21 years ago.

stood on one side of a double-pane window. Tears streamed down the wife's cheeks while her husband wore an expression void of all emotion. The constant beep! Beep! Beep! was the only thing that assured them their youngest daughter was still, in fact, alive. Wires monitored her vitals, an oxygen mask strapped to her face, and liquids flowing peacefully through her intravenous therapy. The couple had been through their fair share of hardships, but watching their three-week-old day after day with no real progress was the hardest thing for the family of eight. The other four DeLuca children were not yet old enough to understand why their baby sister wasn't coming home, but they knew that something was wrong.

Doctor Andrew Rolland stood in the corner, a solemn look on his face, as he watched the infant girl. His emotional connection to the family made it that much harder to deliver the news. Visiting hours had ended fifteen minutes ago, but that wasn't the reason he went to them. It seemed there was nothing wrong with Aida Rachel Celeste DeLuca. Her current condition was unexplainable. She was unexplainable. After mustering up enough courage, he finally sauntered over to the couple he had met decades ago when they lived in Italy. "I'm so sorry," it was a whisper from the Doctor. "We've run every test we possibly can, and everything has come back the way it should."

"What can we do?"

Rolland peered at Aida, his mind swirling with only an utterly non-medical answer. Brown eyes shifted away from the baby and towards the couple, "pray."

And pray they did.

~

Okay, wow, I can't believe I just did that, lmao. I'm such a private person that even being an anonymous writer kind of flips me out, haha. anywho hope all of you enjoy my story :)

Bye for now, my little squabs

🕊