Autumn waited until she heard Brady come home, which was right at ten pm. Then she left her room and walked downstairs where she knew he'd be getting some leftover dinner.

"Brady?"

"Yeah, Autumn."

"You didn't call...me squirt."

"Yeah."

"Brady, you need...to talk to Dad."

"No, I really don't."

"You're smart. You should...go to school."

"I made my decision."

"You told me...learning stuff is important."

"It is. But so is helping people. I want to help Vera."

"Dad feels….bad because you are...supposed to work with him. Thornton...and Son."

"That's not changing. Just being put off. Besides, how do you know that?"

"I listen."

"You eavesdrop."

She shrugged. "Please talk to him. He's sad….like you. It makes me...sad."

"You don't need to be sad, squirt. It will work itself out."

"You're...stubborn."

"And you're my nosy little sister."

"I love you...Brady."

He put the casserole down, opened his arms and she walked right in. Like always. "I love you too."

Brady thought about what Autumn had said. He had made his decision to help out Vera without stopping to think how it would affect others. Dad was actually sad. Instead of mad.

Did it really matter to Jack that Brady work with him? According to Autumn it did.

He ate the casserole and grabbed a bottle of water. As he headed upstairs, Jack met him on the stairs.

"Dad."

"Brady."

"Can we talk in the morning?"

"How about now? I can't sleep. I have to get some things off my chest, Brade."

"It's been a long day…"

"Ten minutes."

"I guess." Brady followed Jack to the living room. Jack sat on the couch and Brady took the recliner.

Jack sat for a moment, staring at his hands. Knowing his Dad, Brady figured he was praying. So he let him take his time.

Jack looked up, tears in his eyes. "Brady, your mom says I overreacted. I know that I reacted strongly and I'm very sorry that I yelled. I shouldn't have done that."

Brady nodded. "Why does it bug you? Really?"

"I got it in my head that you actually wanted to be a part of my company. If you don't, tell me now."

"Of course I do. What I can't figure out is why do you want me? Carter is your son."

Jack closed his eyes a minute. The pain in his heart from that statement… "Are you kidding me right now?"

"What?"

"Do you not see me as your Dad? After all these years?"

"What?"

"Brady, you need to learn to think before you speak." Jack got up and paced. He needed to calm down before talking again or this was going to go badly. "Brady, when we adopted you, you became my son. I love you as much as Carter and Erik. Why don't you know that? I tell you."

"I do know that…I guess I shouldn't have said that."

"Brady, I don't know how we got in this spot. Where we aren't talking much, but we need to fix it. You are my son and I want you working with me. I want it to be your company one day."

"When I told you about Vera's, I wasn't telling you that I'm not working with you. I'm sorry if you thought that."

"I did. I felt like I'd lost my dream. Our dream. That's why I reacted. I guess it was selfish."

"No, Dad. It wasn't."

"Brade, I'm sorry."

"Me too." Brady initiated the hug and held on to his Dad for a bit before letting go. "Can I tell you something that is on my mind now?"

"Yeah. Let's sit."

Dani and Trace's house, the next morning

Dani didn't know what to feel. The test was negative. She tossed it in the trash. Apparently, she was just late. And extra tired.

They'd been married six months and hadn't really been trying to prevent a baby. They wanted a larger family so when it happened, it was good with them. So she was a bit surprised it was negative. Good news was they were officially licensed for foster care so now they just needed to be matched. Fiona Miller was their case worker and Dani loved her.

On one side of things, Dani was a little okay with not being pregnant if they were going to be matched soon. On the other side, feeling a baby move inside her was a wonderful, beautiful feeling. It had been a long time. Bethanie was almost eight, after all.

Trace walked in the room to brush his teeth, already dressed for work. "Hey."

"Hey. It was negative."

"Oh. Are you okay?" He tucked her hair behind her ears.

"Yeah. I guess I am. I mean, if we get matched and I'm not feeling well, it might be harder."

"Yeah."

"But, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed."

"It will happen, babe." He kissed her soft, full lips and smiled.

"I'm sure it will," she mentioned, blushing.

Thankfully, Trace with his job, could work from home some days. He oversaw construction projects in Portland and helped out with Thornton Construction too. Right now was the busy season and he was designing an office building. This morning he had a meeting in Portland but the rest of the week, he was using software on his laptop to submit documents and designs.

"I need to get going, Dani. You sure you're okay?"

She nodded and stretched up to give him a kiss. "I'm fine. I'm going to take a shower quick and then wake up Bethanie."

Sunday morning, the whole family went to church and then had lunch together along with Julie, Mike and their two girls and Tim and Grace.

After that, Elizabeth took Autumn to Haven House. Little did they know that what happened that afternoon at Haven House would again change their lives.

At five pm, Jack picked her up. "Dad, there was….this boy. He's like me!"

"At Haven?" Jack was confused because Haven House was a girl's home.

"Yes. Dad, he's…so cute. Can you adopt him?"

"Wait, pumpkin. Why was there a boy at Haven?"

"There was no….room at the boy's house."

"Oh."

"Can you?"

"Can I, what?"

"Adopt Gabriel."

"Honey, we can't just adopt everyone. We have a lot of kids in our family already."

"But….he's just like me, Dad."

"He has Down's?"

"Yes. He has the cutest….smile."

"Like you."

"Cuter. Maybe I can…adopt him."

"Sweetheart, you are seventeen and not married."

"I can…take care of him. I take care…of Erik."

"You do. You are right. But, pumpkin, there is a huge difference between babysitting your brother and having a baby of your own. You have to have money to pay for all the things the baby needs. You have to get up multiple times a night to feed them and change their diapers. You have to take them to doctor's appointments and…"

"Okay," she said, interrupting and staring out the window. "I can't do it."

"Honey, I'm sorry. You will be a mother one day maybe, but not right now."

She hated being told she couldn't do something. But Mom said she needed to stop getting mad when that happened.

"Pumpkin."

"Yeah."

"You will be a great mom one day."

"I hope so."

"I don't doubt it. Your Mom has taught you so much."

"Mom is…the best mom."

But, as amazing as Elizabeth was, she told Autumn no about them adopting him right now too. Of course, if their circumstances allowed it, they would consider it but right now, they had four kids, five with Brady, living in the house. Jack worked a lot and Elizabeth was really enjoying the stage they were in.

Erik was the only one that needed her to take care of him. Carter kept himself busy for the most part, Mercy, being thirteen was moody periodically but read a lot and played with Carter and Autumn. And Autumn was essentially an adult.

Autumn took the phone upstairs to her room and called Dani. "Hey, little sister."

"Dani…can you adopt Gabriel?"

Dani contacted Fiona the next morning. She worked at the Portland office.

"Good morning, this is Fiona Miller."

"Fiona, this is Dani Worthington."

"Good morning, Mrs. Worthington."

"You can call me Dani. I'm sorry to bother you but may I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"There is a little boy, Gabriel, who is staying at Haven House right now."

"Oh yes. He's an absolute doll."

"Yes. Well, my sister works there on Sundays and she told me about him. I was wondering if we could possibly meet him?"

"I can speak with Mrs. Sullivan and Mrs. Blakely and set something up."

"Great. Do you happen to know if he's up for adoption?"

"I will check for you." Dani heard the tapping on the keyboard and immediately said a prayer for patience. "Yes, he is up for adoption."

Dani smiled. "How old is he?"

"Eight months. In the meantime, I was going to call you today anyway."

"Oh yeah?"

"We have a five year old girl that needs placement just for the weekend. Her name is Penny."

"What's her story?"

After hearing Penny's heartbreaking story, Dani called Trace and told him about Gabriel and Penny.

"Adoption, babe? We haven't even met him yet."

"I'm going by what Autumn told me about him. Fiona is going to set up a meeting with him at Haven House."

"And Penny?"

"Are you ready to have her this weekend, Trace?"

"Yeah." His tone made her pause.

"Look, if you aren't ready for all this, I can tell Fiona no."

"It's not that, babe."

"What is it?"

"I don't know. I feel like this is fast."

"It's been six months. That's fast?"

"No, but we are newlyweds. We have Bethanie and now we are going to look into adoption of a little boy we haven't met, who has issues that we don't know about?"

"He has Down's. I'm familiar with Down's."

"Dani…"

"You know what? Nevermind. I don't know what I was thinking." She hung up the phone, immediately regretting it. Why was she getting so upset when he was just expressing how he was feeling?

Trace called her back and she hesitated and then answered. "Trace."

"Dani, I wasn't saying no. I was just telling you how I felt."

"I know. I'm sorry, honey. Let's talk when we both get home this afternoon, alright?"

"Yeah. I love you and I love our life and I love Bethanie."

"I know. Let's just talk later."

"Okay."

"And I promise to listen, without interrupting or judgement."

"Okay. See you later."

"See you."

After Bethanie was in bed, Trace found Dani in the kitchen filling the dishwasher. "Do you want some wine?" he wondered.

"Sure. That would be nice."

He poured them each a glass and headed to the living room. She joined him a few moments later.

He took her hand. "Let's pray first."

"Dear Father, we come to you tonight to ask for your guidance. Please help us to make the right decision for our family. Help us to weigh all the options and then choose. Whatever we decide, they need someone, so please help the social workers to find the right families for them. Also, please help me to remember to communicate with Dani better. To help her to understand what I feel. In your son's name we pray, Amen."

"Amen." She wrapped her arms around him and held him close for a moment, loving him so much. "I'm so sorry that I hung up on you. Please forgive me."

He kissed her softly and took her hands in his. "Of course I do."

"I think I know where you are coming from now. When you said that this is fast. But, please tell me."

"What I meant was it felt fast. Not that we shouldn't do it. I mean, we just got married. I know that once we have another kid, our free time together is going to be diminished. I guess I could feel our routine slipping away."

"Our routine, huh?" she giggled.

He laughed. "Yeah. It's important to me."

"I bet." She laughed again. "It's important to me too. But it just means that we will have to be more creative. If all else fails, everyone will have to take a nap so we can too."

"I think I miss you already," he told her.

"I'm here, babe."

"And with Penny…I'm good with having her over the weekend."

"I will let Fiona know. What about Gabriel?"

"I guess there's no harm in meeting him."

The only thing he knew was that after the fear of almost losing Bethanie months before, he was second guessing his ability to deal with getting attached to a child and then losing them. Dani seemed optimistic and they would need to rely on each other more than ever.