Two bright eyes stared back at Eva Artemis in the hospital room on the night of June 6th, 2000. Her shaky breaths got heavier as she flinched away from the freshly swaddled newborn. She turned her head away from the pressing woman in scrubs, and the infant. Pressing her eyes shut Eva sniffled gently to suppress her silent tears and runny nose.
"Don't you want to hold her?" the nurse coaxed encouragingly. "She's gorgeous, she has your eyes."
The doctor rested a hand on the nurses arm and informed her quietly.
Through her own inner monologue Eva heard him, despite his hushed tones.
"The baby... adoption... parents... waiting outside."
The nurse retracted the child deeper into her hold, shielding it now. "I am so sorry, ma'am."
The nurse was ushered outside of the room and into the hallway. A tall woman with her mahogany hair in an almost formal up do waited there readily.
"Hi, you must be-" the nurse began.
"The mother, oh, her hair..." she sounded.
"Yes, it appears she shared the womb; however, somewhere in between the first and first half of the second trimester she... must have absorbed her roommate."
"Noted." she replied coolly.
There was a paused and then the woman adjusted herself. "May I hold my child now?"
"Oh yes, of course." The nurse quickly responded.
Very gently she extended the child in her grasp to the mother.
The woman smiled down at the child pensively, taking the infant into her grasp. She studied her unique appearance with pride.
"She is so well behave. She almost scared Dr. Woodlin when she didn't cry." the nurse began. "We ran some tests, however, and she is completely responsive. She will be officially discharged in 12-24 hours. Is this your first child? We have pamphlets for any supplies you may not have thought of needing and-"
"No." the woman interjected with disinterest. "I think you'll find the child has been officially discharged as of seven and a half minutes ago."
"That's impossible, hospital protocol-" the nurse began to argue when Dr. Woodlin came down the hallway.
"Actually, she has been discharged, Rene." Woodlin smiled at his nurse then to the woman. "Mrs. Lancaster, here is the file you requested, including the adoption paperwork you were missing. The birth certificate is in the sub-folder, fill it out and get it back to us when you can."
"Sir, we still need to get-" Rene, the nurse interjected uncertainly.
"Thank you, Doctor, it's been a pleasure." Mrs. Lancaster smirked, gracefully taking the folder while holding the child against her bosom with her other arm. She turned away from them and walked into her role as a mother.
Eva Artemis' breath grew shallow as her vision blurred. Her hands and feet began to grow colder by the second, though her body was fevered.
The cold feeling spread into her arms and legs. By the time a nurse was alerted by her soft gasps, she could see nothing but the small glimpse she had gotten of her daughter. The one she would never know. As the hospital staff rushed her on a crash cart, the coldness had left her stiff. As the ice had found its way through every vein in her body it had reached her heart, and she was dead.
