"Mommy you are Mrs. Sparkles, Ruby you are Dougle and I am Princess Leila." A small brunette says with all her teddies out on the floor in the living space, the table had been decorated with her tea sets and she had roped in her mom and big sister to play with her.
"Hello my peasants I am your royal Princess Leila and you are to all join me at my royal tea party. You must bring me gifts of cookies and donuts. Chicken is welcome too." She says moving her princess doll before the rest of her toys and making her voice sound as royal as she could.
"Woof woof, woof woof." Her older sister Ruby says moving the dog toy she had been stuck with she didn't really want to play but after being guilt tripped into it she had to play.
"Mommy Ruby is ruining it again. Tell her to stop." She says whining to her mom about her sister.
"Ruby it's just for a few minutes be nice. And Blair don't whine please." Stephanie says talking to both of her girls. She knew this playing together thing never worked. It reminded her of how she and DJ used to be. She would beg and beg DJ to play with her and she would give in just to shut her up but then hated the game she was forced into.
The phone rings from the kitchen almost instantly after telling the girls to play nice. She gets up from the awkward position she was sat on the floor and walks into the kitchen with a dead leg. She was thinking that is the last time Blair gets her to play on the carpet.
"Hello is this Ms. Stephanie Tanner?" A woman on the end of the phone asks once Stephanie had answered it.
"Yes this is she." She says in reply.
"Wonderful, this is Sheila from the family foster and adoption services. You are on our list as a success within prior cases is that correct?" She asks wanting her clarification she was right before going on.
"Yes I have fostered before but not for the last year." Stephanie says a little confused why she was being rang by them again.
"We have two children in our service that are in need of an emergency home. It was a recent situation and we are looking for a happy and stable home for these girls to be settled into for a few weeks. Would you be available and willing to take them in?" Sheila asks with Stephanie's file in front of her she was reading through Stephanie's foster history.
"Say yes mommy, say yes." Ruby says standing next to her all of a sudden and had heard everything they were talking about. She looks at her daughters and sees the eagerness on both their faces.
"Before I say yes would you be able to tell me the ages of the girls?" She asks before confirming she would take them.
"Abbie is six months and Ava-Jade is four years. It is crucial they stay together and I see by your past that you have had many children from families in your care and were all very well looked after." Sheila says sharing the information and using more from the file.
"Please say yes mommy, please I want a baby sister so much please." Ruby says again begging her to say yes.
"I'd be happy to foster the girls, umm when will you be bringing them?" She asks knowing if they were coming she had to get the rooms set up for the girls.
"It will be within the hour. Thank you so much Ms. Tanner, we can't thank you enough for the kindness you bring these children." Sheila says before hanging up the phone, satisfied she had now found a home for the girls.
"Yes yes yes yes. We're getting a baby sister, we're getting a baby sister." Ruby and Blair both say dancing and chanting together with excitement that they were going to have younger siblings in the house.
"We have to get the room ready so scoot your butts upstairs." Steph says giving the girls a gentle nudge up the stairs to the bedrooms.
The three of them spend awhile setting up the bed and a crib for the girls to stay in and making sure that the bedroom was a comfortable and safe place for them for the weeks they were going to be staying.
"If only grandpa were here huh. This place would be spotless." Steph says seeing that her room, her daughters rooms and the living room were all messy. She wasn't really much for cleaning and neither were her girls. Her dad came round as often as he could and every time he would spend it cleaning his precious house that Stephanie had ruined.
"He's working. We can clean for you mommy." Ruby says trying to offer some help.
"Good idea, Blair go clean all your teddies and your princess tea party stuff away in your room. Ruby you clean your bedroom. And I will go clean mine. The first one to be standing in the kitchen after finishing everything will get to choose what movie we watch tonight." Steph says knowing it was family movie night.
The three of them go off in separate directions and start cleaning, though Steph got bored instantly and pretty much just throws the clothes into the closet not hanging them up or anything. Blair spends ages deciding which toys were priority for her to take up, she had small arms and could only hold four at a time, she was playing while choosing being Princess Leila and deciding who was to survive and who had to be sacrificed, this gave her the idea that whoever was sacrificed could go into the bedroom for the new girls so they had a few teddies to hug. Ruby was as slow and bored as her mom even though it was her idea, she put her toys away in the toy chest and then when it came to her clothes hid them under her bed. She may have offered to clean but really hated doing it.
The doorbell rang while all three were still cleaning the rooms upstairs. Within a few seconds they bombarded down the stairs and met before the steps to the door.
"Be polite and be nice to both girls. Remember this is a scary day for them, they don't know you and have just been taken from their family. So they need to know they can be safe and loved by all three of us." Steph says to her daughters wanting to run through the rules with them again. It had been a while since she had last done this speech with them and wasn't sure any of them were ready for that door to open.
"Hi, you must be Sheila." Stephanie says as she opens the door to her a smile on her face as she greets the woman in to her home.
"Nice to meet you Ms. Tanner." She says as she comes in to the house.
"You can call me Stephanie. These are my daughters Ruby and Blair." She says introducing the woman to her girls.
"Hi, is that the baby?" Ruby says seeing a carrier in the woman's hands.
"Yes this is Abbie, she is asleep right now though." She says placing her down gently before Ruby and Blair.
"AJ sweetie, come in and say hi to the lovely people that are going be caring for you." Sheila says walking back to the door as the girl hadn't walked in.
"AJ, that's like DJ." Blair says to her mom her expression showing how amazed she was at the sensation.
Sheila comes back in holding the hand of a really tiny girl, she had tears staining her face and didn't look up at the family before her.
Steph bends down before her so she was able to get the girls attention while she spoke with her.
"My name is Stephanie, what's yours?" She says always finding when she had children in her care it was better that she ask the name they requested to be called they would respond better to her.
"AJ." She says quietly, it was like a small mouse had spoken it was so soft and delicate.
"It's nice to meet you AJ." Stephanie says her smile still on her face. She was ready to say something else but Sheila started speaking and stopped her.
"I think I will leave you too it. If you have any questions please ring me. I will be back in two weeks to review the girls and update you on the status of their stay with you." Sheila says seeing the girls would be fine there with Stephanie, plus she had more work to deal with back at the station.
"Thank you. See you in two weeks then." Stephanie says leading Sheila out the house again. She shuts the door behind her and sees the four girls and suddenly has a sense of panic pulse through her.
"AJ are you hungry?" She asks thinking of a way to get them to all bond quickly. She nods her head but doesn't say anything or at least Steph didn't think she said anything.
"Ruby, Blair will you take AJ into the kitchen and I will be with you in a moment and we will get some food sorted." Stephanie says wanting to sort out Abbie first. The girls all go holding hands together like they were best friends.
She moves the top of the carrier she was in so she could see Abbie's face and sees that she was awake and just sitting there. She had huge blue eyes that seemed very aware, she stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at Stephanie which made her smile. She reaches in the carrier and undoes the hooks and picks her up in her arms so she could go in the kitchen with her.
"So what are we having? Chicken or pizza? And for desert ice cream but what flavours?" Stephanie says going to the usual favourites with this family, it was no different than for when she was growing up the foods that were her favourites were the favourites of her daughters.
"Pizza, and I want chocolate." Ruby says going first putting in her order.
"Pizza, but I want strawberry with sprinkles." Blair says getting in her request out there.
"AJ what would you like?" Stephanie asks seeing her sitting there quietly.
"Chocolate." She says quietly but still not looking up from the floor.
"Okay so pizza, three chocolate, one strawberry and sprinkles and I need to call my sister for milk formula for this beauty." Stephanie says dancing with Abbie on her hips.
She called through for the pizza to be delivered, luckily they had a service that came really quickly so they wouldn't be left waiting long before they could eat. Blair had set the table for them and Ruby had poured the drinks for them all. And was now cuddling with Abbie so her mom could call her sister.
"Hey Steph what's up?" DJ says as she answers the phone to her.
"I have two new girls from the foster system. One of them is a baby younger than Tommy. I'm so unprepared for this, I haven't got anything but a crib for her. I need milk and diapers and a baby feeding table and a changing table, oh Deej what am I doing?" Steph says letting the panic sink in.
"I thought you weren't doing that anymore? Not after what happened last time." DJ says sounding confused.
"Yeah well Ruby begged me to say yes and it's kinda hard to say no when you have someone ringing you up and saying it's an emergency. I just said yes automatically. I didn't even think about what I was doing. Can you help me with the baby stuff?" She asks reminding her sister she needed it.
"Yeah I can help, I will send Tommy round later to drop off what we aren't using anymore and I will include formula and diapers too. We will be round tomorrow anyway just get through the night and everything will be okay." DJ says to her offering the best help she could.
"Thanks Deej, what would I do without you." Steph says so thankful to have a sister that knows how to solve any issue.
The two finish speaking and eventually hang up the phone. She sits there on the stairs for a few minutes after just thinking about everything. She really didn't have a clue what she was doing with these two girls. Though yes she had fostered before, she hadn't ever had a tiny baby and she was normally told many days in advance what was going on and the situation that resulted in them being brought to her. This was all so fast and so unique and she felt too overwhelmed by it. But she didn't have time for thinking and overthinking it all she had four girls who depend on her now.
"Mommy, pizza get it before it's gone." Blair says popping her little head through the swinging door to get her moms attention.
"Don't you dare eat it all." Steph says in a joking tone running up to her daughter and grabbing her in her arms, she tickles her while holding her, getting squeals from her.
"Enough, I'll save you some, I'll save you some." Blair says admitting defeat from the tickle monster attack.
Stephanie puts her down on the seat Blair had been in and takes Abbie from Ruby and sits down herself with the baby dancing and wiggling on her lap.
"You got teeth yet Abbie?" Steph says turning her round to see if she was able to eat any of the food herself yet or not.
"Yeah you have, you can eat just fine." She says giving her a really small piece of the pizza in her hand so she was able to feed it to herself. She looked over at the girls and saw all three of them eating, Ruby was trying to talk to AJ but still not getting much from her yet. And Blair was as normal playing a game making her pizza dance before Princess Leila doll that had magically appeared back at the table.
"Do you three still want Ice Cream?" Stephanie asks once they had all eaten enough pizza.
"Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate, Strawberry with sprinkles." AJ say pointing at each of them as she spoke remembering what everyone had asked for. Stephanie forms the biggest smile on her face hearing AJ offer up something on her own, she had been so shy since she arrived but had now spoken on her own.
"Want to help me AJ?" Steph asks putting Abbie down on Ruby's lap again and offers her hand out to AJ if she wanted to help. She takes it and gets off her seat to go and help.
She gives AJ the scoop and let's her scoop the Chocolate ice cream into the bowls for each of them. Then she scoops out the strawberry ice cream for Blair. She hands the bowls out once she had done without Steph even asking her to.
"What movie would you like to watch for family movie night?" Steph asks openly then looks directly at AJ. "Would you like to choose one AJ?" She offers hoping she would be happy to get included.
"Can we watch frozen?" She asks quietly unsure if she would be allowed to or not.
"Yeayyyyyy frozen, frozen, frozen." Blair shouts too excited that AJ wanted to watch the same as she did.
"I guess we are watching frozen for family movie night then." Steph says before a small sigh seeps out, she had seen that movie too many times and is always forced to join in and sing with her daughters. She loved seeing them happy but if she wasn't choosing the movie they were stuck with frozen.
"Steph you here?" Tommy say as he comes through from the front door, carrying a bag of stuff in his arms and a folded up baby feeding table under his other.
"Uncle Tommy." Blair says excited as she sees him entering the house, she runs up to him ready to pounce but stops seeing he hand no free arms today.
Stephanie and the girls walk in with Abbie in her arms. To the living space seeing him there. She places Abbie quickly in the carrier she arrived in, so she could help him. Tommy had now dropped the bag and was setting up the feeding chair for Abbie.
"I wasn't expecting to hear that you had more kids when I got home today." Tommy says sharing that DJ had told him almost instantly as he entered his family home of what he needed to do for Stephanie.
"Yeah I wasn't either. I'll help you bring everything in." Steph says knowing there was more DJ was sending to her. The two walk out the door together and to his car bringing in everything else she was being given.
"How are you doing? Do you think you can handle this right now?" Tommy says as he looks at her worried she may be doing too much too soon.
"Yeah I will be fine. You can tell DJ that if I need anything I will call her, but that I got this." Steph says knowing it was her sister worrying and asking not her brother in law.
"She's just worried, we all are. You've been through a lot the last year." He says setting up a play pen DJ sent for her to use.
"Thanks but you don't need to be." Steph says not needing the strain of her family's worries over her.
Tommy gets everything else built and set up for baby Abbie to use, making it easier on Stephanie not having to deal with them.
"Come give your uncle a hug, you rascals." Tommy says when he was finished opening his arms wide for Ruby and Blair to jump into. They run right into him as he grabs them and pulls them up one in each arm. The girls start giggling and screaming and squirming around as he tickles each one with the hand he wrapped round them.
"I need to pee, I need to pee." Blair says in between her giggles knowing she couldn't hold her bladder anymore, he puts her down slowly but keeps Ruby in his arms. Blair runs off upstairs as quick as she could so she could go pee.
He sees AJ sitting on the sofa alone and then places Ruby down gently to the floor and goes to sit with her.
"Hi I'm uncle Tommy. What's your name?" He says to her wanting to include her in everything.
"AJ. Ava-Jade but I like AJ." She says her voice still so delicate and light.
"That's a pretty name. My wife's name is DJ." She looks up at him a slight look if hope in her eyes as he says that, but doesn't say anything to him.
"You have a great family here to look after you. Stephanie is a wonderful mom, you and your sister are going to love staying here." He says to her a smile on his face.
"I will see you tomorrow AJ." He says as a simple goodbye to her.
"Thanks for bringing everything round for me Tommy." Stephanie says knowing he was ready to go home now.
"No problem. See you all tomorrow." He says giving each of them a quick hug before he leaves to go home.
"Mommy I loaded frozen. Can we watch now?" Blair says having been loading the movie as Tommy was saying goodbye to them.
"You three start watching, I'm going to get Abbie fed, changed and in her crib. I will join you after." She says knowing she hadn't been able to do much with the baby since she had nothing until now thanks to Tommy bring everything and setting it all up.
She came back down once Abbie was safe in the crib and saw all three girls entranced in the movie and quoting it word for word. She just stayed there watching them, she was amazed seeing that her girls had connected with AJ already. It was making her job easier.
"Let's get you three to bed." She said once the movie was over and the credits were rolling. She reads the girls a bedtime story and then each one goes into their beds as she tucks them in, gives them a simple kiss on the head and says goodnight to them. Each of them close their eyes and fall into the dream world.