Together Again
Brianna gets a little sister.
For all the foster homes their daughter had been in, she only ever talked about one other foster sibling, a four-year-old girl named Cori. Cori had Lupus but that wasn't the first thing Brianna had said to describe her. Cori was a tiny girl with black hair and blue eyes, eyes so big and blue that were the first thing noticed about her. Cori had left that foster home a week before Brianna left to move in with Avery. Cori's new home was supposed to a pre-adoptive placement. Although the Alister-Lincolns had no reason to, they still kept in contact with Nina. Drew curiously asked her, three months after Brianna's adoption about this mystery child.
Nina realized immediately who Drew was referring to.
"Cori's adoption fell through. Her needs were too much for the family. She now lives in a group home for medically fragile children only thirty minutes from you."
From a new home and family, to that? Drew thought. He and Rick were curious about this child. Was adoption a possibility again even after everything with Brianna's?
Yes. Especially if the child and their daughter already had a bond.
"What's Cori's background?" Drew asked.
"Your guess is as good as anyone's. She was abandoned at a fire station, cord still attached, under the Safe Haven law. She was in the process of being adopted at four months when she started to show symptoms of Lupus. The couple backed out. She's been in different placements since.
"I know that tone, Drew. No one would fight you guys if you two wanted to take her. Sadly no one knows where she came from and no one wants this little girl. Shall I arrange a meeting?"
"You should."
Drew hadn't told Brianna that he was going to ask Nina about Cori because the child could have been happily adopted. When Brianna heard where Cori was she was upset. Before she could ask them anything Rick told her that they would be all seeing Cori at the group home next week.
"Once we get her medical history and the information we need to care for her, we hope to take her home. Are you okay with that?"
"Yes! Cori was the only little sister I ever had! Why wouldn't I not want you guys to adopt her?"
The couple let Brianna enter Cori's tiny private room with Nina first. Cori knew them, or at least Nina, even if Cori forgot Brianna. But Nina barely had the question out of her mouth, "Cori, do you re—?"
"Bri!" the smaller girl jumped off her bed, ran to Brianna and wrapped her arms around Brianna's legs. "I missed you!"
Brianna hugged her back.
"I missed you, too," Brianna said.
Brianna told Cori she had two new dads and she wanted her to meet them. Cori eagerly took Brianna's hand and went down the hall without hesitation. Brianna introduced Drew telling Cori he was "daddy" and Rick saying he was "dad." The two men couldn't help how small Cori was. The clothes she wore, although new, were too big. The four sat down to play on the floor for a while, Cori volunteered "I lives here 'cause likes hugs too much and I'm sick and have to take lots of medicine. I'm too much for people."
That statement tore out Drew's heart.
How could someone tell a child that?
Before his brain could catch up to his mouth, Drew said "you're not, Cori. We give lots of hugs at our house."
"You don't want to take me to your house," Cori said, shaking her head. "I'm too much work."
"But we do to have come to our house," Rick said.
The couple was breaking every rule Nina set up. She wasn't surprised, nor did she care anymore. Some rules had to be broken for the good of a child.