Chapter 38

Alison slowly opened her eyes, realizing it was morning. Usually the first thing she would want to do once she woke up was to go back to sleep, but today, she couldn't wait to get up. She couldn't wait to see her baby.

Something felt off for a second, and she quickly realized that Rafe and Katrina weren't there. Alison started to wonder if she had dreamt the whole thing but then saw the note Rafe had left on the table.

Angel,

Left to get something to eat. We'll bring you back something.

Love,

Rafe and Katrina

Alison smiled. She loved that Rafe remembered how much she hated hospital food.

Just then, she heard some baby sounds. Gabe was awake. Alison slowly moved her feet to the side of the bed, and once she got her bearings, she stood up.

"Hey, baby boy," she said softly, reaching into the bed to pick him up. She smiled as he looked up at her. One of the nurses had put a tiny blue hat on his head. He was absolutely adorable. "You look just like your daddy. You know that?"

Gabe moved his arms about, the sound of his mother's voice soothing to him.

"I bet your hungry." Alison carefully carried him over to the bed.

"Knock, knock," said a nurse as she walked into the room with a smile on her face. "Good morning."

"Good morning."

"How is everyone?"

"We're good."

"I'll be your nurse this morning. My name is Summer. If you need anything just let me know. I'm just checking in to see how you two were doing."

"We're doing great."

The nurse walked over to get a closer look at the baby. "Aww, what an adorable little baby."

"Thank you."

"What's his name?"

"Gabriel. But we call him Gabe."

"Oh, what a beautiful name. Gabriel, after the archangel. My family's very religious," she said with a grin.

"Actually, his grandfather was named Gabriel too. We named our daughter after my husband's mother so we thought it only appropriate to name this little guy after my husband's father."

"You have two kids? How old is the other one?"

"She's five."

"Wow, you look good for having two kids!" she said with a laugh.

"Thanks."

"Well I guess you're an old pro at this. Have you fed him yet?"

"Not yet, but I was about to."

"Alright then, I'll leave you to it. If you need anything, anything at all, just give me a buzz."

"Thank you."

The nurse left with a smile, leaving Alison and the baby alone.

Alison looked down at Gabe, who looked right back up at her with his big beautiful eyes. "You see, Gabe? I'm not the only one who thinks you're a handsome little man," she said with a smile, touching his tiny little nose.

After feeding the baby, Alison looked over at the clock and realized the time. She wondered when Rafe and Katrina would be back.

Then just at that very moment, she heard Katrina's voice outside her door.

"Daddy, do you think Mommy's still sleeping?"

"Let's find out," Rafe answered, opening the door slowly.

"Good morning," Alison said with a smile.

"We brought you breakfast, Mommy!"

"Shh, princess. Don't wake up the baby."

"Oh, it's okay. He's awake right now."

Katrina skipped over to the bed. "I want to see him!"

"Breakfast is served. I brought your favorites."

"Thank you so much. I'm starved."

"Hi, Gabe! Goochie, goochie, goo!" Katrina touched his cheeks and pinched him very, very lightly.

"I've got blueberry muffins, banana nut, orange juice…" Rafe continued.

"Mmm! Give me the blueberry."

Rafe handed the muffin to Alison, smiling as she took a big bite out of it.

"Can I take Gabe to school for show and tell?"

"No, I don't think so, princess. He's really too little right now to be around too many people. But you could take a picture of him to school to show everybody."

"I want to hold Gabe. Can I?"

Alison smiled. "I don't see why not. Rafe, bring that chair over here."

Rafe moved the chair sitting in the corner of the room closer to the bed. "Sit right here, Princess."

"Now sweetie, Gabe's not as light as he looks. He's a lot heavier than a baby doll, okay?"

"Okay."

"Wait, let me get my camera!" Rafe dug his camera out of his bag on the table and positioned it to record. "Okay. Ready."

"Okay, sweetie," Alison said, moving closer to Katrina and preparing to hand the baby over. "The first thing you have to know about holding a baby is that you always support his head, and you always support his bottom. He can't hold his head up on his own so you have to keep your hand under it."

Katrina held her arms out as her mother gently placed the baby into them.

"Now let his head rest on that arm," Alison instructed. "And put your hand under him to hold him. There you go."

Katrina giggled, loving every minute of this. She had never held a real baby before.

"What do you think of your little brother, Princess?" Rafe asked her, recording it all.

"I love Gabe!"

"Do you like being a big sister?"

"Yeah."

"Why don't you tell Daddy what you told me the other day. About all the things you're going to teach your baby brother?"

"Mommy said since I'm a big sister, I get to teach Gabe stuff."

"What are you going to teach him?" Rafe asked.

"Um, how to ride a pony."

Rafe and Alison both laughed.

"Well, maybe when he's older. What else, Princess?"

"Um, I'm going to show him how to play hide and seek. And how to lick all the cake batter off a beater."

Alison laughed. She was sure Katrina learned how to do that from her. "How obvious is it that she grew up in a bakery?"

"And I'm going to teach him letters and numbers and teach him some songs."

"Well that all sounds great, Princess. Gabe is lucky to have a big sister like you."

"He's my little brother because he's real, real little."

Alison and Rafe both laughed.

"But he's getting heavy now!"

Rafe set the camera down and stepped in to take the baby. Once the baby was out of her hands, Katrina climbed into bed with her mother and Rafe took the seat she vacated.

Katrina pointed to her mother's muffin. "I want a little bite, Mommy."

"Katrina, you just had breakfast," Rafe reminded her. "Remember?"

Katrina turned to her father. "Yeah, but holding babies makes you hungry!"

Alison broke off a piece of her muffin and handed it to Katrina, then giving her a quick kiss. She had never felt so happy in her life. How lucky was she? A loving husband and two beautiful children. She had to be the luckiest woman in the world.

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"How are my patients doing today?" Dr. Meadows said happily as she walked into the room later that morning. Rafe had taken Katrina out for lunch, so it was just Alison and the baby.

"We're doing great. So can we go home today?"

"What? You don't want to stay? With all the fine dining and around the clock service, and you don't even have to change a diaper! You want to go home?"

"Yes, please, Dr. Meadows," Alison begged.

"I'm sorry, Alison. The hospital requires mothers to stay for at least 48 hours, and so do I. You can go home tomorrow morning and not a minute before."

"You're tough, Dr. Meadows."

"I'm just doing my job. It's my job to make sure when you and this baby go home, that you're both in good shape."

"So tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow, and that's after you're examined by me. I'll see you later, Alison."

"Bye."

As Dr. Meadows stepped out, Jamal stepped in. "Hey, Spunky."

"Jamal! Hey!"

"Brought some room décor," he laughed, holding up the baby balloons.

"You can put them on that table over there with all the others."

Jamal placed the balloons down, then walked over to Alison and kissed her cheek. "How are you?"

"I'm great."

"Can I see him?"

"Of course! He's right over there. He's sleeping but you can pick him up, it's okay."

"Hey, little man," he whispered, gently picking the baby up. Jamal walked over to the other side of the bed and sat down in the chair. "You did good, Ali. He definitely looks like a healthy little boy."

"Thank you."

"So, you ready to get out of here?"

"Oh am I ever! I'm already getting stir crazy. But Dr. Meadows won't let me go home."

"You want me to sneak you out? I'll go find rummage up some hospital clothes out of a supply closet and I'll wheel you out of here," he joked.

"Thanks, but no, I think they would notice that you aren't a part of the staff."

"Nah, we could pull it off. If the nurse catches us, I'll just put on the charm, act like I'm new and just taking care of the patients. You know."

Alison laughed. "Sure."

"So where's Lil' Spunky at? I thought for sure I'd find her here."

"Oh, she was here, and she'll be back. Rafe just took her out for a bite to eat."

"I bet she's excited, huh?"

"Oh yeah, she's loving it. She's wanted to be a big sister for a long time."

"Hey, Ali? I don't know if I ever told you, but you're a really good mother. I'm very happy for you."

Alison smiled. "So what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Oh don't tell me the issue of children hasn't come up between you and Marissa."

"Oh sure, we love kids. It'll happen when it happens."

"Which will be…..when exactly?"

"When we decide on it," Jamal said with a laugh.

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On Sunday morning, Dr. Meadows finally said mother and baby could go home.

"I'll go load up the car," Rafe said, holding a handful of flowers and bags. "I'll be right back."

"Oh, take your time. I'm sure they'll take forever to bring my discharge papers."

"Hmm. I'll see if I can find the nurse, speed things up a bit."

"Thanks."

Katrina stepped out of the bathroom and went over to the bed where her mother held Gabe. "Where's Daddy?"

"He just went to the car. He'll be right back."

"Is it time to go? Can we leave now?"

"Just about. We've got to wait for the nurse first."

Alison shifted the baby in her arms, turning him around so he could see his sister.

Katrina smiled, taking hold of his hand. "Guess what, Gabe? You get to go home today! You're going to love your room. I made sure they made it blue just for you."

"How do you like that, baby boy?" Alison said, holding the baby closer to her.

Gabe's response to all of this attention: spitting up.

"Oh! Gabe! You spit up all over your brand new outfit!"

Katrina scrunched up her nose. "Yuck."

"Katrina, will you grab that baby bag sitting on the chair for me?"

Katrina nodded, hopping off the bed to retrieve the bag. "Oh man, it's heavy! What in the world does Gabe got in here?"

"Everything a baby needs." Alison unzipped the bag, grabbing the burping cloth she was looking for.

Katrina peered into the bag. "For such a little person, he's got a lot of stuff!"

"Mrs. Kovich?" said the nurse, walking into the room with a smile. "I have your discharge papers. Are you ready to get out of here?"

"Oh am I ever!"

"Gabe's ready to go home too," Katrina said. "He's had enough of this place. See? Hospitals make him wanna throw up."

Alison and the nurse laughed. And from the expression on Gabe's face, it looked like Katrina was right.

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"One more time!" Katrina begged, holding one finger up in the air.

Nurse Summer laughed. "I don't know, Katrina. I'm getting a little pooped!"

"Please!"

Summer sighed. She was beginning to regret starting this little game. "Okay. One more time! And that's it."

"Yay!"

Colleen watched them from the nurses' station, laughing. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Summer threw her a look as she turned the wheelchair around.

"Whee! Faster!" Katrina begged, holding on tight as Summer pushed her down the hallway in the wheelchair.

"Going for a ride, little miss?" an orderly said, laughing as he saw the two.

When they reached the end of the corridor, Summer turned the chair around, wheeling her back to the station.

"Again!"

"No, not again."

"Why not?"

Summer smiled. "It's time for you to go." Summer nodded towards the elevator.

Katrina hopped out of the chair, running over to where her parents were. A volunteer had just wheeled Alison out of the elevator. In her arms, Alison held the baby, who was, no surprise, sleeping again.

Rafe was right behind them, his arms full with the rest of the baby's things. "Ready to go, princess?"

"Yeah! Let's go home!"

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Rafe had planned ahead, pulling the car up to the front so they didn't have to walk far.

Katrina strapped herself in, then watched as her daddy buckled Gabe into his seat.

Alison sat up front, breathing a sigh of relief that she was finally going home.

Once the baby was ready to go, Rafe loaded up the rest of the car and sat in the driver's seat. "So. Ready to go home?"

Alison gave him a smile. "Yes. Please."

"Gabe's going to miss seeing his room. He's sleeping!" Katrina complained.

"Oh, don't worry, princess. I'm sure Gabe won't be sleeping for too much longer." He threw Alison a knowing glance.

Alison agreed, remembering all of those nights when baby Katrina would not sleep at all. "Ain't that the truth."

Katrina didn't understand. She turned to look at her brother and smiled. She was finally glad he was here. He sure took forever.

Rafe then started up the car, and they were on their way home.