I stepped carefully over to the fallen boulder and pressed my hands to the smooth stone surface. Warmth spread through my palms, but this warm buzzed with energy from nature. It was nothing like the heat inside the clinic. A gust of wind swept over me and I sighed. My skin had gotten so damp from sweat that now I was cold in the wind, yet I welcomed the shiver.

The baby moved into a different position like it was getting comfortable.

“That better, Little Bird?” I smiled and rubbed my hand over my belly.

I didn’t know how long I stood there, but eventually I decided I’d better get back to the clinic before we missed the baptism. My heart wasn’t so set on this little ritual. I’d never connected with religion before, but Azazel and Morgan both insisted it wasn’t about any human religion. I never fully understood what it was but it was important to them, and they’d been so good to me, so I wasn’t going to fight it. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, and all that.

Normally I would’ve gone back inside the way I came out, the side door under the stairs, but it was such a lovely night and the house was so warm that I decided to take the long way back up to the stairs that led up onto the balcony. The one we weren’t supposed to be on anymore. But I was perfectly fine. It wasn’t like I was going to suddenly decide to throw myself off the mountain. I carefully made my way up the wooden spiral staircase until I reached the expansive balcony. From here the view of the mountainscape was mesmerizing. Not for the first time I wished I remembered where this clinic was. They’d driven me here while I slept in the car, so I had never known. I kept forgetting to ask them too. I needed to remember that. I wanted to know just where Little Bird was born. I didn’t have much to tell my baby, didn’t even know who the father was, so I had to know where their life began, at the very least.