Chapter Three

 

 

 

Stephanie

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hastily put my coat on and Troy led me out to the valet stand with his hand firmly holding mine. I almost laughed at how desperate we had become. Then the realization of what we were about to do hit me. I was going to have sex with Troy but why?

Because it was familiar, that’s why.

My mind flashed back to the man I’d been having coffee with for almost a month and I suddenly felt guilty. I didn’t even know his name but there was something between the two of us. A connection. A promise of more.

I couldn’t go home with Troy.

The valet had just taken his ticket and I decided to tell him that I’d changed my mind. Before I opened my mouth, though, I heard a baby cry.

When it continued crying for a couple of moments, I glanced around to look for the culprit, but the few other people on the sidewalk around us were without children. I heard it again and caught sight of a toddler bundled in a coat, holding her mom’s hand. I stared at her for a minute and when I heard the cry again, I decided that it wasn’t her making the sound. In fact, it sounded like the cry of an infant.

“Do you hear that?” I asked Troy, tugging on his hand to get his attention. He went still, holding my eyes before he shook his head.

“Hear what?”

“The baby,” I whispered, craning my neck to see if I could hear it again.

He shook his head. “Babe, I don’t…”

I knew he heard it that time because he stopped speaking and turned in the direction of the building next to Brimstone. There was a patio behind it that led to the doors of a club that had been closed for months. I followed his gaze and took a couple of steps towards the enclosure when the cry sounded, quieter that time.

“It sounds like a young baby.” Without caring that it was dark and abandoned, I headed through the opening to the shadowy side of the building. There were a bunch of empty boxes thrown into a haphazard pile, dirty and worn from the elements, off to the side of the club, somewhere people wouldn’t regularly walk by.

I could feel Troy behind me as I headed right for the boxes and he let out a long sigh. “Steph, it’s probably coming from someone’s car or that apartment building. Maybe a window’s open.”

I could barely hear him because the baby cried again and it was definitely coming from the boxes in front of us. My heart pounded in my chest, not ready to find what I knew I was about to. I gently moved a few of the boxes off the top, setting them behind me. After getting rid of about six of them, I heard the cry again, louder than it had been. I opened the flaps on an old Amazon box and gasped when I saw the contents.

There was a towel, probably one that had been white at one time but was now stained with blood and other fluids. The material moved slightly and I saw a tiny foot sticking out of the end.

“Troy. Call nine-one-one. Tell them we found an abandoned infant.” I didn’t stop moving as I relayed the instructions to him and reached in to pull the towel back. The baby probably would have been very red and very angry if it hadn’t had blue lips and obvious lethargy. It cried out again, the cry as powerful as it could muster. I scooped the bundle up, careful to cradle its head, and drew it to my chest.

“Oh, my god,” I whispered, pulling back to look at it for a moment. I maneuvered the towel just enough to figure out that the baby was completely naked underneath and obviously a boy. He also had the signs of afterbirth matted to his hair and skin and the umbilical cord still attached, tied off with some sort of string.

I turned and looked at Troy, who had his phone to his ear.

“Tell them he’s just a few hours old and probably hypothermic.” I opened my jacket and pulled the baby to my chest, wrapping my coat around his small body. He shivered in cold and probably anger, but his cries intensified, as if he realized that someone was finally listening.

“Oh, sweet boy. You’re okay. I’ve got you.” I bounced slightly as I tried to comfort him and sighed in relief when sirens could be heard. “Help is coming. You’re going to be just fine.”

Troy shook his head frantically as we walked back out to the front of the building. “Someone just left it there?”

I nodded and waved my arm at the police car that was coming down the street. “In the garbage. In the fucking garbage.”

The police car pulled to the curb and I met the officer at the door. He glanced at the bulge in my coat before looking back to me. “You found the baby?”

“Yes.” I nodded quickly. “My name is Stephanie Gibson. I’m a caseworker with DCS. I found the baby in the boxes over there. Is an ambulance coming?”

“About two minutes out,” the officer replied. “Can you show me exactly where you found him?”

Clutching the baby tight, I walked the officer over to the box and explained to him what had happened. When the ambulance pulled up on the street, I immediately headed that way. The back doors had barely opened before I was climbing inside with the baby.

“He’s just a few hours old,” I explained as I changed the position so I was cradling him.

The EMT looked at me wide-eyed before glancing to the officer. The officer looked at us both and nodded. “Go. I’ll tell the detectives to meet you at the hospital.” I looked at Troy, who also nodded with a worried look on his face. He shut the doors and the EMT pointed to the bench next to the stretcher.

“Can you sit and hold him while I do an assessment?”

I sat without responding and glanced down at the little guy. His eyes were scrunched up and he cried as hard as he could, which wasn’t that hard.

“I don’t have a rectal thermometer in here to get his core temp,” the EMT explained as he ran a temporal thermometer over the baby’s head. “This will give us an idea but won’t be entirely accurate.”

“ETA eight minutes,” the driver yelled from the front seat. “Hospital is preparing the NICU to receive the little guy.”

“Damn,” said the technician as he looked at the thermometer display. “It’s coming up just short of ninety-two degrees. It’s not exactly accurate but he’s probably hypothermic.” He grabbed a grey patient blanket and I helped him get it over the baby but all it did was make him angrier. I held him close, making all types of swishing noises as I rocked him from side to side. The technician took other vitals but my only focus was on trying to comfort the little guy.

The ambulance stopped and the doors opened immediately. I handed the baby to the EMT who passed him off to the crew waiting with an incubator. The baby was placed into the bed and wheeled away quickly.

The technician offered me his hand so I could climb out of the back of the ambulance. The second my heels hit the ground, I was digging into my clutch for my cell phone. As I walked through the hospital doors, I pressed Robin’s name and headed right for the elevator.

She answered as I was pressing the up button. “Hey, Steph.”

“Robin. I’m creating a file on an abandoned infant. Male, less than a day old.”

Robin groaned and I heard her shift on the other end of the line. “Who made the discovery and who called?”

I stepped into the elevator and squeezed my eyes shut. “Me. I found him on Seventh Street in some boxes behind that old techno club.”

“Seriously?”

I gave her the brief rundown as I stepped off the elevator on the labor and delivery floor. I tucked my phone between my shoulder and ear as I dug around in my clutch for my badge.

“I’m at the hospital now but I’ll let you know when I have a status update on him.”

“Okay,” Robin replied and I could tell she was typing furiously into her computer. “Let me know who from PPD is assigned to the case, please.”

“Will do.” I ended the call and walked up to the NICU desk. I handed the receptionist my ID badge and gave her a small smile. “Hi. I’m Stephanie Gibson with Arizona DCS.”

The receptionist nodded and returned my smile. “I recognize you from a few weeks ago. You’re here about that baby they just brought in, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Go on in. He was taken to stage two,” she said as she buzzed me into the locked ward. I accepted my ID back and thanked her before walking inside. I followed the hallway until I found the Stage Two NICU. I watched three people through the window as they hovered around the little guy. I didn’t move for the next thirty minutes and the doctor eventually came out of the side door.

“I’m Curtis Struthers, the neonatal physician. Are you from DCS?”

I nodded and shook his hand. “Stephanie Gibson. How is he?”

“Well,” he said with a sigh as he folded his arms across his chest. “His body temperature is really low so we’re trying to bring it up. He’s six pounds, six ounces, and about five hours old. I’m thinking he was only about thirty-seven or thirty-eight weeks gestation. We’re doing a full work up, including a blood panel with a toxicology report.”

“Is he going to be okay?” I tore my gaze from the doctor’s so I could look into the nursery.

“As far as I can tell, yes. Luckily his lungs are clear but we’ll keep him in some oxygen for the night just in case. They told me you found him?”

I looked back at Dr. Struthers and offered him a weak smile. “He was in a pile of old, probably mildew-riddled boxes.”

“You saved his life, Ms. Gibson.” He reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “Give us about fifteen more minutes and you can see him.”

I thanked the doctor as he walked away and pulled my phone out to press Troy’s name. He answered almost immediately.

“Hey, babe.”

I sighed and let my head fall to the window with a soft thunk. “Hey. I’m sorry for just leaving you in the dust like that.”

“You saved that baby, Steph,” Troy said quietly. “How is it?”

“It’s a little boy. He’s going to be okay. He’s going to need someone to bond with since his parents just left him in the trash, though. How could someone do that?”

“I don’t know, babe, but everything will work out thanks to you.”

I smiled and stared into the NICU. “Thanks for that. I’m going to stay here for another hour and then I’ll Uber back home.”

“I can come get you,” he replied and I could help but smile.

“That’s okay. Raincheck?”

He chuckled slightly. “I mean I can come get you and give you a ride home. We don’t have to finish what we started earlier.”

“I know. It’s really okay. Knowing you, you’re already half-asleep. Go to bed. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay, babe. Thanks for coming with me tonight. Call if you need anything.”

We said our goodbyes and I stuffed my phone back into my clutch. I didn’t move from the window until the NICU nurse waved me in and then I left my belongings on the coat rack so I could wash my hands. I pushed through the door as soon as my hands were scrubbed clean.

“Hey there,” said a female nurse with a friendly smile that I couldn't help return. “I’m Kara.”

“Stephanie. It’s nice to meet you.” My eyes left her light-brown ones as I looked to where the baby was. She chuckled and gestured towards him.

“Go ahead. He needs to stay in the incubator for now but you can touch him.”

I nodded my head quickly and walked to the little guy’s bed, slowly reaching through the opening. He was wearing only a diaper and a tiny, cotton hat and had several monitors stuck to him. His eyes were closed as he sucked furiously on a green pacifier and his little fist immediately grasped my finger.

“Who would do this to their baby?” I whispered as I shook my head. “You would think that nothing would surprise me anymore but here I am… still stunned.”

Kara let out a long sigh. “With the Safe Haven laws, there really is no reason for newborn abandonment. At least they had the good sense to tie off his umbilical cord with some sort of hair tie and kept him from bleeding to death.”

I ran my other hand up his soft little legs and admired the resilient little guy for a bit. There wasn’t a way to explain it but I felt a connection to that baby. I wanted him to be okay more than I wanted anything and I knew that I would dedicate my time to making sure someone loved him the way he deserved.

I was lost in my own head until Kara’s hand touched my shoulder. I looked up at her and she gestured to the window.

“Looks like some detectives are here.”

I turned my attention to where she was pointing and recognized the faces peering in through the glass. I smiled at them before looking back at the baby.

“I’ll be here tomorrow to see him,” I said to Kara as I stood and she just grinned.

“Sounds good. I’ll be here. Have a good night, Stephanie.”

I bid her goodnight and walked out of the NICU. I rounded the corner once I’d grabbed my things and the detectives greeted me immediately.

“Hey, guys.” I offered both Kevin and Valerie a smile. “It’s been a week since I last saw you. Way too long.”

Kevin chuckled as he shook his head. “No kidding. You looked fantastic. Hot date?”

I nodded my head. “Troy and I went to dinner tonight.

“And you found him after, huh?”

“Thankfully. That was a pretty scary moment.” I turned to look through the window before glancing back at the detectives. “His little cry was so weak. I don’t know how much longer he would have lasted.”

“Poor guy. We’re all lucky to have you, Steph.” Valerie flipped open her notebook with a smile. I spent twenty minutes going over how I found him and what the doctor had told me about the baby.

Valerie closed her notebook and rubbed her eyes tiredly. The two of them were with the Family Investigations Bureau within the Phoenix Police Department. I saw some terrible stuff but I knew they saw way worse.

“We’re pulling surveillance from the surrounding businesses to see what we can find. We’ll also take DNA to run through the database. Our biggest fear right now is whoever dumped the baby also did something to the mother.”

“I hope not. Neither scenario is a good one.” We all sat in silence for a moment and it wasn’t until I pulled out my phone so I could order an Uber ride that I spoke again. “Let me know what you find out. I’ll be in tomorrow to check on the little man.”

They both gave me swift hugs and I headed down the elevator to the loading zone. A car pulled up a few minutes later and I didn’t speak at all on the ride home. My thoughts were back at the hospital and with that little boy in the NICU. I had no idea how someone could just do that to a baby. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got, and I was fuming by the time I walked through the front door to our house.

“I didn’t think you’d be back tonight,” Alyssa said as I locked us in for the night. “I’m surprised Troy didn’t take you home to rip that dress off of you.”

I offered her a tiny smile. “That was the plan until I found the newborn baby in the garbage.”

“What?” Lyssa’s eyes went wide and I fell onto the couch while recapping my evening for her. By the time I was done, she looked pissed, too. “I can’t even believe that. What are your thoughts? Drugs?”

“I hope not but what else would possess you to abandon your hours old baby in the garbage?” I sighed and ran a hand down my face. “Hopefully the doctor will know more of what we’re up against tomorrow.”

Alyssa wrapped me in a tight hug. “You saved him, Steph. No matter what happens, you saved that little guy’s life. Good job.”

When I went to bed not too long after that, my face scrubbed free of make-up and the slinky red dress draped over my closet door, I couldn’t stop seeing that little baby in my mind. Kevin had mentioned something happening to the mother but my gut told me that the mother was the one who left him there.

When I would imagine my future all of those years before, I always assumed I would be married and have children by the time I was twenty-five. It hadn’t happened for me, obviously, and I think that realization just made me angrier that someone would throw away that gift so lightly.

It was a couple of hours before I finally fell asleep.