AUTHOR'S NOTE: Cheesy chapter title, but I'm sure Hatori and Kureno would agree with me that it is appropriate, hehe.

Kami no Kodomo
Child of God

Chapter 4
A Christmas Miracle

Hatori quickly excused himself. He didn't even offer an explanation, just that he had an emergency that he needed to attend to.

He hurried out of the bar and went to his car. He was the designated driver for the three since he didn't drink. Shigure and Ayame would have to take a taxi home. He sent a mental apology as he reached his car, hoping that his friends would understand.

The time in the car read 10:49pm. He'd been in there longer than he thought.

But his best friends didn't matter right now. Akito was in labour.

She isn't ready! His mind raced as he shifted the car into gear and pulled out of the parking lot. The light dusting of snow and his sudden acceleration made his tires skid a little; a reminder that he had to get there in one piece himself.

She's four weeks early—it's too soon!

He prayed there would be no complications, but he was prepared to rush Akito to the hospital if need be. She was still incredibly weak and frail, but her health was much better than it had been since October. She still looked too small to be 36 weeks pregnant. He prayed the baby would be okay.

He prayed the entire drive home.

He parked his car in front of the main house and ran around to the back where the cat's cage was. If he didn't know the area like the back of his hand now, he probably never would have found it in the pitch-blackness that blanketed this end of the estate. A groan of pain rumbled through the still air ahead of him. He knew it belonged to Akito. He pushed himself faster through the last few metres towards the glow of the lamp within the window of the isolated cage.

He pulled the door open and hurried to Akito's side. She was leaning against Kureno, his arms locked around her chest and his legs wrapped around hers, holding them wide open.

"How far apart are the contractions?" he asked Kureno as he crouched down next to Akito and took her pulse. It was fast—much faster than he had felt from her in a long time.

"I don't know, a few minutes?" Kureno replied, relaxing a little as her pain from the contraction she had subsided a little.

Her brow was covered in sweat and she looked exhausted. Her gaze was downcast. She wasn't even trying. She was just taking the pain as it came.

Mizuki appeared then with a small basin of warm water as Hatori felt Akito's stomach. "Where's Ren?" he asked as he gently pressed down on her abdomen.

"Ren-sama said to call her when the child was born. She doesn't want to see all the blood because it makes her light-headed," the older woman replied stoically. She was always so apathetic! This was an emergency situation!

Unbelievable, he thought. But his hands did not like what they were finding. The child wasn't in the right position. He cursed under his breath. "It's breeched. We have to take her to the hospital."

"No!" Akito snapped, pulling her arm free from Kureno's grasp and held her stomach with it. "I won't go to a hospital!"

"Akito," Hatori exclaimed in alarm, "if we don't take you to the hospital, then you will be unable to push the child out. You'll kill yourself!"

"So be it," she mumbled.

"You stubborn—" he cut himself off and grabbed her shoulder with his hand. "We are taking you to the hospital right now. Come on Kureno."

Kureno nodded and grabbed her around her chest again while Hatori reached for her legs.

"What? No! I forbid you from taking me to the hospital! I don't want this thing! I want to die! Let me die, goddammit!"

She was so light, the two men barely struggled to lift her weight, but her thrashing around was another matter.

He couldn't tell her how ridiculous she was being. He understood. She had given up on living. Those weeks of quiet thought, she had actually spent them in preparation for death. She knew she wouldn't survive in the end on her own. She had accepted it. She was welcoming it now.

He and Kureno managed to get her to the car (which took a few minutes with all of her flailing about), just in time for her to have another contraction. As they held her down while she groaned in agony, Hatori turned to Kureno. "Her contractions must be about five or six minutes apart. When did she start having them?"

"I don't know," he confessed. "I think she was having them a few hours ago, but all she did then was grunt, so I thought she was just in a bad mood or something. She had two really big ones, where she actually cried out in pain, and that's when I called you."

"Dammit," Hatori muttered under his breath as he glanced at Akito from the corner of his eye. "Why have you been hiding it from us?"

Akito collapsed in the back seat as the contraction passed. She refused to answer, causing him to curse under his breath again. He commanded Kureno to get into the back seat with Akito and they quickly sped off to the nearest hospital (which happened to be the one he did his case studies at).

He pulled up to the emergency doors and told Kureno to get Akito ready while he grabbed a wheelchair. He knew where they were so no time was wasted in searching for them.

Once he had Akito sitting in the chair, she started having her fourth contraction since he got her in the car. This one must have been four or five minutes after the one before. He noted that they were getting longer and were closer together. He glanced at the clock on the wall as he quickly wheeled Akito into the building. It was almost quarter to midnight. He recognized the staff and two nurses immediately hurried to him, recognizing him as well.

"My cousin is in pre-term labour. Contractions are now about four or five minutes apart. Baby is breeched," he explained as they hurried down the hall.

"How many centimetres dilated?" one of the nurses asked while the other went ahead in search of a doctor.

He shook his head. "I don't know. I was called in and immediately noted that the baby was breeched. She's too young and her pelvis is underdeveloped for vaginal delivery as it is."

"Caesarean is necessary then."

"Exactly."

Akito began groaning more then as they pulled her into a room. The nurse opened one of the cupboards and pulled out a vial and needle.

"Ha-Hatori," Akito moaned weakly. "Kill me. Please. I-I command you."

He ignored her, holding her down as the nurse gave Akito the injection.

Akito began to relax a little as Hatori and the nurse lifted her onto the stretcher in the room. The nurse propped up Akito's legs and lifted her robes to peer inside.

She shook her head at Hatori before standing up. "She needs a caesarean immediately."

Hatori brushed his hair out of his face and nodded. He was terribly worried. He went to Akito's side when she started having another contraction and held her hand in her rather tight grip. Good, she had some strength in her after all.

About five minutes later, a doctor appeared, assessed the situation in about thirty seconds, and they all wheeled Akito out of the room and down the hallway to an operating room to perform the immediate caesarean.

Hatori waited in the hallway, pacing back and forth. About ten minutes later, Kureno appeared and joined his side. He had parked the car and asked Hatori for an update. Hatori closed his eyes tiredly and leaned against the wall for support. He knew what was taking place behind those walls. He was picturing his god on the operating table, blanketed in a blue plastic sheet while her stomach remained uncovered, sliced open, as they pulled out the child.

A shrill cry cut through the silence: the cry of a newborn.

Hatori and Kureno sighed with relief in unison. The child was alive and healthy enough to cry on its own. Hatori glanced at his watch. Two minutes after midnight, Christmas Day. Even though it was cliché, he couldn't help but think that it was a Christmas miracle.

They relaxed on a pair of chairs a few metres down the hall. Exhaustion was slowly creeping up on them, but they couldn't help but feel a little bit curious about the baby's gender. Hatori was more worried than Kureno about the baby's health because he understood human biology at a much higher degree. Akito neglected her health in the middle of her pregnancy to an extreme level. Would the child have any sort of developmental problems as a result?

His worried thoughts were interrupted five or ten minutes later when a nurse came out, carrying a buddle of white blankets in her arms.

Hatori and Kureno immediately got to their feet and hurried over to the woman.

"Who's the father?" she asked with a smile on her face.

Hatori's heart skipped a beat. The father wasn't here. The father didn't even know! What should he tell her? The truth?

"I am," Kureno announced.

Hatori stared at him in shock as the woman handed the baby to him. What-What did he just say? Before any more bewildered thoughts filled his head, she interrupted them, saying, "Congratulations sir. You have a beautiful daughter."

Kureno's face lit up as he peered into the blankets. "A girl!" he exclaimed as Hatori peered at her over Kureno's shoulder to see her better. "She looks just like her mother!"

Well of course she wouldn't look like you, Hatori couldn't help but think to himself because he knew Kureno was just pretending to be the child's father so things wouldn't be awkward with the nurse.

But why wasn't he transforming? Hatori knew Kureno was a member of the Zodiac, and holding the child should have resulted in him transforming into a sparrow. How could that be?

He didn't know if he should risk holding her, but he didn't ask and Kureno didn't offer. She looked small; he guessed about two kilograms. He reverted back to doctor-in-training mode, asking questions about the child's health and weight.

"She is a little under-developed because she was born prematurely, but she appears to be strong and should pull through. It's best that she stay in the hospital for a few days, or weeks, until it's deemed safe for her to go home," the nurse explained.

Hatori nodded, and asked about Akito. Akito apparently did really well. Soon they would be taking her to a private room where she could rest; the surgeon was still sewing her up.

She took the baby then and asked the men to report to the nurses' station when they were ready to fill out the required paperwork. The staff understood if Kureno and Hatori needed a moment to take everything in because of the rushed delivery.

The two men nodded and went to a quiet sitting area, where they carefully sat down, their minds racing a mile a minute.

Akito had a daughter. God had a child. Hatori had never heard of former god-figures of the Juunishi ever having children. He didn't know what to make of it. Was it possible? Or was it a miracle?

And why didn't Kureno transform? Was she somehow related to the Juunishi because she was God's daughter? Was it possible?

"Hatori-san…" Kureno said suddenly, clearing his throat. Was he nervous or something? "I'm not the father."

Hatori tried not to roll his eyes. "I know that."

"Also… I know you must be wondering why… why…"

Hatori studied him carefully. Kureno pursed his lips, looking uncertain. "Why you didn't transform?" Hatori finished in a whisper.

Kureno nodded. Hatori was about to provide his theory when Kureno said, "I'm free. I've been free for about seven years now."

Hatori's eyes widened. Of all things considered, he never expected to hear that. "H-How?" he asked incredulously. "Does Akito know?"

"Of course she knows," he replied softly, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees, and hung his head. "That's why she always keeps me close by."

Hatori didn't know what to think then. Should he be happy for Kureno? Or sad that the child wasn't somehow related to the bond they shared, and thus, he would never be able to hold her? His heart grew heavy with that last thought.

He needed to go for a walk. A walk would help him to clear his mind.

He excused himself, but Kureno understood. Kureno said he'd get started on Akito's paperwork while Hatori went to clear his head.

The hospital was quiet after midnight and nearly deserted. Christmas decorations lined the hallways to give the cold hospital a warmer feeling. He came upon a Christmas tree decorated with lights and little ribbons tied to the branches. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that each ribbon was actually a prayer.

Please help my baby sister get better!

Grant my father-in-law good health.

I just want to be home with my family for Christmas.

Hatori felt tears come to his eyes suddenly. Fresh air—that's what he needed.

He found an unlocked door and stepped out into the night. The snow was still falling in light flakes and blanketing the earth in shimmering crystals in the lamplight.

There was another man standing outside with him. Hatori didn't notice him at first, as he closed his eyes and drew in the icy cold air into his lungs. As he exhaled, his breath but a faint mist that dispersed before him, he heard the soft crunch of salt beneath a boot.

"Looks like you could use one of these."

Hatori glanced over his shoulder and saw the man, cloaked in white, holding out a cigarette. Hatori couldn't make out his face beneath his hood, but from the sound of his voice and his slightly hunched stature, he guessed the stranger to be an old man. He wasn't in the habit of smoking, knowing the harmful effects of tobacco on the lungs, but he felt an unusual inclination to accept one from this stranger. He nodded his head curtly and accepted the white stick from his gloved fingers.

He lifted it to his lips with trembling fingers as the man stepped toward him and lit it as Hatori inhaled deeply. He closed his eyes as he exhaled. "Thank you," he said to the stranger.

"I saw you rush in with the young woman," he said softly to Hatori. The tip of his cigarette glowed as he inhaled.

Hatori glimpsed the smooth skin around the stranger's lips before the light from the cigarette dissipated and the stranger lowered his face in the darkness.

"That was a close call, wasn't it?"

Hatori inhaled as he studied the man. He felt the numbing effects of the tobacco on his senses and he closed his eyes, relaxing a little as he exhaled. If she would just listen to me in the first place… he thought to himself. He shuck the thought from his mind, knowing fully well that he had no more control over Akito's actions than she did over the breeched baby and her preterm labour. Still, maybe if she had taken better care of her health, the preterm labour wouldn't have happened.

"All things happen for a reason."

Hatori turned and stared at the man, who was looking up at the sky. In the pale glow of the light above, Hatori saw that his face was smooth, soft and slightly feminine: the face of a young man. His eyebrows and eyelashes shone silver in the light that reflected in his unusually bright and vivacious eyes. It was then that Hatori noticed it had suddenly stopped snowing. He followed the man's gaze and looked up to the sky. The clouds were dispersing, revealing a single star shining brightly overhead.

All things happen for a reason?

God gave birth to a child.

The dog didn't know.

The rooster was free.

And the secrets were all there, bearing down on him, filling his mind, and constricting his heart.

More than anything, he wanted to believe that the child was special. He wanted to be able to hold her. He wanted to believe that there would be hope for him and the rest of the Juunishi.

Because she was the child of God.

Surely… Surely that would mean something!

It had to. He wanted to believe it.

He lowered his gaze, but the man was gone. He looked about him in confusion. He didn't hear the man leave, and there were also no footprints in the dusting of snow underneath him, except his own. He exhaled a shaky breath, the cigarette falling from his lips.

All things happen for a reason?

There was only one way to find out.

A sudden urgency overcame him and he hurried back inside and found Kureno filling out the last of the paperwork at the nurses' station. There was a different nurse sitting at the desk, but he recognized her as well and she smiled up at him.

"I'm sorry, but I never got to hold my cousin's daughter. Do you might if I get to hold her for a little bit?"

Kureno stared at him. Hatori knew what thoughts were filling his mind because he could see them in his eyes. He was scared, but there was a tiny hint of curiosity. He knew Hatori didn't take risks when it came to his curse. Why now?

"Of course, Sohma-san," the nurse replied cheerfully.

"I'll come too," Kureno said, his eyes still fixated on Hatori's. "I want to see my daughter again."

Hatori gave him a slight nod in appreciation. Just in case his hopes were dashed, Kureno would be there to catch the child for him.

They followed the nurse down the hallway and entered a door that held four incubators with premature babies. There was another nurse stationed there to keep an eye on the premature babies and the full-term babies in the adjacent room. Hatori recognized her too because he had spent more time in the maternity ward over the last few months to help prepare himself for Akito's impending delivery.

"It's good to see you again, Sohma-san," she said. "What brings you here so late at night?"

Hatori explained the situation to her and she congratulated him and Kureno. She showed them the incubator with Akito's child, and then excused herself when she heard a cry from the adjacent room.

Alone now, Hatori held his breath as he tried to conceal his anxious trembling as Kureno reached into the incubator and pulled out the small child, carefully tucking the blanket more securely around her.

She wrinkled her face, not appreciating the disturbance, but Hatori noted that Kureno was right. She did look like her mother.

Kureno swallowed as he held the child out to Hatori. Hatori said a silent prayer in his head as he reached for the child. Kureno held onto her as Hatori wrapped her in his arms.

And nothing happened.

Their eyes widened as Hatori held her in his arms.

"How is this possible?" Kureno uttered at last.

Even Hatori was too stunned to speak.

Could it be?

Could the child of God be special after all?

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know Hatori is seen smoking in the manga, but we don't know when this unhealthy habit started. So I figured he did it socially with Shigure when they finished high school, and then when Kana left, that's when it became more habitual. So with that in mind, I decided he didn't carry cigarettes with him regularly at this point in time, and would need someone to hand him one…

My short prequel is almost over... Only one more chapter left and then the epilogue. I hope you are enjoying the story so far and that your hearts are opening up to my little OC, Akiten. Her story takes place 13 years later in "ShugoTenshi" (found on my profile page).

Thanks for reading and reviewing!