This was a story I made as a birthday- present for my friend Ibs, (Mr. Marr, earlier Mr. Zeze here on fanfiction) It´s not... very good... but hopefully you´ll think it´s okay. The cover is a collage I made, with a picture of Tracy and Cam from TBR, and a picture of Joe Maw, and an old pic of the actor Jared Gilmore. Put it together and put the text on with my phone and different apps. So... hope you´ll like it. Enjoy
Nothing much was going on in the dumping ground that particular day, Carmen and Lily were at Lily´s baby- sitting Jonah, Floss and Harry were playing with Jeff by the living room, Mo was up in the attic making something for Mike the snake to have in his terrarium, Tee was in her room sewing, Faith and Elektra sat in the sofa with each paper, Gina preparing for dinner, Mike sat by his desk, feet on table and glasses on the nose, sleeping tightly. Johnny and Tyler were playing pool, Frank was playing football in the garden, and Jody sat in the old car- seats in the garden eating chocolate- biscuits.
It was just another normal day, a day just like any else, no one expected it to be something else, not even when there was a knock on the door.
"I´ll take it." Floss shouted so it echoed through the hallways and ran through the corridor to open. When she opened, there stood a woman she didn´t recognize.
"Hello." The woman said. "Is Mike in?"
"Who are you?"
"My name is Cam, what´s your name?"
"My name is Floss."
"Oh that´s a wonderful name. Can you tell me where Mike is?" Floss moved so Cam could step in.
"He´s in the office. It´s this way."
"Yeah, I know where it is. You can go and play." Floss ran back to the lounge, where Tyler and Johnny had just finished their game of pool.
"Who was it Floss?" Johnny asked.
"She said her name is Cam, she´s going to see Mike." Floss sat down the floor to keep on playing with Harry and Jeff. Johnny shined up, and then ran up the stairs to find his sister.
Meanwhile, Cam walked into the office and found Mike sleeping, she closed the door behind her and then walked over to him, before lifting her hand and shaking his shoulder.
"Mike… Mike." Mike sat up and his eyes shot open.
"Yeah, what´s going on?... Cam? Long time no see. How are you? How´s Tracy?"
"Oh we´re doing just fine." Cam sat down on a chair while Mike put his feet on the floor and put his papers at the desk.
"Yeah…. What can I do for you today?" Cam opened her mouth to answer, but before she had the time, there was a knock on the office- door. Mike sighed.
"I´ll give you one guess, COME IN." The door opened and Johnny came in with a trey with plates, biscuits and cups, followed by Tee that held a kettle with Tea. Mike and Cam exchanged meaning glares and sighed slightly.
"Hi Cam." Johnny said. "Would you like some biscuits?" Cam sighed once more, and shook her head.
"No thanks Johnny, I´m going to fix dinner as soon as I come home…" before Cam had the time to finish speaking Johnny had interrupted again.
"How ´bout some tea then?" Cam nodded to a couple of chairs on the opposite side of the desk from her and Mike.
"Sit…" Johnny and Tee sat down. "Listen… I´m not here to foster anyone. I´m actually here to ask for help with something. So... I´m sorry…"
"It´s okay." Johnny stood up and walked out the door, followed by Tee.
"Oh, I hate disappointing them like that" Cam said.
"Yeah, but they should also learn to wait a bit, at least ´til they know if the person´s actually here to foster. What was it you needed help with?"
"Listen Mike, next Wednesday will be Tracy´s 25:th birthday, and I hoped you could help me with throwing a surprise party for her…" Cam talked about her plans with Mike for about half an hour, and at last, they had together come up with a plan.
"Hey guys." Mike came running into the kitchen- where the others sat eating just as Cam had left. "What would you say…. If you… got one day off school on Wednesday?" It was all quiet for a second and then everyone started cheering.
"But why?" Carmen asked when it finally was quiet again.
"I want you all to help me set up a surprise party for Tracy next Wednesday."
"I can make some decorations." Tee said.
"I can too. I´ve got loads of treasures I could make decorations of." Mo continued.
"I can make a cake." Carmen said, Floss decided to help her and soon everyone was making plans- everybody at the same time.
"Kids… kids." Mike tried to silence them all.
"KIDS." Gina shouted at last, and it made them all silent.
"Yes?" Carmen asked.
"On Saturday, we´re all going into town, I´m giving you twenty pounds each to use for birthday presents for Tracy…"
"Who´s Tracy?" Floss asked.
"She used to live here." Mike answered and jumped up to sit on the kitchen island.
"Yeah, and then she worked here." Elektra continued.
"So… everyone´s who´s exited cheer now." Mike said and everyone raised their fists and cheered on the top of their lungs. It wasn´t more than a couple of seconds until both Mike and Gina had joined in too.
Four days after Cam had been to visit the dumping ground, everyone sat around the kitchen table for a late breakfast, when there was a knock on the door.
"That must be the new boy." Tee- who had finished eating, stood up.
"I´ll take it." She said and walked out of the kitchen and down the hall before opening the door. There stood Rob the social worker, with a boy with chestnut brown hair and green eyes. The boy looked shyly up at Tee with his thumb in his mouth.
"Hi." Tee bent down. "I´m Tee, you must be Dylan." Dylan didn´t answer, he kept to suck his thumb and looked shyly up at Rob.
"It´s okay Dylan. Tee´s nice." Dylan looked back at Tee, and for the first time he stopped sucking his thumb, and nodded.
"Yes miss. I´m Dylan Robert Hayden." Tee smiled.
"Well very nice to meet you Dylan Robert Hayden, I´m Tee Maria Taylor." Tee stood up fully again and reached her hand forward, Dylan hesitated for a couple of seconds, but finally lifted his hand and took Tee´s.
"Come meet the others." Dylan and Tee walked hand in hand towards the kitchen with Rob after them.
"Everyone meet Dylan Robert Hayden." Tee told the others when in the kitchen, Dylan had once again put his thumb in his mouth and looked shyly around the room at all the people around the table.
"Dylan Robert Hayden?" Rick stood up and walked over to the two, then kneeled down next to Dylan to reach Dylan´s height. "Which one do people call you by?" Dylan looked shyly at the teenage boy, then pulled the thumb out of his mouth.
"Dylan." He almost whispered and lowered his hand a bit.
"How old are you Dylan?" Floss asked.
"Seven." Dylan almost whispered.
"Well then you´re pretty small for your age." Johnny said. "I thought you were like four."
"Shut up Johnny." Tee said, Dylan just glared at the older boy and put the thumb back in his mouth.
"Look Dylan," Tee pointed. "That´s my brother Johnny, that's Harry, Floss…"
"I´m Carmen." Carmen came over to Dylan. "What´s your favorite color?"
"Red." Dylan whispered. Next one to come up to talk with Dylan was Mo.
"Hi I´m Mo, you and I are going to be sharing room." Dylan nodded and leaned against Tee´s leg, then Mike came around.
"Hey Dylan, I´m Mike and I´m what they call a care- worker, Gina there…" he pointed. "She is too. So if you ever need an adult, you come to one of us" Dylan nodded and Mike continued. "On Wednesday we´re holding a birthday party for a girl who used to work here, and today we´re going to the mall to get each birthday present for her."
"What´s the mall?" Mike smiled and thought, but Carmen answered before him.
"It´s where you go to buy things, they have got loads of stores where you can take things, then give money for it and then it´s yours." Dylan nodded.
"So to the groups." Mike said. "In the mall, we´ll be walking in groups, Dylan, you, Johnny and Tee will be coming with me. Mo, Floss and Harry, you go with Gina. Tyler and Jody, you go with Faith. Carmen and Lily go with Elektra, Rick and Frank, you´re going together. Nobody, goes alone anywhere."
"Why do we have to go with Elektra?" Lily complained. "And it´s not fair, I don´t even live here anymore. Mike sent her a glare that said everything. And then he took Dylan´s hand and walked over to Mo´s room- where there now had been put an extra bed.
"This is where you´re going to live." Mike turned the light on in the room. "Look, there´s your bed. And you can put all your clothes in here." Mike put the bag with all of Dylan´s things on his bed and opened it. "Do you need help unpacking?" Dylan nodded, Mike poured out Dylan´s things on his bed, and believe me when I say- it wasn´t much. Except the clothes that Dylan was wearing- jeans, green button- up, black hoodie and sneakers, everything dirty, too big and with holes in them. He had one pair of pants, a T- shirt, and a beanie cap. That was it, no toys, no warm clothes for the winter, nothing. Mike picked up the clothes and put it in the wardrobe, and after making sure that Tee was taking care of Dylan, he walked over to the office to read Dylan´s files and talk with Rob about what had led to this emergency placement in Elm Tree House.
Mike looked down at Dylan, where he walked holding Tee´s hand at the mall. He had a lump in his throat that didn´t want to go away. Dylan´s story, was one of the most tragic he´d ever read, and yet they hadn´t been able to find out much.
Dylan had lived with his mother and an older brother named Ryan Jacob, the mother was a drunk, and abused both of her sons, about six months ago, Dylan had been forced to watch his mother to abuse his brother to death. No one had noticed- Ryan had never been much in school, so the teachers had said there wasn´t a big difference anyway, at the time after, Dylan had been forced to steal from the local grocery- store to even get food. And it was when he got caught- only yesterday, that everything had been revealed, Rob had been called, but as the evening was late, Dylan had spent the night on the couch in Rob´s own apartment. With Rob sitting up all night just watching the poor little boy breathing.
Mike POV
When I knew all this, I wasn´t surprised Dylan was so shy. I thought as I lifted Dylan up on my shoulders and stopped so Tee could stop by some shelves. Dylan´s shy voice was shaking when he spoke again.
"Can you let me down please sir." He asked, obviously frightened. I mentally swore at myself, I shouldn´t have lifted Dylan up- and certainly not without asking him, as I lifted him down again and took his hand. Tee came back to us, holding a plain blue T- shirt I knew Tee would sew on some prints on. I told Johnny to come with us- and then we… well… almost kept on walking.
"Mike." Tee whispered to me and nodded to Dylan when she had caught my attention, I looked to him and saw him watching longingly towards the shelves with toys. I kneeled down next to him.
"Dylan?" I began. "Would you like to go and take a look at those toys?"
"Would Tracy like a toy?" Dylan looked to me with a questioning look. Johnny snorted and began saying something but Tee hit him and told him to shut up before he had the time, and together we walked down to the shelves with stuffed animals. Dylan lifted his hand to a very soft stuffed cat and fingered at it.
"Would Tracy like this cat?" He asked, I nodded.
"Yes kiddo. I´m sure she would, Dylan lifted it up and put it under his arm, he fingered a bit at the one next to the cat, an- also this very soft- stuffed rabbit. He looked longingly at the horse, then he let go of it and kept on walking down the hallway.
"Mike?" Tee whispered to me. "I think Dylan would like that rabbit. May I buy it for him?" I bit my lip- the most obvious answer was yes- but I was thinking whether I or Tee would pay it for him. "I can pay it." I answered at last, and gave her seven pounds to pay for the rabbit. Tee lifted a rabbit of the shelf. I went to get wrapping paper enough to last for everyone- Johnny bought a movie called Juno, I already had my present finished so then we walked together to the cash desk. Tee was the last one to pay for the shirt and the rabbit, and when she came to us others she immediately reached him the toy. While we walked towards McDonalds, where we all would meet up to buy lunch, Dylan held the rabbit he had already named Bear tight to his chest with both arms.
Third person POV
By the time they were all eating they all noticed Dylan´s table manners were terrible, first he just sat there and looked at the happy meal- box, until Mike opened it, got the food out and insured Dylan that it was just his. Then Dylan started more or less throwing the food into his mouth, as much as possible.
"Hey babes." Gina said. "No one´s gonna take that food from you so just eat slowly or you´ll have a tummy- ache yeah?" Dylan looked at Gina, and then kept on eating- just slightly slower than before.
A few days later, at Tuesday afternoon there were loads going on, Carmen, Lily and Gina were in the kitchen baking- Tee sat sewing doing the final touch on the T- shirt for Tracy, most of the children were trying to fix the paper- decorations, and Dylan ran around trying to find Mike. He ran through the kitchen to check in the garden and he happened to knock a plate with just- made biscuits from the kitchen island, Dylan fell- mostly from the chock. And so did also the plate, as pieces of porcelain and cookies flew in different directions.
"DYLAN." Carmen shouted. "We´d just made those, now we gotta start all over AGAIN." Dylan, who had just stood up, looked to the floor- tears rising in his eyes and his chin shaking.
"Now look what you did." Lily said angrily. "You made him cry." Dylan didn´t hear much of this- or about Gina who came to comfort him, as he ran out of the kitchen again and through the house right outside the office, he ran straight into Mike.
"Please don´t let them hurt me Mike, please don´t hurt me, please don´t let them…. Please don't let them, it was an accident, I didn´t mean to." Mike kneeled down to reach the same height as the scared little boy sobbing, begging for forgiveness.
"Sch Dylan." Mike stroke Dylan´s arm. "No one´s gonna hurt you. Dylan… Dylan calm down." Mike had to keep on comforting Dylan for a couple of minutes before Dylan finally calmed down and let Mike pull him into a tight embrace. Dylan sobbed with his face towards Mike´s shoulder for a couple of minutes more, and then he said something Mike would never forget.
"My brother dropped a plate, then mum hit him so bad he wouldn´t wake up."
Eventually, the Wednesday came, and everyone was once again running around the house, Jody couldn´t find her other sock, Mo had lost the present he was giving to Tracy, until Mike told him that himself and Gina had taken care of all of those. Rick couldn´t succeed with tuning his guitar, Elektra and Johnny started fighting in the living room and if that wasn´t bad enough, Dylan sat whimpering in a corner watching it all- sure that Johnny and Elektra were trying to hurt one another so bad they wouldn´t wake up, and Floss dropped another plate with biscuits. At last, by noon everything was sat ready in the living room, yet everyone wasn´t there yet. Dylan was upstairs getting bear, and Johnny was in the hallway with Rick and Tyler, trying to take down a paper decoration Carmen had put in the hallway that was actually supposed to be in the living room. At last, they were all set up in the living room, when they all heard Cam come through the door.
Cam POV
I had blind- folded Tracy, and now led her through the hallway at the Dumping ground, when we came in the living room, Mike and Gina stood there with Seth, most of the children that had been her when Tracy worked here, including Floss, a dark girl, a boy with glasses, and a small boy with his thumb in his mouth I didn´t recognize, and that´s when I took of the blind- folding.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACY." We all shouted, except for the little boy- still with his thumb in his mouth- yet because of that, I couldn´t help to notice the boy in the edge of the group, all quiet and with his thumb in his mouth. But eventually I had to stop looking at him to see Tracy´s reaction. Tracy´s smile reached ear to ear, as she looked around, at the kids, to the cakes, and to the presents, at last she looked to the little boy.
Third person POV
For a long while Tracy and the others walked around the room talking, just talking as Tracy walked from one to the other.
"I forgot to bring my present for Tracy from the car." Cam told Mike. "I´ll just go get it." Tracy walked during this time all the children and Tracy started pulling towards the cake- table and well there, o get forward in line Jody accidently pushed Tyler, Tyler stumbled towards Johnny, and Johnny accidently fell right on Dylan with a bang. Dylan started screaming, and Mike, Gina, Tracy, Faith and Tee all ran towards Johnny- who know laid upon Dylan with the conclusion they ran into each other. And before any of them had gotten on their feet Dylan had crawled away from Johnny and ran out of the room, running straight into Cam. Cam in her time, dropped the present and caught Dylan.
"Bear" Dylan shouted. "BEAR." Mike came running.
"It´ll go get bear for him." Mike ran up the stairs and out of sight while Cam tried to comfort Dylan, she began with kneeling down to reach his height.
"Bear, Bear, Bear…" Dylan cried over and over again but not half as loud as before.
"Sch sweetie…" For a split second Cam thought back and tried to remember a name. But she couldn´t remember anything.
"Hush… Mike´s getting your bear for you, you´re okay, you´re okay." Cam stroke Dylan´s hair, and when he had calmed down from screaming and sobbing ´til just sniveling and tears, she let go off him. "Gosh were did Mike go with that bear?" she thought. Before meeting Dylan´s eyes with her own.
Looking into Dylan´s beautiful green eyes, she immediately felt a will- an urge to protect this little boy. Take away what was hurting him so bad, and give him what he needed to trust people again. She shook the feeling off, and pulled out a tissue of her pocket just as Mike came running down the stairs with a stuffed rabbit in his hand.
"Here you go," Dylan took the rabbit and hugged it tight to his chest. "It took me a while to find Bear, he was hiding under your bed." Dylan climbed up in the sofa, pulled up his feet and hugged Bear tightly. Cam walked back to the living room while Mike stayed with Dylan.
When Dylan, Mike and Bear came into the lounge again, Tracy had just finished opening presents- except for one very special present- the one from Dylan. She had saved that one for last as she guessed Dylan would like to see what she thought of it. Dylan sat down in the sofa and put his thumb in his mouth while Tracy slowly unwrapped the stuffed cat.
"Oh, how cute is this. Oh…" Tracy showed Dylan to get closer. Then she whispered in his ear.
"You know, this will make me feel safe when I have nightmares and can´t sleep." Dylan smiled slightly as Tracy sat up fully again and looked closer at the cat.
"But what should I call it? What´s your name?"
"Dylan Robert Hayden."
"Well… Hayden is a nice name for a cat is it?" Dylan shook his head.
"That just comes from my mum… it looks like a Ryan…" Mike held his breath. "oh please Tracy," he thought. "Accept that name."
"Ryan? That´s a very nice name for a cat." Mike and Gina exchanged looks and smiled at each other. Dylan climbed up in Cam´s lap.
The part kept on for the rest of the day, and ended without any further accidents. But during the next few days, nor Cam neither Tracy could stop thinking about the little boy with chestnut- brown hair and green eyes.
At last they talked about it, and the next day, Cam once again found herself to be at Elm Tree House.
"Mike… I thought about one thing… it´s been quite empty now when Tracy´s out of the house on most part of the week, and… I was wondering if I could try and foster again... maybe... Dylan?"