“I know,” he said. “You did something good.”
Jax squinted. “Okay…”
“What you did last night,” he said, meeting Jax’s eyes, “you saved my baby.”
The house fell silent.
“Your baby?” I asked.
He nodded.
“That newborn the EMTs took. He’s my son.”
Jax’s eyes widened.
“Wait,” he said. “Why was he even out there?”
Daniels swallowed before answering.
“My wife died three weeks ago,” he said quietly. “Complications after the birth. It’s just me and him now.”
“I had to go back on shift,” he continued. “I left him with my neighbor. She’s solid. But her teenage daughter was watching him while the mom ran to the store.” His jaw clenched. “She took him out to ‘show a friend,’” he said. “It was colder than she thought. He started crying. She panicked. Left him on that bench and ran home to get her mom.”
“She left him?” I whispered. “Out there?”
“She’s 14,” he said. “It was a terrible, stupid choice. My neighbor realized right away, but when they got back outside, he was gone.” His eyes returned to Jax. “You had him,” he said. “You’d already wrapped him in your jacket. The doctors said another 10 minutes in that cold and it might’ve ended very differently.”
My knees felt weak, and I reached for the back of a chair.
Jax shifted his weight.
“I just… couldn’t walk away,” he said.
Daniels nodded.
He bent down and lifted a baby carrier from the porch—I hadn’t even noticed it was there.
Inside, wrapped in a proper blanket, was the baby.
Warm now. Rosy cheeks. A tiny hat with bear ears.
“This is Theo,” Daniels said. “My son.”
He looked at Jax.
“Want to hold him?”
Jax went pale.
Continue reading…
