Author's Note: Just an idea that popped into my head last night.
Diana was happy.
Despite her illness and living in a sanitarium, she had her son. So joyful and bubbly, he was always happy to see her. He was only calm in her arms. Otherwise, he was a screaming, crying mess. He had just turned one year old.
The sanitarium staff had allowed her to keep her baby once they saw the enormous impact he had on her.
It was so strange.
She would be hallucinating, but with her son in her arms she was calm. He was her sanity in times of stress. When the nurses tried to take him away, she instantly knew and begged for his safe return. He would reach for her and sob and sob until he was back in her arms.
She would swoop around the room with the grace of a ballerina as she tended to him. He would laugh and smile as she coddled him, always singing to him and making sure he was well taken care of. She changed him, fed him, burped him, and diapered him, all without one complaint.
Her psychiatrist was incredibly pleased with the results that came with her caring for her son. It was as if she channelled her illness into caring for her baby.
The day had begun as any other.
Spencer had woken her at seven in the morning, and she fed and changed him accordingly. She ate her own breakfast from her room as her son babbled happily in her lap. She read him several stories before he fell asleep in her arms.
The hallucinations took over her mind, but she remained calm. Her baby anchored her in reality. She loved him so much. He was her whole world.
The nurse came in and looked at them. In that moment, she felt sorry for the life that they were living.
It wasn't long after when a young man came in. An intern, he had been told to check on the patients. Seeing the woman sitting on her couch, cradling an infant in her arms as she hallucinated seemed wrong. Who would tend to her baby?
He did not know that they were not to be disturbed.
He lifted the child from her arms. Instantly awake, Spencer began to shriek. Try as he might, he could not calm the boy down. He went to remove him from the room. Head on the young man's shoulder, Spencer wailed his first word:
"Momma!"
Diana felt panic shoot through her as Spencer was taken from her. She frantically reached for him.
"No! Give him back to me!" She begged. When he screamed, her instincts took over and she leapt up and rushed toward her baby, snatching him into her arms. She hushed him and cuddled him until he fell asleep. She set him down only when she was certain he wouldn't wake. Then she turned her attention to the young man, who paled at her frightening expression. She took him outside, then shut the door. She did not scream, for fear of waking her son. She looked at the man, eyes blazing with fury.
"How dare you take my son away from me?" She hissed. He backed away from her.
"I- I- I thought..." He stammered, unable to finish.
"You didn't think at all. Let me be absolutely clear: nobody touches my son without my consent."
"O-Of c-course. I didn't know..." He backed away from her.
Two nurses were watching closely, eyes locked on Diana. She was very calm. When they heard why she was angry, they moved a little closer, but not by much. She seemed as aware as she'd ever been. And she spoke calmly, although hostilely. Her eyes were daggers as she spat her last sentence at him.
"You will not touch my son ever again. You will walk away from me and not come into my room. Am I clear?"
He gulped. "Yes, Ma'am."
With that, he hurriedly ran away.
He learned that day what it had taken others only moments to: Diana and her son were two halves of one whole, and they could not be separated.
Not even by her delusions.