~ D is also for Daddy ~

By: HazelEyes51

DISCLAIMER: I do not own E! or its characters, simply barrowing them. No profit is made and never will be made. Hazel belongs to me and is not to be without authorial permission.

**NOTE** Christianity belief and content is involved, not your type, don't read.

EMERGENCY!

The nurse told him to sit in the chair, he had obliged and he was filled with all kinds of emotions. His heart palpitated for this would be the first time he'd get to hold her, his palm started to sweat and he breathed a little faster. The nurse reached in the incubator and lifted a bundle of a pink blanket and started to walk towards him.

As the bundle was placed in his arms his heart melted to see her, she was the tiniest thing he'd ever seen. She was about half a month premature; she was only about sixteen inches long and weighed about four pounds at the most.

Wrapped in a pastel pink blanket, she was a pink little angel, unlike some babies she was not chubby or chunky, she was skinny and long, just like he had been. He was an average size man for his age, but thin and long, just like always.

Her eye and hair color remained unknown for now since she hadn't opened her eyes and just a thin layer of soft fuzz covered her head. As he held her he prayed for the Lord to spare her for him, he had already lost a loved one, he couldn't bare to loose another in one week!

"Earth to Mike!" Marco Lopez waved a hand in front of his dazed friend's face.

Mike Stoker shook himself to reality and realized everyone was staring at him. He ducked his head a moment, and then faced his friends. "Sorry guys." He merely whispered.

"Thinking of Emily again, weren't you?" Chet Kelly said.

With a sniff, Stoker nodded.

"Oh Mike, that was almost two months ago." Johnny Gage said.

"I know Gage, I know. It's just, once you love somebody they never leave your heart and that's the part that's hurting."

"Look, we all know how that feels, Emily was a good woman, and you were a lucky man, Mike." Cap said. "A woman like Emily is hard to find these days, she was a rare jewel and well loved, she lived a full life in her eyes. And you gave her everything she ever asked for, a loving home, a husband who cared, to her, you were her knight in shinning armor, the angel of her lifetime."

"Cap's right, we are all sorry about her loss, but things like this happens, life goes on, and so you have to go on." That was one of the lesser encouraging things to say to a man with a broken heart, but Mike knew Chet was trying to help him.

Roy DeSoto, noticing that the second youngest of their crew was in a state of melancholy decided to break the mood by asking a question other than the fact of Emily. "How's the baby?"

Mike looked up and straight ahead, his lips were upturned in a slight smile. "It's hard to believe it's been too months and she's doing great."

"Getting any bigger?" Cap asked.

"She's two inches longer than when she was born two months ago, but not a pound or ounce heavier."

"Is she still in NICU?" Cap asked again, Mike nodded, "has she had any visitors?"

"Mom, dad and me and that's about everyone."

"Would it be okay if we came by to see her?" Gage asked.

"You can if you want."

Marco had remained silent for most of the conversation. "You picked out any names yet?"

Mike reached in his back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper and sat in on the table that all the guys, except himself and Lopez were sitting around, "take you pick." He said.

Cap was the first to unfold the paper and look at it. "They're all natural element names." He looked at his second-in-command who nodded again, Hammer looked back down at the paper, then handed it to Roy, the senior medic looked at them and passed it on, it went around until it came back to Mike.

"Emily and I both love nature, we thought it would be nice to name our children after things in nature."

EMERGENCY!

Dixie McCall, the head nurse in Rampart Emergency was sitting at her desk, going over the nurses schedule when a usual visitor arrived at the usual time, she looked up as the man she expected to arrive was walking up to base station.

She put her pen away, stood and smiled. "You look like you had a long shift." The man, only twenty-two, looked to be a thirty-year-old who just came out of a fight where everyone had a stick but him.

"Just tired." He responded as she accompanied him on the ride up the elevator.

"You're starting to become a regular joe around here."

"Anything new?"

"Nope."

The elevator reached the floor they wanted and they stepped off, in the NICU they suited up to go in and visit the tiny infant that was sleeping peacefully in the incubator. "She has a lot of her father's features from what we can already tell." Dixie said.

Mike was taken at the sight of the baby again. He still couldn't believe this was his baby, his little girl, he daughter, and his miracle from heaven. Something struck him that never occurred to him before. Sure, he may be a firefighter engineer in the L.A. Country Fire Department, a friend, son, brother to some people, once a loving husband to his now deceased wife, but his most important role on earth now was father.

He had to be daddy to the little child before him. Right now she was building up her health in the hospital, but when she's all well she'd be released into his care and he wasn't even prepared to face the challenges ahead of being both mother and father to the baby, he never thought about this and it was so much to take in at one time.

"She's improving well, if she keeps this up we may be able to move her into the nursery soon, it all depends on how well she progresses though." Dixie said.

Mike nodded and they left the NICU, pulling the mask away from his face Dixie saw a frown on the new father's face.

"What's wrong, Michael?"

"It's been two months . . . and I still can't shake the fact that Emily won't be there for her in years to come." He shook his head. "Can anyone ever get over the pain?" He asked depressed.

"Straighten up." Dixie said sternly. "You're acting childish. We all know it hurts loosing a love one, but you're trying to got back in time and change it and you can't." Then her tone softened, so did her face. "You're obviously destined to go down parenthood alone, why? I can't answer that, there may be lots of reasons, and there may only be one. But you need to stop moping and start thinking ahead so you can be prepared for when you take your daughter home."

Mike felt guilty, she was right, he had been moping and wishing he could change what had happened. But now, as he stood there and thought about what she just said he realized a few things; he was a widower with a two-month-old unnamed daughter, she was a special child though, all premies are, precious gifts from God Himself. Mike knew him as a God who gives and takes away and he had a real life story to prove that was true. God gave him his daughter, but took his wife. Why? He didn't know yet.

Mike and Emily Stoker. Their names went together well, but obviously it wasn't meant to be. Mike went home, ate, showered, shaved, changed and went to bed, the next day he began making preparations to get the apartment in order for when he brought the baby home. Somewhere in the afternoon the guys called, they wanted to come see the kid, Stoker agreed to meet them at the window of NICU.

As they stood looking at the baby, they all made comments, except the lucky father who remained silent and studied the infant well.

"Look at those eyes, I've never seen such prettier colors." Chet Kelly commented. "Honey brown mixed with blue, they look hazel, but if you sit and look at them you'll see they're not."

Mike studied her eyes and noticed it was true and they were such beautiful eyes, he scanned her from head to toe now and knew the perfect name for her now. He had picked one out last night, but he had a better one.

Mike turned to the guys. "I've got it."

"Got what?" Gage couldn't resist.

Stoker looked at them with a smile. "I know what she's gonna be named." He paused and licked his lips quick. "Hazel McKenna Stoker. Hazel after her eyes, I picked out McKenna last night 'cause it means 'child or the wise' and Stoker for the family name."

"It's a beautiful name." Marco added.

"Hazel," Gage said. "I like it. It's suits her well."

"Yeah, Hazel and McKenna go well together, too." Roy remarked.

"It is, it really is!" For the first time in two months the guys saw a joyous smile on the younger man's face. Mike's attitude changed, he seemed to lighten up as if a large burden was lifted from his shoulders, he sometimes would be caught daydreaming at work, but he would smile and say that he was thinking of Hazel and how well she was doing.

Four months after her birth she was moved into the nursery, but a week let allowed to go home because she was doing so well! She was the size of a normally four month old with a perfect weight, she was doing so great and both Hazel and Mike fell into a routine.

Charles and Grace, Mike's parents were glad to see happiness back in their youngest life and just as glad to be welcoming their special little granddaughter into their lives. Since Mike and Hazel lived in a small, two-bedroom apartment and the Stoker's had always been the health crazy people Mike shared a bit of a garden in his parent's yard on their small, four acre piece of land.

They had a large garden and didn't live too far away from Stoker's apartment. Mike's oldest sibling, Kate and her husband, Greg lived in Oregon for his job and had a couple kids, they didn't travel home too often for a visit with their busy life. His older brother, Matt and his wife Kitty had a brood of boys so far and lived in a nice, quiet neighborhood, they shared a bit of the garden as well. Mike's youngest sister, Sara and her husband Rob had lost three babies, they sort of lost hope for a child and instead got a couple animals and they also share a bit of the garden.

Sara watches Hazel while Mike works and if she happens to be busy on the day he has a shift, he'll ask his mom who is more than willing to help out.

With his Native-American background Johnny has shown Mike a few ways the Indians did for work and having the baby with them, like working in the garden, when Mike needs both hands he can put Hazel in a Indian style sling on his back and so forth with other stuff.

EMERGENCY!

"Da-da,"

Mike moaned and shifted his legs.

"Da-da."

He rolled onto his back and rubbed his sleepy face. The voice called again and he knew that a night's sleep was over, she wouldn't stop, but he didn't want to get up. "Hazel, daddy wants to sleep." He said groggily and rolled onto his other side.

"Da-da."

One last moan and Mike pulled himself up; he looked at the crib against the wall of the bedroom. "I'm moving you into the other bedroom, I want my sleep little missy." He said looking at the one-year-old sitting inside the crib.

"Da-da."

"Yeah, yeah, I hear you." He got up, picked her up and went out to the kitchen, strapped her into the highchair, peeled and sliced a banana for her to eat half and him the other, he began to boil some water for coffee and make some maple and brown sugar oatmeal for them to share to jump start their morning. After breakfast Mike changed her diaper and dressed her, then stuck her in her crib with some toys while he took a quick shower. He was glad he didn't have to work today, he spent the day with Hazel, he was surprised at how much trouble a baby could get into and the fact that kids kept you on your toes!

He remembered Kate once saying that her first baby-sitting job had been renamed baby chasing, when he asked her why, she said, "because there's no sitting involved!"

Kids also grow quickly. When Hazel was learning the alphabet they showed the guys how much she knew, they had picked a word for each letter, when Mike asked, "what's D for again? Is D for dog?" Hazel had shaken her head, "no? I thought it was for dog." Mike said.

"D is also for daddy." She responded. "Like my daddy."

Those words almost made Mike cry, he loved his daughter a lot and it was proof that she loved him just as deeply!

EMERGENCY!

A/N: I had always wanted to write one for the alphabet series just could never decide or find a storyline that was good enough to stick with. I don't even remember how this idea came to me, but I hope you liked it! I understand there may be a few flaws and I'm not a crybaby, I can handle reviews pointing out things, but I will say that I am getting better, so before you start going to town with the words ripping out what was bad, just remember there is never EVER one story that IS perfect. Not one. Every story HAS a flaw, somewhere or another. Thanks again!

~ HazelEyes51 ~