Learning to be Beautiful

Bonus Scene: ~The Daughter~

Both Linc and I wake to the sound of a baby crying.

I groan and turn over onto my side. “I got her at…” I glance at the digital clock on my bed-side table. “Two. It’s your turn, hon.”

Muttering something unintelligible under his breath, Linc throws the covers off of himself and leaves the room. A few seconds later I hear our daughter’s bedroom door creak open and Linc’s accented voice carries through the house as he says, “Shush now, love.”

I smile at his soft tone and think back to when our daughter was first born. He had been so nervous about holding her…

~*~

One more, they tell me. One more and it will all be over. But I don’t want to push one more time. I want it to be over now. It can’t be over now, though, and so I oblige, desperate for this madness to end. A few awful, suspenseful seconds pass and then I hear it: a wail.

                Relief and joy course through me and I reach my hands up. “Let me see her,” I say.

                A small red, wrinkly baby wrapped in a fluffy, pink blanket is placed on top of me and I bring her close to me. “Hello, Maria,” I whisper, smiling down at the warm bundle. Linc and I had decided to name her after her paternal grandmother. At the sound of my voice, my daughter’s face softens a little bit. I’m exhausted, and a few minutes ago the only thing I wanted to do was fall asleep, but now, with my daughter in my arms, I just want to stare at her forever.

                What little hair she has is dark, like her father’s, and when her eyes flutter open briefly, I see that her eyes are brown, like mine.

                “A right healthy baby,” one of the nurses notes, filling in a chart. “We will weigh her as soon as she falls asleep.” The woman moves away then, and Linc moves forward, his movements slow and cautious.

                “She’s so small,” he murmurs, looking down at our daughter with wide eyes.

                “Well of course,” I laugh, quietly, just in case I disturb Maria. “She’ll get bigger as time goes on.” I look up at him. “Do you want to hold her?”

                A frightened look flits across his face, but it’s too late. A nurse gently removes the baby from my arms and passes her to my husband. He holds Maria gingerly, with his shoulders up by his ears and elbows way behind his back so that he can hold her close to himself. A few moments pass when he merely stares at his newborn daughter’s scrunched up, red face but as soon as he becomes more comfortable with her, he adjusts her small body so that she is resting in the crook of his arm and with one finger he lightly brushes her sparse hair away from her face.

                “She’s gorgeous,” he says. “Just like her mother.”

~*~

                It’s been a few minutes, and Maria’s crying had ended long ago, but Linc still hasn’t come back. Curiosity gets the best of me, and I rise from the bed and walk to Maria’s bedroom to see what happened.

                I open the door slowly, careful to remain silent so that I don’t wake Maria. The sight that meets me is surprising.

                Linc is sitting in the rocking chair, his head lolled back against the wooden headrest. Maria is lying against his chest, her head tucked neatly between his neck and shoulder.

                I stand in the doorway for a good minute or so, just watching the two of them. Every once in a while, Linc will let out a little half-snore and Maria will then follow suit with a small quiet snort of her own. It’s so cute that I want to watch them sleep forever. Instead, I take an extra blanket out of the hallway closet and drape it over the two of them before heading back to bed.

 ~~~~

Yay, freebie bonus scene! :D You guys can thank blondbrigade for this one. :3 There are two additional bonus scenes: The Date and The Daisies. To get 'The Daisies' posted, PM me, or post on my message board what you think it's about. To get 'The Date' posted, let me know what your favorite quote from Learning to be Beautiful is! :)