Something Real

He could count on one hand the amount of times he had been in a hospital corridor, and he certainly couldn't remember a time when he'd ever stood still in one of them. He'd always fidget, shuffle around, look for a reason to leave, but not now. When it fell quiet, he noticed how loud and chaotic the hospital was, filled with the bustling every day sounds that were so strange and foreign to him, far away from the noises of his every day life. Doctors were rushing backwards and forwards, gathering files and preparing for surgeries. He was glad that he didn't have to deal with this hustle and bustle as part of his career. He couldn't imagine anything more uncomfortable. Families were on their way to get coffee. If, like usual, he'd been paying attention to what was going on behind his turned back, he would have noticed that he would have seen the same people on the before and after trips to the coffee machine. He did enjoy that coffee machine, even though it spat out coffee that looked like mud it did a beautiful cup of tea. More families were visiting relatives, some holding helium balloons with the ribbons and brightly coloured weights, others holding flowers.

Yet, as preoccupied as he usually was with the finer details of everything going on around him, he only had eyes for one person at the moment.

Patrick pressed his hand next to his forehead, beside the skin which had already been flattened by the weight of his adoration pressing it into the glass. He looked through the thin criss-cross pattern on the glass, thankful that the blinds on the other side of the window had been pulled to the top so that his view wasn't obstructed by the panels on it. The glass was all that separated him from the tiny form that lay sleeping before him.

For over an hour now he'd been there. Just standing. Just watching. He knew that it had been a long time because his legs were starting to feel the need to be stretched to get the feeling back in them. He didn't, though. He couldn't even think about moving from that spot. Standing there, watching over the fragile body, felt so right and so real that even if it were wrong he would have done it. As strong as his need to pick up on people's habits and pick things apart was, he wouldn't have moved for anything. He almost laughed at how quickly his instinct had appeared – he would have, were he not quite so terrified. Already he knew that he would have died just for the happiness of this child before him.

"Hey."

Nothing so far had pulled his eyes away from the baby, but the tiny voice he knew so well succeeded where other sounds had failed. He looked up, removing his forehead from the cool glass and turned to see Violet walking towards him.

"Hey," he smiled back to her, the grin that plastered his face still residing from when it had been put there the previous morning.

Violet came to stand at his side and he removed his hand from the glass as well, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and closing the gap between them that was filled by air. She joined him in watching the baby as she slept peacefully, unaware that the two adults on the other side of the glass were watching her with matching adoration in their eyes.

Patrick turned his head ever so slightly, his eyes landing immediately on his target – Violet. Her and the baby on the other side of the glass being the only two people he wanted to look at for the rest of his life. "You should still be resting, Vi," he pointed out to her.

Violet still had fatigue written all over her body. She was exhausted from the delivery, which had been long and hard work for her being her first labour. It was the hardest thing she had ever needed to do, nothing else even comparing to the focus and drive she had needed. Still, she hadn't stopped smiling since then. Not for a single second. "I know," she nodded. She knew that Patrick was worried about her and she knew all too well that she was supposed to be in the room down the hall, in her bed, resting, recuperating, and everything else that her body needed. "I just had to see her," she sighed, smiling at the baby who slept so soundly, regardless of the other crying babies around her.

Patrick turned from the baby so that he could see Violet's face fully. She was glowing with motherhood, more so now than she had done during her pregnancy, and an air of happiness radiated from her rosy red cheeks. Although she was tired and there was a small dark presence underneath her eyelids, her eyes were sparkling with an uncontrollable desire to freeze time and remain exactly where she was. Her hair, once pulled into a neat pony-tail, was now falling loosely at the front, the shorter layers framing her face in a halo of sorts which shimmered under the corridor lights.

"That was your excuse half an hour ago," he smiled at her.

She smiled up at him, leaning her head on his shoulder as she turned once again to look at the baby that their love had created. No wonder she was so beautiful. "I just can't stand to be away from her," she admitted, pure adoration streaming from her eyes towards the baby. She looked up at him, noticing the same look of love in his eyes. "From the look of things, neither can you."

Caught out, he laughed and bought her closer to him, complimenting her lips with a soft kiss which she happily accepted. "She's so beautiful," Patrick said for the thousandth time in only a day, as he paid close attention to the closed eyelids and the small, chubby cheeks and the tiny shaped nose that made up his daughter's face. "I almost can't believe we've made it this far."

"Me neither," she agreed.

They had come through many obstacles to be standing there that day, looking at their child and knowing that there was nothing but good times ahead of them. Their road to happiness hadn't been an easy one, yet no matter what life threw at them they had always loved each other, right from the start. No matter what else came into the equation, they gave their hearts away after they had fused their lives together and never intended to bring back the pieces of their hearts to make two separate people again.

"It's nice to have something this real we can share," Violet whispered aloud, burying her head into the groove of her husband's shoulder, which she knew fit her head perfectly.

Patrick picked up one of her hands in his, bringing it to his lips and placing a kiss onto the golden band that he had placed there not even six months ago. No matter what life had in store for him now, his girls would always make it better.