A/N: so this is yet another completely random idea by broawaybabeWA and me. This is the first story on our joint account. Basically we've taken Martina McBride's Independence Day music video and combined it with Concrete Angel. April is adopted by the family we've created to be Will's family, when he's 4 and she's 7. We own nothing…. As usual.

TUESDAY MARCH 5, 2012
GREG SCHUESTER'S OFFICE

Greg's POV

I'm sitting at my desk when I hear a knock on my office door. I get up to answer it and it's Robert. He usually calls before he comes over, something's not right.

"what's up…" I say to him, a little worried.

"Hey, can you call Debbie and get her on speaker?" he says, without even telling me what's wrong.

"Sure…" I say, dialing the house.

She picks up, "hey honey…"

"hey, Robert's here. He's on speaker, he's got something important he wants to talk about…" I say to her.

"Okay, so… 7 year old April Rhodes. Her house burnt down last night, both parents died. She's showing some signs of severe abuse…" he explains.

I can hear Debbie sigh, "where is she?"

I knew she'd want to take her in. even though we have Will, there's no way this little girl can be alone by herself. She's gonna be too afraid if she stays by herself.

"Child services. She's really scared, we think she's never really been out of that house.." Robert explains to her.

"I'll meet you down there. Will's at my parent's house. So I can come pick her up.." Debbie tells him, without thinking twice.

Thank god we registered to be foster parents after Debbie's sister had kids, that way we can take her right away.

"honey, are you sure you wanna take her?" I ask, a little worried about how Will is going to react.

"Yeah. I'm not going to let her stay somewhere she's not going to get the attention she needs…." She replies.

"Alright, call me when you get her home. I'm gonna leave early today, and I'll call your mom and ask if she can keep Will for the night.."

"Okay, I will. Robert meet me there in half an hour. Let them know I'm coming to pick her up…" she says.

"Alright. I'm gonna call Child Services and let them know. I'll see you soon Debbie…" Robert says, and she hangs up the phone.

He looks at me, "she's one of the worst cases I've seen in months. I know Debbie is really good with kids, and I think April will heal a lot better if she's with you…"

"yeah. I think it would be a good idea if Will did stay with Debbie's parents for a day or two. Just so we can really work with her…" I tell him.

"I think so too.. well, I better get over there so I can meet Debbie. She's gonna want to get April as soon as possible…" Robert tells me as he's leaving.

Debbie's POV

When I pull up to the Child Services building, I see Robert's car parked a few cars away from where I am and meet him by the door. We walk in and the receptionist pages April's social worker.

The tall brunette woman, who introduces herself as Savannah, takes us back to the playroom where I notice a tiny blond girl huddled in the corner by herself with her head buried in her knees.

"She's been that way all morning, she didn't get much sleep last night and hasn't said a word. She's really lucky to get to spend some time with you…" the woman tells me.

"she's in a strange place. And after the events that happened last night, she's scared. I'm gonna take her home with me, and see if I can get her to relax and open up a little…" I tell her.

"alright… " the woman says, as we walk closer to April.

I hear light sobs as we get closer to her, poor thing. She's probably so confused. I doubt they've even tried to comfort her or talk to her.

Savannah kneels down to her level, "April… there's someone here I want you to meet…"

The tiny girl just whimpers, and tenses up even more. She's in pretty bad shape now, but I think she's gonna get a lot better with us.

"April, we've found you a nice family to go stay with. Can you say hi to Debbie for me?" the woman says, trying to get April to look at her.

I kneel down next to April as the little girl slowly lifts her head up and quickly mumbles hi. She's got a few bruises that I can see and her curly hair is so tangled.

"hey April, I'm Debbie…" I calmly say to her, smiling.

She just looks at me, with no clue what to say. She's got her arms wrapped around her knees squeezing herself into a tiny ball. I know she would love to have a stuffed animal, thankfully I stopped and picked one up on my way over here.

"you're gonna go home with Debbie okay, she wants to take care of you.." Savannah says to her.

I don't even wanna know what those people have done to her. she's completely terrified, and looks like she wants to scream. This is when I decide to grab the little pink bunny from my purse and give it to her.

"It's okay April, I won't hurt you…" I reassure her. I know this probably means nothing to her now but I want her to know she's safe.

She stares at the stuffed animal and glances up at Savannah, which is probably the only friendly face she's seen in days. The woman nods and she hesitantly takes the bunny from my hand.

"is there anything here that you wanna take with you?" I ask her.

She shakes her head, "don't have anything…"

Poor thing, she lost what little she had in the fire. I'm gonna have to take her shopping after I get her cleaned up a little.

"alright… are you ready to go?" I ask, I'm sure she doesn't wanna be here anymore.

She hesitantly looks up at Savannah, and quickly glances at Robert. They both smile at her. She then looks at me and slowly nods. I help her up and we make our way to my car.

She hesitates before she finally climbs in the back seat and puts on her seatbelt. I carefully drive home so I don't scare her.

She looks at the apartment complex with wide eyes. Savannah showed me a picture of her house before it burnt down and it was a tiny one story house that wasn't kept very well.

She's still really quiet and is still pretty hesitant when she climbs out of the car and slowly grabs my hand. I notice the pink bunny sitting on the seat where she'd left it and reach in to grab it. It's the only thing besides what she's wearing that she owns.

When I open the apartment door, her eyes widen and she looks a little scared. I guide her in and she glances around the living room, but just stands next to me, afraid to do anything.

I really think she'll be okay, she just needs a good meal, a nice warm bath, and a nap. I think I'm gonna start with getting her to eat, I'm sure she's starving. She's so tiny, almost looks like she's underweight.

We've got a long road ahead, but once she gets settled I think things will be easier for her. I'm sure she's probably not gonna be used to anything for a while, but eventually she'll get better.