The Don And His Woman

57

"I'm scared."

Adeline squeezed her husband's hand as he kissed her knuckles. She regretted the moment she denied taking any epidural for her pain. "I know."

He kissed her palm, his dark blue eyes on the monitor that read both the baby and his wife's heartbeats.

Both of them, still alive.

She laid in their bed, plastic and towels layered on the bed as she let her head touch the pillows. This was it. The moment that they've both been waiting for and it's here.

They're welcoming their own baby.

Adeline felt her husband kiss her wet skin, her cheeks warm as she realized she was in fact crying. "I'm so proud of you, Adeline. For the strength you hold to carry my baby. For the strength you hold now, and as you get ready to birth our child. I thank you, Adeline Russi. For blessing me with your existence."

The sobs racked her as another contraction hit. His words repeating in her head as the two uniformed family medics came in. His words repeated as Lorenzo held one of her legs up, kissing her knees, thighs, and face whenever she took a break. His words repeated as she cried through her pushes, the contractions worsened as her baby neared. His words repeated as she felt her body tear in pain.

"...family tradition. Okay Don Russi. Come here, if you may."

Their talking faded in and out of her head. But not Lorenzo's words. No, her husband's words repeated in her head as he sat covered and in front of her. The words repeated as she felt the final push before releasing the fragile human into her husband's gloved hands.

They stopped the moment she heard her baby crying.

Her baby wasn't crying.

No, she wasn't crying.

She was wailing.

Blood and placenta, all over her baby with an attached umbilical and she was wailing like a little lamb.

Wailing as she no longer felt the comfort of her mother's womb. The world's air tickling her sensitive skin.

Lorenzo let his tears fall as he held his baby girl. Taking the scissors and cutting before handing her to the very woman who deserved more than what the universe can offer her.

Adeline took her baby to her naked chest, both of them crying as she observed her creation.

She had his nose.

She had her lips.

His ears.

Her eyebrows.

Her eyelashes.

His chin.

Her chubby cheeks.

Adeline sobbed again, letting the doctors take her from her weak grasp to get cleaned up. Lorenzo kissed his woman, worshipping her soul as their little girl wailed from the loss of her mother's warmth.

"I love you, my beautiful woman. I fucking love you."

Their baby girl was here.

***

Athena Mallory Russi

She repeated the name again, slowly. The woman nodded with a smile before her, gloved hands writing down the name as Lorenzo spelt it.

Adeline laid in one of Lorenzo's shirts, a loose pair of shorts on her skin as she held her bundle of joy. They both were snuggled into Lorenzo, both of them observing the beauty that slept swaddled tight.