Special

Date/Timing: 11 December 1998
Setting: hospital; Anchorage, Alaska, USA
something I edited/beta-d for Gotham
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Yancy peeks around the hospital curtain.
Mom gives him her glowiest smile and waves him over.
Yancy toddles over, giggling.
«Climb up here, little angel,» she says softly as she rocks the blanket-y bundle in her arms. «Someone wants to meet you.» 
«Mm!» He grunts, pulls himself up onto the bed using the sheets to help, then tucks himself against Mom's side and hums along the /thump-thump of her heartbeat. «Thomeone?» 
«Thumb out of your mouth,» she chides. 
«Someone?» 
«You remember my belly, yes?» 
«Mmhm!» Yancy looks down. «Gone!» 
«Shh.» She presses a kiss to the blanket, then Yancy's hair. «I told you that you might have a little brother or sister soon, yes?» 
«Mmhm.»
«You have a brother.» 
Yancy pushes up to sitting, looks around, wrinkling his forehead. «Where?»
Mom giggles. «Here.» She tilts her arms.
The pink, wrinkly thing in the blanket yawns.
Yancy gasps.
«His name is Raleigh.»
«Ra ... Rah ... Ray?» Wrinkles his nose. «Hard.»
«'Ray' is a lovely nickname.»
Yancy beams. «Ray.»
«Since you're Ray's big brother, you'll need to help him along,» Mom says as she strokes the fluffy, light hair on Ray's head. 
«Hug?» Yancy opens his arms. 
«Of course. Hold him like this—» Mom sets Ray on his lap. «—and keep one hand under his head.»
«He's /tiny,» whispers Yancy.
Mom laughs. «Right now he is, but someday he'll be big as you.»
«Wow.»
«And, just like you, he's very, very special.»
«Mmhm.» Yancy rocks Ray the way he's seen Cousin Mari rock Cousin Yvette. 
Ray opens big blue eyes.
«Hi, Ray.»
Ray blinks, wiggles.
Yancy uses his free hand to wipe his eyes and breathes around a heart which feels too big for his chest. He sniffles as he looks at Ray.
Ray squinches his face, lips wibbling—
«~The sea, seen dancing along the clear gulfs~,» sings Yancy quietly.
Mom joins—«~with silver reflections, The sea, changing reflections beneath the rain~»—gathers Ray into her arms. She opens the top part of her dress, settles Ray against her skin.
Ray grunts and makes soft sucking noises.
Yancy keeps humming the song.
Eventually, Ray's eyes slide shut and the sounds stop.
Mom wipes his lips and herself with the edge of her dress, then snuggles into her mountain of pillows. «Come nap with us, Yancy.» 
He squirms under the covers next to Mom, pets Ray's fuzzy head, then his tiny hand.
Ray sighs, grabs onto Yancy's finger with a strong grip.
Yancy smiles and lets his little brother hold his hand.
Category:Ficlet
Category:Anchorage (setting)
Category:Yancy
Category:Yancy's POV
Category:Yancy (ficlet)
Category:Dominique
Category:Dominique (ficlet)
Category:Raleigh
Category:Raleigh (ficlet)
Category:Ficlets with images
Category:Marian (mention)
Category:Yvette (mention)