Finding a Hart

by Kay Gordon

  “Chris is really okay?”

  “He’s perfect.” Jared’s eyes searched every part of my face. “He was exhausted and slept nine hours straight in the stroller. He was getting upset and didn’t quite understand why you wouldn’t wake up and hold him.”

  I couldn’t help smiling. “My sweet little man.”

  “Oh, good, you’re awake. Are we talking about that baby?” a nurse asked as she walked in to check my vitals. Jared nodded and she just grinned at us both. “It’s very obvious that he’s a mama’s boy.”

  “He is,” Jared agreed as he kissed the top of my hand again. “He’s definitely a mama’s boy.”

  The nurse just kept grinning as she pat my leg. “The doctor will be in to talk to you soon.”

  “Mama’s boy,” I repeated, feeling tears spring to my eyes. “I love that little guy so much.”

  “He loves you, Steph. You are his mother and you have been since you found him in those boxes.” He leaned in and brushed his lips against mine. “I can’t imagine my life without either of you.”

  “And I can’t imagine my life without you guys.” The tears spilled over and Jared reached out to wipe them off of my face.

  “What do you say, Vanilla Latte? Will you officially move in with us and make the too-fancy condo a home with me and our baby?”

  I nodded my head quickly even though the action hurt. “I’d love to.”

  He leaned down to give me a soft kiss and whispered that he loved me. When my mom walked in with Christopher a minute later, I was bawling like a baby. She looked at me, concern on her face, before looking at Jared.

  “What’s wrong? Is she okay?”

  Jared chuckled slightly and nodded his head. “Those are happy tears, I think.”

  “Oh!” My mom smiled excitedly. “Did you…?”

  A strangled noise escaped Jared’s throat as he shot my mom a look. She coughed once and tried to recover from whatever just happened.

  “Well, we’re about to have unhappy tears in a moment.” She tried to hold the struggling baby to her chest. He babbled incoherently and reached his arms out to me frantically. I shifted in my bed and held my arms out, too.

  “He just wants to cuddle,” I murmured with a smile. “I can take him.”

  “Steph.” Jared shook his head at the same time my mother said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  I pointed to the crook of my arm. “He can just sit on my shoulder. I was hurt lower and on the other side. I need to hold him.”

  The minute the baby was in my arm, he dropped his cheek to my shoulder and went still. I pressed my lips to the top of his head and inhaled his hair. He smelled clean, as if he’d just had a bath, and I sighed happily.

  “Angela?” I asked quietly and Jared let out an audible growl, causing my mom to drop her hand to his shoulder as an act of comfort.

  “She was shot four times and in surgery a lot longer than you but she pulled through.”

  “But she’s going away for a long time,” my mom said with unmistakable venom in her voice. “She’s lucky that they have guards on her room right now.”

  I smiled at my mother. I couldn’t fault her fury. I felt the same anger towards Angela for what she had done to Chris. My cheek pressed to the top of his head and his little hands clutched fistfuls of my hospital gown.

  “I’m going to go find everyone else to let them know you’re awake, baby.” My mom leaned over my bed and kissed my forehead gently. “I love you, Stephanie.”

  “I love you, too, Mom.” I watched as she walked away and turned my attention to the man sitting next to me. He smiled and ran his hand over Chris’s head before using the same hand to touch my face.

  “Is he hurting you?”

  I turned slightly so I could press my lips to the baby’s forehead. “No way. I’ll fight you if you try to take him, too.”

  Jared laughed and drew a blanket up to cover us both. “I wouldn’t dare.”

  Briana and Alyssa burst into the room a moment later, forcing Jared to scoot back, and they both spoke at a million words a minute. The entire time they fussed over me, Chris laid on my shoulder and watched with his big blue eyes while chewing on two of his fingers. The girls had just finished talking about how scared and pissed they were when Alyssa looked at the baby and grinned.

  “That’s the most content I’ve seen him since he woke up. You have your mommy back and you don’t need anything else, do you?”

  The baby just smiled at her around the fingers he was slobbering all over and everyone laughed. The moment was jarring for me, though. I’d been called his mommy a lot by strangers over the past few months but never in a context as serious as that. The thing was, I felt like his mother. There was no way to describe it completely but I had felt like his mother since the moment I found him in the garbage.

  People filtered in and out for a few hours and Jared did end up taking Chris from me when the doctor administered another round of pain meds. He told me that I’d be able to go home in a day or two as long as my wound didn’t get infected. I looked to Jared just as the medication began to hit me.

  “You should go home so you both can sleep in your own beds.”

  He shook his head while Chris shoved some more Cheerios into his mouth. “We’re not leaving you.”

  I think I mumbled some sort of argument but I was pulled under pretty quickly.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Jared

  I ended up losing the battle and Chris and I spent the night at home after Alyssa promised she would stay with Stephanie and keep me updated. I didn’t want to go but I knew it wasn’t fair to Chris to have to stay in that room and I wasn’t ready to have him away from me. Not yet.

  Getting out of the hospital was hard, though. Reporters and members of the media were everywhere and I had to sneak Chris out through a delivery dock and into Kevin’s waiting sedan. He and Valerie dropped us off at my car and I took the baby home to get a real bath and sleep in his own bed. My own bed was incredibly cold, though. I hadn’t spent a night away from Steph in months and I hated it.

  The next morning, he and I walked into the hospital room to find the two women staring at the TV and laughing. Stephanie’s face had color in it again and she didn’t look quite so small in that bed. Her blue eyes met mine and her smile widened.

  “There are my favorite boys.”

  “You look good, sweetheart,” I told her as I leaned in and brushed my lips against hers. “How do you feel?”

  She grinned at me before looking at Chris, who was kicking his legs happily and holding his arms out to her. “A little sore but okay otherwise. Come here, baby boy.”

  I lowered Chris into her lap and he immediately reached up to grab Stephanie’s cheek. She peppered his little face with kisses while I took a seat next to Alyssa. When I handed the redhead a cup of coffee from Java Express, she sighed happily.

  “Oh, bless you.”

  I chuckled and looked up at my girlfriend. “Sorry, Steph. I asked but they said you were another twenty-four hours away from being cleared for the good stuff.”

  “Rub it in, you two.” She looked down at Chris, who was staring back up at her and happily chewing on the stuffed frog I had given him when we left the condo. “We’ll probably survive without coffee, won’t we, Christopher?”

  His only response was a huge, toothless grin, and Steph laughed quietly and used the sleeve of her gown to wipe some drool from his chin.

  “Has anyone been by yet today?”

  She nodded and winced when she tried to adjust the baby in her lap. I moved to my feet to help her but she gave me a look before I could. “I’ve got him. The doctor was in about an hour ago and he says everything seems okay. The nurse changed the dressing on my wound and I guess it’s healing well. The goal is to discharge me tomorrow.”

  Alyssa’s phone vibrated and she silenced it with a groan. “I hate him.”

  “If it’s going to h
elp you, I’ll do the interview,” Stephanie told her with a concerned expression on her face. “It would get your boss off your back.”

  “No. I’m not letting him exploit the fact that we’re friends.” Alyssa stood abruptly. “He can go to hell. I’m going to run home and shower so I can head into the station for a bit. I’ll be back tonight, though. Let me know if you need anything.”

  She left quickly and I looked at Stephanie for clarification because I was absolutely confused. She reclined her bed a bit to give her some more room with the baby and sighed.

  “The media has been sniffing around for an exclusive interview and Alyssa’s boss somehow found out that we were friends. He’s giving her a ton of shit and trying to pressure her into using our friendship to get the interview.”

  From the stories I’d heard, Alyssa’s producer was a total slime ball. He was one of those chauvinistic people who believed that women had one place and it wasn’t in the workforce. I knew she was trying her hardest to be taken seriously but it didn’t sound like it would happen where she currently was.

  “How did he sleep last night?” Stephanie asked as Chris inspected her hospital bracelet seriously. I smiled and reached out to grip her sock-covered foot.

  “Didn’t wake up once. How did you sleep?”

  “Terrible. Is there some unspoken rule that patients can’t sleep more than two hours without being woken up? I can’t wait to go home.” She paused and a slow smile crept along her face. “You asked me to move in with you when I was high on painkillers.”

  I nodded, feeling a grin hit my own lips. “I did and you said yes. High or not, you can’t take that back, Steph.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it. I’ve already picked out new curtains for the balcony in my mind.” The sassy look on her face was stunning and I had to lean in to give her a quick kiss.

  Chris and I stayed in that little hospital room all day. He ended up taking a nap against her chest while she slept, too, and I sat next to the bed just watching them.

  Richard and Elaine came by at one point with lunch and stayed for a few hours. It was almost dinnertime when I was alone with my girlfriend and son again, and we were waiting for Bri and Marco to come by with the takeout they’d promised.

  A knock sounded on the door and Stephanie called for whoever it was to come in. I looked away from her and the baby just in time to see an older couple enter the room with a doctor. I stood from my seat quickly and shook my head.

  “Jay. Maureen. Is there a reason you’re here?” Stephanie grabbed my hand and when I looked down to meet her confused expression, I gripped hers tight. “They’re Angela’s parents.”

  Maureen was staring at Chris when I looked back up but she quickly met my eyes. Her husband cleared his throat and spoke first.

  “I know you must think we’re terrible people but we never thought Angela could…” He paused and shook his head. “We’re deeply sorry for everything. We had no idea that she was pregnant or that the little guy existed until the police came by looking for her. We didn’t know where she was and thought something terrible had happened to her. She finally called us after she was arrested, begging for our help and we agreed. Nothing she was saying made sense but… I mean, all we knew was that there was a baby out there- her son and our grandson- and she wasn’t being allowed to see him.”

  Maureen sniffled and used a tissue to wipe her eyes. “After being at that hearing, we realized exactly what she had done and that she was in no shape to be a mother. At that point our only goal was to keep her from going to prison and to get her help. Something changed with her, Jared. She’s not the same woman she was.”

  I knew what she meant because I had seen the transformation while we were dating. It didn’t excuse everything that happened, though. “If you’re in here looking for sympathy, you’re wasting your breath. She took my son and didn’t care for him at all during that time. He was starving, dirty, and scared. And then she almost killed my girlfriend, the woman who has done nothing but love him since the moment she saved his life the first time.”

  “That’s not why we’re here,” Jay replied with a shake of his head. “We’re here because we want to apologize for our role in all of this. If we had known what she was capable of, we would have done everything differently.”

  “And that’s where I come in,” the mysterious doctor said, stepping forward to offer me his hand. “I’m Dr. Joe Rutherford, a neurosurgeon here. I was called in after they ran an MRI due to Angela Roberts hitting the ground when she sustained the gunshot wounds to her chest.”

  Stephanie dropped my hand long enough to shake the doctor’s but grabbed it again once they were done. She clung to the baby with her other arm and we both stared at the people in front of us.

  “What did you find?”

  “Neurosyphilis.”

  I felt the blood leave my face. “Syphilis? Like the STD?”

  “Wait, what?” Stephanie shook her head next to me. “If she had syphilis, Jared would have it and that means I would have it. It’s not a hidden infection and would be very obvious.”

  “You’re mostly correct, Ms. Gibson.” The doctor gave my girlfriend a sad smile. “Angela likely contracted the infection about ten years ago and either did not realize she had it or hoped it would go away. If my timeline is correct, she was just a teenager and probably scared to tell her parents. It stopped being contagious years ago as it entered different stages. Syphilis, if left untreated, can be detrimental to your organs, including your brain. The infection turns to disease and spreads in the brain, killing parts of it, and can cause mental defects. The personality changes that have been seen in Angela are because of the syphilis.”

  “Syphilis.” I sat down in the chair behind me as I tried to wrap my head around everything the doctor was saying. “Can you cure it? What about Christopher?”

  “The baby is fine. Since it was already at a tertiary stage when he was conceived, it had no effect on him. We can cure the disease to keep it from spreading any longer but there is no way to heal the damage it has done to her brain. She won’t be the same ever again.”

  A loud sob left Maureen’s chest and as a parent, I had the upmost sympathy for her. When I didn’t speak, the doctor did.

  “Have you had a sexually transmitted disease panel run on you since your relationship with Angela ended, Mr. Hart?”

  I nodded and raked a hand through my hair. “In November for my insurance physical. It came back clean.”

  “Good.”

  A few tense minutes passed before Stephanie broke the silence.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Roberts. I can’t imagine how devastated you are.”

  She had just been shot but yet was the one giving the condolences. If I didn’t know anything else about Stephanie Gibson, that would have been enough.

  Jay gave her a weak smile. “Thank you, Stephanie. It doesn’t excuse or make what happened to you better but I hope having some answers gives you a bit of closure.”

  “It does and I appreciate it.” My girlfriend was a saint. Seriously.

  Chris whimpered in her arms and I watched as Jay and Maureen both looked at him. The longing on Maureen’s face hit me hard. My parents would never get to know their grandson. Yeah, Chris had Richard and Elaine, who were amazing grandparents already, but Jay and Maureen were there, too. I just wasn’t sure I could trust them completely. I met Stephanie’s eyes and she gave me a soft smile, telling me that she knew exactly what I was thinking. When she nodded, letting me know she agreed, I turned back to the others in the room.

  “Would you like to meet your grandson?”

  Maureen started crying again while nodding her head rapidly and Jay was obviously choking back his own emotion when he spoke.

  “That would be amazing.”

  The doctor excused himself and I watched as the others came near the bed. Chris clung to Steph shyly and it took a few minutes of coaxing before he was giving Jay and Maureen smiles
. He wouldn’t let either of them hold him, but they seemed content to be able to interact.

  After about twenty minutes, Maureen wrapped both me and Stephanie in hugs while Jay offered us his hand. They both thanked us about ten times and I promised I would call them in a week or two to see about getting together for dinner.

  “You’re a good man, Jared Hart,” Stephanie told me softly once they were gone. She had a fistful of fruit-flavored puffs in her hands that Chris was pushing into his mouth like a starving man. I ran my palm over the top of his head and leaned down to kiss Stephanie.

  “You make me a better man, sweetheart.”

  –––

  After three nights in the hospital, Stephanie was discharged and I took her home with me. The doctor told her she could return to work two weeks after the surgery and ordered her to take it easy until then. So when I came out of the bathroom to find her holding Chris in her arms later that evening, I groaned and pulled him from her.

  “You are going to pop your stitches, Stephanie Nicole.” I gave her a stern look and held Chris over my head. “Do not let Mommy pick you up. Do you understand me?”

  The only response I received was a smile and a spit bubble.

  When I looked back to Stephanie, she was wiping her eyes and I knew it was because I’d called her Mommy. She sniffled and then rolled her eyes as she did so often when she was embarrassed.

  “I’m fine. How can I deny him when he holds those little arms up?” She stepped towards me and touched the baby’s chin. “Look what I discovered, though.”

  Coaxing his mouth open, Stephanie used her fingertip to touch the bottom of his gums and I widened my eyes. Sitting there, under the swollen tissue and a glob of drool was the beginning of a little tooth in the middle.

  “He’s getting a tooth!”

  She laughed softly when Chris chomped down on her finger. “A sharp one, too. It feels like the one next to it isn’t far behind. That explains the extra drool we’ve seen lately.”

  “Big man is getting teeth.” I kissed his forehead before doing the same to hers. “Time’s moving too fast.”