The male Harper quads had all gathered in the best "hiding place" they could find in the hotel. The empty broom cupboard.
They were planning how they were going to stay together, and avoid going back to different states. There was no way they would allow that to happen. Then it could take years before they saw each other again.
"We're going to another part of town in an hour", Dicky explained.
"So are we! Maybe... our families could go together" Nicky smiled.
"Well, mine's not"
Nicky and Dicky's smiles disappeared when Ricky said that.
"Then what do we do?" Nicky leaned back onto the wall.
All of them thought for a few seconds.
"I could try to get the Fisher's to go out to. At least Gabrielle and Meg" Ricky looked pretty hopeful. "Meghan isn't that bad anymore. She was just pressured by her parents to be perfect, but after admitting that, she turned out to be kind of nice. She's even letting me call her Meg"
"That's amazing, bro" Dicky patted Ricky on the back, but Nicky sighed.
"Right now we don't have time for Meg, we need to stay together"
"Nicky's right. Any ideas Dicky?"
All three of them were quiet for a few seconds. Dicky lit up.
"We run away from here, and start our own lives on our own!"
Nicky and Ricky gave him an annoyed look.
"No!", Nicky burst out.
"We don't have the money, and we need Dawn too"
"I actually think the first idea was pretty good. Ricky, you get your family to go into town too. And we just... hope Dawn's there too" Nicky nodded, unsure if it would work.
But it was their best shot at the moment.
Nicky and Dicky stood outside the hotel, waiting for Ricky. They didn't even know if he was coming, but they knew they had to wait and see.
A couple of meters away from them stood their foster families, talking to each other while the boys waited. None of them had any idea what they were waiting for, but they obeyed Nicky and Dicky. They were just happy to see their foster kids had found their real siblings.
"Do you think he's coming" Nicky looked through the hotel window, to see if Ricky was anywhere close.
Dicky shrugged.
"I hope so, but I don't know so"
"Nicky, how long are we waiting!?"
Nicky looked over to the families.
"I don't know, Cassandra"
He turned back to Dicky, and mumbled: "I don't know"
Dicky walked around in a circle around himself.
"Uuuugh, when is he coming?" He groaned, impatiently.
"Right now!"
Dicky looked over at Nicky, who was smiling wide, looking at the door. He turned his head there too, and there was Ricky. Close after him Gabrielle and Meghan followed.
Ricky sprinted down the stairs to the porch, and over to his brothers. He looked excited.
"We're going to town!"
The three families had been walking for half an hour, with no success to the Harper boys. They hadn't found, or even seen Dawn. Well... how big were the chances that she would just happen to be in the same part of town, at the same time as them.
It turned out that the chances were actually bigger than the boys thought...
"Okay, I've got to go in here!" Kaeli, the oldest Thornton child, dragged herself and her family into a clothing store, leaving Nicky outside with the others.
Nicky frowned, and shook his head in confusion.
"What is so interesting about clothes?"
"Nothing" Ricky shrugged.
Dicky looked at them both with a shocked look on her face.
"Are you kidding me? That store has some of the coolest clothes ever!"
Nicky and Ricky looked up with excited faces.
"Cashmere sweater vests?"
"Bright colored shorts?"
Dicky rolled his eyes.
"No, dummies. Brand clothes!"
"Oh" Nicky and Ricky's excitement was gone.
Ricky looked away to his right, and gasped.
"Oh my gosh, I can't believe it!" His eyes were now tearing up at a fast rate.
"Brand clothes aren't that bad, come on, Ricky" Dicky sighed.
"No, he's not talking about that" Nicky had noticed what Ricky saw. "He's talking about them!"
Dicky looked where Nicky pointed, and immediately understood their excitement.
Dawn, Tom and Anne had just walked around a corner twenty meters away from them, and Squishy Paws followed them closely. The boy quads couldn't help but start running towards there as fast as they could.
Their confused foster families look after them as they ran to the corner, and right to Tom, Anne, Dawn and Squishy.
They had also noticed the boys running towards them, and they all collided in the biggest family hug they had ever had. Crying of joy, sobbing and cheering, they all started explaining their situations.
"Oh, boys, what are you doing here!?" Anne got an even tighter grip around those she was the closest to.
"We're here for family trips with our foster families"
"What are you doing here? We thought you were dead!"
"We think we got kidnapped in the fire, but we escaped and got here!" Tom used his free hand to wipe a tear.
Dawn gasped for air as she was crying too much.
"I've missed you guys so much!"
"We've missed you too!"
After a whole minute the family let go of each other, and just stood there smiling in pure joy.
"Did you get good families, or were yours horrible too?" There was both worry and hope in Anne's voice.
"It was bad. My foster parents are super snobby and stuck-up, and at first their daughter was too. But she's turned out okay" Anne gave Ricky a big hug, before turning to Dicky.
"Oh, the parents argued all the time, but Alec, Douglas and Steph are like... some of my best friends"
"Well, that's good honey. Nicky?"
"They were nice and all. But they were extremely messy, and I was in the middle of six other kids! I wanna be the youngest again"
"You will be" Tom smiled.
By this point, the Thornton's had come out of the store, and had caught up to the Harper's. Isobel was the first to speak to them.
"Uh.. Hello. Not to interrupt or anything, but what is going on?"
The Harper's all smiled at each other, and turned to the Fisher, McDaniel's and Thornton's. Anne sighed, happily.
"These-" She gestured to Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn. "-are our children"
Everyone in the foster family group seemed to be shocked, at the same time as they understood, and smiled.
"Then I suppose you want them in your care"
Tom and Anne nodded to Ryder's assumption. Gabrielle stepped forward.
"We can fix that easily. A few calls and signatures, and they'll be right back to you"
Just a couple of hours later, Tom signed the second last document.
They were at a St. Petersburg police station, and they had gotten a room just for themselves. The quads, Tom, Anne, and all the previous foster parents were there. Except Scarlette and Michael. Since Dawn ran away, they had no way of knowing she was going back. Dawn knew she would have to go back and tell them, since they needed their signature too.
The Thornton and McDaniel kids were out in the waiting room, and so was Meghan.
"There... we... go" Tom laid the pen on the table.
He took the last document, and put it in front of him and Anne.
"Where do we have the Rallison's?" The policeman looked around in the room.
Dawn suddenly remembered something.
"They don't have to sign the document" She slammed her hand onto the desk.
The police gave her a confused look.
"Yes, they do. Otherwise you won't legally be in the Harper's care"
Dawn sighed, and pushed her hair over to the side.
"You see this bruise" She pointed to the place on her neck. "They hit me. They punched, slapped and did whatever beating on me everyday"
She managed to find another swollen bruise on her left knee. The policeman just looked at her in shock.
"They have kids, right? How are their kids?"
"They beat them too"
The police immediately stood up from his chair and got the phone.
"I'm gonna have to report this. The kids will have to be put into foster care, and the parents will sure as hell go to prison"
Dawn smiled. She kept her promise to Wynter and Kevin. This was amazing.
What was amazing was also that the Harper's were together again. They were a united family. Tom, Anne, Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, Dawn and Squishy Paws. They were all there, together. It all felt good. They didn't have a house, or a place to call home at the time.
But the important thing was; They had each other.
