Fears Aside

Mickey couldn't remember a time he had been so happy. For most of his life it had been just him and Minnie; his soul mate, his partner in crime. But now that they had their baby it was like they were finally complete.

He looked down at the baby girl still sleeping in his arms and his heart filled with joy as it did every time he looked at her. Being a father was harder than he ever would have imagined; there was this tiny, cute, helpless baby he was half responsible for after all! But every day was a new adventure for them and he loved it.

Maya let out a wide yawn and Mickey and Minnie nearly swooned. The she opened her wide blue eyes.

"Did you sleep well little one?" Minnie said as she ran her fingers through Maya's soft black hair.

Maya's face morphed into a smile as she looked at them. She looked so much like Minnie. Minnie always said Maya looked more like him but she had Minnie's striking blue eyes that had melted his heart from day one.

It seemed like a different lifetime when they had gotten the news that their first pregnancy had ended and the two were depressed for months after, afraid to try to have another child for such a long time. He had always felt like things happened for a reason and even though they had to wait for Maya, she was the best thing that had ever happened to them.

The ride home after finding out their baby was gone was agony. Neither of them said anything. Mickey tried to keep himself from crying so that he could drive home but the sounds of Minnie's sobs next to him broke his heart. All he could do was hold her hand.

When they got in the house he found her sitting on the couch still crying. He immediately went over to her and held her close letting his tears now fall freely. Pluto came over to them looking worried.

"The baby is gone Pluto," Mickey said to him. Pluto looked shocked bit rested his head on Mickey's knee comfortingly.

"Mickey, I'm sorry," Minnie finally said.

"Why are you sorry?" Mickey said looking at her in shock.

"Because maybe it's my fault we lost the baby. Maybe I did something wrong. I didn't take care of it…"

Mickey put his finger over her lips to stop her. He couldn't bear listening to Minnie blame herself. "Don't you dare blame yourself," he said firmly.

"But…"

"Min, it is not your fault, do you hear me?" he said with his voice breaking. "I would never ever blame you for this. It's no one's fault, it's just...it just wasn't time."

The next morning he woke up to the sound of Minnie sniffing. Her back was to him, probably trying to hide the fact that she was crying. He put his arm around her waist. "Min?"

She slowly turned to face him and sure enough she was crying. Immediately he pulled her close to him and let her cry into his shoulder. Her pain made his heart ache. He wanted desperately to somehow bring their baby back and make Minnie happy and the fact that he couldn't was killing him inside.

A few minutes later the phone rang. For a moment it surprised him, he seemed to have forgotten that the world was still going on despite what they had lost. He reached over and answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey Mickey, where are you? We're ready to start," Walt said.

Mickey had completely forgotten they were supposed to be shooting another cartoon that day. He glanced at the clock and saw that he and Minnie were a half an hour late. But as he looked down at her, her eyes red with tears still pouring from her eyes and he was sure he looked the same, he knew the two of them were in no condition to film a cartoon that day.

"We're not gonna be able to come in today," Mickey said.

"Why? Is everything okay?" Walt said sounding worried.

"Yeah, we're fine, it's just...we kinda need to take some time off for a while."

"Alright," Walt said suspiciously. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help."

"Thanks dad, I appreciate it."

"Thank you," Minnie said to him after he got off the phone.

"You're welcome," he said returning to his previous position of snuggling with her. "Neither of us are in any condition to film anything right now and we're not going to until you feel ready again."

"Do you think we can try again Mickey?" Minnie asked after a few minutes.

He kissed her forehead. "We can try again whenever you're ready honey."

Whenever didn't come for a long time. They took their time to get better, but afterwards Mickey didn't ask her if she was ready. He wanted it to be on her terms. Not to mention, he wasn't sure if he was ready to take the risk yet either. He didn't want to see his wife cry over another lost baby. Then another event happened that made him even less willing to try again.

Walt Disney died. Mickey's entire life shattered around him in that moment and for a while he was unwilling to try to have a baby again because his father wouldn't be around to see his child.

Eventually he decided that Walt would be proud of him whether he was around to see the baby or not and he began to warm up to the idea of having a baby again. It started to get to the point where he desperately wanted a child but Minnie hadn't indicated to him that she was ready. He had wanted it to be on her terms but was starting to think about bringing it up to her himself when she finally asked him on the night of the Disney World gala if he wanted to try again. He wasted no time making love to her that night hoping something would happen only to find the next test negative.

The next one was negative, and the next one. Then they were told that they would never be able to have a child. That blow was the worst of them all. They had tried everything and he didn't know what else to do. What he wanted more than anything else was to make his Minnie happy and he felt helpless. They tried to remain positive but eventually they started to give up the hope that they would ever have a child.