Slow motion

Time waited

Every moment observed, memorized

The clock ticking’

Soft and heavy breaths

Every word, every sound

A little voice full of curiosity

A man confessing his love and adoration

A heartbeat, seemingly perfect

Everything in slow motion

Every second of every minute given a chance to create its own memory

Alexis’ eyes wandered from Ric, to Kristina, to the baby, to Dr. Brinkley

Kristina, her purple dress, her ringlets pulled together in a matching beret, her fingers gripping her bear in one hand and seemingly holding on for dear life to her mother’s arm

The cool gel that fell against Alexis’ belly

Kristina’s eyes were glued to the sight of the moving object before her on the TV

She looked as if she weren’t completely sure of what she was seeing…

She was seeing something everyone was excited about…

“Look right there” Ric pointed making sure Kristina could see “You see the heart beating?”

Kristina studied the screen for a moment, pointed and then looked at her mommy lying beside her on the exam table

“Baby!” Kristina said excitedly putting two and two together

Both Ric and Alexis laughed proudly at her revelation

“Yes that’s the baby!” Alexis said grinning widely “That’s your little brother or sister!”

“Do you guys want to know if it’s a boy or a girl?” Dr. Brinkley asked

“Yes!” Alexis answered “I mean…” she looked at Ric

“You sure you want to know?” Ric asked her

“I do, but if you don’t…”

Dr. Brinkley smiled somewhat amused at their indecisiveness as she continued to glide across Alexis’ now swollen belly

“If you two need more time to think about this?”

“No, no we’ll never decide.” Ric said grinning “Alexis has always wanted to know and I’m the one changing my mind about wanting to know…” Ric looked at Alexis and then to Dr. Brinkley “Yes we want to know”

“You’re sure?”

Ric looked back at Alexis as intertwined his fingers with hers

“Yes we’re sure”

Alexis and Ric could both laugh later at how their hearts were about to pound out of their chest

“Ok then… Ms. Kristina… that right there…”Dr. Brinkley said pointing to the monitor “is your little sister”

A grin covered Alexis’ face but tears quickly began to fall from her eyes as she looked to Ric. She could tell he was doing his best not to be over come with emotion

God, she would save that look on his face in her memory forever

“A, a girl” he asked almost questioning, making sure he heard correctly

“As far as I can tell it look like you two are going to have your hands full now with two little girls!”

Alexis looked at Kristina “That’s your little sister!”

“Lille sis-ter” Kristina said now grasping what everyone was telling her

“That’s her!”

“When she come out of there?”

“We still have to wait a few more months’ sweetheart” Ric said giving Kristina a kiss to the top of the head “But I can’t wait either!”

“Hey, Kristina why don’t you and I go visit the nurses and let mommy and daddy be alone for a second?”

Kristina willingly went in to Dr. Brinkley’s arms

“I’ll give you two a few minutes”

Both Ric and Alexis smiled appreciatively

Kristina waved goodbye

“See you!”

Everyone got a chuckle out of her goodbye that she had obviously “picked up” from someone

Alexis didn’t get up, she lay there, her bare belly exposed

Ric sat down on the stool beside her

His blue shirt

She loved that blue shirt

It had pearl white buttons…

She had unbuttoned that shirt herself now many times over trying to get to his bare chest underneath

But now the vision of that blue shirt would forever be etched in her mind of what he was wearing the day they knew they were having a baby girl

His hand warm against her belly

His lips warmer as they pressed against it

He held his lips there for what seemed like forever as if in all the adoration and love for her was saying prayer after prayer for their baby girl

Alexis hand lazily slid through Ric’s hair curling his ends around her fingers

“Alexis”

“Yes Sweetheart?”

“I just love her so much already” he confessed “I mean I don’t even know her and I would do anything for her, give her anything…”

“Well that’s what daddy’s do”

Ric kissed Alexis’ lips with a few short kisses before helping her up

“I don’t want to ever forget this moment much less do I ever want it to end”

“Well it has to end… because I’m not keeping this little girl in here forever” she said grinning

Ric’s hands circled her belly once again then kissed her again and again

“Maybe we should go home now!” Alexis said wide eyed

“Yeah I think maybe we should… I think Kristina may be ready for a nap”

“You better hope the nurses out there are tiring her out because I think she’s pretty excited about her little sister”

Ric took a moment and sat up on the exam table beside Alexis

“You know what?”

Alexis looked to Ric

“Their going to make a great pair”

Alexis smiled “Yes they are”

“I mean I want to make sure more than anything that they are close… that they stick up for each other no matter what, that they love each other”

“You and I both know we’ll see that, that happens”

Ric shook his head

“Two little girls”

“Just wait until their teenagers”

“Well at least I have a few years to come up with tactics on how to keep the boys away”

Alexis laughed 

Ric’s feet hit the floor and he helped Alexis to her feet

“Well Mrs. Davis-Lansing…” He said taking her eyes in his “You got your girl”

He was grinning

“I have no earthly idea what you’re talking about” Alexis played innocently

“Honey you’ve been calling the baby a ‘her’ since you found out you were pregnant”

“I have not! You, you were the one calling her, a ‘her!’

Ric laughed slyly

“You wanted another girl just as much as I did!” Alexis accused

“I would have been just as ecstatic if it was a boy but I do like the sound of daddy’s little girls”

Alexis grinned and then gave him a final kiss before taking his hand

“We got our little girl Ric”

He let out a deep breath

“Yeah we did”