“Yes, he has to.” She pushed into the room behind her.
Once in the room, he forgot about the doctor who was sewing up poor Amanda, who was feeling every suture. Suddenly, all he could think about was the tiny infant in front of him. He was small, very small, but he was moving. Not crying, but moving. Another nurse came in, and they continued poking and prodding and pushing tubes into the tiny baby.
“He’s doing great. It doesn’t look like it, but he’s breathing on his own and is a few ounces bigger than I would expect for thirty weeks,” David explained, his hands still moving, even if Hue had no idea what he was actually doing.
“Can I have your permission to take a picture to send to my wife when he is stable? Mira worked with Amanda in the NICU before she came up here. Mira was scared when she heard Mandy was being rushed in. Well, we both were.”
“Yes, sure.” Hue didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t his baby, but it felt like his baby at that moment. They had already been through hell together, and the kid was only a few minutes old.
David continued to do things to the baby, and a nurse took note of what he was saying. Another nurse gave him everything he asked for before he stopped and looked at Hue. “Can I have you touch him?”
“Me?” Hue looked down at the tiny baby that looked like he would break if he touched him. He wasn’t trained to touch a baby this small.
“Amanda will ask if you touched him. To make sure he is real.” He knew the doctor was smiling as he explained.
Stepping close to where the doctor and nurses were busy working, he reached out and touched the baby’s warm hand. It flexed at his touch, proving he was alive. All he wanted to do was tell Amanda about it, but he stayed with her son. She wanted him to be with her son.
“How is she doing out there in the tundra?” David asked.
“Good. She’s liked by everyone in town. I think she likes it.” In reality, they never really talked about her job. Yes, she went to work every day, but she never talked about it. Maybe because she was bored with it.
“I wish she was still here. I thought maybe when Paul left, I could get her back. But I don’t think I will, especially now.” He tapped the baby he was transferring back into a plastic bubble of a crib.
“Yeah, I think everything will change now,” Hue agreed. This tiny boy was now Amanda’s world.
David was working on the monitors attached to the baby. “Sorry, I’m David Bennett.”
“Hue Strong,” Hue said to the man who had just saved Amanda’s baby. It felt like he had known the man for years. He had done so much for them in less than an hour.
“Oh, I like that.” He finished with the monitors. Then he slid out the card that said how long the baby was and that baby it was just under four pounds. David wrote on the top Baby Boy Strong.
Hue was staring at the paper that had just proclaimed the baby was his. It felt right. That baby was his. He loved him as much as his mom. “Hi, little guy,” he whispered to the boy who was just staring up at him.
“I guess now all he has to do is live up to his name. He seems to be up for the challenge. Can someone find out if Amanda is in recovery yet?”
A nurse took off to do his bidding.
When word came back that she was indeed in recovery, Hue was shocked he had been away from her for so long. That he hadn’t even noticed the time fly as he watched the baby. Since she was in a room, a nurse happily took him there. He hated leaving the baby alone, but he had half a dozen nurses taking care of him. Their hands were far better than his.
Stepping into her room, he thought that she was asleep. Only Mandy would fall asleep within an hour of giving birth. Glancing at his phone, he saw that Math had called, but he put it back in his pocket as he walked up to her bed. There was a more important Nordskov to talk to right then.
Her eyes popped open as he sat down. “How is he? Grace said he looked good. But what do you think?”
“He is little, but Dr. Bennett said he looks really good. He’s full of tubes.” He took her hand into his.
“Yes, he’s thirty weeks,” she said like she knew exactly what he looked like in that little bed. Because she did; she had seen it before. “Did you take any pictures?”
“Shoot, no, I was so busy just looking at him. He’s amazing, Mandy. Adorable.” He kissed her hand.
“Did you touch him?” she whispered to him.
“Yes, I touched his tiny hand. And he wanted to curl it around my finger,” he told her in amazement.
Across the room on a table, her phone buzzed. It had been taken here at some point by someone, but Hue had no idea who. Hue went to get it, and since the text was from David, he opened it. As he handed it to her, he said, “David was thinking more clearly than I was.”
Watching her page through the pictures of her son, he leaned over close to her so he could see him again. Once they were done, she went back through them. Then again.
“He has your name.” She almost touched it on the screen.