Sophia

Chapter 75

A sharp cry breaks through the silent night and my feet are touching the freezing floor before my eyes are even open. 

"Let me get her, Soph ", Tristan mumbles while trying to free himself from the cocoon of blankets.

"No. No, it's probably Lizzie. She didn't eat much during the two AM feeding."

"Or they need diaper changes or just soothing, neither of which requires you or your breasts. You need your sleep."

"Yes, but you need it more, and I'm already up. You can get the next one."  Before he can continue arguing with me, I cross the length of our room to an inconspicuous door that to the unknowing eye is just another closet door.

Opening it reveals a soft light, coming from the night lights, reflecting off the light pink walls. Walking down the short hallway, covered with pictures of our family, I enter the grand room with two stately gray cribs along the far wall. Each crib is cloaked in a light gray canopy. In the dim light of the room you can't see the design cut into the front of the cribs, but I know what is there. A flying sparrow holding a diamond in its beak. 

The cribs had been a gift from Crash. He showed them to us the day we brought the girls home, after the welcome party had been cut shot, and after he had given us his bleak omen for our future. Our number one concern had already been the safety and well being of our baby girls, but now a dark sense of doom loomed over us growing ever closer. 

 My fear was so great that first night, I didn't sleep at all even though I desperately needed it. No matter how much anyone pleaded or promised to take over for me I would not budge from that rocking chair overlooking that one baby blue bassinet that contained two tiny newborns. I did not rest until the nursery was deemed completed and safe for my babies, but still I did not leave their sides. I slept fitfully on the carpet of that room for the next four hours. But over the course of the next few days, I slowly began to remember the trust I had in Rhoan's magic and how not so much as a wondering imp would enter this room. 

I still feared for their safety, but I got better at controlling that fear. By the time they were two weeks old, I felt comfortable enough leaving them for short breaks when either my mother, Vera, or Nikki could happily take over for me. 

Tristan was set to return to work tomorrow, the same day the girls would be officially one month old. It was time and his work for the crown was vitally important, especially now. 

A small whimper emanated from Gabby's crib and I gently sweep the canopy back to reveal her tiny form. Her eyes are open, staring straight at me, but she isn't crying and doesn't appear to have been. She lets out a soft coo before raising her closed fist into her mouth. 

Bewildered, I take the two steps over to Lizzie's crib to check on her, but I only find a peacefully sleeping Elizabeth. 

I return to Gabby's crib and gently pick her up and nestle her into my arms before walking over to the rocking chair in the corner that is adjacent to the window. I barely take notice of the half opened curtains and the night behind them. I check her diaper as I begin to sit down, but it is as dry and unused as it was an hour ago when I put it on her. 

"What woke up my pretty little princess?" I whisper quietly to her. 

Then almost as an answer the low howl of the wind whips against the window. An early fall storm is brewing outside moving the cold air from the ocean to meet with the mildly warm air on the inland. It dawns on me that I hadn't heard the storm from our room, nor noticed it when I glanced at the window. But this isn't the first obvious thing that I have missed due to my lack of sleep.