Not So Easy
Throughout the night, the girls took turns switching every three hours watching over Bailey, at first he was a little angel quiet in Belle's bed leaving her with the ability to relax for a bit as Ruby and Ariel began passing out. All of a sudden, the girls woke to an intense wailing finding themselves frantically trying to figure out what he needed while Belle soothed him and Ruby trying to make him laugh using contorted faces until Ariel had enough and went over the biscotti jar in the kitchen, taking out some emergency money stating she would be back soon as she grabbed her keys. Half an hour later, she arrive carrying two paper bags of groceries containing nearly every emergency baby item from the all night convenience stores; the list of items included a week supply of diapers, baby formula, bottles, pacifiers and several bibs. As Ariel got the formula ready, she instructed Ruby and Belle on keeping the formula at the right temperature and how to properly hold the child when feeding, they were surprised to see Bailey calmer as he drank from his bottle giving the girls a bit of peace.
"How do you know so much about babies" asked Belle amazed at how Ariel's demeanour regarding smoothing the baby as though it was second nature.
Ariel smiled looking down at her friends, "I've got three nieces and two nephews from my four older sisters. Due to having a large family, Daddy thought it would have been better for the younger girls to learn how to take care of children. Boys are a little difficult at times because they make a fuss, but after settling down a routine, they become easier to maintain." She handed Bailey to Belle trying to remember Ariel's instructions, "If you need any help in caring for Bailey, you've got a semi-professional baby expert and I'm sure Mary Margaret would be thrilled in practicing on caring for a real baby before Emma arrives." Each of the girls laughed at the image of Mary Margaret using dolls to change diapers while nervous over the crying buttons being accidentally activated.
The remainder of the night continued with each of the girls taking turns until they all managed to pass out in various spots around the living room until the alarm clock rang a few hours later with daylight seeping through the curtains, each of the girls to remember they needed to go to the hospital. They headed into Ruby's black Volkswagen mainly used for emergencies as their neighbourhood provided what they needed within walking distance. Ruby drove with Belle sitting on the backseat next to Ariel who held on the car-handle out of habit rather a fear of Ruby's driving.
The tension now had decreased with Ruby took a deep breath finally asking what had been in her mind over the past several hours, "Spill, whose baby is he?"
"Do you remember that woman I was telling you guys about with the big tips?" Belle can see Ruby's face from the rear-view mirror she remembered as the subject itself had annoyed her. "I can't understand it myself, but she tells me this story about her husband being this horrible monster, hitting her while she was pregnant. I guess I felt bad for her, I meant who wouldn't then drops her son on the stoop last night with several letters explaining that I needed to keep him."
Ruby stops the car parking it to the side turning around to Belle, "Hang on, the woman tells you she's being abused by her husband and drops her baby off to some random stranger in the middle of the night?" she pointed out. "It is a little strange; I mean there are safe haven laws for that sort of thing."
Ariel could see Belle flinching as though she were being scolded while Ruby looked more exhausted than angry. "I don't know, I think its best we make sure Bailey is okay and then we can figure out where to go from here."
Nodding her head giving Belle a large grin, Ruby drove towards another turn heading into the parking garage. They walked into the clinic section at the paediatric wing requesting for an available appointment. Since Ruby was the only one of the trio who had insurance through this hospital, they used her membership to pay for an appointment leaving Belle nervous about the paperwork she was given as there was nothing she could fill in correctly without causing a risk to the child. A few minutes later, a nurse arrived calling for Bailey leaving Belle and Ruby to go as Ariel stayed in the waiting room reading a magazine.
The nurse showed the girls into Dr. Whale's office leaving them roaming around for a few minutes until a handsome, young physician with blonde hair walked into the office smiling when he saw Ruby.
"Miss Lucas, good to see you again." He took Ruby's hand kissing it leaving Belle blushing at the sight of a flushed Ruby. "How has your grandmother been?" Ruby looked back at a confused Belle then at the doctor unable to respond. "You don't remember me, do you? I kept you company while you were waiting to hear news about your grandmother." Immediately the memory came back to Ruby as she shook the doctor's hand. They exchanged a few pleasantries when Belle began clearing her throat letting Ruby and Whale know they weren't alone. "My apologies, I'm Dr. Whale. I can assume you are Bailey's mother?"
"Yes, I'm Belle a pleasure Dr. Whale and this Bailey." the doctor who playfully shook the sleeping infant's hand joking about the strength of his grip. Whale took the baby away from Belle placing the infant into a crib calling a nearby nurse to help him with the chat. The nurse walked in introducing herself as Astrid addressing instantly noticing the young mother looked nervous and somewhat tired from the way she failed to immediately react when getting down from the chair nearly stumbling had Ruby not caught her on time.
"Sorry, it's been having a rough week." Belle's nerves were starting to get to her as she began to look around the room twitching her arms around hoping no one would have noticed. To her dismay, the nurse noticed but gave her a smile as Belle turned to Ruby annoyed at seeing her friend rather flirting with the doctor rather than backing her up, it turned out she wasn't alone either.
"Now what seems to be the trouble today?" asked Whale looking at the state of the infant's hearing.
Her nerves arrived once again, "I just wanted for him to get his check up as I was told it was standard procedure a few days after birth."
Both the nurse and doctor looked at Belle once again. "You haven't seen anyone yet? What hospital did you go to?" demanded Whale causing Belle and Ruby to panic.
"I've gave birth to him at home, but I read up on the subject of pre-natal care as well as how to prepare raising an infant during the first six months. Not the wisest decision, but I wanted to do everything possible to make sure everything was okay." Belle started to cry as Ruby began shedding some tears in hearing how convincing her friend appears as she lowered her head down in shame during the story. It appeared even Whale soften up as he took Bailey to get blood work and head measurements checked at the same time asking Belle whether she was using the formula, and doing a physical examination at the same time Astrid began filling out the paperwork for the birth certificate.
Whale came back a few minutes later with the baby in tow. "It appears everything is fine for the little guy, although his skin is a little dry because of the current weather. I'm going to prescribe some lotion which I recommend you put on him at least twice a day." The doctor then began writing a list of initials with certain times posted up for Belle that would have allowed her to be reminded when to feed and change Bailey. "In the meantime, come back next month for a follow up. Although I suggest the next time, call or come here rather than get medical help through a book; while those guides are helpful, they tend to be subjective at best. We will see you soon."
Dr. Whale and Astrid waved goodbye to Bailey as Belle thanked them, she felt a sigh of relief over one hurdle where she hardly cared they stayed in the waiting room a little bit longer because Whale asked Ruby out on a date even if it did provide some eye rolling towards those in view. As Belle, Bailey and Ruby left the waiting room; Ruby got a text message from Ariel saying she would be in the parking lot. The girls got the medication heading back to the parking lot finding Ariel talking to Mary Margaret who carried with her a large white teddy bear and balloons saying "Congratulations" and "It's a Boy".
"About time you guys got out." Yelled Ariel taking the baby away from Belle, "It felt an eternity"
"That was Ruby's fault, as she was getting a date from this" stated Belle
Mary Margaret laughed while Ruby looked annoyed, "Well excuse me Miss 'I can get away with anything because I have the face of a china doll' you're lucky my cleavage kept the doctor distracted because I'm sure that nurse was almost going to ask you more personal questions."
As Ruby and Belle began arguing, Mary Margaret got between the girls desisting as they watched their friend humming to the baby with a natural ease. "I'm sorry you know how I am around children, even David thinks I overreact too much around them." Mary Margaret gave a look to Ruby as she made clear she needed head back to start her shift. She took her Volkswagen with her leaving the girls at the mercy of Mary Margaret and her silver minivan.
"I brought an extra diaper bag as well as a shoulder strap we might need to adjust it for you though. So from what Ariel said, Bailey only had one jumpsuit and a few diapers with him?" said Mary Margaret looking down at the baby making sure his blanket was warm enough, not able to fathom the idea of anyone abandoning a child in the middle of the night to complete strangers.
"Right but I am not sure how long he was in the cold for. Luckily the doctor said there was a little dry skin; remind me later to talk to David about finding the mother." Stated Belle as she was starting to relax knowing the rest of the day would become shopping out all the baby items in any store Mary Margaret would recommend.
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The next two weeks became a nightmare for Belle as the demands of Bae were driving her out of her mind. Despite Ariel's willingness to help out, Belle thought it was better to learn for herself by checking out nearly every book regarding first time motherhood or the first year of infants from the library. The books provided Belle with all the information about differences between changing a diaper on the genders, the correct amount of measurement of formula during the feedings even theories about what type of noise a baby would find soothing during its sleeping periods. This became necessary when Ariel went home to Boston for the week due to a family emergency and Ruby's work schedule changed altered.
For the first three days, Belle researched while trying to juggle taking care of Bailey, working and school. To the rest of the world it appeared everything was normal, but the multitasking took its toll on Belle where she slept a total of 12 hours during the first week. To make matters more difficult, Bae's crying became more frequent leading Belle to be at arm's length to the infant where on three separate occasions he was served cold formula for fear she would have accidentally set the apartment on fire due to a micro nap.
Even when Bailey finally went to sleep, staying awake became a top priority as the few hours would give her time to catch up on homework, but the strain of staying awake was beginning to become a both a mental and physical strain on her where Belle was found by Ruby passed out in the floor of the living room only to be awoken the next morning in her bed finding Mary Margaret sitting beside her knitting a pink baby sock.
"Mary, what are you doing here? Damn it, where is Bae, I have to change him!" Belle quickly jumped out of her bed as Mary Margaret gently put her down hugging her.
"Relax; David and Ruby are taking care of him. Ruby found you last night and called us all. We spent the entire night and most of the day making sure the apartment was tidied up and the supplies were well-stocked." David showed up a few minutes later carrying a tray of scrambled eggs with toast and Vegemite along with two cups of tea insisting everything must be empty.
As Belle began to be nursed back to health, Mary Margaret and Ruby began cooking meals while Ariel took charge of Bailey at the same time, Mary Margaret began to design the nursery. This occurred with Belle's bed towards the opposite of the crib facing a window view followed by a pattern of toys and furniture placed around with wind chimes hanging over the crib and wallpaper decorated with the safari animals. Hearing about Belle's sickness, Granny offered to watch him during her shifts with older woman spoiling the boy on one hand at the same time ordering Ruby and Belle to pick up the pace.
For school, Belle took him to her classes either he would normally be sleeping or lightly cough to indicate whenever he needed something. However, on her World Literature course one Thursday afternoon, Bailey woke demanding to be fed taking everyone by surprise as Belle pointed out in the beginning Bailey was fussy but mostly quiet. It took her a good twenty minutes to calm him down leaving Belle no choice but to leave class early before one of the students suggested she could use the campus day-care service.
The next evening, Belle received an email by her World Literature Professor stating he wanted to speak to her as soon as she was available. Having a suspicion about what it entailed, Belle took a deep breathe slowly walking to the English Department finding Professor Booth's door opened and with not a line of students in sight. She took a minute to compose herself, knocking on the door finding her professor on his chair reading Paradise Lost. "Professor Booth, its Belle French you wanted to see me?" he waved for her to come in offering her another chair making sure she comfortable as he went over his desk looking for the manila folder he swore was in his sight only a minute earlier.
He muttered a relief finding the file on the cabinet behind her; "Ah yes Miss French, thank you for meeting me on such short notice. I trust you have no other classes at this time?" She nodded still confused. "Good, normally it is none of my business as to the personal lives of my students, but when it does disrupt my lectures, I do take an offense."
Confusion turned to shock, "I don't understand, I do my work and participate in the lectures."
He handed her the manila folder showing a list of notes and complaints from different professors as well as her current progress in all of her classes. While her student page showed the current progress of her classes, she knew not all of her professors used the online program frightening her even further as she saw the notes and grades in two of her classes for the first time since her midterm.
"Miss French, I am going to be frank, but your child has been proven to be a distraction in my class and from what I have gathered by your other professors, this has been an ongoing process. When you arrive for classes; you seem to be exhausted, unconcerned, plus you missed several progression appointments. Your recent essay exam was so mediocre; I was too embarrassed to even grade it. I can understand having a child would be difficult at your age but you need to balance your time or take a semester off if it has been overwhelming."
"It's not so stressful but I haven't had the time to get a proper sitter." Nothing Belle could say could try to justify her actions at this point and she was feeling smaller by the second.
Seeing her eyes becoming red, Professor Booth gave Belle a bottle of water and some tissues. "Miss French, you seem like an intelligent young woman; I really don't want to fail you. I am pretty sure no one else wants to fail you so I have a proposition. Your other three professors are willing to give you a second chance with some make up assignments. For my class however, I will give you two options: redo the previous assignment and turn it into the dropbox by Sunday or drop the class with a W. Will give you until midnight Sunday for either response?" Booth took out a packet of tissues placing it to her as she put them on the pouch of her bag.
Belle quickly realized she had four days to get her schoolwork in order. She thanked her professor, handing over the folder containing her ungraded essay detailing several criticisms. Professor Booth had not been lying as the paper itself was so embarrassing to read even Belle had trouble skimming towards the end. She couldn't have a chance to finish reading as Bailey began to start crying until they made it back to the apartment.
Her mood softened finding David, Ariel, Ruby and Margaret in the dining table playing Clue with several assortments of snacks surrounding them. "Oh good you're finally home, we need a fifth player." stated Mary Margaret all puzzled as Belle silently heading into her room throwing her stuff in the floor placing Bailey into his crib. She jumped into the bed sobbing without hesitation hiccupping in her attempts to stay silent.
Sometime later, Belle felt a weight on her slowly turned to the side to find her lights on with Mary Margaret embracing her along with Ruby and Ariel on the bed with David sitting on the desk.
"I'm such a failure! Ariel and Ruby are going to kick me out, everything is too much and Bailey won't stop crying." Belle's sobbing turned into hiccups with David bringing her a glass of water.
Ruby and Ariel began to embrace her as well with Ariel embracing her so tightly, "Belle we aren't going to kick you. Granted I am a little annoyed you haven't been listening to us when I told you we all are happy to chip in"
"We are a bit concerned for you though. You've been overworking and it's been difficult seeing you like this when we had hoped you could take a break for once." Proclaimed Ruby
"I didn't want to give the impression I was taking advantage." Not a second later, everyone began to quietly snicker.
"Belle we are family, you aren't taking advantage of us." asserted Mary Margaret, "We love you and Bailey so feel free to ask for help anytime." Each of the girls and David all took turns hugging Belle bringing her back into the living room with Mary Margaret handing Belle a plate of pasta demanding she finished everything on the plate and her job was to make sure no one would start cheat when they began a new round.
"Oh Belle before I forget, I did some research regarding the letter and Milah Gold" stated David grabbing Belle's attention. "This woman has been nearly difficult in searching until I looked under her maiden name of Cassidy. It appears she bought a one-way ticket to London has been residing in some apartment at Knightsbridge for the past two weeks.
"So there is a good chance she isn't coming back." Belle would have been happy to hear this news, but it left her more concerned than overjoyed.
"I am afraid so but we could always try her husband. Although everyone in the squad kept saying Mr. Gold is a real shark when it comes to attorneys where he would find some obscure, outdated ruling in order to make his case." Belle pushed the file away back to David trying not to look at it wanting to forget the last few seconds.
"Promise me we won't contact the husband at all. Do I think she was irresponsible regarding what happened to Bae the night I found him on the stoop? Yes but if she went to all of this trouble with the reputation this man has then perhaps it would be easier to continue respecting her wishes." Everyone complied to that demand although they were all looking at one another trying to figure out an easier solution.
"Can I make a suggestion?" volunteered Ariel "If you still have that card that Milah gave you regarding the lawyer, I bet we can find a way for you to legally adopt the little tyke."
Everyone began thinking praising this as an excellent idea as Belle tried to process it "Not a bad idea, if it gets rid of any hassles then why not."
Next Chapter: Belle has a consultation with Regina