"Why us! Why our baby!" Missy sobbed. Dale held it in, the sorrow filling his chest, and held his weeping wife like the rock she needed him to be.
"Shhh, Missy." He tried to sooth. "Just breathe. I'm right here." His voice cracked as she gripped his arm like a lifeline.
Their baby girl, the baby she'd carried for 9 months, was still born. And the agony they felt was excruciating. All the excitement for her arrival, all the preparations and anticipation, all to lead up to her tragic end before she could even breathe her first breath.
Suddenly, in the midst of their grieving, there was a timid knock to the hospital room door. And a doctor popped her head into the room.
"Uh, Chief? May I have a word with you? Please?" The doctor asked nervously. Dale wasn't crying, well, the tears hadn't fallen yet. He cleared his throat of the lump sitting there and kissed Missy's forehead where she laid in the hospital bed before joining the doctor in the doorway.
"What is it?" He demanded, irritated that he was being pulled away from his grieving wife so soon after their loss.
"Well, Sir, there's a, um, a baby." The doctor started, still obviously a nervous wreck.
"A baby? What do you need me for then? Aren't babies your job?" He snapped, bitter that someone else was able to have their healthy baby and his family couldn't. Life really wasn't fair, was it.
"That's the thing, Sir. This baby was found near the barrier and we have no idea who the parents are. She's not...normal." The doctor continued.
"Is it a zombie baby?" Dale questioned out of confusion.
"Well, no. We ran a couple tests, she's definitely human, but," the doctor was interrupted when Missy called from inside the room.
"We'll take her in!" Her mourning was clear from raspy in her voice.
"I-I don't think you will want her when you see her." The doctor tried to gently argue. Dale straightened up.
"Do you think this baby could be adopted?" He asked seriously.
"Well, yes, but her deformity might make parents...wary...of her." She explained. Dale was tired of the way she was beating around the bush.
"Bring her here." He snapped, basically shooing the doctor away.
"Y-yes Sir." The doctor stammered before scurrying away.
Dale returned to Missy's side immediately. "Are you sure about, adopting?" He asked gently.
"What are the odds of a baby being abandoned that won't be able to find a home the same night we lose ours?" She countered, eyes wet with tears yet burning with a determined fire he thought she'd never get back after the horrors they'd just endured. Their own living nightmare. His features softened.
"It's what our baby would have wanted." He agreed, earning a happy, relieved sigh from his wife. Affectionately, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and she laid into his side as they waited for the doctor to return with the baby.
They weren't waiting long. The doctor returned with a bundled blanket cradled in her arms, face still frazzled and nervous as she approached. Missy immediately extended her arms towards the woman, urging her to pass the baby into her arms instead.
"Here she is." She said, carefully giving the mayor the bundle and took a step back as she waited anxiously for their reaction.
Missy gushed in adoration as soon as she saw the baby's sleeping face, the only feature exposed from the blanket. Dale leaned in beside his wife, ready to meet the baby they'd call their own. He too softened in an instant. She was a perfect little angel.
Then he frowned.
"I thought you said there was a deformity." He directed to the doctor. The woman nodded, pointing at her own head as if to indicate they'd want to see it for themselves. Missy and Dale exchanged a worried look before Missy slowly moved the blanket from around the baby's head.
Both of them gasped.
Under the blanket was silky soft, white baby hair. So white that it was almost translucent against her tiny head. They stared for several seconds at the newborn's hair. Such a strange deformity for a human to have. Missy finally tore her eyes from the sweet infant to look up at the doctor.
"How old is she? How long was she abandoned?" She asked.
"We believe she's, at most, a day old. We don't even know if she's had a feeding yet." The doctor informed.
Missy gasped and cradled the baby more tightly to her chest protectively. She looked up at Dale in horror for the child in her arms. He petted her hair in a comforting gesture of reassurance that everything was going to be alright then looked up at the doctor firmly.
"Make the arrangements. We'll be adopting her. But this stays confidential." He ordered, narrowing his eyes as he continued for added effect. "No one knows about our baby's death or her discovery. As far as the city is concerned, she is our daughter. Do I make myself clear?" She nodded her head vigorously, clearly terrified to lose her job. "Good." He muttered, returning his attention to his little family.
As soon as he leaned down and kissed Missy's temple, the baby she held began to stir out of her sleep. The new parents watched her intently as she opened her bright blue eyes, staring right back at them.
They were instantly in love.
"W-what will you name her?" The doctor asked.
"Addison." Missy replied without hesitation. The doctor promptly scurried off to make the proper birth certificate and arrangements with the front desk about the changes that needed to be made.
Missy and Dale held their new daughter. A sweet, innocent, little angel that needed a second chance at life. A chance they would gladly supply for her. Her hair might make things a little complicated, sure, but they'd work it out to give her everything she deserved.
The life they wanted for their own baby.
Out of a horrible tragedy, a little tiny bud of hope started to bloom in their hearts as they coddled their daughter. Bonding with her as they would have their own baby. She may not be their flesh and blood, but they'd raise her as though she were. Little Addison would never know the difference.