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“That’s Baby Anthony,” I explained. “We had a few diapers that could qualify as nuclear waste.”
“Glad we missed it,” Derek said with a grimace.
Taylor leaned in close to me and caressed the baby’s cheek. “We should call the United Nations, because you’re a weapon of mass destruction.”
“Considering where it came from, we should call him a weapon ofassdestruction,” Jordan said with a huge grin.
Everyone laughed, including Baby Anthony. He kicked his legs in my arms, giggling with his entire little body.
“He’s feisty today,” Jordan said.
“Yeah! He’s getting used to this place,” I said. “He’s a happy little boy.”
Derek leaned against the kitchen wall and cleared his throat. “We need to talk about the situation.”
“The guy from Jersey Shore?” Taylor asked.
Derek silenced him with a stare, then went on. “I talked to my sister. The wait list for fostering infants is slowly progressing. Depending on next quarter’s budget, we might be able to hand him over to Social Services as early as next week.”
“That’s great,” I said.
“It is,” he agreed. “But it means we have a problem about this weekend. What to do with the little guy, and how to keep him from second-shift.”
Jordan crossed his arms and frowned. “Walk me through it. What happens if we turn him over to Social Services today? It can’t be that bad, right?”
“There are three foster families in the area who could take him,” Derek said. “My sister says none of them are ideal. They all have multiple complaints on their record, and they’re already fostering other toddlers. My sister doesnotlike the idea of handing an infant over to any of them.”
“What about other adoption agencies?” I asked. “Surely we could contact some of them…”
“Already considered that,” Derek said blandly. His face was hard, but his dark eyes were sympathetic. “All adoption agencies would require time for processing. Baby Anthony would still be turned over to a local foster family in the interim.” He shook his head. “I would rather keep him ourselves than allow an overworked, exhausted foster family to take him. I trust Clara with him above all else.”
I swelled with pride at the compliment. He said it so matter-of-factly, without even looking in my direction, that I knew it was the truth. He wasn’t just saying it to be nice.
“Not to mention the mother,” Derek added. “We need to give my sister time to find a way to slip Anthony into the system without implicating her for surrendering him too late.”
“Okay, so we’re keeping him,” Taylor said. “Why not getusapproved as, like, a real foster family?”
“Us?” Jordan asked. “A family?”
Taylor shrugged. “Clara, then. I don’t know. I’m just trying to think of other solutions.”
Derek shook his head. “It takes time to get licensed as a foster family. Weeks, or months, even in the best of circumstances. Considering how backed-up the Social Services department is right now…” He spread his hands doubtfully.
“There has to be another option,” Jordan muttered out loud.
“Well…” Derek clenched his jaw. “If we contact Anthony’s biological mother, we could get her to legally sign over guardianship to us, even temporarily. That would skip all the red tape.”
“Then let’s do that!” Taylor said excitedly.
Derek’s grimace deepened. “Couple of problems. One, she surrendered the child. She probably doesn’t want to be contacted. Two, she surrendered himafterthe Safe Haven period. If we track her down and she puts her name to paper, it might increase the chances she faces prosecution. And three,” he added, “she’ll find out that we’ve been keeping him off the books this past week. She might report us. It’s just too risky to involve her at this time.”
“Okay,” Jordan said slowly. “Then we keep doing what we’re doing. What do we do about this weekend?” He looked at his watch. “Second-shift will be here in a few hours. If Billy Manning finds out about him…”
“There aren’t any good options,” Derek said wearily. “If we stay here for a second weekend in a row, holed up in our rooms the entire time, Billy will get suspicious. I think we have no choice but to take Baby Anthony out of the firehouse for the weekend.”
“But you said it was important to keep him here,” Jordan pointed out. “For legal reasons.”
Derek crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly. “I know what I said. Even if we take him home for this weekend, he’ll have spent the majority of his time in the station. Seven days here, and three days elsewhere. If we get caught and have to argue our case before a judge, I think we can show that we didn’t intend to keep him. That we had his best interests at heart.”
