A/N: Thank you for all of your support! This will probably be the last "set up" chapter I will write, so expect to see the story begin soon. I hope you will enjoy this one, and if you would be so kind as to write a review, I would greatly appreciate it. Now, on with the show.

Chapter 4: Settling

The paperwork was tiring and troublesome, to say the absolute least. Along with that, there were fees, waiting periods, court dates… a mess of things that Quillish had to pay careful attention to or he risked having to start the entire procedure from the beginning. It was a lot of trouble to adopt a child, and it would have been more so had he not claimed dual citizenship in the UK and US.

Quillish sighed as he rubbed his temples tiredly. If he didn't have Elizabeth (and a handful of friends in the legal profession) he would surely have gone mad. It was all worth it, though. All of the headaches, the late nights, the long phone calls and the jargon-riddled discussions were worth it. Laurent was worth it.

It had been spring when Quillish had started the process. When it had finally ended, it was the dead of winter. It would have taken much longer if Quillish hadn't known a few well-seasoned lawyers who helped him avoid many legal traps. It certainly wasn't an enjoyable experience for them, though.

"There was a reason I didn't go into this part of the law," one by the name of William Terry had said while shuffling papers and giving Quillish a dirty look, "Thank you for reminding me of it."

Quillish had given them all rather generous gifts for their trouble.

The boy clutched onto the man's hand, gazing up at the enormous building. Snow was falling softly, but the cold didn't seem to affect either of them.

"Here we are, Laurent," Quillish said.

Laurent's wide eyes got even bigger, "This is where we're going to live?"

Quillish laughed, "Certainly."

Laurent stared in shocked silence. His eyes drifted downward, "It's happening," he said softly, "It's really happening."

The man looked down at the little boy and gave a small smile. It finally sunk in, didn't it?

"Does this mean I have to call you 'Dad?'" the little boy asked quietly.

He looked up to meet the man's gaze. "Do you want to call me 'Dad?'" Quillish asked him.

"Aren't I supposed to?" was the response.

"Not if you don't want to."

The little boy was silent for a few seconds as he thought it over. Did he want to think of Quillish Wammy as a father? The quesiton buzzed in Laurent's head for a moment, then suddenly, Laurent's face broke into a smile, "I think I will," he decided.

Quillish smiled, "I'm glad."

It was at that moment that Laurent Wammy had finally decided to step into his new life.

Now, the complications were far from over. It was very difficult to take an adopted American to live overseas, but Quillish's friends in law told him that it wasn't impossible. "There's always a way to beat the system," Oliver Bromski had said with a wink. However, while they were busy sorting out the legal mess, Laurent wasn't allowed to leave his home country.

That was perfectly alright for Quillish. He had houses in many countries just for the sake of having them. (Mostly it was due to the goading of his brothers and sisters, who were constantly going on about having vacation homes to visit.) If anything, Quillish was actually happy that the house they would be staying in would finally get some use.

He led the small boy up the winding drive, watching out of the corner of his eye as Laurent excitedly looked around. Everywhere his inexperienced eyes landed there was a new wonder to behold, and he tried very hard to take it all in at once.

When they reached the door, Quillish gave three solid knocks, stepped back and waited. After a moment's time, they heard some faint clicks on the other side of the door, followed then by the turning of the knob. The door opened just slightly. "Yes?" a male voice asked.

"Phineas, I trust that you have been keeping the house in good condition?" Quillish asked.

The door was yanked open, "Mister Wammy!" the man on the other side of the door gasped, "So good to see you after all of this time!"

"Likewise," smiled Quillish.

Laurent gazed up at the stranger confusedly and pulled a little closer to his adoptive father. Quillish looked down. "Ah, yes," he looked back up at the man, "Phineas, this is Laurent. He's my son," he looked back down at Laurent, "Laurent, this is Phineas. He's been taking care of the house while I've been away."

Phineas stared at Laurent for a long while, "You have a kid? Does this mean you finally got married?" Phineas asked.

Quillish shook his head, "I adopted him," he explained. "Now, could we come in? It's really rather cold out here."

"Of course! Of course!" Phineas said, moving out of the way to allow them inside, "This is just so unexpected! I have to find everyone else! They'll be so surprised to see you, I know I was."

"That would be wonderful," Quillish smiled.

"Could I take your coats? Your hat?" he looked at Laurent, "Your scarf?"

"Thank you, Phineas," Quillish said, taking off his hat and coat, "You really are too kind."

"Thank you," Laurent said quietly, taking of his coat and scarf and handing them to the man. Phineas smiled, "The pleasure is all mine, sirs," and with that, he left to put the coats away. The two left in the foyer proceeded to take off their boots and put them on the mat next to the door.

"He reminds me of Miss Sylvia," Laurent said quietly.

"He is rather similar, isn't he?" laughed Quillish, "Now, then. We should probably go to the den, that's where they'll want to meet us."

"Who are 'they?'" Laurent asked.

"The caretakers of the house," responded Quillish, taking the boy by the hand and leading him deeper into the house.

Quillish could count how many times he had been to this particular house on one hand, and his relatives could probably do the same. As such, the house needed someone to look after it while he couldn't, and therefore he hired the caretakers. Their job was to keep the house and yard clean and tidy, and their reward for the work was being allowed to live there, along with a rather generous salary.

Because of this, the caretakers were rather fond of the man, and it didn't take long for Phineas to find everyone so they could say hello.

As Quillish had predicted, the caretakers filed into the den just as he and Laurent had settled themselves in. They all stopped short (with the exception of Phineas, who already knew) when their eyes drifted over Laurent.

Immediately, five pairs of confused eyes turned to Phineas, "You didn't tell us about the boy," a middle-aged woman said.

"Uhm," Phineas said nervously.

"He's cute!" squealed a younger woman, running over to Laurent and patting him on the head, "What's your name, Sweetie?"

"L-Laurent," he stuttered out, wondering why this strange woman was petting him and deciding that he didn't like it very much.

"That's an awesome name," the woman sighed, removing her hand from his head. Laurent breathed out softly in relief, "I wish I had a name like that, but no… I had to be stuck with the name Alice. I mean… Alice. Really. Sounds like an old woman's name."

"Mr. Wammy… have you…?" an older man asked, raising an eyebrow incredulously.

"No, I'm not married," Quillish said again, "I adopted him."

"So, what brings you around here?" the middle-aged woman asked, "I haven't seen you in years."

"Well… it's for legal reasons, mostly. I can't take Laurent to the UK until I get a couple things sorted out… and since I have a house here, I have decided to use it."

"I don't mind at all!" Alice squealed, picking up Laurent and hugging him. He gave a squeak of displeasure, "I always wanted a little brother! We're going to be best friends, aren't we, Laurent?"

"I…I…I…" Laurent stuttered, wanting nothing more than to be put down and not touched again.

"Alice, leave the child alone! He's obviously tired from the trip," another older woman scolded, "Honestly, you should be able to control yourself by now."

"Sorry, Ma'am…" Alice said, putting Laurent back down upon his chair.

"Gregory, Phineas, if you don't mind… could you help me get the suitcases from the car?" Quillish asked, getting up from his seat.

"No problem, sir," Phineas said. The other older man nodded. With that, the three men left the den.

"Pshh…" said the only person who hadn't spoken yet, another young woman, "Why doesn't he ever ask me to do any of the heavy lifting?"

"He hasn't seen you in years, Veronica, he doesn't know how strong you've become…" the first middle-aged woman said, trying to calm the girl down before anything happened.

"I don't understand why you would want to go out in the cold and the snow…" Alice said, folding her arms, "…'specially since we've got a guest to entertain."

The four women looked at Laurent. He gazed up at them, "Uh…" he said.

"We might as well introduce ourselves, then," the first middle-aged woman said, "My name is Esther."

"Josephine," the other older woman said with a nod.

"Veronica," Veronica said.

"You know my name already, it's Alice," Alice said.

"It's nice to meet all of you," Laurent said nervously.

"So nice to meet you, too!" squealed Alice. She gave a little hop but managed to keep herself from trying to hug the boy again. She turned to the other women, "Isn't he just so cute?" she grinned. The three gave half-spirited shrugs.

Laurent gazed at them all again. These people were his new family, or as close to it as he would get. Would he like it here?

Then, he was reminded of Quillish Wammy… Dad… Father…

Wherever that man was, Laurent would want to be.

He liked Quillish Wammy. He liked him a lot.