41.
~ Norma found herself wandering around the old house by the motel. It was dark outside and the only light visible was the blue neon sign that seemed to flood every room. Her voice echoed and sounded strange in a house that was eerily stripped of furniture. The rooms all looking blank and without real form.
"Hello?" she called and heard her own voice echo back. The blue lights from the windows seeped into everything like toxic radiation.
"Alex?" she called feeling slightly nauseas. "Norman? Dylan?"
"Norma?" came a voice and it seemed very far away. Maybe outside the house?
She found her way to the second floor, but when she looked behind her, the stairs were gone. Vanished as though they had never been there at all. As if there wasn't a ground floor and she couldn't go back.
"Hello?" she called and reached out a hand to the door knob.
She entered Norman's room and it was cold and still. The blue lights outside, the neon lights from the motel, were here as well.
"Norman?" she asked seeing a human form sleeping under the covers.
She felt unsure about it. Something was wrong. The body wasn't moving or making any noise.
"Norman?" she asked. "What's happened?"
She sat on the edge of his bed and rested a hand on her son's shoulder. Norman was very still.
"Norman, you're so cold." she whimpered and realized her son's body was stiff and rotting. His eyes milky white in death.
"Norma!" came a sharp cry before she could feel panic setting in. "Norma, wake up!"
The dream melted away and Norma felt a violent pull inside her body.
"I think your water just broke." came Alex's voice.
"What?" she asked in alarm. Her dream world feeling so real. Was Norman okay? She saw he was dead in his bed back home.
"I'm calling the ambulance." Alex was saying and she could feel him shift away from her. The lights in their bedroom snapping on and the blue of her dream being washed away in a safe, yellow light.
~ It had all happened so quickly. The ambulance ride, Norma being wheeled into delivery. She didn't look panicked but had calmly told him to call Dylan and that she wanted Dylan there. The hospital staff all in masks and the waiting room still quartered off to promote social distancing. Alex being pushed away from the delivery room as they prepped his wife for emergency surgery.
"Sheriff, you need to wait out here." The nurse was saying. "Someone will be out shortly to talk to you."
~ Alex wanted to argue, but he was required to fill out a few forms and provide insurance information. He was sure this was all busy work to keep someone occupied and out of the way. Alex barely had time to call Dylan and tell him to come to the hospital before the emergency room surgeon, an older man still in his yellow paper gown, came out.
"Congratulations, Sheriff. You have a daughter." he said shaking Alex's hand. "Mother and baby are doing fine. Give the nurses a few minutes to clean them up and you can go back."
Alex blinked.
"A girl?" he almost laughed that Norma had been right. "You're sure?" he asked in astonishment at how quick it had been.
"I was there. Defiantly a girl." the doctor said good naturally. "We thought we would have to have to take the baby, but your wife delivered easily; no complications."
~ For all of the doctors praise that the birth had been easy and Alex's befuddlement that it had all been so quick, Norma had a different view. Men didn't have to do this. They didn't have to see or even know about the pain and slow recovery of childbirth. How her body felt broken and torn and battered.
Labor and childbirth was always horrific. She didn't care what anyone said about it going perfectly.
When she had Dylan, she had thought she was going to die. The labor seemed unending. Worse and more fighting than when her father beat her with the belt or his fists. What was really terrible, was that no one seemed to care that she was in pain. One nurse even saying she was young and healthy and shouldn't have this much trouble. Still, Dylan hadn't wanted to come out. He made her labor last for hours with pain that radiated up her back so badly she felt her body would break in half. After almost a day in labor, the doctor had to dilate her and she'd been terrified her baby was going to be born dead or deformed from all of it.
Norman had been much easier. Sam's health insurance keeping her in a private room and with plenty of drug so she only felt pressure when he was delivered. Norman hadn't even cried when he was born. The doctor having to rub his back and chest to force a feeble noise of protest.
This one, her long awaited girl, seemed to want to punch her way out. As though she was eager to get started in life.
The nurse and doctor barely having time to say she was crowning before Norma felt the strong urge to push and then, it was over. Her daughter's angry screams taking over.
"Her lungs work, Mrs. Romero." the doctor said happily. Theresa's heart was listened to over her wailing cries. Her wrinkled red hands going to her mouth and her feet kicking in the air as the nurses cleaned her, diapered her and swaddled her tightly. She was even complete with a white cap and pink bow on top.
"Brand new, just for you." The doctor sang happily laying the newborn on Norma's chest. "I'll go and tell the Sheriff."
~ Theresa was fascinating to Norma. Her fierce look and jet black hair were all Alex's. She scowled at Norma in annoyance. Her winkled expression seemed to ask:
"Can you believe this?"
Norma let out a laugh just as the baby yawned and seemed ready to sleep.
~ It was alien territory for Alex to be here in the maternity ward. He was used to the other parts of the hospital. The emergency room, the recovery room and even the morgue. As law enforcement his job took him all over this hospital, but never where the new babies were.
"Hi, Sheriff." Norma said when he looked cautiously into her private room.
She looked tired and her hair was flat. Not at all the always pristine style she normally wore.
"Are you okay?" he asked crossing the small room to sit on the edge of her bed.
"I will be." she whispered. Her color looking drained as though she'd seen a ghost. "Do you want to see her?"
Alex had been so focused on Norma, he hadn't noticed the clear plastic bassinet that all hospitals used for newborns. A pink ID card on over it saying: ROMERO, THERESA. L in large capital letters with Romero, Norma written in smaller script.
He wasn't sure what to say or do. He was afraid watching Norma take the baby out of the safety of the prescribed hospital cradle. Maybe they shouldn't wake her up? Wasn't Norma too weak?
"Just support her head. She's had a busy day, Alex." Norma said. Her voice sounding exhausted herself.
Alex was slightly afraid to hold her. He'd never held a baby in his life and this one seemed so small and far too fragile. Her tiny body wrapped up securely so that only her face showed.
"They put this hat on her that had a pink bow on it." Norma was explaining. "I don't think she'll be a fan of pink. She was rubbing her face till I took it off. Maybe she just wants to show off all that hair."
Alex looked up at his wife and Norma smiled weakly.
"See?" she asked gently moving the blankets down off the newborn's head to reveal a shock of black hair. The baby's hands creeped out in protest and covered her face. A reaction to her head not being covered.
"Her fingers." Alex breathed in surprise.
"Yes, she had fingers." Norma laughed softly.
He watched his daughter flex long, tiny fingers over her face before trying to gently hold her hand. Theresa grasping his pinky with a strong grip and not wanting to let go of him. Her eyes closed and her breathing steady. She looked too perfect for words.
"She has fingernails." Alex said in amazement at the perfectly formed nails on her fingertips.
"Toenails to. I checked." Norma nodded with a smile.
He looked back at her.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
She still seemed winded and exhausted, but she nodded.
"You called Dylan?" she asked hopefully.
Alex nodded.
"He was at home with Emma. He's going to be here as soon as possible. I'm not sure they'll let him hold her though. The hospital is still caring for people with the virus. It might be a few days." he said.
Norma laid back in her hospital bed. She looked ready to go to sleep.
"She's perfect, Norma." Alex whispered. "Thank you."
~ "Five pounds, Five ounces. Very healthy. Ten fingers and ten toes." Alex told Dylan as both men looked at the swaddled new arrivals through the window. There was a total of five babies born in the past few days. The paper had even done a story on the expected baby boom no doubt caused by the few months in quarantine.
"Congratulations, Romero." Dylan said eyeing his new baby half sister who was ferociously sucking a pacifier in her little plastic bassinet.
"Is mom okay?" Dylan asked.
"She looks a little tired." Alex admitted. "They want to keep her overnight."
"What's her middle name?" Dylan asked noting the L. "I see Mom finally picked one."
"Louise." Alex said quickly and shrugged. "It's her own middle name. Said it was her grandmothers to."
"What are you going to tell Norman?" Dylan asked. He knew his brother hadn't been clued in on the pregnancy at all. "When he comes home to a newborn." Dylan added.
Alex stepped away from the glass and nodded for his stepson to join him in a private conversation.
"Your mother doesn't want Norman around the baby." he explained. "At all."
Dylan shook his head.
"That's going to be hard to do when Norman come home."
Alex was quiet and didn't meet Dylan in the eye.
"Your'e going to let Norman come home, right?" Dylan asked.