Chapter Thirty-One
"Mr. Turner, we've sealed off all hospital exits," the security guard informed Cole, "and I'll personally review the surveillance tapes from the nursery. We'll get to the bottom of this and find your son, don't worry."
"Tell my wife that," Cole snapped.
"Your wife?" The nurse's eyes narrowed as she questioned Cole, "I thought you two weren't married."
Cole sighed in frustration, "She's my ex-wife and we're engaged to be married." He stared across the hall at the door to Phoebe's room and realized, "I have to tell her what's happened."
"I'll accompany you," the nurse recommended, "in case she needs a sedative. She's clearly exhausted and this news will not be good for her health. Perhaps she's fallen asleep, in which case, you should let her rest instead of waking her."
"Asleep?" he muttered as he slowly opened the door, "I should be so luckyPhoebe, I have someth--"
Phoebe immediately shushed him and indicated to the nursing baby she held in her arms, "I think he's drifting off."
Stunned by the sight of his supposedly missing son, Cole froze in place and caused the nurse to bump into him. He barely acknowledged her as he walked over to Phoebe's bed in a daze. "Is he okay?" he asked with wonder as he lightly stroked his son's fine brown hair.
"He must get his appetite from you," Phoebe teased as she watched her baby continue to greedily suckle even with his eyes closed.
"Where did that baby come from?" the nurse demanded.
The baby let out a wail and Phoebe frowned at her, "Thank you very much." She then noticed the security guard in the background and pulled the sheet up to cover herself and the baby. "Cole, what's going on?"
The security guard stepped into the room and tried to stare only at the young nursing mother's face. "There was an incident in the nursery, ma'am. One of the babies was unaccounted for so we've been checking room-to-room. This is your son?"
"Of course he's my son," Phoebe retorted. "Hey!" Phoebe exclaimed when the nurse suddenly grabbed her wrist to match her plastic ID bracelet with the baby's ID bracelet.
The nurse snorted and nodded to the guard. "How did this baby get here?" she inquired again even as she helped readjust the sheet for Phoebe.
Phoebe looked helplessly to Cole whose eyes didn't suggest any answers. She looked down at her son and quickly thought of something that would make sense. "A nurse came by with him. Right after you left me."
"That's impossible," the nurse declared to the guard. "I would have seen her pass by."
"Like you saw me before?" Cole taunted. The nurse scowled at him but he ignored it, "The important thing is that Adam's okay."
"But we still need to check this out," the guard considered. "Can you describe her for me, Ms. Halliwell?"
"I don't think so," Phoebe glanced nervously back at Cole, "I wasn't really paying attention, I was pretty upset before. It was thisnightmare I had and I wanted to see my son so badly and when he came, I mean when he was brought in, I was only focused on him."
The guard nodded sympathetically, "I realize you're very tired, Ms. Halliwell, but anything you can give me would help."
"Uh, well," Phoebe thought in a rush, "I supposeshe was young, slim and petitewith long dark hair, high cheekbones, bright blue eyes."
The nurse shook her head, "No one with that description works on this floor."
"What was she wearing?" the guard asked as he wrote down the description in a small notepad.
"Wearing?" Phoebe echoed as she glanced once again at her amused fiancé. "Um, scrubsWhite scrubs with little blue thingies on it."
"Thingies?" the nurse asked suspiciously.
"I'm not sure," Phoebe nervously answered, "some sort of pattern, I guess."
"Could it have been a pediatrics uniform?" the guard wondered.
"I'm sorry," Phoebe shrugged and nudged Cole with her elbow, "like I said, I wasn't really paying attention."
"I think that's enough for now," Cole announced as he turned to the nurse and guard. "Phoebe's tired and needs her rest."
"We'll look for this nurse," the guard assured them, "and review the tapes. We'll get to the bottom of this."
"Never has anything like this happened while I've been on duty," the nurse informed the new parents. "You can be sure this nurse will be severely reprimanded when we find her."
"In the meantime," Cole forcefully suggested, "why don't you bring in Adam's bassinet? I'm sure you'll understand that we want him spending the night with Phoebe."
After seeing Cole's look of determination, the nurse reluctantly agreed, "Of course." Without waiting for a response, she left the room.
"A prickly woman," the guard apologized to them, "but one of the hospital's best." As he exited, he added, "Oh, congratulations on your baby and your wedding."
"Thank you," Phoebe answered distractedly. She looked up at Cole and grinned, "Think Prue will mind that she's practically been accused of kidnapping when Adam shimmered here all on his own?" She immediately pulled down the sheet and caressed her son's cheek with her free hand, "Isn't that right, Adam, not even twelve hours old and you came to Mommy all by yourselfsuch a good boy" Still smiling, she glanced back at Cole and proudly added, "He knew exactly what he wanted before I even unsnapped my gown. Not at all like Piper told me about Melinda's first days. Adam latched on right away without the slightest hesitation. Look at him. I can't believe how hungry he is. I'm sure he's hit the seven-pound mark. Shouldn't the nurses have realized he was hungry? Why didn't they bring him to me earlier?" She suddenly realized that Cole hadn't said a word, nor even moved, the whole time she'd been talking and she glanced up at him. He no longer seemed amused. In fact, he seemed angry. "Cole? What's wrong?"
All the tension he'd been burying for the past twenty minutes finally surfaced and he shouted, "What the hell happened? Why didn't you call the nurse to page me from the nursery to tell me you had him? Do you have any idea how I felt when that nurse told me our son was missing?"
The baby let out a cry and Phoebe quietly apologized to her son, "Shhh, Adam, it's okay. Daddy didn't mean to yell. He was just a little scared that you weren't where you were supposed to be."
"A little scared?" Cole exploded. "I nearly disintegrated her when she told me he was gone!"
"Not that big a loss," she muttered as she tried shifted the baby's position. But she regretted her comment, "Sorry, she got on my nerves before with that condescending attitude of hers." The baby was no longer nursing and she tried rocking him. "What'd the guard mean, review the tapes'? Oh no," she uttered, "those tapes? Cole, he's gonna see Adam disappear from the nursery by himself."
"Not if I can help it," Cole shook his head. "I'll be right back."
Before she could say anything, he'd faded from the room. She looked down at her crying son and assured him, "Daddy will take care of it. Don't worry, Adam, he'll be right back." But her son only fussed more and she grew nervous when she was unable to settle him. "Are you wet? Is that it, Adam?" She bent her knees, carefully lay the baby on her sore stomach, and checked his diaper. "No, you don't need to be changed. You can't still be hungry, you're not wet, so, what is it, Adam? Give Mommy a hint, okay? I'm new at this" She wrapped the blanket snugly around him and cradled him against her and murmured, "Are you scared? Is that it? Did you sense those big bad demons before? They're gone now. Daddy took care of them so don't be scared, baby, I'm here and Daddy's here and we're not going to let anyone hurt you or take you away from us."
"Listen to your mommy," Cole commented as he reappeared in the room, "she usually knows what's best."
"Usually?" she questioned in mock annoyance.
Considerably more calm than before he left the room, he strolled to the bed and repeated with a slight smile, "Usually."
"The tapes?" she asked more seriously.
"I gave them each a good zap," Cole assured her, "and they won't show anything but snow." Without thinking, he touched the baby's hand that had popped free from the blanket and asked in concern, "What's wrong with Adam? Has he been crying this whole time?"
"I'm not sure," she admitted. "He's not hungry and doesn't need to be changed." But the baby's cries lowered in volume to whimpers and Phoebe suddenly realized, "I know what he wants." Cole looked at her quizzically and she smiled, "He wants you."
"Me?" Cole asked in surprise.
Phoebe nodded, "He didn't really start crying like that until after you left and look how he's quieted down since you touched him." Cole instantly pulled his hand back and the baby let out a wail. "See? He just wants his daddy," she triumphantly commented. She lifted the baby and held him out for Cole who, to her surprise, stepped back from her. "Cole?"
Cole remained where he was at arm's length and said, "This isn't a good idea"
"What're you talking about," she nervously laughed, "he's your son." But Cole's expression didn't change and she grew upset, "Don't you want to hold your son?"
"I" Cole simply stared at her.
She lowered the baby to chest and her eyes brimmed with tears. "Are you mad at me?" she asked softly as she watched her son cry.
Stunned, Cole wondered, "Why would I be mad at you? You're alive, you want to marry me again, and you've brought into this world and my life the greatest gift I could possibly imagine."
She rocked the baby and, in a quiet voice, replied, "It's just thatwell, I just realized that you haven't held him. He's not even twelve hours old and he's been held by everyone in the family but you, his own daddy. I can't believe I didn't realizeno wonder you resent m--"
Cole immediately went to her side and sat on the edge of the bed. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulled her close, and kissed the top of her head. "I'm not mad at you and I'm sorry I worried you."
Phoebe hesitantly glanced at him, "Then why don't you want to hold him?"
"Touching him is one thing but holding" he tried to explain. "This is all --"
"Piper's fault," she interrupted. He looked at her with confusion and she clarified in a rush, "I told her she shouldn't worry about you and Melinda but she was still so uptight about you being around us. If she'd only let you spend some time with the baby once she saw how things wereyou were going to be a daddy, for God's sake, she could've at least -- if maybe you'd've had the chance to practice a bit, you might not be so nervous now. I'm so sorry, Cole, I should've been more considera--"
"That's not it," Cole told her with some frustration when he finally interrupted. "Phoebe, you have to understand, it's not only that I've never held a baby before, it's that I've ki--"
"All right," the nurse announced as she flung open the door, "here's the baby's bassinet. She ignored the fact that Cole had jumped up from the bed and she ordered him, "Make sure she gets her rest. And, if you're staying the night, stay in the chair, not the bed." She noticed the baby's distress and asked Phoebe, "Do you need any help? Do you want me to take him?"
Phoebe shook her head, "We're fine. Thank you."
As the nurse left, she instructed, "Use the call button if you have to. There's no shame in asking for help."
But, as soon as they were alone again, Cole told Phoebe, "I'd better let you get some rest."
"Don't go," she requested, "talk to me. Tell me what you were going to say."
Cole averted his eyes, "I think you know what I was going to say."
"You killed babies," she acknowledged in a whisper of horror. "As Belthazor, you killed babies."
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