Centre of His World

Chapter 3

Cries erupted throughout the house. Luke covered his ears with the pillow in annoyance. He just wanted to sleep. He sighed in aggravation. Slowly, he got up, checking the time. It was one in the morning. Luke shook his head as he made his way to Kelly's room.

Kelly's cries only seemed to get louder once Luke picked her up. "Shh, shh. Daddy's here, Kelly. It's all gonna be okay," Luke whispered as he rocked and bounced her.

The baby still kept crying. Luke smiled as he realized that Kelly hadn't eaten since he brought her home from the hospital the night before. He went into the kitchen and got a bag of milk out of the freezer. He first ran it under lukewarm water to defrost the liquid inside the bag, then he got a baby bottle out of he cupboard. He laid Kelly in her play pen as she continued to cry. With a sigh, Luke poured the milk from the bag into the bottle and then heated it in the microwave at five second intervals. After the bottle was warm enough to his liking, he walked over to his daughter.

He cradled Kelly in his arms and laid back on the couch, feeding his daughter. She sucked on the nipple of the bottle, little sounds of enjoyment escaping her mouth.

"Maybe this won't be so bad," Luke said after a while. He removed the bottle from Kelly's mouth once it was empty and, of course, began to cry all over again. "Never mind, I take it all back. I want my wife back."

Luke carried Kelly back upstairs and into her room. He laid her on the change table. He gathered everything he needed. Wipes, baby powder, and a clean diaper. He then picked her back up, grabbed a receiving blanket, laying it over his shoulder. He slowly and steadily began patting her back slowly, burping her. After she burped, and spat up, he wiped her face and laid her back down on the changing table, where she started crying again.

Luke disposed of the receiving blanket in the hamper and turned back to Kelly. He undid her undershirt and proceeded changing her diaper. Pulling each tab, replacing the old diaper with the new one, lifting her legs and wiping her bottom, putting some baby powder on her abdomen for continued freshness and fastened the new diaper up, buttoning up her undershirt again.

He sighed as he picked her up, she was still crying. He knew what she wanted. Her mommy. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes as he tried to console his crying daughter. "I know, sweetie, I want Mommy too."

Luke laid her back down in her crib and walked over to the changing table to throw out the diaper when his cell phone fell out of his pocket. He bent down to pick it up, and then remember the video he recorded of May when she was seven months pregnant. When she was talking about how excited she was to meet Kelly. He quickly opened up the video and walked over to Kelly.

As soon as Kelly heard her voice, she stopped crying. Luke rubbed her stomach as he watched her coo at the screen which displayed her mother. "I promise you that it'll get easier, Kelly. Daddy is doing the best he can," Luke whispered. "And Mommy is up above, watching over the both of us."

After a while, Kelly eventually fell asleep again. Luke smiled as he turned his phone off. He knew that being a father will be hard, and he was about ready to give up on Kelly, but May wouldn't want that. Somehow, she had come to the rescue and helped Luke put their baby to sleep. Something had told him to play that video of her, he just didn't what or who did.

He made his way back to his room and laid in his bed. Finally, sleep took over.

He had found himself sitting in his living room, watching Buck Commander as Kelly napped in her play pen. May suddenly appeared behind him, making him jump. "May?" Luke questioned as tears started to fall from his eyes. "You're alive?"

May shook her head. "No, I'm just here because of your dream. You're dreaming, Luke."

"Oh," Luke sighed, sounding a little sad. "Well, why are we here?"