Is this destiny?

"Do you want to cut the cord?", obgyn asked Felix.

Felix took the scissors with shaky hands and cut it.

The two nurses in the room got busy cleaning the baby swiftly with warm towels and few seconds later, the baby girl was on Sophia\'s chest.

Both Sophia and Felix stared at the baby like it\'s the most amazing thing they ever saw.

Sophia placed her hands carefully over baby\'s wrinkly back and kissed the top of her head.

"She has your hair…", Sophia told Felix.

Felix reached slowly toward baby\'s head and touched gently her almost white scarce locks. He smiled.

"Thank you.", he told Sophia and kissed her on the lips.

Felix moved Sophia\'s hair off from her sweaty face and he was confident that he never saw her so beautiful. She was glowing.

They were smiling and kissing while touching gently, forgetting completely about all the cursing and screaming that happened only a minute ago.

Nurse put the baby in Felix\'s arms, and he cradled his daughter gently like she is made out of glass while looking at her with awe.

"So tiny… so light…", he murmured. He touched baby\'s feet and observed her hands. "She has all the parts…", he told Sophia and it made her giggle.

The nurses took the baby for measurements, cleanup and checkup. Sophia and Felix watched them handle the baby from the side in silence with eyes full of wonder.

…

Fifteen minutes later…

Everyone came to the VIP room to see the baby and new parents with big smiles on their faces. Luckily, the room is large enough, so everyone can fit in comfortably and it didn\'t look cramped.

Nurses expertly cleaned up everything and the room didn\'t have any signs that a delivery happened in it less than half an hour ago.

They took turns holding the baby and guessing if she resembles Sophia or Felix more.

Felix made sure everyone uses hand sanitizer before touching his daughter.

"When will we find out your name?", JoAnna pouted while her eyes didn\'t leave the sleepy baby in her arms who was loosely bundled in a blanket.

"When Damien comes.", Felix responded. "He should be here soon. They landed almost an hour ago."

Jeff\'s eyes didn\'t leave JoAnna while she held the baby. He imagined how it will be when she holds their baby one day.

JoAnna looked at her husband and nodded to him to come closer. "Come and hold her. She is beautiful."

Jeff was holding the baby stiffly. He was afraid that he will drop the baby or crush her, so he didn\'t move. JoAnna laughed.

"Aww, we should take pictures!", Bridgette exclaimed.

"Don\'t worry about it. Everything is being recorded.", Felix responded mysteriously. Only he, Sarah and Aiden know that there are two drones in the room, hovering silently just below the ceiling. Everything is being recorded from the moment they arrived at the hospital.

Sarah held the baby on her left arm, and supported her with her right, and she could not stop herself from thinking that if that incident didn\'t happen… She sighed and did her best to push those thoughts away. There is nothing she can do about it, and right now she needs to be happy for her sister.

"I\'m next…", Aiden stood next to Sarah enthusiastically and arranged his arms in a baby-holding position.

Sarah smiled. She didn\'t know that a prospect of holding a baby would make him that happy.

"Did you ever hold a baby before?", she asked.

Aiden shrugged. "How difficult can it be?"

He held the baby like a professional and sat on the sofa.

Aiden reached to touch baby\'s face and at that moment baby opened her eyes and looked at him. Aiden\'s hand froze mid-way. Baby\'s hand peeked through the blanket she is in and grabbed his index finger.

Everyone stopped talking and observed what will happen next, like it\'s some kind of a miracle. It\'s such a simple thing, but so far the baby was sleeping and didn\'t respond no matter how many hands exchanged her. And now the baby is observing Aiden while holding onto his finger.

Aiden smiled gently while looking at baby\'s dark blue eyes. "She likes me.", he said with a tinge of smugness.

"You are a father material.", Jeff said with a sour expression while thinking: why baby didn\'t hold his finger?

"You will be a great father.", Felix added.

Aiden looked at Sarah proudly and his smile faded when he saw the sadness in Sarah\'s eyes. She was smiling, but he can see through her mask… something is not right.

JoAnna understood why Aiden\'s mood dropped and she knows that Sarah wants to keep that one thing a secret from him. She pulled Sarah into a hug.

"Are you jealous that the baby likes him more than you?", JoAnna asked Sarah.

Sarah snapped out of her daze. "There is no such thing. I was just thinking how I will be the best Aunt ever."

"There is a tough competition for that spot!", Bridgette chimed in and extended her arms toward Aiden. "It\'s my turn. I want to hold her while she is awake…"

"But she is holding my finger.", Aiden protested.

"My finger is better.", Bridgette is not the one to give up easily.

"Ah! She has my eyes!", Bridgette exclaimed when she noticed that the baby has blue eyes.

JoAnna shook her head. "Silly. All Caucasian babies have blue eyes when they are born. Check again during her first birthday... And how can she have your eyes? You are an Aunt. It can be from parents or grandparents…"

The discussion started again about baby\'s features and from whom she got them, but this time, Bridgette added herself as a potential originator as well.

"She smiled at me!", Steve exclaimed while holding the baby.

Bridgette laughed. "That was a yawn…"

Stella and Edward watched youngsters and they were happy to see that Sophia and Felix have so many good people in their life. Their granddaughter will be well taken care of.

Charlie arrived with two bouquets of flowers: one for the new mother and the other one for Emma.

Emma was surprised to see him. "I thought you have meetings until late."

"When I found out that Sophia had a baby, I cleared my schedule to come here before your shift ends.", Charlie said matter-of-factly and added with a big smile: "We can have a dinner together."

She hugged him. "This is an unexpected treat. I feared that I will not see you until Friday."

Charlie responded by tightening his hug and kissing her forehead. Ah, he looks forward to seeing her expression when she finds out that the dinner is at his villa… and he will make sure that it happens every evening, until she gets used to spending her nights with him. Every night. He is a crafty one.

Penny came after work. She brought flowers and fruits and chocolates. She was very excited to see the baby.

Damien and Smita arrived to complete this now large gathering, and Sophia and Felix revealed the name of their daughter: Cecilia.

Damien held his breath when he heard the name. It was the name of his mother. She passed away when Felix was three years old. Damien knows that his relationship with Felix improved significantly in last few months, but this… was unexpected.

Sarah, JoAnna and Bridgette eagerly jumped into their Aunt-roles by coming up with nicknames for the baby: Ceci, Celia, Cili, Lia, Cilia…

"Can you call her by her full name at least once before you shorten it?", Sophia complained.

Everyone laughed.

It was getting late, so grandparents (Stella, Edward, Damien and Smita) went to celebrate their new grandparenthood with a dinner in a restaurant and they promised to stop by tomorrow.

Others left as well shortly after them, leaving Felix and Sophia in the room with Cecilia to bond.

Ryan and Levi are standing guard in the hallway. Haru and Jesse will come to replace them later, so that they can rest. Even though the whole floor is closed off, you can never be too careful.

"How are you feeling?", Felix asked Sophia after he made sure that Cecilia is bundled up and sleeping in her crib.

"Fine… the painkillers are doing their job.", she assured him.

Sophia didn\'t want to take medications while the baby was inside her out of fear that it will end up in the baby\'s system, but now that \'the tenant\' is out, she can take painkillers which will not end up in the breastmilk.

Felix snuggled next to Sophia in the bed and kissed her face and hands and everywhere he saw skin exposed which made Sophia giggle.

"Save your energy, Mr. Martin.", she said while caressing his cheeks. "We should try to get some rest. Nurse will come on every few hours to wake us up so that the baby gets her food."

Felix gave Sophia a long deep kiss and then gazed into her eyes without a word.

They both smiled with eyes full of love and happiness in silence. Now they are a family of three.

---

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