Chapter Two
A few hours later, Martin had woken up. When Martin finally opened his eyes, he saw some sunlight peeking from the top of his bedroom window. After seeing that, Martin was wondering what time it is. To see what time it is, Martin turned around to his alarm clock which is on his nightstand. When he saw the time which had said six fifteen, Martin turned around to see his daughter. When Martin turned around, he put his hand on the top of his comforter and pulls it down.
When Martin pulls it down, he put a smile on his face. Martin put a smile on his face because he just discovered the cutest thing he had ever seen. The person who just did the cutest thing is his daughter, Sara. Sara was lying next to Martin, sleeping in a fetus position. Her right side of her head was on the pillow and in her arms was a teddy bear. She is also smiling like she is having a good dream. Martin stared at her for a few minutes and during that few minutes; Martin was wondering if the people who loved Sara for the first two years had seen this special little girl like this. If they did, the people who had taken care of her might probably do the same thing that Martin is doing right now, loving Sara.
After staring at her, Martin got out of bed to start the day. When he put his feet on the hardwood floor, he walked to the bathroom very quietly. He is doing that because he don't want to wake Sara up. Plus no child doesn't want to be woken up before seven especially the day after a weekend. They just be crankier.
After Martin had taken a shower, he went back to his bedroom to get his work clothes. Five minutes later, in his dark gray suit pants and a white dress shirt which was tucked into his pants, Martin walked over to Sara's side of the bed to wake her up.
To wake her up without being too hard, Martin put his hand on her little body, put his lips to her little ear and whispered to her, "Sara. Sweetie, wake up." After saying that three times, Martin stepped back to give Sara more breathing space. A minute later, Martin saw Sara's eyes being open.
When Sara fully opened her dark brown eyes and with a smile, she had said to Martin, "Morning, Martin. What time is it?" With a smile on his face, Martin walked over to the bed and put his hand on her shoulder. After he put his hand on Sara's shoulder, Martin kissed her on the forehead and stared at the clock to see what time it is because he don't really know what time it is. The clock across from him had said five six forty five which is exactly thirty minutes after he had woken up.
After seeing the time, Martin turned back to Sara who is staring at Martin right now with her eyes, wanting to know what time it is. Halfway through the staring, he kissed his daughter on the forehead again and said to her, "Sara. It is fifteen minutes before seven." After Martin had done saying that, he heard a little groaning sound in the bedroom.
Martin figured out that the noise had came from Sara Fitzgerald because Martin didn't make the groaning noise since he had woken up. After he heard the noise, Martin sat down to Sara's eye level and asked her why Sara is making that noise. When Martin had asked her that, Sara had spoken up.
"Martin. I don't want to go to daycare today." said Sara who is holding her teddy bear. Martin understood what Sara meant by that. Since Martin had met her, Sara is a very shy child. When Martin asked his social worker Keri Moyers about it, Keri told Martin that when Sara was younger, she was a happy child. She was always smiling and laughing especially around her birth family. Her birth father, who had raised her during the first two years of Sara's life, had a good sense of humor and always smiling.
From hearing all of this, Martin really want to meet the birth father of his adopted daughter but he can't. He can't because the birth father was killed in Iraq two years ago and there was no legal guardian who will take care of Sara when he died. Martin founded out later that there was a legal guardian for Sara. Sara's guardian was the best friend of the birth father, a female. The best friend was the perfect candidate and knew Sara from the day she was born almost five years ago. Martin can't figured out why Sara is with him instead of the best friend who he also wants to meet who he doesn't know that his colleague from work was the almost guardian of Sara.
Before Martin can't even begin to speak, in her sweet normal little voice, Sara had asked Martin that she want to go with him and be with him. After she had said that to him, Martin had said "no" to her. Before Sara was starting to cry, Martin put his arms around to calm her down and explained to her why Sara don't want to be at work with him. The reasons for it that Dad will be very busy, could last all day, a lot of grownups around and it is sometimes be very boring if there are no new cases which means desk work, the most horrible thing in the world.
After Martin explained it all, Sara asked about Uncle Danny. "Danny?" asked Martin. After Martin had said that, Sara nodded yes at him.
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Before Martin officially adopted Sara, he asked Danny if he is not busy on a Saturday a couple months ago. With a confused face, Danny asked Martin why. With a whisper so nobody in the office can't hear them, Martin told Danny that he Martin Fitzgerald want to have a child and have an appointment with his social worker to go to foster homes to look that weekend. After Martin had told him that, Danny didn't say a word for a few minutes. From the look of this, Martin figured out that Danny was a little shocked about this. When he finally spoke up, Danny asked Martin why. Martin answered to Danny's question, "It is a long story." When Danny asked Martin, "what is long about it?" Martin's answer to it: "are you going or not?"
That weekend, Martin and Danny had arrived at one of the foster homes in New York. When they founded Keri a few minutes later, Martin introduced Danny to Keri. Danny and Keri shook their hands and the area they are at was quiet for a few seconds. During that few seconds, Martin had gone from nervous to very nervous. When Danny finally beginning to speak, Martin's face was turning red, don't knowing what will happen next. What really happened next is that Danny had asked Keri if Martin adopted a child, how long will the child will hate him? After Danny told her that, Keri giggled at that and excused herself to the house. After Keri had left, Martin almost punched Danny in the guts, knowing that he might not get a child because of that.
After a few hours of looking for the perfect child for Martin, they can't find a single child. They are either too old, too young, too weird or too mean. After the last child who turned out to be a very mean child who want to punch either Danny or Martin in the guts, the two thirty something years old men sat on a bench to rest their bodies. While they rest their bodies, Martin is starting to think that this is a bad idea and never find a child of his own. He is even thinking about putting his sperms into a stranger's uterus to have a child. When he heard that, Danny disagreed about that. "Fitzie. I can't think of you doing that. You haven't slept with a woman since Sam." said Danny. Before Danny had said anymore, he noticed that Martin is not paying attention to him. Martin is staring at something and smiling at it. Danny had no idea what Martin was staring at until he turned to where Martin was staring at and saw the perfect child.
In front of them was a little girl. The little girl was all by herself on the swings set. She was wearing a cute red dress, had shiny light brown hair with a red barrette on either side of her head, and now staring at her red mary janes. She looked very shy. After seeing the little girl, Danny turned to Martin and founded him pretty amazed. Danny can tell that by the way Martin looked right now. Right now, Martin put his hand on the bottom of his jaw, staring at the child with his handsome blue eyes, and smiling a real smile at it. By the look of this, Danny figured out that Martin had founded his child.
After staring at Martin, Danny put his hand on Martin's shoulder and pat on it to make Martin pay attention to him. "Martin." said Danny to Martin. After a few 'Martin's, Danny finally got his best friend's attention. Martin turned to Danny and with a smile, he said to Danny, "I think that I might had found my child."
Danny turned his head to the little girl who still at the swing sets and then turned to Martin to ask him, "really?" Martin nodded yes at Danny. After Martin had nodded at him, Danny put his arm around Martin's shoulder and said to him, "come on. Go see her." A few seconds later, Martin had agreed with Danny to go up to the little girl but stopped halfway. Danny was wondering what is wrong when Martin had stopped. "Is Martin want to go to the little girl?" thought Danny when he saw this. A few seconds later, Martin turned to Danny and asked him if he want to come too. When Martin asked that, Danny gave Martin a 'are you nervous?' look on his face. In response, Martin gave Danny a 'kinda' look on his own face. After Martin gave him that look, Danny stood up and gave his best friend a 'fine. I go with you' look. After Danny gave that face, Martin smiled at him and walked behind Danny to the little girl on the swing sets.
When they got to the swing sets, the little girl looked at the two men. Both of them are big men. One of them is very tall, tan skin, and had very big ears like monkeys. The man next to the monkey-eared man is tall too but shorter, and looked like her with the light brown hair, fair skin, and the smile. Plus he had elf-shaped ears. When the two men got near her, Sara walked backward to the swing set, trying to make them stay away from her. While Sara walked back, she stopped halfway. She stopped halfway because Sara just heard the voice of her future father.
"Hi. What is your name?" asked the voice. Sara looked up and saw the man with the light brown hair and blue eyes. When Sara looked up, the man smiled at her waiting for her to answer his question. While the light brown headed man was looking at her, Sara was thinking who the man reminded her of. A few seconds later, she figured out who the man reminded of. The man had reminded her of her daddy. Like her daddy, the man in front of her had his sweet sounding voice, height, and the smile. The only difference between this man and her daddy is that he had light brown hair and blue eyes while Daddy had dark brown hair and eyes. Actually from the hair and the eyes, the man looked like Auntie Katie, Daddy's friend from college and her godmother.
When Sara was thinking about Daddy and Katie, she was starting to miss them. She loved the both of them. They both sweet, smart, and always make Sara laughing until milk started spilling out of her nose. Since Daddy and Katie knew each other for a long time and used to date each other during college, Sara always wanted them to be together. They could be one happy family but that will never happen. That will never happen because they are gone. Daddy died in war a long time ago and she haven't heard of or seen Auntie Katie in a long time also. From all of this thinking, Sara is starting to cry.
When a tear went down on Sara's cheek, she felt somebody's arms around her little body. "It is okay, sweetie." said the person. Sara looked up to see who is calming her down. When she looked up, she saw that the man at the right was holding her very tightly. He was making hushing sounds and was saying, "It is okay" over and over. His voice sounded sweet which make four years old Sara fall in love with him. To make sure that the man don't leave like her birth dad, Sara got to the man's shoulder and continued crying on it.
While Sara was crying on Martin's shoulder, Martin wanted her to stop crying but it seem like that the little girl liked him. He was wondering what make her cry. Martin was thinking that she is crying because she saw two big men walking toward her and she think that they are taking her away but Martin stopped thinking about that because he don't think that the thought made her cry. Martin makes the little girl cry on his shirt so he can think of an idea to make her calm down. A few minutes later, he had no idea. He looked down and saw that the little is still crying on his shoulder. After sawing that, Martin looked around for anything in the backyard but there are none.
Martin got tired of this and turned to Danny for some help. When he turned to Danny, Martin finally got an idea. The idea came from the sides of Danny's head. Martin stared at Danny's big ears. From where Martin was at, his ears looked like the ears that monkeys had. His ears looked so funny which made kids and some adults laughed like crazy. When Danny saw Martin giving him the face when he got an idea, Danny asked Martin what is his idea.
With a crying child on his left shoulder, Martin smiled at Danny and asked him to come closer to him. Danny did what Martin had told him, Martin told him his plan. His plan to calm the little girl down is that he needed Danny's ears. When Danny heard that, he asked Martin why he needed his big ears. With his blue eyes staring at Danny's big dark brown ones, Martin told him that his monkey ears always made little kids laugh and made them happy which Martin needed right now.
"Fine. You can use them." said Danny who went to Martin's back where the little girl is at. When Danny went to the back, Martin said "thanks" to him. "Sure" said Danny back.
When Danny got near the little girl, he make his big ears wiggled. It was so funny which made Sara laughed very loudly. While Sara was laughing, Martin yelled to Danny, "I think that wiggling your ears made her calm down." "It is a big hit for kids." said Danny, knowing that he did this before, especially with Sofie.
After Sara had stopped laughing, Martin let go of her and now staring at her. Sara smiled at both of them when they introduced themselves as Martin Fitzgerald and Danny Taylor. They asked her what her name is which she responded as Sara Foster. After Sara had said her name, Martin told her that is a pretty name and Danny made a joke about her last name. Her last name, Foster is what Sara was described right now (last fall), a foster child. Sara giggled at that joke and continued talking with them.
Thirty minutes later, Martin excused himself to go to the house to talk to Keri. He also told Danny to watch Sara for a few minutes. Danny knew what Martin is talking about and told him to go. After Danny told him to go, Martin walked into the house to find Keri. When he founded Keri in the kitchen talking with some social workers, Martin asked Keri to come talk to him. After Martin asked her that, Keri excused herself from the rest of the social workers to talk to Martin.
A minute later, Keri asked Martin if there is something wrong. "No. There are nothing wrong." said Martin who was crossing his arms. After seeing the crossed arms, Keri looked at Martin with her hazel eyes and asked Martin, "What is it?" With a smile on his face, Martin told Keri that he had founded his child.
--
A few months later in his bedroom, Martin answered his daughter's question about Uncle Danny by telling her that Danny is doing the same thing that Daddy is doing, at work. After Martin told her, Sara ended up being sad again. To stop her being sad, Martin hugged her again and told her that she will have fun at the daycare. Sara smiled at the thing about the daycare being fun and kept hugging her father. While Sara was hugging Martin, Martin looked at the clock to see what time it is. The clock had said five minutes before seven. Ten minutes had passed.
When Martin saw the time, he let go of Sara, and looked at her straight in the eyes. While the father and daughter was staring at each other, Martin told her that they better start the day before they both be late. Sara smiled at her dad again when she got up and walked with Martin to her room to start the day.
After Martin had given Sara a bath twenty minutes later, he let Sara pick out her own clothes while Martin went back to his bedroom to put on his necktie. When Martin was done with the necktie for the fifth time, he went back to Sara's bedroom to see if his daughter is finished. He got there a minute later and opened the door. One step into the room, Martin knew that there is a problem. From where he is standing, Martin watched Sara, trying to put her sweater over her head. Martin laughed when he saw this and before Sara asked for help, he went over and helped her. After he put the sweater over her head, with a smile, Sara said to Martin, "thank you." In response, Martin said back, "you welcome." and kissed her on the forehead.
After they left the bedroom, Sara and Martin walked over to the bathroom for one more thing. In the bathroom, Sara had to do something with her little teeth. She had to brush them. While she was brushing her teeth, Martin watched over her so she don't choke on the toothpaste. After Sara brushed her teeth, spit out the paste, washed it down with water, and swiped out the remaining with a small towel, she and Martin walked over to the kitchen to eat some breakfast.
When Martin drank some coffee and Sara ate her cereal, Martin put the empty mug and bowl into the sink. After he put it in, Martin walked over to Sara and helped her put on her coat, and her lunch bag in her right hand. When Sara was all bundled up, Martin put on his suit jacket and his own coat. A minute later, he grabbed his daughter's hand and with her, Martin walked to the door and opened it.
When they got out of the apartment, Martin locked the door and held Sara's hand afterward. After he held her hand, Martin and Sara walked to the elevators which leads them to the main floor. When the elevator reaches the main floor, both of them got out and walked to the doors to New York City. When they got to the freezing streets, they walked to the daycare to start the new day.