Burning (911/Lone Star)

Prologue

Not for one second had she believed her, but as always Grace let her in, gave her a cup of coffee and been there if she needed to talk, not that she ever had, but Grace hoped that one day she would. Maddie longed to have the courage to tell Grace but deep down she loved Doug and she couldn't bring herself to leave him, she was scared that Grace would go to the cops and that Doug would be arrested. Maddie loved him despite everything he did to her.

After many hours of sitting and watching her baby girl sleep Maddie had come up with a plan, luckily she had told Doug that Emily wasn't doing great and they were worried for her. All Maddie had to do was use her hurt and emotion from leaving her baby and play it as grief after she died. Then Doug would believe her and Emily would be safe. Maddie knew she would have guilt over her decision but she had to sacrifice her happiness for her daughters safety.

That was what had led to the moment today, a mother standing outside a hospital debating on giving up her daughter, but she knew she had to, for both of their sakes. After minutes that felt like hours of standing outside, Madeline Rose Buckley-Kendall took the first step forward and from that she started to walk quickly into the entrance of Lakeside General Hospital. She waited in the queue for the reception desk. 

As she did so she pressed a soft, gentle and loving kiss to her daughters head and rocked her side to side. "Next!" Broke Maddie from her thoughts, she moved forward and that's when she realized, she was next. She cleared her throat and walked somewhat calmly towards the desk. "Hi, how may I help you?" The woman asked her, Maddie smiled at her not really knowing what to say.

"I'm here to drop my daughter off, I can't take her. The safe haven law applies at hospitals right?" Maddie asked despite knowing the answer from being a nurse in the ER and being given safe haven babies multiple times before. The woman nodded and gave Maddie a sad smile and walked out from behind the desk and to Maddie.

"Let's go somewhere more private, okay?" The woman whose name badge read 'Janet', Maddie nodded her head and followed her into an unoccupied meeting room. "Take a seat miss."

The woman, Janet, walked out of the room and within came in ten minutes later with a tray of things. A glass of water and a biscuit for Maddie, a bottle for Emily and then underneath the tray of food, was another but of a blanket, hat and sticker for Emily. "What's her name?" Janet asked Maddie as she sat herself down next to Maddie on the sofa. Maddie took a sip of water from her glass and blinked her tears back.

"I can't believe I'm doing this. I see so many people give their babies up and I always thought how could you leave them alone in this world, but now I know, to protect them." Maddie began as a single tear rolled down her cheek and onto Emily's forehead but she didn't stir, she was content with her bottle. "Her name is Emilia Grace Buckley, she was born on the twenty-third of May so she's four days old." Maddie told Janet who nodded and made a note of it on her sticker.

"As I'm sure you know, how this works is we'll take Emilia and call a social worker who will come and pick her up and put her into the system. At the moment she will be kept here until she is a few weeks old so you have the option to change your mind and come and get her but after she is officially in the system she will be taken to a home and eventually they'll find her a loving family to care for her." Janet listed off the speech they were told to give every time a safe haven was in.

Maddie sat silently and nodded her head, she didn't want to do this but she knew she had to so she could keep her baby Emily safe and protect her. After ten minutes and an emotional goodbye on Maddie's part, Emily was handed over to Janet who changed her into a new nappy and wrapped her in a blanket and put a pink hat over her small head. Madeline Rose Buckley-Kendall now had the choice to either go back in there and say she had changed her mind.

Or she could walk out and never turn back, to go back to her friends house tell her everything had been sorted and that Doug was back at the house. Maddie turned on her heel and walked out of the hospital and to her friends where she grabbed her already packed bags, thanked Grace and walked to her apartment shared with her husband and abuser, Doug Kendall. "Where have you been!?" He slurred as she stumbled into the apartment with her bags.

"I told you this, there were some complications at the hospital." Maddie whispered, tears already forming and welling up, they were building like a wave until they could take their moment to cascade down. He took a few steps towards her, which Maddie instinctively took two back, he stood still, as if you could see the cogs in his brain whirring as he tried to figure out what was missing.

"The baby. What's her name? Amelie? Where is she?" He asked looking around the apartment as if she would just be hiding in the corner. 

"Emilia. Doug, I told you she had some complications, today, she um she didn't make it. They tried everything. Emilia's dead Doug." She sobbed as the words escaped her lips, soon followed by sobs, in this moment a woman would want to be held and comforted by her husband, not slapped across the face with a force that knocked them of their feet and onto the floor. Or to be kicked multiple times in the side, but Maddie didn't have a husband in the same sense.

At this moment, Maddie knew she had made the right choice.