A Series of Unfortunate Events

Chapter 4

As they were talking someone knocked at the door and then opened it, backing in carrying a tray. It was Torrey, a young fresh faced officer, just out of the academy. She wore her uniform with pride and enjoyed her work; she was tasked with the job of handling the needs of the witnesses. At times, she felt a little like a short-order waitress, but she didn't mind. She had long dark brown hair, she'd pulled back into a bun, and her eyes were hazel and took up most of her face. She had freckles and a wide smile. "Hi, sorry it took me so long Rusty, here's your hamburger. Hmmm, um can I get you two anything?" she asked Andy and Sharon.

"Well, do you have a microwave anywhere? I got this food for us on the way home, but it's cold now," Andy said showing her a take-out bag from Olive Garden he had still had with him.

Torrey nodded, "Yes sir, we have a microwave and could you use some drinks?"

"Water, would be fine thanks," said Sharon.

"Coming right up and if you like I can heat that up for you," Torrey offered to Andy.

He handed her the bag and said, "Thank you."

"By the way, Mrs. Thompson from DCFS will be here soon with your sister," she said to Rusty.

"Umm, thanks Torrey, and umm thanks for the hamburger too."

"No problem. Be right back with your food," she said to Sharon and Andy as she left.

A half hour later, they were finishing up their dinner. Rusty had only managed to eat half his hamburger and one or two of the fries. Sharon had only barely gotten down one or two bites of her eggplant Parmesan. Andy had eaten all of his; he knew he needed to keep his strength to be there for them both. Each boxed up the remains of their food and hoped they could find a refrigerator to keep their leftovers. Then, they were all cleaning, wiping off the table and throwing the trash away when Officer Torrey knocked again and showed Mrs. Lily Thompson in, pushing a stroller with a sleeping Bella in it.

The woman wore her longish salt and pepper hair down around her shoulders with her sides pulled back, revealing a rectangular face that had bright brown eyes that were her best feature. Her mouth was wide, and wore a smile. She wore loose comfortable clothing with rainbow colors and sandals on her feet, quite a departure from the tweed suit of the lady who had originally taken Bella from Rusty. "Hello, my name is Lily Thompson and I run the DCFS chapter here in Cathedral City and you are?"

"Hello, Mrs. Thompson, I am Cap… Commander Sharon Raydor. This is my third-in-command and my fiancé Lieutenant Andrew Flynn and this is my son Rusty. You can call us Sharon and Andy, if you like," Sharon said as she and Andy stood up to shake Lily's hand.

"You can call me Lily. Now, I'd like to know if we could talk before I hand little Bella over to you. There were some issues that came up when I took her to the clinic a little while ago that you need to be aware of."

Sharon and Andy nodded and sat indicating she should sit also. "What kind of issues?" Sharon asked.

"Before I get to that I need to ask some questions of Rusty here. Is that okay?" Sharon, Andy and Rusty nodded. "Has your sister been sick a lot since she was born? Or did the Lewis's tell you that your sister was sick in any way before you started babysitting her today?"

"Well, she was born six weeks early, so there's that. After she was brought home from the hospital she got pneumonia and had to go back to the hospital, but she seemed to be over all that. No, they didn't exactly tell me she was sick. They said she was teething and was a little fussy. They did say that if she continued to be fussy through the weekend that they would make a same day appointment with her pediatrician on Monday. However, if while they were gone, I thought she needed to be seen, to take her to the minute clinic down the street from them. Jim is…" Rusty stopped to sadly correct himself, "Jim… was a family law lawyer and he drew up papers that he asked all of us to sign. One part of the paperwork gave me permission to take her to the doctor, while they were gone if necessary. Another part stated that I had temporary custody in case they were delayed coming back and Mom, Andy and I would share permanent custody if they were to be killed in a car accident or something. Jim was one of those people that likes to make sure all the bases were covered. He even faxed some papers to Mom and Andy."

"Anyway, Bella was okay in the morning, she slept a lot, but as the day progressed she got fussier. By 6pm she was screaming and I couldn't get her to stop. I texted Mom," Rusty indicated Sharon with his head and continued. "She suggested a warm bath, a bottle and a ride in the car. I tried those things, but she wouldn't eat and she kept screaming all through her bath so I took her for a ride in the car, which usually calms her right down. It didn't. So, I decided she needed to be seen by a doctor. That's what I was going to do, take her to the clinic but I had forgotten the paperwork Jim gave me, I was coming back to get that when I noticed the place was surrounded by police and then the police brought us here. They left us here in this room and Bella just wouldn't stop screaming. Even then I knew something was wrong with her and I was starting to lose it because seeing all those police, I knew something really bad had happened. I asked for help and they sent another lady in. She wasn't very nice." Rusty made a face thinking about the woman who had taken Bella from him originally.

Lily nodded sympathetically. "Carrie Bradshaw. She's been a social worker for going on thirty years, as have I. She's tough and she takes no prisoners. She's seen a lot of bad stuff and has very little patience for adults. She's great with the really young kids though. After she took her from you, Carrie called me and we took her to the clinic. The doctor said that Bella has a double ear infection that is very severe. That's why you couldn't get her to stop crying. She was in excruciating pain. What's worse is there's a very good chance she's could end up with a considerable hearing loss or be profoundly deaf because as young as she is she has already had multiple ear infections according to the doctor at the clinic.

Rusty's eyes got teary and he covered his mouth in horror. "Oh gods, I yelled at her. She wouldn't stop crying and I was soo freaked out by everything that was happening and she wouldn't shut up, and I yelled at her!"

"Did you shake her or hurt her in any way?" asked Lily, not unkindly.

"What? No!" Rusty looked at her horrified. "I changed her and put her back in her carrier so I had my hands free to get her a bottle and prepare it, but when I tried to give it to her she knocked the bottle away and screamed louder. I bent down to look her in the eye and yelled, "Bella, please stop crying! I... I can't think then I walked away and yelled into the camera, cause I grew up the last five years in a police station, so I knew interrogation rooms always have cameras. I said, 'Can somebody please help me? She won't stop crying and I don't know what to do to get her to stop!' A few minutes later, Officer Torrey came in with that Carrie person. She looked sternly at me asked me who I was to the baby and why I had her and not her mother or somebody who knew what the hell they were doing then she took the baby, her diaper bag, her stroller, everything and then she left. To be honest I was so relieved to not be hearing the screaming, it took me awhile to realize that she may not bring her back." Rusty ducked his head feeling ashamed and guilty for feeling that way about his little sister.

Lily patted his hand with her own and said apologetically. "Don't feel bad Rusty you had no way of knowing what was wrong with your sister, but you were trying to help her by trying to take her to the clinic.

"I'm sorry if Carrie was unkind. She should have been more understanding. I'll speak to her about it. This business can get to you sometimes, I'm afraid. You see so much tragedy in the course of every given day, when you are a social worker. Sometimes we get impatient with people, but that's not an excuse to be unkind to a person in your circumstances or any circumstances really. In any case, the doctor said she will most likely need tubes put in her ears when she's six months old."

"That's young for surgery, isn't it?" Sharon asked concerned.

The social worker explained, "Yes well, the ear infections were in both ears and were severe, it looks like she is prone to them. He said she's probably been having them off and on since she was born. Her Eustachian tubes are narrower than other babies and he said there might be other factors as well. He'd have to do a CT scan on her head to see if there was damage to the other parts of her ears. In any case the tubes will help with drainage. He seems to think it's the best solution for her. Bella will need to be given her antibiotics every twelve hours, eardrops and Motrin every four hours. She had to get a few shots, which added to her misery. She's been through the ringer, poor baby. She should sleep for awhile."

Almost to refute Lily's statement, the baby shifted in her sleep, whimpering pitifully and Sharon got up, to tend to her and to see her up close. She had seen the baby from a distance on Skype calls with Rusty, while he was visiting Sharon Beck and the Lewis's, but she'd never seen her up close. Bella was beautiful and delicate. Having been born premature she was quite tiny weighing in at 4lbs when she was born. Now she weighed 6lbs and was 17inches long.

She had fine strawberry blonde hair that covered her little head. Her eyes were closed so she couldn't see their color, but her eyelashes were long. Her little cheeks were flushed and the tip of her tiny button nose was pink. Her tiny bow of a mouth sucked on her thumb while the rest of her little hand rested on her cheek. The other hand lay against her ear and held a pink fleece blanket like toy that had the face of a pink baby elephant. Rusty and Gus had given it to her when she was born it was her favorite. She wore a pink-footed onesie that had flowers and a little bit of lace. It snapped down the front and had a flower on the right side and a matching beanie. The beanie had shifted backwards and barely covered the back of her little head. Sharon reached out tenderly and adjusted it so it covered her head to keep the warmth in. Then she stroked the baby's cheek with the back of her finger, she was warm, probably had a little fever.

When Bella arched her back and whimpered some more, Sharon unbuckled her and lifted her from the car seat, she lay her on a changing pad she found in the diaper bag, quickly changed her diaper and disposed of it, murmuring to her. Once she was done snapping the baby back into her onesie she used hand sanitizer that was in the diaper bag, and then lifted her into her arms in a no nonsense practiced manner. Bella didn't open her eyes the whole time but she whimpered hoarsely. Sharon held the baby up against her chest and began swaying and murmuring quietly to calm the baby and rock her back to sleep.

Andy, Rusty and Lily watched her. They waited to see if Sharon could get her calm before speaking again. Once in Sharon's arms the baby relaxed and settled back into sleep. Andy smiled watching her. He had never seen Sharon as a young mother with babies; he'd only seen her with Rusty, Ricky and Emily as young adults. She was an incredible mother to them. Seeing her with this baby cemented the idea that she was an amazing mother all around. Lily could see it too, as could Rusty.

After waiting a couple of minutes while Sharon tended to the needs of the baby, Lily indicated to Sharon she should sit down, and then she resumed the conversation. "Rusty, you said Mr. Lewis drew up papers and you signed them along with the Commander and Lieutenant also that these papers you signed gave the three of you full custody of Bella should anything happen to the three of them. Are you all still interested in taking her to raise, now that it's a reality? Or is there another family member interested in the baby? I'm sure when you signed those papers you only thought of it as a precaution and never dreamed it would become reality at all let alone so soon."

Rusty bowed his head in thought. "There's a brother, Gary's brother Donald but I heard Jim say that Donald and his wife didn't want the baby. They're Doctors who work all over the world and they're married to their jobs. They're hardly ever in the states and they're are not baby people at all."

Sharon looked down at the infant in her arms then looked over at Andy and then at Rusty. She widened her eyes in question and they indicated silently. Andy with just a smile and a slight nod, Rusty with a guilty pleading look that they would go along with her choice, no matter what.

TBC…

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