So, This is Life Now?

Chapter 1 ~ An Unexpected Visitor

It was just a normal day. Angie and Matt were out working on a case, and Zoe was in the office looking up information for them. While Zoe was in the middle of finding information about the new client, she heard the door open. She assumed it was Angie and Matt coming back with more information. So, she gathered what she had so far and started to get up to put it on the case board. But, when Zoe went over to hang up the information, she didn't see Angie or Matt. In fact, all she saw was a box sitting to the side of the front door. It had a lid on it and some holes in the lid. She was about to call the other two to ask them what it was, but they walked into the office at that moment.

"Hey Zoe, do you have anything new for us," Matt asked.

"Yeah, I was able to find some things. But, hey boss... what's that?" Zoe pointed to the box by the front door.

"Better question, why does it have holes in the lid," Angie asked. Matt went over to pick up the box and place it down on the table. "Be careful, there could be something dangerous inside." With Angie and Zoe on either side of him, Matt opened the lid slowly. The three stood there not knowing what to think when they saw what was inside of the box... a baby.

"Oh my gosh!" That's all either of them could say as they looked at the sleeping infant. All it had in the box with it was a tattered blanket, a onesie, and a note.

Please take care of our baby. She is three weeks old. We don't know if we'll ever be back. But for now, she needs a loving home.

"What kind of person just leaves a baby at a stranger's doorstep, let alone a work place?" Angie didn't know what to do. She looked to Matt for some clue, but he didn't know what to think either.

"Well, what are we gonna do with her," Matt asked.

"I don't know. All she has is whatever is in the box. She needs other things. Do you have anything left from when Jules was a baby," Angie asked Matt.

"Well I'm sure I do somewhere, but it's probably in storage." Matt took a picture of the baby and sent it to Zoe. "Zoe, can you go down to the station and see if Maz can get some kind of information on this baby? I sent you a picture of the note and everything else in the box."

"Copy that, boss."

As Zoe was leaving, Matt lifted the baby out of the box and held her close to him. He didn't think that anyone, and most certainly not a baby, deserved this. She was still sleeping, but Shade could feel her shivering. Angie could see her shiver, so she went upstairs and grabbed a blanket off of her bed. When she came back downstairs, she saw that Matt had sat down and was holding the baby in his arms. Angie put the blanket over the baby. She saw that Matt was looking down at her with a smile.

"What," Angie asked him.

"I haven't held a baby this small since Jules was a baby."

"Aww! I don't think I've ever held a baby that small."

"Do you want to? I can call Becca about some of Jules' things while you do that."

"Uh sure, yeah." With that, Matt put the baby in Angie's arms and she went over to sit down on the couch that's in the office. Before calling Becca, he looked at the two for a few seconds. The baby was starting to wake up, so Angie had to keep her calm. He always thought Angie would be a good mom, and this confirmed his thoughts even more. Matt called Becca, but the only things she knew of were Jules' crib and car seat/carrier. He figured that was okay for now, and that they could look for the other things tonight.

"Alright, Becca knows where her crib and car seat are."

"Okay, so how do we get them, and where do we put them?"

"Becca is going to bring over the things to my house. I've got a guest bedroom and we can get things set up in there for now."

"Okay, so you're going to watch her tonight?"

"Well, there is an actual bed in the guest room. I figure, you can sleep in there and we can take turns watching her."

"And then tomorrow, we should take her to the doctor's office and make sure she's okay. Then, once we get more information from Maz, we can contact somebody about her."

"You know, we should probably think of a name for the baby so we don't keep calling it 'her'."

"But what if she has a name already?"

"Then they would have mentioned it in the note."

"Okay then, what about Ivy for her first name? I've always liked that name."

"And Rose for her middle name?"

"I think that name fits her. So, what time is Becca going to be over to your place?"

"Five o'clock. It's 2:30 now, so that gives us some time to go to the store and grab some of the essentials."

"Okay, but we don't have anything to put Ivy in."

"Well then, one of us is just going to have to hold her." With that, Angie handed Ivy over to Matt. Then, she went upstairs to pack some things. If she was going to have to stay at his house for a little bit, she was going to need to be prepared.

While she was packing, she was thinking to herself, "Why would someone just leave a baby at a random person's doorstep? I need to take care of her. I'm not going to let anything happen to her, and I know Matt won't either." She finished up packing and came back downstairs. As she was coming down the stairs, she saw Matt walking around the office with Ivy.

When Matt heard her coming, he looked up. "You ready to go," he asked.

"Yup." Then, the two walked out to the car. When they got in the car, Angie threw her bag in the back seat and Matt put Ivy in her arms. Then, they headed off to the store.