The Visit

The Visit
The hospital was dark and quiet when the tall blond walked in. If anyone saw him, they would not remember it, but if they had ever known him, they would never forget him. He walked like a king, his stride one of a proud man. He looked thirty but was so much older and he looked human, but it had been 1000 years since he was that. His grey green eyes scanned the hallway and the dim lights did not do justice to the gold in his hair.

He could scent the smells of hospitals and traces of blood and medicine but he could smell her too, his spirit wife and he could smell the child, somewhere nearby because he smelled like her. A nurse approached him and before she could protest, he cupped her cheek in the palm of his huge hand and looked at her and he whispered his woman’s name and the name of the child and she told him where they were and as he swept by, she blinked and shook her head as though trying to clear away a foggy feeling. Tired, the nurse thought in her mind as the tall figure dressed in black turned down the hall unseen.

He walked first into Butter’s room. He could see she was tired, but she seemed fine to him, her heart beat was strong and she was resting. He leaned over her and kissed her temple. Her eyes fluttered at the touch of his cool lips on her skin. She opened her eyes.

“Eric,” she said. “What are you doing here?”
“Aslinn phoned me and told me the baby was born,” he said softly, pushing back a wisp of hair from her face. “I came to see you on my way to Mississippi.”
“Have you seen him yet?” she asked.
“I came to see you first,” said the Vampire.
“Stand behind the drape and I will ask for the baby,” she said. Eric did as he was told and Butter rang for the nurse. When the nurse responded, she asked for the baby. It was almost time to feed him anyway. About ten minutes later, the nurse wheeled in the bassinette and the warmed bottle. She took the baby out and brought him to Butter. She handed her a cloth diaper and the bottle and when the nurse left, Eric stepped out from behind the curtain. He looked down at the little boy.

“He is so small,” he said. His cool finger tips rubbed his warm head, feeling the down of hair there. He watched the baby drinking the warm milk. His eyes devoured the pink skin, he could smell his sweet perfume. When the baby was finished Butter burped him and the baby sort of went to sleep. Eric leaned down and put his ear on the baby’s back and could hear the faster beat of his heart, thump thump, thump. He had listened to it so often from inside Butter’s belly but it had a strange echoey underwater sound then. This sounded like a little clock ticking steady and fast.

“Would you like to hold him?” she asked. Eric nodded. She wrapped him in the blanket in a tight little bundle and handed him to the Viking.

He held the baby up, his hand cupping the back of his head, his other under his bottom. The baby squinted at him with the rheumy unfocused eyes of an infant. “Hello little human man. At last we meet.” The baby snuffled as though to cry but Eric made a shushing noise and he quieted. “I felt you kick your mother hard when you were growing. You will be a strong little man someday.” The baby yawned unconcerned with the man’s observations.

He turned to Butter and laid the baby back in her arms. “You two should rest. I will be away for a while, but I will be back.”
“Wednesday?” she asked.
“Wednesday,” he confirmed. He leaned down and kissed Butter on the mouth, softly. “Take care of our boy now.”

And then, he was gone.