After the dust has settled

Posted on Sat Oct 12th, 2019 @ 4:37pm by Lieutenant Commander Ariana Monroe-Wayne & Brigadier General David Hurd Sr & Lieutenant Commander Carolyn Corrigan MD

1,049 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 100 - A Hatred of Atonement
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD02 0800 hrs

Ariana was resting after a pretty tough birth, thanks to the stress of recent events it had all accumulated into too much sending her into premature labour. She opened her eyes taking a moment to focus as she saw her father standing at her beside. "Dad?" She offered a tired smile.

Smiling, he replied, "Hey kiddo how ya doing?"

"You tell me" She offered a weak smile. She felt completely washed out but once she became more alert she looked around. "Where's the baby!? Is she okay!?"

"She's fine, they got her in special care, your fine, everything's ok".

Ariana relaxed back onto the bed breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank heavens! I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to her." She motioned for her father to sit down reaching out to hold his hand. "I'm glad you're here dad. Thank you for being there, you arrived just at the right time.

"I would have been here come hell or high water for you, ya know that"

Ariana smiled and nodded. “Thanks Dad or do you prefer father?”

"Either, it does not bother me which I'm called to be honest kiddo".

“So how does it feel to be a grandad?” She grinned.

"His face lighting up, Hurd said, " It feels great, I mean it makes me very, very happy".

"Good!" She grinned playfully. "I'll be taking full advantage of the free grandparent babysitting service!" Hee secondr smile beamed. "Honestly though, you missed out on seeing me as a baby and watching me grow up.donntend for you to miss out on your grandchild's life."

"I wouldn't miss a single second of it for anything in the world"

"Have you...seen her yet?" Ariana looked concerned. "I'd very much like to see how she's doing."

" No hun, I have not seen her yet".

Ariana, ever the stubborn one, slowly pushed herself up aiming to get up onto her feet. But not before one of the nurses spotted her and rushed over.

“Counsellor what are you doing! You’ve just had surgery and you’re not fit to be walking around yet!” She looked at Hurd then back at Lamia.

“You can either....help me up or get...out of my way!” Ariana paused knowing the nurse was right. “I want to see my baby!!”

The nurse shook her head and disappeared for a moment returning with a wheelchair. “Here...I swear if I get into trouble!”

Ariana smiled as she transferred into the chair. “I promise you won’t! I take full responsibility.” She looked at her father. “Dad will you take me? Please!

"Of course I will sweetheart, you know that"

She smiled warmly. “Take me to see my daughter please!”

Grabbing a wheelchair, he placed her gently and they set off to see the baby. No way in hell was somebody gonna question a General.

~ Neonatal Care ~

Arriving at the neonatal unit Ariana wasn’t surprised to see only one unit in current use, inside it lay the tiniest baby she’d ever seen. “Oh my...” tears ran down her face as she looked at the plethora of equipment that her baby was attached to.

“I know it is hard but try not to focus on the equipment,” a quiet voice advised from behind them. Entering the room, waving away the stammering apologies from the nurse, Doctor Corrigan offered Ariana a tired but genuine smile, “congratulations. Ten fingers, ten toes and while her lungs are still slightly underdeveloped she is doing amazingly well.”

"She is?" Ariana looked at Carolyn surprised, the tears in her eyes at the scary site infront of her was the tell tale of just how emotional she felt on the inside. "How...long will she have to stay in here?"

"Can I touch her?" Ariana wanted more than anything to hold her tiny daughter.

Tuning, fixing his gruffest stare using his toughest Marine Voice, he said, " Well Carolyn, can she?"

Carolyn arched an eyebrow at his tone, far from intimidated after all her time around Hades. Letting it go she addressed Ariana, “there is a sterilisation field around the cot so you can touch her but for now she needs to stay in the cot. It has an enhanced oxygen rich environment to make it a bit easier on her lungs but that will be reduced as she gets stronger. As soon as she can cope, we can let you hold her for a little while.”

Ariana nodded. She gently reached her hands through the field making sure they were fully sterile before daring to touch one of her daughter's tiny hands. "She's...so tiny and fragile! I'm almost afraid to touch her!" She gently stroked the tiny hand and fingers marvelling in the miracle of such tiny life. "I...don't know how to thank you all enough!!" She looked up at Carolyn.

“You have nothing to thank us for, you did all the hard work these last few months,” Carolyn pointed out with a smile. “Don’t stay too long, you should still be getting bed rest. But if anyone asks, I never saw you.”

With a grin she took one last look at the monitors before slipping out of the room to give them a moment together.

"Dad" Ariana looked at Hurd. "Would you like to touch her?" She motioned him to the opposite side of the incubator.

Making sure his hands were very sterile, Hurd reached through the field and touched her tiny hand very gently. This alone about made him cry. While touching her candy, she reached up and wrapped her entire tiny hand around one of his fingers, causing General Hurd to start silently crying, tears running down his face.

Ariana looked up at her father surprised. “Are you okay dad?” She offered an understanding smile, she felt pretty much the same but she knew if she started crying she wouldn’t be able to stop. The tiny baby lying in front of her touched her heart and a very painful memory of the loss of her brother. “Don’t start me crying....I won’t know when to stop!” Returning her gaze to her tiny daughter she couldn't help but marvel at the tiny miracle infront of her and think how lucky she really was.

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