Spencer woke up the next morning on his bed, sucking his thumb. He immediately went to go see his Mother. Diana was still sleeping. He snuck into her room and sat down by her bed, just wanting to be close to her. He curled up on the floor with his thumb in his mouth, and went back to sleep.
When Diana woke up, she was pleased to find that her hallucination had passed. She looked down to see Spencer laying beside her bed and smiled. She gathered him into her arms and went to change him. Her baby was a dead weight in her arms. Completely knocked out. She changed him and then held him in her arms. Every feature of his face fascinated her. She remembered the first time she'd seen his beautiful face.
Her pregnancy had been terrifying. Every day the demons in her mind took over. She took comfort in rubbing her stomach. Her baby loved her so much. Every little kick reassured her that she had been doing the right thing.
She sat in the rocking chair in the nursery she and her husband had designed, wearing a long, patterned maternity dress with a cardigan to match and comfortable shoes. The walls were painted a cheerful yellow. A white crib with a mobile and a changing table leaned against one wall, and on the opposite was a little bookshelf stocked with children's books. The rocking chair leaned against the back corner of the room. A dresser and closet were adjacent to it. She looked at the crib, which had a blanket draped over one side, and some cuddly toys inside of it. She smiled as she ran her hand over her stomach.
"I hope you'll be happy here." She said. A kick was the reply she got in return.
She went to get up, and felt the rush of water down her legs. A sharp pain ripped her abdomen, and she let out a shriek. Her husband was out at work, so she drove herself to the hospital. She had a high threshold for pain, so she wasn't really bothered until six hours in. Her hands were sweaty and shaking, and her face was contorted with pain. She was ready to kill somebody.
Time passed by at a turtle's pace. She didn't know how long she suffered at the hands of her baby, but at last the time came for her to push. She dug her nails into her husband's hand hard enough to draw blood. She shrieked at the top of her lungs. The pain was intolerable and unbelievable.
Just when she thought she couldn't take it anymore, the pain stopped as abruptly as it had began, and a cry pierced the air.
She felt weak and was so exhausted that she wanted to fall asleep, but she stayed awake so that she could meet her baby.
"Congratulations Mrs. Reid, it's a boy."
She smiled thinly. She had a son.
A bundle of blue blankets were suddenly coming toward her, and a small weight was placed in her arms. She looked down, and was shell shocked at what she saw.
He was complete perfection. He had a shock of dark hair on his head, and his eyes were perfectly shaped like almonds. He had a button nose, and the most beautiful mouth Diana had ever seen. His skin was fair, but his face was red from crying. Slowly, carefully, she ran her index finger down his velvet cheek. A little hand reached up and wrapped his hand around her fingers.
That moment, suspended in time, was the most important moment of her life. That was when she fell in love with her son.
She smiled, white teeth aglitter. She leaned down to kiss his forehead.
"Welcome home, baby."
In her room in the sanitarium, she leaned down to repeat the action that had heralded her son's arrival. She cuddled him gently, careful not to wake him, as she remembered the moment that had made her dreary existence absolutely perfect.