Five years ago, I found a newborn abandoned at my fire station and made him my son. Just as our life together felt complete, a woman appeared at my door, trembling with a plea that turned my world upside down. The wind howled that night, rattling the windows of Fire Station #14. I was halfway through my shift, sipping lukewarm coffee, when Joe, my partner, walked in. He had that usual smirk on his face. “Man, you’re gonna drink yourself into an ulcer with that sludge,” he teased, pointing at my cup.

“It’s caffeine. It works. Don’t ask for miracles,” I shot back, grinning.

Joe sat down, flipping through a magazine. Outside, the streets were quiet, the kind of eerie calm that keeps firefighters on edge. That’s when we heard a faint cry, barely audible over the wind. Joe raised an eyebrow. “You hear that?” “Yeah,” I said, already on my feet.

We stepped out into the cold, the wind biting through our jackets. The sound was coming from near the station’s front door. Joe spotted a basket, tucked in the shadows. “No way,” he muttered, rushing ahead. Inside the basket was a tiny baby, wrapped in a threadbare blanket. His cheeks were red from the cold, his cries weak but steady. “Holy…,” Joe whispered. “What do we do?”

I crouched down, gently picking up the baby. He couldn’t have been more than a few days old. His tiny hand curled around my finger, and something shifted inside me. “We call CPS,” Joe said firmly, though his voice softened as he looked at the baby. “Yeah, of course,” I replied, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the little guy. He was so small, so fragile. In the weeks that followed, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. CPS named him “Baby Boy Doe” and placed him in temporary care. I found excuses to call for updates more often than I should’ve.

Joe noticed. He leaned back in his chair, studying me. “You thinking about it? Adopting him?” “I don’t know,” I said, though my heart already knew the answer. The adoption process was the hardest thing I’d ever done. The paperwork was endless. Every step felt like someone was waiting to tell me I wasn’t good enough. A firefighter? Single? What did I know about raising a baby?