Chapter 7 #2
“ORS?” At that, he looked up to see Burton staring at him with wide eyes. “I think you just put the fear of God into Burton here,” Anderson shared. “I mean, we aren’t letting them sit in anything, but it is amazing how many diapers we’re going through.”
“No, but, with all the scrubbing, combined with exposure to urine and, as you so eloquently put it, a tsunami of shit, a little lotion or even diaper rash cream could prevent trouble. ORS stands for oral rehydration solution, and you’ll find a few different brands at the store, though I wouldn’t be surprised if some is already in a cupboard there.
As for the diapers, the cost is partly the reason for the grassroots movement causing a bit of a resurgence in the use of cloth diapers, where people can wash and reuse them. ”
“Oh, no, no, no,” Anderson muttered.
Burton was in the background, sputtering, “No, no way, absolutely no way. I get a certain amount of sheer joy in being able to wrap up the contents of a diaper and not have to deal with it again,” he pointed out, shuddering at the thought.
“Particularly when you can’t put a cloth diaper, a dirty cloth diaper, into the washing machine as is,” she added, still chuckling. “You have to empty them out, rinse them, and then put them in the washing machine.”
“Oh, God, no,” Anderson replied. “I am perfectly happy to donate my paycheck to disposable diapers, particularly in this instance with triplets.”
“And that is something else that people consider. Especially if it’s a particularly difficult scenario, then the disposable diapers are a great choice at that time. Then, when the babies’ tummies calm down, you can always put them back into cloth washable diapers.”
“No, no, oh hell no. Now, my sister, if that’s what she chooses to do, is welcome to do that, but me? No. This is hard enough as it is,” Anderson declared. “I don’t need any more challenges, like washing dirty cloth diapers on top of everything else.”
Pamela was still laughing. “Once you get there, it’s not that bad.” She was clearly having fun by teasing them.
“No thanks,” he repeated. “No, no, hell no. But, if you want to come over and check that they’re okay, you are welcome,” he added, just as he heard one more diaper bomb go off, Burton groaning beside him.
“Oh, dear, poor little ones. Which one is it?” Pamela asked.
Almost in unison, the guys said, “Lisa.”
Pamela started to giggle again. “You really haven’t figured out who’s who, have you?”
“When somebody can tell me who’s who,” Anderson snapped in a stark tone, “then maybe we’ll start using that name.
In the meantime, we tried putting different colored ribbons on them, so at least we could try to differentiate each triplet,” he muttered.
“And, if you’re coming over, don’t expect us to get to the door very quickly because, right about now, we’re very busy. ” And, with that, he ended the call.
He turned to find Burton smirking at him. “What?”
“Did you say you knew her?” Burton asked.
“Yeah, I didn’t say anything about it before because she didn’t seem to recognize me,” he shared, with a shrug.
“I did know her a while back, you know, growing up here. And, I swear to God, I thought she was a friend of Talia’s—or maybe not a direct friend but a friend of a mutual girlfriend,” he clarified, with a shrug. “I can’t quite remember.”
“Dude, you got women everywhere,” he snapped, glaring at him.
Anderson shrugged. “What do you want me to say? I like women. And women like me.”
Burton rolled his eyes at his buddy, then sniffed and grimaced. “You do realize we have to do this all over again.”
Anderson shuddered as the smell hit him too. “At this rate, we will never leave this spot, never sit down again. I can’t believe we are in the third diaper change in the last five minutes. Yet, as Pamela said, they’ll get sore bums if we let them sit in it.”
“I think they already are,” Burton noted, sympathy in his tone as he scooped up first one and then the second of the little girls. “They’re definitely struggling now. I’m sure it’s burning on the way out too.”
“Yeah, I didn’t consider that.” After a brief discussion on poop—which Anderson never imagined he would ever need to have with one of his military teammates—they proceeded to head back to the bathroom where they could change the triplets’ diapers once again.
When he heard a knock at the door, he looked over at Burton and nodded. “That’s probably her.”
“You better go say hi,” Burton teased, with a grin. “Lover girl won’t wait.”
Anderson rolled his eyes and snorted. “I don’t think lover girl has anything to do with it.” As he walked over to the front door, he looked back to make sure all was well. Burton already had the babies on the floor in the living room, where they should be okay for at least a few minutes.
When he opened the door, nobody was there. He frowned, looked around, and it dawned on him that he hadn’t followed up on anything, particularly on the vehicle, though he still wasn’t sure if it was an issue or not. He shut the door and locked it up again.
Pretty certain that all of this was because of Tim, Anderson headed back into the living room. Burton looked at him, a question in his eyes. Anderson shook his head. “Nobody was there.”
Burton frowned.
“I know,” Anderson agreed. “Surely we have somebody we can contact who can give us a hand. What about … What about Levi? He’s gone private and doing a hell of a job with that, and he’s also big-time now, man. This is, I don’t want to say that our problems are small stuff, but—”
“Nothing is small when it comes to your sister.” Burton eyed Anderson closely. “If you call, Levi will help, and you know it.”
“I know. I do know that. It’s just really shitty right now, and I can’t do anything that I would normally do.
I haven’t had two seconds to breathe, let alone anything else.
So, I just feel even worse asking Levi to do this, when I’m capable of doing it myself.
Yet … not with the triplets to care for.
Hell, even having you here still has both of us hopping—not that I don’t appreciate your help. ”
But it grated on Anderson’s nerves as he thought about it and thought about it and thought about it some more. Finally he pulled out his phone and searched through his contacts without giving himself a chance to second-guess his decision. He placed a call, with Burton’s eyebrows shooting up.
“Levi, hi. … It’s Anderson.”
“Anderson,” Levi greeted him. “Wow, I haven’t heard from you in forever. How are you doing?” Such a warm welcome filled his tone that Anderson felt a whole lot better about making this request.
“Under normal circumstances, everything would be great,” he began, trying hard to keep it causal. “But right now I’m in, well, … a shitstorm, which isn’t far off from the truth.”
Burton started to laugh in the background. “No shit.”
“I know that voice,” Levi noted. “Is that Burton?”
Burton leaned forward and replied, “Hey, Levi. When he said a shitstorm, he meant a literal shitstorm. And he brought me right into it with him.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a minute. What’s going on?”
“You’re doing a lot of private work these days, right?” Anderson asked.
“Yeah,” Levi replied, his tone turning serious. “And I’ve got to admit, we’re pretty overwhelmed with business too.”
“So, you probably don’t have any time to give us a hand?”
“What do you need?”
“It’s a bit of a convoluted story, so let me just try my best.” And he shared his situation, trying to explain as succinctly as he could exactly what had happened to his sister. When he was done, there was silence, before Levi finally spoke.
“Good God. … That is unbelievable.”
“Yeah, it really is. So, Burton and I are looking after the triplets.”
After another long pause, he started to laugh. “Did you … did you say you and Burton are looking after the triplets?”
“Yes. And they’re just under one-year-old, and they’re driving us batty.”
“Of course they are. That’s their job,” he declared cheerfully. “We’ve got three of our own—not all at once but separately.”
“What? When did that happen? I hadn’t heard.”
“The grapevine doesn’t miss very much sometimes, yet—”
“It misses everything at other times,” Anderson declared. “Man, congrats on that.”
“Yeah. Thanks, man. You’re not kidding.”
“I never thought you would ever get Ice to that point.”
“No, I’m not sure that she thought I would either,” he admitted, laughing. “On the other hand, we’re doing just great.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“I really am not sure what to say about your situation. That stuns me.”
“Me too,” Burton added in the background.
“I think the bigger problem is your sister’s condition right now. Is she expected to improve? What do the doctors say?”
Anderson grimaced and made a mental note to call the hospital, which he had forgotten to do again.
“While they are currently keeping her in a medically-induced coma, she is expected to recover. What I’m not sure about is how long that recovery will take and what that recovery will look like at the end of the day.
Yet I fully expect her to come home to her babies. ”
“And that is exactly what she needs to keep her going,” Levi noted, “because there is nothing like a mother fighting for her babies.”
“Yes, but not everybody is Ice.”
“No, they sure aren’t,” he confirmed, his tone somber.
“And God help anybody who would try to come here and touch my kids. But let’s get serious for a moment, as I’m sure you reached out for a reason.
Are you looking for help with the babies?
Are you looking for boots-on-the-ground help, as in men to come hunt down this brother-in-law of yours?
Or are you looking for desk-type help, with investigative work from here, using our satellite? ”
“I’m looking for anything and everything, particularly some objective input. I got a rough start, thrown into this on the spur of the moment. I have absolutely no idea how to pick up the ball that I feel has been dropped by the local police.”
“So, you left it to them?”
“It’s not as if I had much of a choice if I am to keep these babies from going to foster care and being split up to boot. That’s the last thing I would ever let happen. So, I’m just having trouble following through on anything because I’ve got to be here with them.”
“I get you have lots on your plate. Besides, doing an investigation in the military versus an investigation outside of our jurisdiction is very different,” Levi explained, his tone serious.
“They are not in any way similar and, in many ways, shouldn’t even be called the same thing.
But the bottom line is, we need to find out what happened to your sister and make sure that whoever did that is brought to justice. ”
Anderson sighed. “This probably sounds quite shitty, but, at this point, I’m less concerned about justice and am more worried about making sure this asshole doesn’t come back after my sister or the triplets.”
“Good point. How long are you staying?”
“I’m here as long as I’m needed. I need to stay until I know she’s okay and is set up to handle things,” he shared. “I’ve taken time off work, and Burton is here helping out—”
At that, Levi broke in, “Burton, what the hell did he do to get you to come into this scenario?”
“For one, he pulled an old request for immediate help that we had set up among ourselves a long time ago, an SOS of sorts,” he noted miserably. “And not one of us would have questioned him, so I came running.”
“Is anybody else there with you?”
“Not yet,” Burton noted, although he looked sideways over at Anderson.
“I did send out a second SOS when he left me alone while he went to court. It’s insane trying to care for infant triplets, even with the two of us.
Look. I know we sound like whiny little bitches, especially to someone with kids, but, dear God, triplets are overwhelming. ”
Levi was laughing so hard now. “That happens when you have triplets …”
Then a woman’s voice cut him off. “Hey, this is Ice. Did he just say triplets?”