And like that Icy found herself bed-bound. Despite much protest the doctors insisted that she'd stay another week or so. Typically she would have been able to leave after three or four days, but with all the complications the doctors shot down any excuse for her to leave.

And so Icy stayed the extra few nights, her entertainment--more or less--came in the form of a visit or two from Darcy and Stormy, petty reality T.V shows (mostly singing competitions) that Icy actually quite hated, and most pleasurably the hour or two in which Lucile was nestled in her arms. After which the doctors would take her back under their constant surveillance. At first Lucile would go with the doctor without a fuss of sorts. But the more contact she had with her mother the more she threshed and kicked upon being taken away. The baby would open her mouth wide--in what Icy assumed was an attempt at crying. Sometimes she would muster a small squeak. There had to be some kind of potion to solve the mute issue or at least a temporary spell...

And when Darcy and Stormy paid her a visit on day five, she demanded that they go to the library and find her both a spell and potion book on matters of speaking, vocals, and the art of talking backwards. Though Icy would skip the 'speaking backwards' chapters. When would that even be useful?

On day six the two of them returned with a stack, five books high; four of which were spell books, the other a potion book. Both Darcy and Stormy declaring that they didn't know what Icy had in mind so they just checked them all out. That night, rather than wasting time seeing if Julia would get kicked off of Magix Music, Icy skimmed through pages upon pages of books. None of which had any permanent solution to the problem. In fact, the spell book didn't have anything useful at all. And so it would seem that a constant supply of potion ingredients, among other childcare products, would be taking a serious chunk of Darcy's paycheck. Icy chuckled to herself; "why work two jobs when you can just steal you friend's money?" For now anyways. After she found herself used to caring for Lucile, she'd probably find herself a second job, or better yet, one job that paid fairly high. And she wondered why she was willing to do so much for a child she hadn't even wanted. And the answer came...

Icy wasn't her mother...
She couldn't possibly be as negligent as her...

This time she could save someone. Her work would be appreciated.

Day seven marked her second to last day in that dull hospital. Darcy and Stormy dropped by earlier than usual on that day. And they had smuggled in a potion like Icy had ordered. After much time the doctor finally handed Lucile over to Icy. The witch uncovered the potion Stormy had brewed. Checking once more over the page she found the recipe in to make sure there truly were no side effects. Aloe juice, mint tea, veela tears; none of the ingredients proved to be harmful to Lucile. Moreover, by the time the potion kicked in, Icy was holding a very cheerful squealing baby. Nothing could truly warm Icy's heart, but if there was one thing that came close, it was Lucile's chirpy baby babble.