A Mother's Touch
Kid felt the mattress shift underneath him as Lou slipped out of their bed. His eyes fluttered open in time to see her reaching for the knob on their closed bedroom door.
"Where are you going?" he asked sleepily.
"I'm going to check on the children. I thought I heard one of them crying." Lou said before she opened the door and stepped out into the dark hallway.
Kid rolled over in bed, plumped up his pillow and closed his eyes, trying to go back to sleep, but he eventually gave up. He had never been able to sleep in their bed without Lou there beside him. He slid out of bed and prodded barefoot out the doorway into the hall.
He followed the dark hallway down to their daughters' rooms. One glance around the room told him that Katerina, Emma, and Mary were all sleeping peacefully in their beds. By the position of their blankets, Kid knew Lou had gone around the room, straightening them out, and covering their daughters against the coolness of the night.
Kid moved onto the next room, which was shared by their four sons. James and Jed were sprawled on their beds, blankets twisted around their legs. Cody was curled underneath his blanket, thumb in his mouth, and a peaceful look upon his cherubic features.
Even from the doorway, he could tell that their five-month-old son was not in the cradle against the wall to his left. His eyes traveled over to the rocking chair nestled in one corner of the room.
Lou was seated in it, with Buck's tiny lips latched on to an exposed nipple and nursing hungrily. Even though he had heard nothing, Lou's maternal instincts had obviously awakened her to the fact that one of their children were in need of her attention, and she had gone immediately to their youngest son. Lou's eyes were closed and she was humming a lullaby, low enough to reach Buck's ears, without awakening his brothers.
As he settled into the doorway to watch the nurturing sight in front of him, Buck gave a contented sigh and quit drinking. Lou's eyes popped open and she adjusted the robe around her to cover her breast, before lifting Buck up to one shoulder to burp him.
She must have felt eyes upon her, because she suddenly looked up, and smiled softly across the room at him. He smiled back and continued to watch as she cared for their son. She set the rocking chair into motion, using her feet to rock it back and forth, while her hand patted Buck lightly on his back, hoping to ease any air he had taken in along with his milk from his tiny body. A few moments in her efforts were rewarded when Buck burped and both she and Kid grinned. There were times when he reminded them of his Uncle Cody, after he had eaten a good meal.
When the baby was sound asleep, Lou rose carefully from the rocking chair, and moved over to his cradle. She settled him onto his stomach in the bed and pulled his quilt over him. She waited just a moment to see if he would resist her putting him down, before stepping away from his cradle.
Kid smiled as Lou moved over to James's bed to fix his covers. Buck usually gave him troubled when he laid him down in his bed. Sometimes it was only a whimper or two, other times he wailed. Whichever his reaction was, usually Kid would have to spend a few moments more patting him on the back and humming softly to him, before Buck would settle into a deep sleep.
Not even a father's touch could take the place of a mother's. Lou was a wonderful mother and their children were lucky to have her. Lou straightened out James and Jed's blankets, and pulled them up over the two sleeping boys, before joining him in the doorway. Kid held out a hand to her and Lou placed one of hers in his, and allowed him to lead her out of their son's room and down the hallway to their own.