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Danny hung of the phone and went to join Michelle in the kitchen. He had made the plane reservations for Barbados with a transfer in Atlanta. Danny had always thought that if you had to go to hell and back, you would still have to transfer in Atlanta.
The earliest they could leave would be in the morning. He didnt want to leave his car at the airport for God knew how long so he arranged for a car to pick them up at 8:00.
That meant that she would have to sleep in the house with him tonight. Oh God.
He still didnt know what to believe about her story. It was just too outlandish to believe to be true. He believed in Rosie though and he believed Michelle loved that baby will all her heart.
They had talked about having children when she was done with school and they had been taking precautions. How had this happened? He knew occassionally women got pregnant while taking the pill but this was only one of the totally unbelievable things that she was asking him to believe. She was asking him to believe that she had been abducted by his dead brother, his mother who had greived terribly over her sons death, was in on the hoax and she had gotten pregnant on the pill.
Any of those things in itself was hard enough to believe but all three together??? He just didnt know.
The chances of him fathering the baby were the only thing he believed right now. Even if she had been with someone after she had left him, the pills would still have been in her system. No, he knew in his heart that Rosie was his.
He wondered if Michelle carried any pictures of Rosie. He sat down at the table with her and watched her eat her soup. He hated that he didnt have anything more to feed her but she had been genuinely grateful for the meal. She had already eaten all of the soup and was drinking her second glass of milk. She had been very hungry.
He watched her closely fully aware of how nervous he was making her. "Your hair got lighter he said. She nodded and said "Your's got long".
He hadnt gotten around to getting his hair cut since she had disappeared and it was already touching his shoulders although it didnt appear long since it curled up at the ends. "Yeah, well, it seemed like a lot of trouble to get it cut" he shrugged.
"I like it" she said and he muttered a curt "Thanks". Why were they making small talk. MIchelle was back in his life for the first time in ten months and they were talking about their hair????
"Um, look Michelle," he started to say "Do you have any pictures of Rosie that I could see, I mean I want to see..."
Michelle saw the hope in his eyes at the thought of seeing his daughters picture for the first time. "No Danny, there are no pictures, Mick wouldnt......." she said and stopped. She knew Danny didnt believe her about Mick yet and she didnt want to push her luck. There were several moments of uncomfortable silence until Danny spoke again.
"What does she look like?" he said.
Michelle's face lit up then. "Oh Danny, she is so beautiful. She has my hair color, well not the color it is now, but the color it used to be, and she has your eyes and your color and your smile. She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. She doesn't cry alot and when she's eating she will clasp a strand of my hair and hold on to it tight. I'm not sure how much she wieghed when she was born and I dont know how much she weighs now but Louisa says she is very healthy. Her hair curls at the base of her neck like yours and she krinkles her nose like you do" she said with a smile.
"I dont krinkle my nose" he said.
"You are doing it now" she teased and Danny realized she was right and smiled. It was the first time MIchelle had seen him smile since she showed up this afternoon.
" How long is she" he asked and Michelle held out her hands about twenty inches apart to indicate her size.
" What's her full name?" he asked.
"Her given name is Rosaria Danielle Santos, after her great grandmother and her father" she said. "But she is totally Rosie" she said.
"Rosaria was my grandmother's middle name" he reminded her.
"I know but I couldnt very well name her Abuella, now could I?" she teased. Danny smiled again.
"Is she smart?" he asked.
"Oh yes Danny, she's brilliant, why just yesterday morning I heard her reciting Hamlet's soliloquy" she said and again he smiled despite himself.
"You know what I mean" he teased back.
"Yes, I do , I'm sorry" she smiled. "She likes to be outdoors where she can see everything. She is so alert and responsive. She reacts to the sounds outside. She likes to hear the insects out in the forest at night. We usually sit out there at night before she goes to bed. She likes to have her snack before she goes to bed" Michelle smiled.
"How is she eating now?" he asked. Rosie was separated from her mother. He needed to find out who was feeding her.
"Before I left, I pumped milk into some containers and it will stay fresh as long as it is refrigerated" she explained.
"What do you mean pumped?" he asked.
"Well maybe squeezed is a better word to describe it. See my body will make milk as long as she is nursing or it is expelled manually. If it figures out Rosie is not nursing, or if I dont expell it, it will stop coming" she explained.
"Do you think that will happen? he asked.
"No, I am going to empty it shortly. I have already been thinking about when to do it, but if we are going to go, I need to go ahead and do it" she said and Danny's face turned pale.
Michelle laughed. She really laughed for the first time in ten months. The look on Danny's face was so funny as if he thought she were going to just whip them out right here and do it at the table.
"Danny, I am not going to do it right here" she explained. "I will go into the bathroom and do it privately."
"You can do it here if you want to " he said as their eyes connected. For the first time since Michelle came home, their gazes locked and Danny forgot for the briefest of moments what had transpired in the last ten months.
He shook his head to clear his thoguhts. What was he thinking? "Listen Michelle, I forgot to tell you. We wont be able to leave until the morning." he said.
"But Danny, Rosie........" she wailed.
"I'm sorry Michelle but it was the best I could do. I thought about calling Bill to see if we could use the Lewis jet but I got to thinking that a private Lewis Oil jet flying in would cause suspicion" he said.
If what Michelle had said were true, then Mick would know she had come to get him, and Mick knew Danny worth a damn, then he would know that Danny would come back for his daughter.
"But Danny that would mean....." she didnt finish her sentence.
"Yes Michelle, I know damn well what that means. It means we are going to have to stay here for the night" he said.
"I could stay at a hotel, only I dont have very much money" she offered.
"You're not going to any damn hotel" he said. "This is still your home"
All of the emotions she had been holding in since she left Barbados hit her in one giant wave. The intensity of them threatened to knock her to her knees. The tears feel freely then. She knew he didn't totally believe her about everything, probably still thought she had left him that night, but he was not turning her away.
He believed in Rosie. He believed in his daughter. She saw the internal struggle that he was going through and she whispered to him " when you see Rosie, Danny you will understand. When you see Rosie you will fall in love with her"
"I already love her" he said and turned to leave the room. He went into the bathroom to run her a hot bath. He still had the vanilla scented bubble bath that she loved so much. He poured a generous amount into the steamy water.
He went to get the tee shirt that she loved to wear to put on when she finished with her bath. He would go and get some of the clothes that he had packed in the boxes in the storage closet for her to wear on their trip to Barbados.
He turned the steamy water off and went to get Michelle. He found her in the living room looking at the wedding picture on the mantle above the fireplace.
She heard him enter the room and turned to him. "I'm surprised you still have it out" she said.
"Why, Michelle, I thought you were dead, I didnt quit loving you" he said. The moment turned awkward again and Danny said "Come with me" and silently she followed him.
The bathtub was filled with bubbles. She smiled to herself. Danny had done this for her. He probably was tired of looking at how grubby she looked.
"Your bath awaits you ma'am" he said and did a half bow and Michelle laughed at his silly gesture.
She began to take off her clothes and he make no attempt to leave the bathroom. He watched her as she took off one piece of dirty clothing and then another. He was as turned on as he would be if she had been removing exotic lingerie instead of wet, dinghy clothes.
Soon she was naked and Danny could see all the changes that carrying Rosie had made in her body. She stood still for a moment and allowed him to look at her. He had such longing in his eyes. She knew how he felt. She had longed for him every second she had been away.
She stepped into the bath and immediately let the warmth of the water consume her. All of her cares were lost for this one brief moment as she allowed the water to soothe her aching body and heart.
She put her hands on her breasts and the first drops of milk began to appear. Danny's gaze never left her hands. "Once it starts coming, does it keep going by itself?" he asked.
"Uh well, it sort of....leaks" she said "If Rosie doesnt nurse then it stops. Thats why I have to do this with my hands. The pressure of the milk can become painful at times" she explained.
"Can I do it" he said and the words were out of his mouth before he even knew he had said them.
"Please" she said and laid her head back on the edge of the tub and closed her eyes.
Danny got down on his knees beside the tub and started rubbing MIchelles' breasts the way he had seen her do it earlier. Milk began to flow steadily then and ran down her breats, onto her stomach and finally disappearing into the bubbles.
Michelle moaned at the feel of Danny's hands on her. She had dreamed of his touch for ten long months. She didnt think she was going to be able to handle the pleasure.
Danny watched Michelle's reaction to his touch. He had to get out of here. He didn't mean for things to get this far. He had just been spellbound when he had seen the milk that had fed his daughter, their daughter, coming from her breast. His chest had constricted in a pain that had threatened to make his heart explode.
He got up from his knees and let the bathroom. She finished relieving the milk and got out of the tub. She grabbed the towel and began to dry off. She noticed the shirt he had left for her to put on. It had been her favorite shirt to run around the house in. She had claimed it for her own the same week that they had been married. New tears flowed at the kind gesture. Danny was not all the way there, but she could tell he was fighting an inner war to believe her.
She felt confident that his love and belief of Rosie would be what it took to get him to finally believe all that she had told him.
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