“I’ve Been A NICU Nurse For Thirteen Years, And I Almost Judged A Giant Tattooed Biker By His Hands. He Asked To Hold The Baby Nobody Had Come To Visit, And Sat In The Same Chair For Twelve Hours. Then A Nurse Noticed The Small, Faded Tattoo On His Wrist: A Name, And A Date.”

But the baby stopped crying, and Marcus closed his eyes for just a second, like he was the one who’d needed it.

The first hour, I checked on them every fifteen minutes. By hour four, I had to stop hovering because other babies needed me and because, honestly, watching them made it hard to focus on anything else. Marcus sat in that rocking chair like continue reading …