He holds the little girl safely to his chest. The baby yawns widely without opening her eyes, and settles back into a soft slumber.

Across the room her mother sleeps in the white sheeted hospital bed.

He whispers promises to the girl, promises he wasn’t able to keep to her mother. For a moment, he looks over at the form of his exhausted baby sister, then back to the child she, hours before, brought into the world.

No one expected the babe’s father to go. He left one morning and simply did not return. The next morning, papers read: Aliceville Officer Killed. Unambiguous, clean cut, and direct. In summary the articles generally said something along the lines of young police officer shot during a traffic stop, dies enroute to hospital, leaves behind wife and unborn child.

That was four months ago.

Luca Haize can feel his niece’s tiny body respond to each gentle inhale and exhale. It is the middle of the night. A nurse comes in to check on the baby. She says something about how excited he must be to at last be able hold his little girl. Before he can respond, she leaves.

He takes a sip of water, trying to swallow the boulder in his throat.

This little girl, he decides, must not have doubts about him, or her father.

He tells her who he is. He tells her who her father was.

A good man. Is how he begins. Your daddy was a good man.

He passes the night telling her stories about the best man, the bravest man he ever knew.

Not because he died. He assures her. No, not because he died. And not because he was unafraid. He was brave because he worked and cared and showed kindness, in spite of his fear.

Someday. He says. Someday you will need to be brave even when you are afraid, but you don’t have to be brave alone. Your mother is brave, and afraid, and not alone.

The bundle in his arms stirs and begins to call for her mother. Her mother wakes in response and asks for her.

It’s okay. She coos calmly. It’s okay to be afraid, my sweetheart, but you needn’t be afraid alone. I am here. You are safe. We are brave together.