Chapter 5
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By the time Anderson and Burton had all three babies fed, and they were no longer throwing food all over the kitchen, Burton got up and started cleaning, shaking his head. “This is not exactly what I signed up for when I joined the military.”
“It isn’t,” Anderson declared, with a smile in his direction, “but it sure is appreciated.”
“Uh-huh. I hear you, man. You still owe me, big-time.”
Anderson laughed as his phone went off. He looked down at it and groaned. “Pamela …”
“Who’s Pamela?” Burton asked.
“The social worker.”
“Social worker? What’s that about?”
“What do you mean? Do you really think they would just let me keep these babies without checking to see if I’m capable of taking care of three little girls?”
Burton raised an eyebrow as he thought about it and then nodded. “I guess we want them to be on top of this,” he muttered. “Yet you’re here, and you’re family. It should all be good.”
“I know. I guess things had already progressed because I was out of the country, so they still have foster care paperwork all drawn up. I don’t know for sure,” he muttered, as his phone went off again. “She says I need to show up in court tomorrow.” He closed his eyes. “Good God.”
“Hey, it’ll just be—”
“Okay? I’m not so sure about that. I mean, I’m here. I’m capable, and I got this …”
“But,” Burton interjected. “I sense a but coming.”
“You know all the crap that comes with dealing with social services.”
“It’ll be all right.”
“I hope so because the last thing I need is to fight the system just to keep these kids.”
Burton looked back at the babies, shook his head, and muttered, “There shouldn’t be any fight.”
“No, there shouldn’t be, but you also know that, once all these departments get involved, everybody has to cross their Ts and dot their Is.”
“That’s true, but we can’t get mad at Pamela for doing her job.” Burton turned to Anderson, gave him a lopsided grin, and asked, “Speaking of Pamela, is she cute?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” Anderson replied. “That’s not where we’re heading.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“No, I’m not sure, but, as you can see, I have been kinda busy. So, outside of that initial thought, I haven’t had two seconds to even contemplate anything other than these three. I can’t even investigate Talia’s attack and her missing no-good husband.”
Just then the doorbell rang, and Burton’s response was left unsaid because one of the babies started screaming.
Anderson picked her up. “Ssshh, sweetheart. It’s okay,” but the screaming didn’t stop. He looked over at Burton miserably.
Burton, who’d made no move to answer the door, watched him carefully. “Is that common?”
He shrugged and suggested, “I imagine they’re distraught because their mom isn’t here. I’m a poor second in terms of comfort, so I don’t know whether this is normal or not. I’m just doing my best to keep whatever may end up being normal to some semblance of normal.”
Burton snorted. “That made absolutely no sense.”
“None of this does,” Anderson grumbled, as he grabbed one more baby, clinging to Burton’s feet. “Let me go answer the door.”
Anderson got to the door and looked through the peephole. It was the social worker. He opened the door and nodded. “I just got your text.”
She smiled and took one of the babies out of his arms. “This one’s looking pretty happy.”
The baby blew bubbles at her, and he wanted to thank the little girl for putting on the show with perfect timing. It also showed him that, once again, little girls had an instinct for this stuff.
Pamela smiled and asked, “May I come in?”
He knew it was a question, but she delivered it with a certain degree of assuredness that left no room for refusing. It was as if she were speaking in open-ended code. Like, If you don’t let me in, why is that? Groaning, he urged her inside. “Do you really like your job?”
She stared at him. “Sometimes. Sometimes not so much.”
He stepped back and let her in.
“How is it going?” she asked, as she walked inside. “Where’s the other one?”
“In the kitchen with a friend of mine,” he replied. “I told you that I had help coming.”
She nodded. “Let’s go take a look.”
He didn’t particularly like anything about this.
He didn’t like the surprise inspections in the military either, but he got over those.
Still, in this instance, he had to keep in mind that her agency had also stepped up in the midst of the crisis, helping out while his sister was incapable and while he was overseas, and that assistance had been sorely needed.
Now he just had to convince Pamela that he and Burton were perfectly capable of looking after these triplets until they got Talia back. Anderson swore, and she looked at him, surprised.
“Sorry,” he muttered, adjusting the baby in his arms. “I just remembered I haven’t called the hospital to check on my sister.”
“I get that. It’s hard to stay on top of everything with the triplets,” she noted, “but the hospital will let you know if there’s any significant change in her condition.”
“Maybe,” he conceded, “but I also don’t like the thought of her being aware enough to be afraid for her babies, even if she’s not fully conscious.”
“Good point,” she agreed. “I don’t know what the science says about that, but we do hear shocking stories.”
“Exactly,” he murmured. “I’ll make a call and check in, and hopefully I can run up there for a minute tonight.”
“How are the babies sleeping?”
“Not that well,” he admitted bluntly. “Can’t you tell? I’m not getting any sleep either.”
“The best thing you can do is nap whenever they nap,” she suggested.
“Uh-huh.” He was pretty darn sure that babies had this inner knowing when adults acted as if they had a life. If he wanted to do anything that took him away from them, they immediately woke up and started caterwauling. He added, “They have an inner alarm that tells them when I leave the room.”
She smiled. “Absolutely they do, and that’s a complaint as old as time,” she added, with a laugh. “You’re just stepping in now, and they have already gone through a certain amount of trauma.”
They continued into the kitchen, and she stopped when she saw Burton, who was at least six four and not exactly friendly, standing in front of them. She swallowed and turned to Anderson.
He nodded. “This is a friend of mine,” he stated with confidence.
She nodded and asked, “What on earth made you think that this was a good idea?”
He frowned at her. “He’s part of my team, and he’s also one of the good guys in the world,” he explained. “So anytime I need somebody to have my back, I have a team member there, ready and available.”
She considered Anderson for a long moment, then glanced over at Burton. “Somehow I don’t think this is what you signed up for.”
Burton snorted. “It might not be what I signed up for,” he replied, “but no way in hell I won’t help Anderson when he obviously needs a hand.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” she stated, a smile shining now. “Do you have any siblings?”
“Nope,” he declared, “and don’t ask me which girl is which because I can’t tell you.”
She slid a glance to Anderson, who shrugged and reminded her, “I’m still calling them all Lisa. It’s not as if we have any way to know for sure. I’m waiting for Talia, for many reasons.” Pamela stared at him for a long moment, and then her lips twitched.
He now knew, behind that hard exterior, was somebody who was a softie.
He grinned at her. “I figure Talia surely knows which is which, but it is a little bit beyond me to even figure that out right now,” he acknowledged.
“You don’t know which one is which either, right?
” There was a bit of challenge in his tone that he hadn’t really intended, yet he did.
“Let’s hope their mom can help us sort it out soon.” She smiled diplomatically.
“Are there no identifying marks or anything?” Burton asked.
“Doesn’t matter if you don’t know which mark goes with which baby,” Anderson retorted.
Pamela explained, “I’ve found, with identical babies, no matter how many, it’s always been a mom-thing.
Talia may have had a system which involved different nail polish colors or earrings or birthmarks as you mentioned.
However, in this case, Talia didn’t exactly leave us a chart,” Pamela pointed out.
“What’s your name?” she asked the newcomer.
“Burton,” he replied. “Burton Hallmark.”
She nodded. “Hey, Burton.” She looked back at Anderson. “You must have good friends.”
“I have great friends,” he confirmed. “And they are definitely capable.”
Her lips twitched again.
Anderson smirked. “I get it. None of us signed up for any of this and don’t come to it with much in the way of triplet experience, but all of us have plans to be fathers in the future. So, we’ll just take this on as … training, I guess.”
“Are there more of you?” she asked, as she glanced around. “A third person would really be a big help, considering there are more babies than adults, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
“I have sent out the word for more, but I haven’t heard that anybody else is available at the moment.”
She nodded. “At least two is easier than you being alone. Now, as for the court case tomorrow—”
“Do I really need to show up?” he asked, followed by a groan. “Can’t I just talk to the judge myself?”
“You’ll need to show that you’re capable of handling this,” she began.
“It should be just a preliminary transfer of legal responsibility, and that has to go to court because of the situation with the mother,” she explained apologetically.
“Your sister’s not able to participate, and your brother-in-law is unreachable, so the kids need to be in safe hands, and that has to be established by the court. ”
He stared at her for a moment and then shrugged. “Will the cops be there? Somebody who can tell me what’s going on with my sister’s case?”