Perfectly Imperfect ✔

Her

Lilly- Born a little small, with lungs that wouldn't work as well as they should at the start. The little girl's parents were worried, mother cried, father held mother close for comfort. The doctor was sure everything would be okay. Everything was fine, she was a normal happy infant with her whole life ahead of her- if only her lungs would work, and her little heart would beat faster.

Eight months went by, Lilly's breathing was normal now, and she was finally able to go home and start her happy life with her parents, and her strong heart and lungs. She was a happy baby, all the normal milestones met, she was soon blabbering incoherently like any baby, crawling and standing on her own. Her little legs tried to get her to run before she even learned how to walk. It didn't matter though, her parents didn't care as long as she continued to smile and giggle. She learned to eat normal foods, her favorite snack were the little baby carrots once her teeth had come in. She liked how they were small, at three years old she was sure that her mother made the baby carrots just for her.

At four her favorite thing in the world was fairy tales, she was sure that they were real. She even was convinced her pet cat could talk and that the tree on the side of her yard waved to her and smiled at her whenever she went outside to play with her mom or dad.

One day, she was outside with her mom and they were reading under the large tree. Mother had made lunch and decided it was a nice day to have a picnic in the yard. The girl was more than happy about this and decided to grab her favorite fairy tale- snow white. With her cute dark curls bouncing against her shoulders and back as she held her mothers hand and hopped over to the tree the girl felt her heart do something funny, it paused. She shook it off though, not knowing the reason and being way too happy at the moment to care.

As they ate she felt it again though, twice. The second time she placed her little hand over her heart. Her mother noticed and asked her what was wrong, before the girl could speak, she collapsed. Mother was freaking out, but pulled her cell phone out and called the emergency line. Hours later both mother and father were in a familiar situation. Mother crying against father who embraced his wife to comfort her. She blamed herself, if only she hadn't taken the girl outside, maybe it would have been okay. If only she had done this or that differently. Her husband on the other hand blamed himself for not knowing what was wrong with his precious little princess. How could he not know she was sick? Why didn't he take her to the doctors sooner?

Eventually they were greeted by a doctor with brown hair, a good portion of his head was bald on top. He held a clipboard to his chest as he sat down next to them, his long white coat falling over his knees. He explained the child was sleeping, reassured them she would awaken, but her heart beat was strange, and her oxygen levels were down so they would need to keep her for testing. Both parents were given permission to stay as long as they wanted with their little girl.

Day two the girl woke up, scared but it went away when she saw her mommy and daddy were right there with her. The two parents took leave from work for a week, in hopes that everything would be cleared up by then- fate had other plans.

Mid week came and while the little girl was sitting up in her hospital bed playing with the toys her parents brought her from home, her smile had returned- the Doctors and nurses were in and out of little Lilly's room, always scratching their heads and wearing expressions of confusion on their faces. This was concerning to both mother and father, both were worried once again.

Finally the Doctors pulled both parents aside, they began by telling them their daughter was strong and bright. However, it seemed like the good news was going to be cut short. Doctor Watson explained to the couple that they had run many tests on the girl, many tests that showed signs of undernourishment though the girl was clearly getting the vitamins she needed, signs of other complications like bone deterioration were also present in these tests. It was something the doctors couldn't quite understand. The girl seemed perfectly fine other than looking a little pale on the outside, but inside her body was at war with itself. Her parents didn't know what this meant. The doctors estimated she had one month of life before her bones deteriorated and all her functions shut down. The news hit hard, the happy couple's baby was suffering on the inside and they couldn't save her, they couldn't do anything for her and that hurt them the most.