Hailey's POV

A few days after I had visited Charlie, I got a call from a family service specialist telling me that when Charlie was told that her foster parents wanted to come to meet her, she asked that I be there.

I found it a little bit strange but promised I would try to be there and was given a date and a time.

"Sarge," I said as I into his office, "Charlie's meeting with her foster parents is in fifteen minutes."

I had already informed Voight about this before today so he just nodded and told me to leave if a case came in which I promised I would. As I drove to Med, I wondered why Charlie would want me to be there.

When I got to the hospital, I was greeted by a woman wearing a nice pantsuit.

"You must be Hailey Upton," She smiled, walking over, her hand held out, "I'm Tina."

I nodded and shook her outstretched hand, "Nice to meet you."

"I talked to Charlotte before you came actually," Tina looked over at me as we walked up to the PICU together, "She's quite the character."

I laughed, "That she is."

When we got to Charlie's room, we found her gazing down at the picture frame in her hand.

"Hey," I said, knocking on the side of the door, "How's it going?"

Charlie quickly shoved the picture frame underneath her pillow before looking up, a forced smile on her face.

"Pretty good I guess," She replied, suddenly unsure of what to do with her empty hands.

"Well, your foster parents should be here any moment now," Tina told her, "I'm going to go back down to greet them when they come."

Charlie just nodded and Tina turned around, leaving the room.

I smiled softly, "So you wanna tell me how you really feel?"

"Is it that obvious?" Charlie looked up at me, a dubious look on her face.

I nodded, "Just a little."

Charlie sighed, "I'm not sure how I feel. What if I hate them? What if they hate me? What if their daughter hates me? What if I hate their daughter?"

"Whoa, slow down," I told her, calming down the teenager, "I'm sure they won't hate you, let's just see how this goes first before we start jumping to conclusions."

Charlie glanced up at me and nodded. When she looked away, straight in front of her, her face paled noticeably and I followed to where her eyes were trained.

Tina was standing at the door with a couple and a girl around Charlie's age. It was presumably Charlie's new foster parents since they fit the description.

The woman had thick blond hair as opposed to her husband who was bald. In front of them was their daughter, a teenager who had blond hair like her mother except it was thin.

The air was extremely tense and I looked back and forth, wondering who was going to talk first.

The woman smiled at Charlie, "It's nice to finally meet you. My name is Caroline and this is my husband Micheal and my daughter Nicole."

Micheal gave a friendly wave, "Nice to meet you Charlotte."

"Charlie," Charlie stated tonelessly.

"Sorry?"

"Only my dad calls me Charlotte, and you're not my dad," Charlie said coldly, "Don't call me Charlotte."

Micheal nodded, "Alright, sorry about that."

Charlie gave a stiff nod as well, directing her eyes away from the trio and at me. It was hard to tell how she was feeling about that first impression.

"So Charlo-" Micheal cut himself off, "Charlie. So tell us, Charlie, where are you from? Or did you grow up in Chicago?"

"Winnipeg," Charlie answered, her signature poker face in play, "Winnipeg, Manitoba."

Micheal chuckled, "So you're a Canuck!" His voice was light and joking.

Charlie's eyes narrowed, "And you're a Yankee." Her voice was lacking the joking aspect.

I didn't even know it was possible for the tension in the room to increase but it did after Charlie's comment. Nobody spoke for a moment and it seemed like the awkwardness was eating us up.

"I heard you're going into grade nine this year," Caroline broke the silence, and I let out a tiny breath of relief, "Nicole is as well. You'll be going to the same high school."

Charlie gave Nicole a curt nod, "That'll be fun." I couldn't tell if Charlie was being genuine or if she was being sarcastic. I guess Nicole couldn't either because she just nodded back.

"Yeah."

"What about foods, do you have a favourite food? Do you have any allergies?" Caroline asked Charlie, trying to keep a conversation going.

"No," Charlie replied. She got to the point, I'll give her that.

Caroline and Micheal exchanged uneasy looks and the look on Nicole's face showed that she would rather be anywhere than here right now. I looked over at Charlie but her emotionless face made it hard to tell how she was feeling.

"What about hobbies? Do you have any hobbies?" Micheal asked.

Charlie didn't even say anything this time. She just shook her head.

Nobody said anything for the next few minutes and I wondered if I should say something. I probably should but when I opened my mouth to speak, Caroline beat me to it.

"We're going to the cafeteria, do you want us to get you anything, Charlie?" Caroline asked.

Charlie shook her head, "No thank you."

Caroline nodded and the trio left the room. I was worried they wouldn't want to take Charlie in so I told Charlie to give me a second before hurrying after them out of the room.

"Wait," I called, jogging to catch up to them. Caroline, Micheal and Nicole all stopped and turned around.

"Is something wrong?" Caroline asked me.

I shook my head, "No, I...I just wanted to let you know that Charlie isn't usually like this."

"What do you mean?" Micheal inquired.

"She's one of the bravest, and toughest, and funniest people I know. She isn't cold like this. I've had plenty of conversations with her," I clarified.

Caroline's face softened slightly, "We know. I can't imagine what she's going through right now."

Micheal nodded, "I'm sure she'll warm up to us soon."

"It'll take some time but she will," I said, "I just didn't want you to back out of taking her in because of this."

Caroline laughed, "No, we're not that easily scared off."

I nodded and thanked them before heading back to Charlie's room where she sat in the hospital bed, looking as if she was on the verge of tears. Tina was consoling Charlie but Charlie didn't seem to be listening.

"They're not taking me, are they?" Charlie asked as I walked into the room.

I shook my head, "No, they are. I just asked."

"Even after that?"

I nodded, "They understand, don't worry. See, everything's okay."

Charlie let out a sigh of relief but the look on her face didn't change.

"Easy for you to say," She mumbled quietly underneath her breath.