Do You Believe In Magic? || Amelia & Teddy

amelia-hurricane-shepherd:

     “Under a week old,” she repeated, typing the information onto the tablet for reference. “So the transplant happened about fifteen years ago on–” Amelia halted before she could say the date out loud; her son’s birthday. His only day. The day he saved lives in exchange for his own. No way, too big of a coincidence. Her eyes glanced up at Delia’s blood type – AB negative; one of the rarest types and the same as her own. The same as her baby’s had been. Donor hearts were rare, but donor hearts for this type in a baby…

     The neurosurgeon swallowed, looking up to meet the eyes of the frazzled mother. She hadn’t thought much of the look on Teddy’s face. She had just chalked it up to nerves – fear for her daughter’s survival. But if she knew… If she knew, it would explain so much. If it’s true.

     “Is, um– Is there anything else I should know? Do you have any information on the donor? I mean, you’re a cardio surgeon. You could’ve gotten that, right?” And now it was becoming more of an interrogation than anything else. Her son’s heart could be beating inside this teenage girl, and she couldn’t help the pang in her own. Pride and sadness all in one. She needed to know.

“Yes,” Teddy said quietly.

Fifteen years ago, an act of God had traded the life of a baby boy in exchange for her little girl’s. And in knowing this, in knowing her debt, Teddy couldn’t have lived with herself if she didn’t find out who it was that had saved her. Saved Delia’s life, and saved this mother’s soul — for Teddy wouldn’t have made it if she’d lost her husband and her daughter both.

A fatherless child, much like Delia was — a baby who had remained nameless to her until now. This boy could have gone on sixteen just like Delia would, had he lived. But Teddy had known far more than her share of losing weeks, and it had taught her this — life was nothing more than a one-way street, and to take was the same to give. The scale that doled out life’s joys and cruelties was a fixed one, for each little happiness only served to balance out the dark days a widow had to live without a husband; the days a mother had to live without her son.

Neither could live while the other survived — such was the fate of their children. And somehow, Delia had been the lucky one even before she’d taken her first fleeting breath. Having known all along that her daughter was merely living on borrowed time, it came as an untold relief to finally put this ghost to sleep. Amelia knew now, and Teddy’s conscience was finally clear — this secret, at least, would no longer serve as a reason to keep her up at night.

“It… it was your son.”