“She’s gone!” Nick heard that phrase over and over in his head as he raced home to his wife who made the frantic call to him. He pulled into the driveway and saw the ambulance and police. He ran inside and a cop stopped him. He looked at the cop.

        “This is my house,” Nick said. The cop nodded and Nick ran upstairs to the nursery and saw his wife sitting in the rocking chair. He saw the gurney. He went to his wife. He took Brizee into his arms and held her.

        “Honey,” Nick said.

        “Our baby girl is gone, Nicky,” Brizee said sobbing.

        “What happened,” Nick said.

        “I put her down for her nap, she was sleeping peacefully, she was fine, then I went to do laundry and after I put a load in the dryer, I got this feeling and I came up to check on her and she wasn’t breathing, I called 911 and they came but it was too late, I did CPR while I was waiting for them, nothing, I did everything right and I couldn’t save her!” Brizee said sobbing. Nick held her to him and they cried. Brian and Leighanne came in and saw what happened and came over to them. Nick told them what happened. AJ and Howie came in and Brian told them. They all stood and watched the coroner come in and take away the baby. They watched as two of their best friends’ worlds fell apart.

Two days later, they stood in the cemetery and watched the small casket being lowered into the ground. Nick and Brizee sat together as their friends and family gathered around them. After the service, they went to Brian’s house for the wake. Nick and Brizee talked with everyone and soon everyone began leaving. Nick and Brizee retreated to one of the guest rooms and laid on the bed. Nick gathered her up in his arms.

        “Nick, aren’t you even upset,” Brizee said.

        “Of course I am, Briz,” Nick said.

        “I just never saw you cry once today,” Brizee said.

        “You know I don’t like to cry in front of everyone regardless of the situation, I was crying on the inside, I just didn’t want to let anyone besides you to see me cry, you know me, Briz,” Nick said softly. Brizee cuddled up to him and rested her head on his shoulder.

        “I know, what are we going to do, our baby girl is gone,” Brizee said softly.

        “I know, honey, we take it one day at a time, the doc is suppose to call us and let us know why she died,” Nick said. Brizee looked up at him.

        “You don’t blame me, do you,” Brizee said.

        “Briz, no, it’s not your fault, you did everything you learned in those CPR classes, I could never blame you, I know you didn’t want her to die, I know you didn’t do anything wrong,” Nick said kissing her forehead.

The next day, they were sitting in the doctor’s office. Dr. Harris sat there looking over the tests.

        “Your daughter had chronic heart disease, there was no way of knowing about it without family history and since both sides of the family have no history of heart problems, there wasn’t a reason to monitor your baby’s heart, we would listen to the heart every checkup but there was no way of knowing, without running tests, the baby’s heartbeat would sound normal, as far as we knew at the checkups, the baby was healthy,” the doctor said.

        “So is it genetic, like if we had more kids, would they have it,” Nick said.

        “If you two were to have more kids, we would run the tests to make sure, we would monitor the babies to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” the doctor said.

They went home. Brizee sat down on the couch. Nick sat down beside her.

        “Briz,” Nick said.

        “Do you want more kids?” Brizee asked. Nick took her hand in his.

        “Yes, I do,” Nick said. She pulled him up to their room and closed the door and looked at him.

        “You want to get started now?” Nick asked.

        “Yes, if you want to,” Brizee said.

        “Oh yeah,” Nick said. They removed each other’s clothes and made love off and on for the rest of the afternoon.