Someone Like Us | Completed ✓

Chapter Eighteen: Beautiful Boy

November 24

When Ace was dropped off at the hospital by Nick a week later, he felt jittery. He couldn't tell if it was excited jittery or nervous jittery, because it could really be either at this point.

He spoke to the receptionist at the front desk, then went to the NICU ward. Before going into Davian's room, he stopped to take minute, close his eyes, and breathe. He thought about all of the things others had said to him during the past few weeks.

Everything's going to be okay.

Everything's under control.

Ninety-five percent survival rate.

Everything is going to be just fine.

Ace opened his eyes and shook his arms to loosen his tense muscles, then knocked softly on the door and went inside.

It was much busier than it had been for the past three weeks. There were nurses surrounding the machines along the wall, and a couple of doctors were all hunched over the incubator.

Joan was sitting on the couch, fidgeting and watching the doctors get Davian ready for what was about to happen.

Ace sat down next to her and held her hand. She smiled at him. It was a genuine smile, not forced. Ace smiled back. His smile wasn't forced, either.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Amazing," Joan said. She looked over at the incubator again. "I feel like... everything's actually going to turn out alright after all."

"That's how I feel, too," Ace said quietly, following her gaze. Beyond the doctors' white coats, he saw Davian open his eyes and look at his dad. Ace smiled at his baby and waved.

Today was a very special day because two important milestones for Davian were going to happen. First, Joan and Ace were going to get to hold their son for the first time, and Ace was going to have a skin-to-skin with Davian. Second, while Ace and Joan were spending time with their baby, the staff was going to move Davian from an incubator to a crib, since he was now able to control his body temperature on his own, which meant moving him to another room down the hall.

A few minutes later, Alyssa, Lilly, and Kyle came into the room just as a doctor announced that Davian was ready to be held.

"Who want to go first?" he asked Joan and Ace.

Joan opened her mouth to say, "Ace can," but Ace said "Joan should go first" before the words formed in her mouth. She chuckled. "Thanks," she said. "You're so sweet."

Ace smiled at her, and Joan smiled back and moved to the recliner. The doctors showed her how she would support Davian's head and hold him against her chest, then they opened the incubator and lifted Davian out, swaddled in a blue blanket, and still on oxygen and attached to numerous IV's.

Joan's heart jumped into her throat and tears pricked at her eyes as the doctor laid Davian on her chest. She tenderly held him close and stroked his soft blond baby hair.

"Ace," she whispered after a few minutes. "He looks like you."

"Does he?" Ace said. He moved over to her and looked at Davian. Now that he wasn't behind plastic, he looked so beautiful.

He could see the resemblance that Joan was talking about, too. Davian had his daddy's golden blond hair and deep blue eyes. Once he was out of the hospital and had spent some time outside, he was sure to have Ace's sun-kissed locks, too.

"Well, my eyes are midnight blue," Ace said. "Yours are ocean blue. He has your eyes."

"Okay," Joan agreed without argument. This moment was too precious to be wasted on debating Davian's eye color. They would do that later.