Abandoned By Emma Baker The episode I have written takes place sometime after the two mine episodes: 'Gold' and 'Fools Gold'. Maggie is outside the Mount Thomas Police Station locking her car. It is 6.00am she doesn't start until 7.00am but has come in early to finish off some reports from yesterday. She walks towards the station and hears a faint crying sound. She stops to listen and realizes it is coming from the station. She continues walking toward the door and on the door step finds a basket, inside is a tiny baby wrapped only in a towel. "Oh my gosh" she says to herself and bends down to pick up the basket. Once inside she checks the board to see who is rostered on for the morning shift. As it turns out it is P.J., who is also due to start work at 7.00am She dials P.J.'s number hoping he is out of bed and not already in the shower. "Hello" P.J.. answers the telephone not sounding fully awake. "Hi P.J., it's me Maggie, I need you to get dressed and come down to the station straight away" she says without even taking a breath. By now the baby is crying again and is feeling rather cold. "Why what's wrong?" he asks sounding concerned. "What's that sound?" "I have just got to work and I found a baby on the door step." "What! " P.J. interrupts. "It's true and I need you to go to the supermarket on your way here and pick up some nappies and a bottle" she replies, trying to stay calm. "Ok, I'm on my way P.J. tells her " Is there anything else you want me to get?" he asks. "You can bring a blanket and maybe some more milk" Maggie says. "Ok, I'll be there in about 15 minutes.... and Maggs, don't worry it will be alright" he tells her and hangs up the telephone. By this time the baby is bawling. Maggie picks it up and tries to soothe it. She takes the towel off which is starting to feel rather damp and finds out it is a little boy. She gets a clean towel from a storage cupboard and wraps the baby up again. By the time P.J. arrives she has managed to get the baby quite content but is worried he will get cold because of the lack of clothes. P.J. walks through the door carrying two plastic bags and a woollen blanket. He isn't looking his best and Maggie realizes she must have woken him up, however she is not worried because this is a very important case. "Good morning" P.J. says, sounding better than he looks. "I didn't know what size nappy to get, so I got three different sizes and I bought this groovy little bottle for him" P.J. says as he puts the bags on Adam's desk. "How did you know it was a he?" Maggie asks, reaching into the bag to get out a packet of nappies. "Just a wild guess" he says smiling. Maggie opens the smallest packet of nappies and clears all the papers of Nick's desk so she can put the nappy on the baby. "Nick will be rapt" P.J. says indicating to the naked baby lying on the desk. "He'll never know if you don't tell him" Maggie replies as she wraps the baby up in the blanket that P.J. had brought in. She lifts him up and hands him to P.J. "What's this?" P.J. asks with a worried look on his face. "Last time I checked it was a baby." Maggie jokes. "Just hold him while I make him a bottle, give the boss a ring and see if he has any baby clothes left from when he was looking after Sam." She says and walks off to the kitchen. 10.15 am Dash is seated at her desk with the baby who is now asleep. Everyone is now at the station except for Nick, which is probably just as well because now his desk is a permanent change table. Tom has found some of Sam's baby clothes and the baby is now dressed in them. Adam has gone to the hospital to inquire about all the babies that have been born in the last two months. Dr. Zoe Hamilton informs Adam that there has been 6 babies delivered at the hospital in the last 2 months. "Do you know if they are all still living in the area?" He asks. " I can give you the name and address of four families, but I'm afraid one family has moved away to Melbourne." Zoe tells him as they walk towards her office. "Yeah thanks Zoe, that would be great, but you only mentioned 5 families, what happened to the sixth baby?" Adam asks. "Oh yeah sorry, Kelly O'Reilly had a little boy but he died of cot death about 2 weeks ago." Zoe tells Adam "Now if you'll excuse me I've got patients to see" she says walking away. Adam turns around and is walking towards the door when Zoe yells out. "Say hello to Nick for me will you, I haven't seen him for a while." "Will do" smiles Adam imagining the look on Nick's face when he tells him Zoe has been asking after him. Back at the station Nick has arrived and is looking at his desk in disgust. The baby is awake and Maggie and Dash are playing with him. Adam arrives back with the information about the babies and P.J. and Maggie go and pay them all a visit to see if they can find out some more information. After speaking to all the families they come up without any new leads. However Mrs. Kennedy (who has recently had a baby) remembers Kelly O'Reilly and seems to recall that she didn't seem to want her baby. "Why do you say this" P.J. asks her. "Well she was a young single woman and I presume that she wasn't planning on having a baby at this point in her life." Mrs. Kennedy tells them. "Did she say anything that made you think she didn't want it?" Maggie asked. "Oh only that she didn't want to hold him or that she couldn't be bothered to feed him. Just little things like that. They could be nothing, she may have just been tired." Mrs. Kennedy said. "Well thanks for all your help Mrs. Kennedy we will call you if we need to ask you any more questions." P.J. said and with that they turned and walked towards the car. 11.30 am Back at the station everyone is working hard and the baby is now asleep (in P.J.'s office). Maggie and P.J. come back and P.J. tells Adam and Dash to find out everything they can about Kelly O'Riely. Tom comes out of his office. "Any luck?" he asks them. "Not really Boss" Maggie answers ." But apparently Kelly O'Reilly is a young mother who really didn't want her baby". "Maybe that little taker is her baby and she left him here because she didn't want him anymore." Tom says. "Yeah that's what I was thinking, but there has to be more to the story than that. I mean what kind of person would just abandon a baby? Especially one so young?" Maggie says with a sad tone in her voice. "Maggs can I see you in my office? " P.J. says opening his office door and walking inside. "Yeah sure coming" Maggie says following P.J.. "Well what do you think? Do you think this baby is Kelly O'Reilly's?" P.J. asks. "Well that's one idea, if what Mrs. Kennedy says is true and she really didn't want the baby maybe this is the only way she could think of to get rid of him" Maggie says looking at the little baby who is sound asleep. "But why would she dump it after looking after it for a couple of weeks?" "Well maybe she realized how much hard work having children is. Or maybe the father wouldn't have anything to do with her until she got rid of the baby." "Yeah well it's a start" P.J. said "Do you want a coffee?'" "Yes I'd love one" Maggie said bending over to fix up the baby's blanket. P.J. had gone out and was making coffee for them both. Dash walked in. "How's Mark?" She asked. "Mark?" "Yeah, Adam and I named him. Here is the information about Kelly O'Rielly you asked for." She said and handed Maggie the computer print out. "Thanks" Maggie called after Dash who was walking out of the office. "Well hello Mark" Maggie said leaning over and stroking the baby's face. But little Mark was just lying there and his lips were blue. "P.J. " Maggie yelled with panic in her voice. "What?" P.J. asked running into the office. "He's stopped breathing" Maggie said with terror in her eyes. "What's going on?" Tom asks looking at the baby. "He has stopped breathing" P.J. answered "Ring the hospital and tell them we are on our way". Maggie picked up Mark and followed P.J. out the back door of the station. "Here Nick your driving" P.J. said throwing him the keys. Once in the car Maggie and P.J. tried to administer CPR but didn't have much luck because of the speed they were travelling at and all the bumps they were going over. They finally arrived at the hospital where Dr. Zoe Hamilton was waiting for them. They all got out of the car and ran towards the doctor. "What happened?" she asked. Maggie tries to explain but is overcome by tears. P.J. explains what happened and the baby is rushed off to the emergency room. P.J. comforts Maggie and takes her into the hospital to wait and see what happens to baby Mark. 1.15 p.m. the next day. After spending the night at the hospital Maggie and P.J. are back at the station questioning Kelly O'Reilly. However she is not cooperating and they have not come up with any evidence that suggests Mark is her child. "Did you or did you not give birth to a baby son about 4 weeks ago." P.J. asks Kelly. "I already answered that question. Yes I had a baby boy about 4 weeks ago but he died " she said getting frustrated. "Then how come there is no record of him dying and there are no records of his burial or cremation." Maggie says "And what's more you can't show us a death certificate." She continues. "So look at this from our point of view." P.J. says "There is no death certificate and a baby is found abandoned on our door step. Who do you think we will point the finger at?" At that Kelly breaks up and starts to cry. "I couldn't think of any other way to get rid of him. I didn't want him in the first place but it was too late for an abortion by the time I found out I was pregnant. Bret that's the baby's father shot through and didn't want anything to do with me. He said the only way he would have me back is if I got rid of the baby. So I did I left him on your door step and hoped someone would take care of him" Kelly told Maggie and P.J. 3.30 p.m. Back at the hospital. Kelly was charged with negligence and baby Mark (who's real name turned out to be Michael) was put in the care of foster parents while plans are made for his adoption. Maggie and P.J. are at the hospital finding out what caused him to stop breathing and also to say their last good-byes. "Is he all right now?" Maggie asks Dr. Hamilton who is handing her the baby. "Yeah, he is fine, he has a rare heart condition but we have fitted him with a device that sounds a small alarm in case it happens again" Zoe explains. "Will this affect his chances of being adopted?" P.J. asks sounding concerned. "No, it shouldn't. Why are you getting clucky P.J. ? " the doctor jokes. "Well no, not exactly." P.J. mumbles looking embarrassed. "I've got to leave you two now and do the rounds. When you have said your good-byes Nurse Miller will take him back to the nursery." Zoe says, then hurries off down the hall. "He's a little cutie" P.J. says picking up the baby's little hand. (sighs) "I guess we should give him back now so they can find him some parents that will look after him properly." "Yeah I suppose your right" Maggie says softly ."Bye Mark" she says kissing him gently on the head". They walk to the nursery and hand him over to Nurse Miller. "See ya mate" says P.J. as the nurse puts the baby in his bed. They turn around and head towards the hospital doors. Once outside they walk towards the car. "You OK Maggs?" P.J. asks Maggie who has become very quiet. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just can't understand how anyone could do that to a defenseless little baby" she says with tears in her eyes. "Yeah I know it's sick isn't it" he says looking at her. "You know what Maggs?" "What?" Maggie asks. "Your going to make a pretty terrific mother some day, I reckon your kids will be very lucky" P.J. says. "Thanks" she says, now smiling. "You'll make a great Dad some day too". "Yeah our kids will have it made" P.J. says looking at Maggie. "We'll see" Maggie replies and they walk hand in hand the rest of the way back to the car. THE END