Book 3: The Love of Fire & Rain

Chapter 7: Abram the Little King

Atlanta walked into the nursery after getting out of a long relaxing bath from putting Lavario and Ombric to bed. They were both no doubt already asleep in their beds in their rooms by now. Therefore, she walked into the nursery to tend to her four-day-old son only to find him not in the crib but in her husband's arms. Inferno was rocking him gently as he tried to sooth his wails.

"Having fun darling?"

"Yes loads of fun my love!" They slowly moved towards each other and kissed tenderly. "Enjoy your bath?"

"Yes, but you should have called for me though."

"Why?"

"Because dear that is his hungry cry."
She took her son from him just as Inferno smacked himself on the forehead before groaning as she feed their small baby boy.

"His hungry cry of course..."

Atlanta giggled and said as she allowed him to burp their son. "Thank you though for allowing me some time to enjoy the peace and quiet. It's just what I needed."

"You seemed to be under the weather lately..."

"It's just tiredness that's all...I haven't been getting much sleep since our little Abram was born."

"It just doesn't seem like tiredness to me my dear... but alright if you say so. You want to go have some dinner after this?"

"As much as I would love to I'd have to say not just yet Inferno. Abram is still too young to have me go very far."

"Oh alright, then how about I go make us a little picnic in our bedroom hmm?"

"Oh Inferno..."

Inferno kissed her cheek and left for the grand kitchen. After Atlanta finished feeding her baby, burped him, and changed his diaper she laid him in his crib and smiled down at her sleeping baby boy and said.

"Goodnight Abram...My little King."

She entered into her bedroom to find her husband lying upon a blanket with a few pillows in his nightshirt and pants surrounded by plates of food and fire lily petals. She laid down bedside him and said.

"You outdid yourself with this spread my dear."

Inferno held out a plate of Sconces saying with a playful smirk and chuckle.
"Sconces my dear?"

"Oh Inferno..."

After they ate their dinner of Atlanta's favorite foods, they crawled up in bed together in each other's arms as Atlanta smiled and said.
"You ready for bed my dear?"

"Yes but I need something first."

"What do you need?"

"A kiss for my beautiful wife." He leaned over and kissed lips, taking her breath away as he spoke. "I love you."

"I love you two." She kissed him too and said, as she pulled him closer to her body. "Oh how I love you."

Inferno smirked and knew those lingering hormones for him were at it again, and he held her close to kiss her further with a smile. He, liked these particular hormones...

In the middle of night, Atlanta was awoken by her baby; it was time to eat. As she was walking to the nursery, she coughed but thought little of it for she had been coughing a lot lately. She feed him, burped him, and changed him and then went back to bed beside her husband. Later on though, she woke up by a violent cough she jumped up and walked out onto the balcony to breath in the fresh air. After taking a few deep breaths, she sighed and crawled back into bed beside her sleeping snoring husband. 'Please let this cough go away...' She thought as she succumbed to sleep.

However, the cough didn't go away in fact it got worse everything about her did. She was irritable all the time, and wouldn't even kiss her husband, and the only thing she seemed to care about was her little Abram. This worried everyone who saw her. It worried Viola the ladies maid when she went to check on her only to be snapped at. It worried Airis and Lunaria when she refused to join them for their Saturday nights out. Yes, not even her two older sons seemed to peak her interest anymore.

When Ombric tried to show her a beautiful drawing he did of a tropical bird she just waved her hand for him to leave and said 'not now dearie' as she was tending to Abram. Lavario had noticed how off his mother was acting and tried to console Ombric by saying that mommy's not herself right now, and to try to understand that their mommy was like this when Ombric was a baby too. That seemed to help him understand although Lavario knew that his mother was not anything like she was now when Ombric was a baby, but he had to be the calm understanding big brother for Ombric.

That worried Inferno. It worried him when she turned her head away so he kissed her cheek instead of her lips. Or whenever she refused to eat with him and their two other sons claiming that Abram needed her leaving him to explain the best he could to his sons why their mommy was like this. Lavario was the most understanding of the two and he valued Lavario greatly for being there for Ombric. It worried him when she would break out of his hugs or role away from him in bed, but what worried him the most about her was that horrible sporadic ongoing cough. He heard her multiple times coughing and whenever he asked she denied it. It developed into a nasty cough that left her doubling over and gasping for breath, it was turning into a scary illness, and he was going to do something about it!

"Endor?"

Inferno called as he entered into Endor's private study in Shangri La. He was out getting a list of things for Atlanta from Airis and while he was there, he decided to talk to Endor about her mood swings.

"Wot can Ah do for ya Inferno?"

Endor said with his Scottish/Russian sounding type of accent as he sat in his armchair.

"I was wondering if you knew anything about Atlanta's mood." Inferno went straight to the point for he had to be back soon and he really didn't want Atlanta getting mad. She was worse now whenever she was mad.

"I see her mood since little Abram came along. Hmm let's see what I have...?" He stood up and reached for a book opened it to the right page and said. "Aha yes here it es! It's called tae baby blues. After a woman has a baby, tae hormones are out of whack and will be that way for some time. Ye just have to wait it out Inferno."

"Really so there's nothing I can do?"

"I'm afraid not, just do everything she tells ya to do Inferno. And have patience it won't be easy lad but it'll pass." Endor patted Inferno on the back before saying with a smile of sympathy. "Good luck."

"Yeah, I might need it Endor..."