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By Megan Marie Irvin

6/8/98

"And stay out!" Angie shouted as she pushed Rollie out of the workshop,
closing the door behind him.

"Angie!" Rollie shouted back, pounding on the door. Leaning his head against
the door he gave up. His wife was close to nine months pregnant, and her
hormones were going bonkers. Rollie couldn't say or do anything without
Angie exploding into a crying heap, or a hysterical mad woman. And you can
bet he got kicked out more than once.

Moving to his car, Rollie shivered against the bitter cold November winds.

------------

Thirty minutes later, Rollie walked into Midtown South. Seeing Francis at
his desk the Aussie walked over to him.

"Hi Francis." Rollie called out, pulling a chair next to the detective's desk.

"Hey Rollie. What are you doing here? Angie kick you out again?" Francis
asked, a smile appearing on his face as Rollie nodded 'yes'. "What was it
this time?"

"Something ridiculous like always." Rollie said, reluctant to tell Francis
what happened.

"Well?" Francis pushed.

"Well, we got a new movie coming up in a few months, and I had a idea on
this big blow-Um-up action scene. So of course I was busy thinking about
that idea, and I hadn't talked to Angie all morning. All the sudden I have
this book thrown at my head-- it missed --and Angie was yelling at me that I
didn't love her anymore. I told her it wasn't true but she started crying
and kicked me out of the loft." Rollie told the detective, looking down at
his hands that were folded in his lap.

"Well, don't worry Rollie. It'll pass. I'm sure by the time you get home,
she'll have forgotten all about it. I went through the same thing with
Sarah." Francis assured the special Fx artist.

"I hope so. I'm at my wits end with all of Angie's hormones going every
which way. I don't think I'm going to last." Rollie whined.

"Rollie, trust me you'll last. She's due in about a week, right?" Francis asked.

"Two weeks." Rollie corrected.

"All right, two weeks. If I can live going through those same hormones
through three different pregnancies, you can last two more weeks." He
assured the man.

"I sure hope so." Rollie said shaking his head.

"Well, Vanduren is waiting for these reports." Francis told Rollie, getting
up from his chair.

"Okay. I didn't mean to keep you, Frank." Rollie started to apologize.

"It's all right. I really wasn't looking forward going in to his office at
the time any ways. He just got off the phone with the mayor, or someone who
got him upset. He looks like he's cooled down now." Francis assured the
Aussie. "Oh, and a word of the wise. When you go home, in case she's still
upset, I recommend flowers. A dozen roses."

"Thanks, Francis. I'll remember that." Rollie told the shorter man. After
they exchanged good-byes, Rollie walked into the elevator leaving to see
what awaited him back at the loft.

----------

The nervous man entered the workshop hesitantly. With his hands behind his
back, he looked around the place for his wife. Hearing noises coming from
the kitchen, Rollie started in that direction.

"Hi, Rollie." Angie said cheerfully, as Rollie stepped into view.

"Hi, Angie." Rollie replied, carefully. She didn't look or sound mad
anymore. He stood watching her move around the kitchen preparing something
for lunch.

"What have you got behind your back?" Angie asked, stopping what she was
doing, and came to stand in front of her husband.

"Roses, for you." Rollie answered, handing her the bundle of twelve red roses.

Seeing her face lit up with delight, he started to believe he did something
right for a change, until Angie started crying.

Rollie laid the roses down on the kitchen counter, and pulled Angie into his
arms, as close as her bloated stomach allowed.

"I'm sorry I said those things to you this morning!" Angie kept saying over
and over through her sobbing.

"Shh. It's okay." Rollie assured her, rubbing her back, trying his best to
calm her down. Oh boy, is this going to be a long couple weeks, Rollie
thought to himself, silently sighing.

-------------------

The week of Angie's due date came and went. She was three weeks over due,
still pregnant, and hating every minute of it.

And Rollie hovering over her all the time didn't help. Every time she moved
or made a noise, Rollie thought she was going into labor.

The only time he felt her alone was when she went to take a nap upstairs.

On a rainy, cold, evening, in the middle of December, Rollie was interrupted
from the work he was doing on setting up a playpen when he heard someone
enter the building. Looking up from his seat on the couch, Rollie saw
Francis walking towards him. "Hey, Frank."

"Hi, Rol." Francis replied, sitting down on a chair across from the Aussie.
"How's it going?"

"How do you think it's going? I'm a nervous wreck. I don't sleep at night
anymore, because by the time I start falling asleep, Angie moves around and
I think she's having a contraction or something," Rollie told the detective,
taking a break from hooking up the half finished playpen.

"I went through the same thing with Sarah, through her last pregnancy. I
didn't get any sleep for at least a month, and that was before the youngest
was born. I was getting so restless, she kicked me out of the bedroom and
made me sleep on the couch for about two weeks. Still didn't get any sleep."

"Well, I just hope this baby gets here soon. I don't know how much more of
this waiting I can take. Or Angie either. She's going crazy. Even though she
hasn't told me this I can tell she's sick of being pregnant." Rollie told
his detective friend.

"They all do at the end. Don't worry, the baby will be here soon enough. And
at the least expected moment too. Or least wanted." Francis stated, smiling.

"As long as this baby is born very soon, I don't care." Rollie replied. "So
Francis you come here for a reason?"

"Yeah. I know you probably want to stay with Angie in case she goes into
labor, but Mira and  I really need your help on a case tonight." Francis asked.

"You're right. I do want to stay with Angie. I'll have to say no this time,
Frank. Sorry." Rollie answered, shaking his head lightly.

"Rollie, I'll be fine. If Francis and Mira really need your help, then go
help them." Angie told Rollie, surprising both men, as she looked towards
where they were seating in the lounge.

"Ang, what if you go into labor while I'm gone?" Rollie asked standing up,
helping her sit down on the couch.

"I'll page you." Angie answered, pointing to the pager Rollie kept hooked on
his belt. "Rollie, go please. I will be fine. Help Francis and Mira. Just
don't get yourself hurt or worse, you got me?"

"Yeah, I got ya. But are you sure?" Rollie asked again, looking at her
uncertainly.

"Yes, I'm certain." Angie replied.

"Okay. Francis, I guess I'll be able to help you after all. What do you
need?" Rollie asked, but before an answer could be said his attention was
drawn back to his wife, who made a small gasp, and put a hand on her
stomach. Within seconds, both men were at her side, looking at her anxiously.

"I'm fine. The baby just kicked. That's all." Angie assured them, smiling at
their concern.

"You sure?" Rollie asked, not satisfied.

"Rollie, I'm positive. Now, if you help me up from this couch, I'm going to
go into the kitchen and get something to eat. I'm starving." Angie assured
her overprotective husband, reaching her arms out to be pulled up.

While watching his very-much pregnant wife move into the kitchen, Rollie
turned his thoughts back to Francis. "So, Francis, what do you and Mira need
me to help you with?"

For the rest of the evening Francis filled Rollie in on the details of the
case that the detectives needed Tyler's help with. There had been some
killings of homeless men over the past few weeks. The murders were thought
to be done by a street gang. How it seemed to go down was someone would
approach one of bum's at night, tell him that if he came with the man, the
bum would be given money. And then the stranger and homeless man would get
into a black car, with no license plate number, and leave. At least that's a
what all the other homeless bum's who were witnesses claimed. Then two days
later the body of a missing homeless man would turn up in a garbage bin,
with his main internal organs removed. These abductions also happened on the
same street.

Around eight PM, after getting a plan set up and the gear they needed,
Francis and Rollie left for Midtown South where they'd be meeting Mira.

The plan was that Rollie would go undercover as a homeless man, hopefully
get picked as the gangs' next victim, and lead the detectives, who would be
in the FX van tracking him, to the gang headquarters.

----------

By nine-thirty, Angie had fallen asleep on the couch, with her cat, Chiops,
laying on her feet.

A slight pain in her stomach woke the young pregnant woman up. She was only
half aware of what woke her up. Looking at her watch she discovered it was
forty-five minutes past ten, and Rollie didn't seem to be home yet. Pushing
the cat off her feet, Angie got up from the couch and moved to the kitchen.

Ten minutes later while, pouring herself a glass of milk, Angie felt another
pain in her stomach. The woman's eye's widened as she was sure, what she
just felt, was a contraction.

"Oh, not now." Angie said out loud to herself, almost panicky. "Maybe I just
need something to eat."

The woman then moved around the kitchen grabbing what she needed to make a
peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After making the sandwich, she took the
sandwich and her milk, and moved over to kitchen table.

While she was chewing a bite of the peanut butter and jelly, another
contraction hit. As the woman let out a low gasp, Bluey barked from his
place on a work table a few feet away.

"Oh, no. Why now?" Angie muttered to herself. Guess I didn't need anything
to eat, she thought to herself. Looking down at her watch she saw it was ten
minutes after the first contraction.

Maybe it  was just false labor. At least that's what Angie hoped it was. Her
doctor had told her and Rollie that could happen.

Angie was about to page Rollie when she thought against it. The doctor had
also told them not to bother coming into the hospital till the contractions
were about five minutes apart. So she decided to wait to call Rollie when or
if they got closer together.
 

---------------

Rollie, now dressed in dirty clothes, disguised as a bum, sat down on the
wet cement of the street that all the past victims were taken from.

"Any signs of any one suspicious yet, Rol?" Mira asked into her end of the
headset. She sat down in front of the computer in the FX van that was parked
down the street from where Rollie was.

"Nope. Not yet." Rollie answered into his headset that was well hidden under
his knit cap.
He leaned against the wall of a old empty warehouse, waiting for something
to happen.

Thirty minutes later, eleven-thirty, there was still nothing happening.

"Maybe no one is going to show tonight, Mira." Rollie suggested, getting
cold and tired. He was also anxious to get back to Angie. Though knowing his
pager, which he still had hidden under his bum clothes hadn't gone off yet
he wasn't as jumpy.

"Maybe you're right, Rollie. How 'bout we stay ten more minutes and then
call it a night?" Mira asked, knowing full well that Rollie would rather be
at home with Angie, keeping an eye on her. She was surprised when she found
out Rollie had agreed to help them. Mira was sure there was no way he was
going to leave his wife, especially if she could go into  labor anytime now.

"Yeah, sounds good to me." Rollie, replied into the headset. His attention
was bought to the sound of a car approaching, and a car door opening and
slamming shut. "Wait. Looks like we have something here."

Hearing that, Mira turned her attention to the computer that was receiving
the video feed from the camera that was also hidden in Rollie's hat.

Rollie watched silently as two men, younger than him, and each about the
same height, walked towards him.

"Hey, you!" The blond one called out in a deep New  Yorker accent.

"You talking to me?" Rollie asked, doing his best 'homeless person' impression.

"Yes! Who less would I be talking to, bum! There's no one else around here!"
The same man snapped back.

"You want to make some money?" The other man asked Rollie the 'bum'.

"What do I have to do?" Rollie asked causally.

"'Nothing much. Just come with us." The blond man said sternly.

"Okay." Rollie answered, getting up and following the two men to the running
beat up black car.

As Rollie was pushed into the back and the car pulled away, Mira called to
Francis who was sitting in the van's drivers seat, and gave him directions
in which way to go.

----------------

Around eleven-thirty, Angie's contractions had started to come seven minutes
apart. And there still was no sign of Rollie.

She finally decided it was time to page Rollie.

--------------

Rollie sat silent in the back seat of the car. As they slowed down at a stop
light, the Aussie's heart skipped a beat, when his pager went off.

"What's that?" The blond man, who was sitting next to Rollie, asked.

"Um...... Um...." Rollie stuttered, as the man grabbed the pager out of his
coat pocket.

"A pager!? What's a bum like you doing with a pager?"

"I found it. It was laying on the ground." Rollie answered.

"Well, who's ever paging the owner of this pager is in labor." The blond man
said, looking at the pager.

Rollie nearly had a heart attack at those words. Oh, Bloody hell. He knew he
should've stayed with Angie.

The Aussie knew that Mira and Francis were listening in and would make sure
Angie got to the hospital. Now if he could just get out of this mess.

-------------

"What's going on Mira?" Francis asked, as he followed the car Rollie had
left in, at a safe distance.
 

"I don't know. Something is wrong with the sound. It's all scratchy, I can't
hear what there saying. The video is a bit blurry too." Mira told Frank, as
she stained to hear what was being said. She couldn't make anything out.

"Is the tracker still working?" Francis asked.

"Yeah, that's still working." Mira replied.

---------------

Angie sat on the couch, fanatically paging Rollie. She's been beeping him
for the last half hour, and her contractions were now five minutes apart.
Still no word from Rollie.

Having no luck reaching him, Angie started to call, Sarah Gatti, when she
remembered that Sarah and the girls had gone to her sister's in New Jersey.
They wouldn't be back till the following week.

The young woman tried to think of who else she could call but came up blank.
Lucinda was in Canada doing a guest spot in a hit TV series. Angie was about
to call Captain Vanduren, when she realized she didn't have his number.

"Oh, why'd you have to pick tonight, when your father isn't even here, to be
born, huh?" Angie asked her stomach, as she was hit with another contraction.

As she was about to call a taxi, Angie heard a knock at the door. "Who ever
it is, is taking me to the hospital," Angie thought as she moved over to the
door.

"Hello, Angela." Was the cheery reply Angie got as she opened the door,
revealing her father-in-law, Dingo Tyler.

Last time Dingo was around was about six months earlier, a week before
Angie's and Rollie's one year wedding anniversary.

"Dingo, I must say you've never had such good sense of timing in your life
as you do now." Angie told the man, receiving a confused look.

"Now what does that mean?" Dingo asked stepping inside.

"It means your taking me to the hospital. NOW." Angie replied, grabbing her
coat.

"What?" Dingo questioned confused as her watched his pregnant
daughter-in-law walk to the lounge and return with a small suitcase. His
eyes grew as big a saucers as realization as to what was happening hit him.
"Your not saying your in labor are you?"

"Of course that's what I'm saying! Why else do you think I'd want to go to
the hospital in the middle of the night?" Angie gasped as she had another
contraction, grabbing for Dingo's hand.

"Okay. Okay." Dingo muttered, trying to stay calm. "Where's Rollie?"

"Out playing cops and robbers. What else would he be doing?" Angie replied,
as she went over the breathing excises the Lamaze classes taught, in her
head. "I tried paging him but I haven't heard from him yet."

"All right. It's going to be all right. We have plenty of time." Dingo told
her, taking the suitcase from her, leading Angie to the door. He turned
around when Angie made a gasp and stopped.

"My water just broke." Angie told the older man.

"Bloody hell!" The Aussie exclaimed. "Okay. Just stay calm."

"I am calm. Your the one who's all hysterical." Angie replied, following him
out to his car.

----------------

About forty-five minutes after the pager was found, which the blond man
threw out the window, the car came to a stop in front of a old abandoned
warehouse at a shipping dock.

"Come on, you." The blond man, told Rollie, as he pulled him out of the car.

Rollie was led into the old small warehouse. There were two more men in the
building. It was divided into three rooms. The main room, was furnished with
a small fold-down table and a few chairs. The door to the second room, off
to the left, was closed. And the third room was located up a short flight of
stairs.

"Okay, so what do you want me to do?" Rollie asked, as he was pushed into
one of the chairs. He tried keeping his mind on the problem at hand, but his
mind kept drifting to the message that one of the gang members said was on
the pager. He knew he should've stayed with Angie. Why'd he agree to help
his detective friends any ways? Because Angie nearly kicked him out of the
loft, that's why.

"For now, just sit." One of the men answered. He then started towards the
stairs with three of the men following. There was one man left in the main
room with Rollie.

---------------

"So, what's happening?" Francis asked as he moved to where Mira was sitting
in the back of the van after parking a van some feet away from the
warehouse, in the shadows.

"Rollie's been left in one of the rooms, with a guard watching him. The
others went up the stairs. The sound is still a little fuzzy, but it's
better than before." Mira told him, watching the video feed.

"That's good." Francis replied.

"Frank, maybe you should call for some back up. Tell them to come silently."
Mira said.

"Yeah, sure." Francis moved to the front of the van calling for some back up.

------------

Rollie sat for what seemed to be an hour or more in the room. The men were
still upstairs. He heard muffled talk and laughter. Seeing his guard had
fallen asleep in his chair, about ten feet away, Rollie quietly and slowly
got up from his chair, making his way up the stairs.

The Aussie, stopped right outside of the closed door. He quietly opened it a
crack, and listened, without making a sound, to what the three gang members
were saying.

"I told you I didn't want to do this any more, Jake." One of the men said.

"Well, I told you to be quiet, Larry!" 'Jake' replied. "Mr. Fundricks is
paying us good money to get him these human parts to sell on the black
market. And it's not like no one is missing these homeless bums any ways."

"Look, Jake, I just don't think this is a good idea anymore. I mean this is
much bigger than our regular 'breaking into cars' gig." Larry continued to
complain, as the other men in the room stayed silent.

"You saying you want out?" Jake questioned.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact I do want out." Larry replied nervously.

"All right then. Anything you want." Jake said, smiling, while pulling a gun
out of his desk drawer, and aimed it at Larry's head.

Rollie started shutting the door. This time the door squeaked, getting the
gunman's attention.

"What was that!?!" Jake exclaimed, walking to the door. He stopped Rollie
before he had a chance to get back down the stairs. "Well, well, what do we
have here?"

"It looks like a peeping tom to me." One of the other gang members replied.

"What are you doing up here?" Jake asked, pointing the gun at Rollie.

---------

"Francis, it looks like we might have some trouble here." Mira called out to
Francis, who just got off the phone.

They both sat, staring at computer, getting ready to bust into the warehouse.

-----------

"I just was curious as to when we could get on with whatever you want me to
do." Rollie answered.

"You seem a bit anxious to get out of here for someone who has no home to go
home to." Jake stated, walking closer to Rollie. "Doesn't he boys? Search him."

A minute later, one of the gang members, removed Rollie's hat, revealing the
video and sound wires.

-----------

"Damn." Mira muttered, as she and Francis ran out of the van to the building.

-----------

"Look here, Jake. Our homeless guy is carrying a wire."

"Is that so? I'm starting to get a feeling he isn't who he appears to be."
Jake replied, stepping closer to Rollie. "Just who the hell are you?"

Rollie stood his ground, not replying.

When Rollie wouldn't answer, Jake became angry and punched Rollie in the mouth.

Before anything else could happen, all three gang members, were surprised,
by Francis and Mira appearing at the top of the stairs with there guns
aimed. "Police! Drop your guns, and put your hands behind your head!"

Francis moved over to the three men, starting to read them there rights,
while Mira bent down next to Rollie, who fallen against the wall when Jake
hit him.

"Rollie, are you okay?" Mira asked, pulling a  handkerchief, from her coat
pocket, dabbing up the blood from Rollie's cracked lip.

"I'm fine. But Angie. Is she okay?" Rollie asked the detective.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Rollie." Mira answered him.

"Did you make sure she got to the hospital?" Rollie asked, receiving a
confused look from Mira and Francis, who was listening in on the
conversation. "Didn't you two hear what happened in the car?"

"As a matter of fact we didn't. The sound went off. Why?" Mira told him.

"Oh, bloody hell." Rollie muttered, getting up, and running down the stairs,
with Mira behind him.

"Rollie, what's going on?" Mira called out after the Aussie.

"My pager went off. It was from Angie." Rollie called out over his shoulder
as he ran for the FX van, as he passed the back up, who finally arrived.

-----------

A couple minutes later, Mira entered the van, hanging up her phone.

"She's not home." Rollie answered anxiously as he started the van's motor.

"I just called the hospital. She was admitted to the maternity ward around
two hours ago." Mira told the nervous man as he started the van and pulled
on to the road.

-------------------

Forty-five minutes later, Rollie pulled the van up to the emergency
entrance, stopped the motor and jumped out, running inside of the hospital,
with Mira following  him. After being told which floor the maternity ward
was on, Rollie ran to the elevator, pushing floor number seven.

By the time Mira caught up to Rollie, the elevator door had already closed.
Mire pushed the up button and waited for the next elevator.

----------

Getting off the elevator, Rollie rushed over to the nurse's station and
asked if there was a patient by the name of Angela Tyler.

"Yes, she just came out of the delivery room about half-an-hour ago. Had a
baby girl. She's down the hall in room 107." The nurse told him, and watched
amused as the man sprinted down the hall, and came to an abrupt stop in
front of room 107.

--------

Rollie quietly opened the room door, to find Angie asleep and his father
sitting in a chair next to Angie's hospital bed, holding a small bundle in
his arms.

As Rollie stepped closer to his father, Dingo looked up, smiling. "Here,
son. I'm sure you want to hold your daughter."

Daughter. His daughter. Those words rung in Rollie's head, as Dingo stood
and handed the baby over two him.

"I'll be outside. Congratulations, son." Dingo told his son, who was paying
too much attention to his daughter to really hear what his father had said.

Rollie walked over to the chair Dingo was previously sitting in, carefully,
as not to drop the baby. He looked down at the sleeping bundle in his arms
completely overjoyed.

"Getting to know your daughter, Rol?" Came a quiet question from the woman
laying in the bed.

"She looks just like you, Angie." Rollie replied, smiling first at his wife,
then down at his daughter. "I'm sorry, I couldn't be here, when she was
born. I promise next time I will be here during the delivery."

"Who said there's going to be a next time?" Angie asked amused, smiling at
her husband, who seemed overjoyed at the birth of his daughter. "Here let me
hold my daughter."

Rollie carefully handed the still sleeping baby over to her mother. He then
moved to sit on the edge of Angie's bed,  leaning against  the wall and
putting his arm around Angie.

"So, what do you want to name our daughter?" Angie asked, as the sleeping
baby wrapped her tiny hand around one of her father's big fingers.

"How 'bout Mable?" Rollie asked.

"Mable?" Angie asked, eyebrows raised. "Where'd you get that from?"

"My nanny, when I was a boy in Australia, her name was Mable. I guess it
just stuck with me." Rollie explained. "If you don't like it, then we can
pick something else."

"No, I like, Mable. It's a cute name." Angie replied. "Then it's settled?
Mable Tyler?"

"Sounds good to me, love." Rollie told her.

-------------

"I don't hear anything." Rollie announced, the night Angie and baby Mable
came home from the hospital, waking Angie up.

"That's nice." Angie mumbled groggily.

"I don't think she's breathing." Rollie said, shaking Angie's shoulder.

"Who?" Angie asked, rolling over to look at him.

"Mable. I don't hear any breathing." Rollie told his wife, putting the baby
monitor up to his ear.

"Rollie, she's fine. Go back to sleep." Angie told him, turning back around.
Earlier that day, Sarah and Frank had stopped by, and before they felt,
Sarah had warned Angie, Rollie would act like this. And there probably
wasn't anything wrong with the baby. He was just being paranoid, and with
time it would pass. She said once the lack of sleep set in he'd be too tired
to worry all time. But still would worry and always be overprotective.

"I'm going to check on her just to make sure." Rollie told Angie, getting
out of bed, wearing a pair a sweat pants. He stopped at the end of the bed,
where Mable was asleep peacefully in the bassinet, that was sitting on top
of a footlocker placed right at the end of the bed. She had the other baby
monitor laying right beside her.

"She's okay." Rollie said loud enough so Angie would hear, but not loud
enough so the baby would wake up.

"That's good." Angie muttered in her sleep. Yep, raising a child with Rollie
Tyler would be very interesting.

THE END