RP:]] St Luke's Reform School For Young Gentlemen

"You love juice too?" I whisper to myself with a smile laugh before shaking my head and resting my head back down on the pillow.

I nuzzle my head closer to Chris's and wrap my arms tighter around him, even though they may not be possible. I close my eyes and let my breathing even out before I can get to sleep. Even though I may not be able to, I am too excited and happy about what's just happened.

But as soon as I'm thinking that. I'm gone with Chris to a dreamland, right where we both should be.

[[Seems like a pretty good ending to me, haha.]]

[[Coby and Brian's new daughter? Perhaps a year or so forward?]]

[[Yeah, if you liiiiiiike. Got any plans? Unles you wanna start The Curse of The OC now? I am neutral today, haha.]]

[[Uh, I dunno. Maybe completely finish this one off? Then search for siggys and the like while we're doing it? Otherwise this'll be left hanging, haha. I'm open to both too actually, haha.]]

[[Yeah, that sounds good to me. Did you have any plans to finish it? Maybe a little epilogue thingy?]]

[[Haha, not really. I just remember Brian and Coby were supposed to get little Zoe. That's pretty much all I remember from the end of this one.]]

[[That's all I remember, but I don't remember how... *head desk*]]

[[I know she was gonna be an abused girl who got brought home. Maybe it could be a final epilogue scene set about 2/3 years in the future, a little party or something to welcome her into their family? That way most of the loose ends could be tied up with all the couples?]]

[[Yeah, that sounds good to me! :D]]

[[Fab. I shall switch across.]]

Five Years Later

I'm so nervous. I've never been this nervous, not even on my wedding day, not even when my mom went in for surgery and I had to wait fourteen hours to find out if she'd be okay, not even when my Dad's went on trial. I've never been this nervous.

I keep pacing back and forth in the kitchen, making sure everything's ready, worrying that this isn't the right way to do this. It's not everyday you get a new addition to the family.

"You don't think this is going to be too overwhelming, do you?" I ask Coby's back, "I mean, you don't think all this attention would scare her?"

[[I figure little things about the past few years can be revealed by other characters in thoughts etc.]]

I turn to him, looking up from my newspaper to see he looks a nervous wreck, but I feel surprisingly calm. I give him a sympathetic smile before standing up from my chair and walking over to Brian.

"I shouldn't think so Angel," I tell him as I bring my hand up to his hair and play with the strands of slightly greying soft locks there, knowing it might calm him down, "I mean, she's a happy little girl and you know what she was like when she met me for the first time. I'm sure she'll be fine. It's only Matt and Zacky and the twins."

Well, I'm not including the boyfriends or possible girlfriends that they may bring with them, but I think Brian is too on edge as it is to worry about who Chris and Courtney are dating now.

"It's still a lot of people really. That's four new faces." I point out, "I just don't want her to be frightened on what's supposed to be the best day of her new life."

I'm overreacting here, I know I am but I can't help myself. I want everything to be as perfect as it can be today, I want this new chapter in our lives to start perfectly.

"She'll probably be fine though. Hell, she'll probably be playing hide and seek with them all before long, like she did with mom."

"Hey hey hey, stop worrying," I tell Brian before wrapping my arms around him and contining to stroke his soft hair.

"She'll be fine Angel. Matt's great with kids, and Courtney's got one on the way as it is, they'll love her to pieces, and she'll love them too."

I am really looking forward to this now. All my life I had being worried about having kids, and whether I'd be a good role model to them or not. But after I met Zoe, and noticed what a strong head she has on her shoulders and how much she's being through and she's only 7 years old. I just wanted to do everything I could to help her.

"Yeah, you're probably right." I agree, looking up, "Although you are using the secret weapon there."

I never really expected this day to come back when I first offered to take little Zoe in. I'd always thought we'd be shot down, told we weren't suitable parents because of our age and everything else. I still think getting the call to say our adoption application had been accepted was the happiest moment of my life.

"God, I feel like a kid myself right now. Albeit one with a bad hip." I joke.

"Well, don't act like too much of a kid. I'm not looking after the both of you," I laugh before kissing Brian on the forehead softly.

I look up when I hear the doorbell go, and I swear I told Zacky and Matt come at about one. So it must be the adoption lady, Carol, with our little Zoe.

I take a deep breath and look over at Brian.

"So, you ready for this then?"

I nod, "Yeah, I think... I mean... well, I'm more ready than I was before anyway. I think."

I shake my head, "I'll just stop talking now, mkay?"

I take hold of his hand, "I guess we should go meet our daughter. Again..."

"Yeah, our official daughter now," I say with a little excited smile as we walk towards the front door together.

I let out a deep breath as I run over to the door, dropping Brian's hand as I go and pulling the door open with a grin on my face.

"Hi there Sweetie!" I say to Zoe who's holding onto Carol's hand, she's got her suitcase with her too and she's wearing a little pink dress and has a beaming smile on her face. She looks so cute.

"Carol, Zoe, please, come in."

She looks so happy! That's my first worry over. She doesn't seem to be bothered about coming to live with us now. Thank God, I can relax a little now. I wave at her as she comes in along with her social worker. I can't actually speak right now, I'm kinda taken aback by how real this has all suddenly become.

I look across to Coby, sure he'd be able to get what's going on with me at the moment. He's had to deal with this reaction for the best 30 odd years.

"Carol! It's purple!" Zoe announces, pointing out the hallway - which I obviously had a hand in.

I laugh at Zoe's amazement by the colour of our hallway. Great, another one that likes purple. I'm so going to lose the head of decorating with this house for the colour choices, aren't I?

"Yeah, you can thank Brian for that," I laugh before walking over to Zoe and crouching down to her.

"How are you doiung little lady?" I ask her.

"I'm OK thank you... er..." She looks nervous and slightly embarrassed, I don't think she can remember my name, or she can't pronounce it, I know Chris had some problems with it when he was younger.

I smile at her, "Jacoby. But you can call my Cobes. It's probably easier to remember then."

"OK. Cobes." She says with a smile that I match.

I hang back from Zoe for a moment, remembering that she doesn't like being crowded. I feel kinda guilty that I'm not fussing over her straight away but I don't know how to react. I mean, this is a great thing but I'm still struggling with the reality of it.

Of course little Zoe doesn't want to wait for Brian to sort himself out. After releasing Coby from her death cuddle, she runs across to me.

"Hiya Brian!" She says, grabbing me round the middle.

I smile and look down to her, "Hey you."

I get up from the floor, amazed I didn't hear any clicking in my joints of any kind as I smile at Carol.

"Well, if there anything else we need to fill out at all?" I ask Carol who's standing there smiling at Brian and Zoe having a cuddle and a talk, I smile myself.

"No, no. Brian filled out everything that we needed, and I have yours from last week. So, all I need now is to see that Zoe is happy, and that's being proved to me already so, I think I can leave you guys now."

I nod along to what she is saying. Glad that she's not some social workers, the ones that crowd you and make you completely and utterly nervous. But it might be because I know her from the police station.

"OK. Do you wanna say goodbye to Zoe before you go?" I ask her.

As Zoe tells me more and more about all of her new friends that are coming to live here too - that I'm assuming are the number of imaginary friends I met the first time I encountered this little girl back when she was only 5.

"So we've got Fred, George and little Paul. Is there anyone else I should know about?" I ask, "Coz otherwise I might not make enough food for everyone and that wouldn't be fair would it?"

She brings her hand to her chin in contemplation for a moment, "Uh, Kitty! I forgot Kitty. But she doesn't say much so sometimes we don't see her."

I smile, "Wow, you've got lots of friends then."

She nods, "Yep! And they always look after me and make me not a-scared anymore."

I walk back over to Brian and smile at him as he keeps talking to Zoe. I wait until they both look up at me again, both smiling like fools.

"Zoe. Carol's leaving now, you want to say goodbye?" I ask her and she nods at me and walks over to Carol.

I still think she's a little unsure of me, but I don't blame her. After everything that Brian has told me she's being through, if I was her, I wouldn't trust anyone.

I watch on as Carol gives Zoe a hug before waving a goodbye to me and Brian and leaving out the front door.

"Right! So Zoe, do you want to see your new room?"

"My very own room?" She asks, her face lighting up.

She used to live with a number of other kids in a bad foster home, she's been surrounded by so many people, there's no wonder the idea of getting time to herself is exciting for her.

"Yeah, all for you." I tell her, "There's a little surprise waiting in there for you too."

I hope we haven't gone too overboard with this. I take hold of one of her hands, looking to Coby to see him doing the same. We try to squeeze our way up the stairs as a threesome, not an easy task.

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