Reading Time: 109 Minutes

Title: The Lunatic Ball
Series: A Symptom of Being Human
Series Order: 2
Author: Jilly James
Fandom: 9-1-1
Genre: Contemporary, Drama, Family, Kid!fic
Relationship(s): Gen
Content Rating: PG-13
Warnings: *No Mandatory Warnings Apply. Canon-typical: violence, situations, and angst. Discussions of: sexual assault, rape by coercion, and child abuse. Mild character bashing. Procedural inaccuracies
Author Note: See main series page for full author notes and attribution
Beta: Ladyholder
Word Count: 27,100
Summary: Buck settles into his life as a new parent, trying to figure out the whole dad thing while juggling legal issues, CPS craziness, and the insanity of finding a nanny.
Artist: Nightsong21133

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Episode Two: The Lunatic Ball

Chapter One

Buck had expected to hear from CPS sooner rather than later, and he’d expected it to be in the form of a call through his attorney. He’d also expected the sooner in that equation to be early the next week, which would be a few days out.

He’d pick up Charlie from Marika on Thursday. Yet, the very next day, mid-morning, Buck had a text from one of the roommates still at home that he had a visitor who claimed to be from Child Protective Services.

Buck’s brain seized up. He was in a spit-up-stained t-shirt and a pair of running shorts. He had mad bed-head because he hadn’t taken the time to take care of it due to dealing with the remnants of the ongoing setup of baby central. The high table he’d ordered for extra counter space had arrived at 6 am. He’d sprinted downstairs to retrieve it while Charlie was still sleeping.

Now, he was glad that he’d put cleaning up over tending to his own hair because at least all the boxes, bags, and other detritus had been taken down to recycling this morning.

He fired off a quick text asking if his roommate had gotten a name. It was one of the more conscientious roommates who was attending night school while holding down multiple part-time jobs. He hated that the guy had been bothered on his rare day off to catch up on sleep, but there wasn’t much Buck could do about it.

The text came back quickly. Danielle Coburn

Which was indeed the name of Marika and Charlie’s case worker.

Buck blew out a breath and texted Mari. He was lucky he had an attorney who was with the modern age and was willing to accept texts from clients, though he was sure he paid for the privilege.

Buck: Danielle Coburn is here. Don’t think I have any choice but to go down and meet her. I’m stalling a bit because I need to change my shirt and tame my hair. I know you’re probably with clients. Text me when you can.

He had just finished taming his hair a bit when Charlie started to fuss. He’d just changed a horrible diaper about an hour ago, so he assumed she was hungry; it was about that time.

“Dammit,” he muttered under his breath. He fired off a one-handed text to Isaac while holding the bottle under warm water. The bottle warmer he’d ordered had been delivered this morning, but he hadn’t had a chance to do anything with it yet. He was hoping it was as much of a lifesaver as the bottle washer.

Buck: I’m so sorry to ask dude. Need to make the baby’s bottle. I know I didn’t tell anyone about a baby but yes there’s a baby. Can you tell cps lady I’ll be right down as soon as I get the bottle prepped?

Isaac: Figured out the baby by the deliveries yesterday. You coulda said you asshole. Don’t know who you knocked up and don’t care about none of that. If you got a kid and you’re happy about it I’m happy for you. I’ll hold off the gorgon just take care of mini Buck.

Buck: Thanks. Tell you about it after she leaves.

He’d just finished testing the formula temp when Mari texted.

Mari: Dammit! I’m getting someone to cover my next meeting. On my way. Be vague, try to stall her. Need thirty minutes or so to get there. I’d prefer to talk to her myself.

Buck: K

Charlie was full-on fussing, her mouth pinched with displeasure by the time the bottle was ready and he could fully focus on her. Buck picked her up, and she immediately quieted, blinking up at him with her big blue eyes.

“No need to fuss, sweet pea. I promise to never let you go hungry.”

She latched on as soon as the bottle was close enough.

He thought about heading down while feeding Charlie, but he wondered at the safety issues of him having neither hand free. He decided to wait until she was done eating. “It only takes you fifteen minutes to drink a bottle, so the gorgon can wait until you’ve had elevenses. You’re my little hobbit…though you need at least eight full meals a day.”

It took her a full sixteen minutes to finish her bottle and three whole minutes to produce a little burp. He did her daytime swaddle, added a loose, soft baby blanket, tucked her in his arms, then headed down to meet the CPS case worker. He forced himself to stay calm, reminding himself that he hadn’t done anything wrong.

He found Isaac squaring off with the CPS case worker in the kitchen. Isaac was in full dude-bro mode, which wasn’t even his usual attitude, lounging in full sprawl in the kitchen chair, while Ms. Coburn sat stiffly across from him.

“And when will Mr. Buckley arrive?” Coburn pressed.

“Right about now,” Buck supplied. “Charlotte was hungry, and her pediatrician made it clear that she’s underweight and meals need to be prioritized.”

Coburn stared. “She wasn’t underweight when she was discharged from the hospital.”

Buck’s expression was flat. “Yeah, I’m aware.” He turned to Isaac. “Thanks, man. Sorry to disturb your downtime.”

“No problem.” He got to his feet and peered at Charlotte in Buck’s arms. “I guess this is the little one. Hey, sprout. Welcome to the family.” She was still awake, though obviously getting sleepy. Despite the slow blinks, she was visually tracking. Isaac tapped her gently on the nose. “Text me if you need anything.”

“Will do.” Buck waited until the kitchen door closed, then pulled out his phone, hitting the record button. “I’m a little sleep deprived and to be sure I didn’t miss anything in our conversation, I’m assuming it’s okay if I audio record our conversation, Ms…? Coburn, was it?”

She cleared her throat. “Yes, Danielle Coburn. And recording is obviously fine.”

“And I assume you noted the sign that public, meaning all indoor common areas, and external areas of the home, are under video surveillance?”

Her mouth pressed into a thin line, and she inclined her head.

“I’m audio recording, ma’am. You know you’re video and audio recorded?”

“Yes, I’m aware.”

“Wonderful. Then what can I do for you today?”

“Gretchen Samaras contacted me this morning to notify the department that she had signed guardianship paperwork yesterday, placing Marika’s child in someone else’s care. And that today, Marika was working with an attorney to sign her intent to give up her parental rights and initiate a private-party adoption.” She paused and looked at Buck, clearly waiting for his response.

After long moments of silence, Buck gave in and replied. “Okaaay. I’m not sure if there’s a question in there or not. Clearly, I’m aware of the guardianship paperwork since I was the other party to sign the paperwork, but I was unaware Marika had already initiated the process to give up her parental rights.”

“And none of you thought the department should be notified ahead of this ill-informed decision?”

Buck’s eyebrows shot up. “I was given to understand that Gretchen was given full legal and physical custody of Charlotte until Marika was of age, and that it was within Gretchen’s legal authority to appoint someone else as guardian provided she doesn’t interfere with Marika’s parental rights. I believe Marika signed the paperwork as well, indicating she supported the decision, so I’m not sure what the issue is.”

“The issue, Mr. Buckley, is that family reunification is the best thing for Marika and the child in order to heal and recover.”

“Reunification is the best thing for…Charlotte?” Buck asked.

“Charlotte?”

“Yes. Marika filled out the birth certificate. It is actually the child’s name, so we can stop calling her baby or the child.”

“I see. And yes. Charlotte may be too young to understand the situation, but early bonding with her biological mother is absolutely in baby Charlotte’s best interest.”

Buck wanted to snap back that there hadn’t been a whole lot of bonding going on, but getting on the wrong side of CPS right now wasn’t in his best interests. “I was at their home, and neither seemed particularly interested in Charlotte. Time will tell if she gains weight under my care, but Dr. Grace Bradshaw, Charlotte’s pediatrician, indicated that she’s barely gained three ounces since she left the hospital. I’m not accusing either of deliberate neglect, but certainly there was overt disinterest.

“I support the idea of reunification, Ms. Coburn, but if there’s no interest, isn’t it better for Charlotte to be where she’s at least cared for?”

“And you think you’re qualified to do that?”

“Do you have reason to suppose I’m not?” Buck asked carefully.

“We’ll see.”

“Pardon? I understand CPS had a case open into Marika for what she had done, but is there a reason for you to be checking into me?”

“We have every reason to check into you if it’s been reported that this is an unsuitable living situation.”

“Reported by who? Charlotte has been here less than a day, and you’ve seen the entryway, living room, and kitchen on a floor I don’t even live on.”

“We have no way of knowing if you’re fit to care for a baby or if the environment is suitable. This appears to be a…room share.” She said room share with the same tone someone might say drug den.

“It is a room share, and I share the third floor with the owner of the home, and no one else is allowed up there.”

“I’d like to see it.”

Buck blinked. “I don’t want to seem argumentative, Ms. Coburn, but it feels like I’m under investigation here, and I’m not sure what I’ve done to deserve such a thing.”

“You haven’t done anything to deserve it,” Mari said from the doorway. “Pardon my intrusion, Mr. Buckley, your roommate let me in.”

Buck smiled, trying to mask his relief. “Marigold Bettencourt, of Mason, Cabot, Pearson, and Bettencourt, this is Danielle Coburn with Child Protective Services. Ms. Coburn, this is my attorney handling the issues surrounding Charlotte’s custody.”

“Is there a reason you felt you needed your attorney here, Mr. Buckley?” Coburn asked tartly.

“When CPS shows up at my house unannounced?” he asked incredulously.

“Of course he needs me,” Mari said with exasperation. “Buck, if I could have a moment with Ms. Coburn.” She leaned down and stroked a finger over Charlotte’s cheek. “Hey, cutie. She looks good today.” She took note of Buck’s phone. “I assume you informed Ms. Coburn you were recording.”

“Yes, she agreed on the recording and that she was aware of the video surveillance in all outdoor and indoor common areas.” He pointed to the camera in the kitchen.

“Wonderful. If you don’t mind leaving your phone, we can keep the recording on one device, and you can send it to me afterward?”

“That’s fine. I’ll wait in the lounge down here until you’re finished.”

He went into the main common area and found Isaac in a recliner, reading an actual book. They didn’t know each other super well, but he knew enough to always see Isaac with real books in his hands, mostly genre fiction or biographies. Isaac was a couple of years younger than Buck, going to night school to be a nurse with aspirations to maybe bridge it one day to medical school, but he didn’t want to rack up a huge amount of debt.

“Hey,” Buck said awkwardly, then decided to throw his baby at the problem. “So, uh, you want to meet her?”

Isaac tossed his book to the side, grinning hugely. “Hell yeah! I love kids.”

Buck shifted Charlotte in his arms, who blinked awake and yawned hugely, looking like a baby bird. Smiling, Buck set her in Isaac’s arms. “Charlie, this is Isaac. We cross paths with him on a weird timing. Sometimes our schedules align so that we don’t see him for weeks, and sometimes we see him almost every day.” He stroked back Charlotte’s downy hair. She had a little more hair than most newborns. “Isaac, this is Charlotte. I have guardianship of her now, but hopefully I’ll be adopting her.”

Isaac looked up from where he’d been smiling at Charlie and gave Buck a questioning look, but then focused back on the baby. “Well, you’re a cute little thing. Welcome to the madhouse around here.” He leaned back in his chair, keeping hold of Charlie, but looked to Buck. “I guess now we know why you moved upstairs. Didn’t even know there were more rooms up there.”

“Yeah.” Buck shrugged. He’d seen the text Will had sent out to everyone explaining he was opening up some rooms on the third floor, and Buck had taken one, leaving a vacancy on the second floor. “He had a suite up there he wasn’t using. I don’t want to share his business about why.”

“No, I get it.”

“Anyway, he offered it to me and Charlie. Hopefully, it will tide us over until we know if the adoption will go through.”

“Will there be complications?”

“Not from the mother, I don’t think. More so from the state. I guess the case worker is invested in Charlie staying with her mom.”

“Ah. The charming but stern Ms. Coburn?”

“The very same. There was a chance I’d have to deal with CPS anyway, but I wasn’t expecting it so soon. We were hoping to get ahead of CPS and their concerns by having a private home study done.”

“Hm. When will that be?”

“Next Wednesday.”

“Ah, good timing. I’ll be home and can wrangle any of the bird brains that are around. Though I think only Angelica will be here.” Angelica tended to keep to herself, though Buck privately thought she was kind of a bitch. After a couple of minutes of idle chit chat where Isaac didn’t push for answers or question how he’d come to have Charlotte, he passed Charlie back to Buck and got to his feet. “I’m going to get some sleep so I stay on my usual schedule. My phone is on DND, but just knock if you need something.”

“I promise to try really hard not to need anything. I know how important keeping your schedule is. Besides, I think Mari has got it handled.”

“Yeah, your attorney seems fierce.”

“She is.”

“Still, never hurts to know you’ve got someone else in your corner if you need it.”

Buck held out his hand. “True enough.”

Isaac shook it. “Just ask if you need help, okay?”

“Okay.”

Isaac lightly touched Charlie’s cheek. “Later, kiddo. Your dad is one of the good ones. Think you lucked out.”

Buck flushed and watched his roommate walk out of the room.

It was perhaps ten minutes later when Mari reappeared without Ms. Coburn and with Buck’s phone in hand. “The recording is temporarily off. We’ll need to restart it if we rejoin her. You don’t have to agree to this, but she’s asked for an assessment of the baby’s living situation, and I don’t see the harm in letting her see your rooms if they’re presentable.”

Buck had Charlotte in one arm and dragged his hand over his face with the other. “I think it’s okay. I have baby stuff everywhere that I still need to put away, but we got most of the stuff unboxed last night.”

“If she gets intrusive, I’ll put a stop to it. And the comparison won’t go down well for her. She was fine leaving Charlotte in the Samaras’ apartment, and that place comparatively was a shithole. I took video and pictures. There was nothing for the baby except a basket, a changing mat, and a diaper bag. So if she tries to find fault with this nice home, we’re going to have words.”

Buck nodded.

“All right, let’s go up. I can restart the recording from the home menu, right?”

“Yep.”

She got the recording going, and they met up with Ms. Coburn in the kitchen again. “We can go on up. There are no video cameras in the bedroom areas, correct?” She looked at Buck.

“There are cameras on the stairwells between floors, but that’s it. Nothing is even pointing directly at the bedroom doors, just oblique angles of them, if anything. The camera on the third floor does cover my front door at my own request. But the angle doesn’t see into the suite.”

Mari nodded. “So, other than that, no more video, but we are still audio recording, so there’s no ambiguity about what was discussed.”

“Very well,” Coburn said stiffly. When they got to the second floor, she asked, “Who lives on this floor?”

“My roommates,” Buck said without clarifying further.

“And will they have interactions with Charlotte Samaras?”

Buck gave her an incredulous look. “I don’t know.”

“Mr. Buckley isn’t a soothsayer, Ms. Coburn,” Mari said smoothly. “There are no plans to avail himself of childcare through his roommates, if that’s what you’re leading up to, but there certainly is the possibility of his roommates being in the same room as the baby; they do live in the same dwelling, after all. However, I have spoken to the landlord, and I know he conducted a thorough credit and criminal background review on all tenants before they moved in. That should be more than sufficient for CPS, considering convicted criminals, including people actively on probation for violent crimes, are allowed to retain custody of their children on parenting plans with the department.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

Mari huffed.

They arrived on the third floor, and Buck could cut the tension with a butter knife. He blocked the view and entered the security code with his free hand.

“A security code is required to access the third floor?” Coburn asked, sounding perplexed.

“Yes. This is the owner’s private residence up here. He allows me to rent a suite in his private space because I have a child, but only him, me, and people who work for him, such as his handyman or housekeeper, have access to the floor. And before you ask, he runs background checks on everyone.”

Buck gestured to the one big common room on the floor. “This is the living area for this floor. I believe it was a den in another life. There’s also a small laundry room up here that’s shared space. Then the landlord’s room, and some other rooms that I don’t know anything about because they’re none of my business. This floor is the smallest, which should be apparent from the external architecture. There is a back set of stairs, but that door allows for egress, but it locks when it closes and has no access back to the floor. The only access point is the main stairs. And this suite is mine.”

He let her into the sitting room, and she began looking around. She stopped at the basket of Charlie’s clean clothes, which was next to a basket of an ever-growing pile of Charlie’s dirty clothes. She looked at him with a raised brow.

“What?”

“A hamper?”

“As opposed to a diaper bag, which was all she had before?” he shot back, getting irritated.

“The Samaras were doing the best they could.”

“I’ve had Charlotte for less than a day. Her combo dresser and changing table is scheduled for delivery tomorrow. Somehow, I doubt her development will be stunted by her clean clothes being in a perfectly serviceable laundry basket. It might have been stunted, however, by her mother ignoring her cries for food.”

Mari put a hand on his arm and squeezed gently. “I think Ms. Coburn gets the message. There’s no need to be even obliquely critical, Ms. Coburn. Mr. Buckley has accomplished quite a lot on short notice. There are seasoned foster parents who manage to get less done with this amount of notice, so please don’t nitpick. Buck, is it all right if I show Ms. Coburn where Charlotte sleeps?”

Buck nodded and crossed to the armchair, annoyed with himself for letting Coburn get to him.

After a few minutes, the two ladies returned from his bedroom. “The Pack ‘n Play bassinet is only suitable until she starts rolling over or pushing herself up,” Coburn began immediately.

“I’m aware,” Buck said, suddenly feeling tired. “I read the instructions. The minute she’s ready, she goes into a crib. Is there anything else you want to look at?”

“You don’t really have room for a child here.” She glanced around the space.

“This is a huge suite,” Mari countered. “Barely smaller by square footage than the Samaras’ entire two-bedroom apartment, and you had no issue with placing the child there without qualification. Obviously, Mr. Buckley will need to rent another room on this floor or seek a new home when Charlotte is ready for her own bedroom. He has the financial wherewithal for either proposition. But that’s well outside the bounds of what we agreed to for today’s discussion.”

Coburn made a face but nodded and crossed to the kitchen area. “It’s a small kitchen.”

“That’s why I had to buy the bottle appliances rather than wash everything,” Buck said, hoping he didn’t sound as fed up as he felt. The very expensive bottle washer/dryer/sterilizer was right in front of the woman, and the bottle warmer he’d bought and hadn’t unboxed yet was sitting right next to it.

“And how do you tend to yourself in this small kitchen?”

“I can handle basic things up here, and anything complicated I run downstairs.”

“You leave her alone?”

Buck decided to handle it like she was being an idiot. “Uh, yes. Do parents leave their kids alone to take a nap? Do they leave them in their bassinet or secure them in their seat if they go to sign for a package? She’s two weeks old; she’s not going to be crawling away. If she were wide awake and I needed to go cook something, I’d just take her with me and put her in her rocker seat. Or did you mean for me to infer that it’s bad parenting if I’m not in the same room as her 24/7, because that will be weird when I need to go to the bathroom.”

Mari huffed. “I’m sure that’s not what Ms. Coburn meant because it’s beyond absurd to even suggest that a parent should be in the same room as their child all the time. Even in the placement Ms. Coburn had arranged, I’m sure she was aware that they were leaving Charlotte in the bedroom most of the time and going about their daily business with Charlotte unsupervised.”

Ms. Coburn looked around Buck’s suite one more time before saying, “At the end of the day, Ms. Bettencourt, it was still an apartment home, no matter what you might think of its suitability, and this is a room share.”

“And it could be argued, ma’am,” Mari shot back, “that this is an apartment on its own. It has a bedroom, a living room, a kitchenette, and a bathroom. It lacks its own laundry facility, but the laundry is two doors down the hall. I believe the laundry in Ms. Samaras’ residence was in the basement, several floors below where they lived. As I mentioned, we’re arranging for a private home study to be completed and a thorough review of the home environment, complete with photographs, which will be available if the department submits a formal request.

“However, I would remind you that it’s one thing to look into what happened to Charlotte since there is an open CPS case regarding her, but it’s entirely another thing to open an investigation into Mr. Buckley. He has done nothing to warrant it, and I promise to bring the full weight of the law firm into the lawsuit if the department should try anything.”

“Threats, Ms. Bettencourt?”

“Assurances,” Mari said blandly. “Mr. Buckley has done nothing, so there’s no reason to bother him. He was gracious enough to allow you to look around his home, and that should be sufficient for you to see that Charlotte is in good hands. In fact, to ensure there is no miscommunication between my firm and the department, my assistant is setting up a meeting with your supervisor. I’ll be sure you’re included so we can prevent any miscommunications.”

Looking sour, Ms. Coburn said, “Wonderful. But there’s nothing to say this situation is going to last. I firmly believe Marika is invested in reunification. Her mother made a grave error in signing those forms, and as soon as I can talk to her about it, we’ll set things to rights.”

Buck wanted to protest, but Mari held up a hand, indicating he should wait.

“Good luck with that. I’m sure Marika is eagerly awaiting your call.”

“And I’m sure you know that I’ve already gotten the run around on that.” She gave Buck a pointed look. “Are you paying for her attorney?”

Buck just shook his head.

“And I’m sure you know,” Mari snapped, “that that would be inappropriate. Ms. Samaras may have an attorney from a preeminent firm, but most attorneys do some amount of pro bono work. Don’t look for conspiracies where there are none.”

“We’ll see.”

“Yes, it’s for certain I’ll see you at the meeting I’m setting up with your supervisor. I have your card, so I’ll have my assistant text you the time and location.” Mari gestured to the door. “Let me show you out.”

Buck felt like he could breathe again once the CPS case worker was gone.

A few minutes later, Mari returned and passed over his phone. “Well, that was a mess. Go ahead and send me the recording so that’s taken care of first.”

Buck swapped the phone for the baby, and Mari smiled down at Charlotte.

“I’m not really a baby person, but exceptions can be made for the most adorable baby in the world. Hey, cutie pie. How are you doing today?” She swayed back and forth with Charlie while Buck took care of sending her the recording, along with uploading a copy to his drive.

“Do I have anything to worry about?” he asked.

“No. We’ll get ahead of it. This was all very inconvenient but, in some ways, this could work out well. We can put them on the back foot very easily with her behaving somewhat inappropriately. She didn’t protest a single one of our allusions about Charlotte’s care, because she couldn’t, which is basically affirming that Charlotte’s living situation is better here. It’s not ideal to be tangling with CPS right now with so much going on for you, but we can just start knocking down the pins now and getting it over with. Hopefully I can get in with her supervisor by Monday because I don’t want any more surprise visits.

“I’ve put her on notice, and I’ll do the same with her supervisor, that they don’t show up here without calling me first unless they’re launching a full case against you, and I’ll make sure they have the fear of my whole firm in them if they even think of going after you. We’re doing everything properly.”

“What’s really going on here, Mari?”

Mari handed Charlie back. “Coburn should never have placed Charlotte back with Marika, at least, not without a lot more careful integration. Probably supervised visits with a fosterer, parenting classes completed first, and so on. And she’s probably seeing that and wondering how much scrutiny is going to be brought to bear. She’s scrambling to get everything back the way it was before her superiors can look too closely at the situation. There’s no telling what she told her supervisor about Marika or Gretchen, and I suspect everything is unraveling for her.

“But she can’t put the genie back in the bottle. All I can do is try to stay ahead of her. To that end, I have a meeting with her supervisor in an hour.”

“An hour,” Buck echoed.

“Indeed, and she’s not really invited, no matter what I said. I’m sure there will be a meeting next week that she is invited to.”

Buck made a face and stared down at Charlie. “Should we stay in a hotel for a few days?”

“Not necessary, though I’ll let you know if I think the vibe at CPS is weird after I meet with her supervisor.” Mari tucked her clutch under her arm. “I’ll call you later and let you know how it went.”

“Thanks for doing this, Mari. I know you had to rearrange your schedule…”

She waved it off. “Don’t sweat it. Charlotte is my favorite client anyway.”

Buck laughed. “I’ll bet she is. Well, just send me Charlie’s bill.”

“Absolutely!” She let herself out, and Buck stared down at his sleeping kid. “Is this going to be how it is, sweet pea? You going to sleep through all the big angst? Yeah, I thought so. Good choice.”

Chapter Two

“You really didn’t have to do this,” Buck protested as Will finished attaching the back to the glider rocker he’d come home with. It was Will’s day off, and he’d gone out shopping and come home with baby stuff.

“I don’t have to do anything. I choose to.” Will sat back on his heels and surveyed the deep blue cushions on the glider. “I think she’ll like it, but come on, Dad, have a sit and see what you think.” He patted the seat.

Buck laughed and lifted Charlotte out of her little infant rocker seat that came with the Pack ‘n Play. “Come on, baby girl, let’s try out the rocker Will bought us. Then we can start our evening wind down wherein you get fed a lot with skin-to-skin in between.” He sat in the rocker and naturally fell into the rhythm of it. “Oh, that’s nice.”

“Great. I asked for the one for dads so that it was more suited for taller people.”

“Yeah, this is good.” Buck stared down at his kid. “What do you think, Princess Charlotte?”

She was already blinking slowly, not that it took much to put her to sleep. “Yeah, I think she likes this motion better than her rocking seat. Want to rock her for a bit while I do any of the thousand things that never seem to be done?”

Will looked uncertain. “If you want me to.”

“Man, you can always hold her, but feel free to say no if you’ve got stuff to do. I don’t want to take advantage, and she’s got places to lie down while I put her clothes away.” He’d finished building the changing table and dresser about an hour ago.

“Nah, I’d love to hold her.”

Buck got up and handed off the baby. Will smiled down at her. She immediately started mouthing at her fist. Buck huffed. “I guess she can’t decide if she’s tired or hungry. I’ll get a bottle started for her.” He went through the new routine of putting the bottle from the fridge into the warmer. He still always checked it but, so far, the timer had it perfect every time.

“What’d you do with your first day off besides shop for rockers?”

“Covered four hours of a shift for a paramedic who got injured near UCLA and then went for a hike in the canyon.”

Buck’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re still certified?”

“Yep. Keep current. I was going to quit completely, but it seemed reasonable to keep it for a while. I only work weekends, and prefer emergency coverage, so it’s usually only one shift, but I don’t like having a lot of downtime; I get antsy. Then I went hiking in the canyon.”

Buck checked the formula temp and then handed off Charlotte’s bottle.

“How was today?” Will asked. “This should have been a shift day for you, yeah? Weird not being at work?”

“Yeah, but firefighter schedules being what they are, we get a lot of time to handle stuff, so we typically save our PTO for actual vacations or being sick. I haven’t taken any real time off since I joined. I was saving it for after my pinning ceremony; figured I’d take a vacation or something to celebrate.”

“And go where?”

Buck shrugged. “I guess it all depended on what had changed or not changed by then.”

“Fair.” Will continued to rock in a light rhythm as he fed Charlie. “Any more info on the fallout from yesterday?”

“Not really. Mari had her meeting with the supervisor yesterday afternoon, loaded for bear, and you know the supervisor was vague about everything but promised to look into it. I wasn’t really expecting more from them than that, I guess. The only thing new is the supervisor texted Mari a meeting time for late on Monday with Ms. Coburn and his own superior, so I guess that’s something.”

“That seems about right. They’re not going to commit to anything until they check into things on their own, but if Coburn was pushing an inappropriate reunification, and now she’s after you so she can keep to that plan, they’re going to want to put a whole stop to it. It could cast the department in a bad light. Aside from the bad PR, the department doesn’t have the resources to waste on this nonsense.”

“No kidding. CPS is overworked as it is.”

He fell into a rhythm of getting Charlie’s clothes into the dresser. Most of it was onesies and footie pajamas. He had a few outfits for her, but he hadn’t gone deep into buying clothes for her yet. The drawers were all shallow, so there were more drawers, making it easy to see the clothes. The bottom three drawers were basically empty, awaiting her upcoming wardrobe for when she had clothes. The top drawer was entirely diapers.

He’d gone with a diaper recycling service that was taking off in LA. They picked up two days a week, and he just had to leave the carefully closed bags of dirty diapers somewhere easily visible on the porch. And the roommates were all okay with it, so it somewhat eased his environmental concerns. So, he could get good-quality diapers for Charlie and not have to deal with the shock of figuring out how to manage cloth diapers.

“Day two and a half,” Will remarked as he set the bottle on the side table as he moved her to his shoulder to burp her. “How’s being a dad?”

Buck felt himself melt a little. “I love her so much already.”

Will chuckled. “Yeah, I know.”

“Before I forget, I’ve got a couple of nannies coming tomorrow and a couple more on Monday. She’s not eligible for daycare for another month at least, apparently, and waiting lists for good daycares that will take a six-week-old baby are ridiculous. In any case, I’m going to get the nanny situation settled, hopefully, and then get on as many waiting lists as I can. Hopefully, I’ll clear the waiting list of one of the daycares by the time she’s six weeks old. Otherwise, I’ll just keep on with the nanny until she’s in a good daycare on my shift days.”

“You’re only applying to ones that do twenty-four-hour care?”

“Yeah. There are some good ones that are open sixteen or eighteen hours, but then I’m looking at nannies to pick her up and keep her overnight, and that expense is close to a nanny having her all day. So I’m giving those daycares a pass.”

“What are you going to do about the nanny sleep situation when they’re here overnight?”

“I’m ordering one of those chair sleepers from Crate & Barrel. They’re rated the best for comfort. Put it in the sitting room. We’ll move the Pack ‘n Play in here, and they can tend to her in the sitting room, I guess. I thought about just having them sleep in my room, but it feels…weird.”

“No, I agree. Good boundaries from the start is smart. As much as possible, keep them out of your bedroom. They can go in there if it’s an emergency, but otherwise, have them tend to Charlie in here. I’d recommend setting up video surveillance in here, but have it pointed away from wherever you’ll be setting up their sleep area, so they have privacy, and make sure they know. Or you could get one of those privacy screens they could put up at bedtime to block the camera. You have a right to be able to check on your daughter’s care.”

Buck nodded slowly, feeling like that was weird in some way.

“I know it seems odd, but as long as you disclose it and give every opportunity for privacy, it’s better to protect yourself.”

He cocked his head to the side and gave Will an inquisitive look as he rounded up the random trash and debris he needed to take downstairs.

“To be blunt, you’re a good-looking guy, and people are going to hit on you. A fair number of nannies you’re going to interview are going to be on the younger side and possibly single to boot. Don’t even get me started on romance tropes about nannies with single fathers. Hopefully, the service you’re going with sends professionals who won’t flirt with you or make passes, but it’s better to ensure any ‘misunderstandings’ are on video. And there’s still the base issue that you have the right to know what’s going on with your daughter’s care at all times.

“I’ll get you the name of the company that does security here, and a letter that you’re allowed to add any cameras you deem necessary, okay?”

“Square deal.” He hadn’t considered the issue of a nanny flirting with him, and the idea made him supremely uncomfortable, so he’d definitely be getting the camera. And possibly even a camera in his room that he could control remotely and just turn off when he was at home by himself. He mentally nodded to himself, thinking that was a good idea.

“Your first day back at work is a week from today?”

“Yeah, Bobby didn’t have any problem keeping the floater for Thursday as well. First day back is Saturday.”

“Well, if you can’t get the nanny thing situated by Saturday, let me know and I’ll take her. It’s my day off anyway.”

Buck stopped tidying his kitchenette and stared at Will. “Dude. I don’t want to take advantage of you like that.”

“It’s not taking advantage if I’m offering. I care about her.” Will ran his finger over her cheek where she was fast asleep in his arms. “I’m invested. Maybe I shouldn’t be, but it is what it is. Just… Whatever, man. The offer is there. If you need me to watch her next Saturday, I can.”

“All right, I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks.” Buck smiled. “No hiking in the canyon, though, with her on your back like a rucksack.”

Will laughed.

“Want me to make us some blueberry tea?” Buck offered. “I think I got it down.”

“You’d better have it down; you were a freaking bartender. And yes. That’d be great.”

~*~

Buck gently jogged down the stairs with Charlie strapped into her rocker seat. He’d been more careful with his motions at first, but she seemed to enjoy the swaying. He nearly bumped into Isaac at the bottom of the stairs, and considering it was afternoon, and the guy had bedhead from hell, he must be just getting up.

“Hey, Buck,” he said sleepily. He leaned toward the carrier. “Hey there, better Buckley.”

Buck grinned. “School?”

“Soon. First class is at four today. I hate Mondays. Only day I have early classes.” Most of Isaac’s classes didn’t start until seven in the evening. “You still interviewing nannies?”

“Yeah. I talked to a bunch yesterday, but the vibe wasn’t quite there. Here’s hoping today goes better.”

“Good luck. Let me know if you need anything.”

“You’re half asleep, man. Get something to eat and a shower before you commit yourself to anything.”

“Yeah, that seems right.” Isaac stumbled off towards the kitchen.

Buck settled Charlie’s rocker on the floor in the common room and waited for his next nanny interview. All the ones yesterday had been fine, but the vibe with many of them had been weird. Will hadn’t been wrong about the age skewing young, which was a bit strange coming from Buck since he wasn’t exactly old, but it did lead to some subtle flirting, and Buck knew when someone was flirting with him, and this was one area where he wanted zero sexual interest.

He didn’t want to cause problems for anyone, however, so he’d given everyone good feedback so far, and said he was still going through his interviews. The whole thing felt weird to him, and every step in this process added to the feeling of walking through a dream.

Pushing Charlie’s rocker a bit, he smiled at her. “It’s like the Alice in Wonderland network around here, sweet pea. The all confusing, all the time, everything feels strange, I don’t know whether to eat or drink channel.”

She pursed her lips and tracked him with her eyes.

“You know, I read it’ll be about a month before you start smiling, sweet pea. I’m really looking forward to that. I just want to see you happy.” He’d seen a few reflex smiles already, so he knew what she’d look like smiling. He nudged her rocker back and forth.

There was a knock at the door, and he went to admit the woman he had the highest hopes for. He’d been given basic bios on all the candidates, and Elaine Price was the oldest of the candidates at forty-one. She had two children, fraternal twins, who were both seniors in college, and she worked as a nanny since they were in high school. She was married, and her husband was a long-distance trucker, so she was open to overnight work, though she hadn’t done much of it, with most of her experience ending by the late evening.

Buck opened the door and found a woman of average height and build, with dark brown hair and medium brown eyes. Her skin and features spoke to mixed heritage, at least partially Black and possibly some Asian, though she was on the lighter side. Almost everything about her was nondescript until she smiled. There was something very comforting about her smile, and it seemed to light up her whole face and change her entire demeanor.

She held out her hand. “Hello, Mr. Buckley, I’m Elaine Price.” Her grip was firm without being a pretense of some sort.

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Price. Please call me Buck. Come on in.”

“Just Elaine is fine if you’re comfortable with it.”

“Sure.”

In the common room, he introduced her to Charlie, who was dozing off and on the way she always did.

“She seems like a contented baby,” Elaine said with a smile, not making any overtures to hold or touch Charlie.

“Generally, yes. She likes being bathed, but she doesn’t really like being naked after the bath. She wants to be back in her clothes post haste. At least I think that’s the rhythm. I gave her one assisted bath on Thursday at the pediatrician, and last night was our first bath at home.” Fortunately, Will had been able to lend a hand, so Buck hadn’t felt like he was thrown in the deep end on solo bathing yet.

Elaine’s brow puckered a bit, but no other expression. “She’s a couple of weeks old?”

“Three weeks today. She was born on January first.” Buck undid the safety harness and lifted her from the rocker. “Come here, sweet pea. Let’s meet Elaine.” He had a good feeling about her. “I know the service was light on details because they’re letting me decide what to reveal and to who.”

“Understandable.”

“I’m adopting Charlotte, though right now I just have guardianship of her.” He hesitated a bit. “I have a good feeling about you, so I’m going to lay it all out, but if this doesn’t work out, I’d just ask that this—”

“I promise anything you tell me will remain client confidential. I take the confidentiality of my clients and would-be clients very seriously. I value the professional relationships I have, including with my service, and I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize any of those relationships.” Her gaze flicked to Charlie. “Or to hurt anyone involved.”

“I think they told you that I’m a firefighter.”

“Yes, which explains the odd hours you need a nanny for.”

“Charlie was a rescue. It’d probably be frowned upon that I even have her, because we’re supposed to walk away and not get involved…” he trailed off and shook his head. “Her mother was fifteen when she gave birth; her stepfather is the other biological parent.”

Elaine winced.

“The mother, for reasons that made sense to her, never disclosed she was pregnant, then gave birth to Charlie in secret—I believe in her bedroom—and then took Charlie up to the top floor of her building where construction was occurring and shoved Charlie down a standpipe.”

“Oh my sweet lord.” Elaine pressed her hands to her mouth.

“My team cut Charlie out of the wall. I helped get her out of the pipe she was stuck in and then ran her down to the ambulance. It’s been three weeks since she was born, and this is her fourth day with me.”

“And how did that happen?” Elaine asked softly.

“The mother was desperate not to have anything to do with the baby, but felt she had no choice. Reunification was being pushed pretty hard, I guess. I don’t really know what happened on that end. I think she only agreed to try to take care of Charlie because she was afraid they’d file charges against her if she didn’t keep the baby that she’d tried to kill.” Buck shook his head.

“How did they justify returning this sweet baby to that mother?”

“I don’t know, and ultimately that’s not my problem to sort out. The mother, in her heart, wanted nothing to do with Charlie, and she showed up here one night begging me to take her.”

“Why you?”

“I guess because she saw me advocating for Charlie over her on the scene. It wasn’t my best moment professionally, but when they wanted to transport the mother and Charlie together, I said no, that the victim and perpetrator had to be transported separately.”

“Isn’t that the rule?”

“It is, but I shouldn’t have actually made that argument in front of her.”

Elaine gave a mirthless laugh. “Except that it convinced her you were going to take care of her baby when no one else would. So maybe you absolutely should have made that argument in front of her. Wow. You know, Charlotte is derived from Karl, though it’s considered a feminine form of Charles. It means ‘free woman.’”

Buck smiled. “I met a Charlotte in my travels, and she told me the meaning of her name and how she was destined to be free. I wasn’t thinking of her specifically, but how I want Charlie to be free and not burdened by her start in life.”

“You named Charlotte?”

“Yeah, they didn’t name her for two weeks. Just called her ‘baby.’”

“And that wasn’t a red flag to someone?”

“I don’t know. I’m letting my attorney handle the CPS stuff. They arranged for me to get emergency guardianship because Charlie needed better circumstances, and now I just hope every day that nothing gets in the way of me being able to adopt her. But, in that vein, because I’m just her guardian, I can’t get parental leave for a newborn like most people would, so my childcare options are limited since I can’t get her in daycare until she’s six weeks old.”

“Hmm.” Elaine pursed her lips. “Not because I’m trying to get myself or anyone else steady work, but if you can afford it, I’d recommend a nanny service over daycare for a while. While children can start daycare at six weeks, it’s usually recommended for only a few hours a day. Overnights are rough, and kids don’t get the attention they need. Babies will oftentimes get more attention than older kids, but still not the one-on-one attention they really need to thrive.

“Once the adoption goes through, you should be able to get eight weeks of parental leave to give her full-time care yourself. Are you thinking that will be around four to six months from now?”

“They said six months would be early in an adoption, but it could be quicker if we can clear some legal hurdles since the mother is surrendering her legal rights and this is a private adoption.”

“A year is about the earliest I would recommend that kind of time at a day care, but you could work on a compromise, such as full-time nanny until the adoption and your parental leave, then when you go back to work, have a nanny during the days for more full-time attention when she’s awake, then have the nanny drop her off at daycare for the overnights. Charlotte won’t be suffering for lack of one-on-one attention at a time of day when she’s sleeping anyway. You could even do a nanny situation with a nanny who takes care of another child of similar age so the cost is reduced.”

Buck nodded slowly, thinking through the issues.

“But it all depends on finances, and I’m truly not trying to push for myself here. I know people have to make the childcare decisions that allow them to work, and I know firefighter salaries are tight as it is. Also, I understand this is a room share…?” She sounded hesitant to ask.

He smiled. “It’s okay to ask. I’m paying for the attorneys and nanny out of savings at this point, and that’s fine. Even if childcare and attorneys drained my savings, it would be fine. I own some property in another state that’s apparently the backbone of my financial situation.” He blew out a breath. “Thanks for being straight with me about what’s best for Charlie going forward; I’ll definitely give that some thought because you brought up some things I hadn’t even considered, like days with nannies and having the nanny drop her off at the daycare for overnight.”

Gesturing to the house, he added, “This is a room share situation. Will Connors owns the place, and he rents out the rooms. He’s studying for the bar while working at legal aid. He and I live on the third floor.” Making a decision, he got to his feet, grabbing the rocking seat with his free hand. “Come on up, I’ll show you.”

As he walked, he said, “Most of the first floor is common areas like dining, living, lounge, etc, though there are two bathroom-bedroom suites down here, which have the highest rent. There’s a half-basement with the laundry and places for bikes and outdoor stuff. The second floor is all bedrooms that are rented out.” Buck’s old room already had a new tenant. The roommate market in LA was cutthroat, but this was apparently a friend in nursing school with Isaac, and was in on Isaac’s recommendation. They were able to commute to school together.

She nodded in approval at the security keypad.

“This is basically the landlord’s floor, and he offered the suite to me and Charlie. I offered to start house hunting, but he suggested that I wait until the adoption goes through. And I agree. It’d break my heart, I think, to get a house for her and then have it all taken away. I don’t think I could live there after something like that, so we’re making do in here.”

She looked around and nodded in approval. “I’ve seen one-bedroom apartments in LA that are smaller. And you have use of the laundry facilities in the basement?”

“I do, but there’s a stackable set up here I use when Will’s at work. The timing is not to inconvenience him. I’d only need to use the big front-loaders in the basement if I’m doing blankets or something. Because of the number of tenants, Will put three sets of washers and dryers in the basement.”

“Oh, that’s nice all the way around. The house is huge. There must be six or seven bedrooms on the second floor.”

“Six, I believe. Three and a half bathrooms.”

“I can see why he converted a lot of it into room share. The property taxes on this home must be murder.” She looked out the window. “Lovely deck and backyard. Everyone has full run of it?”

“People don’t use it much, but yes. Will favors busy professionals who are new in their careers or students on an aggressive career course. Everything outside is common area, except there’s a therapy pool that’s closed. He offered to open it up if at least four roommates wanted to commit to extra rent to cover the increase in utilities, and only they and him would have use of it. But only two of us would, so it’s off-limits.”

“It’s wonderful that so much of the yard is available. This is a perfectly agreeable circumstance for a child her age. Is the pool secured?”

“Yes. You can’t really see it from up here, but there’s a fence around it. Since it’s just a therapy pool, it’s not obtrusively taking up a huge part of the yard the way a swimming pool would.”

“Well, then, I can’t see anything for your home study to object to, if you were concerned about that.”

He blew out a breath. “I’m a little worried, yeah.”

“Of course you’re worried; you’re deeply invested. Now, why is this area empty?” She pointed to where he’d cleared out for the chair being delivered later in the week.

“I’m getting one of those twin chair beds from Crate & Barrel delivered later this week for whoever is here for Charlie. I figured it was less awkward to have her care and the nanny in this room than suggest sleeping in my room.”

She nodded fervently. “I’m not sure how I’d explain it to my husband.” She grinned at him. “And I’ve seen those chairs, they’re very nice. Lovely solution that keeps your living room looking like a living room.”

“My landlord and friend, Will, suggested I add video surveillance to the suite. As you saw the signs, it’s in the common areas of the house…?”

She nodded, no change in her expression.

“Any issues?”

“Not in theory, but how do you handle privacy?”

“Either we set the cameras up not to point towards where the makeshift bedroom area would be, or set up a screen that blocks the camera. Preference?”

She considered for a few moments, then answered. “Screen. I think keeping all the living area in your monitored zone is a better idea, and then at bedtime, I can put up a screen and create a private area. That feels more comfortable than trusting that the camera angle is correct. Not to express distrust of you, but for the sake of my privacy and reassuring my husband I wouldn’t be caught partially undressed on someone else’s home security system, I think the privacy screen is the better option.”

“Okay.”

“And keeping Charlotte’s bassinette in view of the cameras at all times is easier to do with the screen.”

He decided to go with his gut. “You want to hold Charlie for a bit, and we can talk some more? I feel really good about this, so I’d like to answer any questions you have, and then we could discuss the employment agreement?” He’d already seen the background check from her service, so there wasn’t much else to do on his end unless he wanted to check references, but he honestly wouldn’t know what to ask. Maybe he should ask someone else about what to ask references…?

She smiled brightly, the smile that lit up her whole being and made grabby hands. “Even if it doesn’t work out, Buck, I would love nothing more than to get acquainted with Princess Charlotte before I go.”

Buck laughed and handed over Charlotte, who was blinking sleepily and making the little mouth motions that indicated she was getting hungry. “I think Princess Charlotte might become her full name. Go ahead and get acquainted. I’ll make her bottle.”

Every day since he’d brought Charlotte home, he was grateful to have her, and he was also grateful for bottle washing devices and a bottle warmer. Thank god for technology.

Elaine was smiling happily as she rocked Charlie. “If this does work out, at some point I’d like to have you meet my sister-in-law and get your written approval to talk to her about Charlie’s health.”

Buck turned from the bottle prep and raised a brow.

“She’s an RN who now almost exclusively does full-time in-home healthcare, and she’s my go-to for medical questions. I’d only ask her questions about Charlie with your permission, so I wanted to run it by you.”

Buck nodded. “Seems reasonable to me. I’m all for extra help if it’s after hours and Dr. Grace’s office staff aren’t available.” He handed over the bottle. “You have a lot of siblings?”

“Just the one older brother. He’s my half-brother, but we were always close enough that it never seemed like it.” She looked up from feeding Charlie. “You have siblings?”

“My older brother passed away from juvenile leukemia when I was a baby, so I never really knew him.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“I think the place he occupied in the hearts of those who remembered him was more defining than anything since I was a year old when he died,” Buck offered. “But I also have a sister who is almost a decade older. Though I haven’t seen her since I was eighteen, so…” His smile was a little brittle. “I’m doing good though. The family we make is more important than the family we’re born with, right?”

“You’re familiar with Star Wars, I assume?”

“You mean the movies?”

She nodded.

“I’ve never seen any of them, which has nothing to do with their or my age; I’ve seen very few movies at all. My parents didn’t do that sort of media when I was growing up, and then I never really had time for it afterward. My pop culture understanding is really skewed. I get some of it, though, because I’ve read some of the Star Wars books.”

“That’s helpful. I’m a major Star Wars nerd. Drives my brother and husband insane. Anyway, in the books you’d read, did you encounter the Mandalorians at all?”

“Not much in the books, but I read one comic that had them. Tales of the Jedi…?”

“Oh. Lovely. Pre-reformation. We’ll have to chat sometime. Anyway, I mentioned it because there’s a Mando’a saying. The literal translation is weird, but it’s basically, ‘Nobody cares who your father was, only the father you’ll be.’ No matter where you’ve been, or what your family may have been like, what matters is the path you’re on now.” She glanced down at Charlie, then back at him. “I’d say you’re doing all right.”

Chapter Three

Buck answered his phone shortly after it started vibrating. The days of cute ringtones were long behind him. They were doing skin-to-skin time, and Charlie was blinking slowly as she cuddled against him under the blanket.

He would normally ignore calls during skin-to-skin, but it was Mari, and he was waiting to hear from her. “Yep?” he answered softly.

“From that soft phone answer, I’m assuming you have Charlie close by.”

“We’re doing skin-to-skin, but I needed to hear from you, so… What’s the news?” All he’d heard from Mari yesterday was that they needed to meet again today at lunchtime.

“I’ve got news on several fronts, actually. I don’t suppose you two feel like coming here? It would allow you to meet with my colleagues, but if that feels overwhelming, I can try to gather as much as I can and come over after my last meeting and try to fill you in.”

He felt his stomach knot up. “Anything bad?”

“No, nothing bad. A lot of neutral stuff, some good, some excellent. Not all of it is my area.”

“We could do with an outing. I feel like I’ve become a bit of a shut-in.”

“Figuring out how to leave the house with your baby is probably a good dad step in your life. My admin has several kids and can help if things get rough while you’re here.”

“Yeah, okay. Charlie is pretty chill right now. Not that she’s not always chill. How about I leave in about thirty and be at your office in an hour?”

“Sounds perfect. See you soon.”

Buck hung up the phone and stroked his hand over Charlie’s head. “We’re going to leave the house, sweet pea. I’m not sure this is a great idea. Car seats, driving, full outfits!” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “We’ll figure it out. I imagine you’ll be the sort to want to be running around outside all the time, but if you’re a homebody who’d rather stay inside and read, that’s cool too.”

~*~

He pulled into the underground garage the law firm maintained and found the space number Mari’s admin had texted him. They had a limited amount of client parking available, and they gave it out on an as-needed basis. Since he was juggling a baby, they didn’t want him to have to try to find parking.

He reminded himself to stay calm and relaxed and not let his anxiety bleed over and affect Charlie. She liked being held more than the carrier, so he piled the diaper bag and other small things in the carrier while holding her tucked in his other arm.

Instead of Mari’s office, he was escorted to a conference room where there was a tea and coffee service with various pastries. “If you need water for the baby’s bottle, let me know,” Mari’s admin, Leann, said as she left.

Buck smiled and nodded. He cuddled Charlie to his chest. “We’re having an adventure, sweet pea.” He kissed Charlie’s head. “What do you think of the big old world? Is it better in our Hobbit hole?”

She gave a huge yawn and turned her face more into his chest.

“Boring, huh? I agree.” He kept her nestled to his chest with her ear pressed right above his heart, which seemed to be her preferred position.

A man who looked to be around Buck’s age entered with a smile on his face. “Mr. Buckley?” When he nodded, the guy held out his hand. “Don’t get up. I’m Carlton Oleson. I’m a junior partner at the firm, and I focus on estate planning and probate law. Mari’s held up a bit, and she asked me to go ahead and get started with you to make the best use of your time. Is that all right with you?”

Buck nodded and gestured to the chair. “This is Charlotte, by the way. She’s not rude, she’s just all about the naps right now.”

Mr. Oleson nodded and smiled at Charlie. He settled with a folder of papers in front of him. “You had apparently mentioned an inheritance from your grandparents that had specific conditions for inheriting before age forty…?”

“Yes, but the law firm acting as executor couldn’t disclose them. You have to apparently meet them without knowing.”

“Indeed. They’d indicated to Mari that you had seemingly qualified to obtain your inheritance early, but they needed to verify. Said verification was done rather quickly with our assistance, since you had given us permission to release records to them if needed.”

“What were the conditions?”

“That you independently obtain monetary wealth on your own. The milestones were set by age, so at your age, adjusted for inflation, it needed to be cash assets above a quarter of a million dollars. And between your retirement vehicles and savings account, you more than exceed the threshold several years past.”

Buck nodded.

“The next criteria was that you own land property of your own. Apparently, they didn’t think to exclude property that came to you through inheritance, so the property you obtained through Ms. Prudence Wells qualifies.”

“Oh. That seems like a cheat.”

“The law is a game of being very specific, and they weren’t at all specific about how much land or how it was obtained, simply that you be the majority owner.”

“I see.”

“Though there is also some property held specifically for you from them in trust that is part of the inheritance. That part of the trust was specific that if you inherit the monetary portion of the assets, the property is released as well at whatever age you inherit, though I will have no details on the property until I receive the packet from your grandparents’ executor. Though they did think to specifically exclude that piece of property as qualifying under the terms of the inheritance. I’m uncertain why they never excluded other direct inheritance as a qualifier for that clause in the will.

“The final criteria was that you either be married or have a child. The will provisions were specific in this case about what having a child meant. It could be through adoption, fostering, guardianship, etc. They were apparently looking for signs of fiscal responsibility and maturity.”

Buck blinked. “Okay. I assume I’m not supposed to tell my sister?”

“Your sister was excluded specifically from early inheritance when she was in college due to a falling out with your grandmother. That’s all that was noted by the executor. She will inherit a monetary amount fixed by your grandmother when your sister turns forty, and not before. The amount and provisions are apparently known to your sister already, as they were disclosed to her by your grandfather after the falling out with your grandmother.”

“I see. Or rather I don’t, but I don’t think I’m supposed to, and I’ll be honest that I don’t really care about whatever my sister did to get on the wrong side of my grandmother since my sister was obnoxious to my grandmother most of the time in my limited recollection, and I adored my grandmother, so….” Buck sighed, having a suspicion that he’d been too young to understand arguments about money. “To get back on track…. I’m getting the inheritance over thirteen years early?”

“Indeed. The executor saw no reason to delay releasing your inheritance, so I’m here to sign paperwork with you if you’d like us to handle those matters for you. Also, I wanted to determine if you’d like us to do at least some preliminary estate planning. Set up trusts, wills, and whatever else might be needed.”

Buck frowned. “I have no idea what might be needed, and it probably depends on how much money we’re talking about. If they left me a hundred thousand dollars, that’s a different discussion than if they left me five million.”

“It’s a little over seventeen million.”

Buck blinked.

Then he stared.

Then he reminded himself to blink. “How about you tell me the minimum you’d want to deal with after such news if you were in my shoes?”

Oleson laid out a blank piece of paper and made three quick lists. The first was “do immediately.” The next list was “do soon.” The third list was “think about for the future.”

“You all right?” Oleson asked after there had been a long silence.

Buck swallowed, his throat making a little clicking sound. “I’m struggling through shock, honestly, but I’m trying not to let it change my plans too much.”

“Want me to pour you a cup of coffee?’

“Tea would be better.”

While Oleson made the tea, Buck blew out a long breath while gently patting Charlie’s back and contemplating the lists.

When Oleson returned with the tea, Buck picked up a pen and drew a few arrows between the first two lists. “I want to bring a few of the ‘do soon’ items to the ‘do now’ list. And, uh, I need two versions of some of this paperwork-slash-planning. One if I get to keep Charlie, and one if I don’t. I’m trying to build my life as if she’s mine, and I want that more than anything, but until the adoption is finalized, I recognize I may not get to keep her.”

“I understand, and I’ll make alternative plans just in case, but we are going to ensure you get to keep your daughter, Mr. Buckley.” Oleson put the pages in his folder. “I’m going to draw up a client services agreement for you to sign before you leave. You and I will probably be meeting more than you and Mari in the near term, but hopefully you won’t have to see me too often after that.

“If you don’t have anyone in mind for financial planning, I can send you a dozen recommendations for you to consider and vet further.”

“Please do.”

“Wonderful. Would it be easier for me to meet you at your home or is here in the office okay?”

“Could be variable. As long as she’s chill and not going through a colicky phase, I think it’s good for us to get out of the house. How stressful things are at my job might also be a factor.”

“All right. As I understand it, the firm did not include the potential inheritance from your grandparents in any paperwork for the home study or background check. You adequately qualify financially as an adoptive parent without those assets, so there was no point in bringing up the potential additional assets since they were an unknown quantity.”

“You think someone could take an interest in it?”

“I think there’s no reason to spark the interest of the sort of person who would take an interest. It’s a change in circumstances that doesn’t hurt you, and there’s no harm in letting sleeping dogs lie, as it were.”

“I’ll trust yours and Mari’s judgement on that.”

“Excellent.” Oleson looked at his phone. “Our colleague Noah Haney had an update on another matter for you. He’s personal injury and employment law.” Oleson shot him a quizzical look. “Are you expecting to meet with him?”

Buck wasn’t, but he pasted a wooden smile on his face and managed a nod. Noah was looking into the Welles situation.

“Okay, then. It was wonderful to meet you, and I’ll have some papers for you to sign before your meetings with Mari are over. And then we’ll have the documents for the transfer of your assets from your grandparents’ estate ready before the end of the week. Most of it can be couriered to your residence. Mari had indicated this week was quite busy.”

No kidding. Buck had the home study tomorrow, and then he’d probably collapse like an undercooked soufflé afterward.

Haney arrived a few minutes later, looking calm and professional. “Mr. Buckley.”

“Mr. Haney.” Buck gestured to the seat nearest him, not trying to create barriers.

“My apologies for springing this on you, but I wanted to brief you on where we were since you were in office and I had the opportunity.”

“I wasn’t really expecting much progress yet.”

“I’ve been making discreet inquiries because the time certainly isn’t right to do anything overt. Then unexpectedly, I was contacted by someone from the union in the Valley Bureau…? Does that sound right?” He consulted his notes.

“Yeah, there are four geographical zones in the LAFD. Valley, Central, South, and West. I work in West. Valley is the biggest geographically, though. It’s also closest to us, so we tend to have the most overlapping calls. Or rather, if they need backup, we touch their territory, so we’re the most likely to be able to provide it. We’re the only bureau that touches all the other zones, so we back them all up, but my particular station is closest to Valley.” He paused. “What’d the union rep call about?”

“I’d been making some subtle inquiries about Brittany Welles, and got a call back asking why. We eventually met for a beer and had an off-the-record conversation. He’s raised more than one complaint from firefighters who claim they were blackmailed-slash-coerced into having sex with her in exchange for her signing their return-to-work certification.”

Buck froze. Then he held up his free hand. “Is Mari’s admin, um… Leann? Can she come get Charlie for a minute? She offered when I first arrived, and I’m about to get really tense, and Charlie gets fussy when I get tense. And I don’t want to have this conversation with her in my arms.”

It took a couple of minutes, but Leann was happy to look after Charlie for a few minutes. Charlie never woke through being transferred to her car seat and sent off with her bottle and a temporary babysitter.

“All right,” Buck said, leaning on the table, hands folded around a cup of coffee this time. “So, she’s preying on firefighters?”

“Possibly police officers as well, since there’s an overlap in who she treats. Someone in HQ or in the union is burying complaints. The union rep who talked to me knows of at least two more union reps who have sent in complaints about her, but they’re going nowhere. All the reps are in Valley Bureau, so it could be a problem with their HR rep, their union leadership, or further up the chain.”

“Why did he approach you?”

“He’s making some leaps. Some accurate, some not. He sees a pricey lawyer from a private firm asking about Welles. He jumped to the conclusion that she pulled her stunt on a recent academy graduate with money to burn. He’s hoping it’s someone from a different bureau.”

“He’s not that far off, just the motivation he’s implying is wrong.” Buck rubbed his forehead. “He’s implying I’m such a rich nepotism hire used to getting my way, rather than this is a side effect of something else.” He met Haney’s gaze. “And I am in another bureau, so he’s got his wish. I don’t think my personal union rep will help because the guy is a dick and hated me on sight for some reason.” Buck turned the problem over in his mind. On the one hand, he really didn’t want to be involved. On the other, he couldn’t not get involved if she was coercing sex for return-to-work clearances. “Whoever contacted you probably knows who we should talk to in the West Bureau. Technically, I can go to any union rep I want.”

He gave Haney a tired smile. “I’d just really hoped to have more traction on the adoption before this came to a head.”

“You’re getting in to see a new counselor, right?”

“I have the intake appointment on Friday. Dr. Grace helped me get in quickly and did a quick phone call to prep things. Instead of a usual two-hour intake, I have two two-hour intake sessions. First on Friday and the second is on Monday.”

“It’s good to get that done before you take other action, I think. If you want to move forward, I’d suggest we meet casually with George. Maybe the middle of next week. What are your shift days?”

“I work on Thursday and Saturday next week.”

“Okay, you finish your intake with your therapist on Monday. I won’t give names, but how about I try to set something up with George for Tuesday or Wednesday, and if your therapist thinks talking to George is a bad idea, we’ll cancel.”

Buck nodded. “What would be next, do you think?”

“My guess is we’d be using me as the battering ram to get several complaints together and go straight to the main LAFD HR. Either they take it seriously, or they get a lawsuit. I’m assuming no one wants an actual lawsuit, but we may need the threat to get someone’s attention if the complaints are being rug swept. The only other option is if the union rep from West Bureau is just on the ball, well-connected, and can get things done without my intervention. In which case, I can just be a backseat driver and advise him on how to proceed. To some degree, that might somewhat be up to you since you’re footing my bill.”

Buck shook his head. “No. When it comes to this case, it needs to be what has the best chance of success with the least impact to everyone’s careers. And it can’t have a negative outcome for the situation with Charlie. I can apparently afford to lose my job, so I’m not worried about that so much, though I’d prefer not to damage my career in the process, but I will not hurt my chances of adopting her.”

“I completely understand.”

~*~

Mari returned with his kid. “I’m keeping her.”

Buck shook his head with a smile. “The hell you say. You want some coffee?”

“I do, but I need something without caffeine. I’m so on edge from this horribly litigious child custody case. Awful. I’ll never sleep if I throw more caffeine on that particular fire.”

He perused the tea offerings. “For decaf, there’s a chai rooibos, mint chamomile, orange jasmine rose something…” He turned the package over to try to figure out what was in it besides flowers and orange peel.

“Tastes like mud. One of our high-profile clients loves it, so we put it in the tea basket, but it’s nasty. I’ll have the rooibos, if you’re game.”

“Sure.” He picked a white ginger peach for himself, wanting to lower his caffeine intake. He didn’t experience caffeine buzz too much, but Charlie was definitely making him appreciate taking his power naps whenever he could.

Once he’d passed over the tea and taken his seat, she breathed it in while cuddling Charlie, who was out like a light. “So, you got the probably neutral news from Noah about the department follow-up?”

“Neutral is a nice way of putting that, but yes.”

“It’s relatively neutral, leaning toward positive. He got information without using your name, and he may be able to handle the situation without going outside the department, which would be optimal based on our last conversation regarding your wishes.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

“It doesn’t feel neutral because you don’t want to deal with it.”

He made a face.

“I’m not going to pussyfoot around this with you. I like you a lot, Evan Buckley. I look forward to the day you’re not on my active client roster so I can just come hang out with your kid. To get to where you want to be in life, and to be the father she deserves, you have to deal with your mental health shenanigans. The shenanigan here is simply not getting therapy. The sexual assault thing, well, if you can’t take visceral satisfaction in dealing with that nasty predator, I’ll be happy with being viciously satisfied on your behalf.”

Buck sighed. “Yeah, okay. You’re in charge of all retribution.”

“Lovely! We can be friends. And I did warn the managing partner that I saw you more like a friend than I should, so it was probably good this was an adoption case, but if he sees me getting a little too salty with CPS, he’ll probably intervene.”

Grinning, Buck sipped his tea. “I like you too, Mari. You’re like the rancorous sister I always wanted.”

“You have a sister.”

“She hasn’t taken my calls in years.”

Mari’s eyes narrowed. “Hm.” She delicately sipped her own tea. “Anyway, and then there was the good news from Carlton?”

“That name… Did his parents have him in the Hamptons or something?”

“Yes, actually.”

“Come on.”

“I’m not even kidding.”

Buck face-palmed.

“But he learned cutthroat estate management at his estate manager father’s knee, so he knows what he’s doing. We were lucky to recruit him to the West Coast.” She gave him a searching look. “Does it take some weight off your mind?”

“Yes, but it feels stupidly surreal. Seventeen million seems absurd to me.”

“The five-million-ish in cash and property you already had is more than most people will have in their lifetimes, but in LA, twenty-two million net worth is sort of meh in the grand scheme of things. If you want to feel overwhelmed with your financial circumstances, I suggest you move to Des Moines.”

Buck sighed.

She smirked a bit but then sobered. “You already could afford what you needed, but now you can do it without touching your savings or using the ranch as collateral. When you’re ready, you can get a house for you and Princess Charlotte. You’ll be able to afford a surrogate someday if you want more kids, because you are a natural father.”

Buck flushed. “I feel so incredibly immature half the time.”

“I think you’ve just got some issues you need to sort out and haven’t had a support system you could rely on for much too long. And if you’re being an immature jackass, I promise to tell you.”

Laughing, Buck nodded. “I’ll hold you to that.”

“On the subject of the princess…”

He nodded, expecting some sort of update. “You met with CPS today.”

“Yesterday, actually. We did some meeting juggling, and our meeting got pushed to late yesterday because they knew we’d likely need to go before the judge this morning. And I didn’t say anything because it was all up in the air until we talked to the judge. Ms. Coburn wasn’t present when she was originally supposed to be. I think CPS did some digging based on some information I provided, and she’s presently suspended pending internal review.”

Buck reached out for a muffin and tore the top off, setting the bottom aside to eat never.

“You going to get through hearing all this?”

“I think I need to hear it.”

“That really wasn’t my question.”

He took a vicious bite of the muffin top. “I have the top of a bran muffin. How could my world go wrong?”

She snorted. “Danielle Coburn was the case worker for Marika Samaras.”

Buck frowned in confusion. “Yeah, I know.”

“No. Marika’s case worker. For the allegation of abuse from her stepfather.”

“Holy shit.”

“She dismissed the allegations and closed the file. This was before the sexual abuse actually began. I had a call with Marika, just to confirm if Coburn was her case worker, but it was like a wound being lanced, and all this poison started coming out. Marika admitted that the initial allegations had been about some physical abuse and inappropriate touching—the abuse following her responding negatively to the inappropriate touches. Marika told Coburn everything, thinking she’d get help. Instead, Coburn treated her like she was attention-seeking and told her to stop lying.

“The supervisor was frank with me that there’s evidence that Coburn failed to do her job entirely during a certain period of rough work performance. I’ve done some digging around, had my private investigators do their magic overnight and some more today. A few months after Marika’s case was closed, Coburn was in a twenty-eight-day residential treatment program.”

“Oh.” Buck took a moment to process the ramifications of that. “You think she was drinking on the job?”

“I think she was a fall-down drunk on the job. Marika remembers smelling alcohol on Coburn when she’d visit during the original case, and Marika was thirteen at the time. There’s apparently nothing official in Coburn’s file, so it’s likely that friends, coworkers, and family were covering for her. They’re the ones who probably pressed her into treatment.

“Coburn seems fine now, but it doesn’t change the fact that there’s evidence Coburn wasn’t doing her job properly then, and it occasionally comes back to bite her in the ass. Some case she closed or ignored while she was drunk, rises back to the surface, and she makes an effort to get the case again to cover up for her mistakes. There also seems to be a coworker or two, possibly a former supervisor, who are assisting in her efforts. I’m speculating on the last.

“What I do know is that reunification between Marika and Charlotte was premature, that Charlotte should have been in foster care for some duration of time while Marika went to parenting classes and had extensive therapy, and there should have been intensive assessments of the home environment to ensure it was suitable for Charlotte. Literally none of this was done. CPS’s own procedures were ignored left, right, and center, and they admit this. Coburn pushed for quick reunification because she wanted to file good status reports, close the case as fast as reasonably possible, and avoid anyone looking into her past failures with Marika.

“Some of this is supposition, but it’s well-founded supposition based on the evidence we have. Regardless, Gretchen did have full legal custody of Charlotte since Marika is a minor, which did give Gretchen the right to draw up paperwork for a temporary guardian for Charlotte. It’s hardly our fault that CPS prematurely took their hands off the case.”

Buck frowned. “Is that an issue?”

“One of the CPS supervisors wants another bite at the apple. Start over entirely with Charlotte, take her back into state custody, and attempt a do-over, regardless of the fact that Marika has already signed the paperwork to terminate her parental rights. The other supervisor, the more senior supervisor, doesn’t agree, but it was a major point of contention.”

Buck felt his heart clench.

Mari made a placating gesture. “That was where we left things late yesterday. This morning, we went before the judge handling the case in chambers to explain the situation, and because of ex parte issues, Marika’s attorney was present as well. I want to reassure you that the judge is not inclined to start over, from what I could tell. He’s aware Charlotte is in a stable situation currently, and also that a home study is being conducted tomorrow by a firm the court uses all the time.

“I’ve spoken with the firm doing the home study. It usually takes a while to finalize the report, but we are all going to appear before the judge for a brief hearing on Thursday morning, and they are going to give a preliminary finding. You have nothing to worry about because you have a suitable home, all right? The director at CPS and the judge are inclined to move forward as things are, but because of the damn irregularities, we need to put a bow on this so no one else can justify opening a new CPS case based on Coburn’s negligence and getting an emergency order to take Charlie since her custody situation is in a weird legal limbo right now.”

Buck swallowed heavily and was incredibly grateful when Mari passed Charlie over to him so he could have her close. “I don’t want to panic.”

“Then don’t panic. This is legal maneuvering. CPS fucked up, and there are two ways for them to pivot. One is to go hands off and let private agencies handle it, and the other is to get super involved and do everything Coburn should have done weeks ago and didn’t do. We just need to show the judge that we’re on the right path.”

“I-I hired a nanny. Should I have her there for the home study?”

“It’s not a bad idea. It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to have her come to court with you if she’s available. Remember, the home study through this agency is handled in two distinct parts to lessen the pressure on you. One person is just assessing the home, and they are also the one who does the background check for the agency, which has already been completed. The other is the one who will do the sit-down interview with you. It’s non-confrontational, and they do it this way so you don’t feel like someone is picking your home apart while talking to you about your life.

“However, always be aware that everything is being observed, okay? So, your interactions with your roommates, your nanny, the gardener, the neighbor, the mailman…whoever. It’s all there for them to consider. Also, if your nanny can be there for the judge to talk to if he wants, that’s perfect.”

Buck nodded jerkily. “I’ll call her when I get home.”

“That’s great. I know this seems like a setback, but in many ways, it could be good.”

“How?”

“Because CPS could be done with this case entirely and ordered to stay away from you and Charlie unless there’s a credible new complaint.”

“Or I could be ordered to hand her over to CPS.”

“I honestly do not believe the judge is inclined to go that direction, and the expense CPS would be facing in legal challenges would be immense because Gretchen has the legal right to turn over temporary custody of her granddaughter. So, any move they make would only be short-term and for show. Which they should know, and the judge definitely knows. Okay?”

Buck nodded.

“Now, we’ve had a few phone discussions prepping you for your interview portion with the social worker. Do you want to have another chat in the morning, or do it now?”

“Morning, I think. I’m too…something right now to take it on board.”

“Fair enough. Also, the judge met with Marika this afternoon. I don’t know how that went from official legal channels, but unofficially, he’s pretty furious that she was forced to take Charlie home, and the gut feeling from all involved is that the judge is going to want to do what’s best for Charlie, and to hell with what CPS has to say at this point. He signed off on her surrender of parental rights. It’s a formality, but it’s basically done. Marika has no more rights to Charlie.”

“Oh.” Buck felt like he’d had his strings cut. “She has thirty days to change her mind, right?”

“There’s a waiver she can sign to surrender those thirty days, and she, her mother, and the judge agreed to it. From what I heard, the judge feels Marika was always an imminent threat to Charlie, considering her animus toward her own child. That Coburn had forced reunification under threat of prosecution if Marika didn’t agree to take care of Charlotte was one of the worst dangers the system had put Charlie in. The judge also fully heard Marika’s rationale for why she picked you.”

Buck flushed. “She didn’t even know me.”

“No, but she picked up on what mattered, I think. In any case, I will call you in the morning to discuss the major things to avoid talking about in your interview, but mostly I want you to be as sincere and unrehearsed as possible. We’ll just go through the reminders about how to frame things, and you’ll be fine.”

“Okay.”

“Come on, I’ll walk you down. We’re going to make sure everything is okay.”

As soon as Buck was in the car, with Charlie snoozing away in her seat, he called Elaine to ask her about tomorrow.

“Hello, Buck. How are you?”

He froze, nothing coming out of his mouth.

“Buck?”

“Sorry.” He cleared his throat. “I got an emergency call to the attorney’s office, and I’m just flustered.”

“Is everything okay?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll have to…I don’t know.” His mind was a mess. “We’re having an emergency hearing on Thursday with the judge on the case because CPS wants to take Charlie.”

There was a sharp intake of breath.

“I’m sorry. I’m skipping around, and I really called because we’d talked about it possibly being a good idea for you to be there for the home visit. And, uh, Mari thinks it’s a good idea, and she also thinks it’d be good for you to come to the hearing on Thursday if you’re available.”

“I am available. Why don’t you and Charlie come over here for dinner, and you can fill me in on everything if you feel like it. It’s not the first family court drama I’ve either been in the court for or testified at, and it sounds like you need some company. Also, my husband is home, and it gives you two a chance to meet.”

“I don’t want to intrude on one of the nights you two have together.”

“Oh, please. I’m taking a full-time nanny position for a hot, young firefighter. He really needs to meet you, and there’s a chance Charlotte will be around him, so it’d be good for you to meet the big dodo I’ve been in love with since I was in middle school.”

Buck smiled. “Yeah, okay.”

“I know my address is on the paperwork we filled out, but I’ll text it to you in case you’re like me and just put phone numbers in your address book.”

“Thanks, Elaine. If nothing else, dinner among adults sounds great.”

He texted Will that he was taking Charlie over to meet the new nanny’s family, and that he’d have lots of news for him tomorrow after work on the whole situation.

Will had been supportive and invested in the situation, so Buck knew he’d want to know the legal updates as soon as he had them.

Chapter Four

Buck opened the door to find a younger, cheerful-looking man with a sloppy manbun and bright green eyes.

“Hi, I’m Jake Summerfield with Hope Children’s Services.” He started to offer Buck a card and show his ID, but then he hesitated. “You have your hands full, and you’re holding her like she’s a bomb about to go off.”

Buck huffed. “Sorry. We had our first follow-up with the pediatrician this morning, and she’s finally seven pounds on the money, which is great because she’s gaining weight. And they were enthused for me because it means we can try a wrap, but I don’t know how anyone trusts their baby in this thing. I’m sure she’s going to fly out of it any second.”

Jake grinned. “I’m sure she’s not, and the whole point of them is to leave your hands free so you can do stuff. Want me to check it and make sure it’s on right?”

“I’d love like nine opinions on if this wrap is on right. My nanny is dropping by in a bit to keep an eye on her during the interview portion, but I figured I’d be okay for the house tour, but now I’ve got this wrap on, and I don’t want my baby to fall out!”

Jack laughed. “All right. Let me in and I’ll have a look.”

“God. Panic turns me rude. Come on in.”

Jake set his messenger bag down in the entryway and quickly did a 360 around Buck, checking the fit of the wrap and how Charlie was secured in it. “It’s on perfectly.”

“You sure she won’t fall out?”

“She’s not going to fall out.”

“Hmm. Maybe one hand for a bit.”

Grinning harder, Jake offered his card and showed Buck his ID, so Buck could verify the right guy was coming into the house.

“Thanks for making it easy to confirm you’re who you say you are.”

“No problem at all.”

“I’ll show you the common areas down here that we access, and then we’ll head up to our apartment.”

“You have your own apartment in the house?”

“It’s a suite with separate living area and small kitchenette. So…yes? Anyway, down here, it’s pretty much the kitchen and only if I want to cook something I can’t handle with the Ninja air fryer upstairs. If I were cooking a big meal, I probably would do it down here because there’s no dishwasher upstairs, and handwashing anything is a wretched waste of life energy.”

Jake laughed. “Okay, so it’s just the kitchen down here then?” He looked around, making a few notes on his tablet.

“Do you want to look outside? There’s a deck, yard…normal house stuff.”

“Sure.”

Buck had to answer a few questions about the therapy pool, and Jake checked the security of the latch, but in short order, they were headed upstairs, and Jake was asking about security and who had access to the third floor.

“So, just you, the owner, the cleaning service, and any other contractors the landlord hires?”

“In terms of the code, just the first three, and my nanny. Any other contractors Will has to be here to let in or he gives them a temporary code and he then deletes it from the system. Everyone has their own code, and he can track when the codes were used.”

“Does he do background checks on his cleaning service?”

“He does background checks on everyone. I’m sure in a year, he’ll be checking Charlie’s background.”

Jack grinned. “Does the cleaning service clean your space?”

“No. I clean my own suite, and no one has a key other than Will, and I’ll be providing the nanny a key. Her first overnight with Charlie will be this Saturday.”

Buck left Jake to peruse the suite, sitting in the rocker with Chalie, who seemed to have no issue with the wrap, just as happy to be strapped to Buck’s chest as held to it.

Then Jake sat in the wingback chair near Buck. “What are your plans when she’s out of a crib and needs more space?”

“I’d be buying a house now if I were one-hundred percent sure the adoption would be approved. My lawyer is sure, my friends are confident, but I’m afraid to have that hope and lose her.” He rocked and patted Charlie’s back. “The minute the adoption is finalized, I’m house hunting so she has all the things of her own that she deserves. I kind of have a house in mind. The owners want to sell, but they’re fussy about who they sell to, so it’s not on the market yet.”

“And I’ve done your background check, so I know you can afford a house of your own.” Jake nodded. “Is there consideration to moving to Colorado?”

Buck frowned. “Not really. We might visit, but there’d have to be a pretty significant change in circumstances for me to leave LA.”

“Normally, I ask about child proofing plans for once the child is more mobile, but either you’ve child proofed already or the suite came childproofed…?”

“I childproofed. Before I’d had time to do all the research, I wasn’t sure when she might start crawling, and I didn’t want to be caught unawares. Neither room is ideal for a kid to play in—my room or the main room—but I figure if we’re here that long, I’ll sort out a play area for her. My hope is that the process doesn’t drag on long enough for her to become independently mobile. Also, my nanny will probably have her over at their house part of the time on my work days, and I’ve already seen their home, and there are a lot of child-appropriate play areas since Elaine babysits between nanny gigs. Will has also been making some noise about turning one of the unused guest bedrooms up on this floor into a playroom, but I think he’s being super extra.”

Jake made a few more notes on his tablet. “I’ll be honest that you made this easy because I usually have lists of things people need to adjust, but in terms of assessing the home environment, there’s very little for me to comment on. You’re even carefully assessing her bottle temperature… How are baths going?”

Buck scowled. “She hates being naked. I’m following the pediatrician’s advice on how often to bathe her, and I’m just glad we’re not at every night baths yet, because her displeasure at the brief period of time she has to be without clothes after getting out of the water is a misery.”

Jake tapped away on his tablet and then turned it to face Buck. It showed a zip-up towel with a hood with an animal head. The one on screen looked like a penguin. “Some kids hate the sudden drop in temperature after a bath. Maybe try keeping her in the towel longer until she’s completely dry and then shift her back to clothes?”

“I will absolutely try that!”

Jake smiled. “I think you’re gonna do fine. I noticed the front door is self-locking?”

“Yeah, you always need a key to get in, but anyone can get out, of course. Same thing with the back stairs.”

“And since your landing is secure, I’ll show myself out. You stay there comfortably with Princess Charlotte. Thank you for your time, Mr. Buckley. I wish you and the princess the very best.”

“Just Buck is fine, if that’s okay.”

“Sure. Unless you move before the adoption is finalized, it’s unlikely I’ll have cause to cross paths with you professionally again, but I can call you Buck either way. Take care of yourself and the little one. Congrats on her weight gain.”

“Thank you!” Buck said brightly. Then he was alone again with his little girl. “That wasn’t so bad, sweet pea. Everyone wants to see our house.” He kissed her head, but she was asleep, which was pretty much what she did, but Dr. Grace said it was normal for her to sleep, especially if she was getting everything she needed. And considering she’d gained nearly half a pound in a week, Dr. Grace felt like she was getting proper care.

Buck let his cheek rest on Charlie’s head. “Yeah, we’re doing okay.”

~*~

Buck finished making coffee in the French press for his second visitor, who was an early arrival. He wasn’t sure why he’d expected both his visitors to be women, but it threw him for a bit of a loop that they were both men.

Dr. Cedric Manning was a Black man and probably in his seventies, and his demographics were only notable in that social work was probably an unusual field for him back in the day, even if it wouldn’t be such an odd choice now. He’d accepted an offer of coffee from Buck and then happily accepted getting to know Charlotte, who was awake for the moment.

“Cream or sugar?”

“Just a splash of cream if you would,” Manning replied without looking up. “She’s a contented baby.”

“She doesn’t cry much as long as she’s warm and fed,” Buck commented.

“And held?” Manning asked, glancing up.

Buck frowned. “I hold her all the time. I mean, I follow Dr. Grace’s guidelines about making sure she sleeps in her own bed, but Dr. Grace says contact is good for her, so…”

Manning just nodded with a faint smile and accepted the coffee, taking a sip before setting it on the end table. “I’ve read all the background on this case, Mr. Buckley.”

“Buck, please.”

“Buck, then. How’d you wind up with that name?”

“There were three other Evans at the academy, and I started going by Buck. If you don’t pick your own nickname, it will be chosen for you.”

Cedric laughed.

“After a while, it felt like me. Felt like I’d come into my own.”

“Fair enough. Most of my clients freak out about calling me Cedric, but you can if you’re comfortable with it. Or Mr. Cedric, if it’s easier. Some even prefer Dr. Cedric. In any case, I know the details of the case, but I’m always interested in the why. Marika picked you because you’d stood up for her baby in a system she saw as corrupt. Even though she wanted nothing to do with the child, she also didn’t want the system to damage the child the way it had damaged her.

“Which is interesting considering what she’d just tried to do to the child. Tell me why. Why go out on that limb professionally?”

“I wasn’t wrong,” Buck said stiffly.

“I didn’t say you were. In fact, from a protocol perspective, you were dead right. But no superior, and considering you’re a probie, everyone there would have been a superior, would have appreciated being called out in that fashion. I’m not saying don’t call out injustice where you see it, but most won’t take that sort of risk. Why you? Why her?” He tipped his head to Charlie.

“I’d just help cut that baby out of a wall—out of a pipe. She’d been flushed away like refuse, and she was somehow miraculously still alive.” He thought about all the topics he was supposed to avoid if possible, and the coaching on how to skirt them, but he thought he needed to try to address this. “I was a savior sibling. I’m not sure how detailed your records and background checks were.”

Manning’s eyebrows shot up. “That actually didn’t come up.”

It had taken Buck working with Mari’s private investigator to parse the whole situation with his family and put it together after making some uncomfortable phone calls back to family connections in Harrisburg. The final bit of information had come from the executor of his grandparents’ estate, who had answered some questions for the investigator, just casually, since Buck was the heir. It was all still new info to Buck, and he was still trying to figure out how he felt about it, but the newness didn’t need to be shared with anyone.

“One thing I shared with Marika when she showed up at my door, before I knew she wanted me to adopt her baby, was that a child will know if they’re unwanted. No matter if the right words are said or the right things are provided, they will know, and it’s a great cruelty to do that to them. Because no matter if you say it’s not your fault, they will always believe they could have done more.

“The bone marrow cells they harvested from me when I was a year old didn’t graft, and my brother died. And then what use did they have for me? I went through my entire childhood not knowing why I wasn’t good enough for my parents to love me. Not knowing what I was doing wrong. Certainly having no way of knowing that the more I grew, I began to look a little too much like the son they wished I’d been able to save.

“My situation is not Charlotte’s, but all I heard from Marika that night was that she had an unwanted baby. When I sat there in the ambulance holding this baby who had survived by some miracle, and they loaded the person who tried to flush her into the sewer in with her, all I could think was, what if she tries again? How do you predict the emotional state of a teenager who has just given birth and has just tried to murder her own baby?

“They wanted to let a would-be murderer hold her would-be victim on the way to the hospital. Marika could have snapped Charlie’s neck before we could have acted. Charlie was already so unwanted by this…girl. It was hard to see Marika as also just a little girl. I just saw a would-be killer and the child she treated like trash.”

Manning’s gaze was sad, but his expression was stoic. “Were you able to make any of those points?”

“Nothing beyond we don’t transport the victim and perpetrator together, and I was basically told to shut up.”

“And for doing that much, Marika decided you should have her baby.”

Buck shrugged.

“What was that like for you?”

“You mean when she showed up at the house? Or agreeing to take Charlie? Or what?”

“Tell me about her coming to the house.”

“You can hear it if you want. My landlord is studying for the bar. He works for legal aid, and he sat in on the whole thing. He obtained her consent to record.”

“Hmm. I very much would like to hear the initial conversation, if you’re agreeable.”

“Sure.” Buck got to his feet and got his tablet, which was connected to a Bluetooth speaker, and set it on the table next to Manning’s coffee after getting it set up to play. “Charlie is starting to appreciate music, I think.”

“Oh? What does she like?”

“Sam Cooke and Al Green, I think.”

“Ah. Impeccable taste, young lady.” Manning patted her back and hit play on the recording. When it was over, he nodded to Buck. “Thank you for letting me hear that, young man. It certainly clears up any questions I had about the origins of this story. You seemed quite surprised at the end of your part of the conversation when Marika mentioned your brother. Do you mind if I ask why that was?”

Buck hesitated because he didn’t want to directly lie to Manning. “My parents moved right after my brother died to a whole new city where our family wasn’t known. My brother was erased from existence; all his belongings were thrown away, except for things my grandparents kept, but they were in a different town. No one was allowed to speak of him. Easy for me since I was a year old and didn’t know anything.

“My sister is a full decade older and… Well, it was difficult for her. To the degree that I think it was instrumental in her cutting off contact when she left for college. I only know about my brother because of my grandparents, and they passed on years ago.” True, but the timeline was all jacked since Buck only recently found out. “It’s just shocking that anyone would know about my family. I guess it never occurred to me to Google myself. Am I the only person of my generation who has never checked themselves on the internet?”

“Perhaps.” Manning chuckled. “Regardless. I am sorry about the loss of your brother and the impact it had on your family long-term. But instead of creating hardness in you, it’s generated a point of empathy that allowed you to reach out to Marika, and she’s now surrendered her parental rights. That’s no small thing. Because one thing we can say for certain is that Marika should not be raising this child, and no child at this time.”

“No, I agree.”

“I understand Gretchen pressed you hard for financial remuneration…?”

“Yeah. It was hard not to give in. But I understand how any money would be perceived as attempting to buy Charlie, so I just kept my mouth shut and followed the advice of my attorney.”

“But you wanted to give Marika money?”

“No, but also yes? It’s confusing. I don’t want to give her money for Charlie, and I don’t think she deserves money for anything she did or went through in regards to her baby, but her situation is so fucked up, and her parents just…. I don’t know. Part of me wishes I could have set up an education trust for her so she’d have a chance of going to college or trade school and having a better foundation for the next kid that comes along. Because I figure some day she’s going to have kids she wants, and they deserve better than the hand Marika has been dealt.”

“I can see where you’d be torn, and your impulse does you credit, but also that you’d follow advice of counsel.” Cedric gave him a meaningful look. “Based upon our background check, you’ve been remarkably good with money and have been gainfully employed most of your adult life.

“Your education was a little confusing, and I asked Jake to let me inquire about that. It showed that you didn’t go to college, but also that you were in college. The records we obtained were odd.”

Buck frowned. “I graduated high school early and started college when I was just-turned seventeen, but couldn’t join the football team until I was eighteen. I was just shy of completing two years of college when I left. I turned nineteen my first summer on the road. When I settled in Colorado, my employer, who later became my good friend—”

“Ms. Prudence Wells, who left you the property?”

“Yes, she encouraged me to see how many credits I needed for my associate’s degree. I already had way more than enough because I’d been taking a double class load, and I only needed a little more than a semester of actual work at double classes. But it took me a little over a year due to course dependencies. One full semester of classes, plus three more semesters to get through the classes that had each other as prerequisites.

“I’m not sure why my records are messed up, but Prudy paid for my tuition and everything, and I paid her back later, but everything was transferred to CU Colorado Springs.”

“What was your degree in?”

“Chemistry, which was a goofy fit for me, and also why I needed to tack on three semesters of prerequisites. But the BS programs are very limited at UCCS, and it was the best BS for my existing credits. I would have preferred an engineering program like mechanical or civil engineering, but the programs there were more in the realm of aerospace, biochem, and computer engineering. Wound up being a good thing though because chem dovetails better with fire science than an engineering program would have.”

“Things work out sometimes the way they’re intended to.”

There was a tap at the door, so Buck got up to answer it and found Elaine there, looking perplexed at Buck already having a visitor. “Am I late?” She entered and smiled. “Cedric!”

“Hello, Elaine! Ah, Mr. Buckley, you have one of the good ones.”

Elaine flushed a little. “Pish. Now give me that sweet baby so you and Buck can talk.”

“Oh, if I must.” Cedric tickled Charlie’s cheek. “You’re a darling. May your life be blessed all your days, little one.” He handed her off to Elaine.

“Buck, I thought I might try walking her in the stroller…?”

“Sure. Will okayed parking it in the little closet on the porch. It’s not locked or anything, and it’s not in use other than that bin I bought to keep the diapers for pickup. I think it was intended for patio furniture, but who has the energy to put their patio furniture away? Text me if you can’t find it.”

“I know exactly what you’re talking about. Come on, Princess Charlotte. Let’s go see how we feel about the stroller.” She halted. “Oh! You said she’s up to seven pounds!”

“Yes!”

“How’s the wrap?” She grinned at him.

“I hate it. I’m convinced she’s going to fly out of it at any second.”

Elaine laughed. “Have a good talk with Cedric. He’s a wonderful man; if I’d known you were seeing him today, I’d have told you that you didn’t need the meditative breathing this morning. We’ll be back in a bit. It’s good to see you again, Cedric.”

“Always a pleasure, Elaine.”

When it was just the two of them again, Cedric gave him a smile. “You got the pick of the good nannies.”

“I liked her the moment I met her, and I didn’t want any flirting with my nanny, which had been sort of a problem with some of the others I had interviewed. Elaine is perfect. Friendly and professional.”

“Speaking of flirting, and pardon the ham-handed segue, but there’s no easy way to bring this up, but our investigator found some indications that you might have a bit of a reputation…?”

“I’m not sure what they found or might have heard, but I’m pretty easy with my affections, if that’s what you’re asking, and since we’re using euphemisms.” Buck forced himself to stay relaxed and friendly.

“Can you tell me about that?”

“I’m not sure what you want to know…? I don’t sleep with married people unless they had lied to me about their relationship status; I always practice safe sex, and prefer that my female partners are explicitly using another form of birth control besides the condom, because while I don’t have a problem being a father, I don’t want to deal with custody battles, and I don’t like the idea of an accidental pregnancy,

“I like sex, and I’m not particularly apologetic about that. Until recently, I wasn’t looking for a long-term relationship, so I was careful to seek out partners who were on the same page as me, so there wouldn’t be confusion about expectations. Is there anything else you need to know?”

Cedric was giving him a contemplative look. “Where do you see your intimate relationships now that you have a child?”

“I’m not sure what you’re asking. Are you asking about dating? Hookups?”

“Let’s start with hookups.”

“I’m not sure how that will work. Hookups have always been spontaneous, but now it has to be on a night when I have a sitter, and it has to be at their place. It certainly takes all the spontaneity out of it.”

“So, you don’t intend to bring these one-night sexual partners here?”

“Casual sexual partners? Around my baby?” he asked incredulously. “Of course not. I’m sure at some point I’m going to want to get laid again, and I’m going to ask Elaine to take Charlie for an extra evening, then I’m going to find someone in a bar and make sure we can go to their place. I just don’t feel up to that level of planning right now. It sounds exhausting.”

Cedric smiled. “Okay, what about a relationship?”

Buck frowned. “I don’t know. I think I need to learn some more of this parent stuff and how to introduce prospective partners to your kids and all that business.”

“I see. What’s your concern?”

“I’m gonna put my kid first, you know? End of discussion. I need to be sure this mythical future partner gets it before they meet my kid, and they need to like my kid, not just me, and there are so many things to think about. Also…” Buck sighed. “There was this woman I was sort of getting to know over the phone. She’s also a first responder, and relationships turn to sex too fast once we meet in person, so I was trying not to meet yet.

“Anyway, Charlie came into my life, and she called, and I kind of started sounding her out about kids, but she doesn’t want kids. It was like being doused with cold water. So, I tried to steer our conversations to the idea of being friends and not being romantic. I didn’t tell her about Charlie yet, because no one knows about me adopting, and I’m not even sure how my work would react—but that’s a whole other story.

“Anyway, I thought I could use more friends in my life, and Abby could too. She’s dealing with stuff with her mom; it’s a whole big drama. Abby didn’t take it well, and after a couple of calls, said if I wasn’t interested, I could just say so. I said that having a family someday is important to me, but I really like her, so even if I don’t see romantic potential, I thought we could be friends.” He frowned down at his hands.

“How did she respond to that?”

“She said she never thought I was Mr. Forever; she just wanted someone to distract her for a while, and I should get over myself thinking every woman wanted to be with me forever. It was a rather brutal putdown.”

“How did you deal with that?”

Buck shrugged. “Charlie needed a bottle, and I had baby stuff that had just been delivered for the nine-hundredth time that day, so I needed to go downstairs and get it. It seemed like I had plenty to do without Abby’s bull, um, crap.”

Cedric smiled. “So, you’ve moved on?”

“I misread the potential, but I’ve got good friends, so it’s okay.”

“Hm. With your family background, tell me your experience of familial love?”

“My grandparents,” Buck answered without reservation. “They died when I was pretty young, so it’s hard for me to point to a lot of specific incidents, but I never doubted they loved each other or loved me. It was in how they spoke to each other and how they spoke to me—every hug and kiss and gesture of affection.

“I recognize that now in how Elaine and her husband interact, and I even got to meet her brother and sister-in-law, Howard and Carla, and they’re the same. The way they speak to one another says love. The way they seek each other out for casual touches—reassuring touches. Even if it’s just a pat on the back when Howard’s team loses.” He chuckled. “In a weird, quirky, LA-style coincidence, Carla knows Abby and recognized me from Abby’s mentions of me. I’m still not sure I even get that, but that was so weird. But she promised to keep news of Charlie to herself.”

Buck considered for a second. “Marika has an uphill battle, you know? I can’t help but think she must resent the hell out of her mother, but she can’t say anything because her mother is all she has. While I was there in their home to fill out the guardianship paperwork, I made myself keep quiet, but all I could think was that it felt so manipulative. And even guilt-ridden, I guess. I don’t think Marika wants anything to do with her mother, but she’s dependent on her, so she figures out ways to deal. I couldn’t even tell if there was real love or if it was just anger with a thin veneer of the emotion people are supposed to present to the outside world.

“I don’t want any of that life for Charlie. Life has ups and downs, but I don’t ever want her to doubt that she was loved. Without reservation and with no conditions, she’s loved.”

~*~

“You are so much work, little miss,” Will groused at Charlie where she was lying on the bed, staring at him as he folded the laundry. He’d agreed to watch her while Buck took care of all the little things that constantly needed doing around the house, including the laundry, but for some reason, Will had come with his own basket of baby clothes to fold.

“What are you even doing?” Buck asked with a laugh.

Will held up an odd pink towel. “I express ordered a couple of those animal towels that the social worker recommended to try to get her past her bath time nudity trauma.”

Buck laughed at the towel with ears and whiskers. “Seriously. That’s so great. What even is that?”

“It’s a cat. It looked cute online. I also got the penguin. And maybe there’s a frog and a sloth in the basket too.”

“Sweet! Shall we try bath time?” Buck was all about a helper for baths because he’d only had to do it a few times total, and every time he was sure he was going to drop her on the floor, whether he had help or not. But he was absolutely sure a safety net was a good idea.

“Yeah, let’s see if the towel works.”

Buck had spent the last hour catching Will up on all the goings on of the last day, and now he sat Will on the edge of the bed with Charlie while he got the newborn bath out and started getting everything set up. The actual bathroom was the only room suitable for doing the bathing. The kitchen counter and sink weren’t big enough, while the bathroom counter was huge.

Will sat and watched, but he was oddly silent.

“You digesting all the information I threw at you?”

“Seems like a lot has happened very fast,” Will said slowly. “How are you doing?”

“I don’t know. Freaked out about this hearing tomorrow.”

“Want me to come?”

“You don’t have to do that, Will. You already do so much.”

“Rephrase. Can I come tomorrow?”

Buck turned from where he was laying out the after-bath setup on the bed. He blinked at his friend. “Of course you can come.”

Will nodded and looked back down at Charlie. “Hey, Princess, everything is going to be okay.” He drew his finger down her nose.

“I’m going to fill the tub in a second. Get ready to bring her in.”

“This is going to be hell when she can move more on her own. We’re going to drop her,” Will mumbled as he entered the bathroom.

Buck laughed.

~*~

The towel was a huge success. Just as Charlie was starting to get her scrunched-up face from the sudden temperature change of wet skin to evaporating water, she was wrapped up in a warm towel that would stay on for several minutes. She instantly went to sleep.

Buck stared at where she was zonked out in Will’s arms. “Hm. The trick is going to be getting her in a diaper before she pees on one of us.”

Will handed her over.

“Coward.”

Will grinned. “I’m going to fold your laundry, Buckley. I’m a nice man.”

Buck sighed.

After a few minutes, when Buck had managed to sneak Charlie into a diaper without waking her, and Will had gotten the rest of Charlie’s clothes folded, Will casually said, “The inheritance must take a huge weight off your mind.”

Buck didn’t even have to think about it much before answering, “Only on the childcare front. It doesn’t really change the long-term plans, I don’t think. It helps me afford Elaine full-time and not have to put Charlie in daycare before it’s advisable for her age. Other than that…” He hesitated. “I’d rather not move before the adoption goes through.”

Will glanced up and smiled. “Good.” He leaned over a stack of onesies and stroked Charlie’s cheek. “We’ll get you adopted, Princess, and then we’ll find you the castle you deserve.”

Chapter Five

Buck’s cell phone startled him during his before-bed skin-to-skin time with Charlie. She was out like a light, which wasn’t unusual since she fell asleep on a dime given the opportunity, and fortunately, his little jump didn’t wake her.

The display read ‘Cap.’ He somewhat reluctantly answered. “Hey, Cap.”

“Buck, I just wanted to let you know that there was an accident. Chimney was seriously hurt.”

Buck sat up straight in bed, holding Charlie close. “What happened? Aren’t you guys on shift? Was anyone else hurt?”

“It’s a long story, but he left for a while and had an accident on the freeway; it had nothing to do with the shift.” Bobby paused. “He was impaled through the skull with rebar.”

“Oh god. Will he—” Buck broke off and forced himself not to voice the question.

“He was talking at the scene, didn’t even feel the rebar, which went front to back. Most remarkable thing I’ve ever seen. He’s still in surgery. I know you’re on leave, but can you get down here? It’d be good to have you with us.”

Buck nodded, then forced himself to speak. “I, uh. Yeah. I’ll be there. Probably a couple of hours.”

“So long?”

“I wasn’t kidding about the urgent situation here. I need to get someone to cover for me.”

“Cover for you?”

“I, uh, I’m looking after someone, but I’ll just be as long as it takes me to sort this out. Text me the hospital details, okay? I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Right. Of course. We’ll see you soon.”

After hanging up, Buck took a deep breath. He had a few options, and he’d been psyching himself up for this sort of situation where he had to rely on others to step up and take care of Charlie at the last minute. He could either ask Will or call Elaine—both had offered emergency childcare. For that matter, so had Isaac, but that seemed like a last resort situation.

The final option was to take Charlie with him, but he really wasn’t ready for that.

Steadying his nerves to actually ask someone for help, he shifted Charlie in his arms and left his suite, heading down the hall to Will’s suite. He realized he’d never been to Will’s room before. He knew where it was, of course, but he’d never been inside it.

He knocked softly on Will’s door.

The door opened almost immediately, and Will stared at him for a beat. “You’re coming to my room half-dressed with a baby. If I were gay, I’d be totally baby trapped right now.”

Buck snorted in amusement. “Ass. I have a huge favor to ask.”

Will stepped back and gestured for Buck to come in. “If it’s a shirt, the answer is no. I think of myself as a beefy guy for my heritage, but your shoulders put everyone to shame, and you’d blow out all my T-shirts.”

Buck outright laughed. “You are so weird sometimes.”

“If it’s childcare, of course the answer is yes. What’s up?” The suite was a reverse mirror of Buck’s, but decorated in softer, airier tones of pale green and white.

“One of the guys on my shift took a piece of rebar through the skull. He’s in surgery right now.”

Will’s eyes widened, and his expression sobered. “Holy shit. He isn’t dead?”

“They said he was talking at the scene, unaware of his injury.”

“Damn. You need to go?”

“At least for a little while, yeah. I’m not sure how long. I’m definitely cognizant of the hearing tomorrow, so I’m going to go to the hospital for a little bit to try to support everyone, but hopefully it won’t be too long.”

Will waved it off. “As long as you are back for the hearing, that’s what matters. I’ll take care of the princess. No worries.” He held out his arms. “Just go. I know where all the stuff is in your room, so I’ll get what I need and bring it back here if that’s okay with you…?”

“Yeah, whatever you need to do is fine. Since it’s just you and me up here, it’s not like it needs to be locked up right now. And you’ve got Elaine’s number if something comes up?”

“I do. But we’ll be fine. Keep me posted. Go. Hope your friend makes it.”

“Thanks, man. See you later.”

Buck contemplated Will’s words as he gathered a shirt, jacket, shoes, and keys.

Friend.

Was Chimney a friend?

At one time, he would have said yes, but was he really? Was anyone on shift a true friend? How would he go about measuring that?

Would any of them get him a rocker just because he needed it? Would they fold his baby’s laundry and put it away because he was tired? Would he take his baby to them unannounced and ask them to babysit because there was an emergency?

It was definitely something to think about.

~*~

He found Bobby and Hen in the OR waiting room. “Bobby.”

Hen was instantly on her feet and gave him a hug. “I’m so glad you came. He’d be so pleased you were here.”

Buck frowned internally but settled for hugging Hen back and wondering why Hen perceived that Chim would care if Buck were at the hospital. Chim seemed more annoyed by him on most days based on the tone of his jokes.

Bobby patted him on the back. “Glad you could come; sorry to drag you away.”

Buck shook his head. “It was no problem.”

“Everything all right?”

“Yeah. Just looking after someone who needs me right now, but I was able to call in some help for a few hours so I could be here with you guys. Any news?”

Hen stayed with an arm curled around him as they sat on a bench. Bobby took a chair on his other side. “Not much,” Hen answered. “One of the nurses came out with a brief update a little while ago and said they’d managed to extract the rebar, and they are working on fixing the damage now. It’s hard to say which is more delicate, extracting the rebar or the repair, but it’ll be a little while longer.”

Buck tugged them both to their feet. “Well, then, sitting here isn’t actually doing either of you any good. I’ll let whoever is at the desk know we’re running down to the cafeteria to get some shitty coffee. We can sit at a comfortable table, and you can tell me the details.”

“But we need to be here,” Hen said.

“For what? They can call you, and they’ll know you’re in the hospital. Even if he were out of surgery right this minute, which we know he won’t be, it will be hours before he’ll be out of recovery. Something to drink, possibly a snack, and a walk will do you both some good. Come on.”

He got them both in motion with surprisingly little effort, then he went to the desk to let them know he was going to get coffee. The nurse was able to point him to which of the hospital cafés was still open and advised him which coffee was the best to order, and not to trust the espresso drinks. Message received.

As they walked, Bobby shot him curious looks.

“What?”

“You’ve gotten surprisingly nurturing in a week.”

Buck huffed and felt his face heat. “Well, you’ve never seen me with someone close to me in the hospital. Nurse Rachel advised that we not order any of the espresso drinks. Apparently not to be trusted, but any of the regular coffee drinks are safe that aren’t from the espresso machine.”

“That’s good to know.”

“She also said there’s a little cluster of tables out the door to the left. The building architecture hides it, so it’s mostly staff who sit out there, but it’s not a normal break time, so it should be open, and there are heaters since it’s chilly out.”

Bobby smiled at him. “That’s a nice thought. Thanks.”

Once they all had drinks and were sitting outside by a ridiculously small pond, Buck, with his tea in hand, asked, “What happened?”

Bobby and Hen exchanged looks, both seeming hesitant to say for some reason.

“Is there a reason not to tell me?”

Bobby stared at his hands, wrapped around the paper coffee cup. “Chim was upset with me and left the station.”

Hen reached out and squeezed Bobby’s wrist. “It’s not your fault. Things happen, and you weren’t wrong.”

“About?”

With a sigh, Hen replied, “He asked Tatiana to marry him.”

“Bobby did?” Buck asked incredulously.

Both Bobby and Hen blinked and then started laughing. Hen laughed so long and hard that she got a cramp in her side.

“Oh my god, that hurts, but I needed that.” She leaned over and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “Never change. No, Chim asked Tatiana to marry him.”

Buck’s face twisted up. “But they barely know each other, and he lies to her…about everything.”

Hen’s expression shifted to something sad. “Yeah. That’s more or less what Bobby said after Tatiana turned Chim down cold, and Chim got really upset and took off. Then the accident.”

“Ah.” Buck looked at Bobby. “Not your fault. I mean, it sucks all the way around, but it’s not your fault you told him the truth, Bobby. I know you didn’t say it in a way that was cruel because I don’t believe you have it in you to be cruel about something like that.”

Bobby smiled sadly. “You have a high opinion of me, kid.”

“Maybe, but I do know you’re fundamentally kind about personal matters. You wouldn’t have been cruel about it. It’s hard to hear the truth sometimes.” Buck turned the cup of tea around in his hands, letting the warmth soak into his palms. “How we respond to the truth when we hear it is up to us.”

Hen’s hand settled on his arm. “You sound like you’re speaking from experience, Buck. Everything okay?”

He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but the truth wouldn’t come out. He wanted to trust Hen and Bobby, but he wasn’t there. Not about Charlie. She was too precious, and he didn’t trust them not to be judgmental about his choices. “I recently found out I have a sibling I never knew anything about.”

Hen’s brows shot up. “Oh?”

He wasn’t even sure why he went there, but it was a truth that was startling and might explain why his headspace was a little weird sometimes. Buck gnawed on his lip. “Turns out I was a savior sibling, only I wasn’t a very good one, I guess, and he died when I was a year old.”

“Oh, Buck, I am so sorry. You just found out about this?”

“I think the way it was put to me was something like ‘maybe your parents didn’t like you because they blamed you for your brother’s death.’ Something like that. That’s the way I internalized it anyway. Anyway, the truth is hard to hear sometimes, and what we do with the truth when we hear it is entirely up to us. I get the urge to be reckless with yourself or even with other people, but it doesn’t make it any easier to sleep at night just because you’ve been reckless trying to cope with your feelings.”

Bobby blew out a breath. “I am so damn sorry life brought this lesson to your door.”

Buck shrugged. “It is what it is, but this is about Chim, really. You know, he’s seeking something, feeling like something is missing, trying to fill a void with other people’s accomplishments. Basing his relationship on those same lies. We all knew it wasn’t sustainable, and it’s not even the point anymore. Once the physical injury heals, the hard road starts. First, fix the broken heart, and then the really hard work begins. Whatever that void is that makes him claim others’ accomplishments exists in his relationship as some amalgamation of other people rather than as himself.”

“No one can force him to face those demons and fix those things,” Hen said softly. “That’s a personal choice. Everyone has to face personal growth when they’re ready for it.”

“True, but friends and family don’t have to enable our shitty choices either. Thereby sending the message that they endorse the choices.” He gave both of them pointed looks.

Bobby gave a self-deprecating grin. “Touché. Chim wouldn’t have been so shocked by what I said if I hadn’t known and somewhat enabled him in lying to her.”

Hen blew out a breath. “I guess I enabled him in lying to her too. On the few occasions we’d have dinner with them together, I’d never contradict any of the wild stories he’d bring up or she’d mention. I’d just agree as if it were true. Karen hated having them around as a couple because she hated seeing me lie and refused to participate in it herself.” She gave a wry smile. “I guess I’ll get my beautiful wife’s advice on how to walk the line between support and enablement.”

“Solid choice,” Bobby agreed. “If she has good advice, please let me know. I’m definitely too enmeshed already.”

Hen reached out and tapped the back of Buck’s hand. “And you… If you need something, you just have to say. I know Chim’s going to need a lot of help and focus for a while, but we can do more than one thing at a time. If you need something, even if it’s a quiet place to make a phone call, just say something, okay?”

“Agreed,” Bobby said firmly. “I had no idea, Buck, and I apologize for my lack of support in our messages.”

“It’s fine, Cap. I’m fine. But if I need something, I promise to ask, all right?”

“I’ll hold you to it.”

Buck stayed at the hospital for close to four hours, keeping Hen and Bobby company, getting to know each of them better on a personal level, but he never felt comfortable bringing up Charlie. He wanted to, but he felt it was too much to risk this early in the process, especially since he wasn’t sure how the department might officially react to her adoption.

When Chim was finally transferred to the ICU and Hen went to sit with him for however long they would let her stay, Buck walked with Bobby to the chapel, then made his farewells to go get a few hours of sleep so he wouldn’t be a zombie for his hearing in the morning.

~*~

The hall outside the chambers of the Honorable Andrew West was a little crowded. Buck and Will were sitting together with Charlie, Buck holding her against his chest because she was a little grouchy about being in her car seat and he didn’t want a fussy baby in Judge’s Chambers.

Mari had arrived shortly after them with Cedric Manning walking along beside her. They seemed to be having a social conversation, not minding that their chat about rugby was easily overheard.

The CPS team arrived next. Two supervisors and two attorneys. They made Buck’s teeth itch since they wanted to take away his baby.

Then Elaine arrived, looking a little harried. She walked right up to him and dropped a nearly maternal kiss on his head before dropping a similar kiss on Charlie’s forehead. “Hello, my darlings. Traffic is wretched, and parking is worse. I should have taken you up on your offer of a ride.”

Buck smiled faintly. “Thanks for coming.”

“Moral support is vastly underrated,” she said with a smile. “We all need to know we have people in our corner. Hello to you, too, Will. How is your day going?”

“Will be much better with more caffeine, but I’ll tend to that next.”

To his surprise, Dr. Grace came next, storming right up to the judge’s chamber door and banging on it. “Dammit, West. There’s a whole gaggle of people out here, standing around like lost geese,” she yelled through the door. “Let’s get on with this nonsense. I have other patients to see, and I don’t have time for you to keep people waiting so you can prove who has the bigger robe!”

A moment later, the door was opened by a very tall and very broad man with medium skin and friendly eyes. He looked like he had at least some Polynesian heritage, though Buck would bet on quite a lot of Polynesian in the good judge, and he loved the melting pot that was LA.

“Grace,” Judge West greeted in a dry tone. “I didn’t realize you were on my morning docket or I’d have called in sick.”

“Let’s get a move on! I moved two patients to come hear CPS defend their ineptitude and why they should get to make up for it with more ineptitude.”

West sighed. “I don’t believe that’s the actual purpose of this informal hearing, but do come in before the entire building knows you’re here.” He looked at the number of people in the hall. “Good grief.”

As soon as they were inside the office, and every available seat was taken, with a few people left to stand, namely the CPS attorneys, Dr. Grace turned to Buck and stared with her hands on her hips. “You’re still not using the wrap? Why not? She’s finally put on enough weight to be put in it safely.”

Buck flushed. “It’s in the bag. But, Dr. Grace, I’m like…” He flailed about for an analogy. “I’m a whole beanstalk. And she’s like a pea. Not even a pea pod yet. She’s going to fall right out; I’m sure of it!”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake! Hundreds of thousands of women who wear that model wrap—of all shapes and sizes, and indeed some men—have not dropped their babies. Millions of women around the world who carry their babies in a sling and freaking buckets of water on their heads at the same time and they have not dropped their baby.”

“Surely someone has dropped their baby,” Buck countered weakly.

She huffed and pointed at him while grabbing the wrap out of the baby bag, with Will gleefully helping. Then she started putting it on him. “You are not going to drop her,” she said emphatically.

Buck sighed and surrendered, slipping Charlie into the wrap once it was on properly. Charlie got over being curious about the newness of the situation and immediately fell asleep, her face tucked into his collarbone.

“See,” Dr. Grace said with a bright smile, “she’s fine.”

“You are so mean to me. I was fine holding her.”

“You need to talk to the judge. Let Charlotte sleep.” She led him to the chair right in front of the Judge’s desk. “Here’s the thing, Andrew, CPS put that child back in the care of her biological mother when they never should have. We all know they screwed up. Charlotte was barely gaining weight in her mother’s care, was being kept in a basket by the bed, had diaper rash that indicated she wasn’t being changed enough, and likely wasn’t being bathed properly.

“We may now know why CPS screwed up, but letting them have a do-over when Charlotte is in good hands is ridiculous. Yes, Evan is a new father. He knows about as much about babies as you did when you had your first, and all of yours are still alive and thriving. Charlotte is gaining weight on schedule after a very short period of time in Evan’s care; her diaper rash has completely cleared up, which is actually quite remarkable; and her skin is in very good condition for a child her age. From a medical standpoint, I have no complaints about the care this child is receiving. He even listens to me about making sure she sleeps every night in her own bassinet. Do you know how hard it is to get new parents to do that? I swear.

“Now, I’ve said my piece, so I’m going to stand here and stare at you disapprovingly until you do the right thing. Just do it quickly so I can get back to my next patient.”

“Grace,” Judge West said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I can’t make a judicial decision based on your opinion.”

“Well, get on with whatever you need to know.”

West rolled his eyes and looked to the CPS attorney. “Well, what’s your position?”

“The State of California should have jurisdiction in this case. There was indeed negligence on the part of one of our case workers, which is an internal matter under review, but that doesn’t change the fact that if we were to unwind to the first improper event, Charlotte Samaras would still be in a state approved foster home, and not in the care of Mr. Buckley.”

“If the child is doing well where she is, what’s the rationale for removing her?”

“We can’t know she’s in a proper environment,” the attorney replied. “CPS has been denied access to her.”

“Your honor,” Mari interjected, “that is a gross misstatement of the facts as to border on a misrepresentation to the Court. I would like to invite my colleague to rephrase.”

The attorney stared at Mari. “Are you saying we haven’t been denied access?”

“I have the whole encounter recorded, with Ms. Coburn’s permission, not to mention the home security system captured the entire visit on video. She came unannounced to Mr. Buckley’s home. Despite him not being required to give her access, he allowed her to survey the home. It was my meeting with her supervisors about that unannounced visit, when her bad prior acts with Marika were brought to light, where the supervisors agreed to stay away from Mr. Buckley, that CPS, by their own choice, agreed to stay away until the home study was complete.

“And in my multiple meetings with the multiple supervisors, including an emergency session with Judge West, it was agreed that since Hope Children’s Services was doing a home study, we would wait for the outcome of that before determining if CPS would be involved further in the case of Charlotte Samaras. So please don’t front and act like CPS has been undermined here. If you’re being undermined, it’s by your own employees.”

West held up a hand. “Enough. Your point is well taken, Ms. Bettencourt. And she’s right, Mr. Dapremont. Your statement was extremely misleading. I would go so far as to say Mr. Buckley accommodated CPS. Let’s move on. What else does the state have to say?”

Dapremont cleared his throat and looked at Cedric. “Would Mr. Buckley qualify as a foster parent, Mr. Manning?”

Cedric’s eyebrows shot up. “My report isn’t prepared yet, but I was assured everyone was aware of that, but my short answer is of course not.”

Dapremont gave the judge a smug look.

“But that’s not the bar, now is it?” Cedric added. “I’m not even sure why you asked something so foolish, Mr. Dapremont. Frankly, you wouldn’t qualify as a foster parent either.”

West rubbed his temples. “Can you elucidate, Dr. Manning?”

“The highest bar in a home study is a long-term, unrestricted foster parent. It’s an incredibly difficult threshold because the state is weeding out a lot of problematic behaviors, plus there are archaic rules, and they’re also looking for any indicators that might lead to someone milking the system or taking advantage of children. Then we look at who might qualify for short-term, emergency fostering for specific age ranges. Some people are suited to take babies, while others are suited to take teens.

“The next bar is someone who applies to adopt. That threshold is easier to clear, and we aren’t scrutinizing motive quite so diligently and looking at every little thing in someone’s background. Mr. Buckley’s case is honestly a rubber-stamp situation. It’s a directed, private party adoption. The only thing easier for us is when someone dies and leaves custody of their children to a relative, or a stepparent adoption.

“In the latter two situations, the state will sometimes hire us to go in and make sure the home is safe, and if it is, we okay the adoption. We barely talk to the prospective adoptive parents. But a private party adoption of this nature is more along the lines of the aforementioned stepparent adoption and the like. The state takes the position that it’s not for us to say who someone leaves their children to, or who, say, a pregnant mother chooses to leave her baby to.

“There are simply some cases where the adoption is closer to a rubber stamp than the evaluation Mr. Dapremont is asking about. That said, because we were advised there could be issues with Mr. Buckley being able to adopt Charlotte, I did conduct formal interviews with him. We treated the whole situation as a full-scale evaluation. He does meet quite a high bar on our criteria. As a long-term foster placement, I wouldn’t approve him on a few factors.

“First, he’s fairly new in his job. He’s still in his probationary period. The mitigating offset there is that he’s stable financially without his job, but the newness of his career would be a limiting factor for us in approving him as a foster parent, and only as a foster parent.

“Also, he’s a single parent. We do occasionally approve single people to foster; it’s happening more and more frequently, which I think is likely a good thing, but it’s an incredibly high threshold, and we’d bring a higher psychological scrutiny on a single parent foster, which wasn’t done for this evaluation.

“The next issue is lack of family ties. Mr. Buckley’s support system is largely friend-based, which I don’t discount because they seem reliable and quite supportive.” Cedric gestured to Will. “That said, it does raise concerns at the level of approving him as a long-term foster parent. If there were only one factor of concern, I wouldn’t hesitate to approve such a loving young man who is obviously good with his daughter as a foster parent, but with multiple unresolved issues, mostly related to integrity of home structure, I probably wouldn’t recommend him for a long-term foster parent at this time, but I wouldn’t hesitate to approve him as an adoptive parent.

“There is another category, which is for emergency foster placements, and I would approve Mr. Buckley for emergency placement for infants, and probably even toddlers, provided the toddlers weren’t coming out of a deeply traumatic situation. I’d need a deeper evaluation for emergency placement when it comes to children who can express trauma and who they stay with on a short-term basis. There would have to be psychological evaluations done that haven’t even been scheduled. That’s all unnecessary speculation because Mr. Buckley has not applied to be a foster parent.

“That said, this is preliminary, and if this were to proceed further at a legal level, and foster parent approval was desired by the court for some peculiar reason, I’d want a more comprehensive psychological review so I possibly could approve him as a foster.”

Buck was frozen in his chair, staring at Cedric, not sure what to make of the brutal analysis of his life.

Will squeezed his arm.

Judge West looked back at Dapremont. “Well?”

“Mr. Manning already said it. Mr. Buckley is not foster material.”

“That’s not exactly what I heard, counselor.” West’s expression was deeply unimpressed. “And he’s not her foster parent; he’s her legal guardian, even if that whole arrangement was legally dubious. Also, the biological mother has surrendered her parental rights under a directed adoption agreement to Mr. Buckley. So far, I’m not hearing anything from the state that would invalidate the mother’s wishes.”

“Ms. Samaras is a minor. She cannot have custody of a minor child.”

West actually scowled. “It’s like you think I didn’t go to law school. Right here in California, in fact. Gretchen Samaras had full legal and physical custody; you yourself signed the paperwork, Mr. Dapremont, so let’s not dissemble. Gretchen signed the guardianship agreement giving temporary physical custody to Mr. Buckley.

“And just because her mother, by law, had to hold custody, nothing denies Marika her parental rights. Rights I believed she was of sound mind to surrender as she’d been evaluated several times by therapists and social workers subsequent to the event and deemed to be of sound mind. In fact, her therapist reported her mental health has greatly improved since she surrendered custody of Charlotte to Mr. Buckley.

“Normally, judicial review isn’t necessary for a mother to surrender her parental rights, but because of the unusual circumstances here and Ms. Samaras’ age, Mr. DeWitt felt my review was necessary, and I can see why. We aren’t doing the run around on this. Again. If the department wants another bite at this, you’re going to have to actually go all the way back to you turning the child over to Gretchen Samaras.”

West frowned. “Actually, no. Because even if we undo the custody side of it, nothing takes away Marika’s parental rights. You would have had to have initiated legal proceedings to have her rights terminated, and you’d need a ton of case work you never bothered to do in order to accomplish that in an involuntary procedure.

“So, the surrender of her rights will stand. It must stand. And like any mother giving up her rights, she has the legal right in this state to decide who will adopt her child. The question we must ask ourselves is who will have legal custody in the short term, and if Mr. Buckley will continue to have physical custody. So…you have to prove you have the right to take Charlotte from Mr. Buckley. Go. What’s your case?”

“Mr. Buckley isn’t suitable to be a foster parent,” Dapremont said, like an automaton.

“He doesn’t need to be. He’s her legal guardian for the moment, and I’ll admit it’s a tangled mess because technically, Gretchen Samaras was perfectly within her legal rights to make Mr. Buckley Charlotte’s guardian, and yet in a normal adoption case, even a directed adoption, the home study would precede such a placement. Also, if CPS had been doing their damn job, Gretchen Samaras would never have had custody to begin with, but the fact remains that she did.”

West drummed his fingers on the desk. “Mr. Buckley obviously has physical custody. I’m not giving CPS a do-over and removing the child from a healthy circumstance. It’s not the court’s purview to invalidate the mother’s wishes in the case of directed adoption, which effectively is what this is, regardless of what CPS should or should not have done after the alleged criminal act.

“And I will point out that they are alleged acts since CPS was foolish enough to arrange with the district attorney to have the criminal case against Ms. Samaras dismissed.”

“It could be refiled, your honor,” Dapremont offered.

“Don’t even think about it,” West snapped. “I’m already cranky over this. The girl did what CPS wanted so that she could avoid criminal charges, which, considering CPS’ failures, was a criminal act on its own, in my opinion. She solved her own problem, did the best she could for her baby, and she’s gone to try to get on with her life. I agreed to her waiver on the thirty days, so she’s done as far as this situation is concerned. CPS isn’t to contact her, and I’ll be having words with the DA about CPS’s culpability in this if you don’t let it go.”

West looked thoughtful. “Legal and physical custody is transferred forthwith to Mr. Buckley.” West gave him an intense look. “Six months is fairly standard for a foster parent to adopt a child in their custody. But with a directed adoption, or adoption between family members or stepparent, an adoption can proceed much faster. This case is an oddity that doesn’t fit cleanly into any situation. It’s a directed adoption, but it’s also not like a normal adoption…hm.” He looked at everyone in the room. “Here’s my compromise. You will have legal and physical custody of Charlotte with monthly follow-ups with Dr. Manning at your expense since the adoption is private. He’s effectively your social worker in lieu of CPS. If in three months, everything is fine, I’ll sign off on the adoption. That waiting period is a sanity check to satisfy all parties and give Dr. Manning at least three more visits with you. There will be more frequent visits if Dr. Manning requests them. Reasonable?”

“Of course, your honor,” Buck replied hastily.

The judge pointed a finger at Buck. “You work in a high-risk industry. You’re short on family ties. Before I approve the adoption, I want a legal will, trust, or something that has a care plan for that little girl if something happens to you. Got it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Wonderful.” He eyed the CPS team. “I know you’re not happy, and I really don’t care. Generally, your department does good work, and I’ve been honored to have many of the CPS attorneys and case workers in my courtroom, but this was a cluster from the jump, and you don’t get a do-over when there’s already a reasonable fix in place. What you need to be focused on is getting your house in order and leaving Charlotte Samaras the hell alone. Everyone catching what I’m putting down? Wonderful. Now get out.”

Then they were all in the hallway, and the CPS team was gone in a blink.

Dr. Grace patted him on the back with an admonishment to keep using the wrap, then she disappeared.

Buck offered his hand to Dr. Manning. “I guess I’ll be seeing you again.”

Cedric shook his hand readily. “No hardship, I assure you. And I’ll be pleased as punch to get to see the little one again. I’ll have my office contact you to set up all the appointments in advance. There’s no need to spring them on you. Congratulations, and good day to you, Mr. Buckley.”

“Thanks.”

Then he was alone with Elaine, Will, and Mari.

Mari grinned at him. “Nice job in there.”

“I felt totally superfluous,” Buck practically whined.

Mari waved it off. “Pish. You radiated good dad the whole time. I could tell West was half tempted to sign the adoption order now, but the legal basis would have been super iffy. Three months is awesome.”

Buck blew out a shaky breath.

“I’d love to take you all out for a celebratory lunch, but I’ve got a hearing this afternoon I need to prep my client for. Not everyone has your natural skill.” She patted his arm, then cupped Charlie’s head. “Keep being perfect, Princess.”

Elaine laughed as Mari strode down the hall, her heels clicking up a storm. “She’s over six feet tall. She does not need heels, but they’re damn impressive. But I could eat a bear, and Will needs more caffeine. Come on, there’s a great sandwich shop a block from here that serves amazing cold brew, and I’ve seen Will guzzle cold brew by the gallon.”

“True,” Will conceded.

Buck fell into step with Will, letting Elaine take the lead. “Will.”

“Yep?”

“Thanks for coming with us today.”

“Yeah, of course. You needed the support.”

“You know, I was already thinking about the trust thing before the judge mentioned it.”

“Mm-hm. Would be surprised if you weren’t. You seem like the anxious type about that sort of thing.”

“Yeah.” Buck hesitated. “So, I was wondering if you wanted to be Charlie’s godfather.”

Will tripped over his own feet and nearly face planted.

Buck paused and waited until Will had his bearings.

Will gawked at him. “Are you serious right now?”

“Why would that be a funny thing to joke about?”

Elaine circled back to them. “How could two men of your stature fall so far behind?”

“Buck just asked me to be the Princess’ godfather,” Will said in a voice tinged with wonder.

“Really? How lovely.” She threaded her arm through Will’s. “Not that you weren’t already great babysitter material, but now you can be Uncle Will.”

“Uncle Will?” he repeated, sounding stunned.

“You said yes, right?”

“Yeah. I mean, no. I hadn’t said yes yet, but who says no to the Princess?”

“No one in their right mind,” Elaine said with a firm nod.

Buck just smiled and followed after them.

The End

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