just a moment

"Zoe is just beautiful." Lon wouldn't stop smiling. Olivia felt like giving him a hug. She and Amber had brought him a change of clothes and Charlie. "You'd thought she'd been in a vat of cottage cheese or something, and I wasn't sure she'd ever wake up. She's almost 6 pounds, you know." He went on and on about the baby girl.

Olivia wasn't sure she wanted to know about the cottage cheese part. Ellie was still asleep. She'd seen Zoe briefly, or so Lon said.  It sounded like it might take some time to mend after a c-section.

"I don't think Ellie had ever had an operation, before." Lon told them.

"I'm so glad she's OK. Really." Olivia didn't think about the snow coming down outside or how messy it was to get here. She watched Charlie hug him and slobber him with kisses.

"Yeah, I called her Dad." Lon told her.

"What about her Mom?" Olivia wanted to know.

"I figured he could do that." Lon was even lipped. They looked up to see her coming then, down by the nursery.

"So where is she?" Ellie's mother looked as if she might go right in and kidnap the baby as soon as she saw it. Olivia could tell Ellie's mother wouldn't like what they named the baby or anything else. It was easy to see that she wanted to be the one in control, but she wasn't.

Lon pointed to the tiny one near the nurse's station in back. She didn't say anything else. Her mom smelled of expensive perfume and her red lips against her porcelain skin were so haunting. Ellie's mother was nothing like Ellie.

"Maybe we should be going." Olivia reached for Charlie.

"No, stay. Ellie would want you here. She'll want to see the both of you." He held on to Charlie and went to see if there was any news about Ellie.