Disclaimer: I don't own anything and I am making no profit off of this fanfiction.

Authors Note: There will be a drive from Fresno to Chino in this chapter and I can't seem to find anywhere that will tell me how long it will take so we are going to pretend that it's too far of a drive. I apologize in advance if it's a long drive. .

Chapter 3

Sandy's P.O.V.

I stared at that despicable excuse for a human being for what seemed like a lifetime my mind going a mile a minute. When I pulled myself together some I started hurling questions so fast that if someone else had been there they would have thought I was a loon. After I was all out of questions and I had calmed down a fraction I looked at the woman. She was sitting in the chair and had a look on her face like she had just been handed the best gift in the world.

The truth of my situation hit me like a train fast and hard and made me sick at my stomach. She did not mention that she had another child because she cared an ounce for him she just thought that it would give her the upper hand. She was using her own child as a bargaining chip out of hell or prison in this situation. I had to get out of there before I lost it completely. I could not be stuck in this room with her because at that moment I could not trust myself. The only things that I knew for sure was that I needed to find this kid and that I was not going to negociate with this woman because this just cemented the fact that she deserved every minute that she spent in prison. I cleared my throat loudly and in the most uncaring voice I could muster, I said, "I don't believe I am the right lawyer for your case Mrs. Atwood I will be sure to pass your case on to another lawyer in my department. I hope you get everything you deserve." I then turned back around and continued on to the door.

"What about my son don't you want to know where he is?" she asked desperately realizing that her tactic had not worked. "You obviously don't care about him at all so why should I?" I said walking out the door and finally getting away from that awful woman. When I was outside of that place I ran to my car getting on my car phone to call anyone I could to find out about this child. I did not doubt that there was another child because the world seems an unfair and unjust place. Women like her who do not deserve the children are the ones who have them and women like his wife for example who are excellent mothers and deserve to have all the children that they can handle can't have any. The reason that he disliked Mrs. Atwood the most before he had even spoke to the woman was because his wife Kirsten could not have anymore children. The doctor said that since she had such a hard time with Seth when he was born that trying to have another baby would be a form of suicide. Kirsten (and him too but he tried not to mention it) desperatley wanted to have another child but she could not and it was so unfair that women who didn't want children had them.

I called everyone I knew that I would think could find me any information at all on how to find where this woman lived. I finally got someone who could help me and he promised to call me back with all the information he could find on her and her son. The wait was torture and made me wish I still smoked so that I would have something to do with myself. I considered driving to the store and buying a pack and some mouthwash so that Kirsten wouldn't find out but my hands were shaking too bad and I was too pissed off to drive anywhere. I ran my hands through my hair and I know I must have looked crazy to anyone who passed by but I couldn't muster enough strength to care.

During the wait, I wondered about this child. Was he okay? Was he hurt? Who was watching him if anyone at all? How old was he? These are all thoughts that I can remember thinking there were many more but those are the ones I was most concerned about mainly the fist two. I had already figured that if the child was at home then he was probably alone because this woman had a history of leaving small children unattended. When they found her ten month old son she was not at home leaving a defenseless baby all by himself. He hit the sterring wheel hard then started kicking the door to his car because he could not do what he really wanted and run back inside to kick the sh*t out of this woman. Finally after what seemed like hours of waiting his phone finally rang and he picked it up on the fist ring. As soon as his friend started talking he started the car and drove away from that place and that evil woman. He told him the address of the place that they lived and how to get there then he started asking questions all of which I ignored. I thanked him and told him that I would explain as soon as I could then hung up the phone.

The drive to Chino seemed to take a lifetime even though it was only about thirty minutes away. I finally got to Chino and found the house that they lived in. It looked abandoned definately did not look as if a young child lived there. I sat in the car for a few minutes to calm myself it would not be good for me to see the child this upset. From what I saw of Dawn Atwoood this child will be supremely messed up and will not trust me at all and his first impression of me should not be an angry me. I had drove for thirty minutes and had not once thought about how to handle this situation and what to do. I looked at my watch and realized it was almost eight o'clock on a Friday social services was closed and there was noone to back me up. I called around to some people I knew to see if there was anyone who could get in touch with someone from social services and had no luck at all. Well obviously there was nothing I could do but just take the child with me so I resolved that issue. The only issue that remained was to get into the place. I would just go up and knock on the door but if he were alone there was no way he would answer the door and I had pretty much figured out that the kid was alone.

All the lights were out in the house and I wondered breifly if they even had electricity but then I saw a flicker and realized that the T.V. was on. I also realized that I was wasting precious time and that this child might be in dire need of medical attention. I got out of my car and started making my way to the rundown house when a voice stopped me. "Can I help you sir? Mrs. Dawn is not here at the moment and I would really like it if you would leave now. We do not need the likes of you here in our neighborhood we have told her to keep her johns out of this neighborhood. This neighborhood is bad enough without whore mongers running the streets." an ederly lady said in a harsh voice. I cleared my voice and tried not to sound too offended at the assumption that I was a john of Mrs. Atwood, "Oh no ma'm I'm not looking for Mrs. Atwood. I'm Sandy Cohen and I was appointed Mrs. Atwoods attorney see she got herself in a little bit of trouble. I am actually looking for her son Ryan. Do you know if he's here or is he at a babysitters?" "Oh Ryan that poor sweet little child never heard him speak a word but he's just the sweetest little thing. Life really dealt him a bad hand when he got that woman for a mother. Babysitter hah don't make me laugh that woman leaves that poor boy by himself sometimes for days at a time. He can't be no more than four years old and he's left to his own devices such a sad little boy you can tell in his eyes. I considered calling social services but I have seen the type of trash that woman hangs with and I'm too old to try to fight off those thugs. They would kill me deader than a door nail before I even knew what hit me I tell ya." I tried not to laugh at the woman's description. We Cohen's have the worst habit of laughing in the worst situations. "Yes ma'm I understand so I'm assuming he's home. You wouldn't happen to have a key to the house or anything would you?" I asked in a voice that I hoped didn't sound like laughter. She looked at me suspiciously and said, "Why should I trust that you are who you say you are? You could be one of those thugs that i just described who she screwed over and you may want to hurt the sweet little boy. I'll need some proof before I let you into that house sir."

I walked the few feet until I was in her yard with my hands where she could see them. "Trust me ma'm I am not thug just a lawyer trying to help the kid out. I'm going to go for my wallet ma'm and I'll show you the proof you need okay. I don't have a gun or anything just my wallet." Then I went for my wallet and took out my driver's license and my business card and handed it to the lady. She scrutinized the picture and the card then looked me over then looked back at them comparing them. "Okay sir I do not have a key to the house but she keeps a spare underneath the flowerpot at the door. I'm Kathy Low it's very nice to meet you Mr. Cohen. If it's not too much to ask could I come in with you. That poor boy don't trust anyone at all and he will be terrified if you just come waltzing in best I come with you. I would also like to say goodbye to the little angel and apologize for not doing better by him. I would have called had I not been so scared for my life you understand. I'm a very old woman and I have children and grandchildren of my own who need me. It breaks my heart that I could not do more for him I did the best I could by him but I'm sure that he don't see it that way." she said in a sad voice and my heart went out to her. This poor woman really had done the best she could I understood completely her reasoning but I could see it really did break her heart.

We started walking towards the house in a comfortable silence when we got to the door she turned, looked at me, and said in a polite voice like she was just inquiring about the time or the weather, "Mr Cohen, what do you plan to do with him once you have him. I see no other people with you and I can't imagine that social services will be open this late." "Oh I really hadn't thought about it ma'm I just talked to Mrs. Atwood and she said he was here and I really didn't think I just kind of drove. I knew I had to help him I couldn't just leave him here all weekend by himself so I haven't really thought about it. My wife and I, Kirsten have a four year old Seth and so I figured I would just take him with me until Monday. It is the best solution that I can come up with. My wife she's a good mother and I would like to say I am a good father and we have a spare bedroom in our house . We'll take good care of him. I'm going to see what kind of condition he is in and probably have my sons pediatrican see if he can make a house call tomorrow." I flashed the woman a small smile trying my best to win her over she could make this situation a lot more difficult if she wanted to. "Well you say you have a son you must have pictures." she said in a voice that said that she wasn't totally convinced so I pulled out my wallet again and showed her the family portrait taken a couple of months ago. "That's my wife Kirsten and my son Seth hamming it up for the camera he tries to act like he hates pictures but really he loves the attention. Not satisfied until you have taken at least four shots because he didn't smile right or didn't show enough of his teeth 'cause they are pearly white daddy' he tells me." I laugh lightly at the thought of my son he was just the cutest little thing in the world to me. "He is adorable I love the curly hair and those dimples are just enough to make you want to swoon. He'll be a real heartbreaker that one all he has to do is flash one of his dimples at a girl and they will just melt like butter. That Ryan though he is not one to scoff at he's adorable short for his age but that is because he's probably severely malnourished. Big baby blue eyes and sandy blonde hair and when he does grace you with his smile it lights up his whole face and you can picture a life for him that doesn't involve drugs and beatings. You do right by him Mr. Cohen he deserves the world and he should get it and I know that you are saying you are just going to give him to social services on Monday. I think you believe that you will but once you have that child you better not give him up to noone. You are a good man and when you talked of that child of yours your whole face lit up like he was your entire world. Ryan needs a family like that and I want you to give it to him it will not be easy but in the end it will be worth it. He has all the potential to be a successful person but to do that he needs to get as far away from Dawn and Chino as possible. I have seen this place turn good little boys into thugs and drug heads and I don't want that life for Ryan. Ryan is special and he deserves everything that this life has to offer and I think you can offer him the wealth advantages plus the love. I can see that you are very wealthy that wife of yours must have a really good job because I know that you aren't making the big bucks." she is looking for an explanation I can tell. "Yes ma'm my wife works for the Newport Group her dad actually owns it. Since she works for her dad she gets away with coming to the office whenever she wants but mostly she works from home so that she can be with our son. Her mother convinced her father that she could do the work from home because Seth needed someone to take care of him and a nanny was absolutely not going to be taking care of their grandchild. He gripes about it but it's mostly just to irritate me he knows that Kirsten wouldn't be happy if she had to put in long hours and never see her child. She spends all days with him except for Tuesdays and Thursdays when he goes to preschool she goes into the office while he's in school and her mother picks him up and watches him until we get off." I took a deep breath and glanced at the woman I knew that she assumed that we probably had a nanny look after our child and no way would she let me off with that child if we weren't even raising our own. She really did care about him but like she said she's an old woman and had already done the raising of her kids didn't need another running around.

"Okay Mr. Cohen I got more out of you that I could have ever dreamed of getting for that sweet boy so remember what I said don't let him go. He deserves your family and take the best care of him that you possibly can. I wish I could have took him in but all I could do was give him some food and a bath and send him back to hell. I knew everytime he left that I was sending him straight back to hell and I would just cry everytime I saw him leave he just looked so rejected. I love that little boy like I love my own grandchildren but I don't have the patience of the money to take care of a child. Ryan will need a lot of special attention a lot of therapy and I just can't afford that kind of thing but you can. Like I said he doesn't say anything at all so you'll have to take time with him. He is very bright when he comes over I give him a book to read while I'm making him food and I can tell he can actually read somewhat. I know that he can talk he just does not trust people enough to talk to them. It will be hard but I know that you can handle it. So lets go in Mr. Cohen we have been standing here talking like there isn't more pressing matters at hand." She went over to the flowerpot and got the key and opened the door to my new life.