“Okay, senora. You’re going to push to the count of ten, then relax, si?” The doctor said in a heavily accented English voice.

“Fine, but hurry up and get this monster out of me,” Carly replied snarkily.

The doctor and Dante shared a quick glance.

“Are you sure you gave me an epidural, cause I feel like I’m being ripped in two from the inside out?” Carly shouted at Juana, the doctor.

“Si, senora. I did,” she reassured Carly.

“Well, it sure as hell doesn’t feel like it—UGH!! Here comes another one.”

“Push!” The doctor commanded.

Carly scrunched up her face and bared down. “What the hell- -“

“Carly, shut up and concentrate,” Dante demanded in a firm yet gentle voice.

“Cinco, sies, siete, ocho, nueve, y diez. Relax,” Juana counted. The doctor stepped away from the bed. “A few more pushes and the baby will be here.” Juana walked over to the other twin bed in the sea breeze green bedroom.

The petite teenage looking girl laid on the bed quietly, sweating profusely. Her face twisted in pain.

Juana spoke to the girl in rapid Spanish. The girl replied softly.

“In English, Juana. Talk to Rosie in ingles,” Carly insisted from her bed.

“Lo siento, senora,” Juana said apologetically. “I was just asking Rosie how she was doing.”

“She’s fine. It’s me you need to be worried abo- - Ahh!!”

The doctor ran back to Carly. “The baby is crowning,” Juana exclaimed.

Carly grabbed Dante’s hand and squeezed it painfully. Growling she said, “All men’s dicks should be cut off and fed to them for the pain they cause.”

Juana chuckled quietly under her breath, as she saw the baby’s head appear. This mujer was a piece of work. “I see his cabeza.”

“Come on, Carly, the baby is almost here,” Dante encouraged.

Carly screamed and seconds later, an infant’s wails filled the room.

“Senora, es un nino. Tiene un hijo!” The doctor announced joyously. Juana wrapped the newborn up in a towel and handed him to Dante.

Taking the baby to the makeshift changing/supply table, Dante cleaned, measured, weighed and quieted the baby while Juana dealt with the afterbirth.

When the baby had been diapered and dressed, Dante placed the baby boy in Carly’s arms.

“La doctor,” Rosie said in a raised voice riddled with pain.

Juana quickly finished up with Carly and she and Dante ran to Rosie’s bed.r “The baby is coming soon,” Juana told Rosie in a calming voice.

Carly tuned out the rest of the people in the room and observed the silent infant. Ric’s baby, she couldn’t believe God would be this cruel to her and Sonny. They had already lost Robert thanks to that no good drunk otherwise known as AJ. Now due to a drunken, one night stand that she can’t even remember at Jake’s, she and Sonny have now been denied a child for a second time. The baby stared up at her with brown eyes that reminded her of Sonny. They deserved a child that carried their blood through its veins. Sonny deserved a child of his own. Not that he didn’t love Michael as if he were his, but she knew he wanted a child that he could be there for from conception to adulthood. A baby she often imagined who would be an exact replica of Sonny, dimples and all. As soon as she got back home, she was going to see a fertility specialist at Mercy. They were going to have the child she saw in her dreams playing with Michael. Ric and Liz had all the time in the world to have a baby. Turning her head at the sound of groaning, she watched Juana cut the umbilical cord.

“It’s a girl!” Juana exclaimed.

Dante once again left the new mother’s side and took the newborn from the doctor’s arms. Closing her eyes, Carly listened to the sounds around her and waited. A while later, she felt the baby being taken out of her arms, then strong arms lifted her from the bed. She opened her eyes at the luxurious, soft feel of silk underneath and around her. Ah, this is much better, she thought to herself. She looked out the French doors, Dante opened, to the roaring waves of the Atlantic.

Dante walked back into the room with two carefully bundled babies in his arms. He gently placed both in Carly’s arms. Carly looked at the fair skinned baby boy, who kept his solemn gaze on her. She had to admit, he was cute little guy and she could like him if she could forget who the doctor said his father was, but she couldn’t. She kissed the top of the male newborn’s head, which was lightly sprinkled with spiky dark brown hair.

Carly motioned for Dante to take the boy. “Congratulations, daddy!” She said with a light tilt to her voice, as he took the baby out of her hands.

“Mrs.C- - I mean, Carly, thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” he chanted as tears flowed freely down his face. He kissed his son’s forehead. “Hey, little one,” he whispered to his new baby boy. “Go. Take Dante Jr. to see his mother.”

Dante nodded and walked carefully out of the room as if he was holding the world’s most precious metal.

As soon the door clicked, Carly repositioned the infant in her arms. She had been fearful that she would feel scared and nervous like she had when Michael was born, when she held her baby in her arms for the first time. Maybe the loss of Robert and the fear that she would never be able to have another baby had calmed her fears and made her grateful for this moment.

Carly laid the little girl down and unwrapped her carefully She counted her ten toes and ten fingers. Just to make sure they were all there. She lovingly traced the tiny little face with her red painted index finger. She tickled the newborn under her chin and was rewarded with the infant opening her eyes for the first time at her. Carly stared intently into the bright blue eyes of the taupe skinned girl. She caressed the surprisingly full head of light brown hair. Maybe her eye color would change. If not, oh well, she could blame it on the fact that she doesn’t know who her biological father is. Who knew having a whore for a birth mother could actually work for her? Carly smiled. This baby was beautiful. Sonny was going to love her like there was no tomorrow. The baby started to cry. Carly grabbed the bottle that Dante had prepared, picked up the baby, cradled her in her arms and fed her. Maybe she should breastfeed. Nah, no use in helping mother nature out. Sonny loved natural beauty, so no lifts or implants for her. She needed to enjoy her breasts perkiness for as long as possible.

The bottle fell out of the baby’s mouth. Carly reinserted it and felt such a powerful feeling of love. It just overwhelmed her. Was this how her mama felt when the social worker placed her in her arms at the hospital a few miles from here? Did her mama immediately undress and count her fingers and toes? Did she outline her face so gently and lovingly?

Carly placed a finger next to the baby’s hand and the baby grabbed on to the finger with all her might. Tears flowed down Carly’s face like a torrent. How she missed her mama. Why did she have to die so young? She still needed her mama. She wished her mama was in this room right now with her, holding her as she held her mama’s namesake, Virginia Adella. “Oh, Mama,” she cried as she buried her face in the crook of her daughter’s neck.