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Everyone was in hospital green and masked. Dr. Noble talked happily with the nurses and Dr. Ball as Ashley was draped with sterile sheets, her feet placed in the stirrups.
She moved her head to the side and caught sight of her husband coming into the delivery room. The nurse indicated the chair he was to sit on. Ashley had an idea Dr. Noble had done that as a precautionary measure in case Cord felt faint. It made Ashley smile.
Though Cord resembled a doctor, his anxious dark blue eyes gave him away. They fastened on her and never left her face throughout the delivery.
While Dr. Ball constantly informed Ashley of what he was doing, Dr. Noble got started on his end. A few breathless minutes passed. Just before she was told she was going to be given a little oxygen, she heard a gurgle and Cord shot out of the chair.
“Oh, ho—” Dr. Noble made a satisfied sound as he lifted the baby. True to his words, Ashley felt a little dizzy and breathed deeply through the mask, but the sensation passed.
All of a sudden she saw her baby still bathed in amniotic fluid. Even so, his perfect little head was covered with Cord’s dark hair. She started to cry for joy, mask and all.
“Have you two ever got a beautiful son! Come here, Cord, and take a look.”
Her husband needed no urging. “Ashley—” Now his rapturous cry rang throughout the delivery room.
“He’s looking good, breathing on his own.” This from the pediatrician who’d taken the baby to examine him.
Excitement permeated the atmosphere.
“Your son is twenty-three inches long and weighs in at nine pounds four ounces. Being born three weeks earlier doesn’t seem to have fazed this big guy at all.”
“He’s a whopper,” Dr. Noble agreed with the pediatrician. “When you do a job, you really do it, Cord.”
Ashley thought she knew what happiness was until the mask was removed, and her wiggly baby who made newborn noises and was wrapped in a blanket, was placed in the crook of her arm.
Her eyes raced from the curly dark hair to each adorable feature. “Cabe,” she spoke to her little boy. “We’re here. Your mommy and daddy are right here.”
Cord’s masked face was right next to hers. “We are, son.”
Their baby’s little eyes were looking at them as if he could really see them. It tugged at her heart and her soul quickly memorized every inch of him.
She marveled at his sturdy body with its broad shoulders, the tiny fingers with their square ends, the long feet and toes, visible testimony of the man who fathered him.
“Oh, Cord—I—I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it.” She broke down. “Cabe’s here. He’s beautiful.”
“You’re both beautiful.” Cord was so choked up, he couldn’t talk.
“We hate to break this up,” Dr. Noble broke in, “but I need to finish taking care of Ashley. Cord, you can go down to the nursery with the baby. Your wife will be in recovery for a couple of hours, then she’ll be taken to her room where you can join her.”
Cord pulled off his mask, then lowered his head. “I love you,” came the throbbing declaration against her lips, then he followed the nurse who was pushing the baby’s cart out of the delivery room.
Dr. Noble patted her cheek gently. “I’m almost through here, Ashley. We’ve given you a hypo so you won’t have any pain for a while. I’ll be in to visit you in the morning.”
Already Ashley could feel the effects of the drug. Her thank-you came out slurred as she sank into a state of ecstatic oblivion. Ecstatic because she would awaken to the husband and the brand-new son she adored.
It was after ten at night when the orderlies came to wheel Ashley from the recovery room to her private hospital room. Despite the fact that she’d just had surgery and her head throbbed where she’d hit it, she couldn’t wait to see Cord and hold her baby again.
The first sight to greet her eyes was a vase of at least two dozen red roses. Cord’s gift made her eyes fill. Then she saw another smaller floral arrangement of yellow roses and baby’s breath which had been placed on the utility table. Something told her those were probably from Greg and Bonnie.
She looked around for Cord but there was no sign of him yet. Maybe it was just as well because she couldn’t keep her eyes open.
The next time she awakened, it was mid-morning. When the day nurse came in and started taking care of her, Ashley asked for her purse so she could try and make herself look a little less hideous.
Just to brush her hair and put on lipstick helped her to feel a little more human. The nurse talked to her about breast-feeding her baby. While the fortyish woman was showing her how to get started, Ashley heard a noise in the hallway. There had to be at least a half dozen babies crying their heads off.
“Do you think one of those is mine?” she asked the nurse in an excited voice.
But she didn’t hear the answer because Cord suddenly entered the room seeming larger than life and too handsome for Ashley to contain her emotions. “Cord, darling!”
