Prologue

The room was stark and silent when Syaoran sat up in a hospital bed on Christmas morning, the window was slightly ajar letting in the gentle breeze scented lightly with the newly fallen snow. Syaoran disoriented quickly placed a hand on his once swollen abdomen, gasping as he felt the once reassuring bump gone to be replaced by bandages and tenderness, 'Did they take him?' Syaoran quickly swung his legs over the edge of the unfamiliar bed and tried to stand shakily on his feet.

Vertigo rushed up to meet him as his knees buckled and fell out from under his currently frail body as he started to fall, only to be lifted before he hit the ground, "My your quick to be about after all you've been through today, mind sitting down in a wheelchair and taking a stroll with me instead of walking, pet?" the voice was strong, the hands gentle as Syaoran was gently placed in the awaiting chair.

Syaoran smiled at the familiar voice grasping the hand on his shoulder, "Papa." his voice rasped when he spoke and tears filled his eyes, as the strong arms of his father wrapped around slender shoulders from behind locking him in a tender embrace.

Piers breathed in the scent of his youngest child as he held him to his chest quietly comforting the small trembling body as his only son cried, "Now pet, tell papa what has you so frantic and emotional on a rare day like this?"

Syaoran tilted his face up to his father, his eyes closed in a smile tears leaking from the closed lids."I thought you wouldn't come." Piers wiped his youngest's eyes as he spoke, silently listening.

" Well no need to worry about that now pet," giving his only boy a firm hug " I'm right here and I'm going take you to meet someone whose wanted to see you for a long time now. How's that sound?" Piers gently disentangled himself from the embrace as he spoke, smoothing the slight bedhead Syaoran had always suffered from when he was younger.

The frail looking boy smiled slowly wipping the remnants of tears away from his eyes with the heel of his hand, " I'd like that very much," Piers smiled down at his son, the corners of his lids crinkling around his Asian brown eyes.

"Then let's not keep him waiting shall we?" for the first time in a year Syaoran laughed as he nodded his head in agreement, his father gently pushing the wheelchair from the white room.

The trip to the isolette room was a quiet as both parent and child thought of the events of the day, as they approached the room Piers stopped before coming to the window. Syaoran looked up at his father, "Papa?" voice was more of a plea as Piers looked down at his baby.

"He's beautiful, Xiao Lang, absolutely beautiful." Syaoran smiled again his eyes filling with tears as his father finished pushing the wheelchair up to the window and allowed his son to look in at the at the only baby with that didn't appear to be quite Asian.

The baby was small, with cute little curls of dark chocolate brown hair, a chubby heart-shaped face, a pert little button nose, small pink heart-shaped lips, and long dark lashes, he was a perfect blend of both his parents and would come to break many hearts when he grew older.

Syaoran smiled at the baby placing his hand on the glass, while he rested his forehead on the cool surface, "Can I hold him papa, please?" Piers looked down at his small frail son as Syaoran looked on at his own child, gently tracing the baby's face through the glass.

"Of course you can pet, once we have you settled in bed again I'll send someone to bring the baby to you. How's that for a deal?" Syaoran nodded finally lifting his head from the glass leaning back in the wheelchair, smiling sadly at the small baby in the isolette as he allowed his father to push the chair back to the room that he currently occupied.

...

Arriving in the room Piers gently lifted Syaoran from the wheelchair placing him on the starchy hospital sheets and gingerly tucking him under the blankets, Syaoran frowned, "Papa you do realize that I'm not a baby anymore?" Piers smiled kissing his son's forehead and ruffling his hair before leaving to alert a nurse to the Syaoran's wants.

Piers soon came back with a nurse behind him pushing a isolette into the room, "Look what I have brought you pet, a nurse and a microwave just for you!" the nurse smiled as she placed the isolette in a corner not far from the patient's bed, before quickly reviewing Syaoran's charts and leaving.

Syaoran waited till the nurse left before trying to look into the isolette placed just out of his reach from the starchy hospital bed, "Papa,..I want to hold him." Syaoran bit his bottom lip as he plead with his father, taking on his usual bratty appearance from when he first returned to Hong Kong.

Piers chuckled at his baby boy's antics as he reached into the warmed incubator and gently lifted the tiny bundle from the plastic confinement, "Here you are my brat, your very first baby and he is a darling! Your sisters will be so pleased." the baby stirred as he was pulled from the flat surface of the isolette, quickly voicing his displeasure through loud wails that were anything but musical.

"Papa! What did you do!?" Syaoran watched frantic as his small baby wrinkle its face and allowed fat unhappy tears to fall from his eyes.

"He's alright pet, just a little surprised that's all." Piers smiled reassuringly at Syaoran as he quietly tried to soothe the distraught baby, before handing him to Syaoran.

"Papa, give him to me!" Syaoran held out his arms in a beseeching demand as he looked up at his crying baby, "Please papa, I want to hold him." the tearful words were a plea from a heart-broken casualty of fate.

Piers looked down at his weakened child as he sat there; his arms held up begging for his baby, eyes wide in the ever-present fear that someone could take his child away, his bottom lip being worried between his teeth, his hair ruffled from the scatchy hospital pillow, his chest heaving from pent-up emotions. Syaoran looked every part the downtrodden parent, and it broke his father's heart.

"Alright pet, alright. But if you feel fatigued you give him right back to me." Piers carefully handed the small bundle of blue over to his unfledged child.

Syaoran smiled down at the bundle as it quieted in it's mother's arms, Piers smiled down at the pair, "So did you have a name in mind for the tyke?" Syaoran looked up from his baby's grey eyes and smiled gently at his father.

"Actually I do...May I present to you Li Aiko Jia, born December twenty-fifth, at five a.m. in the Li hospital stationed in Hong Kong to one Li Xiao Lang age fourteen." Syaoran grinned down at his baby, placing a light kiss on his smooth forehead as he held him close, allowing his magic to connect with the newborn's strengthening the bond between parent and child.

Piers laughed at the pair shaking his head and placing a comforting arm around Syaoran's thin shoulders as he sat down on the bed beside his last nestling.