The Anatomy of You

Chapter 16 - The Kidnapping

When Safi came to, all she could hear is the sound of Braxton screaming at the top of his lungs next to her. Aaron was nowhere to be seen. Safi begins to panic immediately. She checks the time and realizes she had been out for about an hour or so.

She secured Braxton into the carrier again and rushed to the nurse's desk.

"Excuse me, have you seen a little boy, about five years in age with a Batman shirt on? I brought him here for an appointment with Dr. Devorah, but somebody knocked me out and now he's missing," Safi began, the pitch in her voice rising.

"Okay okay, calm down. I thought that man looked suspicious, but the little boy looked just like him, so I figured he was a relative or something. Don't worry ma'am, we'll alert the police right away," the nurse says before grabbing the phone.

Safi paces around the desk, unsure of what to do. First, the boys' mother gets arrested and now Aaron has been kidnapped. Her one job was to protect these two little boys and she couldn't do that.

"Safi!"

Safi turns at the sound of her name and sees Eman standing a few feet away from her. She feels herself starting to breakdown as tears fill her eyes.

"Safiya, what's going on? Why are you upset?" Eman asks holding onto Safi's shoulders. The dam breaks and Safi's tears begin to fall. Eman hugs her carefully, leaving a bit of room for the baby she had strapped to her.

"Aaron was taken right in front of me. I couldn't do anything. The guy knocked me out, and I...I" Safi sniffles. The nurse hands her a tissue and she wipes her eyes.

"The police will be here soon to take a statement with you," the nurse says before walking away from the desk. Safi nods and looks down at Braxton who is now fast asleep.

"Why don't you catch me up on everything before the police come here?" Eman asks softly, pointing to a bench near them. Safi looks up at him uncertain. She still didn't know how to feel about him, but she knows she does not want to be alone right now.

They sit on the bench and Safi begins to tell Eman everything that happened up until this point: the regular appointment, the abuse discovery, the arrest and became an on the spot foster mom.

"Wait, you mean when I came by your place that one day, you said you got a lot going on because of the two kids?" Eman asks in surprise.

"Yeah, I think it was my first night of having them, and I just couldn't handle dealing with both situations at that time so I chose them because I knew I was the only one who could take care of them," Safi replies adjusting the hat on Braxton's head.

"I'm sorry. I heard about the abuse case that sprung up, but I didn't realize all that had happened to you," Eman apologizes rubbing the back of his head.

"It's not your fault. You couldn't have known, but I appreciate the apology," Safi smiles.

"Let me help you in some way. This is a lot to go through and I would like to be here for you," Eman says firmly. Safi raises her eyebrow at him, suspicious of his words.

"Here for you as a friend I mean," he chuckles nervously.

"Excuse me." Safi and Eman look up and see two people standing in front of them.

"Hello, I'm Detective Casper and this is my partner Detective Grant. We're here from Boston PD about the missing child case. Are you Safiya Simba?" the man asks flashing his badge at Safiya and Eman.

"Yes, I am. Do you know anything about Aaron yet?" she asks immediately, slight panic in her eyes.

"We don't know much yet. We need to take a statement to clear up somethings before we proceed with the case. Is there someplace we can discuss this privately?" Detective Casper asks looking around at the crowdedness of the hospital.

"I can let you into one of the interview rooms on this floor. There's usually at least one open," Eman offers, standing up. He leads them to an empty room and unlocks the door. Safi's thoughts were going a million miles a minute. Why did they need her statement? What could she possibly say that would set off the search? Is Aaron safe?

"Miss Simba, please take a seat. We won't keep you for very long, I promise," Detective Grant finally speaks. Her voice is a little more softspoken than Safi thought it would be. Safi sits on the couch near the door and unstraps Braxton so he could sleep in her arms.

"So Miss Simba.."

"You can just call me Safi. I'm really not used to people calling me by my last name.."

"So Safi, tell us what happened today from your perspective. Start from the morning before you came from the hospital," Detective Casper asks sitting down next to her on the couch.

"Well I got up about 6 am this morning to feed Braxton and my cats. Once he fell back asleep, I got myself ready since I knew Aaron had an appointment here this morning. Both boys woke up around 8:30 am, so I got them both dressed and into the kitchen for breakfast. The appointment was at 10:30 am. We got out the door and onto the bus a little before 10 am," Safi retells, looking down at Braxton's sleeping face.

"So after you got to the hospital, what happened?" Detective Grant asks, after writing some stuff down.

"Once we got to the hospital, we went up to the psychiatric ward and meet with Dr. Devorah. She took Aaron in for his appointment. They were in there for maybe 30 minutes or so, before Dr. Devorah came out and told me what she thought," Safi continues, shifting a bit in her seat.

"After the doctor left, I walked in with the baby to see how Aaron was. He showed me a picture he drew of a flower. I praised him and that's when I blacked out. When I woke up, Braxton was on the floor next to me crying and Aaron was gone," Safi begins to sniffle. Detective Grant finishes writing her notes.

"Okay, thank you for that. For now, we need you to go home, pack some belongings and stay at a friend's house. We don't know if whoever took Aaron will come back for you and we don't want to find out. If anything happens, here's our card. You call us directly and we will try to be there in a flash," Detective Casper says sternly. The detectives leave and the room goes quiet minus the sounds of Braxton's little snores.

Safi stares at the business card they gave her. She really hopes she never has to call them about any kind of danger. She feels a presence sit next to her and looks up. Eman puts a hand on her shoulder.

"I heard a little bit of what the detective said. If you need a friend's place to stay at, you can stay with me. I live a little outside of the city," Eman offers. Safi looks at him a little suspiciously.

"I won't do anything. Let me do this to make up for my previous actions," Eman says with innocence in his eyes.

"Okay, but it's just until the police give the all clear, okay? Not a moment more," Safi replies.

"Okay, great. I know you took the bus here, so you don't have a car seat with you for little guy there, so how about I meet you at your place and pick you guys up from there after my shift is over?" Eman asks, handing her the diaper bag.

"Okay, that's fine."

Eman leads her out of the psychiatric ward and she heads home with baby Braxton.

She didn't know what was waiting for her there.