The Baby Discovery

“How in the hell could the police think you had anything to do with it when you’re the one who brought the baby in?”

“According to the doctor, more often than not that person is an accessory to the crime or has knowledge of it. So until the police track down the mother and anyone else involved, I won’t be off the hook.”

“We’re flying to Salt Lake tomorrow, mon ami. Because of the snow, it will probably have to be a late afternoon flight.”

“There’s no need to take you away from your families.”

“We’re coming,” Alik declared.

When Zane heard that note of finality in their voices, he knew there was no arguing with them. In truth, he was glad they had insisted. He could use their support at a time like this.

“We’ll phone you when we’re in the car on the way to Tooele.”

He swallowed hard. “Thanks, guys. It means more than you know.”

Anxious to check on the baby’s condition, he clicked off and left the cubicle for the Infant ICU.

While Dr. Parker listened to the baby’s heart, Meg charted its fluid intake and output on the computer.

“This is a pretty sick baby.”

“I know,” she murmured, hating to hear the words. Dr. Tingey always kept those kinds of thoughts to himself. Unfortunately, he’d gone home and left Dr. Parker in charge.

He pulled the ends of the stethoscope out of his ears and turned to Meg. “What’s your take on the man who brought it in?”

“What do you mean?” she played dumb.

“You have to admit that without prior knowledge, the chances of anyone finding Baby Doe where he did on a night like tonight are a zillion to one.”

“I don’t understand your point.”

“His story is too far-fetched to be believed. When it all comes out, we’ll probably learn it was his girlfriend who tried to get rid of it at home, and he suffered a last-minute attack of conscience.”

Dr. Parker had never been her favorite person. His remark just now alienated her even more. No sooner had he gone out the door than she felt another presence in the ICU.

“Is that what you think, too?”

The stranger’s deep, unforgettable voice brought Meg’s head around to receive the full brunt of brilliant blue eyes alive with pain.

Horrified he’d overheard Dr. Parker’s comment she said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Broderick. Would you repeat the question?”

He stood there with his hands on his hips in a purely masculine stance. “Your diplomacy does you great credit, Ms. Richins.”

For a moment she’d forgotten about the name tag attached to the pocket of her lab coat. Her face went warm. “Please don’t mind what he said. At times no one is immune to the stress of the ER.”

“I could go along with that if this place resembled a war zone. But it’s as quiet as a tomb around here tonight.”

He had a point.

“Dr. Parker has three children of his own. I’m assuming it was the baby’s plight that caused him to venture a negative opinion about you.”

“Apparently it’s shared by a majority of people. Why not you?”

The pointed question caught her off guard.

She could hardly tell him it was the haunted sound of his voice, the look of torment in his eyes when he’d rushed in the ER crying out for help, that had decided her.

“I’ve always considered a person innocent until proven guilty.”

There was a slight pause. “It’s nice to know I have one person on my side.”

“Two,” she amended in the next breath. At his questioning look she said, “You’re forgetting the baby.”

CHAPTER TWO

“YOU mean Johnny?”

She blinked. Johnny?

“I abhor calling him Baby Doe,” came the explanation.

“So do I,” she said in a tremulous voice. “John’s my father’s name. I love it. Just don’t let anyone else hear you use it. They would jump to the wrong conclusion.”

“It will be our secret.”

Though what he’d said implied a certain intimacy, she knew they were just words on his part.

“I heard the doctor tell you he’s sick,” Mr. Broderick added. “I take it he wasn’t talking about hypothermia.”

She shook her head. “No. The baby has an infection. We’ll give him antibiotics for as long as the blood culture comes back positive.”

“What else is wrong with him?”

“He’s lost blood. That means he’s missing vital nutrients we’re feeding him through the IV.”

“The guy’s so tiny. Do you think he’s premature?”

The questions fired one after the other reminded her of a brand-new father who needed constant reassurance.

“Probably. But under the circumstances, five pounds is a good weight. Until his lungs are more developed, we’ll continue the oxygen to help him breathe.” She bit her lip. “Thank heaven you found him!”

“I’ve been doing a lot of that for the last little while,” he muttered, his whole attention focused on the baby. He didn’t act or sound like he was going to leave anytime soon.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

Julie stopped Meg on the way to the lounge area. “I got a good look at the Adonis who brought in Baby Doe,” she whispered. “He’s a living, breathing miracle!”

“I agree,” Meg murmured back. Unless I’m no judge of character, he’s even more exceptional on the inside.

“It isn’t fair!” the vivacious blond nurse whined. “I step outside for five minutes and the only excitement to happen around here in months takes place without me.”

“Tell you what. Wait here while I get him a chair, and you can take it to him. The stool’s a back-breaker.”

“You mean he’s not leaving yet?” Her blue eyes lit up in anticipation.

“I’m not sure. He’s very anxious about J—the baby,” she stammered.

In a matter of seconds Meg returned with one of the comfortable canvas-backed chairs. “I’ll keep an eye on Mrs. Pope while you monitor the baby’s progress.”

Julie smiled with satisfaction. “You’re just too good to be true,” she sang the song near Meg’s ear before wheeling away with the chair.

It was better to let Julie take over in there. She was a natural flirt. If Mr. Broderick turned out to be single and available, the two ought to hit it off without problem.

As for the baby, Meg already felt an attachment to him that went way beyond the norm.

She’d always loved babies and had dreamed of a large family of her own one day. But since she’d learned she could never give birth, it seemed like her problem was all she ever thought about. Especially when her older brother and sister were both married and had children.

Her gynecologist had suggested she get a dog to love. Unfortunately there was a “no pets” rule at the apartment she shared with a dental hygienist, Debbie Lignell. But after her response to the baby, maybe she ought to start thinking about moving to a place where animals were allowed.

By the time she went off the shift at five-thirty a.m., Debbie would be getting ready for work. Meg could broach the subject, but her friend wouldn’t like it. Their apartment was a convenient half block away from the dentist’s office.

Perhaps the best thing to do was let Debbie advertise for a new roommate so Meg could find a place of her own.

Maybe now would be the best time to move back to Salt Lake. There were plenty of nursing jobs available. If she couldn’t get her old floor position back at Emigration Hospital, there were a lot of other hospitals in the Salt Lake Valley. As for apartments that accepted pets, it wouldn’t be a problem. What she needed was a new reason to get up in the morning…

Since her operation, she’d avoided dating. That way she didn’t have to explain that she could never bear a child and that the guy would be wasting his time with her.

The last man she’d been interested in was a pilot she’d met at an N.B.A. game featuring the Jazz and the Lakers. Once the two of them got talking, it appeared he liked some of the same outdoor activities she loved.

But they’d only been dating a couple of weeks when he was unexpectedly transferred to Atlanta. He’d wanted her to fly out there for a visit. But by then she had developed female problems.

Once she knew the prognosis, she was glad he’d moved away before their relationship had progressed any further. It spared her the anguish of confessing that she was no longer a whole woman.

Since then not even her hobbies interested her. Perhaps a little dog she could train from puppyhood would help bring her out of this depression. Much as she hated to admit, that’s what it was.

If she was really being honest with herself, she’d chosen to work in Tooele because it was only eight miles from Grantsville where her family lived. For someone who’d always been so cheerful and independent, she hated it that her inability to have children had changed her into some kind of emotional cripple.

She needed to go back to Salt Lake which was far enough away that she couldn’t just pop in on her parents when she felt down. If getting a dog didn’t help, then she would probably have to seek some counseling.

Her mother had urged her to look on the bright side. One day when she married, she could adopt. Intellectually Meg knew her mom was right. But most men wanted to father their own flesh and blood.

It took a special man to deal with a woman’s infertility. He had to love you so much he could look past the medical problem. If there was a man out there who could do that, she hadn’t met him yet.

As for the tiny infant in the ICU, she could steal him away tonight and love him forever.

The fact that she would even entertain the thought proved she needed to do something about her situation as soon as possible.

A half hour later Mrs. Pope’s IV had run out. “How’s the headache now?”

“It’s gone. My husband should be here any minute to take me home.”

“I’m glad you’re feeling better. Your color has come back.” Meg removed the needle and bandaged the spot. “I’ll tell the doctor. While I’m at it, is there anything else I can do for you?”

“Nothing. But thank you for sitting with me and being so nice. My husband has a hard time when I get like this.”

“If he’s good to you otherwise, I forgive him.”

Her patient’s wan smile told Meg all she needed to know. “He is.”

Lucky you.

She went out to the desk. “Dr. Parker? Mrs. Pope’s waiting to be discharged.”

He nodded. “Get the lab over here, then join me in cubicle four. We’ve got a victim with a knife wound who’s about to go to surgery.”

“I’ll call them.”

Between that injury and a heart attack victim brought in by an ambulance, the doctors and staff were run off their feet for the next couple of hours. Around four it was Meg’s turn to check on the baby.

To her surprise, Mr. Broderick was still in the Infant ICU watching the baby.

“At last,” came the deep voice as soon as he saw her.

“Things got busy out there.”

He rose to his full height. “So I noticed.”

While she checked on the drip and various monitors, she felt his anxious gaze on her face. “What do you think?”

She knew what he wanted to hear, but she still couldn’t tell him. “H-he’s not any worse.”

“Damn,” he bit out, then threw his head back. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I was on the brink of saying something unprofessional myself. He’s so precious and so utterly helpless.” Her voice quavered.

Lines darkened his face. “I’m afraid to leave for fear he’ll—”

“I know,” she broke in before he could finish. “Why don’t I have a cot brought in so you can lie down next to him.”

By his expression she could tell her suggestion had shocked him. “You would do that?”

“If I had realized you were still here, I would have suggested it earlier. There’s no one else to keep the baby company. Finders, keepers,” she said with a smile. “In the meantime, wash your hands in the sink over there. Here’s a pair of sterile gloves for you. When you’ve dried off, put them on. Then you can reach inside the crib and touch him while you talk to him. I bet he’d like to hear how you sing, too.”

She leaned close to the holes. “You haven’t been on this earth very long, have you, sweetie. And every new little guy deserves all the love and attention he can get. I would say this big guy here who saved your life is the perfect person to do that. Now I’ll leave you two to get better acquainted.”

Meg didn’t know what had possessed her just now, but she’d sensed Mr. Broderick needed somewhere to go with his feelings. Giving him a job would help the agonizing hours pass faster.

Besides, she was a firm believer in touching babies as much and as often as possible. The ER didn’t have enough staff to lavish the kind of physical love normally extended by the adoring parents of a newborn.

“Hey, Meg?” Julie signaled to her from the desk. Things had quieted down for the moment. No doubt she was going to brag about the date she’d wangled out of Mr. Broderick. Meg didn’t want to hear it.

“Just a minute and let me call housekeeping first.” When she’d rung for a cot to be sent to the Infant ICU, she gave Julie her attention. “What were you going to say?”

“I was hoping you would tell me,” she whispered.

Meg frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I got nowhere with that guy. I mean nowhere. He only asked one question that didn’t have to do with the baby. When were you going to come back in the room.”

To Meg’s consternation her heart turned over.

“He probably thought I had news from the doctor. Don’t forget the man found the baby. I think he’s still in shock.”

“That’s for sure. What a grouch.”

“The police haven’t cleared him yet, Julie.”

“Oh for heaven’s sake— If that were the case, he would never have brought the baby in!”

“I agree it’s absurd.”

“Uh-oh. We’ve got a new customer.”

Meg looked over her shoulder in time to see the paramedics come through the doors pushing a gurney. An old tramp lay there bundled in a blanket. He looked half dead. The poor thing probably hadn’t been able to find shelter from the storm. She wished she were immune to sights like that, but it hadn’t happened yet.

Zane could hear someone screaming.

“Johnny? I’m coming! Hang on!”

The screaming grew louder, bringing Zane fully awake from an old nightmare. He’d broken out in a cold sweat and his heart was pounding like a locomotive.

It took him a second to remember where he was.

He rubbed his eyes and raised up on the cot to get a better look at the wall clock. It was almost noon!

The last time he recalled anything, it was Ms. Richins who’d come in to check on the baby.

The baby!

Zane’s heart skidded to a stop before he levered himself from the cot, terrified he would find the crib empty.

Relief flooded his system to see the infant lying in the same position as before. Without hesitation he put on a new pair of gloves, then fit his hands through the holes of the crib.

When he put out his finger and brushed it against the baby’s left hand, the little guy’s fingers responded and clung to him the same way they’d done last night.

A lump lodged in Zane’s throat. “I told you to hang in there for me, and you did.”

With his other hand he smoothed the fine dark hair on the tiny head. He studied each perfect feature, the shell ears, the minute finger and toenails. There weren’t any lashes yet, but his eyes looked like they might be open a tiny slit. Surely that had to be a good sign!

“Dear God, if you aren’t a miracle!”

A middle-aged nurse he didn’t recognize came into the room. She smiled when she saw him standing at the crib. “Sorry if the noise woke you. I heard you were here all night and figured you needed the sleep.”

“I should have been up before now. What does the doctor say about the baby’s condition today?”

“At this stage, things are tentative.”

His spirits plummeted. He should have known better than to ask. “Do you have any idea what time Ms. Richins will be on duty again?”

“She works the night shift. If she’s scheduled for tonight, she’ll be in at eight p.m. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“No, thank you. I wanted to let her know I appreciated the cot.”

“She went home at five-thirty this morning, but I’ll pass your gratitude along.”

“Thank you.”

He touched the baby’s flailing hands once more, then pulled his own hands out of the crib.

“I’ll be back later,” he whispered. “Get better for me now.”

After tossing the gloves in the waste bin, he reached for his cowboy hat. Before walking out the door, he hesitated.

“There is one thing,” he said to the nurse. “I carry a cell phone. If there’s any change in the baby either way, could someone phone me immediately?”

“Of course. Write your number at the top of the chart hanging on the front of the crib.”

He walked back and put it there with an attached pencil, but once that was accomplished, it was almost impossible to walk away from the baby. Zane felt like he was leaving a part of his heart.

“Babies are stronger than you think.” The nurse could read his mind.

“I pray you’re right.”

When he stepped outside the ER, the sunlight nearly blinded him. One thing about Utah blizzards. After they’d blown themselves out, the bluest sky on earth magically appeared.

At least a foot and a half of wet, heavy snow, maybe more, had blanketed the world around him. Its whiteness dazzled the eyes. He had his work cut out to clear it off his truck before he could see enough to drive home.

After snow-blowing his driveway and the front path leading to the porch, he went in the house and checked his answering machine. The police hadn’t called, of course.

Still full of anger, he headed for a hot shower. In case his cell phone rang, he kept it on the tile sink so he could hear it.

Later, when he’d put on a clean shirt and jeans, he rustled up some food for a sandwich, but his stores were low. He needed to do something about that before the guys pulled in tonight.

First, however, he needed to talk to his crew, then straighten the house. He had a cleaning lady who came in once a week, but there were still things to do.

Three hours later he took off for the supermarket and loaded up on supplies. On his way down one of the aisles looking for napkins, he found himself stopping in front of the disposable diaper section, something he’d never done before in his life.

There were several brands for newborns. Zane felt a pit in his gut when he thought of Johnny struggling for life beneath the heater of his crib.

As his gaze strayed to the baby bottles, pictures of the tubes and IVs hooked up to those five precious pounds of humanity flooded his mind, bringing tears to his eyes.

He blinked them back before heading to one of the checkout counters. Once he’d put the groceries away, he’d drive out to the ER and stay with Johnny. When the guys phoned, he’d give them directions to the hospital so they could see the baby before they all moved on to his house.

Hopefully Ms. Richins was working tonight and would come on duty while he was still there. For some reason the image of her gleaming brown hair and eyes like rich, warm drops of melted chocolate, managed to intrude whenever he thought about Johnny. He couldn’t seem to separate the two in his mind.

There was a sweetness in her voice and expression around the baby. Zane had been charmed by her.

When Meg went out to her car at seven p.m., she told herself it was because she needed time to scrape the ice off her windshield so she wouldn’t be late for work. On a clear night after a storm, everything froze.

But the job only took five minutes, and her Jeep could go anywhere in the snow without problem.

When she walked into the ER at seven-twenty, Dr. Parker’s head turned in her direction. She’d forgotten his hours were different than those of the staff.

He checked his watch. “You’re forty minutes early tonight. In case you’re looking for Baby Doe, he’s not here.”

“No!” she cried in agony, and started shaking her head.

“Take it easy, Meg. I meant that it was good news. He’s still sick, but stabilized. I took him off the extremely Critical List and had him transferred to the nursery around dinnertime.”

“Thank heaven!” She clung to the counter, still trying to recover.

“I guess we should have hung a sign. When Mr. Broderick discovered the baby wasn’t here, he reacted the exact same way you did.”

“He’s here?” Just the mention of the stranger’s name brought this suffocating feeling to her chest.

“Obviously he was.”

Without conscious thought Meg raced around the corner and down the hall. She opened the door and took the stairs to the nursery one floor up.

“Where have you put Baby Doe?” she asked Shelby Clark, one of the nurses at the station.

“You mean, our little celebrity? I’m afraid you’ll have to stand in line outside the sick baby nursery,” she teased. “At the moment there are three people ahead of you. They’re all men, and they’re gorgeous!” she confided.

“If you’re up here, that means the word has already spread to the main floor. I think every eligible female in this hospital is waiting her turn for a glimpse of them. Donna says they’re movie stars here on location for a film.”

Donna was wrong.

The men were probably the engineers helping Zane Broderick on his project. But Meg kept those thoughts to herself.

“I just want a peek at the baby before I go on duty in a few minutes.”

“Sure you do.” Shelby winked.

Under other circumstances Meg would have enjoyed Shelby’s innocent teasing. But not tonight. Meg was too close to this case. Dr. Parker had upset her too much.

If she’d found Dr. Tingey in the ER, his first words would have been, “I have good news. Baby Doe has been transferred to the nursery.”

But that wasn’t Dr. Parker’s style. Telling her the baby was gone had almost given her a heart attack. Aside from her other reason for leaving Tooele, the thought of not working around Dr. Parker any longer than necessary held a lot of appeal.

It was just as well she’d talked to Debbie this morning about moving back to Salt Lake. To her surprise, her roommate admitted she’d been worried about Meg and thought a change of scene sounded like a good plan for her.

Meg also learned that Debbie had been considering moving home to Logan, Utah, where she could stay with her folks and attend graduate school at Utah State. But she’d been hesitant to talk to Meg about it because she didn’t want to leave her in the lurch.

Not only had their talk helped Meg decide to give two weeks’ notice to the hospital, Meg’s first reaction when she heard the baby was gone proved her emotions were too involved to be healthy.

Hard as it was to do, she decided it would be better not to see the baby again. Now that he’d been moved to the nursery, there was no reason for Meg to be up here. No reason at all.

This was the crucial moment to practice self-restraint. Otherwise she would be in a much worse condition when child welfare services came to the hospital.

The police report was already in their files. Any day now, probably as early as tomorrow, a social worker would show up to find out how soon the baby could be placed in foster care.

Already the abandoned infant had endeared himself to Meg. Because of Mr. Broderick, she no longer thought of him as Baby Doe. In her heart, he’d become Johnny.

She needed to make the break while she still could. It meant she wouldn’t be seeing Mr. Broderick again, either. He made up the other part of her forbidden list.

“You know what, Shelby? I think I’ll come back when there isn’t a line. See you later.”

Meg left the floor, not interested in remaining there to catch up on hospital gossip. Once she’d reached the ER and had hung up her coat, she plunged into her work with a vengeance.

If there wasn’t anything going on between crises, she took inventory of supplies in the cubicles, anything to keep so busy she wouldn’t think about what was going on upstairs.