***COMPLETED *** Endlessly [A G-Eazy Story, Third Book to If I'm Lucky]

Chapter 30: "But it's all worth it for you."

TRIGGER WARNING: Child abuse, drug use

*** Kaitlyn's POV ***

After we had gotten home from dinner with Rachel and Gerald, we took showers, had a little bit of fun under the covers and laid in bed watching television until a little after 1 in the morning.

I thought I was dreaming when I heard my phone ringing, but after it started up again, I knew that I should probably answer it. My eyes were blurry from being half asleep, but I could tell that it was a little after 3.

"Hello?" I said as I sat up quickly.

"Hi, Kaitlyn," The woman's voice said urgently. "Sorry to disturb you, I'm well aware of what time it is, but this is Sarah Matthews with Family Support Services. Your foster application was approved yesterday morning, and we have an emergency situation."

My heart rate picked up and I felt nauseous as I threw the covers back and stumbled to the bathroom to talk without waking up Grady.

"Hi, Sarah," I said shakily. "What's the situation?"

"We have a boy," She paused. "He's a little out of the newborn age range that you were requesting, but he's been removed from the biological mother's home due to neglect and drug use. The likelihood of him returning is slim to none as she requested to have her parental rights revoked. Would you and Grady be able to take him?"

This was all happening so fast - the only thing that Grady and I had in the room for our future child was a bed. We had no clothes, nothing. But I didn't want to pass up an opportunity.

"Yes," I choked out as I tried not to cry on the phone. "Where and when should we meet you?"

"The Children's Hospital on Claremont in about an hour," She spoke. "I'll have a uniformed officer with me."

I got off the phone with Sarah a couple of minutes later and turned around to vomit in the toilet. I was on my knees wiping my mouth with a piece of tissue thinking about how we were literally going to be bringing home a child in the next hour and we were nowhere near ready.

"Grady," I yelled when I came back in the bedroom, causing him to jump. "Get up."

"Kait, it's 3:15, what the fuck?" Grady groaned as he rubbed his eyes when I flipped the bedroom light on. "What's going on?"

"Sarah just called and said she has an emergency situation," I said as I went in the closet to throw on some clothes. "There's an abused baby who's a little under a year old. She wants us to meet her at the Children's Hospital on Claremont."

"Oh, my God," Grady choked as he jumped out of bed and went to get dressed. "Is it a boy or a girl?"

"A boy," I answered immediately while grabbing my keys off the dresser. "We need to hurry."

We were dressed and ready in under 10 minutes, and then made a stop at the Walmart near the hospital to get a car seat so we could bring the baby home. We didn't have anything else, but that was a problem to be dealt with later.

"Hi," Sarah greeted us as we walked into the main entrance of the hospital. "This is Officer Dolan, he'll be overseeing us as we go through the paperwork and hand off the child."

We shook hands with the police officer and followed Sarah to the children's emergency room. I could feel a lump growing in my throat as we got closer, scared of what I was going to see.

"The child just turned 10 months old today," She explained as we stopped outside the room. "He's severely underweight. There are bruises mostly on his face, but also his arms and body. His mother's boyfriend was the one who did most of the abuse, and it was mostly when he cried. The mother starved him. She admitted to only feeding him twice a week, once if he was bad," Sarah said as she watched our eyes grow wet with tears. "I know it'll be hard to see at first, but you have to be strong. We'll give you a few minutes alone with him before we go over the paperwork."

Officer Dolan and Sarah waited in the hallway as Grady and I slowly opened the door and walked inside. What I saw next made me want to break down into tears.

The 10-month-old boy, who looked no bigger than a five or six month old, had a deep purple bruise under his right eye and a small bruise on his nasal bone. His arms were covered in small blue bruises, and his blonde hair was dirty and filthy.

"Hi, buddy," I whispered as I slowly walked over to the bed, watching him look up at me. "What did they do to you?"

Grady stood behind me, keeping a hand on my back and rubbing it softly when he heard me start to cry. I heard him sniffle lightly, but he quickly wiped his tears away.

The boy watched us carefully and pulled the blanket up to his chin, inching away when I reached forward to touch him, and that made my heart break even more.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," I promised as I sat down on the stool next to his bed. "You're safe now. Those mean people aren't going to hurt you anymore."

He slowly pulled the covers down from his chin and laid on his side as he continued to watch me with his wet green eyes. After a couple of minutes, he let me stroke his hair, and he nuzzled into my hand.

When Grady touched him, he jumped slightly, but relaxed when he rubbed his hair just like I did. We stood up when Sarah peeked her head in the door, and I promised him that I'd be right back.

"We'll take him home," I said no later than stepping in the hallway. "It's just hard to see him like that. Who would hurt a baby?"

"It's hard to see," Sarah murmured as she handed me a pack of tissues out of her purse. "But we know that he's going to a good home now."

We followed Officer Dolan and Sarah to a small waiting room down the hall from the boy's room to go over the paperwork.

"His name is Rowan Michael Anderson and his birthday is October 24, 2018," she said as she opened up the folder. "His parents are Steven Anderson, who is serving prison time for a felony charge of murder, and his mother is Trish Anderson, who is on parole for drug violations. She has a past history of having CPS called on her, and her older child, a 12-year-old female, lives with the aunt."

"Wow," I breathed out as Sarah pulled some papers out of the file. "That's...wow."

"We will be filing a petition for temporary full custody in the morning," she explained as she put the papers in front of Grady and I. "This is only until the mother gives a verbal and written agreement to terminate all parental rights. Once that is done, an adoption hearing will be conducted, another interview and house inspection with the both of you to ensure that Rowan will have a good, loving home. Once that is over and the rights have been terminated, the adoption will be complete, and Rowan's last name will be changed."

My head was spinning as Sarah showed us where to sign the papers. I couldn't believe that we were taking Rowan home with us. I was so excited and scared all at the same time. We knew absolutely nothing about being parents, but we were about to learn as we went.

We were able to take Rowan home with us after the papers had been filled out. Officer Dolan and Sarah walked with us to the car and inspected the car seat to make sure it was safe, and we slowly put him in. After that, we said goodbye to the two and got in the car to go home.

"I don't want to go faster than 20 miles an hour," Grady said as he put both hands on the steering wheel. "Fuck, I'm so fucking scared, Kaitlyn."

"Grady," I laughed as I looked into the backseat at Rowan, who was looking around. "Just drive normally. He's ok."

"Oh, God," Grady muttered under his breath when we came to a stoplight. "That was a little too hard."

Instead of driving home, we decided to return to Walmart because we still needed literally everything. I slowly unbuckled Rowan and picked him up while Grady went to go get a cart to put him in.

"It's like 6:30 in the morning," Grady groaned as we walked in. "I'm so tired."

"Shut up," I rolled my eyes as we headed for the baby section. "And we're going to need more than one cart. We have absolutely nothing. We need a crib, bassinet, clothes, diapers, formula...literally everything."

"Rest in peace to my credit card," Grady chuckled as he looked down at Rowan. "But it's all worth it for you."