my yesterdays are all boxed up and neatly put away
At two am or so, Nicholas starts to fuss and cry in his bassinet. The baby monitor rouses Elizabeth -- before the girls, she hopes, shrugging into her robe as she moves down the hallway and slips into the nursery. He's terribly still when she gets there, and for a moment she's terrified, but then he smiles and waves his hands at her.
Damn it.
When he starts to protest her lack of response, she sighs very faintly and lifts him up. "You can't do this," she informs him, quietly. "I'm not your mother." Predictably, it garners all of about no response, aside from a little baby sigh to match hers and she thinks vaguely he's warmer than he looks like he should be. No warmer than any other baby, though. "Fine. For a while. Then you have to go sleep."
It's roughly an hour and a half later when Elizabeth stirs a little on the chaise-longue in her bedroom, and whoever it is that's lifting Nicholas out of her arms stills, touching her cheek and watching her settle again into sleep.
In the morning, it takes a few minutes before that moment of sheer blind panic sets in, but when she reaches Todd's room and it is Todd's room, she releases a breath she probably didn't realise she was holding. There's a note pinned to the pillow of his bed:
We're so sorry for the mix up.
Thank you.
Drs Scaevola
It almost makes her laugh out loud, but then there are a hundred things that need her attention before she leaves this afternoon, and the girls will need breakfast soon.
Elizabeth just smiles.
Damn it.
When he starts to protest her lack of response, she sighs very faintly and lifts him up. "You can't do this," she informs him, quietly. "I'm not your mother." Predictably, it garners all of about no response, aside from a little baby sigh to match hers and she thinks vaguely he's warmer than he looks like he should be. No warmer than any other baby, though. "Fine. For a while. Then you have to go sleep."
It's roughly an hour and a half later when Elizabeth stirs a little on the chaise-longue in her bedroom, and whoever it is that's lifting Nicholas out of her arms stills, touching her cheek and watching her settle again into sleep.
In the morning, it takes a few minutes before that moment of sheer blind panic sets in, but when she reaches Todd's room and it is Todd's room, she releases a breath she probably didn't realise she was holding. There's a note pinned to the pillow of his bed:
We're so sorry for the mix up.
Thank you.
Drs Scaevola
It almost makes her laugh out loud, but then there are a hundred things that need her attention before she leaves this afternoon, and the girls will need breakfast soon.
Elizabeth just smiles.