Things at home were going well; they had finished turning the guest bedroom into a nursery for their daughter. And Tina’s body was adapting well to being a home for a tiny human. True to Tina’s promise, she had already taken her leave from work and was stress free for their last couple months. She had gone back to taking up photography, using the second guest bedroom as a studio. Alexander had completed his final year of college at C.U. majoring in Art History. He had planned on going back to get his master’s degree in art education.

“Mmm, baby you smell so good in the morning,” Bette said, her face in the nape of Tina’s neck.

“Baby,” Tina smiled, as Bette ran her palm over Tina’s pregnant belly.

“Good morning my little princess,” Bette said, speaking to the baby and kissing Tina’s stomach. She felt their daughter kick while her lips were still on Tina’s stomach.

“She loves the sound of Mama B’s voice,” Tina said and smiled as Bette smiled so proudly.

“Come on baby, we need to get ready so we can go.”

“I don’t wanna get up. Let’s just stay in bed all day,” Tina whined, as Bette started to help her up.

“Baby you know I would love nothing more than to spend all day in bed with you but we have to get both you and Lara to Dr. Wilson’s office since Dana is out of town this week.”

“Oh alright,” she said, accepting Bette’s help up, “you don’t have to take us, I’m more than capable of driving us. I know you’ve got so much work for your opening in a week.”

“Nothing is more important to me than you and our daughter; I will not miss a second of it, like I did with our son.”

“Bette, you need to stop feeling guilty over him. It’s not your fault or mine that he didn’t make it. It was just bad luck.”

“I know, but I still feel like, if I had been to every single appointment, then maybe he’d have known that I cared for him.”

“Baby, he knew you cared, it just wasn’t meant to be, that’s all,” Tina said hugging Bette, a few tears escaping her eyelids, “we need to stop this talk and focus on the positive, like our baby girl and her very healthy status.”