Note to readers: I just want to say THANK YOU for the reviews. I'm sorry it took me a while to get them moderated and posted, but I'm new here and I'm just learning how to do things, so I was a little slow in taking care of that. I also want to reassure you all that YES, I AM going to get around to talking about what happened to Mia when she almost died. I just have some ground I have to cover before I get there, so please be patient. :) I also want to let you know that this chapter ends in kind of a cliffhanger like the last chapter, so you have been officially warned. ;)
Chapter Seven
Joseph
As I sat with my wife in the visitors' lounge, just staring out the window at the night sky in front of us, I found myself filled with the same feelings of heartache and fear that I'd gone through six years ago, on Thursday, November 29, 2007, to be more precise. That was a date that I'd always remember no matter what, and I know Clarisse felt the same way.
"It's that night all over again, Joseph," Clarisse said in a very emotional voice. She was being strong like she always was, but I could see it that it was all she could do to keep from breaking down and crying. The only thing I could do was wrap my arm around her shoulders and hold her close.
"I know, my love," I said quietly. "I know. I'm just as worried about our girl as you are. But you know that she's come through even tougher things than this before."
"I know."
"And you know the internal defibrillator she's getting put in tomorrow will take care of it if anything like this should ever happen again." Mia's heart had first gone into a fatal arrhythmia, a form of cardiac arrest called ventricular fibrillation or v-fib, two days ago, and one of her doctors had had to shock it into beating normally again. That happened again that night and twice yesterday, and since it became obvious that her medication was no longer enough to control her arrhythmias, her doctors decided to perform surgery tomorrow to put an internal defibrillator in, which would monitor her heart and deliver a shock if it ever went into another fatal heart rhythm.
"I just so wish that I was the one who needed the internal defibrillator put in and not Mia. That little girl is everything to me, Joseph. The good Lord above, you, Mia, Pierre, the girls, you're all everything to me, and especially after I already lost Philippe, I couldn't bear to lose anyone else I loved, and certainly not Mia."
"You are not going to lose anyone else, Clarisse. You're not. Mia is going to get through this, because we're all going to be right there beside her to help her do it. No matter what, God is watching out for her. I know He is. He's helped us come this far and I know He won't abandon us now, no matter how tough things can get sometimes."
"It may take a miracle for her to be able to stay healthy enough to live a long life. She's lost so much strength, Joseph," Clarisse sighed.
"I know, but we've gotten miracles before. It's a miracle, an incredible miracle, that Mia even survived everything six years ago. And in a way, I think it can be said that everything she's accomplished since then is a miracle, too. And speaking of miracles, why don't you go home and spend the evening with the girls? I know how worried they must be, and I think they really need to spend a little time with Grandma right now."
"I do miss them, but you know I can't leave here. What if Mia goes into v-fib again?"
"There's nothing you can do for her right now, darling, except pray, and we've already been doing that in abundance. Mia's practically been unconscious the past couple of days, so she doesn't even know you're here. You've been living at this hospital ever since she was first admitted, and you've got to take a break from here for a while. And Mia won't be alone. Lionel and I will be right here with her, and you know we won't leave her side."
"I know you mean well. I know you're only trying to look out for me, but I am not leaving. I will not leave here until Mia's out of the woods, and that's final, Joseph," Clarisse told me sternly, and I knew that from that point on, the subject was officially closed and that nothing I could say could change her mind, so I dropped it.
"Very well then," I told Clarisse, and then we sat together in silence for a while, and I got to thinking about one of the last times in my life I'd felt this worried. It had all started one chilly day in December three ago, when Mia gave me some news that to say the least, had been pretty shocking.
It was around five-thirty in the evening just a couple of days before Christmas, and Mia was at the bridge overlooking the stream, with her red winter overcoat wrapped tightly around her for warmth. The second I saw her standing there by herself, I knew she had something heavy on her mind. Over the years, that little stone bridge where we had our first deep discussion with each other had really become her own special place to go to whenever she wanted to get off to herself to do some thinking. I'd seen it that something had been troubling Mia and Lionel for the past couple of weeks, but I wanted to wait for one of them to come tell me about it on their own, whenever they felt ready to. As the Royal Head of Security and husband of the former Queen of Genovia, I knew better than anyone what a rare jewel privacy actually was, and I wanted to respect theirs as much as possible. But when I saw her standing there that day, I knew it then that whatever was going on was something serious, and as her Royal Head of Security and most importantly, as her daddy, I knew I had to step in and find out what it was.
"Penny for your thoughts," I said to her, and she gave me a smile.
"What's happening, Joe?" she asked, and I noticed how she'd sidestepped my asking her what was on her mind.
"Nothing much. Just trying to be a good Royal Head of Security and find out why my Queen is standing all alone out in the cold, without her royal bodyguard by her side." Ever since we'd almost lost Mia, we tightened up on security like never before. Mia's attack was the event that actually brought me out of retirement, because what happened to her proved to me that palace security had gotten lax and careless, dangerously careless, and I didn't trust anyone but myself to whip everybody else back into shape again. And if there was any one thing I never allowed to happen, it was Mia being left alone, out of our sight for too much time. We certainly understood her need for privacy, but her safety trumped privacy every time.
"Lionel had to go to the John," she explained. "He'll be back any second now. I'm just enjoying a little bit of solitude; that's all. It's not something I get very much of in my life."
"I know my dear, but you know that we can never be too careful."
"I know."
"I hate to pry, but I know you're worried about something. Care to talk about it with your old man?"
"No thanks, Papa. Not just yet, anyway."
"It might help," I gently nudged her. I knew she didn't really want to talk, but in my heart, she was my daughter as well as my Queen and I knew it was in her best interests for me to know about it if something was wrong.
"I really appreciate it, but no amount of talking is going to help with this. This is just something I'm going to have to get through."
"Well you, Lionel, your grandma and I can all get through it together. There's no reason for you kids to have to carry it all by yourselves if you've got something on your minds. That's what families are for."
"Daddy, you have to trust me, here. I know what I'm talking about when I say that now is not the right time for Lionel and me to discuss it yet. I really do appreciate all your love and concern for me, but I know that it's in everyone's best interests that we keep this to ourselves for the moment, including yours and Grandma's." When Mia and I first adopted each other as father and daughter, we agreed that she'd either call me "Papa" or "Joe" and not "Dad," because "Dad" was what she'd always called her natural father, and neither of us wanted to be disrespectful to his memory. But when she was really frightened deep down inside, she would call me "Daddy," and I knew it when she called me "Daddy" a second ago that I'd been right, that whatever was going on was something very serious.
"Now you listen to me, mija. It is always in my best interests that I know what's going on with you. Always. You do not need to protect me. I'm the bodyguard, here; remember? Now you tell me what's wrong."
Mia let out a sigh and said, "It seems that I've always been pretty good at beating the odds. I beat the odds and won the genetic lottery by being born a royal princess. I beat the odds again when I was attacked and survived, thanks be to God. When I survived, everybody doubted that I'd make enough of a physical or psychological recovery to be able to continue as Queen of Genovia, but I beat the odds again and proved them wrong. And now as it turns out, I've gone and won the baby lottery and proven all those fertility specialists who told me that I'd never be able to conceive a child wrong as well. Even though they all said it was impossible, I'm actually nine weeks pregnant."
I took a deep breath and let out a long sigh in that moment, feeling Mia's news kicking me in the gut. If Mia's poor body hadn't been through so much hell, I would have been overjoyed at the thought of her having a baby and giving me another grandchild. But now, I shuddered to think of what a pregnancy could do to her. It scared me to death.
I'd gotten married at eighteen to a sweet girl I'd known all my life named Maria Santiago, whose parents had also emigrated to Genovia from Puerto Rico like mine had, and I'd joined the Genovian Royal Guard that year as well. And two years later, Maria got pregnant with our first child, by which time, my two-year term with the Genovian Royal Guard was up and I was honorably discharged. Soon afterwards, I went to work for Genovian Royal Security, which of course was how and when I first met Clarisse. And a few months later when it was time for the baby to come, nobody anticipated any problems whatsoever. Our doctor had assured us throughout the pregnancy that both Maria and the baby were perfectly healthy. Maria was a very strong young woman, and things couldn't have looked any better. But when she went into labor, it seemed that everything medically possible that could have gone wrong did, and both she and our baby girl died. Maria had been twenty years-old and in excellent health, and still, I lost her and our baby. Mia's health was far more fragile and I knew that pregnancy and childbirth for Mia could only mean one word: disaster.
"According to Dr. Griffin, my OB/GYN," Mia continued, "this is a pretty high-risk pregnancy because of all my health issues, and there's an increased chance that I could lose this baby. That's why Lionel and I have been so worried lately. And with everything you've been through losing your first wife and baby, and with everything Grandma's been through losing my dad, I really wanted to keep this whole thing just between Lionel and me until I was in my second trimester and the baby was a little more out of the woods. I didn't want you guys to have to suffer through worrying over losing a grandchild after you've both already lost a child."
The instant she said that, I wanted to hug Mia and kick Lionel in the groin. She couldn't carry something that heavy with no one but Lionel to help her through it! She needed all of us in her corner looking out for her, not just Lionel, and there was no way we could be there for her if we didn't know what was going on. How could he possibly agree to keep her pregnancy a secret? How could he not tell all of us about it so his wife would have plenty of people watching out for her? As both her husband and her bodyguard, it was his responsibility to look after her and to act in her best interests. She already had the welfare of an entire country resting on her shoulders; the last thing she needed was to have to carry such a heavy burden without all of her loved ones there to help her with it.
I put my arms around her then and embraced her for a good long while, and after the hug was over, I told her, "You don't worry about me, do you understand? If something's wrong, you come to me and tell me about it so I can be there for you. You and Lionel can't carry something like this all by yourselves. You have to let us help you with this, mija."
"I really don't want to say anything to anyone else until I'm further along, though."
"I know. I know you want to protect everyone like the queen you are, but when something is happening with your health, you owe it to the people who love you to let them know about it. Because we all love you so much, we have a right to know when something's going on with you."
"I know."
Because of the faith we both had in Christ, I knew Mia would break my neck if I even thought of asking her if she'd considered the possibility of terminating the pregnancy. I'd always believed in the sanctity of human life, all human life at all stages, and under normal circumstances, the thought of Mia having an abortion would never have crossed my mind for a single instant. But those weren't normal circumstances. Of course I loved and cared about my unborn grandchild because he or she was Mia's baby, but I couldn't bear the thought of anything more happening to Mia than she'd already been through. When Maria was pregnant, she made me promise her that if something went wrong during the delivery, I'd tell the doctor to save our baby over her, and even though it was the hardest thing I ever did, I respected her wishes when complications occurred and our doctor asked me which one of them I wanted him to try and save. He told me afterwards that it would have made no difference in the end which one I'd have chosen, that I still would have lost them both, but I'd never been able to get over the feeling that I betrayed Maria by what I did. And I couldn't help but feel that if I didn't choose to try to protect Mia now over her baby, I'd be making the same mistake all over again.
We talked for a little while longer, and after I convinced her to let me tell Clarisse and the rest of the staff what was going on, Lionel came back outside. Mia announced that she was going back to her office to do some paperwork for a while, which left me alone with Lionel – and gave me the opportunity to really let him have it with both barrels.
"Lionel, I want you to know that there's only one thing keeping me from punching you in the mouth right here and now, and that's your wife. I know that if I did give you a fat lip like I really wanted to, it would upset her, so I'm not doing that no matter how tempting it may be. But I want you to know that I as a father am furious at you for what you've done. Do you realize what a pregnancy could do to your wife, not to mention going through childbirth?! What were you thinking by not using protection?! How could you not get a vasectomy before you got married?! How could you be so careless?! You're not just an ordinary husband, Lionel, any more than Mia is an ordinary wife. She is the reigning Queen of Genovia and you are her husband and her royal bodyguard! It is your responsibility to protect her from anything and everything that might cause her harm! And on top of Mia being my Queen, she is also my little girl, and my treasure. How dare you be so careless with such a treasure?!"
"You're right," Lionel said quietly, which surprised me. After me losing my temper with Lionel and yelling at him like that, I fully expected him to get angry and yell at me in return. "I've been saying the same things to myself these past couple of weeks ever since we first found out we were expecting. One of the biggest reasons why I didn't tell anybody Mia was pregnant, other than me wanting to respect her wishes to keep it private and not upset her, was because I knew how livid you'd be. I know that it's my responsibility to protect her from all possible sources of harm. You're absolutely right. But you have to believe me, Joseph, when I tell you that had I honestly believed for one second that this could ever happen, I would have gotten a vasectomy before I married Mia. But when literally the very best fertility specialists on the entire planet tell you and your fiancée how unlikely it is that she'll ever be able to get pregnant, you tend to believe them. I didn't get a vasectomy, not because I didn't want to protect Mia, but because I really did believe that she would never be able to conceive. I didn't believe that this could ever happen. And for the record, for what it's worth, I actually did see Dr. Adams about it the day after I found out Mia was pregnant, and she referred me to a urologist who gave me a vasectomy the next morning. This is never going to happen again."
After Lionel said those things, a part of me may have still wanted to stay angry at the young man, but I just couldn't. Maybe he should have been more cautious, but I could understand him thinking that a vasectomy was unnecessary after what the specialists had told him and Mia, and I knew that he really did love Mia with all his heart and that endangering her was the last thing on earth he ever wanted to do. And at least he'd shown some responsibility after the fact and gotten a vasectomy then. But it didn't change the fact that we still had a very serious situation on our hands we had to deal with.
"How do you feel about having this baby, Lionel?" I asked him.
"Honestly?"
"Honestly."
"Confused. I don't know. My feelings are just all over the place. I mean, on one hand, this is our baby, you know? And I love it so much because it's ours, and I'm so excited to see it and hold it in my arms for the first time. I keep imagining us having another little girl who looks just like Mia. On the other hand, I keep thinking about something going wrong, either during the pregnancy or in the delivery room and something happening to Mia, and I just get scared to death. We sat down together and had a very long talk about it, and I told Mia that I would understand if she wanted to have an abortion. Part of me would actually be a little relieved because then we wouldn't have to worry about anything happening to her, and after all, we already have one child to think about who needs her mother. It would be so unfair to Claire to have to grow up without a mom. It would also be so unfair to you and Clarisse to lose Mia after all the people you two have already lost in your lives. And the entire country agrees that Mia is the best ruler they've ever had, and it would certainly be unfair for the Genovian people to lose such an amazing queen."
"That's how I feel precisely," I agreed.
"But at the end of the day, Mia feels that our fears and worries are not a good enough reason for us to play God, and by us choosing to take this baby's life through an abortion, she believes that's exactly what we'd be doing. And as worried as I am about Mia going through with this pregnancy, I agree with her. It may not be a very popular belief in the modern world today, but our unborn baby is every bit as much a person as you, Mia, and I are, and it has the same rights to life as anybody else, Joe. We don't have the right to end one life for the sake of another life, not even Mia's. Only God has the right to make a choice like that. If we did, we'd be murdering our own child. Some people might like to try to say that our unborn baby is just 'fetal tissue' so they can dehumanize it and not have to admit that abortion is really the act of murdering a person, a human being, a child, but you know as well as I do that that mentality is nothing but a load of bull. We're not Jesus, Joe. We didn't create this planet and all of humanity, and we certainly never walked on water or died on a cross to save humanity from their sins. Only Jesus Christ did those things, and only He can decide when to give or take a life."
Of course I knew he was right, but I didn't want to admit it then. After I tried to convince Lionel to give it some more thought, I went and vented all my worry and frustration to Clarisse.
"Clarisse, there must be some way to get them to change their minds," I told her later that evening in our suite.
Clarisse shook her head and said, "I don't think so, Joseph. Not about a thing like this. You might succeed in changing Lionel's mind because he's such a concerned husband, but Mia? Never."
"You can't tell me that you're actually supporting this."
"I'm supporting Mia, Joseph. I'm not any happier about Mia's body going through a pregnancy than you are, and I'm just as worried about her as you are, too. I don't like this, either. But even though I've always been a bit of a feminist, as a woman, I could never support abortion. I know how badly it hurt you to lose your first wife and baby, and I know how it must frighten you the possibility of going through it all over again now that Mia's pregnant. But you're not a woman. You don't know what it means to carry another little life inside your own body who is depending on you for everything. I do. As a woman and as a mother myself, I couldn't try to persuade Mia to do anything to harm that little life she's carrying any more than I could try to persuade her to drink a bottle of poison. And if you're honestly going to try to do that, I can promise you right here and now that you'll be fighting a losing battle."
As I looked into Clarisse's eyes in that moment, I knew she was right. I might have been able to convince Mia to go through with it if I had Clarisse and Lionel on my side, but I didn't. Regardless of the kind of consequences it could've had for Mia's overall state of health, Clarisse and Lionel were both supporting her wishes to go through with the pregnancy.
And even though it scared me to death, deep down, I understood why, and I knew they were right. It was terribly difficult for me to say the least, but I did eventually come to accept and respect their wishes to have the baby, and thanks to a fair amount of coaxing from Clarisse, I even gave them my support.
Ever since Mia recovered from her attack and returned to her position as Queen, she'd hired many new staff members to help her shoulder the burden, and Lord Nicholas Devereaux had taken over a lot of her diplomatic duties for her in order to help her out as well. And when she announced it that she was expecting, everyone was more helpful to her than ever, which really allowed her to take it easy and get the kind of rest she needed. As her pregnancy progressed to the second trimester, things seemed to going surprisingly well. In addition to the respiratory therapist who lived in the palace and kept a close eye on Mia's asthma and lung problems, a midwife and an OB nurse also joined the medical professionals on the palace staff and both ladies monitored Mia's pregnancy very closely, and even though there were a lot of concerns, Mia and the baby were well taken care of.
And the morning Mia was scheduled to have her first 4-D ultrasound of the baby when she was twenty-four weeks along, even I had to admit that I was as excited about it as she and Lionel were, not to mention Clarisse. She'd already had several regular 3-D ultrasounds done to make certain the baby was alright and developing normally and everything since it was a high-risk pregnancy, but with the 4-D ultrasound, we would all be getting our very first real-life glimpse at what the baby's face actually looked like. Mia and Lionel also decided that they did indeed want to know the baby's gender so they could start picking names and know how best to decorate the new royal nursery and that sort of thing. Dr. Griffin had tried to determine the baby's gender in a couple of previous 3-D ultrasounds, but the baby had always been in the wrong position before.
It was about eight-thirty that morning, and we'd been up about an hour or so and had just finished breakfast when Mia came bouncing in, her face all lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Hey you guys, it's here! They just brought in the 4-D ultrasound machine a few minutes ago!" Mia said aloud, and Clarisse and I both laughed at her young enthusiasm. There was actually an ultrasound machine in Dr. Adams's office along with other hospital equipment, and whenever Mia's obstetrician, Dr. Griffin, performed prenatal exams on Mia and the baby, she'd always come to the palace to do it in Dr. Adams's office. And like most parents-to-be, she and Lionel wanted to have a 4-D ultrasound done at some point in the pregnancy so they could get a clear look at their baby's face, so the 4-D ultrasound machine had been brought into Dr. Adams's office that morning.
"That's wonderful, darling," Clarisse said to her. "I've been looking forward to today for quite a while now, and I can certainly imagine how much you and Lionel have been looking forward to this, too."
"Have we ever! Now if Dr. Griffin would just get here, then we could get started."
"Patience, little one. Patience. She'll get here," Clarisse said, and Mia jokingly rolled her eyes at her.
"Oh please, Grandma! You know you are the least patient person to ever walk this planet! You're just as impatient for Dr. Griffin to get here as I am! Admit it."
"I am not impatient, young lady. I am merely eager. There's a difference," said Clarisse, and this time I was the one who rolled my eyes.
"Eager! Yeah, right!" I teased.
"Oh hush, Joseph!" Clarisse teased me back with a playful swat at my arm, and I laughed.
In that next moment, Mia held her stomach and let out a sigh, and then she laughed.
"Calisthenics again?" I asked. We always joked about how punctual the baby was with its calisthenics. It seemed that every single morning between eight and nine o'clock, the baby would kick up a storm and turn cartwheel after cartwheel for a good while, and the baby would do it again at noon and at sometime between two and four in the afternoon, and just before Mia and Lionel went to bed for the night. Mia had been feeling the baby move and kick regularly like that for the past two weeks.
"What else?" Mia joked, and then she said, "Give me your hands, you guys."
Clarisse and I walked up to her then and gave her our hands and she placed them on her stomach, and as we both felt the baby kicking and moving, we had another laugh.
"Clarisse, I do believe you and I are going to have ourselves another very lively grandchild."
"Indeed! This little one just might surpass Claire on the liveliness scale!"
"I rather doubt that, Grandma. This baby might be tied with Claire on the liveliness scale, but I don't think any child could ever surpass her!"
"Probably not," I agreed. The Crown Princess of Genovia was definitely the most active, energetic little toddler I'd ever seen, a far cry from the painful start to life she'd had over a year ago.
In that next moment, Lionel came in and said, "Hey guys, she's here."
"Yes!" said Mia, and then she and Lionel rushed out the door.
"Hey, be careful going down the stairs, you two!" Clarisse called after them. Since Mia was rather clumsy, she and all the rest of us worried that she might trip and fall whenever she had to go down any stairs.
"Yes, ma'am!" they called back, and Clarisse and I smiled at each other once again. Despite all the hell she'd survived, Mia was still so young and happy and full of life, as was Lionel, and we were so happy for them that they were able to enjoy their life together and build a family, and do all the things Clarisse and I hadn't been able to do when we were that age.
"Well my dear, are you ready to go see the latest picture of our newest grandchild?" I asked Clarisse as I held out my arm to her, already knowing the answer.
She smiled and replied, "Very ready, love. Very, very ready," and then she took my arm and walked downstairs with me to Dr. Adams's office.
And for a grandpa, that doctor's visit with Mia was a delight beyond words. As Mia laid back on the exam table with her blouse pulled up exposing her pregnant stomach, Dr. Griffin performed the 4-D ultrasound and we got our first really good look at the baby. Lionel held one of Mia's hands and Clarisse held the other, and we all watched together in amazement and joy as the baby came to life on the screen.
"Can you tell what the baby is this time?" Mia asked.
"Yes, I actually can tell you what you're having now. Do you guys still want to know?" asked Dr. Griffin. Dr. Griffin was a lovely tall, light-skinned black lady with short black hair and dark eyes, and her warm, friendly personality was as lovely as her physical appearance.
"Yes, we do," Mia replied.
"Hold on a second, doctor. Before you tell us, I just want to take a minute to get on my soapbox on behalf of all little girls everywhere. All through this entire pregnancy, people have been saying that I'm probably hoping for a boy since I already have a girl. Whenever people in this world find out their baby's gender, so many of them act like it's a bad thing if it's not a boy, especially if the couple already has a daughter. People seem to think it's such a bad thing if a man never has a son, and I just want to say on behalf of girls and women everywhere how sick I am of that attitude! It's always okay if a woman only has sons and no daughters, but people always act like there's something wrong with it if a man only has daughters and no sons, and that is so disrespectful to girls and women, and I hate that attitude. I adore my beautiful little girl, and if we find out we're having another beautiful little girl I will be thrilled to death, and if anybody asks me if I'm disappointed we're not having a boy, I'm punching them out on behalf of girls everywhere!"
"Preach it, son!" Dr. Griffin teased while the rest of us laughed. "I see a lot of that attitude in my line of work and I'm sick to death of it, too!"
"Hear, hear!" Clarisse agreed, and although I didn't say anything, I nodded my agreement. Shortly after Mia and Lionel first adopted Claire, they had a special ball thrown in her honor to celebrate it and at the end of the festivities that night, they had fireworks. On top of Clarisse and me having the time of our lives that night, I felt it was a very fitting way to welcome a princess into the world. For hundreds of years throughout human history, people stupidly and disrespectfully mourned the birth of a princess while celebrating the birth of a prince, and I was so happy to be a part of an event that treated the birth of a princess with both happiness and respect. And if we were to find out we were having another princess, I would gladly shoot off the first fireworks at the end of the next ball.
"Now that that's off my chest, I'm ready to find out what we're having. What are we having, Dr. Griffin?" asked Lionel.
"I think this news will make you very happy, Your Grace. Your Majesty, you and your husband are having another little girl."
"Yes!" Lionel said, and then he bent down and gave Mia a big kiss, and I gave Clarisse a kiss as well. Then I shook Lionel's hand and gave Mia a big hug after Clarisse was done hugging her.
"I love you, Lionel," Mia said with a big smile.
"I love you too, baby," he told her softly. "Oh, just look at her. Mia, she looks just like your baby pictures, honey."
"You're right; she does," I agreed. The similarities between our new little princess and her mother were obvious.
"She has your nose and your profile," Lionel said. "Oh, she's beautiful!"
"I just hope she doesn't inherit my frizzy hair or my clumsiness."
"I hope she does!" Lionel teased, and Mia playfully slapped his arm.
"That's mean, Lionel!" she told him.
"Sorry, sweetie," Lionel said then as he patted Mia's stomach. "Daddy didn't mean to be mean. Daddy was just joking; that's all."
A couple of moments later, Dr. Griffin said, "Look at that, everyone!" and we all turned our attention to the screen again.
"She's sucking her toes!" I observed with a laugh, and then Clarisse, Mia, and Lionel enjoyed a big laugh as well.
"Aw! That is so precious!" Clarisse said. "Oh Mia, darling, our little one is perfect, absolutely perfect, regardless of whether or not she inherits your frizzy hair or your clumsiness. And I want you to remember that, okay?"
Mia looked up at Clarisse in that moment, smiled, squeezed her hand and said, "Thank you," and Clarisse responded by kissing her hand.
After the appointment with Dr. Griffin was over a little while later, naturally, the next thing on everyone's minds was the question of what Mia and Lionel were going to name the newest Princess of Genovia, and they were actually able to make up their minds about it fairly quickly. Just two days after the big 4-D ultrasound, Mia and Lionel had come to see us in our suite to talk to us about what they wanted to name the baby.
"We're actually pretty sure that we've got it figured out what we want to name her," Mia told us, "but we wanted to talk to you guys first before we made any final decisions."
"I can't wait to find out what you're thinking of naming her," said Clarisse as we all sat down on the couch together.
"Well we decided that we wanted to do with this baby what we did with Claire in only giving her three names instead of four," Lionel explained. Mia and Lionel had felt that four names was too excessive, so they'd decided to just stick with three when they named Claire.
"Right," said Clarisse.
"And we want her second name to be Philippa after Dad, and her third name to be Anne after Lionel's Aunt Sheila, which is her middle name. And with your permission, Papa, we'd like very much for her first name to be Rose." Rose was Maria's middle name, and it was the name I'd given to our baby.
"But if it's too painful for you, we understand," said Lionel.
"Absolutely," Mia agreed. "And if you don't want us to do it–"
"I love it," I interrupted. To say that I was incredibly touched was a huge understatement. "And I'm honored. And Maria would be, too. Thank you, mija," I said as I leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Thank you."
"Her Royal Highness Rose Philippa Anne Motaz-Renaldi, Princess of Genovia," said Clarisse, trying the name on for size. "I love it!"
"I want us to call her Rosie," Mia told us.
"Rosie it is, then," Clarisse announced. "Oh Mia, it's beautiful," she said then as she gave her a big hug, and a moment later, she put her hand on Mia's stomach, and Mia put her hand on top of Clarisse's hand, and we all smiled.
After we talked for a few more minutes, Mia and Lionel had to leave because Mia had to get ready for a meeting with a few Parliament members. The rest of that day really flew by and later that night, I couldn't sleep so I went downstairs to the kitchen for a little midnight snack. When I got there, I actually found Mia there as well, helping herself to a bowl of ice cream.
"Can you imagine what Rosie's calisthenics are going to be like tomorrow if you eat that?" I teased her as I sat down at the counter beside her.
"I know; I know," she sighed. "But I can't resist the temptation."
I laughed at that, and then I asked her, "Can't sleep?"
"Not really. Are you having trouble sleeping, too?"
"Yes, I am having a little insomnia as a matter of fact. Is Rosie keeping you up?"
"Oh, no. She's actually pretty quiet right now...for once!"
I laughed again, and I asked, "So is it just regular insomnia that's keeping you awake or have you got something on your mind?"
"Well I guess it's just that it's all starting to hit me in a way, you know? Really seeing Rosie's little face on that screen like that, naming her…it's all becoming so real now. I'm having a baby! I mean, I'm already a mother through adoption, of course, but I've never become a mother the natural way before. All through this pregnancy, I've been determined to hold onto my faith and think positively, but I think seeing Rosie's face in detail on that ultrasound has really made me wake up to the fact that this whole thing is real now. I'm really in the middle of a high-risk pregnancy, here. And even though I literally have some of the best doctors in the world looking after Rosie and me, and even though I'm taking care of myself and trying to do everything right – except for the ice cream –" she joked and I laughed, "things could still go wrong for us in the delivery room. Nobody knows that fact better than you do."
"Hey, hey," I whispered as I hugged her. "That is not going to happen, mija. Not this time. You and Rosie are going to be perfectly alright. Do you hear me?"
"I know. But just in case things don't go according to plan, I made Lionel promise me that if it came down to it and a choice had to be made and I couldn't tell Dr. Griffin myself, he would tell her to save the baby over me."
I took Mia's hand in that moment and said to her, "I don't want you thinking like that."
"Well I don't particularly like having these kinds of thoughts and discussions either, Papa, but you know as much as I do that sometimes in life, things don't go according to plan. Now I am planning on having a happy, healthy baby girl naturally, without anything going wrong, but I also know that that might not happen."
Much to my dismay, Mia had decided earlier in the pregnancy that she wanted to at least attempt to have a natural childbirth and not get an epidural. Fortunately, the medication she had been taking for her heart and lungs hadn't been harmful to the baby, and Dr. Griffin and Dr. Adams had actually told her that it could be harmful to Rosie if she stopped taking her medications because she needed to keep her heart and lungs as healthy as possible, but it still worried her and she wanted to get by with as little medication as possible during her pregnancy and delivery. It had been the source of countless arguments between us over the past few months as I tried to tell her time and again that epidurals were perfectly safe and that millions of women had had them without any problems for them or their babies, but Mia was stubborn and dug her heels in about it. She was even getting a Lamaze teacher to start coming to the palace to give her, Lionel, and Clarisse a Lamaze class every week when she reached seven months. After having a pretty bad experience with the drugs they gave her when she was in labor with Pierre, Clarisse actually gave birth to Mia's father without any medication, so she understood her reluctance to have an epidural and was supportive of her opting for a natural birth. She even asked Mia if she could be an assistant coach to Lionel during the birth, which of course Mia agreed to, so she was planning on attending Lamaze classes as well. But while I would support my little girl in just about anything on earth she wanted to do, because I loved her as much as I did, I could never have gotten behind her in having a natural birth. Perhaps I could have if she didn't have the problems with her heart and lungs that she did, but the thought of all the stress the pain of labor and delivery would put on her heart and lungs really worried me to death. Of course she was going to be under medical supervision the entire time and her doctors would intervene with whatever medication and procedures Mia needed if it came down to that, but it still worried me too much for me to be able to get on board with it like Clarisse and Lionel were.
"And if things don't go according to plan," Mia continued, "I know I have to have discussions like these with the people I love so that I can be prepared for it; so that we all can be prepared and know what to do."
"I know, sweetheart," I said softly as I put my arm around her shoulders. "I know, and you're right. It is smart to be prepared. I just hate to see you thinking that way, and I don't want you to worry because you and Rosie have so many people who love you and are going to look out for you."
"I know that. Rosie and I are very blessed to have such an awesome family as you guys. And because Lionel and Grandma are my coaches, I've already had this discussion with both of them. It was hard, especially for Grandma, but they both promised me that in the end, if it came down to it and a choice had to be made, they would choose Rosie over me. But the thing is, I know them. I know how much I mean to them, and I know how much they always worry about my health. Keeping me from stress is always very important to them, and I know that at the end of the day, they probably would make me a promise like that and not be sincere about it just to make me feel better and keep me from worrying, especially Grandma."
I tensed up inside after she said that because I knew what was coming. I knew what she was about to ask me to do, and it just tore me up thinking about it.
Mia took a deep breath then and looked me in the eyes and said, "Daddy, I know this is the hardest thing I could ever ask of you, but you're a parent yourself, so you know why I have to do it. As not just my Royal Head of Security but as my father, I know how you feel you have to do everything within your power to look out for me and protect me. And because I'm a mother, you know I have to do that for my baby. You know what it means to be a parent. So even though it's extremely hard and painful for you, as Rosie's mommy, I have to ask you to do the same thing for me that you did for Maria all those years ago. As hard as it was for you, you had the strength, the integrity, and the guts to honor your first wife's wishes and tell her doctor to try and save your baby over her. And if things go wrong for me in the delivery room and Lionel and Grandma try to go back on their word and I'm unconscious for some reason and can't say anything, I need you to be my voice for me. I need to know that in a situation like that, you'll step up to the plate and remind them of their promise to me and not let them break it."
My heart just completely broke. Yes, of course I understood why she needed to ask that of me. I understood that as a mama, she had to make sure her baby would always be taken care of no matter what. But she was my baby. I may not have known her until she was sixteen, but she was my little girl, my child, and I couldn't bear the thought of not choosing her in a situation like that. She was dearer to me than I could describe in words.
In that next moment, Mia took my hand and put it on her stomach and said, "Come on, Joey. You know we can't let anything happen to this awesome toe-sucking, cartwheel-turning, calisthenics-doing, amazingly punctual little baby." I knew her calling me "Joey" like that was her attempt to lighten the mood. When we first met, I told her she could call me "Joe" instead of the more formal "Joseph," and then she teased me and called me "Joey." It was an old joke between us.
"No, we can't," I said quietly, and I meant it, feeling more torn than ever. I realized it then that Rosie meant just as much to me as Mia did. "Nor can we let anything happen to her equally awesome mother," I told her. I desperately wanted to get out of making the promise to Mia that I knew she wanted me to make.
"I mean it, Daddy. If things go wrong while I'm in labor and a choice has to be made, Rosie lives. Not me. Do we have a deal?"
It was the last promise on earth I ever wanted to make, but as my little girl was sitting next to me, holding my hand to her pregnant stomach and imploring me with her eyes, I knew that for her sake, I had to do it. As a daughter, she really needed this from me, and I had to do it no matter how hard it was.
"We have a deal, mija," I whispered while fighting off tears. But then I cupped her face in my hands and told her, "But I want you to listen to me, and I want you to believe what I'm about to say with all your heart." She nodded, and then I said, "There is not going to be a need for that deal. Do you hear me?"
Mia smiled and nodded again and said, "I hear you, Papa. But thank you. Thank you so much, because I know that was terribly hard for you."
"It was, but I understand why you needed to ask that of me. It's all part of being a mama, and you are such a good one."
"Thank you," she said, and then we hugged one last time, and after I got a little snack of my own from the fridge and ate with Mia, we went back to bed.
"Penny for your thoughts," Clarisse said to me a little while later when we were both sitting in Mia's ICU room together. Lionel had gone to one of the guest rooms they had for visitors to catch up on a little sleep like we had done earlier.
"I just got to thinking about times in my life when I've had to make some hard promises, first to Maria, then to Mia," I said quietly. She and I were both talking in whispers so we wouldn't wake Mia.
"I know what you mean. Mia came to me when she was pregnant with Rosie and asked me to make a hard promise, too."
"Yeah," I said, and then Clarisse softly laughed.
"Hey, you remember that 4-D ultrasound?"
"Where Rosie was sucking her toes? Who could forget?"
"I'll never forget all Mia went through with that pregnancy," Clarisse said in a sad sigh. "I'll never forget it when she started having problems."
I hated thinking about that, but as I saw Mia lying in that hospital bed, I couldn't help but be reminded of it. And as I remembered it all, I prayed with all my heart that Mia wouldn't have any problems with her surgery tomorrow like she'd had in the later part of her pregnancy.