Bye Bye Baby

Chapter 5

A/N: Just a quick warning to those who might have missed it. I posted an extra chapter this morning as a special treat but as it was within the 24 hour period it wouldn't have shown as being updated so you may need to read that one before this one ... :-D

As he dialed, he heard Steve calling out.

"Hey Mike? You know it's eleven thirty at night. Your friend might be asleep."

"Well, we'll soon see ..." he replied back.

The phone rang endlessly and remained unanswered as Mike hung up and stormed back in to join Steve who was pacing again with Brigitte.

"No luck?"

"No ... I'm going to have to go over there myself." Mike said grabbing his coat off the back of the armchair where he had placed it earlier and proceeding to put in on .

Steve's jaw dropped to the floor as that statement hit home.

"Wait a minute ... What do you mean by YOU have to go over there? What am I supposed to do?"

Mike looked pleadingly at Steve and when he saw the look Steve almost convulsed, his words coming out in a panicked stutter.

"Absolutely NOT ... NO WAY MIKE! ... I am NOT ... minding her while you go off on a solo mission ... That is NOT happening Mike."

"Buddy boy, listen to me will you? Someone has to mind her until Child Services get here and in the meantime that poor girl is out there scared out of her wits. Now she obviously trusts me if she left her baby in my care. If anyone can find her and convince her to come in out of hiding then it's me. She doesn't know you Buddy boy. Come on Steve ... You know it has to be me. Look ... She's fed and diapered and she settles for you. I wouldn't leave you with her if I didn't think you could manage it. She should sleep now for a couple of hours anyhow. What do you say, huh?"

"Aw Mike ... I don't know. I really don't know. What if something happens?"

"Like what Steve?"

"Well I don't know ... whatever bad things happen to babies! I ... I wouldn't know what to do Mike. Why don't we call Lee and get him over here? He's got kids. He could mind her and then I could go with you."

"Steve, don't you remember me telling you that Lee's wife is sick at the minute? He has his own kids to mind. And you wouldn't want Norm to mind her, would you?"

That thought brought another horrified expression to Steve's face and he shook his head in reply. Mike could see that Steve was worrying about the enormity of the task that Mike was setting him and with his coat now on and his fedora now in his hand he approached Steve and put his arm around Steve's shoulders.

"Buddy boy, look at her."

Steve looked down at Brigitte in his arms and saw her cuddled into his chest, her eyes closing, her thumb stuck in her mouth and her other fist firmly clamped on the material at the back of Steve's jacket. He marveled at the size of her tiny fingers and her cute little button nose and then he looked back up at Mike.

"She's counting on us Steve and so is her mother. Now I don't like this situation any more than you do but we don't have a choice right now. Time is of a matter of importance in this case. We don't know who's after her or even where she is. Come on ... If you have any major problems just knock in to Mrs. Donnelly next door. She reared five kids in that house and she told me only last week that she just welcomed a new granddaughter. That's her sixth now. There's nothing about babies she doesn't know."

Steve hung his head in exasperation. He didn't like this situation one little bit.

"You want me to call into Mrs. Donnelly? Your next door neighbor? The lady you always say is a know it all busy body who ... "

Mike covered Steve's mouth with his hand, effectively silencing him.

"Ok, Ok, I know what I always say but ... if you're stuck and I don't think you will be, then call into her. Ok?"

"Oh yeah, this is just great Mike. You get to go off and find the mother while I get the babysitting duty with Mrs. Donnelly as back up. "

Mike scowled and Steve sighed but knew at the same time he didn't have any other option but to agree. As Brigitte wriggled again and yawned, Steve looked down at her and spoke resignedly.

"Ok, I guess we don't have a lot of options. When did Child Services say they'd be here?"

Mike chose to ignore the question and instead bypassed it in favor of heaping praise on Steve for his self sacrifice.

"Good man! You'll be fine. Hopefully I'll be able to find her quick and get back to you within the hour."

Mike turned to make a speedy exit but Steve reached out and grabbed his arm, sensing that something was off by Mike's reluctance to answer his question, balancing the baby against his chest as he did.

"Hey, wait a minute. You didn't answer my question. You did call Child Services didn't you? I mean they are on their way aren't they?"

Mike turned and forced a smile.

"Of course I did. They said they'll be here as soon as they can."

Steve could see the visible discomfort on his partner's face which gave away the fact that there was something he wasn't mentioning.

"Mike? You're holding out on me ... What EXACTLY did they say?"

Mike knew he wasn't fooling Steve and so reluctantly he confessed.

"Alright ... they said that the staff have been struck with some flu bug and they're operating on a skeleton staff at the minute. I spoke to my friend down there Annie Nolan. She promised to help us out as soon as possible but she has three other calls ahead of us and two of those are kids who are still in dangerous environments so they take preference over ours. "

Steve's jaw dropped and he paced more out of nervousness and discontent rather than for Brigitte's sake. After two laps back and forth the width of the hall while Mike looked on sympathetically, he spoke again, doing his level best to keep the deep rooted anxiety he was feeling faced with his current situation out of his tone.

"She must have given you an estimate Mike. How long?"

Mike swallowed hard knowing that his young partner wasn't going to like the answer and feeling increasingly more frustrated with their current predicament too, but knowing that Laura's life depended on them right now he answered unwaveringly.

"She said possibly five hours ..."

"FIVE HOURS!" Steve roared unable to hide his anxiety any longer at that disturbing statement of Mike's and Brigitte started to whimper from his loud and nervous tone.

Realizing that he had unnerved the tiny person who was relying on him, he lowered his tone purposefully and hushed her quietly, his cheek pressed gently against the soft downy hair on the baby's head. She quietened and in a whispered tone and with the angst emanating from his eyes this time instead of his voice he looked pleadingly at Mike.

"Mike You got to be kidding me ... Five hours?"

Mike glanced at his watch and saw that it was coming close to midnight. He really couldn't afford to waste any more precious minutes in trying to find Laura but Steve's angst ridden and worried expression needed another minute or two of calm reassurances and so he made his decision and stepping forward he clasped Steve by both shoulders.

"Steve, with any luck I'll be back in less than two with her mother, ok? You've got this Steve. And if you don't believe it then look at Brigitte. She feels that you've got this too."

Steve looked down once more and noticed how calm and reassured the baby was, snuggled into his chest. Mike was right. This wasn't a time for nursing insecurities and the sooner he let Mike go to find the girl the sooner he would be back to assist him in minding Brigitte. So with a heavy heart he spoke urgently.

"Ok Mike ... "

Mike didn't budge at first not believing the words that Steve was saying and still observing by the young man's demeanor how uncomfortable he was with the whole situation but when Mike didn't move, Steve paced away from the older man and spoke as he did.

"Well go on then. Do what you have to do before I change my mind. Just PLEASE get back here as soon as you can and just to get the record straight ... YOU'RE typing the report on this one ..." he added in a forced lighthearted tone to try and convince Mike to leave faster.

The young man knew that if Mike lingered too much he would without doubt lose his nerve quite quickly under the present circumstances but luckily Mike sensed that. Stepping forward he placed a gentle hand on the back of Brigitte's head.

"Don't fret now Sweetheart. Uncle Mike's going to find your Mommy."

He looked for a brief second as if he was going to reassure Steve in a similar way and his torn expression told Steve that it wasn't an easy decision for the older man either but instead he grabbed the back of Steve's neck and squeezed gently.

"You've got this ... You hear me?" was what he whispered and as Steve nodded he turned and left quickly shouting back as the door closed. " I'll get back to you as soon as I can ..."

As the door shut Steve stood almost frozen for several seconds in the middle of the room, hardly believing how this otherwise easy going and relaxing evening had turned out. He looked once more at the fragile and tiny person who was now momentarily relying on his nonexistent parenting skills for survival and in the moment wasn't quite sure who he felt sorry for most, himself or Brigitte. He heard Mike's car start up and drive away before he finally let out the breath he hadn't quite realized he'd been holding. Knowing he had to pull himself together for both their sakes he allowed his police training in awkward situations to kick in. He needed a plan ... First things first he had to settle her and get her to sleep some how so that he could put her down and start thinking straight. Having this small person snuggled into him was unnerving him to no end and that combined with the tiredness was making his thoughts sluggish.

So with a half baked plan in mind he turned his efforts towards getting the baby to sleep. He tried pacing but that didn't seem to work and so he tried to remember the tune of the lullaby that Mike had been humming earlier and started to hum it softly as he rocked her gently. He was sure that he didn't have the tune exactly right but thankfully Brigitte didn't seem to mind and within minutes she was fast asleep, her breathing slow and even. He smiled to himself at his achievement and allowed himself a further subdued giggle at the sight of Brigitte making sucking movements with her lips as if she had an imaginary pacifier between them. The baby emanated cuteness by the bucket load and Steve began to think that perhaps Mike hadn't been that far out when he had mentioned how she was worming her way skillfully into his heart.

Fifty minutes later however and a decidedly more stressed and exhausted Steve was trying to put Brigitte down gently into her basket for the third time but once again as soon as he had her settled and barely walked away, the same thing happened. She started to wriggle, fidget and moan and then she would start to cry inconsolably again. Frazzled and feeling decidedly out of his depth he picked her up again and cuddled her against his right shoulder and once again like the other two times before, she settled quickly as she grabbed a fistful of his shirt. He balanced her carefully against his shoulder and brushed his other hand through his hair in frustration before returning his hand to support her fully.

"Aw come on Sweetheart ... Give Uncle Steve a break will ya? You're killing me here ..." he pleaded softly, but the only reply he received was some sucking baby gurgles and the tiny hand seemed to grip his shirt material tighter.

Steve felt lousy. He had a dull throbbing headache and since his stomach had finally settled he was starting to feel hungry again. He felt a little light headed and felt that the lack of food and tiredness were to blame. He hadn't had a lot of sleep last night and it had been a very long and exhausting day. He stood rocking the baby gently and trying to work out what he should do next and felt his head swim a little. He couldn't keep up the constant pacing anymore and so he gave up.

"Ok Honey ... You win ... If you don't want to go back in the basket then you can stay in my arms and sleep. I'm just too tired to keep this up ..."

Again he rubbed at his tired eyes, feeling slightly peeved that he had been out mastered by a tiny baby. He only hoped that revelation never made it back to the guys at the precinct as he knew he would never quite live that one down. His eyes alighted on the television set in the corner of Mike's living room and he grinned.

"Ok, let's see if there's something we can watch instead, huh? Would you like to watch something with Uncle Steve? "

Steve flicked through the channels on the set and frowned at the poor choice of programs to view at this time of night until at his last press he found a black and white hammer house of horror film of Dracula. Steve personally loved these films and while he felt that it obviously wasn't appropriate viewing for an infant he also felt Brigitte wouldn't pay any heed to it anyway and it just might pass the time away until Mike returned.

Sitting down on the corner of the couch he snuggled Brigitte against his chest and covered her with the baby blanket, slightly anxious and fearful that she might not be too happy at the fact that he wasn't pacing with her anymore but to his relief Brigitte didn't object to the new arrangement. Glad to be at least sitting down for now Steve leaned his head back against the back of the couch and got himself comfortable. His stomach growled audibly and he forced himself not to think about Jeannie's delicious meatloaf that was just waiting to be heated up and devoured in the kitchen. Then to his amazement within minutes Brigitte had fallen soundly asleep. The steady breathing of the baby was strangely relaxing and Steve found himself growing very sleepy too. He yawned several times uncontrollably and tried to keep his eyes open but they kept threatening to close of their own accord. Afraid that he was in danger of falling asleep and letting her fall he shifted the baby slightly until she was more snuggled into his side, safely nestled into the corner of the couch and he positioned a cushion the other side of her for extra security before he returned his gaze to the movie for several more minutes before he finally lost the battle to stay awake and he fell asleep too while the movie continued playing in the background.

Outside under cover of the broken street light, two cars pulled in across the road, one silver and one black sedan. The occupants of the first silver car, two burly men of muscular build and height, exited their vehicle and headed over the road towards Mike's house and one surreptitiously mounted the steps quietly and carefully making sure not to be seen or heard by those inside. The dark haired man leaned sideways and peered cautiously through the living room window and grinned as he saw Steve asleep with the baby on the couch. His eyes quickly darted back and forth for signs of other occupants and on seeing none he grinned again and headed back down to the street as quietly as he had gone up.

Approaching the black sedan he leaned down towards the back passenger window and waited as the window slowly rolled down. The figure inside was hidden in the darkness, the only thing visible was the red glow of the cigarette he was smoking and as a curl of smoke exited from the rolled down window, a gruff, arrogant, foreign sounding voice followed.

"Well? ..."

"There is a baby in there Boss ... But it's with a young guy ... They seem to be the only ones in there ... "

"Are you sure your contact gave you the right address for Stone?"

"He was fairly certain Boss. "

"Fairly doesn't quite cut it now does it ... WELL DOES IT?" He roared .

"No Boss ... But it was the best we could do. What do you want us to do? " the muscled man continued, trying not to show how unnerved he was at his psychotic Boss's loud question.

He heard the man inside's heavy breathing and hoped that he wouldn't bear the brunt of his Boss's rage but instead after several seconds he heard the door click and the man exited immediately followed by two other men from the black sedan.

"I NEED that baby to convince the girl to come to us and to ensure she doesn't get a chance to tell what she saw ... We don't have much choice. If the contact was right and she was bringing the baby to this address ... Then we GO IN ... NOW!"