lightning crashes, a new mother cries
her placenta falls to the floor

"That's it, baby...PUSH!"  Chris cried, nearly overwhelmed with all the action going on around him.

Dia clenched her jaw and bore down as hard as she could.  The pain is excruciating!  She thought to herself,  I don't care WHAT he says...I will never do this EVER again!

The Doctor sat on a small stool at the end of the bed, waiting for more of the baby's head to show before he pulled the little one out of it's mother's body.

Dia mananged two more large pushes and the doctor swiftly delivered the baby.  All of a sudden his face grew dark, and he stood, walking out of the room.

"What's happening?"  Dia asked Chris, taking his hand and clutching it to her chest.

"I don't know, baby...let's find out."  He answered walking toward where the nurses were busy cleaning the baby.

Just as he reached them, he was pushed back by one of them lightly, asking him to go back to Dia.  He caught glimpse of the baby.  The baby isn't crying...what the hell is going on here?

The nurses carried the baby out of the room, disappearing down the hall without a word to either of them.

      
the angel opens her eyes
the confusion sets in
before the doctor can even close the door

Becca lay back against the pillows in her bed and felt life begin to slip away, or so she felt. Her hands were shaky and there was a sweat breaking out across her forehead.

If this was what dying felt like, she was glad that she had waited til now to do it.

They had told her that carrying the baby was a mistake...they had told her that it would only make things worse for her condition, but from the moment she laid eyes on that tiny babys heartbeat in the ultrasound, she didn't have the heart to terminate the pregnancy, she would have felt like a murderer.

So she had come here only a month before and given birth to a beautiful little girl...and mercifully the child was free of Cancer. She was at home now, being cared for by Becca's sister.

The day nurse in the hospital was Kim, she was also a nurse on the maternity floor. She had a friendly smile, and a friendlier manner and made laying in that hospital bed at least tolerable wit her smiles and kind words.

She had been there the night that her daughter was born...her beautiful little Mackenzie, the amazing tiny little being who had kept her alive thru pregnancy and birth. Now, she was letting go...finally...to be free from pain would have been heaven in and of itself.

lightning crashes, an old mother dies
her intentions fall to the floor

"Dead?" Chris said in disbelief..."Our baby was born dead?"

Dia sat on the bed beside him, weeping openly into her hands.

"Yes sir...she was stillborn...might have possibly died in the womb, however we think she was suffocted with the umbilical cord around her neck as she came through the birth canal."

Chris shook his head, feeling large loud sobs rising through his body as he stood there, gripping Dias hand so hard it felt like a vice.

Kim stood back against the door jamb, watching what was taking place before her. Suddenly, she stood up straight and made her way to her other ward...headed for the one person who might be able to make that couple's pain and heartbreak go away...atleast somewhat.

"Becca..." She said, coming into her room, "I may have a home for Mackenzie...if you agree."

Becca looked up at her with tired, bloodshot eyes...she was feeling especially weak, although at the mention of her child's name she perked, gaining a little color back into her peaked complexion.

It took a little more than an hour to make it all the way downtown to where Becca's sister lived. But she knew that if she could only get that little girl back to the couple who's daughter had been stillborn, she could make three people, maybe even four very happy.

Becca's sister had no problem handing the child over to Kim. She looked like the type of woman who wouldn't know what to do with a baby anyway.

She got the baby back to the hospital and carried her into Becca's room, kneeling slightly next to the bed to allow the ill woman to touch her daughter's face.

Becca reached down with trembling fingers and brushed them down the infants chubby little cheek, marvelling one last time at the way her tiny chest rose and fell with each breath.

"I love you, Mackenzie...Mommy loves you." She cried softly, pulling the baby's fingers to her lips and kissing them softly.

With that, Becca's chest shuddered slightly and her last breath was drawn, her hand falling away from the child's face to her side on the bed, now lifeless.

the angel closes her eyes
the confusion that was hers
belongs now, to the baby down the hall

Kim walked quietly into Dia's room, finding Chris holding her in his arms, brushing back her hair as she sobbed into his chest.

"Mr. and Mrs. Kirkpatrick?" Kim spoke up, gently cradling the baby in her arms.

Dia and Chris looked up from the bed, both of their faces red with tears.

"I may be able to help you...one of my patients died this morning and had no one to take care of her one month old little girl...This is Mackenzie...and Mackenzie needs a home with parents who will love and cherish her the same way her mother would have."

lightning crashes, a new mother cries
this moment she's been waiting for

Dia held out her arms for Kim to lay the tiny baby in them. Tears dripped down off her cheeks, and landed on the pink blanket Mackenzie was wrapped in.

Chris reached over and brushed the baby's golden blonde curls off her forehead and touched the contours of the infants face.

"So this is okay with the family?" Chris asked, feeling a large hole in his heart suddenly feeling a bit more full.

Kim nodded, "There really is no family to speak of...just a sister...and frankly, I think she could care less."

They both nodded simultaniously, still staring at the babys face and little fingers.

"We'll take her." Chris said quietly, watching Dia smile down into the baby's eyes.

Kim nodded softly, and then turned, walking out of the room.

Chris went after her, hoping to get a chance to thank her...but, when he got out into the hallway she was no where to be seen.

He walked up to the nurse's station and asked for her by name.

"Kim?" The nurse at the desk asked, "We don't have a Kim on staff on this floor..."