Chapter Four

 

 

 

Stephanie

 

 

 

 

 

 

My body was so used to getting up at five in the morning that I blinked awake shortly before six without the help of my alarm. Since I didn’t have to work, I didn’t try to get up. I laid there for so long that I was somehow able to doze back off. I probably could have slept for hours but the buzzing on the nightstand woke me up.

It was lighter in the room when I rolled over to grab my phone. I swiped my thumb across the screen and brought it to my ear.

“This is Stephanie.”

“Steph, it’s Robin. Were you still sleeping?”

I wanted to answer with sarcasm but my brain wasn’t awake enough yet to formulate something witty. “Yeah. What’s up?”

“I never even imagined that you’d sleep beyond six.” She chuckled slightly. “Go figure. Want me to let you go?”

I rubbed my eyes while slowly forcing myself to a sitting position. When the blankets fell away from my shoulders, I shivered slightly. “No, it’s fine. I won’t be able to go back to sleep anyway.”

“Okay. Well, this should be no surprise but I’m officially adding the baby from last night to your caseload. I figure you’re going to be working with the police closely anyway as the first responder so it makes sense.”

“I agree.” I pulled a sweatshirt over my head and walked out into the living room. “I was going to request it be my case anyway.”

“Okay, good.” Robin paused for a moment. “Depending on how much information they get throughout the week, the police department is tentatively scheduling a press conference on Friday regarding Baby Doe. I’m going to need you to go on camera.”

“What?” I was suddenly wide awake and the panic in my voice had risen to a high pitched decibel. “Why?”

“You found him so they’re going to want to hear from you. Besides, it might not even happen.”

“I hate press conferences.”

“I know. So you’ll do it?” I could hear the smile in Robin’s voice and didn’t like her in that moment.

I started the coffee maker and sighed. “Fine. Email me the details.”

“Thanks, Steph. Try to go back to sleep.”

“Yeah, thanks. Have a good weekend.” I ended the call and dropped my phone to the counter. After grabbing a cup of coffee, I went into the living room and found Alyssa there, positioned in some yoga pose, and she smiled when she caught sight of me.

“Hey, Steph. Join me in Virabhadrasana.”

“That sounds like you’re offering me some sort of STD,” I told her as I plopped onto the couch. She grinned and shook her head.

“You love when I speak Sanskrit to you. Besides, it’s a simple warrior’s pose that even the non-athletic Stephanie Gibson can do.”

“I’m doing a pose right now.” I took up as much of the sofa as possible. “I call this one the couch potato.”

Alyssa snorted and did some complicated bend. “I’m almost done.”

She worked through her weird yoga stuff for another ten minutes before turning off the TV and taking the only free spot on the couch. I had no idea how she was so awake when we had both gone to bed so late but that was typical Alyssa.

“What are you doing today?”

I sipped my coffee and shrugged. “I’ll need to go in and get an update on the baby and start my file on him. Otherwise, I have no idea.”

“Good. You and me, new Pitch Perfect movie tonight. You need some fun.”

I chuckled and nodded my head. “Sounds perfect.”

We sat on the couch together for another few minutes before I stood to go shower. Once I was wearing a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved blouse, and my sneakers, I waved to Alyssa and walked out to my car.

I drove from our small house to the hospital where the baby was. I washed my hands and stepped inside the NICU, greeting Kara before walking right towards the little guy’s incubator. It was empty when I got there, though, and I shot her a frantic look.

“Where is he?”

She grinned and gestured towards an open bed near her. “He graduated from the full incubator as soon as his body temperature stabilized and he proved he could maintain it.”

I moved towards the hospital bassinet and stared down at the tiny figure. He had a pink and blue striped hat on, a white shirt, and a diaper. His little eyes were closed and his mouth was pursed into the perfect ‘O’ shape as he slept.

“He looks good,” I said quietly as I stared down at him.

“Definitely. He’s a sweet little guy, too.” I felt Kara approach where I was standing. “Dr. Struthers will be in soon to go over his chart.”

I reached a finger out and gently touched his cheek. He was perfect. A perfect little guy that wasn’t wanted by whoever had left him. “Okay.”

“Why don’t you pick him up, Stephanie?” Kara asked and I turned my head to look at her questioningly. She just smiled. “He is starved for human affection and he’s not getting as much as he needs. Hold him. Cuddle him. He should be ready to eat soon.”

I hesitated before reaching in to do just that, bringing him to my chest so his cheek was against the bare skin above my shirt. Kara directed me to a rocking chair that was next to his bed, helping me so I didn’t disrupt his monitors, and she draped a blanket over him once I was a settled.

“Have you been here all night?” I asked as I glanced up from the baby to look at her. She shook her head.

“I left right after you did last night and just got here about fifteen minutes ago.”

I rocked him for a few minutes and watched the others in the NICU. Kara and another nurse floated between beds and incubators, helping parents and adjusting babies. The room was quiet, with only the sounds of machines and murmurs of voices being heard throughout.

After I’d been rocking the baby for about thirty minutes, two doctors walked in and one smiled at me before walking over to where I sat.

“Ms. Gibson. How are you?”

“Hi, Dr. Struthers. I’m good. How are you?”

He nodded and picked up a chart before pulling a rolling stool over to sit with me. “I’m great, thanks for asking. I figured you’d want an update on Baby Boy Doe, right?”

“Yeah,” I replied, frowning at the name he’d been given. “I need to start preparing a foster family for him so if you could give me a timeframe, too, that’d be great.”

Dr. Struthers flipped through the chart before setting it down. “Well, we’re still running some tests to ensure we aren’t missing anything from his initial intake last night. Thankfully, his toxicology report came back clean.”

Interesting. I was starting to doubt my theory that he’d been left by his mother. “Really? Because of the abandonment, I’d just assumed the mother had been a user.”

“So did we,” Dr. Struthers replied with a nod. “But no traces of drugs in his system at all. He has a really poor suck reflex and we need to correct that so he can eat. We’re probably looking at another week as long as he can avoid a feeding tube. Baby Boy should be ready to go after that.”

I rolled my eyes and looked up at the doctor. “Can’t we call him something else?”

Dr. Struthers laughed and shrugged his shoulders. “He’ll need a name but we figured that you guys would handle that officially. What do you propose?”

“A strong name.” Kara chimed in. “He deserves one to match his personality. Like Bruce.”

“Bruce?” I said, wrinkling my nose. “Like Bruce Wayne?”

“Bruce Banner. The Hulk.” She let out a small laugh and both the doctor and I joined in.

“I don’t know about Bruce.” Dr. Struthers stared at the baby for a moment. “What about Thor?”

“Thor?” I gave the doctor a look of mock horror. “No way. What about Christopher?”

“Oh, Chris,” Kara said excitedly. “Like Chris Evans… Captain America.”

I nodded. “Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, and Chris Hemsworth.” I looked at the doctor. “That gives him a little bit of Thor, too.”

Everyone chuckled and Dr. Struthers bobbed his head in agreement. “Chris he is.”

“Hi, Chris,” I whispered to the tiny infant on my chest. “You look like a Chris.”

“Well, good news for Chris… His lab work didn’t reveal anything out of the ordinary, either. Other than being a bit early and the obvious hypothermia, he’s in great health.”

I let out a long sigh before a wide grin stretched across my lips. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all week.”

“You and me both,” Dr. Struthers agreed as he stood from the stool. “I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

I didn’t put the baby down for quite a while. I fed him, although he only ate very little, I changed his diapers, and I cuddled him as much as possible. I knew that there was a crucial time for babies to bond with their parents and Chris was missing out on that. It wasn’t until I realized that I’d been at the hospital for more than five hours that I finally put him down.

“I’ll be back tomorrow, buddy,” I whispered before leaning down to press my lips to his forehead. I straightened up and sighed at Kara. “Cuddle him for me later, will you?”

She laughed and nodded quickly. “Of course. Will you be in tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sometime before lunch. I’ll even bring coffee.” I waved to her and forced myself to leave the NICU before I attempted to pick up the baby again.

I spent the rest of my day getting my domestic chores done. I grocery shopped, cleaned up our kitchen, my bathroom, and the living room, and got all of my laundry done. Alyssa had been gone for most of the afternoon but reappeared shortly after seven.

“How’s the baby?”

I smiled just thinking about the little guy. “He’s going to be okay. We named him Chris.”

My best friend listened dutifully during the drive to the theater and I told her all about him. She shook her head when I was done.

“People seriously suck.”

Some really did. My job meant I saw the worst of people but it also meant I saw the best. I needed to focus on that sometimes.

The movie was hilarious. We gorged ourselves on popcorn, nachos, and candy while laughing like cackling hyenas. The two of us spent the whole drive home comparing our favorite lines and I was eternally grateful to my friend for making me leave the house to do something fun. I had no idea what I would do without Alyssa in my life.

I headed to the hospital Sunday morning after a detour through the Java Express drive-thru and rode up the elevator with the cup carrier in my hands. I stopped to wash my hands and set the coffee on the counter as I walked into the NICU. Kara’s head turned and she immediately grinned at me.

“Hey. You really did bring coffee.”

I grinned and nodded my head. “I even brought extras if someone else wants one.”

“You’re amazing,” she said as she picked up a cup and brought it to her nose. “This is magical.”

I couldn’t help laughing as I moved towards the little bed that held Chris. He was fast asleep with his little fists resting on either side of his head. He was wearing a shirt and a diaper but his fuzzy, blonde hair was uncovered and I ran my fingertips through it. I wanted to hold him but I didn’t want to disturb his sleep.

“Any luck on finding his relatives?” Kara asked as she took a stool next to another incubator and adjusted something on the monitor. I shook my head as a baby cried behind me. When I gestured to her, Kara just nodded. I pulled the little girl in my arms and pushed her pacifier into her mouth.

“No one has reported a newborn missing but a press conference should be held Friday. Hopefully we’ll get some good leads from that. What’s her name?”

“That’s Jewel.” She just shrugged her shoulders when I furrowed my brow. “I didn’t name her. She was born yesterday.”

I smiled at the baby girl, whose dark blue eyes were wide open as she sucked the pacifier furiously. “She’s cute.”

I held onto the baby while I chatted with Kara and got to know her a little better. She was a year younger than me and had been a nurse for about three years. Her older sister had set her up with a bunch of different online dating accounts and kept sending her out on blind dates. So far Kara had done three and each one had been worse than the last.

“I’m serious, Stephanie. He didn’t take his eyes off my boobs once.”

We both laughed and I shook my head as I put Jewel, who was now asleep, in her bed. “Well, maybe sometime we can go out and see if we can find you someone that you can preapprove in advance.”

“That’d be fun,” she replied with a smile, her honey brown eyes sparkling. Kara was gorgeous. She was a little shorter than me, maybe by about four inches, and her petite frame seemed to have curves in the best places. Her long, light brown hair had golden streaks throughout it and was tied back into a ponytail that bounced when she laughed.

When Chris woke up with a tiny cry, I immediately scooped him out of his bed and cuddled him to my chest. Kara gave me a bottle and I tried to get him to eat for over an hour before he just ended up falling back to sleep without taking any of it. When Dr. Struthers came in, he sighed and shook his head.

“He’s going to end up with a feeding tube if he doesn’t start eating.”

Otherwise, Chris was still doing very well. I stayed in the NICU until after two and hesitantly put the sleeping baby in his bed. I pressed my lips to his forehead and tugged his little cap over his head. When I looked up at Kara, she was smiling.

“You need babies.”

I sighed and walked over to where she was, taking one of the crackers she was eating when she offered. “Hopefully one day before my eggs are old and dry.”

“Your boyfriend doesn’t want kids? If I had a girlfriend who looked like you did last night, I’d be trying to get her pregnant every ten seconds.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “Troy and I aren’t together. Not anymore. Last night was me being a good friend. We broke up last year.”

“Oh, wow. I’m sorry,” she said with a frown but I shook my head.

“It was a mutual thing and we’re still friends so I’m not sad.”

Kara’s eyes twinkled and she nudged me with her shoulder. “Well, this is good news for me. I need more single friends. We can double date.”

“The thought of dating scares the crap out of me,” I told her honestly. “I’ve only been out a handful of times since the break-up and I wasn’t overly impressed with any of them.”

“I’m probably not the best person for this anyway. My track record kind of sucks.”

We both laughed and stood off in the corner for a few minutes. We watched the other nurse and the few parents in the room before she washed her hands and proclaimed her break over.

I peeked in on Chris one more time before waving to Kara and grabbing my stuff to head out to my car. I drove out to my childhood home and parked along the curb before walking through the front door. I was immediately accosted by a five-year-old little boy and his three-year-old sister.

“How are my little monsters?” I asked as I dropped to my knees and hugged them both. Stella immediately held out her hand to show me the Band-Aid on her wrist.

“Stephy. Look.”

I inspected the princess bandage with wide, exaggerated eyes. “What happened to you?”

“I falled.” Stella looked just like her mom, especially when she made that serious face. Her golden blonde hair was shoulder-length and her blue eyes were round on her little face.

Her brother scoffed, looking more like his dad. He had the Gibson hair but his brown eyes were all Sinclair. His personality mirrored his mother’s, though- kindhearted and serious. “There’s not even a mark. Mommy says she’s a ‘rama queen.”

I grinned at him and shrugged my shoulders. “Drama queens run in the family, Tanner. Be glad your mommy is giving you a brother rather than another sister.”

After pressing kisses to both my niece and nephew, I walked into the kitchen and gave my mom a quick hug. She turned and smiled before going back to the dough she was kneading.

“Hi, baby.”

“Hey, Mama.” I grabbed a glass out of the cupboard and opened the fridge. “How are you?”

“Good, good. Making some of your favorite- homemade tortillas. How was your week?”

I let out a wry chuckle and shook my head. “Busy. How was yours?”

She caught me up on everything that she and my father had done for the week before I asked if she needed help with anything. She shooed me out so I found my younger sister and her husband in the family room with my dad. I pressed a kiss to my father’s cheek before falling onto the couch so I could watch the football game on TV.

My brother in law, Eldon, didn’t even look at me and I didn’t bother greeting him. Eldon Sinclair was my least favorite of the in-laws. Katelin was twenty-four, two years younger than I was, and Eldon had almost seven on me. The age gap didn’t bother me but Eldon acted like a child and had rushed my sister into having babies because he didn’t want to be too old when they were born. Tanner had arrived when she’d barely turned nineteen and she had turned into a baby making factory after that.

They had met right after she graduated high school and all of her plans had gone by the wayside. She didn’t go to college and ended up being a stay at home mother who relied completely on Eldon. I didn’t have a problem with staying home with her kids, but it was the way her husband had basically put her at his mercy for everything. The only friends she had were her siblings and he liked it that way.

I honestly wasn’t sure what she saw in him. He was okay looking, if you got past the crappy personality. He had a couple of inches on me, light-brown hair with matching eyes, and a decent build. There wasn’t a way to really describe him otherwise except the expression he always wore made him look like an idiot.

“How are you feeling, Kate?” I asked as I rubbed her swollen stomach.

My younger sister let out a long, exhausted sigh. “Tired. Five more weeks.”

I cuddled next to her for a little bit and we chatted quietly as Dad and Eldon stared at the TV. My other little sister, Briana, showed up with her husband not too long after. Briana had just turned twenty-three and she and Marco married the summer before after being together all through college. Bri and I, despite having four years between us, were incredibly close and she was the one I could spill my secrets to without judgment.

I loved her husband. He was a sweet guy and really cared about my sister. Plus, he was insanely handsome. Marco Romano was Italian through and through. He stood about six-feet tall and had hair so dark that it was almost black. His honey-brown eyes always looked kind and they went well with his olive colored skin. He was so good looking and it was only made better by his amazing personality.

The last person to arrive was our little brother, Austin. He had just turned twenty-one and was engaged to his girlfriend, Rhea, who wasn’t with him when he walked through the door. He did, however, have my eight-month-old niece, Lila, on his hip and I promptly took her out of his arms.

“Lila’s cutting teeth and has been kind of a nightmare lately,” Austin explained tiredly. “I told Rhea to stay home to try to get some sleep.”

The four of us all had the same golden blonde hair and same blue-gray eyes, like the Stepford children, but Kate, Austin, and I were all taller than our five-foot-four mother, Kate and I by four inches and Austin by eight. Bri, on the other hand, had the same short stature as our mother. She also had colorful streaks, purple ones at that moment, running through her chin-length hair in an attempt to be different.

We sat down at the huge dinner table and ate the enchilada casserole my mom had prepared. Everyone made small talk and I participated as much as possible. When Eldon started going on about how busy and important he was at the police station where he was a patrol officer, I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. When I looked up, Marco and Bri were both suppressing their laughter.

“Hey, Steph,” Austin said from where he was feeding Lila some rice at the end of the table. “Did you hear about that baby they found in the garbage?”

I nodded and swallowed the food in my mouth. “That’s my case.” I paused and shrugged my shoulders. “Actually, I’m the one who found him.”

“Really?” Bri asked with her eyebrows furrowed. “They’re saying he would have died with how cold it got overnight.”

“Yeah. I’ve thought about that a lot,” I admitted with a shake of my head.

Marco gave me a sympathetic smile. “How is he?”

“He’s really good.” I couldn’t help the smile that stretched across my lips. “He’s super sweet, too. We’re releasing some information later this week to see if we can find any of his family.”

My mom let out a squeal when I told her I’d be involved in the media announcement and said she would set the DVR to record. I entertained a few more questions without breaking privacy and was quiet through the rest of our meal.

After we were done eating, I hung out on the floor playing with my nieces and nephew for a bit before I kissed them all and announced I was leaving. I accepted a thousand hugs and some food for Alyssa before heading out to my car. It was dark, already after seven, as I drove towards our house.

I found my best friend in the living room and she basically tackled me when she realized that I’d brought her food. We spent some time on the couch just chatting and watching TV and it wasn’t until eleven that I finally went back to my room to get my stuff ready for the next day.