Chapter one:

Hunter paced back and forth in his office, taking every few moments to look at his watch and run his fingers along his head. Each minute that passed gave him a greater sense of nausea as he waited for his wife to return with important news. The two of them had been talking for months with the adoption agency and social services in order to get custody of a young girl. One who the couple had fallen in love with when they went to a foster home in Ireland while on Vacation and Stephanie had immediately decided that they were going to adopt. This wasn't a shock to Hunter seeing as how he knew his wife like the back of his hand and he knew she wanted to do good and save the whole damn world if she could. She had already taken in three other young girls over their years of marriage and he had no idea when she intended on stopping or if she ever did. She loved the idea of a big family and since the two couldn't have children of their own she had no problem with adopting.

"Daddy? What are you doing?" came the small voice of one of his little girls. Hunter quickly turned from his position towards the door of his office to see Bayley the youngest of his children standing there with her favorite bear hanging loosely from her right hand and the thumb of her left stuck firmly in her mouth. She was in a long purple shirt that was probably one of her sister's seeing as it was two sizes too big for her and her long brown hair was pulled back into a side ponytail.

"I'm just waiting for your mother...she's not here yet is she?" Hunter asked trying to mask his nervousness as he approached Bayley and went to pick the small girl up.

"Nope" She smiled taking the thumb out of her mouth and reaching out to place her arms around her father's neck as he held her in his arms.

Bayley was the first little one the couple had adopted when they had first moved to California years ago into a practically torn down apartment which happened to be next to a strip club, meaning many of it's workers lived in the same building. The couple eventually kept running into the four year old girl, Bayley, who claimed that her mother lived in the building and worked next door. Bayley told the couple on multiple occasions of meeting that her mother was rarely home so she didn't eat often and Stephanie had pointed out the many bruises on the child's arms and back. This called the older woman into action as she did everything in her power to get the child out of that house and into theirs.

Hunter snapped out of his day dream as he felt the little girl wiggling around in his arms, trying to get down, "Where are your sisters?"

"I don't know, Sasha won't let me play with them" Bayley said with a slight huff as she was placed back on the ground, "But I think they might be in the kitchen" This was typical in the house Sasha thought she was too grown to play with her younger sister and Bayley would eventually come to either Hunter or Stephanie looking for attention.

"Well that's not very nice, come on why don't we go see what they are up to" Hunter smiled as the girl grabbed his hand a practically dragged him out of the room and his worries of his wife's meeting were suddenly thrown out the door.

The little girl lead them down the hall and to the kitchen where Hunter could hear what sounded like arguing, He sighed and continued walking slightly faster now but was hit with a liquid as soon as he walked through the threshold. He could hear laughter coming from Bayley and small 'oohs' coming from the two other girls.

"Sorry Daddy" Came two small voices

Hunter slowly wiped his eyes clear before opening them to see what looked like chocolate cake batter all over the ceiling, floors, walls, the girls and himself sadly. In front of him stood Sasha, the middle girl, wearing a pink tank top and shorts, a chef's hat was also positioned on her head and there was flour all over her face and a bowl of chocolate batter in her hands. A spatula was in her hand and she looked with big eyes up at her father causing him to know that she was the one who had splashed him. While Charlotte his oldest girl sat on the island of the kitchen with Hunter's 'KISS the chef' apron on over her blue t-shirt and jeans. Her blond hair had smashed egg on it and there was chocolate all over her face and hands.

"What are you girls doing in here?" Hunter said, slowly pronouncing every syllable as he tried to control his anger as he now looked down to see his new suit covered in the chocolate sauce.

"We heard momma was gonna get kid so we wanted to bake him a cake" Sasha said, showing the bowl to her father with a huge smile.

"Her. Mom's getting another girl, not a boy" Charlotte scolded before hopping of the counter and snatching the bowl from Sasha's hands and placing it in the sink.

"No, there are too many girls, I want a brother" Sasha argued, stomping her foot in her anger "Well too bad, and you ruined the cake batter anyway" The oldest groaned as she took the apron off from around her and placed on the island in the middle of the room

"Did not"

"Did too"

"Did not"

"Did too"

"Alright enough both of you" Hunter shouted causing Bayley to shrink into herself a little startled at the tone of Hunter's voice, "Sorry Bayley. Now I understand that the two of you wanted to do something nice but you two are not allowed to cook anything without adult supervision"

"Technically it's baking not cooking"

"Shut up" Charlotte whispered as she elbowed her sister

"She can't say that, momma said that we can't say that" Sasha said once again stomping her foot angrily causing Charlotte to smirk at her younger sister.

"Enough, both of you will clean up this kitchen right now before your mother-" "Before your mother wha….CHARLOTTE, SASHA WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE KITCHEN?" Stephanie shouted upon entering through the garage which lead straight to the kitchen.

Bayley once again cowered slightly gripping Hunter's pant leg as she was startled by the yelling. This caused Stephanie to instantly regret it and through her bag and jacket down on the island and move to pick up the small girl. Stephanie looked around at the mess and her girls but she stopped once she saw her husband who was also covered in the mess, causing her to laugh.

"You look ridiculous" She teased walking over to him and planting a kiss on his lips with Bayley positioned in her arms.

"Yeah well you try being left alone with all of them for almost all day" He said after breaking away from the kiss only to turn and see Sasha and Charlotte no longer in their spots, "And they're gone"

Stephanie set Bayley down after placing a kiss on her forehead and laughed as the little girl ran off to the living room, "What were they doing in here?" "They said they want to bake a cake for the new arrival who Sasha is convinced is going to be a boy" This earned another laugh from Stephanie as Hunter placed his arms around her waist and she return this gesture by placing her own around his neck.

"Well she's going to be disappointed but that was sweet of them" She took a look around the kitchen, "I also see that their plan didn't happen"

"No it did not, you know what happens when Sasha and Charlotte come together to do anything"

"Something gets destroyed, burned or trashed...and our kitchen is thoroughly trashed"

"That it is and we'll get them to clean it up later, right now I want to hear about how your meeting went" Hunter noticed the immediate frown on her face and began to worry, "What...did they not approve...did someone else get her...are they making us wait longer" She cut him off by placing a finger on his lip and grabbed his hand before she began to drag him away and back to his office. Once they arrived she shut the door quietly and sighed, running her hand over her face and leaning against the wall.

"They approved us"

"Don't...don't do that to me you had me worried" Hunter breathed out a sigh of relief with his hands placed firmly on his chest.

"They approved us but we have to wait for a little while"

"What why?" He stopped again, confused as to why they would need to wait if they were already approved.

"She's currently in the hospital in Dublin" Hunter quickly took his wife into an embrace as he heard her voice shake and tears welled up in her eyes, "Her arm and ribs are broken and her eye socket was near broken"

"What...what how did this happen?"

"She got into some kind of fight with some older girls at her school yesterday and when they found her she was nearly dead...they said she's lucky to be alive. They don't know if moving her yet with affect her condition, so they want us to wait." Her voice cracked a little and she sniffed slightly, wiping away her tears.

"But they're still letting us adopt her right?"

"Yes, apparently these girls have been bothering her for away and social services thinks getting her away from them will be best once she's better"

Hunter moved them so Stephanie was sitting in his lap on the small couch that was against the wall in the room so she could just lean in him. He could feel how distraught this made his wife and he hadn't seen her so broken up since the custody battle with Charlotte's past parents.

"But she'll be fine though…..she's strong I can tell and she's a fighter...that's just more proof that she belongs here in our family. We'll get her once she's able to be moved, hell I even fly us out there tomorrow if you really want to make sure she's okay."

"Would you for real?"

"Of course I would babe, I love you and I know how much family means to you, especially our family. That little girl is apart of that, and I know you'll do anything to protect her." Stephanie nodded at this and smiled into Hunter's chest, gripping tightly to his tie as she let his words sink in.

"Okay I think I'm good now" She smiled and sat up after a while dusting off the red body fitted dress she wore, "Now let's get those kids and see if we can't salvage our kitchen enough to make dinner"

"You might just have a better chance ordering pizza" Hunter said as the two got up and began heading towards the door to go to the kitchen

"Probably"

A/N: Okay short chapter to start off with I'll keep going and make them longer, let me know what you guys want to see. This story will kind of follow them growing up as a family, let me know who you want to see in this story and what couples I should do.