A woman sits in a musky room, her cheek stiff from forgotten tears. The bed has grown hard, soggy with the time shes spent laying there. The air around her is heavy and thick, blanketing her lungs as she coughs gently. A monitor ceaselessly beeps, echoing around the silent, dull walls. The ceiling is filmy from years of patients, laying below in sickness or in health. The door stays open, gently rocking on its hinges as footsteps out side rattle the floor beneath them. Nurses walk into and out of the room, their eyes heavy from lack of sleep. A man coughs somewhere down the hall. An alarm sounds and people flush by.
But the woman does not notice any of this.
Nothing in the world is there. Nothing but the sleeping angel, dazed and wide eyed, looking up into her eyes. She's in a trance, overtaken by a force wound together with love, affliction, pain and the shackles of a mothers womb enveloping a child. Through her stiff cheeks, a smile breaks, weak but joyful. Her child lay against her breast, its tiny heartbeat booming loudly against her arms. Soft skin rubs against her tired hands as she embraces her child's cheek for the first time, observing every perfection of the child.
A gentle hand runs up her arm, stealing her attention away for only a moment. The hand touches her own cheek, and she looks up into sea blue eyes. He smiles, hours of active pacing now forgotten, dismissed, as they both look down, their sight blanketing their perfect child. She coughs again, and the child squirms. The woman laughs. Moments pass, but time stands still for her as she clasps onto this new life, this new piece of humanity that she brought into the world. Only moments ago they had been one, their hearts beating together, sharing blood. Now her child smiles up at her, blinking back and forth between its parents.
For hours they sit like this. They barely speak, knowing already what the other has to say. All the fights, all the problems, tears, lies, pain...its gone. Nothing matters anymore. Nothing but the life they created, they made. The life they shared breaths with that now breathes on its own. The child gurgles, smacking its new lips in the heavy air. It wiggles its tiny fingers, feeling its father's tired face with little palms.
Finally she speaks, her voice hoarse and croaking from hours of wailing, now forgotten. "She's beautiful, isn't she?"
"Just like her mother." He replies gently. "Strong and brave, just like you."
She nods, a simple smile crocheting across her lips. "Me? I'm not the brave one." She coughs. "I'm just the smart one." She giggles.
He smiles and kisses her forehead. "Exactly what I was thinking." He gently tucks loose hair behind the woman's ears, then adjusts her pillow.
"So whats her name?" The woman dares.
The man looks into her eyes, he hasn't even thought of a name. "I don't know. She's too beautiful to take my eyes off of, I haven't even begun to think." He smiles.
"Killian," She says. "What happened to all those idea's you had a few hours ago?" She laughs at his expression, though he doesn't answer. "What do you think about Tessa?" She says, looking up at him.
He shakes his head. "Shes going to be a sailor, love. She needs a sea name." The woman smiles at this, looking down at her daughter. The man continues. "The first sea we sailed together in," He looks in her eyes, moving the woman's hair behind her ear again. "The Coral sea, through the Crystal Bay."
"Then why not just 'Bay'?"The woman breathes out. The man smiles.
"Perfect." He kisses the woman's forehead once more. "Your an amazing mother, Emma. I'm so proud of you."
She smiles. "I'm proud of you too."