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Dr. Kay looked at him with a measure of sympathy. “You’re going to be just fine, Mr. Devlin. Babies are more resilient than you think.” She gestured towards the rocking chair. “First time holding your son you probably will want to be sitting. Now, make sure you support his head. That’s right, gently, just cradle it. That’s perfect.”
Riker looked down in amazement at the tiny perfect being and the baby looked right back at Riker with wide trusting eyes. He couldn’t believe that Gia was missing this. Or that he had taken so long to introduce himself to his own kid. Riker looked up at Dr. Kay who was standing quietly next to him and said with sorrow. “I waited because I wanted me and his mom to see the baby for the first time together. Maybe I fucked this up too?”
She laid a compassionate hand on Riker’s shoulder. “Mr. Devlin, you haven’t done anything wrong by being by your wife’s bedside. We have been taking very good care of your little guy. Don’t beat yourself up, you’re in an impossible situation.”
Then Dr. Kay took her hand away from Riker’s shoulder and pulled her laptop over. Her voice sparked with excitement when she said, “I hope you don’t mind but I’ve been looking over your wife’s case and I have an idea.”
Gia knew that she was still trapped in that lovely place of neither here nor there. But now she had begun to drift slowly and surely towards one place and leave the other behind.
That feeling of emptiness—of needing to be somewhere else, with someone else, was gently being replaced by a desire to stay suspended in this lovely state of breezy nothingness. It would be so much easier, and vastly more pleasant to just drift away.
Gia felt herself rising higher and higher into a world filled with glorious mountains, riots of wildflowers, music and laughter. She flew with eagerness toward a place where all her earthly sorrows, worry and pain would become distant memories and she would be transformed into something new, something better, something else.
Floating…floating…floating in one moment towards heavenly reward.
And in the next, hell bent for earth.
With all her might, Gia pushed and struggled and fought her way back to her broken body and away from ethereal pleasures that awaited her. All because something sweet smelling and lovely had been placed in her arms. The enchanting little being twisted and turned and wrapped its tiny fingers around Gia’s heart until her every breath pulsed with its life force. This child this gift had been entrusted to her care, and that’s all Gia had to do was to stay.
The first thing Gia saw when she lifted her heavy lids were the round, open, eyes of a tiny baby boy. He took one long, satisfied look at his mommy, then closed his eyes and went to sleep.
The second thing she saw was the man slumped in a chair near the corner of the room. He looked like a lot like Riker, but this man was clean shaven. His shoulders were slumped over, and he held his head in his hands. This man looked sad and defeated in a way she couldn’t imagine her husband ever looking.
“Riker? Is that you?” Gia whispered still holding the sleeping infant tight to her.
The man’s head jerked up, he jumped up off his chair as if shot out by a cannon, and he ran to her side.
“Yeah, baby. It’s me. It’s me!” His words were filled with emotion and his hand shook as he reached for her. The man standing beside Gia’s bed looked like her husband …only different. His eyes were all bloodshot and swollen. He was much thinner than she knew him to be, and Riker had had a nice dark beard. While this new clean shaven face made Riker look like a younger and more vulnerable version of himself, his eyes told a different story. Riker’s eyes told the story of someone who had been through hell and back.
“Jesus. Riker are you okay?” She whispered.
“AmIokay?” He looked at her incredulously, then grinned from ear to ear.
“Ah, baby. Where the hell have you been?”
Gia sighed as she felt the warm water cascade down her hair, her back, and over her plump bottom. When a slight breeze from an opened door tickled her nipples, she smiled to herself. After a long day apart, Riker was finally home. Her eyes remain closed as she rinsed off the shampoo, along with all the stress and dirt from a busy day.
“Riker is that you?” She called out. “Are you home?”
“Who else would be watching you take a shower?”
Gia smiled and opened her eyes just in time to see Riker slip off his black, boxer briefs and step into the shower with her.
Damn the man was a sight to behold…especially when his inked up, muscle bound, 6’3” frame was standing in front of her naked. Gia stepped back to allow the steamy water to beat down on his strong shoulders, glisten off his arms and trickle down his chest.
“Did you miss me?” He leaned in to give her a long hard kiss. Gia could feel the evidence of just how much Riker had missed her poke her in the stomach.
“Um, not really,” She said wickedly. “As a matter of fact, I can think of about ten other things I’d rather be doing right now instead of showering with you…like picking up the toys that Rourke likes to throw down a million times a day, or cleaning up his baby puke, or…
“Cleaning up his baby puke?” Riker frowned, and his hand stopped soaping up the smooth skin on Gia’s shoulders. “Is Rourke sick?”
“Relax, daddy-bear,” Gia stood on tip toes to kiss her husband on the lips. “He blew me a raspberry full of dinner tonight. Seems he doesn’t like rice cereal mixed with breast milk.”
“Well, who the fuck does?”
Gia laughed as the water streamed and steamed all around them. In the past few weeks, sharing Rourke had brought the pair closer than ever before. Gia had learned to read through Riker’s body language and teasing to realize that the things that Riker worried most about were the things he didn’t say. Riker was a nervous new father and he hated to be gone from them even for a day.
“Honey, the baby’s fine.”
