Sidney’s eyes popped open.
The blaring sound stopped as abruptly as it had begun.
She blinked and raised up on one elbow. Beside her, Isaac did the same and their eyes met. The child between them was still sleeping soundly.
With stealthy movements, they both got out of the bed. Sidney covered Greer back up and walked around to Ike’s side.
“You should go back to bed, darlin’.” Ike’s tone was hushed so as not to wake Greer. “I know you didn’t get much sleep.”
“You got even less. And you have to go to work. I’ll go make you a quick breakfast.”
She moved toward the bedroom door, but Isaac caught her around the waist.
“No, no. Don’t do that, Sidney. I’ll just grab a bagel and coffee on my way into the station. Really. Let’s just make today as easy for ourselves as we can okay?” He pulled her into his arms. “I mean, you’re going to have to take the brunt of things today with Greer, and I feel really bad about that. But with Lt. Hayes gone for two more days, I have to go in.”
“No, I absolutely understand that, Ike.” Sidney gestured to the sleeping boy. “We’ll be okay.”
Ike leaned down and kissed her lips. “I’m going to get in the shower.”
Sidney nodded. When he closed the door, she snagged her phone from the charging station and called Zoe. It rang three times.
“A call this early can’t be anything good.”
Her boss sounded like she was still half asleep, and Sidney could relate. She felt like she’d pulled an all-nighter.
“You’re right, and I’m so sorry to do this on such short notice.”
“What’s going on? Are you sick?”
“You remember me telling you about how Ike and I finally completed all the red tape to become foster parents?”
“Sure.”
“Well, we got our first foster at about 4:30 this morning.”
“Oh, you’re kidding! That was fast. They really push you right into the deep end, huh?”
“Well, it was actually a case that Ike was called to in the middle of the night. The boy’s parents were killed, and we think he saw that whole thing.”
“Oh, my gosh! Oh no.”
“Not that he’s old enough to articulate what he saw. He’s a toddler. At least two is all we know right now.”
“Oh, Sidney. Oh that poor baby.”
“Yeah. Well, I’m afraid that I need to stay home today to be here for him. I did bring the programs file home with me last night though, so I can—”
“Sidney, no,” Zoe interrupted her. “Don’t worry about work today. You just get settled into your new normal okay? You’re off tomorrow anyway, so just take the extra day. We’ll be fine here.”
“Thanks, Zoe.”
When they hung up, Sidney looked over at Greer still sleeping peacefully. Then she got back on her cellphone and looked up what to feed a two year old.
She was deep into that research when Ike stepped out of the bathroom and went straight to the walk-in closet to get dressed. He came out a few minutes later wearing a pair of dark blue pants and a lighter blue dress shirt.
“Whatcha doing?” Ike straightened the tie around his neck.
“Trying to figure out what two year olds eat for breakfast,” she replied before looking up at him. “Apparently the simple answer is basic big people food.”
Isaac held out his hands.
Sidney set her phone down and placed her hands in his, allowing him to pull her up and into his arms.
“Don’t overthink this thing, Sid. We will figure it all out.”
“I know we will. I just feel so unprepared.” She knew that she sounded like a broken record, but it was true. “We don’t even have any toys for him to play with.”
A strange expression passed over Ike’s much-too-handsome face and he held up a finger. The universal sign for ‘wait a minute.’
He stepped away and went back into the closet. He came out a second later holding the small blue teddybear that his grandad had returned to him the year before, and handed it to her.
Sidney smiled. “Your old bear.”
“Yeah. He can play with that while he’s here if he wants to.”
She looked up at her husband. “This is very sweet of you, baby. But if we’re going to really do this foster thing, we’re going to need to buy a few things. Like a car seat for starters. And a proper baby bed. Maybe we can fit one into the guest room?”
Her mind was suddenly spinning with all the things. She needed to make a list.
“Yeah, maybe.” Ike sounded just as distracted as she felt. “Hey, once the house is no longer a crime scene, I’ll go back in and see if I can’t get some of Greer’s things. How about that?”
Sidney sighed. “I guess that would be okay. But he may only be here for a short time. We’ll still need our own stuff.”
“Yeah, I know. But listen, I’m anxious to get to the station and see what Palmer and Driscoll were able to find out about Greer’s parents, so I’m going to go.”
“Okay. Make sure to get you something to eat, please. Don’t skip breakfast.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He kissed her again. A real one that she felt down in her toes. “I am really sorry for leaving you to deal with him all on your own.”
“It’ll be okay.” Sidney smiled. “Great training, right?”
“Right.” Isaac ran his thumb over her bottom lip before he leaned down and kissed her once more. “I love you.”
“I love you back.”
He clipped his badge to his waist, grabbed his gun from the lockbox on the closet shelf and then he winked at her on his way out the door.
Sidney sighed as she watched him leave. And she tried not to feel overwhelmed.
“I can do this.”
She could do this, couldn’t she?
She looked at Greer and tried to ignore the growing feeling of fear that was beginning to bubble in her belly. She could do this.
“You can do this, Sidney.” She said the words more forcefully this time.
If only she believed them that would be great.
She went into the bathroom. She should handle things before he woke up, right? That much she knew.
She was able to relieve herself, wash her face, and brush her teeth before she heard Greer whimpering. Still in her pajamas, she went back into the bedroom to find him sitting up in the middle of the bed.
“Hey there.” She smiled at him. “You’re awake.”
Greer started to tear up and he held out his arms to her.
Sidney’s heart melted.
She sat down on the bed and he crawled into her lap. She wrapped her arms around him and rocked him back and forth.
“It’s okay, baby Greer. I know you’ve been through something horrifying, but I promise you, it’s all going to be okay.”
He stopped whimpering and he looked up at her face as though he were studying her.
She studied him too.
He had an adorable little face with chubby, apple cheeks and the biggest blue-green eyes. Set against that soft, beige-brown skin and framed by the golden-brown curls he almost didn’t look real. Like a doll.
He reached up and placed one chubby little hand on her cheek.
Sidney smiled at him. “Are you hungry, hmm? You ready for breakfast, Greer?”
She could tell by the spark of recognition in his eyes that he understood what she was saying. Then he nodded.
“Yes? You’re hungry?”
He nodded again.
“Okay. Let’s go get you some breakfast. Can you walk?”
He nodded once more, and she set him on his feet and took him by the hand. They started for the bedroom door when he suddenly stopped and held himself.
“Pee pee.” He looked up at her with an urgent gaze.
“You have to pee pee?”
Another nod.
“Okay. Let’s go pee pee first.” She led him into the bathroom and realized they had no potty. As she helped him with the pull up she made a mental note to add a potty to the list she was going to make when she got a spare minute.
She picked him up and set him on the toilet. When he peed he looked up at her and said, “Good job?”
“Good job? Yeah, good job.” Sidney smiled at him, but her heart broke as she realized it must’ve been a ritual his mommy did with him when he successfully went potty.
She helped him wash his hands and then they went into the kitchen. She made scrambled eggs and toast with a queasy stomach.
Why was she so nervous? He was a little boy who needed looked after for a few days. She could do that, couldn’t she?
She glanced down at him and noticed that he watched her every movement from his sitting position on the kitchen floor.
When the food was done, she stacked two of the throw pillows from the sofa onto a dining chair and then set Greer there at the table. She served him some of the eggs and a slice of toast with butter and jelly, cut into squares. She added half a banana for good measure, and a small cup of milk.
She sat beside him with a plate of her own. Greer ate heartily, and Sidney smiled at his obvious healthy appetite.
She turned to her own plate but found that she could only stomach the toast. As she was finishing up Greer pointed to the floor.
“Kitty.”
Sidney looked down to see their fluffy brown-point Ragdoll cat staring up at Greer.
“Meow.”
“Yes. That’s my kitty. His name is Alfred Hitchcock. He’s very nice.”
Greer reached down with a piece of food pinched between his little fingers, and Alfred Hitchcock sniffed at it.
Sidney quickly intervened. “No, no. Kitties shouldn’t eat bananas.”
“Want mommy.”
The words came out of the blue, and Sidney’s gaze snapped to him. He was looking at her with big questioning eyes. A pointed dart pierced Sidney’s heart.
“Where mommy?”
“Um…” How should she answer that? “Your mommy’s not here right now.”
Greer’s little face tuned up like he was getting ready to cry, and she knew she had to do something to distract him.
“Are you ready for a bath?”
“Mommy Daddy hurt.”
Her heart fell.
Splat.
Right into her stomach.
She wiped the tear that hit her cheek.
“Yeah.” Her voice was soft. She cleared her throat and tried again. “Your mommy and daddy are hurt. But Isaac… you remember Isaac? The tall man who helped you? Um… he and I are going to take care of you for a few days, okay? And we won’t let anything happen to you.”
She had no idea how much of that he understood, or even if she was saying the right things. All she knew for certain was that her heart was breaking for this little boy who had lost everything in the middle of the night.
She stood, stacking their plates and carrying them to the kitchen. Then she went back to him.
“Come on, sweet boy.” She picked him up and settled him on her hip. “Let’s go get you washed up, okay? I think you got more jelly on your face than in your belly.”
She put on a smile and carried him to the guest bathroom since the tub in the master bath would be much too deep. She was grateful that the hospital had sent them home with some baby wash, shampoo, and lotion. But they were only small sample bottles and she knew they were going to need to go shopping soon.
Once Greer was bathed and wrapped in a fluffy towel she sat back on her haunches and silently cursed.
She had nothing at all to dress him in.
He was wearing a small hospital t-shirt and a generic pull up when they’d brought him home last night. Thankfully, the hospital had sent them home with two extra pull ups, but he had no clothes here.
Sidney stood and carried him across the hall to the master bedroom and set him down in the middle of the bed. Then she rooted around in her drawers for something, anything, that she could make work.
She found an old t-shirt that she never wore anymore because it had shrank in the dryer.
“This will do,” she mumbled to herself.
She applied lotion to his skin and then got him into a clean pull up and the t-shirt she’d found. It fit him like a nightgown, but it was the best she could do.
Didn’t make her feel any less inadequate though.
Greer pointed to something to the left and Sidney looked. Isaac’s blue teddybear was still sitting on his dresser. She snatched it from the dresser and then knelt down next to the bed and showed it to him.
“This is Beary Blue. You like him?”
Greer nodded, and she handed it to him. He hugged it tight. He looked so sad, and Sidney suddenly felt so incredibly overwhelmed. She grabbed her cellphone off the bed and dialed a number. It only rang once.
“Hey, Sid. What’s go—”
“I need your urgent help,” she cut Bree off, the sense of panic almost squeezing her throat.
“Sid?”
“I don’t know what the heck we were thinking, but now we’re in it, big time, and we have no supplies and he’s missing his mommy and Ike is at work and I’m here alone with him and I’m drowning!”
“Um—”
“Help!”