A New Reality

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine.

Chapter 10: A Place Called Home

Zach glanced up at the clock. It was exactly two minutes later than it had been the last time he'd checked.

He'd put in only a half-day at work, leaving at noon to make absolutely sure everything was ready. But now he was starting to wish that he'd put in a few more hours before leaving. Everything was fine, and now he was just watching the minutes tick by one by one, marking what had to be the longest afternoon of his life.

He, Megan, and Serena had spent much of the previous weekend cleaning out what had been a storage room and converting it into a young girl's bedroom, a veritable flurry of activity set off by the news Heather Bryce had delivered on Thursday. It had turned out to be a timely one, as the jury had come back that following Monday with a guilty verdict on all counts that would keep Vincent Thomas locked away for life. And now, barely twenty-four hours after the verdict, Zach was waiting anxiously to do the one thing he had once thought he would never do and officially add a child to his household.

The doorbell rang, and Zach immediately ran to it, pulling it open without even looking to see who it was, because he already knew who would be standing there. And there she was, on his doorstep, a plastic garbage bag in each hand, and for a moment he couldn't help but think about how many times she must have played out this same scenario. And yet, he knew that it was probably not exactly the same, because he doubted that any of those she'd been smiling ear to ear.

He took the bags, setting them on the floor just past the threshold, and then he opened his arms to her. And she ran into them, and he lifted her clear off the ground, holding her tight. "Welcome home, Andrea."

That only caused her to smile even wider, and out on the porch, Heather Bryce was smiling too.

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"Well?" Zach said with a smile."Go on in."

Andrea was standing in the door of her bedroom, just staring. Her eyes roamed over the light purple walls, down to the purple and blue patterned bedspread draped over the double bed and the matching curtains that hung open over the windows, to the large and fluffy blue rugs, and then over to the white-painted dresser and the open closet beside it.

It had been Megan's idea to leave the drawers and the closet open to show what was inside; the two most recent batches of clothes that her cousin had sent her, supplemented by a few new things that Zach had bought at some point during the chaotic weekend.

At his prompting, she stepped forward, her attention still on the contents of the dresser and closet. "All these...are for me?"

"They're certainly not for me," he teased.

"And - the room?"

"You told me you liked purple and blue, so I wanted this to be something you'd like. I didn't put anything up on the walls; I wanted you to be able to pick that out."

"You did all this for me?" she asked incredulously.

"You bet I did," he said affectionately. "This is your room, Andrea. It should be something that you like."

She set the bags down slowly on the floor. Zach knelt down beside them. "How about we unpack these first?" he suggested. "That way you can really feel like you've moved in, and then I can show you around the rest of the house."

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Zach stood in the doorway where Andrea had been frozen just hours earlier. The room was dark now, the curtains drawn, but he wasn't staring at the room as she had been. He was staring at her, watching her as she slept, with all of the awe that she had directed towards the room. My daughter. She's my daughter now.

"Welcome home, Andrea," he whispered.

The End

So, yeah. Really lighthearted and fluffy compared to most of what I write, but I love it!

The chapter title is the title of a song from the musical version of A Christmas Carol. I probably would've used it anyway but it seemed especially appropriate given the current season.

The explanation for Zach owning a four-bedroom townhouse will be in the sequel. I was going to put it in this chapter, but I couldn't find a way to fit it in cleanly. Also, in case anyone is wondering, I dropped Wheeler from my character list for this story because she didn't come into play the way I had originally planned (she does get a couple of mentions, but not enough in my opinion to put her in the major character list). She will have a role in the sequel.

The sequel to this story is titled Little Girl Lost. By the time you've finished reading this, the first chapter will be posted.

Please review.