Disclaimer: Bobby and Alex belong to Dick Wolf, alas.
A/N: I probably will never write Married!GorenEames again, but it was necessary for the prompt I was given for the ficathon. My prompt was Changeling, which is the term for a fairy baby left in place of a human child. Changelings are a part of folklore across Europe. Some legends include fairies seeking revenge on humans who disturb their fairy hills, or punishing new mothers by switching their babies when they are forced to go back to work. I've also included references to Richard Dadd, a Victorian painter from Kent, England. He suffered from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and often painted fairy scenes, his most famous work being The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke.
Thank you to Christina for doing an early read and pointing out my unintentional reference to the season 3 episode "Fico Di Capo." And wow, did I really write over 2,000 words?
Bobby Goren glanced at the digital numbers on the dash as he pulled his car out of the One Police Plaza garage. He was glad to be leaving at a decent hour to get home to Alex and the baby. It was Halloween, and although baby Richard was only six weeks old, Alex had borrowed an infant pumpkin costume from her sister. Bobby was looking forward to seeing the baby dressed up for his first Halloween.
Bobby and Alex, married one year but partners for the past eight, lived in a small home in the Kent Hill subdivision outside Manhattan. Bobby still found it unbelievable that he and Alex were married with a child of their own. After his mother died, Bobby realized he could now put his energy into living his own life instead of tending to the demands of his mentally ill mother, and he knew Alex was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He still harbored fears of developing schizophrenia himself although he was well past the usual age for symptoms to appear, but he knew an average was just that – a combination of low ages and high ages. It might not be probable, but anything was possible.
Navigating expressway traffic, Goren smiled recalling the night they decided to have a baby. He was worried about passing on the genes for schizophrenia but Alex allayed his fears. She knew she wanted a child of her own after being a surrogate for her sister four years ago, and she was able to convince Bobby with her reasoned arguments as well as her sexy lingerie.
Bobby pulled the car into their driveway at dusk, narrowly avoiding two pirates and a princess holding bright plastic pumpkins filled with candy. He smiled at them as he crunched through brown leaves swirling across the drive and made his way up the walk. The planters lining the path to the door held dead petunias, their dried branches reaching out like withered limbs. The jack o' lantern Alex carved last week was decomposing rapidly, the mouth pushed in and black fuzz growing between its pointed teeth.
Opening the front door he called out, "Trick or treat!" Alex met him in the entryway, holding Richard. The baby smiled and made a happy sound when Bobby ran his finger gently around his chin.
"I'd say here's your treat, daddy, but I think some little pumpkin needs his diaper changed, so maybe he's a trick," she said, wrinkling her nose. The doorbell rang with more trick-or-treaters so Bobby kissed his wife and took Richard to change his diaper.
"How's my little guy?" Bobby asked, chuckling at the baby's orange sleeper with a jack o' lantern face. There was even a tiny matching cap with a green stem poking out the top. He laid the baby on the changing table and continued talking as he dispatched the stinky diaper. After snapping the pumpkin sleeper and cleaning up with the hand sanitizer Alex kept on the table, Bobby was startled at the expression on Richard's face. His lips were curved up in a grin that reminded Bobby of Jack Nicholson as the Joker. Bobby felt Richard was looking at him almost slyly, like he had a secret – but the moment was over in seconds and Bobby shook his head as if to clear it.
Bobby and Alex fed Richard, ate their dinner and discussed their respective days, taking turns answering the doorbell and handing out candy to the little neighborhood goblins. Richard was ravenous, suckling almost painfully at Alex's breast until she yelped. "I think he bit me!" Alex detached Richard and examined her breast.
"He doesn't have any teeth yet, Alex. His first tooth probably won't come in until he's six months old, maybe as early as three months," Bobby quoted What to Expect the First Year.
"Ya know, he didn't read the book, Bobby." She ran her finger around Richard's gums, but didn't feel anything. "And you remember Chops Cozza? He was born with teeth."
Bobby laughed. "Our baby isn't Chops Cozza." He warmed a bottle of pumped milk and finished the feeding. They got Richard bathed and tucked into his crib for the night, then settled in the living room. Bobby had his leather binder out and went over the notes from his latest case with Alex, seeking her opinion on the direction it was taking. Alex, her short frame stretched out across the couch, read a collection of Stephen King short stories. Bobby was amused to find out that Alex chose her reading material according to the season: a seaside murder mystery during the summer, Stephen King for Halloween. He suspected the Diane Mott Davidson paperback he spied on the bookshelf, Sweet Revenge, would be pulled out for Thanksgiving.
Working steadily for the next hour, listening to Richard's loud breathing over the baby monitor, Bobby glanced at the front door when he heard the crunch of leaves on the porch. He looked at his watch. Ten o'clock. No one had rung the doorbell for at least two hours, so it probably wasn't a trick-or-treater. Maybe a mischief maker, he thought. Alex was sleeping on the couch, Skeleton Crew open on her chest, and Bobby got up carefully so he didn't disturb her. He took his shield from the side table and opened the front door quickly.
Instead of teenagers looking to smash the moldy carved pumpkin, Bobby found an old black dog lying on the porch. The dog turned his head to look at Bobby with watery eyes, his fur matted. "Go on, doggy. Go home," he said. The dog stared at him for several seconds before standing up. Bobby thought he saw a sore on the dog's hind leg as he limped away into the moonless night. He closed the door quietly, shaking his head.
"Who is it?" Alex said, half asleep.
"Just a dog. Go back to sleep."
"Tell him he can't have any candy. The rest of those Skittles are mine," she mumbled and pulled the afghan up to her neck.
Bobby smiled and placed the leather case holding his shield back on the side table. He took a few steps toward his chair when the lights of the baby monitor started flashing accompanied by a scritching sound. He turned down the hall instead and opened the door to the nursery. In the soft orange glow of the nightlight, Bobby saw Richard stirring in his crib. He took a step into the room and the baby turned his head toward the door.
Closing the door behind him, Bobby took another step toward the crib and said, "What are you doing up, littl…." His words died as he looked at Richard. The baby was tracking his movement. Staring at him. Smiling that strange jack o' lantern grin.
Bobby blinked slowly, hoping to sweep away the scene before him. But Richard was still grinning and staring. Bobby took a few steps to the side, and the baby tracked him with dark glittering eyes. His mouth suddenly dry, Bobby croaked out, "Who…what…are you?"
The thing in the crib laughed softly. Bobby backed into the corner. "What are you?" he asked, louder this time. "What do you want?"
The thing lifted its chubby arm and pointed to the snapshot of Bobby and Alex tucked into a clear pocket of the bumper pad around the crib. "Her," it hissed softly.
"No!" Bobby shouted. "You can't have her! What are you?" The thing in Richard's crib laughed again.
"Your son," it hissed. "I'm your son."
"You're not my son!" Bobby's eyes were wild as the thing with the jack o' lantern grin sat up in the crib. Bobby panicked when he heard Alex's voice from the living room.
"Bobby? Bobby what's wrong?"
"Don't come in here, Alex!" he warned. "Stay…stay out!" Bobby picked up the nursing pillow from the rocking chair and stepped toward the crib. "You can't have her," he said to not-Richard.
The thing fell back against the crib mattress as Bobby advanced with the pillow. Alex threw open the door and Richard started to wail. Alex looked at Bobby, his hands holding the pillow raised over the crib. "Bobby," she said softly. "Bobby, look at me." Alex recoiled from the wild look in Bobby's eyes. Richard continued to cry.
Alex held her hand out to her husband. "Bobby, come on…we have to go. Right now, we have to go. Come on." She motioned him over with her hand as she spoke, and was relieved when he followed, clutching the nursing pillow. She led him to the couch and sat across from him on the coffee table. Shaken to her core, Alex simply looked at him. It had happened. Bobby's biggest fear had come true – his mind had broken.
"Bobby? Can you look at me?" she said quietly. "I'm going to call Dr. Shima, Bobby, ok?" He nodded, still clutching the pillow. Alex picked up Bobby's cell and scrolled through the numbers for Dr. Shima, his mother's former psychiatrist.
Dr. Shima arranged for a private ambulance to transport Bobby to the hospital for evaluation. Alex called her sister to take care of Richard while she accompanied Bobby to the hospital. After Bobby was admitted to a room, Dr. Shima asked Alex for her description of the events prior to her call.
"I was dozing on the couch and Bobby was working in the living room. We heard the baby monitor so Bobby checked on Richard. I heard him start talking to Richard, asking him why he was awake. Then…then his voice changed. He got very insistent, almost angry. Richard was babbling and cooing and Bobby was asking him who he was and what he wanted." Alex covered her face with her hands to hold in her emotions.
"Then I walked into the room and Bobby was holding a pillow over Richard's crib. Dr. Shima, he was going to hurt our baby." Alex began to cry.
The doctor handed Alex a tissue from the box on the table. "Alex," he began. "Did Bobby tell you why his mother was living at Carmel Ridge?" Alex shook her head. "Mrs. Goren could have lived on her own with some supervision as long as she took her medication. But…there were incidents. She tried to harm Bobby and his brother several times when they were young. After Bobby joined the Army, Mrs. Goren was on her own. A new neighbor moved into the building and one day she asked Frances to watch her baby while she went to the corner store.
"Mrs. Goren started having delusions and tried to hurt the baby. Bobby was able to pull some strings and have her committed to Carmel Ridge."
Alex covered her face again with shaking hands. Dr. Shima placed Bobby on a 72 hour hold and told Alex he would phone her daily with updates.
On the third day of Bobby's evaluation, Dr. Shima told Alex he seemed perfectly normal other than his insistence that Richard sat up in the crib and threatened to harm Alex. He asked her to bring Richard to the hospital the next day so the doctor could observe Bobby interacting with his son. When Alex entered the room holding Richard, Bobby scrambled backward out of his chair, yelling and pointing at the baby. It took four orderlies to subdue and sedate Bobby, and Alex wept as she signed the commitment papers.
She strapped Richard into his rear-facing car seat and headed for their home in Kent Hill. She drove mechanically, not seeing the road before her. Her Bobby was gone. She didn't notice the bare tree branches slicing into the cold, gray sky, and the chill she felt had nothing to do with the approaching winter. Alex barely even registered the baby laughing and babbling in the back seat.
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The driver behind Alex's car motioned to his wife. "Hey, honey…look at the kid in the car in front of us. That is one weird looking baby." His wife looked up from her book and shivered at baby Richard's strange jack o' lantern grin.