Aseptic: free from living germs of disease.
August 14, 2007
She couldn't touch him, not really. She could splay her fingers over the curve of his chest, feel the thrust of his little heart beating zealously against her palm, even press a kiss to the ruffled black hair that stuck up like tiny feathers all around his head. But there was always the smooth, plastic feel of the charms all around him, shielding him from all the microscopic dangers his crashed immune system couldn't fight. They saved his life, but they also kept him always a breath away from her.
Ginny stood over her son's cot as the sounds of a hospital washed around her, watching Al's green eyes follow the mobile of wooden birds flapping over his head. She watched his tiny lips flutter behind the pink haze covering his nose and mouth, watched the rise and fall of his thin, bare chest, the fluctuating color of the band around his wrist. He squawked to himself and beat the mattress contentedly with his flailing limbs, all the while transfixed with the birds circling overhead. You wouldn't know that yesterday, this same rosy-cheeked little boy had been blue-lipped and shaking so hard his cot rattled against the wall.
Six weeks. This was all because of the six weeks Al couldn't wait to be born. This wasn't the first time something as ordinary as a cold had planted itself in his lungs and brought his immune system to its knees, but it was the first time in a long time. Even though he wasn't a tiny, fragile newborn, he still seemed to be swallowed by the cot, the soft clamor and vastness of a hospital, and she couldn't even take him into her arms. Mothers were meant to protect their children, but how could she do that if she carried might carry the danger?
Ginny kept one hand over Al's chest, taking comfort from its steady rise and fall, the warmth that seeped into her fingers, but she let her other hand flutter to the barely-perceptible bump of her belly. You, she thought sternly at the baby, had better stay put until I tell you otherwise.
A/N: So this is kind of companion to 'Timing is Everything' but worth the read even if you haven't checked out that story, I hope. Harry and Ginny went through a lot with Al when he was very young, healthwise and development-wise. He ended up a normal kid, of course (well, as normal as one can be with that name and that family). Right, so hope to hear from you ;)