For The Love Of The Children: Chapter 1

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Melissa, Seanna and the seven children had watched the newsman as he did the story on the newborn being found.

Within an hour, calls were flooding the news office, prompting them to add three more staff to keep up with the calls.

Most of the calls were simply nuisance ones, no real content, just people being idiots, obstructing the search for the newborn's family.

A few calls sounded like they might be pertinent, but further investigation revealed that the child they were claiming was not the newborn.

The station was about to shift over to the night time program, it being just before midnight, when the special lines rang again.

The person who took the call happened to be Bob Parvis, the reporter who had given the initial story on the 6 PM national news.

He listened intently for a moment, then nodded to another staff person, who picked up another line and phoned Seanna.

""Hi, Seanna, this is Phil Bottomley, I work with Bob Parvis, we believe we have the child's real mother on the line."

"Thanks for calling, Phil, can you connect me to her? I'm putting this phone on speaker, as the folks that found the baby are here with me."

"Sure thing, Miss Ramsay, just a moment," as a brief buzzing sound could be heard, "Here, we go, Louisa, you're talking to Seanna."

"Hello, Miss Seanna, I hear y'all have a pretty little girl that was found on the highway earlier, am I right?"

"That is correct, Miss, although I wasn't the one that found her. Here she is. Melissa?"

"Hello, Miss, I'm Melissa, I was coming here to start a new job when I saw and heard that little one yelling her head off. What else could I do but stop and grab her? That child could have died out there, it's the middle of winter! Such a sweet little one, too, quite the beautiful little girl."

"Well, ma'am, I been on the street for the last five years, usually living out of my seventeen year old clunker, sometimes in a shelter," Louisa stated. "That sweet little girl was the result of a rape last spring. I have no way to be able to care for a child, I can't even care for myself."

She stopped speaking for a moment, then continued, "I have terminal cancer of the ovaries, it's already spreadin'. The docs that I saw recently in one of the free clinics in the city sent me to a hospital. The tests showed I have less than a month to live, it's spreadin' that fast."

"Holy shit!" Melissa swore before she realized it. After a quick apology, she asked, "What about your family?"

"Family?" The woman on the other end of the line laughed, a harsh, sad laugh. "I ain't had no family since I was twelve. I turned eighteen two weeks ago, just before all those dayum tests were done, and I delivered that little girl by myself in the back seat of my clunker. There weren't hardly any labour a'tall, the water broke, and less than an hour later, she popped out. Gods, my back seat was an almighty mess!"

Melissa shook her head, she thought she had had it rough, but that was nothing next to this woman's experiences.

Louisa continued after another brief pause, "I'm glad someone found her. Y'all take good care of my baby, she needs it," then hung up.

Melissa, Seanna and the children were all stunned. It seems the little newborn was about to become the newest member of their family.

**********

Shortly before 9 AM the next morning, Friday, February 17th, Seanna led Melissa into the company's main daycare centre.

Leilani and Asemba were already well known in the centre, so they led Melissa's four older children into the play area. Melissa followed behind them, concerned that young Bobby wouldn't be able to keep up with them, but the other children were helping him.

Melissa was still holding the carrier with the pretty little baby girl that they had found the night before, and was startled when she was approached by an older woman wearing a pale blue smock with a stylized iron-on patch saying "Ramsay Corp. Daycare Centre" and a name tag.

The name tag identified her as Juliet, and Melissa smiled briefly at the woman.

"Hello, Miss," Juliet said as she tilted her head up to look at this young giant of a woman, "The newborn area is in this room over here."

Melissa followed Juliet to the room, then inside, Seanna tagging along behind them, grinning and trying to restrain herself from giggling.

Juliet noticed Seanna having a hard time avoiding the giggles and asked Seanna what was so funny.

"Well, Juliet, this woman happens to be your brand new Financial VP and your co-boss for the daycare department."

Juliet looked at Melissa a little more closely, then gasped, "Isn't she the one that caught that child in a car seat in Houston?" Juliet politely motioned toward the carrier Melissa was holding, Melissa handed it over and Juliet set the baby in a small crib in the corner.

Seanna nodded, finally letting herself giggle for a moment. "Yes, she is, and she's saved each of the five children she brought in with her." Seanna then gave Juliet a fairly brief but accurate history of what Melissa had been doing for the last two months.

Juliet shook her head, then grinned and offered her hand to Melissa, who shook it and then turned back to watching the babies.

Seanna laughed, "Well, we know where we can use Melissa, she obviously loves being around little ones!"

This was made even more obvious when one of the babies made a mess in their diaper, the smell was rather noticeable. Melissa promptly looked around, spotted the baby squirming in a playpen, then noticed a stack of diapers and other items by the playpen and strode across the room. She wasn't even officially working there, yet she had no qualms with changing the boy's diaper and making sure he was clean.

A few minutes later, she set the baby boy back down in the playpen, next to a girl that looked to be his twin sister. Perhaps it was that sense of their being twins or closely related, but the girl wet her diaper, and Melissa swiftly did what was needed, then smiled as she looked around.

This was the perfect place for her, she could use her business degrees, but would also be able to work with babies and pre-schoolers.

Arrangements had not yet been made as to where the children who were old enough would be going to school, so Melissa had decided that she would take them to a few places around the city and let them get a bit of an idea of the place where they would be living from now on.

Five children in her own care: a 12 year old, a 10 year old, a 7 year old, a 4 year old and an unnamed baby, only a few days old. Three of those children were transgendered, the fourth would be coping with MS for the rest of his life, and a tiny baby just to make life crazy.

She made arrangements with Juliet that she would start on the following Monday, with the kids staying in the daycare each day. Seanna had mentioned that it could take a week or two to process and transfer the needed school documents so they could go to school here.

Melissa and Seanna would be looking around the schools in the area, well, most likely calling them, to decide which schools would be used.

For the love of the children, she would do whatever it took to keep them safe and help them to become good people.

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Comments

I am rather surprised,

I thought that Louisa and her predicament would pull out a comment or three, I had a few tears in my eyes as I wrote that part. It has to be sheer hell for a new mother to realize that she will never have the chance to watch her little one grow up, knowing she will die soon.

As for the last line, that is aimed not only toward her own children, but all the children that will end up in Melissa's care.