Mac Robinson left the archives room from the basement in a good mood humming to himself and motioned back to the elevator to return to return to the seventh floor of the courthouse. Along the way, Detective Sipowitz from the police station passed his path as they acknowledged each other and momentarily proceeded along both their ways. It was another day here in Manhatten County Courthouse as he exited an elevator and strolled into Judge Stone's Courtroom during break. Harry was signing papers and Dan and Kelly were sitting on top of his table with him straddling her between his legs. Harry was wearing earmuffs as the two groaned and moaned in unison.
"Oh my dear lord !" Mac looked at them.
"It's my lamaze training, Mac." Kelly placed her hands on her big round tummy. "Dan's going to be there in the delivery room with me." She shined a bit and gave him a kiss as Dan mugged at being so thoughtful.
"He ought to..." Harry mumbled over writing his signature. "He helped you conceive it."
"Harry," Kelly wanted to chide him.
"So, Dan..." Mac strolled over grinning after dropping the papers on Harry's desk. "Are you going to bring your child into this world with the same amount of moaning and groaning that went into conceiving it ?"
"Yeah," Dan grinned ear to ear as his wife jabbed him for sharing their private life.
"What are you going to name it?" Mac asked.
"Well," Dan stroked Kelly's arm tenderly a second. "If it's a boy, Robert after my dad or Heather after Kelly's mom if its a girl."
"Why not just wait and make sure it's human first..." Harry mumbled.
"Harry!" Kelly waddled and shifted her belly a bit as she dropped to the floor and walked over the bench. "Please don't act like that. I know you don't care much about me being married to Dan, but I love him, and the baby will be half mine too !" She nodded at him. "And besides, I want to name it Harry if it's a boy..." She looked up to see if that got a reaction from him. Harry just raised his head with the same lost look of a guy who had lost his best friend and then continued to his writing.
"Mac, Mac..." Dan hoped up off the table. "I just want to apologize for all the things I ever said about your kids. I mean, just realizing I'm going to be a dad too, I can understand the pride you must have about your two little co-dependants."
"Oh yeah," Mac thought about Renee and Mac Jr. "There is no better feeling that the sensation to your heart you get from projectile vomit." He grinned sarcastically.
"Don't tell him that!" Kelly swatted him lightly. "Actually Mac, Dan and I have been reading all the baby books out there. We are going to be the best darn parents there are." She and Dan posed as if they were ready for a picture.
"Are you going to be ready when little Damien or Regan comes shooting up out of your chest and dragging your intestines down the hallway?" Harry mumbled again. Kelly got a bit tired at the snide comments and walked over and pulled out his earmuffs and popped them back. Harry reacted at the sensation of having his ears boxed as she looked at him like Linda Blair!
PART TWO
Harry's court was in full swing and it was business as usual even without Bull around. He and his wife Amanda were off on a vacation to Europe to visit relatives he had in the small town of Frankenstein, Germany. In the courtroom, the serious pace of Harry's judicial duties measured the frantic timing of the cases.
"You people have just got to understand that no one wants that stuff that you're pushing." Harry's edict fell on the ears on some individuals he was trying. "It's loathsome, disgusting and personally I think it ought to be outlawed. No one with an ounce of common sense should want that stuff in his or her house. That crap only panders to the lowest denominator of human society."
The individuals were four girl scouts.
"Now," Harry continued. "Get rid of that stuff and get more of the mint chocolate fudge that everyone keeps asking for all the time." He rapped his gavel a second as Kelly beamed over the girls and hoped she had a daughter as adorable as they were. Dan turned to put his file aside as Harry looked around the courtroom.
"Where is that guy who is supposed to be filling in for Bull?" Harry wondered. "Can anyone else be so incompetent?"
"Give him a chance, sir." Roz motioned closer from where she stood. "It's a big building. He gets lost."
"But he's been working here for twenty years." Dan pointed out.
"Well, where is he?" Harry asked.
"I'm back sir…." A short balding man in a bailiff's uniform wandered in slowly.
"Hello Dirk…." Everyone groaned depressingly at the sight of the guy. He was just so depressing to look at he brought everyone else down. The uniform didn't even fit right; the jacket hung down to his knees.
"I'm sorry, I'm late…." Dirk answered. "But I got locked in a janitor's closet. I had to get out by crawling through a heating duct."
"Why didn't you just use your radio to call for help?" This guy's stupid excuses were starting to irritate Roz.
"I broke it when I hammered the vent open." Dirk looked up and grinned pathetically as he looked for a bit of solace.
"Where's the next case, Dirk?" Harry asked. Dirk just looked at him and rolled his eyes back as he tried to recall where he had left the pick pocket he was supposed to bring up from holding.
"I left him in the closet." Dirk answered with a grin. "So he wouldn't get scared being by himself, I left my gun with him."
Harry, Kelly and Dan dropped their pencils simultaneously in disbelief and Mac rolled his eyes and refused to believe it. Everyday was like some crazy NBC comedy as things stayed surreal and never reached the normal boundaries on sanity.
"Thirty minute recess!" Harry pounded his gavel disgustedly and pulled off his robe as he left the bench. As he departed, Roz wandered up to Dirk and looked at him.
"What kind of idiot are you?" She asked.
"Mom says I'm a Pisces." Dirk looked at her glaring at him. It was the same look she got before pulling her gun on the prisoners.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Roz." Dirk lowered his head. "I've just never had much confidence and it often causes me to make stupid decisions."
"Giving your gun to a prisoner isn't stupid." Roz answered as the courtroom emptied. "Giving your gun to a prisoner is asinine." She paused as she gasped and rolled her eyes. "Look, why don't you get some shoulder pads for that thing? Maybe if you look a bit prouder you will get more respect."
"But I'm wearing five pairs as it is." Dirk answered.
"You got him?" Judge Harry Stone was on the phone in his chambers talking to another bailiff in the building. "Did he give up the gun?" He paused and listened to the response. "He sold it back to you?" Harry rolled his eyes as if he could not believe it. A brief word of thanks later and he hung up the phone wondering if he had enough time to sign some papers during the break. He barely sat down as he heard his wife Christine in the hall with his stepson, Charlie. Their voices were getting closer and closer as he lifted his head to acknowledge them.
"Get in there, young man." Christine entered the room looking stunning as usual in her violet blouse and black slacks. She gasped irritatingly and gestured Charlie to sit down. "Harry, the school pulled me out of my courtroom to come to the principal's office at school. Charlie was caught running the shell game in the school cafeteria!"
"I made $122.50 and I got Suzy Parker's telephone number!" The young man chortled.
"Young man," Harry sat down across from him at the conference table. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"You said I couldn't match quarters; you never said nothing about the shell game." Charlie made a tragic point as Christine turned her look on Harry and wondered who was the worst influence. Harry tried to hide a second and then stood up and tried to be a proper father.
"Look, Charlie," He started. "These scams and cons you are pulling are going to get you in a lot of trouble. You are entering a path that that you do not want to get trapped it. Nothing good can come of this. They're stupid and childish and… where have I heard this conversation before?"
Christine reached over for Harry's hat and put it on her son's head to give her husband a small clue. The former con artist took the hint and jerked his hat back as he reflected on his own past.
"Oh my god," He realized. "I was a geek." He looked at Charlie a second and realized that he was raising the same sort of boy he had been. Christine meanwhile pulled him aside and spoke in hushed tones.
"Harry," She started softly. "He's been thrown out of school for the rest of the week. He's going to have to stay here and do his school work. Because of the nature of some of my trials today, it's just better if he stayed here. Another thing…" She paused a second as she lowered her voice a bit more. "This would be a great time for you to tell him about…" She flared her eyes as her subtle clue to a big shake-up in her life. Harry got that clue too.
"Oh no, Christine." Harry balked. "I think you had better be here when we tell him that."
"No," She whispered. "You tell him first. I have to get back to court."
"Yeah, sure…" Harry and Christine kissed each other briefly as she turned and departed. Harry turned strictly as if he was going to say something, but instead froze and pushed it out of his mind. He tried to start again, but then the cold feet returned. Turning around again, he noticed an African American young man had entered from the hall. He looked to be in his early twenties and attired very sharply in contrast to the young hoods that ran through the building.
"Harry." He knew him.
"You'll have to excuse me a second," Harry looked the stranger over. "Do I know you?"
"It's me, Harry." The young man answered. "Leon."
"Leon?" Harry's mind flashed back to the young shoeshine boy he had wanted to adopt and saw him in the man before him. "Leon!" He stepped forward and hugged him. It was like seeing a long lost boy. Every so often he had wondered about this young man and where he was and if he was okay. He took another look at him. He hadn't seen Leon since that other couple adopted the boy.
"Who's Leon?" Charlie looked up.
"Leon," Harry's heart was on a high. "My god, what, why, how have you been doing?"
"Well," Leon shuffled his feet a bit. "You know those people who adopted me?"
"The squares…?"
"Yeah," Leon continued. "Well, it turned out that they had a lot of money, and I couldn't give up all that. They gave me a horse and my own car when I reached eighteen and I'm going to medical school. I'm going to be a doctor."
"Wow," Harry was impressed. Leon did turn out better than he could have given him. "I'm so proud of… You got a pony!"
"Who's Leon?" Charlie asked again feeling he was being ignored.
"I'm sorry, Charlie," Harry turned round. "Charlie, this is Leon, I tried to adopt him once. Leon, this is Charlie, my and Christine's son. You two could have been brothers."
"Hey, Charlie," Leon reached to shake hands with the young man then did a double take. "You married Mrs. Sullivan!" He shook Harry's hand a second and even gave him a high-five. "You're doing even better than I thought you were!"
"Yeah," Harry mused as if it was no big deal. "But other than that, you know, nothing much has changed. Things around here are pretty much the same."
"Harry," Mac casually wandered in. "Dan got his tie stuck in the elevator doors again."
"Again?" Harry's eyes widened and looked to Leon. "I wish you were going to be a psychiatrist. We really need one of those things around here!"
PART THREE
"Ma'am," Harry's court was in full swing again. "I know this is your first time in New York City, but when someone recommends you take a bus…"
The old lady was still carrying the steering wheel she had been cuffed to by the police.
"It usually means you just ride it." Harry continued. "A hundred dollar fine, but in the spirit of all good New Yorkers, I guess I can suspend it." He pounded his gavel.
"You are such a good boy." The old lady reached up and squeezed Harry's cheek just before Roz lead her away. Harry just blushed a bit and grinned his silly child-like grin as he noticed Mac at his side. The tall court clerk grinned his big goofy child-like smile.
"Anything else, Mac." Harry asked.
"That was the last one, sir."
"Okay, we are adjourned." Harry pounded his gavel and started to step down from his bench. As he stepped down, Kelly braced her wide tummy and turned to her briefcase to put the old lady's file away. Dan noticed her swaying a bit and rushed to brace her and be by her side.
"Need some help?" He tried his best to be what he thought a good husband should be.
"I'm just fine." She beamed up to him and gave him a small kiss.
"Would you like another chocolate and pickle pizza?" He looked at her caringly.
"No, honey," Kelly closed her briefcase. "I'm just going to head on home. I want to get some rest. Will you be working late?"
"Just a bit," Dan turned to business again after all this year he was still getting used to this married business. He was just barely gotten used to the monogamy business. "I have court files and subpoenas to cover for Daniels to look over plus he wants to stick his foot where the sun don't shine." He paused to scratch his ear. "But as soon as I am done, I will rush home to be by your side."
"I know you will." Kelly kissed him.
"Daddy loves you." Dan spoke into her belly as she giggled a bit. She kissed him again and picked up her briefcase as she started walking out of the courtroom. She strode past the cafeteria as she waved to Jack and the others inside and then punched for the elevator to open. As she waited, Harry and Charlie came walking up discussing his schoolwork.
"Charlie," Harry talked to the boy. "I think when you multiply numbers the numbers should get bigger than what you started with, not smaller."
"Oh yeah…" The boy looked at his work again.
"Hi guys," Kelly grinned ear to ear as the elevator opened. "Charlie, you being a good boy?"
"Yeah…" He looked up with a bit of a crush on his Aunt Kelly.
"Well, he's good of you consider gambling and extorting pennies from his friends at school as part of the curriculum." Harry stepped into the elevator with Kelly. "So how about you? When are you expecting the anti-Christ to be born?"
"Harry!" Kelly hated comments like that. "Well, you know we Andersons are always born early and Dan says Fieldings are always born late so I figure this little tyke will be born right on time."
"Know what it's going to be?" Harry asked.
"Nope." Kelly admitted proudly as the elevator closed and descended. "I want my first child to be a surprise. Although, if it's a little girl, I'll just be the happiest little mommy in the world!"
"And Dan will have a lifetime of keeping jerks just like he was away from her." Harry commented.
"So he'll know all the tricks." Kelly added as Charlie leaned a bit bared into the wall. His hand reached up to support himself as he hit a few of the buttons of the elevator. A few buttons lit up and then the whole thing lit up as the elevator stopped. Harry turned round and pulled him back as he pressed and repressed the rest button, but the elevator stopped moving. He looked at Kelly, at her belly then to Charlie.
"Why is my life like a bad sitcom script!" He asked slightly panicked.
"Harry," Kelly giggled. "I'm not due for another…" She paused and reached to her round abdomen. "Crap, I think this kid is taking after my side of the family!"
"Don't say that! " Harry shook his head as he looked into her eyes. "Whatever you do, don't say that!"
"Harry," Kelly felt a slight pain shiver like a tremor up her backbone. "My water just broke."
"No!" Both Harry and Charlie grabbed at the doors and tried to pry them apart. Kelly dropped her briefcase and started dropping to the floor. Harry started panicking as he looked back to her.
"What is with this elevator and pregnant women!" He screamed.
"Why?" Charlie realized what was going on. "How many have been born in here?" Harry pointed to a plaque on the wall. Charlie leaned in and read the twenty-three names of kids that had been born inside it.
"I was born in this thing!"
PART FOUR
"Harry!" Clad in her judge's robes, Christine yelled down the open elevator shaft from the seventh floor. "Is Charlie with you?"
"Yeah," Harry yelled up.
"Oh good…."
"And Kelly just went into labor!" Harry yelled back up as Dan stood by Christine. The realization took a moment to reach his mind as he acknowledged the response a second then reacted.
"What?" He reacted calmly then jumped and yelled down the shaft. "Kelly!"
"Danny ?" Kelly sat on the floor of the elevator as her husband called back to him. "It's coming!"
"Art?" Mac and Roz stood by as he pulled the building superintendent aside. Short with a thin mustache and receding hairline, Art Fensterman looked to Mac holding and pulling on the back of his coveralls.
"What is wrong with you?" Mac looked at him as if he was incompetent. "Can't you keep this elevator working longer than a month? Do you know how often it has broken down this month alone?"
"Hey!" Art was barely amused as he reacted. "It's an old elevator. It just needs a new circuit board."
"And when are you installing a new one?" Roz asked.
"As soon as we get it up here."
"That's it." Dan removed his jacket and handed it to Christine. "I'm jumping down there and saving my wife."
"Wait a minute, Dan!" Christine stopped him. "You jump down on that from here and you could break both your legs and maybe send it dropping into the basement! Are you selfish enough to risk the lives of your wife and unborn child not to mention that of Harry and my son!" Dan looked away as if he was peering to an imaginary audience. He appeared as if he were considering it and weighing the options.
"Is this a trick question?"
Leon turned the corner and noticed the crowd surrounding the elevator. He noticed the shaft open and pressed his way through as he got near Christine, Mac and Roz peering and looking down the hole.
"Out again?" He asked. "What is with this elevator?"
"It's just old an…" Christine did a double take and grabbed the young man. "Leon! You're Pre-Med! You can tell Harry how to deliver Dan's child!"
"Well, sure." Leon looked down. "But first….. Dan got someone pregnant!"
"You got a problem with that!" Dan yelled at him.
"Harry…" Kelly wasn't feeling well as she did her Lamaze breathing. She looked up to him from her furrowed brow and mussed hair. "You're going to have to deliver this baby."
"Oh no, Kelly, I couldn't do that…" Harry knelt before her and looked down on her as he shook his head. "I can't do that. This is Dan's kid, and well, you are, well, were…. And still are….. This is Dan's kid!"
"Harry……" She fretted tiredly as she looked up to him and Charlie. Harry tried to think of something else to say as he noticed and realized Charlie was still with him. "Face to the corner, mister!"
"Hello…" An old man and his wife both wearing old farm clothes wandered up to the crowd before the open elevator. Dan felt utterly useless as he fretted and hovered near the elevator waiting on word that something was happening. He glanced over casually to the old couple as he acknowledged them.
"Mom…dad…" He recognized his parents and did a double take of his own as he suddenly recalled who they were just before he screamed.
"Mr. and Mrs. Elmore…." Mac greeted the friendly down home couple as he still wondered how two such wonderful people could still manage to have a son like Dan. "It is so good to see you again."
"I know…." Bob Elmore proudly looked to his successful son. "Did you know your elevator was out?"
"No!" Roz reacted. "Really?"
"We just came to town to meet Danny Boy's little wifey." Mucette squeezed her son. "Christine, is she pretty?"
"She's beautiful…" Christine added. "And best of all, she's smart too!"
"How'd you find out I was married?" Dan asked.
"Your sister told us." Bob Elmore answered.
"She did?" Dan stepped back and groaned. "I'm so glad…." He reacted sarcastically.
"You didn't tell your parents you were married?" Roz looked to Dan and wondered just how despicable he could still be as a married man.
"Well….." Dan stuttered. "I've been a little busy!"
Kelly screamed up the elevator shaft as she felt the monster of all contractions rip her body apart from within. It felt as if she were being ripped in half like a big wishbone.
"Dan, get your ass down here for this blessed event!" Her voice screamed in pain up to him.
"She just a bit temperamental." Dan told his parents as his mother clutched her chest after hearing that language.
"Ok, Harry…" Leon was getting dizzy and was starting to perspire as he yelled instructions. "Next, you have to…. Oh, boy…" He started swaying.
"Leon, are you okay?" Christine tried to hold him steady.
"I nearly forgot…." Leon's vision was spinning as he stared down into the deep dark shaft. "I'm afraid of heights." He fell back and passed out at Roz's feet.
"Oh, he's going to be a great doctor." She commented. The elevator doors suddenly closed as Dan got through describing the situation to his parents. They looked a bit concerned as he whirled around and tried to pull the doors back open.
"Kelly !" He was screaming. What was happening? Was he a father yet? Was the elevator falling? He had to know. Art meanwhile came striding up from the door to the stairway.
"I fixed it." He claimed. "I just switched some fuses and pushed the reset. All you have to do is push the button." Everyone looked at him as if they feared the worst.
"Try it again anyway, Christine." Mac answered as the former public defender gave Art a mistrustful look. She looked to Dan and his parents watching with concerned and pushed the button. Nothing happened. Everyone looked back to Art as if he was the biggest idiot in the world. Roz pulled his cap into his face as the short stocky super turned and ran back for the basement.
"Kelly!" Dan turned to cry into the wall as his mother tried to console him. He pounded the wall once as there was a sudden humming and then a ding. The elevator light started moving as Dan reacted with surprise. He stepped back, realized he had fixed it and then did his own little spoof of a famous TV character.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy…" He did two thumbs up as the elevator finally returned. As the doors opened, Charlie was first to run out. He raced to his mother and hugged her.
"It was horrible, mom!" He screamed. "It looked like a wet St. Bernard trying to come in through a cat door!"
Dan meanwhile stood in the doors as Harry stepped out. He patted Dan silently on the shoulder proudly despite the teasing as the stunned assistant D.A. looked down to Kelly sitting in the back of the lift holding a bundle obscured in Harry's black judge's robe. Her hair was mussed as her pink face was just a bit glowing as she appeared worn and tired to the people looking at her.
"What's that?" Dan asked.
"It's your son, Dan." Kelly gasped.
"My son?" Dan gasped. He couldn't believe it. "I have a son? Mom, dad, I have a son…" The joy hit him hard as he fell back and sprawled on the floor next to Leon at Roz's feet.
"Not tonight, Dan, I got a headache…." Roz quipped.
PART FIVE
The paramedics had been called over half an hour ago, but the dispatcher claimed they were still on their way. Dan and Kelly meanwhile sat in solitude in the back of Harry's court with their infant son between them. Dan studied the tiny infant with pride and disbelief that after all these years he was a dad. He still had a hard time accepting it as he looked upon the tiny naked infant wrapped in Harry's robe.
"I got a son." He told Kelly giddily. "Oh, he's going to be have everything I didn't have and much more. The best education, the best teacher… There is one thing he needs first. A name."
"Dan," Kelly shined as she held on to their baby. "I've got the perfect name for him. Jonathan Ritter Reinhold Fielding…" She beamed proudly as Dan stared vacantly into space as if his life was a TV series and a crowd of people was applauding the choice. He cracked his neck as he looked back at her.
"I'm suddenly realizing why you wanted Three's Company decorations in the nursery." He responded.
"I've always been a fan." Kelly lifted her son up again and re-cradled him in her arms. "Oh, Dan, I can't wait to finally meet your parents." She continued.
"Uh, yeah, about that," Dan scratched his ear as he looked away embarrassingly then glanced back to Kelly. "There's something I never told you. You see, I changed my name while in college."
"Your name isn't Dan?" Kelly asked.
"That's my middle name." Dan admitted as he looked at her holding his son. "You see, I dropped my last name because I thought it would hold me back and…"
"Dan," Kelly was trying to accept this revelation. "Just tell me. What's your real name?"
"Elmore."
"Elmore!" Kelly nearly chuckled as she grinned and bit her lip. "I'm Mrs. Kelly Elmore?" She shook her head as she tried to accept it. "I think we'll stick with Fielding." She began nodding.
In Harry's chambers, Charlie was still trying to calm down after getting stuck in the elevator. It was hard enough to accept that, but he also had to accept the fact that he had to be trapped in it as his Aunt Kelly gave birth right before him. His mother and Harry hovered over him as his hands shook on the cup of hot chocolate he was drinking.
"It was horrible!" He insisted. "I'm going to have that image stuck in my mind for the rest of my life. I'll never forget it."
"Charlie," Christine paced a bit as she and Harry shared another secret look. "You're going to have to get used to it. Babies are born that way."
"I know that, but why did I have to see it…"
"Charlie," Harry pulled out a chair and looked into his face. "You're going to have to accept it, because…. Christine."
"What?" Christine was unprepared. "Oh, uh, yeah, because… you are…" Her voice grew lower. "You're going to be getting a little brother or sister…"
"What?" Charlie looked to his mother in shock then over to Harry. "Oh my god, what have you two been doing!"
"Charlie," Christine took her son's empty mug away as she pulled out his chair. Harry switched off the lights as they started walking out into the corridor together. "Childbirth… is a very beautiful and wonderful moment between a husband and wife. It is nothing to be ashamed or considered disgusting. It's an extra special moment for any couple that is truly in love. Someday, you know, you'll get married, and you'll have kids too."
"Charlie," Harry pressed the button for the elevator. "Do you understand?"
"I guess…" Charlie thought about it as the elevator opened to an unknown woman in the elevator. Harry and Christine looked upon her, realized she was pregnant and turned and picked up Charlie together as they carried him to the stairway.
END
