sections of the newspaper laid out in front of him, while his daughter carefully studied her bowl of Fruit Loops.

“Morning Mattie, Morning Kenney” he announced, nodding at his friend who barely looked up from the paper and just grunted in reply, and Jimmy knelt down so he was at the same height as the little girl and stared into the bowl with her, wondering why she was so fascinated by what was inside.
“So what are we studying today, huh?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at the cereal that was now turning into a mushy pile of sugar and milk before their very eyes and as Kennedy prodded it with the spoon, she smirked.

“Cocoa Puffs make the milk in the bowl go all chocolatey and brown, so Fruit Loops must make the milk go multi-coloured and taste like rainbows!” Kennedy announced, and Jimmy wondered whether buying her a little lab coat and conducting experiments in the kitchen for the rest of them morning was entirely out of the question.
“Will you taste to make sure that they taste like rainbows, Uncle Jimmy? Cause the milk isn’t turning any colour at all” Kennedy asked, and nodding Jimmy agreed, only slightly worried that in an hour he could end up on his knees with his head stuck down the toilet bowl with cereal poisoning. If that was a real thing of course.

He dipped the spoon in the milk and gingerly sipped what was on the spoon, fighting the urge to gag it back up in the sink. It tasted like something had died and then been dipped in sugar. Pushing back a shudder and a grimace of disgust, Jimmy nodded and put the spoon back in the bowl, smiling at the little scientist next to him.
“Yep, there’s defiantly a hint of rainbows in there. Now, who wants French toast?” he asked as he stood up, finally catching the attention of the two Sanders’ who both nodded, Kennedy jumping down from her chair and running into the living room.

“Was it just me or did Kenney look a bit peaky? Maybe I should cancel this interview and take her down to the doctors this afternoon…” Matt fretted to himself, circling yet another apartment listing, and glancing out to where Kennedy was now entranced by an episode of Spongebob Squarepants.

Though Matt had been worrying since he woke up on Christmas Day, for once Jimmy didn’t blame him. If he’d been separated from his daughter for the best part of four years, he’d be absolutely terrified for her. He didn’t know what was going to happen if she fell over and scraped her knee- was Matt going to rush her to ER and entertain thoughts about his daughter’s death?

“Matt, you’re worrying again. But for once, I’ll agree with you, she didn’t look alright this morning. But you are not cancelling that interview. If you want, I’ll take her to the doctors and if there’s anything wrong, I’ll call you, OK?” Jimmy ordered him, scraping two pieces of French Toast onto Matt’s plate and two onto Kennedy’s before sticking his head out into the living room and yelling for her to come and eat.
“Are you sure?” Matt asked nervously as she walked back into the kitchen, climbing carefully up onto her chair and taking a bite out of the toast on her plate.

“Of course I’m sure. You have a job to get and an apartment. You can’t be struck down by something as simple as Kennedy having a cold”

***

In the waiting room at the doctor’s, which was almost empty, Jimmy sat on the floor with Kennedy on his lap, reading through a book about a sheep who went to the beach. He wasn’t sure where the book had come from, or what the actual purpose of reading about various farm animals visiting tourist attractions in California had anything to do with real life, but the colourful pictures kept both him and Kennedy entertained, and that was good enough.

Though Matt had worried and tried not to leave for his interview, Jimmy had insisted that she would be in good hands, though she looked slightly worse now than she had before. The doctor had already run some tests and taken a blood sample, which Jimmy had coached her through because he knew of her fear of injections. It had taken the promise of ice cream on the way home to get her to sit still, and now they were waiting for the final result. Convinced it was just a cold, or maybe even the flu that she had, Jimmy was confident that they would be home by the time Matt got back and he could explain that it was nothing to be scared of.

“Uncle Jimmy, my tummy hurts” Kennedy said when he closed the book, curling up in his arms as he put it aside, wrapping his arms around his favourite little six year old. She did look a little more peaky than she had before, but not letting himself get too worried about it, Jimmy kissed her forehead and held her tightly, wondering when the doctor would get here and disperse all of his fears away.
"I know baby, but we'll get you some medicine and then you'll feel all better, 'kay?"

Suddenly, the door swung open and the young female doctor who had taken Kennedy’s blood sample and checked her over walked in, complete with two paramedics and a large brown file that had the little girl’s name stamped on the front.
“Mr Sullivan, we’re going to have to transfer you and Miss Sanders to the hospital. An ambulance is waiting outside for you and if you could get into contact with either one of her parents, they should be directed to the hospital too” she said softly as Jimmy stood up, still carrying Kennedy in his arms. Now he was worried- panicking almost. What was wrong with her, why couldn’t it be solved in an ordinary doctor’s surgery like all the other common illnesses kids had these days?

“What’s wrong with her- is there something going on?” Jimmy asked, pausing as the paramedics advanced for Kennedy, which only made him hold her closer to his chest. His breathing was becoming erratic, his palms were sweating, his brain was churning out a hundred situations a minute that he didn’t quite understand. The doctor looked at him for a moment, a sympathetic look flashing across her youthful features.

“I don’t know Mr Sullivan. I don’t know what’s wrong with Kennedy. All I know that it’s something much more serious than you expected”