He took the kid across the other side of the room to be assessed. While Mike and the midwives fussed round the baby and new parents, Madeleine tended to the task of stitching up her latest caesarean section. She prided herself on immaculate stitching and got a thrill out of seeing a good scar when her patients returned for their six-week check-up. By the time she’d finished, Mike had proclaimed the baby a healthy little cherub and placed it into its mother’s arms for the first time. She couldn’t help gazing down at the new family. Although she wasn’t an emotional person, this was the one time when tears sometimes caught in the back of her throat. In those first few moments after birth when two people in love are meeting a brand new person that they created between them, everything seems like a miracle. Usually she managed to control her emotions by turning away and going to clean up, but today her eyes were glued on the sight as she fantasised that one day in the not too distant future she might have one of those moments of her own.
