Characters aren't mine. They belong to ABC, Disney, and other assorted entities of importance. I gain nothing from writing these stories but the fun of doing it. Please don't sue me.
Her name is Reva, and she is perfect.
Everything about her is a miracle. From her bright green eyes that seem to already question the world to her already jovial and gentle disposition, she's a delight. She radiates warmth and love and all the good things about life. For a child who is only a few weeks old, she already seems to have a personality big enough to fill the world.
She's certainly filled ours.
Her hair is dark and soft. It's already thick; she was born with it, and now it's developing a little cowlick, a family trait. Her mother has one in the same spot, but you'd never know it. Her mother's a perfectionist, and the cowlick is always tamed before anyone except me can see it.
Reva coos and smiles often, and she doesn't cry very much, only when she's fighting sleep or hungry. She giggles at us, and, whenever her mother walks into the room, she always, always reaches for her. Their connection amazes me, and, even though I sometimes envy it, I can't help but feel so pleased to see the two of them already so utterly content in each other's company. I hope it stays that way.
When I come home from work these days, I often find them snuggled on the couch with Henry quietly reading in the chair nearby, their protector and champion.
He's an amazing big brother, and his little sister seems to sense the security he will always provide for her. They're going to be a strong unit. I can already tell. He hovers almost as badly as their mother does, and I mentally play out scenarios of times when she's bullied or threatened and Henry comes to her rescue. It will happen. We all know it, but I know that Henry has already made his mind up to be his little sister's knight. She couldn't have a better one.
Sometimes, I sit and watch the three of them interact, and I can't but smile. As Henry holds the baby and feeds her a bottle, he listens and lets out embarrassed groans at the stories being told of when he was a baby. They smile at each other, he and his mother, and it's so open. I thought I'd never see that, and I feel blessed to be a witness to it because it wasn't so long ago that both of them were guarded with each other.
They've come a long way, and every day that passes they get a little closer. In part, it's because of Reva. They have a new common ground that has nothing to do with fighting bad guys or protecting the innocent or trying to find redemption in the other's eyes. It's something really different. It's a new beginning, an expansion of our family, and I can tell both want this chance to be better than the one before. They're working toward a life in which Reva never feels what either of them felt as young children.
It's a little sad when I think about it, but it's also something I get because I'm right there with them. I don't want Reva to ever go through what I went through either. We're all going to give her the very best chance we can. We've never said it out loud; it's an unspoken agreement, but I can see it in how we look at her and each other.
We're going to protect our family. We fought too hard to get here.
Besides, how can we not want to protect something as adorable as Reva? She has a scrunchy face just like her mother's and a glare, too. She's got the prettiest olive skin tone, which she also gets from her mother.
The curls in her hair are all mine, though, and I'm told that she has my smile.
Magic is a funny thing. It makes the impossible possible, and True Love's magic? It makes babies where none should ever be made, not that I'm complaining. I wouldn't give Reva up for anything in the world. We might not have ever thought to expect her, but she's here now, and she's given us so much. She completed our little family, she gave her mother a happiness I've never seen before, she's given her brother something to protect, and she's given me a second chance to me a mother.
She's given us our strength back, and, in the tradition of the Enchanted Forest, we wanted to give her a name with symbolic meaning for what she's done for her family, so we named her Reva, 'to regain strength.'
Her name is Reva Nadia Swan-Mills, and she is perfect.
There we go. I present to you some fluff to make up the angst early this week. I hope you liked it.