Ghosts of the Past Ch. 15

Thursday morning, September 12, 1957 at just after six o'clock, Diana Richards awoke from a disturbing nightmare and with a funny feeling. She lay in bed for a moment trying to figure out what it was besides the dream that woke her up. Then she felt it... the muscles of her abdomen contracted harder than she'd ever felt them do so before. Dr. Hamilton had told her she would probably be feeling these "false labor" contractions during the last few weeks of her pregnancy as her body readied itself for "the real thing."

She frowned as she thought about the nightmare... She was holding her baby boy and singing to him... only the voice she heard was not her own. Then she was outside playing with him as a toddler, chasing him around the yard, and as the chase went into slow motion, she saw her boy getting bigger... growing up right before her eyes. The next moment, her teenaged son disappeared around the corner of a building ahead of her and when she reached the building, she stopped dead in her tracks and screamed...

Her son had disappeared and waiting for her around that corner was Edward Hood...

She tried to shake the unease and ignore the contractions and go back to sleep, but they kept happening every so often and they were uncomfortable enough that they prevented her from going back to sleep. Diana sighed wearily and got out of bed.No sense in just laying here... I'll only wake Charles with my tossing...

She went into the bathroom to use the toilet and felt something strange... almost like a "clot" or something had passed while she peed. She looked in the toilet when she stood up, but she didn't see anything that looked like blood. She frowned and shook her head as she flushed the toilet.

She went back into the bedroom and picked up her husband's bathrobe and put it on. His was the only one that could wrap all the way around her. She felt... and her boobs and belly looked... almost as big as a house, but her arms and legs were like sticks! She winced every time she waddled past a mirror...

But Charles still looked at her the same as he always had... the flames of his love and desire for her still burned in his gray blue eyes. He lovingly held her every morning and every night before bed and gently rubbed lotion over her entire enormous midsection.

And he talked to her stomach, telling their babies how anxiously they were waiting for them. The dimple would appear in his right cheek when he grinned as he watched lumps traveling under her flesh across her tightly stretched abdomen when the babies tried to move. He would smile up at her as he put his hand on her to feel them moving, and he would lean down and gently kiss a spot where an elbow or heel was trying to poke through.

Sometimes Diana would wince in pain when there was too much movement and poking of her flesh from inside. Then he would lean down and admonish them, "OK, you two...that's enough! Give your mother a rest already!" The amazing thing was that they seemed to hear him and would calm down!

When Charles woke up a couple hours later, he found Diana lying on the couch in their living room watching television. "Is anything wrong, pretty lady?"

She smiled tiredly. "No... I'm just having some really strong false labor contractions this morning and I didn't want to wake you. I'll be fine. Do you want me to fix you some breakfast while you dress?"

Charles leaned over and kissed her forehead. "No, my love. You rest and I'll fix us something to eat. I don't have to be at the office first thing this morning. Tom and I are due in court late morning for the sentencing hearings on Donald Price and Harold Green. We thought we'd lend Lisa and Robert some moral support and we want to make sure those bastards get appropriate punishments!"

**********

By two o'clock in the afternoon, Diana realized that she was not having false labor pains... she had gone into labor. But her labor was not progressing very rapidly at all... her contractions were still very irregular as far as timing was concerned. They would occur anywhere from two to ten minutes apart and last from thirty seconds to over a minute. The only reason she knew she was in labor was because they were increasing in intensity...

The contractions were beginning to get pretty painful and by the time Charles came home that evening; they were causing her to bend over and moan. Finally, at about eight o'clock in the evening, Diana asked Charles to take her to the hospital because she couldn't handle the pain any longer.

When she arrived and was checked over by Dr. Hamilton, he advised that her labor had progressed just enough that they could give her something to help her through the worst part of it since it was progressing so slowly. But he had to manually break her water to make sure the drug would not slow down or halt her labor. Diana was grateful for that because she was already exhausted from not having slept well the night before. And whatever the doctor gave her seemed to knock her out completely...

Charles stayed with her in the labor room as much as he could but the nurses advised him it was going to be a long night. So he went out to the waiting room and told all of their friends who had come to be with him that it was going to take a while and he urged them to go home and he'd call them if anything happened. They all left, telling him they'd be back first thing in the morning to check on them before they went in to work or to stay with him if they didn't have to work. Charles advised the nurses that he was going to stay in the waiting room and rest on one of the couches and asked them to let him know as soon as anything changed.

He managed to catnap in the quiet room off and on, but he couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep restfully. Finally, around 5:30 in the morning, one of the nurses popped in to advise him that Diana had come out from under the effects of the drug and she was in the final "pushing" stage of labor... it wouldn't be much longer.

At just after six o'clock Friday morning, September 13, their son was delivered... a healthy boy weighing in at six pounds, eight ounces. About ten minutes later, his tinier sister followed, weighing only five pounds, four ounces. She looked perfect, yet fragile, and her cry was not as strong as her brother's, so the doctor ordered that she be given extra oxygen and instructed the nurses to get her to cry as often as possible so she could exercise and strengthen her lungs.

Diana was not happy to hear that but the doctor assured her it would be for the best or her daughter could possibly develop any number of breathing-related ailments, including asthma, and it would make her prone to contracting pneumonia. Diana tried not to cry herself as she watched the nurse thumping her baby girl's foot with her fingers to get her to cry more as they cleaned her up; she sounded so weak.

Her baby boy, on the other hand, had protested loudly as they cleaned him up, but was quieting down as they wrapped him in a warm blanket and brought him to her. As soon as she took him in her arms, he looked up at her as if he already knew she was his mother, and Diana knew instantly that he was her husband's son... he was their miracle child, there was no question in her mind. But she and his daddy had already decided his name... Charles Thomas Richards... they would call him Charlie.

She bent her head down and kissed her baby boy's soft, straight dark hair. "Well, Charlie... your Daddy is going to be so happy to meet you, but what are we going to do about your sister? It looks like you've already been picking on her... don't think that your Daddy and I are going to let you get away with that any longer! And what are we going to name her? Your Dad and I were having a hard time coming up with names for girls... so what should we call her?"

The only name for a girl any of their friends had suggested that Diana liked was Megan... the name of Tom's mother. And Charles' mother had insisted that if they had a girl, she should carry the name Elizabeth... a traditional name in their family. So she decided she'd inform Charles that their daughter's name would be Megan Elizabeth Richards. She just hoped Charles wouldn't think that she'd chosen the name Megan on purpose...

Diana knew in her heart that Charles would love their daughter as much as their son... he'd never raise the biological question at this point. He'd grown to love both of the babies; in his mind, they were both his children... no matter what. As it turned out, Charles was very pleased with that name for their little girl... he thought Megan was a beautiful name fit for their beautiful little daughter.

Tom and Lynda came to the hospital about an hour later, and Tom was humbled that both of the children seemed to have been named in his and his family's honor. And watching how Charles and Diana doted on them and fretted over little Megan made him realize that those babies were theirs... they loved them both unconditionally. He said a silent "thank you" to God for letting him know that he'd made the right decision...

**********

Mary Hogan reported for work as usual at nine o'clock on Friday morning, September 13, and started scanning through the files of the new patients that had been admitted to the hospital since the previous afternoon. She stopped when she spotted the name she'd been hoping to see. A slow evil smile widened her thin lips as she realized she would finally be able to take revenge on the woman who'd stolen her son from her...

She couldn't help but think it was poetic justice that it would literally be "an eye for an eye" ... a son for a son. Then she frowned when she saw that there was another child... the little bitch had been given two children!How unfair... She'd never been able to have any more children after Eddie was born... even though she'd prayed for them. How was she supposed to get revenge by leaving the bitch childless like herself?!! She'd had a hard enough time trying to prepare herself to commit such an evil act against one innocent soul and now there were two...

Then she thought...Maybe this is God's way of making it up to me... sending this woman a son and a daughter... I'm supposed to take the boy to replace the one she stole from me and she'll still have her daughter so neither one of us will be childless... That seemed like a much more equitable solution to her... she really hadn't relished the thought of killing an innocent child...

Mary tried to keep her mind on her duties at work while she revised her plan for that evening. She'd known all along that she was going to disappear as soon as she'd taken her revenge, but now she was going to have to make arrangements to take a child with her. That would slow her departure a little but she was sure she'd still be able to get away before anyone even realized she was missing...

As soon as her shift ended, she took a file cart and rolled it to the hallway around the corner from the nursery in the maternity ward. Then she peeked around the corner and saw there was no one in the hallway at the moment, since it was not regular visiting hours yet. She moved to the windows, looked in and spotted the names she was looking for on the bassinets. Then she walked around to the entrance of the nursery and spoke to the nurse on duty.

"How are things going here, Betty?" The nurse smiled at her and said things had been pretty quiet... even the babies. "Well, that's good, but I thought I should tell you that I saw a man loitering in the hallway outside the nursery just now and I asked him which child was his but he said none of them were. So, I told him he shouldn't be here since it's not quite visiting hours yet, but I don't think he paid any attention to me since I'm not in a uniform. Maybe you should go say something to him."

"Thanks, Mary. I'll go check on that right now if you can stay here for a few minutes and keep an eye on things for me. I'd like to run up to the break room and grab a cup of coffee, too, since I've been on double duty for almost twelve hours now. Dottie called in sick earlier and they couldn't find anyone to cover her shift, so I'm all alone here. I'd really appreciate it if you could stick around for just a few minutes, OK?"

"Sure, Betty... take your time," Mary said smoothly as she smiled slyly.This must be what God wants me to do... He's making this almost too easy for me...

When nurse Betty was out of sight, Mary moved into the nursery, closed the blinds on the windows and went to pick up the beautiful, sleeping baby boy she was sure now that God had sent to replace her own handsome son. As soon as she started to lift the infant from his bassinet, his sister in the bassinet next to his started to squirm and cry weakly.

Mary looked down at the tiny girl and said softly, "Don't worry, little Megan... I promise I won't hurt him. You won't even remember him so there's no sense in you getting upset about this. Just think... I'm doing you a favor. Now you won't have to compete for your parents' attention and affection. Shhh, shhh, little Megan... it'll be OK!"

Mary moved swiftly out of the nursery when it became apparent that the little girl was not going to stop crying... and her cries were growing stronger and louder. She carried the sleeping boy to her file cart and placed him in a large box in the bottom on a soft blanket and draped her sweater over the box. She rolled the cart to the exit nearest her car and then carried the box and put it in the floor of the backseat of her car.

She arrived home and parked in the back alley to carry her son into their house. She hated the thought of it, but she'd have to leave him alone for a bit. She kissed her fingertips and touched his soft hair as she said, "It'll be OK, Eddie... Mama just has to run out for a little while and pick up all the things I need to take good care of you. I'll be back as soon as I can... I promise! Please don't go anywhere this time, my sweet boy..." **********

Most of Charles and Diana's friends showed up for visiting hours at six o'clock that evening and were anxiously waiting outside the nursery to see Charlie and Megan before going to visit with their parents. They were wondering why the blinds on the windows were still closed as the nurses usually had them open during visiting hours.

Nurse Betty came rushing back from the break room fifteen minutes after she'd left realizing that it was time for visiting hours. One of the babies was raising quite a ruckus and she figured it was probably the Richards' boy as he had quite a set of lungs on him. She breezed into the nursery and saw that the blinds were closed, so she headed toward the windows and opened them as she called out, "I'm coming, young Master Richards!"

Then she turned around to go tend to the squalling infant and stopped dead in her tracks when she realized it was the Richards' baby girl who was screaming her lungs out and her brother's bassinet was empty... She put her hand to her mouth and whispered, "Oh, my God..." Then she turned around toward the windows with a stricken look on her face.

Tom, Jon and Rick all knew something was wrong right away. They took off around to the nursery entrance and confronted the nurse as she was picking up the phone. She put her hand up to stop them as she buzzed the Main Administration Office. "Madge, this is Betty Hart in Maternity. I was asked to cover Dottie Minor's shift until you could find someone to relieve me. Have you sent anyone down here yet? ... No? ... Oh, God... we have a problem. One of the babies has disappeared from the nursery! Call the police! It just happened in the last fifteen minutes! ... I have to go now... just get the authorities here right away!"

She hung up the phone and looked anxiously at the three concerned men standing in front of her. "I'm sorry, gentlemen, but I can't allow you in here! Please..."

Tom cut her off. "Look, Nurse Hart, we are the authorities. I'm with the FBI and these two men are L.A.P.D. The missing child's father is my partner. You tell us everything you know so we can start looking for that baby right away, all right?!!"

By that time, poor little Megan's cries were starting to weaken again from wearing herself out. Tom walked past the nurse and over to the tiny baby and picked her up gently. He stared down at her as she whimpered weakly a couple times and then quieted as she blinked her eyes up at him and took a few shaky, shallow breaths. He continued to hold her as Nurse Hart told them everything that had happened in the twenty minutes or so since she had last checked on the babies. Jon and Rick made notes of everything she told them.

Just then, Charles showed up at the nursery windows with the rest of their friends and noticed the nervous looks on their faces. "What's going on?" he asked with concern. Then he looked in the windows and noticed that both of his children's bassinets were empty. He turned to everyone again. "Just what the hell is going on here? Where are our babies?!!!"

Lynda moved in front of him and took his hands. "Megan is fine, Charles. Tom has her with him. But we're not sure where Charlie is. Tom, Jon and Rick are talking to the nurse now to find out what's going on."

Charles rushed around to the nursery entrance and saw Tom standing there holding his baby girl in his arms... They stared at each other for a moment in awareness and understanding. Then Tom walked over to his best friend and handed him the baby. "Here, partner... take your daughter... she needs you."

Charles carefully took the precious bundle from Tom's arms and then looked around at the others. "Where's my son? Where's Charlie?" The color drained from his face when Jon and Rick told him what the nurse had said. "Oh, my God..." he whispered. "What do we do now? Does anyone have any idea who the strange man was loitering around? And what happened to this other employee... Mary... what's her name?"

"Hogan," the nurse answered. "Her name is Mary Hogan and she's been working here as a records keeper and file clerk for a few months. She's always been very helpful to us nurses, especially here in the maternity ward. I can't imagine why she wouldn't have waited for me to return..."

Charles shook his head slightly... something about the woman's name rang a bell with him for some reason, but he was so worried over his son that he couldn't think straight at the moment. Then he felt his daughter stirring in his arms as she started to whimper. Then her cries became louder until she was wailing again. Charles tried rocking her in his arms to comfort her but she continued to cry loudly. He looked at the nurse. "I'm taking my daughter to her mother... she needs her mother right now." The nurse just nodded at him.

**********

Diana was slowly approaching the nursery, wondering why her friends were all standing around looking so nervous and no one had come to her room yet to tell her how beautiful her babies were. Then she heard what sounded like a familiar wail. She laughed slightly as she spoke. "Boy... Charlie does not sound very happy at all! What are they doing to him?" she asked jokingly as she neared the windows.

Lynda rushed over to her best friend and put her arm around her shoulders to try to lead her away. "Diana! What are you doing out of bed?!! You shouldn't be walking around so much! And they're not doing anything to Charlie... that's Megan you hear crying!"

Diana stopped and stared at Lynda. "Really?!! That's Meggie? Ohhh... she sounds so much stronger already!!! I guess the doctor knew what he was talking about! Let me see her... I want to see my baby girl... and Charlie... Where's Charlie?" she asked as she dragged Lynda back to the nursery windows and looked in at the empty bassinets. "Who's got Charlie and where are they?" she asked curiously.