“Dr. Wilson is with her and a specialist.  She’s being well cared for.”  Bette looked down at Angelica and bit her lower lip.  “She hasn't even met her baby yet.”

Everyone’s attention went to the baby who looked amazingly like her non-birth mother. 

Bette was so proud and beamed an infectious radiant smile as she stood.   “This is Angelica.”

Kit looked at her sister knowing why she had chosen that name and was happy for both of them.  The baby was guaranteed to be a strong and lively presence in the world with that name.  Her namesakes were women to be reckoned with.   Kit glanced at her sister and then back down at her niece as she took her from Bette.  “Hi, Angelica…”

* * * * *

Three days later

Bette was sitting in a green vinyl-covered chair in a surprisingly cheery hospital room holding Angelica.  It was the middle of the afternoon and there was no more available counter or window sill space.  Flowers filled the room—flowers from Shane and Jenny, Shane and Carmen, Kit, and employees of the Planet.  Allyn Barnes, the last artist Bette had the opportunity to work with at the CAC had sent a beautiful yet understated bouquet.  Dana and Alice’s bouquet had been sugar cookies most of which Bette had consumed while sitting there hour after hour.  The cryobank had sent congratulatory flowers with a card that had a million little sperm swimming on it.  The flowers that the CAC had the nerve to deliver with Franklin’s name on it had been trashed in the hall near the nurses’ station.   The room was a bit too cluttered for Bette’s artistic eye, but her focus really wasn’t the flowers or the hideous artwork on the walls, or the various plastic apparatuses on the small nightstand.  Her eyes panned in two directions only—from the baby in her arms to her lover stretched out in the hospital bed a few feet from her.  Tina was actually sitting up, reclining ever so slightly against a pile of pillows.  Bette watched as one of the nurses she had become friendly with completed expressing milk from Tina.  When Tina was sitting up in this position, it seemed like she had just closed her eyes for a brief rest.  She knew this wasn’t true.  The unusually steady breathing and the partially shaved head were dead giveaways, not to mention the catheter the doctors had placed in the center of her brain to drain spinal fluid and prevent further brain swelling.     

While Naomi, one of the two nurses in the room detached the funnel cup from Tina’s nipple and pulled the tubing from the machine, Carol stretched and bent Tina’s legs, then her arms, exercising her in a way Tina couldn’t for herself.  There was no reaction from Tina.  She was no more than a shell at this point.

Bette couldn’t believe the turn her life had taken.  She had worked so hard to show Tina that she held all the cards and she could be the woman Tina needed her to be.  She was attentive and welcoming and refused to put any pressure or make demands.  They were going to co-parent together and live in their home as a family.  Things hadn’t worked out that way yet, but they would.

“Bette, honey?”  Naomi was standing over her holding a bottle of milk.  

Bette looked up. “Sorry.”

“Do you wanna give Angelica her bottle?”

She took the bottle from the nurse and placed the small cotton cloth that was on her lap against Angelica’s white, Onesie undershirt.  “Thank you.” 

Angelica went for the bottle immediately.  Naomi stared down at the mother and daughter for a moment and sighed before turning around.