Thomas had learned rather quickly that the process of adoption was a lot more complicated and had a lot more steps to it than what television made it out to be.
Once the social worker arrived to meet him, she wasn't swayed in any way by Hercules' visage or by his many titles. When they met, she didn't see a crowd-favorite hero. No, she saw a middle-aged single man who wanted to take in a child, a traumatized one at that, and she wasn't going easy on him just because he was America's 'Number One'.
She laid out all the requirements for a prospective parent before him. Background checks, letters of recommendation from employers, applications, fees, orientations, training, home checks, and even then he would only at the 'foster' stage of the process.
According to the social worker, they weren't going to put the girl straight into adoption until they could find more about her family so that they could, if possible, reunite her with them. It would take a few months of investigation before they would consider him for adoption should no family show up.
Even with everything required, and the difficulty that would go into it, he was undeterred through the process. Thomas had faced down behemoth monsters and other villains and criminals every day, paperwork was hardly scary. He'd face down these piles of papers with the speed of Hermes and with the precision and thought of Athena, his ancestors in Greece would be proud of his effort if they could see.
His home was organized and clean, completely child-friendly, and his security was top of the market. His home was a cozy two-bedroom in a nondescript neighborhood, his neighbors were nice people who had agreed not to tell the media his address and so the potential feeding frenzy of reporters at his door was very low, for the sake of the entire neighborhood who want to keep the area calm and peaceful. The second bedroom had been used previously as a study, but was currently being remodeled into a bedroom befitting a child.
Income was plentiful, employer recommendations were sparkling. There wasn't a single blotch or stain on his perfect record, and Thomas made sure that everything was done in triplicate and gotten to the correct people as soon as he could. He attended all the orientations and trainings within days of submitting the papers—small perk of being a top-ranked hero, he'd saved enough people that he could get pushed to the top of the list.
The paperwork hadn't been much of a problem at all.
No, the hardest part, Thomas learned, was the girl herself.
She had remained in a medical coma for two days just so the doctors could make sure that her injuries were healing properly without risk of her shadow quirk interfering. She was scheduled for a few more scans and tests when she woke up, too, since there were some tests that would require her to be awake for.
The doctors had said she would be required a few more days, at minimum, in the hospital if all the results came back good. But Thomas would probably try and keep her in there a bit longer for her own safety.
She was still pretty weak looking, but some color had begun to return to her face during her time in the hospital. After the two days passed and she woke up to find the giant that was Hercules standing before her, well…
She screamed. Just a little.
Thomas, of course, panicked and had called all the doctors nearby in to have the girl checked over.
It was overwhelming for the seven-year-old to say the least. She kept her hand close to her chest and her shadow started to bubble, writhing arms lurching out and swatting away the doctors who got too close as they, the shadows, latched tightly onto the girl.
It was a miracle they didn't start cutting the doctors up like they had to Thomas the first night, but they seemed ready to do so with a few of the shadows sharpening to those deadly points that had done a number on his arm the other day, keeping the doctors and nurses at a distance.
It wasn't until the girl was close to a full-blown panic attack that Thomas caught onto the real distress of the situation.
In the end, it was just one female pediatrician checking over the girl while Thomas stood by the wall. The shadows had backed off, but there were two arms still out, hovering, ready to act if something happened and he could see her shadow on the wall rippling and bubbling, the rest of the shadows squirming about, ready to launch out and attack.
"Well, it looks like you're healing up nicely," the doctor noted as she deactivated her quirk, something that allowed her to see internal organs or something, Thomas wasn't sure on the details. "Now, I have to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind. Do you remember your name?"
The girl looked at the woman as she picked at the bandages on her neck, there had been some bad scratches and fresh wounds on them when Thomas had brought her here, and he wondered if they were self-inflicted from some kind of nervous tic. The girl swallowed after a few moments had passed "Alice," she answered in a soft mumble.
The woman nodded and gave her a soft smile, "Alice? That's a lovely name. Alright, sweetie, can you tell us what you remember before coming here? Do you by chance know of anyone by the name of Akira Kazama or Gregory Hamil?"
She didn't answer for a moment, instead Alice stared down at the bandages covering her fingers. "I dunno who Gregory is but… I'm, I'm not supposed to talk about Kazama to strangers," she mumbled as the shadows wrapped loosely around her to tug her closer to the wall, away from the adults. "It's one of the rules. Kazama and the others, I'm not supposed to talk about them."
He wasn't sure if she meant to or not, but she had essentially told them that she did know them. That confirmed his worry that she was affiliated in some way to the Yamazaki family, Thomas just needed to know what that connection was.
"It's okay, you can tell us whatever you can," the pediatrician tried, reaching out gently with one hand and the other gestured to Thomas. "You can trust us. After all, would a hero be here if this wasn't a place you would be safe in?
Alice stared at him, but her expression wasn't recognition, it was confusion. "Hero…?" she asked and instead of something like excitement or relief, it was worry, discomfort. Like his mere presence was a bad sign. "You're… you're the g-guy, from the alley."
"Yes, I am. I'm Hercules," Thomas said approaching her with a smile, "I'll make sure you're safe, so you don't have to worry about anything now, okay? You're safe here."
Alice stared at him for a little longer then ducked her head down to look away. "Mr. Crow doesn't like heroes," she confessed and wrapped her arm around herself in a weak hug, "he's… he's going to be mad if I talk to you, and, and I don't want him to be mad."
"Well, then this 'Mr. Crow' doesn't have to know," Hercules added with a hushed voice of his own, looking around the hospital room as though keeping an eye out for this man. "This will just be between the three of us, okay? So, could you tell us what happened?"
Alice didn't look like she believed him entirely, but her expression softened and she gazed at the hospital sheet. The shadows trembled, coiling around her like snakes, she closed her eyes tight and took a shaky breath. When she opened them, she didn't look at the two, but she talked.
"Mr. Crow was supposed to meet with someone, so he had Kazama take me to one of the offices he and the others were using while we're here—I'm not supposed to go out on my own, cause the world's a… it's dark and scary and not safe for me to be alone in," she began digging her nails into her side as the shadows gripped her tighter, growing a bit frenzied in their motions.
"Someone approached us, I think it was Gregory? He blocked our way and started yelling at Kazama, the two started fighting and then Kazama was… there was so much red… and then the other guy was yelling and coming towards me and… and…"
Alice cut herself off with a violent jerk, closing her eyes tightly as she began rocking back and forth in the bed, trying to steady her ragged breathing. The pediatrician was at her side, but the shadows kept her from getting any closer and Thomas barely had time to pull the doctor out of the way before sharp blades came down.
Making sure the woman was a good distance away from the bed, he turned his attention back to Alice. "It's okay, you're safe," Hercules said, taking a careful step towards her, ignoring the way the shadows were lunging at him, as though to remind him of how easily they could cut through his flesh if they wanted. "No one's going to hurt you, I'll make sure of that."
He didn't dare touch her, but he hovered close, trying to help calm her down with soothing words and promises. It felt like an eternity before Alice seemed to calm down again, and the shadows backed off reluctantly.
They kept the rest of their questions brief, not wanting to drive her into another attack, and Hercules wasn't able to get anything else out of her after that. She didn't have any words on who her family might be, and anything pertaining to the Yamazaki family was outright refused, with her stating fiercely that she wasn't supposed to talk about that stuff. That this 'Mr. Crow' would be mad at her if she did.
That didn't sit well with Thomas. He'd have to ask Walt about any information he might have on who that could be.
It seemed more and more likely that she'd been a part of this yakuza for so long that she didn't even have memories of her family. Perhaps the crime group killed them, but that wouldn't explain why they'd take her in. It wasn't likely it was out of guilt. Maybe they saw a use in her for her quirk, or she could be the bastard child of one of the members.
There were too many possibilities, too many threads on who and where this girl came from and he had no idea which one was the real one.
Eventually, the pediatrician left to give them some space and Thomas smiled as he moved to stand beside the bed, finding this as good a time as any to let her know of his plan.
"Well, I think that I should properly introduce myself now that it's just you and me," he said as he used the bandaged hand to push the lion cowl off so the girl could see his face. "I'm Hercules, professional hero. But, just between you and me, you can call me Thomas Hendrickson. I'm going to be taking care of you once you're all healthy and able to leave the hospital, if that's okay with you."
Alice stared at him, dumbfounded. As though trying to wrap her young mind over the idea that a professional hero, one that's supposed to be the best of the best, was planning to take care of her. What would Mr. Crow think? She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
Sensing her hesitation, Hercules smiled. "Oh my, oh my, I almost forgot. Wait here," with that, he zoomed out of the room, leaving a blast of air behind him. Alice's hair was swept back and people could be heard yelling about 'No speed quirks allowed!'.
Hardly a minute had passed before more screaming and some swearing was heard again as Hercules was back in the room, carrying a small box with him.
"I may have taken some liberties to bring you some things to play with while you're here. I figured that the hospital would be pretty boring with nothing to do and thought you might enjoy these," he set the box down on an empty table. "Let's see, I've got some children's books, a set of clothes in case you get tired of the hospital gowns and, oh!"
Hercules pulled out a white teddy bear and Alice's eyes widened.
"That's for me?" she asked tentatively as he held the stuffed toy up. When Hercules smiled gently and handed it to her, she hugged it tight, as though she had never received something as simple as a teddy bear before in her life.
There was a quiet few moments before Alice looked up, shyly, but with a smile hidden by the fur of the bear. "Thank you, Mr. Thomas."
The hero laughed greatly, a sound that reverberated off the room. Hercules brought out a few more things that he had bought to keep the girl busy while she was there with no one to keep her company. The child seemed to marvel at them all, but had seemingly found favor with the bear.
Content that Alice seemed happy enough with what he had gotten her, and watching as she started messing with some of the things, Thomas sank down into the chair next to the bed…
CRACK.
Alice's head whipped around just in time to see the super-strength hero's chair break into a thousand pieces, the cheap wood and cushions unable to support his weight as he hit the floor, face up with wide, startled eyes.
A silence filled the room. The mountain of a man just sat there for a few moments, not moving at all as Alice stared down at him.
"…I'll hide the evidence. We tell no one."
That's what finally broke the barrier. Alice laughed out loud, quiet as it may have been, and a genuine smile alighting her face.
As Thomas sat on the floor like an idiot, he smiled, knowing he'd done something right.
It wasn't until three weeks had passed that Alice was released from the hospital and into Thomas' care. The two of them had a few meetings with Emma Bullock, the Child Protective Service agent assigned to them, both separately and together, before he got the official 'okay' to foster the girl.
Technically she didn't need to stay in the hospital that long, but Hercules had been more than willing to pay for her stay if it was what kept Alice from being place in a children's home or a juvenile center until he could get foster approval. During all that time, Thomas spent as much time as he could—between his hero duties and foster screenings—with Alice. Working hard to keep breaking the ice between them and to gain her trust.
And he was succeeding.
She slowly warmed up to him more and more, and he was happy he was gaining her trust, overcoming the clear wariness she held towards heroes. She opened up to him a little more with each visit, and by the end of the third week, it seemed she was on board with the idea of staying with Thomas. and even her shadows didn't even come out and bother them when he was around. He liked to think that meant he got their seal of approval, or at the very least they didn't consider him a threat anymore.
Though the girl still refused to say anything on what she knew about the Yamazaki family, Hercules was able to get the police to back off from her after the first two interviews nearly left her in panics. The last thing any of them needed were officers traumatizing her more than she already was by interrogating the poor child and forcing her to spill everything she knew about the Yakuza group.
She'd tell him about it when she was ready. Forcing her could make him lose the trust she'd put in him. She was like a rabbit, after all, easily frightened, easily scared off. They needed to take things slow and be careful with her.
Though Alice may have been fine physically, it was clear that she wasn't completely okay. Her smiles seemed forced half the time, and the girl almost always seemed nervous, afraid. Like something bad was going to happen at any moment. Always staring out the window like she was looking for something. For someone.
If he had to take a guess, he'd say that she was looking for any signs of this 'Mr. Crow', who, by the sounds of it, was the member of the Yamazaki family that she was closest too. A bigwig member, probably her unofficial guardian in the group.
It worried him that he hadn't heard anything new on the group. Walt had said that it was likely there were more of the Yakuza family here in their city, but there was no concrete reason as to why. He'd done some research and he couldn't find anything out in the Kansai region that might have driven an entire Yakuza family to the states, and he couldn't think of anything new going on in the crime world that had shown up on the radar that might have dragged the Yamazaki family out here for some deals.
Could it be they were simply trying to expand their boarders? Make contact with the black markets here in the west?
Too many possibilities and he didn't like it.
But, no, he didn't need to focus on it, he'd let the police worry about investigations, it was their job after all. They'd contact him if and when he was needed, right now he had other things to focus on. Alice, primarily.
Today was the day he was taking her home with him, after all. He hoped she was excited, he knew he was, eager to finally get her out of this hospital and let her stay in a real home.
A smile covered his face as he walked down the hospital hall towards the familiar room where she was kept. A few of the doctors and nurses gave him polite nods but most didn't pay him much heed, too focused on their own tasks. He wondered what he should make her for dinner, it'd be her first meal home, after all.
Passing a window, Thomas paused to look out it, taking in the sight of the beautiful day. It was like the weather knew that today was the big day and decided to be sunny just for them.
"I really hope she likes it there," Thomas said out loud and then let his gaze drop. Hopping on the ledge to the window next to his were a couple of crows fighting over something, or maybe just playing together with it. They paused and stared at him, and Thomas let out a laugh "I doubt you're the 'Mr. Crow' she keeps talking about," he said to himself as he shook his head.
One of them flew over to perch on the ledge of the window he was on, it's beak tapping against the glass and Thomas just gave a soft smile. "Sorry, you can't get in here."
Leaving the birds to their own devices, Thomas turned and started walking again. It was time to take Alice home.
Home. What a funny thought, it left a warm feeling in his chest.