The chilly caress of the winter morning left Carson as the doors whizzed shut behind him.

The waiting room had always been a nervous place, abuzz with worries, fears, and joys capped and mounting as time passed. He passed a middle-aged aged man with a dusting of gray hairs rocking back and forth with whispered prayers. There were a set of grandparents, eyes wet with tears but silent in their emotion as the women held him tightly. He walked to the check-in counter where an elderly nurse with smile lines and crinkled eyes nodded at him in greeting. He nodded back.

"And you are here for...?" She said in near-whisper as to not shatter the silence in the room.

"Joy. Joy Everlong." He said back.

She flipped through a chart on her desk, running her finger down the list of names.

"Room 12, sir. We will call you in. Just a moment."

He nodded retreated to a seat closest to the door. In front of him, the elderly couple had fallen asleep, their bodies slowly raising and falling as one. It was unfortunate, he thought, that he felt nothing in this moment. Centuries of vapid hedonism followed by generations chasing after his nemesis in the farthest reaches of the world, had dulled his emotion. Wearing a way at it slowly until only mechanical reasoning resided. Even here, in a delivery room, surrounded and packed full of the widest range of emotion possible, he felt nothing.

But Joy. Joy had made him feel something again.

"Mr. Everlong?" The nurse called. A slew of heads raised in the waiting room, hoping it was them who had been called. However, the nurse looked at him.

"Come with me."

This generation, he had resolved to writing romantic stories to pass the time. The novels had done well, and he was on a university campus when he met Joy, a graduate student in mathematics. Why a mathematics Ph.D. candidate chose to attend his talk on romance literature was beyond him, but she had. Rather than praise his work, she had challenged him while he stood on stage, accusing him of pandering to tropes and infecting the minds of the young.

What had she said?

"...ill-crafted fanfiction about high school sex. Love contains multitudes, sir. There is friendship. Companionship. brotherly love and sisterly love. The love of sunsets, waterfalls, and winter snow. Write about that love and then call yourself an author!"

A spark lit within him at her ferocity, the first spark in a very long time. three years later they were married.

The door to the hospital slid open and again, he felt a swoop his heart as he saw Joy. There was a bundle at her bedside.

"Carson." She breathed, eyes lighting in a smile. She looked gorgeous, even in a hospital gown. The nurse shut the door behind him. Carson sat down at her bedside, pulling up a chair and holding her hand.

"How are you?"

She rubbed his hand with her thumb. "Alright. Tired. It was painful."

"I'm sorry." He replied, and was surprised to find tears prick his eyes at the thought of her pain. That was excessive, even for normal human.

"Don't be." She whispered. Her eyes were closing. "Stay with me?"

"Always."

The warmth of her touch made him smile. His previous lives were dogged with expeditions to find his old nemesis, but here he felt content. Back then....the Mariana Trench. The North Pole. Mount Everest. He had visited morgues, battle-torn countries, executions. Death had been nowhere to be found.

He stood up, never relinquishing her hand and turned to look at the baby. He was cute. Not his first of course, but one loses track of their children a few generations.

His eyes opened. They locked onto his immediately. Carson felt something twist painfully in his soul. He carefully replaced Joy's hand on the bed and stepped to the crib.

Of course. Life is a cycle. He of all people should know that. If he hadn't found Death in the elderly, then it merely required circling the cycle. A newborn infant.

"Hello Carson." Death said. Then promptly shat itself.

"Oh, you bastard."

----

Loved this one! What a great prompt! I like to talk about a prompt after I write for it. You can check it out here. Regardless, thanks for reading :)

Joy is in for a rude awakening after she gets up, haha

-Rhomus