Page 24 of Life To My Flight

“We both have strep, and we don’t want her to get it. You also have the next two days off. That’s enough time for us to get the antibiotics in our systems before she comes back around us,” Cody said nasally.

“I thought it was the stomach flu,” I looked around alarmed. “I really have no experience with babies. This one is tiny, too.”

Marie was three months old, and although much more sturdy than she had been when they’d gotten her two months ago, she was still extremely small.

I didn’t even have a dog. How was I supposed to know how to take care of a kid?

“Rue, you’re a nurse. I’m sure you can figure it out. You wipe ass for a living anyway. You’ll be fine,” Cody explained patiently.

I looked at the little girl in my arms and grimaced. “Okay, but only until tomorrow. You only need twenty four hours to get the antibiotics in your system.”

Cody smiled slightly before waving as he exited the house with Dooley hot on his heels.

Poor Dooley had it even worse than Cody.

He couldn’t even talk, which was bad since he was a public speaker.

He was a motivational speaker and advocate for teens, as well as a youth probation officer.

“Thank you,” Cody said as he started heading for the door. “Call if you need anything.”

I watched them go, anxiety starting to take over.

I looked down at the little girl in my arms, and nearly wept.

It astounded me with the amount of trust Cody and Dooley had in me. To trust me to take care of the most important thing in their life was staggering.

***

Rue

I stared at the crying baby, unsure what to do.

“Why are you crying?” I whimpered with her.

I was flustered.

The baby had started crying within an hour of being dropped off, and now, three hours later, was still whimpering.

She’d been fed, changed, bathed, and now I was just holding her.

Cody had been no help, either.

“I forgot to tell you, sometimes she just gets colicky,” Cody said mournfully, and then proceeded that statement by throwing up.

I hung up on that undesirable sound.

I wasn’t into puking at work, and I wasn’t into it at home, either.

I was about to change her diaper for the seventh time in just as many hours when a knock sounded from the front door.

I walked to it cautiously, looked out the peephole, and then sighed.

My heart started fluttering, and my belly turned into a mass of emotions that ranged from happy, to distraught, right back to ecstatic.

He was just what I needed.

Punching in the numbers on the keypad, I unarmed the door, unlocked it, and opened it.

---