Chapter 22 #2
“Thank you,” he said, staring at her. “I mean, for somebody who doesn’t have kids of their own, you’re doing pretty well yourself.”
“I don’t have kids, but I’m often in the position of dealing with them,” she shared. “So, it’s not so much that I’m doing great. It’s just that I have a little more experience.” She smiled as she walked closer, still holding the first baby, and added, “These girls are lucky to have you.”
“What they need is their mom.”
“Yes, I agree,” she muttered, “and she’ll be coming home soon.”
He looked over at her and asked, “Are you clairvoyant?”
“No, but I wish I was,” she said. “Maybe I could have foreseen some of the uglier issues in my life that I really didn’t need to go through.”
“Work-type stuff?”
“Yeah,” she confirmed. “A lot of people in my profession, … they burn out very quickly. We don’t get to see an awful lot of the good things.
We see more of the messes, the divorces, the children at risk.
People who say they’ll do something but can’t because they’re too drugged out and can’t get off the drugs.
Or people who just think that kids are in the way and shouldn’t have to be looked after.
Some think they should just take care of themselves right from the get-go,” she shared.
“And the conditions of the homes can be so disgusting. You can’t imagine why anyone would live that way.
So, sometimes, a lot of times, it’s bad.
Then thankfully we get a few really great outcomes, where people turn their lives around and get their kids back. ”
“That must be exciting.”
“Yeah, it’s truly amazing, and we cheer them on with everything we have because those cases, unfortunately, are all too rare.”
“I don’t think I could do your job,” he admitted, then shook his head. “I know I couldn’t do your job. I would want to smack heads.”
She burst out laughing. “Oh, we want to smack heads all the time.”
“But sadly you’re not allowed to smack heads,” he pointed out, wearing a big grin.
“Nope, surely not,” she said, with a smile on her face.
“But we do need to have understanding, patience, tolerance, and compassion for those who don’t have the same opportunities, strength, fortitude, or whatever you want to call it, to beat the addictions and the bullies in their lives.
So, that makes for a very difficult situation for others. ”
He walked over, a clean baby in his arms, held her out, and suggested, “Trade you?”
She laughed and willingly complied. “Now this is a nice switch.”
“Hey, I’ve gotten pretty good at the diaper-changing part. But, man, when we hadn’t dialed into the right food for them, and they had raging diarrhea, that was rough. We hadn’t yet honed our diapering skills either, and they were super slippery. Ugh, that was the worst.”
She laughed. “I get it.”
“Yeah, you would. That was pretty rough, especially because we also weren’t getting sleep at that time. Plus, I was frantic about Talia,” he shared. “But we got here, and they’re still doing fine,” he announced, tapping the little one on the nose.
Whichever Lisa this was just laughed at him. Laughter and giggles brought joy to Pamela’s heart.
“They’re so innocent,” Anderson muttered, his voice thickening.
“They are. So trusting and yet, in a way, so vulnerable.”
“I think it’s the vulnerable part that really gets to me,” he shared. “I mean, anybody could just come in here and hurt them or take them.”
“And, of course, with the work you do, that is always something on your mind.”
“That and the scenario with my sister right now.”
“Exactly. Whereas I look at them and don’t necessarily see somebody who needs to be protected.
I mean, obviously they do, but that’s not my first thought.
I’m focusing more on meeting their needs.
What food do they need? Do we have enough diapers?
Do they have enough cuddles to know that they’re wanted and loved and cared for?
And that they have an amazing mama fighting to come back to them? ”
“I wish they did know that.”
“I think in some way they do know that. They’re holding up pretty well. And that’s what we have to focus on,” she suggested. “We need to key in on how well they’re doing, not the problems they’re experiencing.”
He nodded and then asked her, “So, do we wake up number three?”
“Gosh, no,” she muttered, then frowned as she looked at the sleeping little one, now exasperated. “On the other hand …”
“Exactly. On the other hand, if we let her sleep too long, she won’t sleep when her siblings need to sleep.”
“It’s always one of those challenges,” she murmured.
Just then the little one, alone in the playpen, started to cry, a whimper almost. Anderson walked over, one baby in his arms, and stroked the other’s back. “Easy, little one. Just wake up. It’s okay.”
She opened her eyes, stretched her arms upward, as if to say, Pick me up right now. He laughed and said, “This is where the challenges start happening.” He turned to Pamela. “You got room for a second one?”
“Always,” she replied, with a laugh.
So he gave her Lisa number two while he picked up baby number three. And before long, he had her changed as well.
She watched him with awe. “You really handled that like a pro,” she told him, chuckling. “You know, anytime you want a job …”
“God, no!” he exclaimed, staring at her in horror. “Can you imagine?”
“I can imagine,” she noted. “I will say that you’ve done a great job with them.”
“More than you thought I would, huh? Or was it that you remembered the old me and weren’t expecting a more mature version?”
“I don’t even know that I remembered you, the old you, in that way,” she noted. “Each set of circumstances with my job are different. This one definitely didn’t proceed quite how I thought it would go.”
“Of course,” he acknowledged, still laughing.
“And now,” he added, as he looked around, “we need to get food for these guys. Is it always about changing diapers and mealtimes with these babies?” Still holding baby number three, who had just woken up, he led the way into the kitchen.
“Do we even have food for them?” he asked, a look of panic on his face.
“See? That’s the stuff I’m not very good at.
I’m just hoping beyond hope you have a plan for their next meal. ”
She smiled. “I do. I have food for the next three days planned.”
He looked at her with awe and nodded. “See? You’re a natural.”
She burst out laughing, and that set the tone while they fed the babies. Just when they were done, and he was mopping up sticky faces with a washcloth, as she cleaned the highchair trays to make sure that they didn’t get completely covered again, his phone rang.
“Ah,” she noted, “that was your few minutes of normalcy.”
“Maybe,” he said, taking the call. “Hey, Burton. How are things at the hospital?”
“It’s quiet here, so I’m just checking up on you guys. Any update since sending out the drug-trafficking file?”
“I haven’t heard anything back from Detective Colt, but I may not since I’m sure that, in his eyes. I insulted him—if he’s on the up-and-up, that is. I also sent everything to Levi. He’s sharing it with some contacts in the FBI and the CIA. What’s happening over there?”
“Leland popped in and confirmed that he got the files as well. Then he was off on the hunt. He has some great snitches and whistleblowers in the drug world, so he could be a big help, if not for the local cops but for the feds, or even other countries.” Burton laughed.
“That’s my take on his involvement, but Leland didn’t seem too interested in telling me at that point in time.
But then again, nurses were all around, so we had no privacy to really discuss those matters. ”
“Oh, any particular nurses, by chance? Maybe someone named Sammy?”
In a gruff tone, Burton muttered, “Maybe, … but she’s just making sure her patients are fine. That’s all.”
“But she’s also making sure that you’re fine too.”
“No law against that either,” Burton noted, his voice deepening in disgust. “I mean, I’m just sitting here. A guy needs to be friendly at least.”
“Of course he does,” Anderson said. “And it’s also very typical of you.”
“No, it’s not. Don’t worry. I’m not getting into trouble. Not interested in trouble.”
“No, no trouble,” he replied cheerfully. “But women? Now that is something you can’t resist, and they can’t resist you either.”
“You’re a fine one to talk.”
Knowing that she was likely to be part of the next conversation, Pamela leaned forward and interjected, “Just in case you guys go off on that discussion, I’m sitting here too.”
At that, Burton burst out laughing. “See, Anderson? That’s exactly what I meant. You’re already pretty-well hooked up.”
“I am not,” he argued.
“Are too,” Burton replied in a good-natured tone of voice. “And, if you’re not, you should be. She’s good people.” And, with that, Burton ended the call.
Anderson looked over at her. “You get a vote of confidence from him.”
“It’s nice to know somebody appreciates me,” she said, with a smile. “I know the babies do, that’s for sure.”
“That’s because they’ve got full tummies right now,” he noted, as he looked at them. “And from way better food than we were giving them.”
She already had one up in her arms, and she handed her to him and said, “If you got this here, I’ll clean up the floor.”
“Right, I’ll take them out to the living room.”
“We’ll take them out to the living room,” she clarified, laughing.
And with the three babies settled on the living room floor, she left Anderson there with them and went back to finish cleaning up the kitchen.
Anderson sighed. Burton’s comment had hit him a little harder than he’d expected.
Burton was right, no doubt about it. It’s just hard to think about relationships and the future while he was dealing with the mess that was Talia’s life and everything to do with her no-good husband.
He needed to go see her. He needed to prompt the sleeping woman to get her act together and to come back out and join the rest of them.
He knew that she was still drugged, but the docs had talked about reducing her dosages today.
One of the things that he wanted most of all was to talk to Talia, to see her for himself, and to ensure that she was really doing okay.
And despite what the doctors and nurses said, until Talia opened her eyes and spoke to him and called him by name, Anderson wouldn’t relax one little bit.
Then maybe later, when things calmed down, he would spend more time with Pamela. She looked more than ready for having a family, and he wasn’t at all sure he was ready for that—now or ever.
As he looked at the babies on the floor right in front of them, they were delightful—and a temporary situation in his life.
His heart was engaged to the point that he knew it would be hard for him to walk away, even if his sister was back on her feet, just because, … well, his nieces were something else.
At the same time, he also knew that he wasn’t ready to let go of his career and lifestyle to stay at home and look after babies.
He couldn’t imagine ever doing that long-term.
How did men do it? Particularly men who were posted elsewhere?
Their kids wouldn’t even know them when Daddy got home. How was that a workable solution?
For him, he didn’t think it would be, but he understood. Right now, sitting here with the babies, knowing that he would leave again and that they would most likely not know who he was the next time he came by, he wasn’t happy with that at all.
He was still frowning when Pamela walked back in with a cup of coffee in her hand and placed it beside him. He looked at her and nodded. “Oh, thank you. That’s a great idea.”
She laughed. “Remember with triplets, there’s only a little bit of time for you to spend on you,” she stated, with a playful smile. “So, you need to maximize that when you can.”
“I was just thinking about how good you are with the kids.”
“No, how good you are,” she countered, shaking her head.
“I still don’t think I could quit my job and do this right now,” he shared with her. “And that would always be an issue for most women.”
“No, not necessarily. It would depend. I mean, if it was one child, people do that all the time. Two children, maybe not all the time,” she noted, with a chuckle.
“Three? That’s a bigger challenge than most people ever have to deal with, but it doesn’t make it wrong.
It doesn’t make it worse. It’s just, you know, for those first five years, it would be pretty intense.
And that’s probably the time frame your sister will need help with. ”
He nodded thoughtfully. “I still just want to beat that brother-in-law of mine to a pulp.” And he filled her in on the information he’d found.
“Christ,” she whispered. “Now I want to beat him up too.”
He smiled at her. “Now that makes me like you all the more.”
She laughed. “Hey, I’m human, and there’s just so much in life that isn’t what we want it to be. It’s easy to get lost in the confusion as to what we really want.”
Just then his phone rang. He looked at it and nodded. “This is Levi. I need to deal with it.”
“You do that.”
He looked around and asked, “You should be fine, right? I won’t be long.”
“I am fine,” she confirmed. “And, if not, don’t worry. I’ll let you know.”