Everything was automatic, climbing into the very small bed with Lucy, cradling their daughter against his chest. He could still hear their other daughter crying, the soft wails filling the room. Yet in his arms, silence.
Cradling the small bundle in one arm, he slipped his other arm around his girlfriend. Her words were so soft, and it renewed the tears that had been streaming down his cheeks. "Not Carrie," he said in the softest, sad little voice. It was a name he'd been tossing around to himself, even just a nickname for her. He just knew that this was Carrie, the twin that was always kicking at him when he sang to them. He knew holding her in his arms, this was his little girl that would press her foot into his hand when he'd hold Lucy at night. It was that little foot that he touched now, feeling the very real small foot in his very large hand.