Different DNA Prologue

    Her skin was soft. Her cries were loud, cringing at the open air. A father holding his newborn baby girl stood next to his wife - who was still recovering from labor - while his other three year old daughter sat outside in the waiting room with his mother-in-law. "She's lovely." He cooed "Mallory's lovely."

     The woman laying in the hospital bed hummed. A nurse walked into the room and reached out her hands to take the baby from the man's arms. He pulled away. 

     The nurse looked confused, then smiled. "Sir, no need to worry." She blinked. "I just need to see your daughter for a minute."

     The man coughed. "No." He remembered the ads in the newspaper and on TV saying how new born babies were mysteriously disappearing after nurses took them out of their parents sight to "check on them." 

     The nurse's face grew red. It seemed like she was going to retort but instead she just stomped out of the room. The man sighed, realizing his daughter had finally stopped crying. He sat in one of the few cushioned chairs in the room, pondering what this new addition to the family would be like, while his exhausted wife rested in the clean, white sheets of the hospital bed. 

     It was almost one in the morning and the man was tired, but he refused to take his eyes off of his new daughter. A knock came at the door and two men in suits walked in. "Hello sir." They said, in rather rough, scratchy voices. 

     "Good evening." The man said, skepticism in his voice. 

     "We need to take a look at your baby. Just to see if there are any problems."

     The man stood up and held his head high. "You may." He exclaimed, and thought he saw a spark of hunger in one of the suited man's eyes. "But I must watch" The spark had gone. 

     "No." One of the men In the suit said. "Only doctors may go in the room."

     "Then I don't see why you need my child." The man said, holding his daughter closer.

     After many long minutes of bickering the man finally said. "I will call the police if you don't take your desperate asses out of my wife's hospital room and leave my child alone." He say fear flash in one of the suited men's eyes. "I am in the Navy, you know. I can get almost anyone in here to question you." That definitely shut them up.

     The suited men stormed out of the room and slammed the door, waking the man'a sleeping wife. 

     "Huh..." She mumbled. 

     The man hushed his wife. "Go back to sleep, my sweet." He cooed. "You deserve it." He leaned down and kissed his wife on the cheek. 

           ----------

     A few months later the man told his wife about the strange men at the hospital. His wife thought nothing of it and the small family carried on as usual. 

            ----------

     The man heard his wife scream from the new baby's room. He hurried down stairs from where he was folding laundry to find out what was wrong. "What's wrong?" He asked, his voice quivering. 

     His wife didn't reply, instead she drew out a shaking finger and pointed at the back of the small baby. Two little nubs were sticking out, right in her shoulder blades. The man didn't scream or freak out, instead he looked closer. He saw tiny, white, downy feathers sticking out of the nubs. He looked at his wife, so happy it was like he had the word "happiness" plastered on his face. 

     "My dear wife," he almost whispered. "I believe our daughter has... Wings."