Meeting by Chance Staying by Choice

An Alleyway

Its been a few months since Lana went to the zoo. During the few months, Matt has taken her on various dates, including ones to hockey games, the aquarium, hiking and the occasional picnic. Lana was currently on her way back from the library, she was studying for an upcoming test that would determine if she had to change her career or not. She passed a dark and gloomy alley, and it was a rather sunny day outside. There was rustling and movement, she saw a figure move and disappear followed by a thud.

Lana grabbed her phone out of her purse and called up Matt, she asked him to come to the alleyway by the library, there was only two and the other one was going the opposite way from her house. When he arrived Lana made him go into the dark alley to figure out what happened and where the figure went.

After a few minutes Matt called out to her. "Lana come here." At first she was hesitant about going into a dark, scary alley even with her tough and slightly scary boyfriend being there to protect her, but she went in anyways. Matt was standing next to a tall trash can, looking at something on the ground.  On the ground laid a body, a woman, she was bleeding and badly beaten. Matt crouched down and checked the lady's pulse, then there was rustling again, coming from further into the alley.

"Matt." Lana placed a hand on his shoulder and he got up.

"Yeah, I know." He placed his hockey stick in a position ready for striking.  However,  when he located where the rustling was coming from, Matt lowered his hockey stick.

Lana joined him once again, Matt had bent down and was opening a black garbage bag. He moved a few pieces of trash when they discovered something that wasn't trash.

"Oh, Matt!" He picked up the 'thing' out of the trash. "Who would do such a thing?"

"Apparently that women." In Matt's arms there was a little bundle, in that bundle was a little baby, with a little nose and little fingers and little toes. "The mother is dead so we can't force the baby back on her. What about an orphanage?"

Lana took the baby away from him. "We can't do that Matt, that wouldn't make us any better than her. Why don't we keep the baby?"

"I don't know Lana.  I'm still not comfortable with you being around us killers,  but a baby?  That definitely wouldn't make me feel better. It's not good for a child to be raised around killers. " Matt stood up and looked at the baby in her arms. Once again he checked for a pulse, there was one so the baby wasn't dead and that was a good thing.

"And what about if in the future things get really serious between us and we end up having kids. Then what? Are you going to leave because you're a killer? Leaving this baby here, or in an orphanage would be like killing it. Orphanages can't take care of children, they don't get funded enough. Besides,  it wouldn't matter if this child was raised by killers or not,  it's still going to experience violence and death, so it wouldn't make a difference."

Matt rubbed his forehead then started rubbing his fingers through his hair. He paced back and forth,  thinking. Occasionally he would stop, look at Lana then start pacing again. "You're motherly instincts have kicked in already huh?" Lana looked up from looking at the baby and nodded. " I guess we should get the baby to a pediatrician to see if it's healthy, as well as seeing if it has a name."

Matt and Lana walked to the nearest doctor, they still had about two hours before the doctors offices closed. When they arrived,  Matt did most of the talking and handled pretty much everything. The doctor told them that the baby was healthy and perfectly fine, but considering it was only about two weeks old, there was no data on the child. No name, birth certificate,  picture or parents, there was absolutely nothing. The doctor worked on getting a birth certificate and had Matt and Lana sign it, afterwards they would have to go to the courthouse to legally adopt the child, which they found out was a little girl. Quickly, so the doctor could put the name on the certificate,  Lana gave the little girl the name Liesl, which Matt disagreed on, he wanted the baby to have the name Maximum. So in a compromise,  the baby's name was Maximum Leisl Williams.

Before they left, the doctor gave them a small bag full of baby things and a car seat. "Here, you're going to need these."

"Thanks doctor,  you've been a big help." Lana took the bag and car seat from the doctor while Matt held the baby. Lana could already tell that Matt would be spoiling her rotten when she got older. When they had gotten to the car, Lana changed Maximum's diaper, put a fresh outfit on her then rapped her in a clean blanket after wiping her down with a baby wipe.

At the courthouse,  papers were signed and agreement were made. Maximum was officially their daughter. Next came shopping. Matt wasn't too fond of having to do shopping or spend quite a bit of money on things that the child would grow out of, but he did it nonetheless. They ended up picking out a cute small crib that would last until the toddler years, quite a bit of clothes, diapers, wipes, and bottles. After about another hour of getting other things from the baby isle, they checked out and left. The trunk was full, bit really all it held was the crib and a rocker, the rest of the baby stuff was in the backseat.

"Oh you know, I never thought of this, but what are the others going to say?" Lana looks at Matt,  he looked at her for a minute then looked back at the road. 

"No clue, Francois will probably dismiss it, Oliver will freak and get really excited, and I don't know how Al will act." Matt lowered his head so he could look at Lana through the top of his sunglasses. "What does it matter? It's our kid, if any of them don't like it then oh well, they can move out."

Lana smiled wider, it was nice to see him this way, his loving side was much better than the side of him that didn't give a shit.  When they arrived at the house, Matt told her to go inside and get Al and that she could stay in there that him and Al can handle everything. When she walked into the house a second time, Maximum woke up and started crying. Naturally with his hyperactive nosiness,  Oliver rushed into the room to find Lana changing the baby's diaper.

"Oh poppet, where did you get this little darling?" Oliver asked, putting his finger in the babies hand.

"An alleyway."