"Hush little baby, don't say a word, I'm gonna buy you a mocking bird" I crooned to the young baby lying in the nursery. I didn't know her name, but I did know that her mother had died in childbirth, leaving the child nameless and parentless. Her face puckered and she began to sniffle quietly.
I picked her up and bounced her around. Soon, she had drifted off to sleep. I smiled at her sleeping baby face in the small stocking cap and began to set her down. She began to sniffle again so I picked her up and held her close.
"Michael?" I called uncertainly, not sure exactly where he was and not willing to wake up the fifteen infants asleep in the nursery.
"Yes." He called back.
"I've got a little girl over here who doesn't want to sleep alone. Do you think she would come home with me?"
"I don't see why not." he said "She doesn't have anyone here to take her home so sure. Just let me write it down. I'll take you home."
"I'll be okay... you don't have to..." I murmured, smiling down at the baby's pink, contented face.
"I want to. Just let me write this down... and sign it. Here we go." he deposited the sheet of paper onto the nurses clipboard, okaying me to take the baby home.
I grabbed the blanket from her crib, wrapping her tenderly. We walked out of the hospital, into the warm, summer night to his car. He opened the door for me and our arms bumped, sending electricity through the air. I sat with as much grace as I could muster without upsetting the baby who was now suckling on warm air, oblivious to the tensions between her two caretakers.
We drove to my house silently, except for the occasional murmur from the baby and my whispered directions. When we got to my house, he was up in a second, opening the door for me and holding her while I unbuckled and stepped out of the car. He handed the baby back to me and we walked up the stairs together, him opening the doors to me with the keys I dropped while fishing them out of my purse.
I smiled nervously as we walked through the door. I turned to him and found him staring at me deeply, eyes dark with what seemed desire.
I stammered, "I've got to bring the baby upstairs. I have a crib in the spare bedroom set up."
He nodded and as I climbed up the stairs he followed me, almost silently. I walked past the doors to my bedroom, bathroom and office and into the spare bedroom. The crib was set up, as it always was for the occasional baby that visited my house.
"I'll take her while you get the crib set up." I nodded and handed the baby to him, seeing her dwarfed in his large but gentle hands. I lifted the covers, taking away the decorative pillow and toys before taking the baby back from him and tenderly laying her on her stomach in the crib and staring at her. She was so gorgeous. I'd love a baby of my own, I thought to myself. Maybe I could adopt her. I'd call her Annie, because of her red hair...
