I'm so sorry for the delay and I'm hoping to get my mojo back..especially with this ridiculous hiatus till November... sorry to keep you all waiting... Jamie.
Matt stepped through the door of the NICU with Shay's arm around his waist for support for he seemed he could collapse at any moment." Immediate family only." A short red headed nurse barked out from behind the nurses station.
"Can't you see we are family." Severide barks back as he followed closely behind his two closest friends.
"My baby girl was brought up here not to long ago." Matt says in barely a whisper as his body trembles, causing Shay to wrap her arm tighter around his waist." Gabriela Dawson." He breaths out after a few moments.
"I'm sorry sir." The nurse answered before bowing her head looking at the chart in front of her." I have a baby Casey that was just brought up and they are getting her settled right now." The red head points to two other nurses huddled over an incubator." Karen this is the dad." She calls out getting the attention of young attractive nurse maybe in her early 20s that was a scary resemblance to Gabby.
"Just give us one more minute sir." Karen smiled softly over her shoulder before turning back to her task at hand.
Matt sucks in a breath at first glance of this nurse." Wow that is a crazy resemblance." Severide chuckles as he receives a glare from Shay.
"I can't do this." Matt shakes his head taking a step back." Not without her." He then turns to walk away.
"This is what she would want." Shay calls out stopping him in his tracks."The Gabby I know would kick your ass for even attempting to put her first."
Matt slowly turns to face his two friends." I need to know she's OK?" He whispers as a single tear escapes." I can't do this, any of this without her." Matt glances over at the nurses working on his new baby.
Just then Karen walks over and introduces herself." Your daughter is showing great improvement." Was all Matt heard before snapping his eyes up to look over at the incubator.
" She's...she is going to be OK?" He stutters out unable to look at the nurse that resembles Gabby too much.
"She's already off the ventilator, and breathing on her own." Karen responds optimistically." She's a strong one there you got yourself a fighter."
"Like her mother." Matt replys with the tiniest grin as he finally looks up at the nurse in pink scrubs.
"Would you like to hold her?"Matt freezes when Karen asks that before he glances over to Shay and Severide who have not moved from their spots." They say a parents love is the best healer." Karen adds to the silent father before her.
"I...I I need to wait I gotta wait, for Gabby ." Matt says looking over to Shay at the end." We should meet her together."
"You are meeting your daughter and holding her right now." Shay loops her arm around Matt's shocking him slightly"Your little baby girl needs you right now, and besides Gabby already knows how much you love her." She finishes in her typical teasing tone.
"O...K." Matt stutters out nervously as they walk over to his little baby girl." She looks like Gabby." Matt let's out a soft sigh as he looks as his baby girl taking in her dark completion and dark strands of hair on the top of her head.
"That's where she gets her strength." Shay smiles down at the tiny infant who is squinting at the sets of eyes watching her.
Karen slips in front of the admiring eyes as she opens the side of the incubator slipping a hand under the babies bottom and back of her head with no hesitation." Just careful of these few wires they are just for monitoring." She motions her head to the infants hand wrapped in a sling incasing all of them in place.
"Oh, um." Matt says slightly frazzled as Karen hands off his beautiful daughter with no hesitation.
"Just watch her head." Karen says before turning to walk away giving Shay a knowing look as shay returns a nod of thanks.
"She really does look like Gabby." Severide steps next to his friend taking her tiny little hand into his two fingers.
"Yeah." Matt mumbles never taking his glistening blue eyes off of her ashis smile continued to grow by the second.
" Maybe we should leave you two to get aquanted?" Shay places her hand on Kelly's back but looking over to Matt." She is amazing Casey congrats truly."
"You don't have to leave." He glanced over to them but quickly looked back down to his cooing daughter.
"Yeah we are hungry anyway." Severide says taking in Matt's more relaxed form, and his ear to ear grin now." We will be back soon." He releases the tiny hand from his fingers before squeezing Matt's shoulder then turning to walk away a few seconds later wrapping his arm around his best friends shoulder.
"Leslie." Matt snaps his head up to call out." Gabby?" Was all he said with pleading eyes for her to understand, as she nods with a smile." Oh and thank you." He lifts his head one last time to his friends still watching him.
"Always." Shay nods back knowing he is thankful for pushing him to meet his daughter.
Matt glanced up one more time watching Shay and Severide exiting the room before turning his attention back to his heavy eyed tiny beauty in his arms." Those two people that just left are two of the most important people in your life, just after your mother and I of course." Matt chuckles softly as he sits down in the rocking chair right behind him." They will spoil you rotten I'm sure, but the love your mother and myself have for you is unwavering."
Matt looks around the room for a minute taking in all the other tiny babies and their parents holding dearly before looking back down at his little girl meeting her curious eyes." Oh you waiting for me to tell you more?" Matt chuckles as he settles further back into the rocking chair and starts rocking." Do you recognize my voice princess? Well I'm your daddy."
The tiny newborn in his arms let's out a soft coo as she looks up at him and her tiny little fingers are moving that Matt takes in his fingers and kisses her forehead." Daddy loves you very much." He whispers against her forehead as he tries to hold back his emotions." And your mommy, god your mommy is the most amazing person, and she loves you more then anything." Matt can't hold back the tear that falls down his cheek, as he looks up around the room again trying to contain his emotions.
Once he composes himself he looks back down at curious eyes still searching his face." You will meet your mommy soon, I know you will. And you can see for yourself just how much she loves you, and learn all of the amazing things she does that made me love her unconditionally as well."
Matt sat quiet now just watching his tiny girl, watching her mouth move with tiny noises escaping and how her eyes would droop closed but pop open like she was afraid she would miss something.
"How are we doing here?" Karen spoke standing next to him, Matt unaware she had walked up to him.
"Yeah were good, great really." Matt answered but didn't look up till he finished speaking.
"How would you like to feed her?" Karen asks holding up a tiny bottle." It's very simple." She takes to readjusting the baby in his arms." Just let her take a breathier every few minutes, try burping her." Karen places the nip in the babies mouth and letting the bottle fall into Matt's hands.
"Wait, I don't... how do I?" Matt looked up at Karen bewildered.
"Don't worry." Karen smiled at him ." She knows when she's full and I'll be right over there." She points to the nurses station.
"Ok." Matt settled back into the chair once again watching his little girl gulp down her bottle and her eyes drop closed now." This isn't so hard." He chuckles looking over his shoulder to Karen who stayed watching for a moment.
"See." She smiled just as Shay came bardging through the NICU doors.
"Casey." She called out trying not to draw too much attention to her." Matt, it's it's Gabby." She finally got the words out as he snapped his head up in fear." She's awake."
Author's notes: so I contemplated leaving out the last two words of this chapter but decided to not be that cruel. I will try to update more but can promise anything within the next week...I hope everyone enjoyed my return and my writing wasn't that rusty...reviews please thanks again for reading