After Searching For His Birth Mom For Years, He Realized He Worked With Her

Steve was a normal man who worked as a delivery driver in a home improvement store. He had a happy personal life and he grew up with loving parents who had always supported him. However, there was one thing always on his mind. Who was his birth mother? Steve's adoption was never kept a secret from him. He knew since he was a child but once he turned 18, his curiosity got the better of him. That's when Steve decided to go looking for his biological mom. This process took a long time, it seemed as though his mother had fallen off the face of the earth. He eventually found her after searching for almost four years. What's strange about this story is where he ultimately found her. Steve's inspirational story ended up making headlines all over the country. Steve is a 22-year-old who grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He sat down one day and opened his lunchbox excited to see what his mom made for him. He got a toasted rye bread sandwich, a red apple, and a bottle of orange juice. He took a bite out of his sandwich and something was wrong. He tasted cheese, tomatoes, and olives. Steve spat the bite into the trash. Sometimes, his mom would forget how much Steve hated olives. Olives aside, Steve loved his mother and most of the time her sandwiches were great. After picking the olives out of his sandwich, he quickly ate it. He had a lot of deliveries to get to and needed to hurry up if he wanted to finish on time. For the past couple of years, Steve was working as a delivery driver at a home improvement store. His plan was to go to college, but first he needed to save some money. That's why Steve was working hard and took on as many hours as he could. Luckily, Steve really enjoyed working there. He was always good at repairing things, plus he liked helping people. However, there was something else on his mind lately, something pretty big. As an adopted child, Steve started thinking about his roots and birth family. His adoption was never kept from him, but it wasn't something he really thought about until recently. Something just brought the situation into his mind. It was actually something on TV that brought these thoughts to the surface. There was a story about an American college student who went all the way to South America in order to find and meet her birth mother. Basically, their country was extremely dangerous at the time, so her mom decided it would be a better idea to give the baby up for adoption in America. When the girl turned 21, she traveled there in order to meet them. She didn't speak Spanish or anything, but still, it was an emotional meeting. It got Steve to wonder, if this girl went through all of that just to find her mother and where she came from, maybe he could search for his mother too. Once when he was 18, Steve made an effort to find his birth mom. Choosing to go on his search wasn't as easy as one might think. First of all, he didn't want his adoptive parents to feel offended in any way. He didn't even like to use the word adoptive because, as far as he was concerned, the people who raised him were his real mom and dad. They were the ones who took him in. All his childhood memories came from the two people who raised him and loved him. He never wanted to do anything to make them feel like he was replacing them in any way. He loved them, he was just curious about his birth parents. As much as Steve adored and appreciated his parents, he couldn't help but feel angry. There was a lingering feeling that someone had abandoned him when he was a baby. He was seven years old when he found out that he was adopted, and it messed with his head just a little bit. I mean, if his mom didn't want him then, why would she suddenly want him now? However, he knew that it wasn't really fair to think like that. Steve knew that there could be a million reasons for a person to give up their baby. He didn't want to judge before he knew the truth, he wanted to know the real reason why his biological mother gave up on him. When Steve told his mom that he was interested in looking up his birth mother, she wasn't at all surprised. She told Steve that she assumed he would be curious and knew this day would come. She assured Steve that it's okay and that they won't be offended if he looked for his birth parents. His mom knew her son wasn't looking to replace her. In fact, Steve's mom was so understanding that she told her son that if she were in his position, she would also want to know and would probably also go looking for her biological family. With his mother's support, the decision was made. Eighteen-year-old Steve went to the local adoption agency and a search began. Steve remembered that day very vividly in his mind for the next four years. He would wake up extremely nervous and his curiosity was only getting stronger. His parents didn't want their son to be disappointed, so they warned him not to get too excited. I mean, there is always a chance that his biological mom doesn't even want to meet him. He was very eager to meet his biological mother. He didn't want to think of her not wanting to be found. As he stood at the front desk at the adoption agency, he realized he wasn't just curious, it was way more than that. Finding his mom was something that really meant a lot to Steve. Steve's heart was racing at the adoption agency. The woman at the desk finally looked up his records on the computer. As soon as Steve realized that she had found his name, his heart started beating faster. He was so nervous to hear what she had to say. To Steve's surprise, his birth mother did want to reunite with her son one day. The woman told Steve that his biological mother left her records open, just in case he decided to look for her one day. Steve was understandably way too nervous to look. The lady at the adoption agency gave Steve the information in an envelope. That way, he can take it home and look at it when he was ready. Eventually, he opened up the envelope and found out that his biological mother's name was Christine Talladay. Steve couldn't help but wonder what was she like, how was she doing, but more importantly, why did she give him up 22 years ago? Steve needed to give himself some time before he continued his research. A few days later, he took the next step, which was to use the internet. Christine did leave a phone number in the file, but unfortunately, it was no longer in service. He opened up a soda, sat on his desk, and typed her name into the search bar. The young man was surprised by what he found, or what he didn't exactly find. He found nothing, absolutely nothing. As far as he could tell, there was no such person, well, at least nobody relevant. Two Christine Talladays popped up in his search, but neither of them could have been her. One was way too old to be his mom and the other far too young. It shouldn't be this hard to find someone in this day and age. Steve was understandably disappointed. All that nervousness, suspense, and build-up were for nothing. Then he thought, maybe she got married and changed her last name. If she changed her name, that might be the reason why he couldn't find her. Steve contacted the local courthouse so he could check public records. Sadly, this didn't help Steve get any closer to finding his birth mom. The courthouse told him that there was no one by the name of Christine Talladay that got married and changed her name. In fact, one of the Christine Talladays that he did find changed her name to Talladay when she married her husband. Steve had no idea what to say. He couldn't believe that it would be this hard to track her down, especially since she apparently wanted him to find her. This made absolutely no sense. He thought for a minute that maybe she passed away. However, if that were the case, it would have been recorded. So where could she be? Steve felt like he hit a dead end. With no leads, Steve decided to call the adoption agency again. He figured he might as well check to make sure that they had given him the correct name. The woman on the phone confirmed that his birth mom's name is in fact Christine Talladay. If he had the right name, where was she? How is it that he can't track her down? It seemed like she disappeared and erased all records and traces of her except for that one at the adoption agency. Could it be that she didn't want to be found? Steve didn't know what to think. His parents then suggested a private investigator. If he wasn't getting anywhere with a search, maybe someone can help. Steve's response to his parents was no. He told him that he would never ask them to spend that amount of money. He added that he wasn't even that interested in finding her. I guess he thought that if she wanted to be found, she wouldn't have just fallen off the face of the Earth with no trace. He finally gave up. With time, he had forgotten about his search. It wasn't really a priority for him anymore. I mean, he would search her name every once in a while to see if anything came up. He still wanted to find her or to at least find clues as to where she might be. But four years later, he decided to get to the bottom of this, once and for all. Steve couldn't take it anymore. He just wanted to know who his biological mother was. After stopping his search four years ago, Steve wanted to continue it. He still didn't know where to start, so he went to the adoption agency yet again. He was hoping that they might have some more information about his mother hidden somewhere. He went up to the front desk and he explained his situation. The employee that was helping him agreed with Steve. She also thought it was extremely strange that his mother seemed to have disappeared. She looked up Steve's case on her computer and printed out the same results that he'd gotten before. When he looked at it again, Steve felt really stupid. When Steve looked at the records this time, he noticed something that he didn't realize before. The entire time, he has been spelling Christine's last name wrong. It seemed crazy he didn't double-check and that this hadn't occurred to him sooner, but better late than never, I guess. He'd been spelling her name with an extra A. Needless to say, he felt dumb, but that feeling quickly changed to nervousness. Suddenly, Steve felt just like he did on that day four years ago. This time, he decided he wasn't wasting any time. He ran home, opened up a beer, and sat in his desk in front of his computer. This time, he typed the correct name into the search bar. This time, when he looked up the name, he got an exciting result. There was a Christine with a right Asian name living at Grand Rapids. The woman he found lived just a few miles away from him. Could it be that he had finally found his birth mother after all this time? Steve's mind grew even more curious. He immediately thought that he might have met her through the years. Of course, he wouldn't have known she was his mother, but with such close proximity, they must have at least seen each other. She could have just been a customer at his workplace or something. It was a pretty crazy thought, but you never know, it's possible. Steve was feeling really relieved. He spelled his mother's name right and found her. When he got home that evening, he looked her up on social media. He wanted to get an idea of who this woman was. He had no idea what she was like or if she had a family. He just wanted to be prepared. Would he just be meeting his biological mom? Or will he be introduced to some brothers and sisters? Once he knew how to spell her name correctly, Facebook stalking should be a breeze. He clicked on her profile to see what he can find out about her, but what he saw made him do a double take. Steve couldn't believe his eyes. At work the next day, Steve went to the main office. He didn't spend much time there. He worked as a driver, so he spent most of the time loading his truck and making deliveries. He did, however, know a lot of the other employees working there, if not by name, for sure by face. There was one woman, however, that only started working there a few months earlier. He really wanted to check what her name was. He described the woman to one of his colleagues who worked in the office. She has records of all the employees working there. It turns out her name was Christine. Steve was stunned. It took him a second to process what was happening. Steve felt like he was in a movie. Her name was Christine? What are the chances of this actually happening? His utter shock was written all over his face. He went completely pale and one of his co-workers asked him if he was feeling okay. He looked like he was about to faint, but Steve managed to get himself together. He was at work and still needed to do his job. He loaded his truck and went to make a delivery. He returned to get the next load and as he was packing the truck, Steve kept looking across the office. He kept checking for her and later that afternoon, she was there. Steve found himself staring at her. Steve couldn't take his eyes off of Christine. He was looking back at all the time they passed each other at work. They'd sometimes greet each other with a polite hi, but that's about it. Christine obviously had no idea who Steve was, but Steve knew who she was now. This all felt really weird for him. I mean, she was just going about her day in her business and he's just staring at her. He knew that he was her son and that she had no clue. Walking over to her area, it was like a magnet pulling him over there, but he didn't even know what he was going to see or do. Before he knew it, they were standing face to face. However, it was just for a moment. She continued walking. Steve soon realized that he couldn't just walk up to her at work and break the news to her. He said, it's a bizarre situation, and was not 100% sure as to what to do about it and how to bring it to her attention. He couldn't just blurt it out. He was worried it wouldn't go well. Steve had no idea how to initiate this kind of conversation. He thought of maybe asking her to coffee, but then she might think he was asking her out on a date. Given the situation, that would make things even more awkward. He knew he was going to tell her, he just wanted to give himself a few days to figure out how. Steve took a few days and really thought about the issue. Every day, he would go into work knowing that his long-lost mother was there too, right across the shop floor. He was painfully aware of how insane it was that he couldn't bring himself to talk to her. He wanted to, he just didn't know how she would react. He also didn't want to put her in an uncomfortable position. He thought it might cause a scene if he put her on the spot. That's when he came up with another idea. He called the adoption agency and asked them if they would contact her. Maybe if this was done more officially, it would be better for everyone. Steve arranged that the adoption agency would inform Christine that her son's name was Steve and that he had actually been working in the store with her. After Christine heard the news, her response was, you've got to be kidding me. Suddenly, she started thinking of all the Steves that worked there, wondering which one he was. She realized that there was one it could be. There was a polite young man named Steve who drove a delivery truck. He seemed to be the right age to be her son. At work, she did some detective work of her own. Christine looked up Steve's birthday and that's when she knew for sure. This young man was her son. Eventually, Steve and Christine decided to meet in a restaurant. Christine explained that she got extremely emotional as soon as she walked in and saw him sitting there. She said, we just hugged and hugged and hugged and cried and cried. After a few minutes of talking, they learned that they were a lot alike. For example, Christine hated olives too. Steve found out that Christine was married and that he has two new siblings. He had a half-brother and half-sister, both around half his age. This was crazy. Steve and Christine were laughing and both of them were happy to be reunited. But Steve still had one important question for Christine. Why did she give him up? The story was pretty simple and kind of boring. The truth was that she was a single mother and way too young to take care of a baby. It seemed pretty ordinary. Christine's husband knew all about her past and always stood by his wife. He was 100% supportive of her decision to meet her son, Steve. Thankfully, Steve's introduction didn't have a negative impact on Christine's family. Christine also expressed that she was so happy to see how wonderfully Steve's adoptive parents raised him. One of Christine's friends reported that Steve seemed infinitely happier since meeting his mom. It's a good thing he figured out the correct spelling of her name. Steve said, it's worked out wonderfully. Life is a crazy thing. It can throw curveballs and surprise us out of nowhere. Take this story of a high school student named Patty. She really didn't like her math teacher. His name was Jim and he was very strict. It almost seemed like he enjoyed giving out harsh punishments for the smallest things. He wasn't married and he didn't seem to have many friends. He wasn't friendly when it came to other teachers and Patty said she never saw him smile. The math teacher gave Patty an weekend punishment which would ruin the blood drive at the school that she was organizing. When she went to the hospital to sort it all out, she discovered that Jim had a big secret. When the math teacher glared at her in class, Patty felt herself blush. She lost the page they were on in her textbook and her mistake was asking the teacher. She wanted to ask the student next to her but she knew they aren't allowed to talk in class. Despite his old age, his ears were amazingly sharp. He could always hear when his students would whisper, no matter how quiet. Sometimes Patty felt like her teacher could read her mind. As soon as she asked him the question, she regretted it. He stopped teaching and just stared at her. After giving her an icy glare, Patty lowered her hand, felt discouraged, and the teacher went on teaching. Clearly, Jim wasn't going to let her get away with that. Patty just wished she knew what his problem was. Why was he so unpleasant? Could it be his age? Maybe he was just a grumpy old man? Patty got through the rest of the class but right when the bell rang, the teacher asked her to stay after. Jim basically told Patty that her lack of focus was disrupting the rest of the class. Patty tried to explain her side but he shut her up with that scary glare. She didn't understand what his issue was. The reason why she even asked him what page they were on was because she was trying to pay attention. He took out a piece of paper and wrote a long list of numbers in small, precise handwriting. The numbers he had written down were pages from her textbook. Basically, her punishment was extra homework. Patty thought to herself, there goes my weekend. At least her punishment wasn't personal. She knew that the teacher had no patience for anything or anyone. Everything had to go exactly his way. Patty never saw him crack a smile or even speak to anyone outside the classroom. His punishments for what he considered misbehavior were pretty harsh. Patty's heart sank when she received her punishment because she made plans to go out with her friends on Saturday night. Plus, she didn't really do anything wrong. She literally just asked the teacher what page they were on. That's all. After their little chat, the teacher dismissed Patty and she ran off to her next class. It was English class. They were going over some book but it was difficult for her to focus she was so upset. She couldn't stop thinking about her punishment. It wasn't fair that she got in trouble in the first place. The worst part is that Patty was actually good at math. It used to be her favorite subject. Her math teacher before was great. She was helpful, friendly, and made math interesting for all her students. Patty felt inspired and motivated. Her teacher now would give them boring technical lectures. He's probably been giving the same lectures for 50 years. When Patty's teacher went on maternity leave, they needed someone to fill in. That's how Patty and the rest of her class got stuck with a grumpy old man. They all thought he was a monster but she later found out his name was Jim. Since his first day on the job, Patty knew that math wouldn't be fun anymore. The one upside about Jim is that he wasn't discriminatory towards anyone. He was mean to all students equally. His biggest pet peeve was students who weren't good at math already. People were scared of him. Students learned really quickly that if they were to ask him a question, the answer wouldn't be positive. He always responded with rude comments. In fact, the teacher was so mean that he even made students cry. And this wasn't an isolated incident. Patty witnessed one of these scenarios personally. The teacher gave his class back a pop quiz and one of Patty's friends, Lisa, didn't do very well. Math was very difficult for Lisa and she needed some more help. Jim, of course, thought the right thing to do was to announce her score to the rest of the class. He tried to use her as an example of why it's so important to study. Needless to say, Lisa was mortified. She just burst into tears and tried to leave the class, but Jim wasn't going to let her leave. Lisa was forced to sit in her chair, humiliated and miserable, until the bell rang. Patty remembered another incident which involved a mobile phone. In general, students shouldn't use their phones in class. Most teachers have a no-phone policy, and it makes sense. However, teachers are also human and understand that there are emergencies Some kid put his phone in his pocket on silent because his sister just went into labor. His family said they would notify him when the baby was born. When the student's phone buzzed, Jim was not happy. He took the phone away before the kid could read the message. He told him he could get his phone back at the end of the day after detention. The kid begged his teacher just to let him look at the screen, but Jim refused. Asking to go to the bathroom was a whole different issue. He never exactly said no, but he made it clear to the students that they were being disruptive and interrupting the class. How dare they go to the bathroom and not feel bad about it? It didn't bother some of the students, but for others, it was super embarrassing, so they didn't even ask. At the end of the day, Jim was just a miserable old man. All of his students dreaded his class and got in trouble all the time. Now, Patty was stuck with hours of extra homework to do just because she asked her teacher a question. She didn't do anything wrong, her only mistake was forgetting how her teacher reacts. On her way home from school, Patty called her best friend Chloe. She told her all about what happened in math class. Chloe was just as upset as Patty was, her punishment was so unfair. Chloe also knew that with all this extra homework, Patty wouldn't have time to hang out over the weekend, especially with all her charity work. Basically, since Patty was thinking about college, she figured some extracurricular activities and charity work might help her get in. She was highly involved in the school and was in the middle of organizing a blood drive. It wasn't easy with all her classes and now extra homework. However, Patty did have a big heart, and convinced her fellow students to donate blood. Over the weekend, Patty worked on making posters for the blood drive. In the evening, instead of hanging out with her friends, she was stuck doing math. She opened up her textbook and started working on her punishment. It didn't take her long for her to notice that Jim gave her extra-long assignments. It was like he hand-picked them and specifically chose the ones that would waste as much of her time as humanly possible. What really bothered Patty was that the teacher didn't look in the textbook when he assigned her extra homework. That means he knew all the punishment exercises by heart. It's like he's ready to punish anyone at every given moment. Monday morning, Patty was back at school. After a very unrelaxing weekend, her first period was math. This was a terrible way to start the week, she just dragged her feet and wanted to get the class over with. As she turned a corner, there was a scene going on outside the math classroom. Jim was embarrassing Lisa once again. At this point, Patty had had enough. Patty lost her temper and did something very gutsy and out of character. She couldn't stand to see her friend crying again, she walked right up to her teacher and told him to leave her friend alone. As soon as she said that, the temperature in the hallway went up about 20 degrees. Lisa ran off crying and Jim told Patty that she needs to stay after class. He then walked into the classroom. Patty considered chasing after Lisa, she wanted to make sure she was okay. However, Patty knew she was already in deep water, so she followed Jim into the classroom and sat down in her seat. Patty prepared herself for her punishment and after class, Patty was ready for her extra homework assignment. However, her punishment ended up being way worse than she thought. As predicted, he gave her extra homework but this time, she had to do it in school during detention on Saturday. He's so mean! Ruining weekends seems to be his specialty. Not only did Jim ruin Patty's last weekend, but this time, she has detention on Saturday. Do you remember what's happening that weekend? Patty's blood drive that she's been working on. Thanks to Jim, she had to postpone the charity event because she has detention that day. She almost told Jim about the blood drive, but then she remembered who she was talking to. Patty was understandably frustrated. How mean can one teacher be? After leaving the classroom, Patty decided she was going to speak to the principal. Maybe he will understand how ridiculous the punishment was. Even if she did deserve the punishment, does it have to be on the day of the blood drive? Unfortunately, the principal wasn't much help. He told Patty that he doesn't feel like it's his place to intervene when a teacher disciplines a student, so Jim can give her whatever punishment he wanted. The principal also told her to postpone the blood drive. He said the blood drive would get the same amount of blood next week. He then told her she should have thought about that before she disrespected a teacher. Patty was noticeably upset, and suddenly, the principal's face became softer. He looked at Patty and sympathetically told her that Jim was close to retirement. She noticed she wasn't getting anywhere with the administration, and there was nothing else she could do. Patty went home and couldn't get over what just happened. She picked up the phone and reluctantly called the hospital. She was so disappointed. She spent so much effort into organizing the event and was actually really excited about it. She even made posters that she wanted to put up, but they advertised that the blood drive was on that Saturday. She worked with a hospital which organized personnel to be there, ready to take blood from students who want to donate. Everything was already set up with the hospital and she planned to put up the posters she made. And now she has to change everything? All because her teacher is the most unreasonable guy on the planet? Patty got in touch with the doctor who was helping her plan the event. Patty informed her that the blood drive needs to be pushed off for one more week. When the doctor asked her why, Patty was so embarrassed to say that she had detention. She ended up telling the doctor who didn't seem to mind and helped her postpone the blood drive. She also reminded Patty that she needed to come in and fill out some forms. So, she decided to go that evening. She figured it would help keep her mind off things. Plus, she really wanted to make sure to get it done in case she gets detention again. However, her hospital visit didn't turn out the way she expected. When she arrived at the hospital, Patty met with a new receptionist and explained that she was from the high school and needed to fill out some forms for her school's blood drive. The receptionist asked Patty which high school she goes to and when Patty told her, she was extremely surprised by the receptionist's response. She said, Oh, you must know Jim. Isn't he wonderful? Patty just looked at her. Who can she be talking about? There's no way she's talking about Patty's teacher, Jim. He definitely didn't seem like the wonderful man that she was talking about. If she said grumpy man, it would make more sense. Patty then asked the receptionist who exactly she was talking about. It turns out that the receptionist was talking about Jim, her math teacher. Ironically, he's the reason Patty was even there postponing the blood drive. Not knowing what to say, Patty just smiled and nodded. I mean, how strange it was that the receptionist knew who her math teacher was. What was stranger was her positive opinion of him. Patty walked through the main doors very confused. She took a quick pause when she saw a new board on the wall. The board displayed a list of people who donated the most blood that month. As a very charitable person and blood drive organizer, Patty wondered if she could get her name on that board. It wasn't such a far-fetched attempt. As she looked down the list, there was one name in particular that jumped out to her. That's when everything became clear. Jim probably donates a lot of blood. That would explain how the receptionist knew a man described him as wonderful. Patty, however, still wasn't impressed. It didn't justify how he acted. Lots of people give blood. Patty herself gave blood as often as she could and she didn't feel the need to be rude to the people around her. In Patty's book, he was mean whether he gave blood or not. She figured that Jim must have been really polite to the people working at the hospital. That would be the only logical explanation for them to think he's a good person. Next to the board was a vending machine. Patty decided she'd get herself a soda before getting home. After she put money in the slot, she turned to the right and guess who she saw? Jim, of course. She noticed him walking towards the main entrance, which was right where she was. Jim was the last person she wanted to see. She didn't want to be around her teacher if she didn't have to be, especially after he gave her an unfair punishment. She hid behind the vending machine until he walked by and thankfully he didn't see her. Patty even waited a few extra minutes before leaving herself. She didn't want to risk bumping into him in the parking lot. The next day during math class, Patty decided she was going to donate blood after school. She figured that with everything going on, helping others might make her feel better. It was just so frustrating for her to sit in a classroom where Jim was the teacher. He completely messed up her week and it didn't seem to bother him at all. The whole situation was extremely frustrating for Patty. Giving blood usually cheered her up, it made her feel like she was doing something worthwhile. She stopped by the hospital after school but she had no idea what she was about to walk into. Patty was about to see something at the hospital that she never would've guessed. Things seemed normal at first. The nurse had just finished up drawing Patty's blood, she put a bandage over her arm and told Patty she was free to leave. Patty picked up her stuff and left the room. She immediately went back in and ducked. She saw Jim walking in her direction. Her favorite person was at the hospital again. The nurse looked at her and seemed quite surprised. Patty was getting sick of this. Why was her teacher there? Was he following her? It was like she couldn't get away from him. She has to deal with him at school and now she sees him at the hospital? Twice? That's when Patty realized something doesn't really add up. He was at the hospital two days in a row. Was everything okay? Patty knew that he wasn't donating blood because you have to wait two months between donations. That means he most likely wasn't there for that reason. At this point, Patty was a little confused and decided to investigate. Though she didn't want to see her teacher outside of school, Patty was curious. She came out of hiding and turned right. She was going in Jim's direction and started to follow him. She made it just in time to see him make a left turn and then disappear. She continued to follow him, but she stayed very quiet. She definitely didn't want to get caught. As Patty turned left after Jim, she saw him make a right turn into a ward. Patty was confused. She was even more surprised when she noticed he was walking into a maternity ward. She looked through the glass door and a nurse smiled at Jim and led him into a cubicle. What was going on? Why was he there? Patty just wanted to understand what was going on. She pushed open the door and walked right up to the cubicle and opened the curtain. Patty was in complete awe. What she saw took her breath away. This was the last thing she would have ever expected. When Patty saw her teacher, she was at a loss for words. Patty watched her teacher hold a newborn baby. He was humming a lullaby and rocking the baby back and forth. For the first time, Patty saw love in Jim's eyes. He looked up and saw Patty looking at him and smiled. She never saw him smile before. She found out Jim's secret. He's been volunteering for years at the hospital. He would go comfort babies when their parents were either away or sick. It was actually pretty inspiring. Who would have thought? When Jim noticed Patty, he offered her a deal. He promised her that if she kept his little secret, he would cancel her detention on Saturday. She just looked at him, still stunned, and nodded.