A Heart That Beats-A Love in the Air Fan Fiction

Chapter 1

          Phayu raced into the hospital to see Rain standing by the window of the natal care unit smiling happily, and tapping on the glass. He stood silently watching his partner for a few minutes, letting the unsteady beating of his heart still before he spoke. Rain always seemed to do or say something that made his heart skip a beat without even trying. 

        "What are you doing?" Phayu spoke softly, smiling from ear to ear, happy to see Rain after a long day at work. "How did you end up in the hospital?"

      "I told Sky not to tell you. It was only a broken finger!" Rain looked down at his feet. "The set from the play fell down on me today, and I..." He pointed to the giant bandage around his left middle finger, and Phayu stiffled a laugh. 

     "What made you come to this floor?" Phayu closed the gap between them and put his arm around Rain. He could now see the babies that had just been born in the last few days. He finally noticed what Rain had been looking at; an incubator sat at the edge of the window, holding a small baby girl, fitted with tubes and wires.

    "Isn't she beautiful?" Rain smiled up at Phayu who smiled back, but with tears in his eyes. "I got lost on my way down the stairs, but I couldn't seem to get myself to leave."

   "Where are her parents?" Phayu looked around the room for any signs of who the child belonged to, but he didn't see anyone that remotely resembled her. 

   "Can I help you, gentlemen?" A small nurse with curly hair emerged from the door to the neonatal care room and smiled. "I saw you looking at Rainbow."

     "Rainbow?" Rain asked. "What happended to her?"

     "She was born with a heart defect. The poor thing had an operation the day she was born." The woman looked down at the baby. "Would you like to visit her?"

   "Can we?" Rain looked hopefully up at Phayu, who nodded in agreement. 

   They were led down a hallway where a rack of yellow hospital gowns hung on the wall. They each grabbed a gown and helped the other knot it in the back before heading to the sink to wash their hands. As they entered the room, they could hear the cries and coos from the babies they passed on their way to the lonely incubator. It was sitting by the window on the other side of the room, away from the other carts. 

   As they got closer, Phayu noticed the scar on Rainbow's chest, red and raised, as if she had just been through a battle. And in a way, she had. A battle that no one should have to go through, let alone a child this tiny and fragile. He reached into the incubator and gently stroked the baby's tiny hand, watching it twitch from his touch. Then her fingers gently closed around his index finger. He couldn't fight the tears this time. Rain laced his fingers through Phayu's and placed his head on his shoulder. "She really is beautiful." Phayu whispered, almost so low that Rain didn't hear him. 

"Are you here to adopt?" The nurse looked at them kindly, waiting for a response. 

"Adopt?" Rain asked. "Rainbow is being adopted out? Where are her parents?" The rage inside of him began to build, but he stayed calm, just like Phayu taught him to. There had to be a good explanation for this.

"I'm sorry to say, but the answer is yes. The mother died during childbirth and the father didn't want to care for a sick child alone. Rainbow has been with us almost a month now."