Chapter 1

~~The Court House~~

"Order! I will have order in this court room!" yelled Judge Moses. Juliet looked at the fuming Carlton Lassiter and said, "Now Carlton, you heard the verdict, Victoria was found not guilty."

Victoria is a fifteen year old girl that was just tried for fencing Degas's Stage Rehearsal. She was wearing black pinstripe pants, a cropped black sweater and a yellow camisole that complemented her golden blonde hair. Her hair framed her face with loose curls, and her blue eyes pierced through the lenses of her red and black rectangular glasses. She was a tall slim girl that was most times mistaken for a model.

Carlton shot her a look and grumbled the response, "The jury is stupid!" He glared at Victoria having a celebration with her court appointed attorney. "O'Hara, I was so close. This was the fourth time she has been tried for fencing art, and this is the fourth time she was found guilty. Why don't people see that she is a criminal?"

"Carlton, may I point out that this girl is only 15? No fifteen year old knows how to do fence a Degas," Juliet explained, "Plus, if you were on the jury, would you want to be the person that puts this sweet orphan away?"

Carlton's eyes grew when the size of walnuts. Suddenly, while eating a churro, Shawn comes up and says, "Lassie, I would have thought you would have realized that by now. I'm not suggesting anything, but the spirits are telling me that people would feel better about putting a 15 year old girl away if she had parents."

Carlton stood up and said, "I am probably only going to say this once in my life, but Spencer that isn't a bad idea." So I guess it's settled. O'Hara, you are going to adopt her and look for even harder evidence. If people refuse to believe that she is a fence with the evidence we have, then we need to get even harder evidence." He stood up proud of himself and half way down the aisle when Juliet said, "I am not going to adopt someone just to put them in jail! Why don't you do it?"

Carlton pondered the idea and sat down in one of the seats. He looked at Victoria, and then back to Juliet. He looked back at Victoria, and sighed and said, "Fine, if you want this great police experience, I will gladly take it." He stood up and awkwardly walked over to Victoria looking back several times. He cleared his throat and quietly said, "I'm sorry for putting you through this so many times. I now realize that you are a good kid. And, well, uh… you have no parents and uh… I have no kids and umm… I wanted to adopt you. What do you say?"

Victoria looked him in the eye and laughed. Through her laughter she said, "Wow, you sure are funny Detective. I thought you were being serious right there." He looked at her with seriousness in his eyes and she said more compassionately, "Listen, I am not the whole parent child type. I couldn't have, with me having no parents. Also, why would I be okay with the man who wants be behind bars to be my dad. Goodbye Detective, I wouldn't be surprised if I see you again soon." She got up, said goodbye to the attorney and skipped down the aisle of the court room.

Carlton walked over to the Juliet, Shawn, and Gus. Shawn opened his mouth, but Carlton beat him to it, "She didn't want to be adopted, but I will adopt her. Her activity needs to be monitored."

~~The Station~~

"Guster, I need to borrow your car," Carlton said.

"What's wrong with yours? Last time I checked it ran," he replied.

Carlton was getting frustrated that Gus refused to cooperate. "I need it to drive to the orphanage. She would recognize my car, yours she won't. Don't give me the excuse that she has seen your car at the court house because she wouldn't make the correlation."

"Fine," Gus said, annoyed, "Take Juliet with you, I don't want you messing up my car. No adjusting the seat, no going through my glove compartment, no messing with my favorite radio stations, and no messing with my snack stash."

Shawn chimed in, "Buddy I believe your snack stash is running on empty." Gus gave him the oh-no-you-didn't face argued with him as they went down to evidence to look for interesting trinkets.

Carlton shouted, "O'Hara lets go adopt ourselves a criminal." The two walked out to the car and the first think Carlton does is adjust the seat a changes the radio station and makes it a favorite.

"Carlton, what will you do if Victoria isn't an art fence?" Juliet asked. Carlton looked at her puzzled. He looked back at the road and stayed quiet.

About three minutes passed before he said, "She is the fence O'Hara. If she isn't, then I guess I will take her back." He looked at the road while Juliet stared at him flabbergasted. She couldn't think of what to say when Carlton said, "Why are you giving me that look. I would do what any reasonable cop would do."

Juliet still stared and finally said, "That is not a reasonable thing to do. You adopt someone and find out that there not what you're looking for, so you take them back. That is the opposite of what you do.

"No matter what, you have to care for that girl. If she is a fence and she goes to jail, when she gets out if she isn't over 18, you have to care for her, make sure she gets into a good college. You have to pay for her wedding. She will forever be your daughter. You can't get her hopes up to be adopted and then crush them. That's not the kind of thing you do." Carlton opened his mouth as if to reply, but one look from Juliet to say she meant what she said and he closed his mouth and went back to driving.

Within 5 minutes they arrived at Saint Thomas of the Apostles orphanage. Juliet gave Carlton some last minute advice, "You are going to do fine. Just be cool, and level headed. Don't pull your gun, just show that you can be a good father."

He walked in the door at asked the nun at the front entrance, "Excuse me mam, can I please speak to the person in charge." She did a slight nod of the head and walked away. She returned a few minutes later with another nun at her side.

She said in a cool calm voice, "Hello sir, I am Sister Thomas. How may I be of service?"

"I wanted to ask about your adoption policies," Carlton politely replied, "I met this really sweet girl named Victoria. She said she lived here. And well I have been looking to adopt for a while, but I have always been a bit embarrassed about it. Oh my name is Carlton Lassiter."

"Well Mr. Lassiter, Victoria said that you asked her to adopt her and she said no. Now sir, would you please-"

"Wait, has she been getting into any trouble lately?" inquired Carlton

The Nun looked shocked and said, "Yes, how did you know?"

Carlton looked at her in the eye and said, "Sister, I know a psychic, and he told me to look into Victoria a bit and I have noticed that she has been hanging around the wrong crowd of people. I can help her. I am a cop."

Sister Thomas ran up and gave him a hug saying, "We have tried to discipline her, but nothing has worked. We have tried to get her to go to confession, but when she is there she says nothing. She has come home in cop cars. All I want is for her to act the way she did when she was younger."

"Sister Thomas, may I please adopt Victoria?" Carlton asked, "All I want is for her to stay out of trouble. She really is sweet."

"Yes, come and fill out some paper work," Sister Thomas said joyfully. Carlton followed Sister Thomas into her office. He filled out the paper work, showed his ID, and showed his badge to prove he was really a cop. "I'll go tell Victoria to pack her things. Would you like to help?"

Carlton responded, "I'll help her carry her things out to the car. I think I should open the trunk of the car while she is packing." Sister Thomas walked up the steps while Carlton walked out the front door to open the trunk.

When got to the car Juliet asked, "How did it go?"

Carlton looked at her and said, "I am now the proud father of one Victoria. The only problem is… I lied to a nun. I said that Spencer told me that she was getting into trouble. I have to go back in and wait for her to help bring her stuff down."

He went back in and there was Victoria coming down the steps with a suitcase and a backpack filled with all of her things. She plopped them down at Carlton's feet and glared at him. She then proceeded to walk out the front door. Carlton picked up her bags and followed. Her bags were loaded into the trunk and the car ride was a long and silent one.