I haven't forgotten about any of my fics and I'm still planning on finishing them, but I also wanted to post. I don't know when I'll be able to post next, my laptop is in the shop and I'm not sure when I'll be getting it back.

"Your smile is nearly splitting your face in half." John commented as they pulled up to the farm house.

"I'm so happy about everything that's happened today." Anna said, she touched his arm. "You'll hurry in?"

Daniel came out of the farm house. "Well?" he asked as John reigned the horses in and stopped them.

"They're ours." Anna said happily.

Daniel smiled "We thought everything would be squared away, so we asked the Murphy's to let Jacob sleep over. They're both inside, I'll take the horses, you two go tell Jacob and Lily."

They hurried inside to find Lily playing with Ruth's paper dolls, Jacob was playing with Michael and his army men. For a moment, Anna watched the two children. Her two children. It was a good thing they got along with their new cousins. For a moment, Anna allowed herself to hope that she and John could find a hotel near the farm so they could visit with her family, have Sunday dinners together.

"Jacob, Lily," Anna walked up to the girl, "Mr. Bates and I need to talk with the both of you."

Lily frowned "Do I have to leave the game?" She asked.

"Only for a few minutes." Anna promised.

"I won't play with your dolls until you get back." Ruth promised.

Jacob seemed glad of the excuse to not play with Michael. They went to the front porch, and John spoke, "I know the two of you don't like the children's home, right?"

Both children nodded quietly.

"Once you get the hotel can I please live there?" Lily asked.

"Lily," Jacob admonished, "You shouldn't push in on them like that."

"It's all right, Jacob." Anna spoke up. "We actually wanted to talk to the two about that." She took in a deep breath and took John's hand. "How would the two of you like to come live with us?"

There was a pause. "Really?" Lily asked happily.

"Really, we've talked with the children's home and you're coming to live with us."

"So you're our parents now?" Jacob asked, in the light Anna could see his forehead crease with a frown. He forced a smile though once he saw Anna looking his way.

"Legally we're your parents, but you don't have to call us Mum or Dad if you don't want to." John spoke, he and Anna had already talked about it.

Anna stepped closer to Jacob. The 13 year old was already taller then she was. It looked like he would be taller then John when he was fully grown. "Jacob, are you alright?"

"Yes, Miss Anna, but may I be excused?"

Anna was surprised at the request, but spoke "Yes, Jacob, you can be."

He left then, going into the house. Anna started after him, but John touched her arm. "I'll talk with him later." he spoke quietly.

"That's so wonderful!" Lily hugged Anna. Anna wrapped her arms around the girl. "Are you going back to York?"

"Unless we can find a hotel near here, yes." John said.

A few more questions from Lily, the four of them entered the house. "You're my cousin!" Lily announced to Ruth. Ruth looked up for a moment, confused.

"They're yours?" Rachel spoke from the doorway. Anna nodded, her smile growing.

"Where did Jacob go?" John spoke quietly.

"Headed towards the barn." Ben said, he'd just come in.

"I'll go talk with him." John went out to the barn, Jacob was in one of the stalls, brushing Jingle Bells, one of the horses.

"Jacob." John limped to the stall door.

Jacob turned eyes widening slightly at the sight of John.

"Is everything alright?" John asked quietly, he could tell the boy was thinking hard about something.

"You and Miss Anna aren't angry I..." Jacob trailed off as John shook his head.

"No, we aren't angry, we realize that this could be very confusing. I know we'd talked about you not liking the children's home." John spoke carefully. "Should we have mentioned this to you?" he asked.

"Why didn't you?"

"We weren't sure if we'd be able to, and we didn't want to get your hopes up in case we weren't able to."

"All right." Jacob went quiet again. "Where's the hotel?"

"What?"

"The hotel." Jacob repeated, "the one you and Miss Anna bought."

"We haven't bought one yet."

Jacob stopped brushing Jingle Bells now and looked over at John, almost peeking out at him. "But if you don't have the hotel, why..." He trialed off and gave Jingle Bells a pat on the shoulder.

"Why what?" John pressed quietly.

"When you buy the hotel what will I have to do?"

It took a moment for John to realize what Jacob was asking. He thought that he and Lily had been adopted to work in the hotel.

"You and Lily will have chores that you'll both be expected to do, but the bulk of the work will be hired out or Anna and I will do it ourselves."

Jacob looked confused, "but children are only adopted out to work."

John's heart sank as he realized how what Jacob thought. "I know we've worked together, Jacob, but neither Anna or I will expect you or Lily to work full time in the hotel."

"What chores will Lily and I have?"

John hesitated for a moment, he figured that Anna would be better at figuring this kind of thing out, but he listed off a few chores. "Keeping your room clean, helping with laundry and some chores that only a man can do. But Anna and I want you and Lily to go to school and make friends and figure out what you want to do with your life."

Jacob had looked away from John and started brushing the horse once more. The boy looked up at John but looked away quickly. John could see tears in Jacob's eyes. "I don't want to forget my parents." There was a pause. "My first parents." He added slowly.

"I don't want you to forget them either." John told him. Jacob looked up in surprise. "We didn't adopt you and Lily to try and replace your first parents Jacob, we adopted the two of you so that you wouldn't be in the children's home anymore. Children belong with parents or with a family, not with home workers and fifty other children." John shrugged, "If we could have, we'd have adopted more children then just you and your sister."

Jacob nodded quietly, still brushing Jingle Bells. John looked at the thirteen year old carefully. "Do you want some help with Jingle Bells?" He didn't want to go back into the house without Jacob, but also didn't want to push Jacob to spend time with John if he wanted to be alone.

Jacob stepped back and shook his head. "I'm done." He put the brush back and they started walking back to the house.

"You said I don't have to call you Dad?"

"That's right, only if you want to."

"Well, Dad was...my dad." Jacob said. "Can I call you Pa?"

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