Danny looked up at Meg over the drink he was still sipping grasped in his hands. His eyes went wide and he nodded a few quick jerks of his head, blond curls fell into his big blue eyes adorably as he moved.
Alik grinned widely, “Well, at least we know you understand English, kiddo.”
“I’ll go fix something for you to eat, and be right back. Okay?” Meg smiled at the pink coming into the baby’s cheeks. He was already feeling better.
After the gentle encouragement to respond, Danny seemed to blossom. He nodded again and offered a half smile.
“Excellent,” Meg grinned back and stood from where she had been kneeling to head back to the galley, ready to move heaven and earth to find some food for the sweet little boy sitting in her brother’s lap.
“Oh hey,” Meg stopped and turned back to the toddler curled in her brother’s wide lap. His large blue eyes looked up at Meg expectantly. Her first thought was an empath reading.
He feels safer with us than he ever did at the Facility. She smiled at his emotion.
“Do you already have a name?” The little boy frowned and looked down at the shiny pennies still in his hands.
“Look, my name is Meg,” she said, pointing at herself.
“That is my brother, Alik.” The little boy followed Meg’s eyes and looked up into the smiling face of his magician playmate.
“Do you have a name or do they just call you M and a number?”
The little boy reached up to his shoulder and pulled up the little cotton sleeve.
A black tattoo was already etched deeply into his baby skin. It read M618.
“Yes, sweetie. We were given M numbers, too.”
Creed moved closer to the little boy and pulled up his sleeve to show him he was marked with an M number, too. “See, little man? The mean doctors did that to me, too, but I go by the name Creed.”
“We all have M numbers, but we don’t go by them. Our Mom named us.” The child’s face looked surprised. “Yes, Alik, Evan and I were at a place like the Facility when we were your age and people in white coats did bad stuff to us, too. I’m so sorry that happened to you, but you’re safe with us. We’ll never let someone hurt you again. Okay?”
The little boy’s eyes were wide as he stared into his lap. Meg could sense a deep well of trauma and sadness. He looked as though he had almost disconnected from everyone, lost in his own mind.
Meg almost winced with the crisp empath reading her feelers delivered straight to her heart—tearing it wide for the little boy. After working with him for hours, their connection was deep and though she knew it would drain the small reserves her rest had only just replenished, she reached out with her heart to toss the warm, white blanket over his sadness. She wrapped it around carefully and grasped the four corners with two hands. A precise pull was required to budge the deeply entrenched vein of trauma. Meg reached out for Creed’s hand, trusting he would have instinctively moved to be right with her. The warmth and strength in his touch gave her the peace of mind to finish what she started.
A deep breath and silent prayer gave her the strength to grasp the corners of her empath blanket. It bulged, ballooned and quivered with the blackness that had been around the baby’s heart. With a deep breath, Meg used her gift to heave the bundle into the sky, giving it to God.
Danny shuddered against Alik and leaned back, his whole body seeming to melt against him, relaxed and peaceful.
“There, little one. Do you feel better?” Meg’s voice was winded, but a wide smile distracted everyone from the paleness of her face.
The child nodded slowly, his baby blue eyes wide with wonder.
“Would you let me name you?” Meg asked him.
A small smile crawled across his peace-filled face.
“Yes?” Meg asked, wanting to be sure before she gave him the name she’d already chosen.
Little ringlets moved to fall into his eyes when he nodded.
“Your name is Daniel. It means ‘God is my judge.’ But we’ll call you ‘Danny’ as a nickname. Is that okay?”
The little boy’s mouth opened wide but instead of uttering a single word, he just yawned deeply. Danny’s eyelids fluttered as he nodded his head, accepting the first gift given to him by his new family.
Chapter 18 Nuggets of Wisdom
Creed had to help Meg steady herself to walk back to the galley, but by the time he got her there, he just moved to sit her exhausted body down.
“I’ll get him food. You just rest.” His breath was sweet and warm against her forehead as he leaned down to kiss her gently before moving to start hunting for food in the cabinets and small refrigerator.
“That should do it,” Evan was saying to the stewardess. “Once we land, you may want to go to see a doctor, but he or she is probably going to say to keep the site clean and the butterfly closures in place for at least a week.”
“How did you know how to fix this?” the woman asked, looking at herself in the compact mirror she’d retrieved from her purse.