Alexandrakis!
The rubber of the gloves she had to wear to touch her son---it was the most painful thing Graciela had ever felt. He looked so small, and it was so completely mind-blowing that just earlier this week they'd been cooing about how big he was getting. Such a big boy! He could almost roll over, he was just about getting there, and then one night he had just...he had just started crying, and crying. At first Graciela had treated it like a normal night, trying to feed him, coddle him, sing to him---after nearly two hours, it was obvious that it was something more. His fever hadn't been that bad, but---deus, if she had just taken his temperature earlier, maybe the healers could have stopped it, or---or maybe the milk wasn't at the right temperature, or it could have been...it could have been...

Her chin slipped from her hand and the sudden movement jolted her awake. Graciela was sure neither she or Alex had slept since coming to the hospital, and her eyes wearily looked around the small room they'd warded off for Zacharias--they didn't want to put him with the other patients with the same symptoms, but they couldn't have him in the nursery. She was sure Santiago had lent a big hand in giving them privacy, but it was still daunting to have all the large room for such a tiny person.

She pouted lightly when she finally caught Alex's eye, the gloved hand inside the...what was the word, she supposed it was an incubator of sorts...her fingers gently brushed along Zac's arm, and the lack of actually feeling his skin made her chest ache.

"When are they supposed to be back? The healers?" She couldn't remember if it had been five minutes or five hours since they'd last poked and prodded her son, it seemed like they'd been there a millennium.