Kindlin could feel all the blood in her body rush down towards her feet. She felt as if it was all draining from her toes, pooling around her in a large puddle underneath her. How could all this happen in one night?? What had she done so wrong??
Kindlin hadn't been incredibly close to her mother, or her father either, for that matter... but she loved them both, with everything in her. Before Nick knew it, Kindlin's eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she collapsed.
~ * ~
"Baby... Sweetie... Kin!" Nick urged, slapping her on the face gently, trying to wake her.
Paramedics began to swarm towards them, and Nick felt like someone swimming in the ocean with a bleeding cut... sharks raging towards him. He finally let them take Kindlin and check her out, and sighed in relief as they informed him she had merely fainted. They laid her on the couch, and slowly faded away, leaving Nick to sit next to the couch, and hold her hand until she awoke. She came to five minutes later.
"Baby??" Nick's eyes searched her face as she opened her hollow eyes slowly.
"Nicky," Kindlin suddenly wailed, wrapping her arms weakly around her husbands neck. She felt her world spinning out from underneath her, she felt her body weaken even more and was glad that she was laying down on the couch. She suddenly realized that she'd been talking to her mother when she'd collapsed. "Nick? My mom... I was on the phone with her..."
Nick nodded, "She told me she had to go, and hung up. Baby, what's going on? What did your mother tell you that upset you so much?"
Tears continued to flow from Kindlin's glassy eyes. Her heart seemed to stop as she uttered her words, "Daddy died."
~ * ~
Brian sighed as he stood in front of Kindlin, in the doorway, at 2 in the morning. He watched as behind him Leighanne was slowly taking Alex, Ashley, Aisya, and Aaron to their Jeep. Nick and Kindlin's children would be staying with Brian and Leighanne for a week. "Kin... I know..." he sighed. "I know that you're going through a lot right now... but... I just wanted you to know something. I don't know if you already knew this or not... but um... when you told me what you'd named Dray - you know, 'Andraya Gabrielle' - I looked through a baby name book and found the meaning of those two names. Kin, Andraya means 'trusted by God' and Gabrielle means 'God is my strength.'"
Kindlin tried so hard not to try, but failed as small tears smoothly flowed from her eyes, slowly.
"God is her strength, Kin. Especially now. It was in His plan to take her from you two, from the beginning. But I believe that some of His children are far too precious to Him, to keep them down here, in this world. He wanted her with Him, Kin, because she was so beautiful to Him. I feel with everything in me that He is going to bless you and Nick with so much. You guys will be blessed, and you will grow together through this... and get stronger. I promise you that. Even if you don't feel it now," with those words, Brian left quietly.
Kindlin could feel Nick's arms wrap around her shoulders as she began to sob, her shoulders shaking violently, "Nicky... why did He need my baby and my daddy, all in one night??"
~ * ~
Nick could feel Kindlin's eye lashes flickering gently across his chest, at 4 in the morning. Neither of them had slept a wink, yet neither of them had spoken a word either.
Nick finally lifted her face to look at her, "Kinny?"
"Yeah," Kindlin whispered quietly, her eyes wet.
"I love you so much."
Kindlin merely began to sob again, burying her face farther into Nick's chest. Tears came to Nick's own eyes, as he listened to his wife, and thought of his daughter. They fell within time. His baby was gone.
