Isabella, Del, and NPC Lysette; NYC; Monday.
Isabella was sitting beside her mother's bed watching her sleep. Her mother had started the habit of asking Isabella to read to her and every time it was a book from Isabella's early childhood. This time it'd been an especially poignant one and they'd both cried and then laughed at themselves before Lysette had settled in for her afternoon nap.
She knew Lysette would be waking up soon and even though Isabella had plenty of things she could be doing, she didn't move from her spot by the bed. The doctors had told her it wouldn't be long now and she wanted every second of her mother she could get, even if it meant doing nothing but watching her breathe.