12th of September Wednesday
"I'm nervous." Sara bit on her lips, leaning on the counter in the kitchen, watching her girlfriend preparing her breakfast.
"Me too, even when we don't have a reason to be nervous…who am I kidding? We have every reason to get crazy. Who believes we're cool?"
"Not me." Sara walked to her lover, pulled her into her arms and kissed her. "What if he says no?" She had thought about this possibility so many times found so many - stupid - reason why Stephen should tell them, their idea of adopting them was ridiculous, stupid and he would never ever come to people like them.
"Then we have only one child." The blonde sighed.
"I really like him."
"And it looks like he likes us too. Says the shrink and she's always right, isn't she?"
"Yes. He fits perfectly to us. Loves the dogs, gets along with our friends, is good with the twins."
"I know." Sofia kissed Sara's forehead. "Can you think of a reason why he should not want to live with us? A sensible one, not the stupid ones we came up with the last days."
"No."
"See. He enjoys the time with us, he works on a Saturday in the forest and I'm sure it's not only because he wants to be away from the children's home, but also because he likes being with you. He adores you, almost as much as I adore you."
"Fingers crossed he adores me enough to move in with us…do you think we can be his parents until the end of the year?"
"If he wants us, we can be his parents much sooner; at least when we talk about the heart. The law will take a little bit longer."
"Bugger."
"We're patient, aren't we?"
"I know you are, you waited for me." Sara smiled a bit.
"You were worth every single second." The blonde snuggled into the arms of her lover. "I love you."
"Love you more. Time for me to go. I pick you up around three."
"Yes, hungry and ready for our burger."
"Triple everything."
"Exactly. Do I get a triple kiss too?"
"Maybe when we're back home."
"When we're back home we need to take care of the dogs…a kiss every hundred yards?"
"Fifty."
"That's a deal."
"Time to go, sorry." The brunette kissed her lover one more time. "See you in a little bit over nine hours - gosh, sounds like eternity."
"You can call me whenever you miss me."
"In that case I have to be on the phone the whole time." The brunette blinked, took her backpack and left the kitchen. Time for work and after work was time to find out if they would be a bigger family soon or not. Hopefully Stephen liked the idea of staying here as much as they did.
"Did you finish your homework?" Sara greeted Stephen when he opened the door and slipped on the passenger seat.
"Most of it."
"Most of it? Define that."
"Only Spanish needs my attention."
"Time to meet Tanya again?"
"No, not that bad."
"Mhm?"
"No, really. I got a B."
"Really? That's great."
"Just doing the best to get out of there."
Sara pressed her lips together. It was in his hands to get out there sooner than he thought he could, but she couldn't tell him yet. First they had to get Sofia and drive to the burger place. She needed her lover by her side and it was only fair to wait, until they were all settled and relaxed.
"I'm starving." Sofia said and jumped on the backseat. "Hi Stephen."
"Hey, do you want to sit here?"
"No, I'm fine here. How was school?"
"How was school for you when you were my age?"
"A pain in the ass." Sofia grinned.
"See. When will the Captain arrive?"
"Friday. Do you miss her?"
"It will be fun to see her Saturday. I've got a can of coke left."
"Do you plan to throw it on her head? In that case we call our personal doctor in advance and book her for that day."
"No, I will offer it to her to drink. I'm sure if I throw a can on her head again, she won't take it as good as the last time. Now I know who she is. The Captain."
"Exactly." Sofia's eyes found Sara's in the rearview mirror and she saw how nervous her lover was. She didn't want to think about what would happen if Stephen told them, he didn't want to be with them. It would break Sara's heart and Sofia wasn't sure, if she could handle a heart broken Sara. Whenever her lover was sad, it hurt her too.
Getting through the traffic onto the Pacific Highway, Sara stopped the car in front of Triple Burgers.
"Ready for your fatty burger?"
"Absolutely." Sofia got out of the car. "We get a great triple burger, don't we Stephen?"
"Yes. With extra large fries and coke."
"You name it."
"Honey, you get your burger and a salad while I get your fries. You know the deal."
"Dessert?"
"When you eat your salad and not only shuffle it from one side to the other so it looks like you ate most of it."
"She blackmails me."
"All out of love." Stephen chuckled.
"Are you on her side?"
"I'm on Jamie's side, Jamie can't talk for himself or herself and needs somebody to do that. And unfortunately Jamie will like the salad, it's good for him. Her. If that makes me being on Sara's side, I'm on her side. Sorry."
"I will eat the salad. Everybody is against my addiction to bad fast food."
"You can have as much fast food as you want when Jamie is born. I deliver it myself to your bed in hospital."
"Sounds good, Hospital food is horrible."
"Want to try the crap we get in the children's home?"
"Uhm, no thanks. I get the burgers for us. You save the table…I want a nice one with ocean view."
"She's demanding. Let me give you a hand." Stephen smiled and followed Sofia.
"Mhm, a hand and order some extra sauce and fatty stuff. You're both a nightmare." Sara shook her head and decided to get a table next to the window, with a view on the ocean. Was this their lucky table? Only a few more minutes and they could ask Stephen about becoming their son. A few more minutes. Why didn't they come here yesterday? They had all their answers already.
"Here is your our salad - and my fries." Sofia put the tray with the food on the table.
"You ordered extra large."
"The deal was one burger, we didn't have a deal about the size."
"Yeah, I didn't expect anything else. What did you choose for dessert, Stephen?"
"Ice cream and cake."
"Double dessert."
"It's a triple burger, we can't have only a single dessert."
"Your opinion or somebody else's?"
"Our decision."
"I see you're a great team."
"We are." Stephen bit in his burger with a wide grin and so did Sofia.
"Oh, they drowned it in sauce, I love it. Love it. Love it." The blonde sighed. "Jamie is over the moon to get all these lovely things. Mhm, meat in tomato sauce and cheese…are you sure you don't want to try this one, Honey?"
"Absolutely sure."
"You've no idea what you miss out. What do you think Stephen?"
"I think if she doesn't want to eat the burger, we have to share a third one, hers. Free country, everybody can do what they want."
"True…You can't go to Triple Burger and not order a burger. We need a third combo and if Sara doesn't want her combo, we have to eat it. Sacrifice ourselves."
"Really a tough punishment." Stephen grinned.
Sara looked at her lover. She didn't want to wait any longer, she wasn't hungry, she wanted to know what Stephen thought about their plan.
"Stephen, we want to ask you something." Sara pushed away her food.
"What is it?"
"We thought about…gosh…I've no idea how to say it…I guess, I say it straight forward. Can you imagine living with us? Be a part of our family?" Now it was out. Not in a sensitive way, explaining everything carefully, testing the water. No, she pushed him right into the water. Now she had played the ball to him and it was up to him what happened next.
The boy dropped his burger, looked in disbelieve at both women, not capable of saying a word. Did Sara really say what he understood? Did she really asked him to become their son? Does she really want him?
"If you don't want, you can just say it, we won't be mad." Sofia said into the silence, not wanting to build up too much pressure. After all, they had a couple of days to think about it, he was confronted with it and had to react right away. Not entirely fair.
"No…I mean…not no to your question…I mean…why? You'll have your child, Sofia is pregnant, you'll have your own baby, you don't need…me. Why take a boy from a children's home, who was in trouble, when you have a baby? Jamie will complete your family. Why would you want me?"
"Because you're very special and we love you. Yes, you're not a baby, yes you don't have our DNA, but we think, DNA isn't the most important thing when it comes to family. It's the heart that matters and your heart is perfect." Sara said, not sure if Stephen agreed or was unsure what to do and say.
"Are you sure you want this?"
"Absolutely. We thought about it for a while, didn't want to ask you before we aren't sure ourselves, but whenever we spent time with you, you showed how wonderful you fit to us and we really want you around, be a part of our family. But if you need some time to think about it, we understand that. It's a big decision. We don't want to rush you into something, don't want you to say yes and regret it later. Our family is supposed to be your final family, when you want and not another stopover."
"What are the conditions? There are conditions, right?"
Sofia smiled. "There are a few. The house rules, everybody has to agree on otherwise he or she can't live with us. We made them up a while ago, to make sure, we all want the same for a few things. Most important is honesty. We can handle everything as long as you're honest. No matter what happened, as long as you tell us what happens, it's not that bad. But what we would really hate, is finding out from somebody else what really happen because that means, you don't trust us. Aren't honest. We want to be one hundred percent honest to you and expect the same from you.
As you know, it's a big house, our doors are always unlocked that means, we all have to trust each other. Goes for our room and also for Dons, Sallys and Tony's room. The only time we lock our bedroom doors is, when we have a houseguest from the internet, because we have no idea what kind of person he or she is. But when we're alone all doors are open, means we all respect each other's privacy. You're not supposed to walk into the room of somebody without being invited and nobody will go into your room without you saying it's okay. Nobody controls your room, so when you put something in your room, it's safe there. Besides the dogs, they have the habit of controlling room, so if you have potato chips or anything else eatable in your room, make sure it's packed up high in a shelf, otherwise our monsters will eat it. I guess the only things that are locked away are our guns and we have a fireproofed safe for important paper, but we all know the code so it's really only safe to fire and burglars.
Another condition is the work. Everybody has certain jobs to do. You have to clean your own room, at least once a week, we don't care if you clean it spotless like a hospital room, as long as it looks clean and no insects start to camp in there, it's your room, you decide how clean you want to have it. Some people sleep only a few nights in their sheets, other a week or two, it's up to you. We take turns when it comes to the rest of our level, the kitchen and bathrooms. The downstairs kitchen, bathroom and living room gets cleaned by two people each week. Means, you will be involved in a lot of cleaning. Same for the rest of the housework, we share it and we expect you to help.
School is your highest priority, we expect you to do your best to get good marks. You're free to do whatever you want after your homework is done and as long as your marks are okay. And with okay I don't mean a D and passed because the teacher had a good day. You're a smart boy and it's very annoying watching somebody wasting their talent. Otherwise, when you do all right, you don't have a special curfew because we think, you're responsible enough to know, you need your sleep during the week. You want to stay somewhere longer, just let us know, we can pick you up.
And to come to Jamie: yes, we'll have a baby and babies need a lot of attention. We need to spend a lot of time with Jamie, do everything for him or her, as babies are helpless. That doesn't mean we forget you or love you less, but you're fourteen, you can eat alone, use the bathroom and say what you want, the baby can't. And it's our first baby, so we're not entirely sure what to do and when, so we might need more time than others. But Jamie doesn't make you less important to us, to make that clear." Sofia took a deep breath. Long speech, a lot of things were said. "Can you live with these rules?"
"Quite a lot."
"Yes, you wanted to know the conditions, these are the conditions. Like I said, honesty is important and I told you honestly what we expect you to do. The most important thing is that you trust us. We trust you, we're honest with you and we expect the same from you."
"Now tell us your rules." Sara smiled.
"My rules?"
"Yes, your condition, I'm sure you have got anticipations too. How you want your parents to be. We want to know what you want, what you wish for. So we can tell you, if we can be or do what you want."
"Uhm…I don't know…I want to be trusted, not seen as the boy from the children's home, who gets in trouble all the time and it's always his fault. I want to be allowed to make own decisions, get treated like anybody else the family. And…want a chance to explain myself and the situation, when something went wrong."
"Sounds like things we can agree on." The brunette took his hand. "Sounds a lot like the things we want."
"Can you adopt me? Don't you have to be married for it?"
"The law says we can adopt you, it's up to you. When you want to live with us, we can make it possible. It will take a few months until all the paperwork is done, but you can live with us before that. In fact, you have to move in earlier so we can find out, it works out between all of us. And the state wants to check us too. Send social workers to find out, if we treat you good and if you really want to stay with us."
He smiled a little bit. "Of course I want to stay with you."
"Really?" Sara asked.
"Can I get a better place? Two cool mothers and an ass kicking grandmother." His smile got bigger.
"Oh Stephen." Sara slipped next to him and pulled him into her arms. "I'm so happy. You have no idea how happy you make me." He agreed, he said yes. He wanted to be with them.
"You make me happy. You really want me?"
"Didn't I tell you from the beginning you're special?"
"You did. And so did Sofia. Got me back to the forest instead of sending me to prison."
"That's not a place for you, you belong with us."
"I promise there won't be any incidents anymore, that may require me to go to prison. I won't risk getting taken away from you."
"Do I get a hug too? Or am I forgotten?" The blonde asked.
"At least one and there's no way we could ever forget you." Stephen hugged Sofia, unable to hide his tears anymore. "Thanks. I…I…I've no idea what to say."
"You said the most important thing, you said yes to become our son."
"Do I have to call you both mom now? And how will you know whom I mean?"
"Mom Sara and mom Sofia? Or just Sara and Sofia. Whatever you prefer." The name thing should be the smallest problem. At least to Sofia.
"I think Sara and Sofia, so you know whom I mean. Oh gosh, I'll have a family."
"A big one. The whole house is your family. Plus the extended family. And the Captain."
"Can I call her grandma or do I have to call her Captain?"
"Well, you can ask her on Saturday. I'm sure you can call her grandma."
"Cool. My grandma is a Captain and she kicked the asses of all prison guards."
"She did. And when they want to give us a hard time adopting you, she'll do the same."
"Good to know."
"What you also have to think about is, by having two mothers and no the typical mother-father-family, you might hear some stupid comments in school. Not all people are open-minded and respect different kinds of life. And although Los Angeles, especially Silver Lake, is a very city with a lot of same sex couples, there are people, who will attack you. Even when they use only words, it will hurt."
"What do they say? Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."
"Unfortunately they hurt your soul. It's something you have to think about."
"I don't care what other people say, if they have a problem with you and Sara, I think you're both cool."
"Right, two women kissing is sexy, two men is not." Sara grinned, remembering his comment when they started working together.
Stephen's face turned a little bit red. "Maybe that was a stupid comment I made. Looks like I've to become a little bit more tolerant too."
"You can work on that, as long as you have no problems seeing Sara and me kissing, the most important part is done."
"I saw you kissing a couple of times, no problems."
"Good, because we won't stop it. I love her too much. Look how cute red she turns when I say that out loud in public." Sofia and Stephen laughed while Sara stuck out her tongue. Yes, she wasn't used to declaration of love in public, so what?
"Maybe we should eat our ice cream before it's pudding." Sara said, looking at the rest of their ice cream. They had their answers and could celebrate now.
"Or we have ice pudding and ice cream. For celebration reasons."
"I thought you want a second burger."
"True. Well, I should finish my first one. When do you want to talk to my prison guards?"
"Tonight. The sooner we talk to them, get the paperwork started, the sooner you can move in with us or do you want to stay there longer?"
"No! Of course not."
"In that case we should finish the burger and pudding ice and cake. And tell them, they can give your bed away to somebody else." Sara smiled. Their son. Stephen would be their son.
"Where will I stay?"
"Well, we have two more free rooms, you can choose one and then we go shopping and get you all the furniture you need."
"I can choose?"
"Of course, it's your room. You choose the furniture, the color for your walls, the decoration."
"Wow…I've to think about that."
"You think and on Saturday you choose your room and we get what you need. There should be some time for shopping."
"Wow…hopefully they let me go ASAP."
"We hope the same." Sara smiled and found Sofia's eyes. The relief in her eyes was more than visible. Stephen wanted to live with them, all their fears and concern were gone and the next step was the children's home and the law. But the most important step was done. He wanted to be a part of their family.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYBODY!