Out of the Darkness - A KathNiel Story

Chapter 40

The video started with DJ talking to the camera, introducing the video before it cut to the footage he'd collected since they found out Kath was pregnant. It meant the world to Kath to see herself back when she was blind, to see moments she could vaguely remember feeling - dates they'd been on and moments with her friends and their family. But all of that faded away into insignificance when she saw that DJ had recorded the hospital appointments. She pulled the table impossibly closer to her, watching herself on full screen going through all the tests before she was supported to lie down. Tears ran down her cheeks as DJ zoomed in on the monitor, showing their baby and their midwife was pointing everything out and talking them through everything. The footage kept going through every hospital appointment they'd had in regards to the baby, Kath's tears falling faster when she saw how much her daughter had grown each time.

"Can you see her?" DJ breathed, kissing her temple but he was careful not to hurt her and Kath nodded her head, not once taking her eyes off of the screen.

"I see her... and she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." Kath choked out and DJ's instant urge was to be dramatic, to tease her about how he wasn't the most beautiful thing she'd seen, but he didn't say a word to tease her. He knew how much it meant to her, how scared she'd been to be blind as she gave birth and became a mother. Their little girl meant the world to both of them, but she was the start of a brand new life for Kath - a life that revolved completely around her baby, a life where she could be the same as everybody else and have every opportunity in the world without anything holding her back.

"Wait for it." DJ breathed, watching Kath's face instead of the video as the footage changed - it was the final clip of the entire video, but it was recorded without Kath knowing about it. She was standing in the middle of her bedroom, caressing her bump as she sang 'Baby Mine' from Dumbo, a movie she'd only recently watched with Jordan because it was one of his favorites. DJ watched as tears ran down Kath's cheeks, seeing and hearing herself sing for the first time, caressing her bump and she found herself doing the same thing as she watched it happen - she felt her daughter flutter inside of her as if she could hear her Mommy's voice singing to her.

"You have such a beautiful voice, baby girl," DJ said softly, watching Kath's face as the video faded and ended on that clip of Kath singing.

"That meant... everything..." Kath trailed off and DJ kissed her cheek, sniffling as he let his own tears fall.

"I know it did, and that's up online so you can watch it whenever you want to." DJ assured her and Kath smiled over at him.

"I wanna watch it again now." She said, making DJ laugh and he minimized the screen.

"I want you to have something first." He said, before he took an envelope out of his pocket and he handed it over to her. Kath looked at him for a moment before opening up the envelope, pulling out something that was the size of a picture but her eyes instantly locked on it - the latest sonogram picture of her daughter.

"T-This is her?"

"Two weeks ago, that was her." DJ said with a grin, kissing her shoulder as Kath ran her fingers delicately across the frozen image of her baby girl's profile.

"We need to think of names for her." Demi breathed.

"I wanna name her after Doctor Brookes." DJ admitted and Kath looked over at him.

"He's a guy, though."

"I know, but I saw on his tag that his name is Kai Brookes... and I spent a long time trying to come up with female versions of that, so what do you think of the name Kaia?" DJ asked, obviously a little nervous, and Kath thought about it for a moment before letting a wide smile spread across her face.

"I love it."

"You do?"

"It's a beautiful name, and it honors Doctor Brookes in our own way... someday, she'll know what her name means." Kath said and DJ grinned, wrapping his arms around her but he was always delicate with her, not wanting to accidentally hurt her.

"Then it's settled... Kaia Bernardo."

"No, not Bernardo... she's too good to have my Dad's surname, I don't want her to have anything to do with my side of the family... she's Kaia Padilla." DJ couldn't help but grin.

"Kaia Padilla, and someday, you'll be Kathryn Padilla."

"I can't wait." She breathed.

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