The room was silent and the house was dark. In a certain room in Inferno Hall, two women were sleeping soundly. Lynn's front was pressed against Cruella's back, providing comfort for both of them. It was the first night in the month since Angel had been brought home that they had been able to sleep more than three hours at a time. Lynn though that maybe her daughter was beginning to sleep through the night.
Unusual and unheard of yes, but her daughter had been different from the moment she'd been conceived. Any baby a day old that could scare a nurse with a simple look was definitely special. So when the three hour mark came and went both women unconsciously sighed and curled further together. It wasn't long, however, until whimpering filled the room. As one, the women groaned and shifted, frowning in their sleep.
The whimpering escalated into cries, and when unanswered, full-blown wails. The women woke at the same time, each waiting to see if the other would go to the distressed child. Finally, Cruella couldn't take it anymore.
"Darling, the baby."
"It's your turn."
"I went last time, it's your turn."
"Please Cruella, I haven't gotten any sleep since I entered my third trimester, and I'm sure not making up for it now."
"But what if she has to be changed?"
"Then you change her," Lynn said in an exasperated tone.
"But I've never changed her before."
"Figure it out!"
With that, the young mother rolled over. Nervously, and praying Angel only needed to be fed, she padded down the hall. Entering the nursery, she flipped on a small lamp near the crib. In the time it had taken her to respond, Angel had worked herself into a state. Her face was red, she was hiccuping, and her nose was running.
She picked her up, grabbed a tissue, and wiped her nose. She quieted almost immediately and stared up at her with bright blue eyes.
"There now, you're all right. Now, young lady, what seems to be the trouble?"
She got her answer when she readjusted her hold. She felt the full diaper and froze like a deer in headlights. For a moment, she contemplated waking her mother up. Eventually, she just decided to do it herself. Gently, she laid the baby on her back.
She stared at her, and Angel stared back with amazing focus for a one month old baby.
"All right, darling. I new at this, I've never done it before, but I'll try my best, okay?"
With that, she unzipped and took off her onesie. She undid the tape on the diaper to began her task. The sight of it alone almost made her sick, but she steeled her nerves and began to change her. As she cleaned her, her face got greener and greener. Occasionally, she had to grip the edge of the crib and breathe.
Before she could get the new diaper on her, she had to go to the adjacent bathroom and be sick. From the bathroom, she heard the baby start to whimper again. She hurried back into the room to complete the job. She tried to get the clean diaper on her, but Angel kept wiggling, making it impossible to keep a grip on her feet, which kept falling. After a few moments, she thought she had succeeded, only to find that she had wrapped it around her own hand.
With a growl, she ripped it off and tossed it into the nearby trash can. Angel started to whimper, so she picked her up to comfort her. Before long, she felt a warm spot blossoming from her chest to her stomach. Slowly, and desperately hoping what she suspected wasn't true, she lifted Angel away from her body. Sure enough, there was a large wet spot on the front of her gown.
She looked from the baby to her nightgown, from the nightgown to the baby.
"Really?" she asked.
Angel laughed in response, and despite not finding her situation the least bit humorous, she couldn't help but smile, because it was Angel's first laugh. She turned, wrapped Angel in a blanket, and sat her in the crib.
"I'll be back in a minute, love," she said as she headed down the hall to her room.
Once there, she threw away her gown, cleaned herself up, changed, and headed back to the nursery. She selected yet another diaper and proceeded to try and put it on her. Angel wiggled again, but this time Cruella accomplished her task. Satisfied, she picked her up, only to have the diaper slide off.
"Bloody hell," she mumbled to herself as she sat the baby back down. "You're a grown bloody woman and you can't make a diaper stay on a baby."
Frustrated, she headed back down the hall to her room and went straight to her closet, where she selected a scarf. Back in the nursery, she wriggled the diaper back onto Angel's hips, wrapped the scarf securely around her, and tied it, firmly securing it in place. Happily, she put Angel back into her onesie and zipped it up.
"There now, that's done. Now, we'll have no more of that until your mummy wakes up."
She tried to put her back into the crib, but she whimpered the moment her feet touched the bottom. She picked her up, repositioned her, and tried again. The third time, Angel just started crying. She picked her up yet again and shushed her.
"Shh, shhh, you're all right. Hush now, we don't want to wake your mummy up." The little girl quieted and curled into her. "There, now what's wr-"
She got her answer when she felt Angel fervently trying to nurse. Her eyes widened and she stood still. There were two things wrong with this: one, she was not Angel's mother, and two, she couldn't produce any milk. They kept a bottle for occasions such as this, which she retrieved. With some gentle coaxing, she got Angel to switch from her chest to the bottle.
She went and sat in the rocking chair while the baby ate. The whole time, Angel stared at her with wide blue eyes, and Cruella couldn't keep the gentle smile off her face. She loved to feed her, and besides, the doctors a said it was when a mother and baby bonded. After a bit, the bottle was empty. She burped the baby and attempted once again to put her in the crib, but she protested.
Glancing at the clock, she sighed and picked her back up, going back to the rocking chair. Angel curled up on her chest and buried her face in her neck, giving a contented sigh as she did so. Cruella rubbed a soothing hand up and down her back and hummed a lullaby. Soon she felt the little body grow heavy against her, signaling that Angel had finally fallen asleep. Rather than risk waking Lynn or the baby, (and if she was honest she wasn't quite ready to put the little girl down), she stayed put in the chair and continued rocking her long after she had fallen asleep.
She rocked long into the night, contemplating certain things and looking back over her life. The last thing she saw was the the sun peaking over the horizon.
Lynn woke up at seven with the alarm to find the other side of the bed cold. She thought maybe Cruella had already woken up or that the baby had cried and she just hadn't heard it. It was then she realized she had slept through most of the night with no disturbances. She began to panic when she realized she couldn't hear anything over the baby monitor. Terrified, she ran down the hall to nursery, thinking perhaps something had happened.
She stopped when she reached the door. There was Cruella, asleep in the rocking chair holding Angel, who was also asleep. Quietly, she snuck back to her room and grabbed her phone. She snapped a quick picture before heading in to wake the older woman up. She shook her shoulder gently so as not to startle her, and she was met with sleep hazed blue eyes.
With practiced ease, she took her daughter out of the woman's arms. The little girl began to stir as soon as she was moved, and smiled happily up at her mother. She smiled back before turning to Cruella.
"Were you in here all night?"
"I suppose so."
"Darling, when I said change her, it didn't mean you had to stay with her."
"I know, but I wanted to, and she was fussy."
"Well thank you, that's the most sleep I've gotten in months. The older woman yawned and Lynn smiled. "Go on back to bed. I'll join you in a bit after I've taken care of her."
Taking her daughter to the changing table, she unzipped her onesie and took it off. She laughed loudly at what was revealed. Her daughter's diaper was tied on with a bright red silk scarf. Angel laughed along with her mother, seeming to understand the humor in the situation and making Lynn's smile grow brighter.
"Oh darling, what are we going to do with her?" Lynn asked.
Angel just smiled.