“It’s you!” The nurse exclaimed. “And you!” Her eyes lifted to Xavier and then slid to Arabella and she blushed. “It’s the whole gang.”
Neither Arabella nor Xavier remembered the nurse and just then Ellie had a severe contraction that meant a walk down memory lane had to wait.
“This way,” the nurse said, her smile wide as she guided the trio of adults down the corridor, Joshua following obliviously in their wake. An enormous birthing suite awaited them, and a doctor was quickly called.
“I’ll take Josh home,” Arabella said, leaning down and pressing a kiss to Ellie’s forehead. “Good luck, mama. Call me as soon as you can.” She winked at Xavier then scooped Josh up. “Well, little man? Ice cream time?”
“No, Bella,” Xavier and Ellie called in unison but Bella pretended not to hear, winking exaggeratedly at her young friend instead.
And Ellie had bigger fish to fry.
The delivery was, indeed, fast, with their daughter arriving into the world in record time – before a doctor had even had a chance to arrive. Their nurse and a midwife oversaw everything.
“I expected a boy,” Ellie said with a smile, staring at their perfect child. “I had only boy names picked.”
“I have the perfect name for a daughter,” he said softly, stroking the little one’s thick black hair.
“Yes?”
“Elita,” he said, smiling at Ellie. “It means Chosen One. And she is - chosen by fate and destiny to join our little family.”
Ellie sighed. “It’s perfect.”
And then, the nurse returned, bringing with her a tray of food and a pot of tea. “Would you like me to take a photo?” The nurse offered, gesturing towards the three of them.
Ellie nodded, and held Xavier’s hand as the nurse snapped their first photo with their little girl. And then, tears in her eyes, she reached for the nurse’s hand. “Now one with you.”
The nurse grinned and nodded, calling for another staff member to take the picture.
“Thank you,” Ellie said earnestly.
“I’m just glad to see how well things worked out for you,” the nurse said.
“You and me both!” And when they were alone, Ellie explained, finally, the story to Xavier. He listened, enthralled, for he hadn’t known until that moment all the details of that day. His wife’s pain and perseverance, the love that had brought her to him. But then, another fragment of memories unlocked in his mind.
“I dreamed of your voice,” he said. “When I woke, I was sure that a mermaid had come from the sea to tell me to get well. I presumed it was an hallucination but now I know: it was you.”
Ellie sighed, her soul bursting with pleasure.
Three days later, they took their baby home, and three became four. Two years later, four became six, with the addition of twin girls, and finally, the Salbatore family was complete, and so bursting with love that no house on earth could easily contain them. Just as well then that they had several, and travelled between them as the fancy took them – living, loving and reveling in the life they’d made together.
And, like all star-destined beings, they lived exquisitely, deliriously happily ever after…
THE END
