The Sidemen Baby

Chapter 9

Josh's POV

I was sitting in the living room, watching Cat play with Veronica and her stuffed dinosaur that Harry bought her.

My two favorite girls.

"Alright, Verry Berry, can you say Daddy? Dahddee?"

Ver looked up at her and squealed.

"DEE!!"

"Good girl! Can you say Papa?"

"PAP." She wriggled and bounced happily.

"Good girl! Say Dino? "

Veronica blanked and looked around confused, possibly looking for Harry.

"Okay. Dino. Die. No. Then you put them together. Boom! Dino!" Cat did a little dance and got her excited again.

"INO!" She shouted and Harry came running.

"THAT'S ME!! I'M INO!!"

She looked up at him with big eyes. "Ino?"

Harry went crazy after that, bribing her with cookies to speak until she was so full she started smashing them instead.

"Harry!" I snatched the package from him. "You're going to make her sick!"

He pouted as he cleaned up the crumbs. "I want to be her favorite. If I have to bribe her with cookies then so be it."

"Oh fuck off. Everyone knows that Ethan is her favorite." I laughed at him.

That was the last time I'd laugh for a while.

A couple hours later, we got a knock on our door. I opened it to find a few police officers and a woman in handcuffs standing there.

The woman was small, around 5ft, and she looked awful. Her eyes were red and puffy and her hair was dyed a Very.... unpleasant shade of fading pink. She was so pale that you could see all of her veins anywhere that you could see skin, and her teeth were blackened and falling out in pieces.

An officer looked at me. "Are you Joshua Bradley?"

"Yes?"

"This is Lucy Todd. We need to ask some questions about a child that was left at this residence a few months ago."

I paled and nodded, letting them both in and shutting the door before following them. Ethan had taken Veronica to his Mums with Simon for the day.

"So is it correct that you received the infant from Mrs. Todd here?" He set up a camera and recorded everything that was said.

"The baby was left on the doorstep with a vague note. The note only had a first name and no explanation why."

"Where is the infant residing?"

"Here. With me and my friends. We're raising her as ours."

"Did you report it to the police? Child protective services?"

"I brought her to a doctor the day after we found her. He claimed that he would."

Lucy's angry glare was pointed at the floor and her ratty voice cracked as she spoke for the first time since she arrived. "That is MY baby. I want her back. Now!! Where is she!!" She started pulling on the handcuffs and thrashing around before another policeman took her out to the car.

"I apologize for this drop in visit. Do you have an adoption certificate?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhh I don't think we do. The doctor said we didn't need one because of the circumstances. I have a birth certificate that we filled out because she didn't get one when she was born."

I took it off the wall and passed him the framed certificate proudly.

He looked it over and nodded, taking a picture before he passed it back.

"And who are her two adoptive fathers?"

"Um well Me and uh Ethan Payne. Is there any problem with that?"

"Well there shouldn't be. I will need a printed copy of this as evidence."

"Evidence of what?"

"Evidence supporting the charge of unfit parenting and child endangerment against Ms. Todd here."

Well fuck.

I raked my brain for questions to ask him. "Will we get to keep Veronica?"

"There may be some nights that we have to take her in but she won't be gone long. She will remain in your custody until family court tomorrow and her legal guardians and her are not to leave town. We will be in touch. Now may I see the child?"

"She at the playground right now with her other dad...."

"Are you in contact with the other father?"

It took me almost an hour to get a hold of Ethan and another hour for them to come home. He couldn't sense the urgency in my voice.

They finally came in with Veronica sleeping against Ethans chest. At the sight of the baby when he was coming in, Lucy went wild. She was screaming and kicking, yelling about how we "stole" her baby. Her nonsense woke the baby and angered Ethan more than when he'd discovered Lucy (Or the pink haired witch he called her when he saw her), in his house demanding he give up her baby. 

Finally, after the cop forced Lucy to the car again and Simon locking Ethan in his room without Ver, The policeman had given me permission to leave Veronica with Cat for the night, as long as we promised to bring her in to family court the next day and another policeman could stay with them to make sure that the environment was safe for a baby. 

I packed up her fanciest diaper bag with everything she could possibly need, in order to impress the cop and try to prove we were the better choice then letting her go with the mess that was known as Lucy. I helped put her in Cat's car and kissed her goodbye, which I guess made the cop feel really awkward because it was really long and started to get grabby and sloppy aND ANYWAYS Veronica stayed the night with her.

Ethan was awfully torn up about having his precious little cupcake taken away from him without being able to say goodbye, so he made Cat put the poor child on face time all night, even after she had fallen asleep so he could make sure that she was safe. I swear he had more separation anxiety then she did.

He really did love that baby with all his heart. That's what tore him apart. The love for a strangers child.