"What the hell?... Haz..."

I paused and smiled guiltily at my waking wife, "shhh, I'm sorry Babe. Go back to sleep."

"Where are you going?" she slurred, shoving her face into her pillow. Slowly the duvet crawled across my empty side of the bed to cocoon around her. I smiled fondly as I replied, "just taking Mara down to the beach, the time zones still haven't settled with her and she's rearing to go."

"Take photos for me..." Lila grumbled. I made a sound of confirmation and the tucked my phone into my pocket, "we'll be back soon."
Lila had already fallen back to sleep so I didn't get a response other than a cute nose crinkle.

"Ready Daddy?" Mara whispered. Poking her head into the room. She was wearing the pair of sunglasses we'd bought her yesterday along with her favourite pair of red sandals and a dress in a similar colour. Lila had thought letting her dress herself was going to be a bad idea but personally I thought she did a pretty good job most of the time.
"Did you ask Jack if he wanted to come?" I asked her as I bustled her out of the bedroom and closed the door quietly behind me, not wanting to disturb Lila.
Mara shrugged, "he told me to go away. I don't think he wants to come."
"He thinks he's too cool for the beach," I grinned as I slipped into my shoes and held my hand out for Mara to take, "alrighty then Mars Bar, let's go see the waves."

We ended up getting down their just in time to catch the end of the sunrise and just like Lila had asked I made sure to take heaps of photos of Mara skipping across the sand.
"Can we take these Dad?" She bounded over, arms overflowing with sandy shells of all sorts of shapes and sizes.
Amusedly I pinched one from the top of her carefully balanced stack, "what are you going to do with them all?"
"I don't know, but they're so pretty! Mum will like them too." In her excitement a few shells fell to the ground. She scuffed them into a little pile with her foot, "can you hold some for me please?"
"I can," I mused. With an exaggerated sigh of relief she dumped the entire load right on top of me, "thank you!" She chorused happily and with a broad, gappy, smile, she ran off.

On the way back we stopped at the corner shop and got a bag to put all the shells into. I wasn't sure how Lila was going to react, they were already beginning to smell a bit. I didn't have the heart to say anything to Mara though.
We walked all the way back to the hotel and made our way up the stairs to get to our room. Mara had grown tired of carrying her plastic bag of stinky seashells so instead they were slung over my shoulder. Inside the room I offloaded it into the sink and greeted my son who was spilled across the counter top, resting the side of his face on the graphite.
"Good morning," I ruffled his hair.
"Hey, where did you guys go?" He asked, although the tone he used made it sound a lot like he didn't really care.
Mara whacked his bare back with her fist lightly, "the beach, you know that! I came and asked you if you wanted to come!" She exclaimed.
Jackson rolled his eyes at detached her from himself lazily. He picked at the crust of the toast in front of him and looked to me, "today's movie world, isn't it?"
Mara squealed loudly at the reminder, causing Jackson to groan and bury his head in his arms again. He uttered something that was too quiet for me to pick up, although I had a feeling it was probably something he wouldn't have liked me to hear anyway. Tolerating Mara's loud personality could be a struggle but he usually lasted a few hours before beginning to crack, not minutes.
"Go see if Mum's up yet will you Mara?" I suggested, "I'll make you some toast."

"Okay, jam please Dad!" she bounced away. Endless supply of energy, I missed it.

"So what's going on Jack? Did you sleep alright?" I questioned curiously as I dropped some bread in the toast for Mara like I said I would. I made sure to turn the setting down, she liked her toast not a lot past warm bread much to my distaste. Hey, everyone for their own I suppose.

Jackson sighed, peering at me over the top of his forearm. He shrugged, "yeah, it wasn't too bad. Just had a headache when I woke up."

"Aw," I winced sympathetically, headaches sucked, "you'll have to take some tylenol before we head off. That should help, let you enjoy your day."

Jackson nodded slightly and picked himself up, shoveling the last of his breakfast into his mouth, "when are we leaving?"

"Not for a while, it doesn't open for a bit. You can probably lay down for a bit if you want," I offered.

"It's not that bad Dad," Jackson smiled a little, "I'll be fine."

Later on after a fulling breakfast and what felt like a century of waiting we got on the road. The drive to the theme park wasn't too far, hardly half an hour. Mara was pumped full of excitement and it was contagious, she had the whole family bouncing and singing. Despite our early arrival the car park was already filling up and there were lines of people waiting to get inside.

"How much longer?" Mara whined impatiently.

"However long it takes, shush," Jackson snapped before Lila or I could answer. Lila rolled her eyes, "come on Jack, this isn't the time to be a typical teenager. We're here for a good time, play nice."

Jackson sighed and kicked a loose pebble with his toes, averting his gaze.

"You used to get all excited too," I nudged him. He didn't respond with anything more than a careless grunt.

Mara pushed me from behind as the line moved forward an inch, "move Dad!"

Once through the gates everyone was keen to get started but Lila was quick to pull us all aside for a layer of sunblock beforehand.

Having a seven year old aboard meant that we couldn't run off and do the thrilling stuff right away, which I was okay with. Seeing Mara all happy and excited made even the crappiest 'rides' tolerable. Lila wasn't all that keen on big scary rides anyway so she wasn't too fussed, and Jackson hadn't said anything thankfully.

We wandered around for a couple of hours, Lila took about a million photos while Mara almost got lost the same amount of times, as did Jackson. There were so many people and I felt like a bad parent, it was easy to get distracted by the park. One minute they were there and then I'd look around and have a heart attack before catching a glimpse of them hardly a few metres away.

After a bathroom break Mara said that it was okay if we wanted to go on a big ride now.

"Which looks good to you Jacko?" I asked him, knowing that we'd be the only ones going. Honestly, Mara would if she could, but she was still too short for a lot of it.

Jackson looked up at all the rides that towered above up indecisively for a few moments, shielding his eyes from the sun. It was a hot day, as in blistering, but we were in Australia so it wasn't exactly a surprise.

"Um..." he hummed indecisively, "let's do the roller coaster."

I rubbed my hand together, "hell yes. Here love, will you hold onto these for me?" I handed my sunglasses to Lila and clapped Jackson's back eagerly, "let's go!"

The line was pretty lengthy, but it was shorter than the one we'd waited in for the kids coaster with Mara. It was fast-moving and it wasn't long until Jackson and I were strapping into a carriage, foamed bars locking in over our chests.

"I meant to ask, how's that noggin? Is it still bothering you?" I asked Jackson curiously as we started rolling forwards. The ride was superman themed, you rolled at a slow pace through this tunnel and then the entire train locked in for a few seconds before the mechanics threw it forwards again right up into the sky. My heart thudded in excitement just thinking.

"A bit," he replied unenthusiastically, "it's not enough to stop me from doing this though."

I cracked a wide smile, "luckily, or I'd be shitting myself on my own."

Jackson chuckled as the carriage caught and we stopped still. An eery countdown began and my breath caught in my chest.

Then came a warning creak of machinery before we bolted forward, straight upwards. Within seconds we raced through loops and twirls, ups and downs, flying so quickly it was hard to comprehend. All I knew was that it was frikkin amazing.

When we stopped with a hiss in the same place we'd started I could feel the massive dopey smile on my face but I couldn't brush it away. My hair was a total mess but I didn't really care. I looked to Jackson, "wow."

He swallowed and smiled back meekly as the bar clicked and lifted away soundlessly. My legs shook slightly as I stood from the exhilaration and I bounced on my heels while I waited for Jackson to clamber over the seats so we could head back out to meet up with Lila and Mara. He was moving slowly and carefully, shaking visibly. I grabbed onto his elbow to help him hop onto the platform beside me, "are you okay Bud?"

"Yeah, I'm good, " he replied, sending a forceful grin my way as he got his balance back, "that was just insane."
"Im definitely keen to go again later," I agreed, although I knew there was something wrong. His headache had to be worse than he was saying for it to be making him this underwhelmed and distant. Of course I shouldn't have expected him to speak up about it, not many kids would say something that would separate them from a theme park.
By the time we were outside in the sun again his face had gained back some colour and the quaking of his legs had stopped thankfully. He was uncharacteristically quiet and withdrawn without much to say when we got back to Lila.

She handed me back my glasses with a happy smile, "how was it? We tried to find you but it went too quick!
Mara promptly started complaining about food so we we headed off to find somewhere to buy some lunch. The lines for food were almost as bad as the ones for the rides so it took a bit of time to get what we wanted and sit down in the shade to eat.

I watched carefully as Jackson unwrapped the glad wrap from his sandwich, totally not keen by the looks of him. He squirmed uncomfortably in his seat and I realised with an internal sigh that one hand and disappeared from the top of the table, most likely tracking down to hold his stomach. Poor kid. He must've been having a migraine of sorts. This wasn't fair on him.

Lila caught on fairly quickly. Jackson was nibbling on the edge of his sandwich with his head down and I was just about to say something when she cut it, "Jackson, honey, you're not feeling well are you?"

He paused and slowly looked up too see everyone, even Mara, staring pityingly. He put his sandwich down and fiddled with the wrapper, "I'm alright."
"The headache from earlier?" Lila pushed.
Jackson gulped visibly and his mouth opened and closed a few times, like a fish. He crumpled, all resolve falling away, "I just wanted to have a good time. We're at Movie world, in Australia, and my head feels like it's about to explode..." he groaned and squeezed his eyes shut. Gently I tipped him over to lean on me and lightly felt for a fever. In the heat I wasn't sure if I'd be able to tell, but with my hand against his skin I could tell that it definitely wasn't right. I sighed and shared a look with Lila.

"We've got a two day pass for this place Jack, if we leave now we can just come back tomorrow," I explained, "you'll have so much more fun when you're not feeling like crap. I didn't even bring any more Tylenol with me. I just don't think hanging around is a good idea, you've got a fever too."

After a few seconds he opened his eyes narrowly and let out a long breath of air, "sorry Mara."
She shrugged, her eyes wide and innocent. There was tomato sauce all over her face, "it's okay, I did all my rides already."
I chuckled and wiped at her cheeks with a serviette, "you're not stupid are you?"
Happily she shook her head and pushed the serviette away to put another chip in her mouth.

We all started shifting, getting ready to pack up, but Jackson insisted we stayed for the lunch we'd just bought so we sat there for ten minutes, eating quickly. Neither Lila or myself liked seeing him in pain.

After that we found our way out to the carpark. It was a bit of a trek but Jackson didn't complain, he stayed a bit closer than he has been but other than that there wasn't a word out of him.
This time the car was quiet. Mara was humming along to some music playing to her through her earphones while Lila and I chatted in low voices and Jackson sat stiffly in the backseat, eyes closed with his knees tucked up. His arms hugged his stomach still but when I asked he said that it only hurt, he was sure he wasn't going to be sick. That was a plus, because there was a bit more traffic than there had been in the morning and the car ride was a little longer.
I dropped Mara and Lila off at a shopping centre where I would pick them up in a few hours so that they wouldn't be stuck around the hotel for the rest of the day and then took Jackson straight back to the hotel.

We took the lift rather than the stairs and even then I wasn't too trusting of his unsteady legs which seemed to have reverted back to their post roller coaster state. His eyes were bleary and unfocused and coming out of the elevator he stumbled and we had to stop for a short break before he felt okay to carry on. I felt awful for not noticing how bad he was feeling earlier, before dragging him out into the hot sun for half the day. Not to mention the roller coaster, I'm surprised he'd even lasted that at all.
After a quick, cool, shower, and a dose of pills, Jackson shrugged his way into the stiffly made bed and wriggled around a little before getting comfortable. He'd hidden himself completely under the thin sheet, and trapped his head under a pillow. It's mustn't have been that easy to breathe under there but I guess it helped with the light.
I could fix that.

I closed the curtains and quietly sneaked out of the bedroom, closing the door behind me. Then I amped the air conditioning up and flopped onto the couch for some quality mid day TV. The heat had tired me out too and it was hard not to fall sleep. My eyes were half claws when the door leading to Jackson's room creaked open and he trudged out with a fist pressed against his head, squinting in the light like a vampire.

"Hey, Buddy, what's going on?" I sat up with a yawn. I gestured to the empty spot beside me and he gratefully sat, collapsing against the cushions.
"Nothing, just can't sleep. Bed's not comfy, head hurts. Too hot."
I offered him the glass of water I'd been sipping at, "here, drink."
He gave me a look that asked if he had to and the one I sent back seemed to answer it as he took the cup without any verbal arguments and drained it down in a few mouthfuls. With a lick of his lips he sighed, "that was actually good."
"Do you want some more?" I asked, already up and off the couch and heading for the fridge.
"Please?"

Three cups of water later and he was falling asleep, spread out across the couch and my lap in a mess of warm limbs and cushions. Literally hours passed and when it came time for me to leave to pick up the girls I didn't want to move in fear of waking him. Manoeuvring myself out was a struggle and a half but I managed, without waking Jackson too luckily. He moaned a bit and twitched but remained asleep.
I filled another cup of water for him and left it within reach with some more Tylenol for if he woke and then quietly tip-toes out the door. The roller coaster was going to be so much better the second time around when we could both enjoy it.

Thanks for reading lovely! Did ya like? I hope so :)
This is usually where I wrote who the next request is for but my notebook's in my wardrobe, and I'm nice and comfy in bed so instead I'm just going to apologise for my laziness and tell you to look forward to the surprise haha.
As always thank you for the request!