Long time no see

Ugh this was such a hard chapter to write, motivation seriously evaded me

Enjoy!

-Love Squiggle

Drew finally finished his shift at 2 pm that day, a massive 20-hour shift. He had worked 24 hours, even 48-hour shifts but normally he would be on call and could sleep in the downtimes but today there hadn't been downtime and he was bone tired.

He headed to Bri's room, decided to sleep on the roll-away cot as there was too much that he needed to do at the hospital instead of going home. When he entered, the nurse caught him by the door and handed him Bri's meds before heading to the next patient's room.

"Alright Bri," Drew said tiredly, sitting on the bed next to her and placing the cup of tablets in her hand. "I need you to take these, then I'm going to check your mouth to make sure you have swallowed them."

"Dad!" Bri protested indignantly.

"Don't fight me on this ok?" Drew warned, he was exhausted and not in the mood to duke it out with the teen. "I know you were only doing what you thought was right but you brought this on yourself, so I need you to take these then I'll write it down that you are medication compliant and everything will be fine."

"Fine," the blonde took the medication and put the cup back in the other man's hand. When instructed, she opened her mouth and Drew checked and saw that all the pills had been taken. He told her as such, said he was going to update it on her file and would be back.

When he returned, the blonde was facing away from him and looking at the wall, sad hiccupping sounds could be heard in the silent room.

"Bri are you crying?" Drew asked with concern.

"No," she told tearfully.

"Move over," Drew instructed, he toed off his shoes and climbed under the blanket with Bri, slung an arm around her and pulled her close.

"Are you angry with me?"

"I'm angry you felt that you needed to do it," Drew said, choosing his words carefully. "I understand that you felt that you were doing a good thing by getting yourself to stay at the hospital but Bri, Rick, and I care so much about you, we don't want to see anything happen to you."

"I'm sorry!"

"It's ok," Drew assured, pressing a kiss to her forehead, "just don't do it again, ok?"

"Ok."

"Good, now get some sleep, your body needs to recover from all of the medication you had this morning and I need to sleep until at least tomorrow from that hell of a shift," Drew said through a yawn. Bri rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes, while Drew turned off the lights and followed suit, both falling asleep within minutes.

Rick smiled to himself when he walked in on the scene three hours later, Bri and Drew curled up together fast asleep. He hated to do it but he had good news he needed to share with his husband. Quietly walking into the room, he placed a hand on the man's shoulder gently shaking him as he whispered his name. Drew breathed deeply as he stirred at the intrusion, his eyes blinking slowly as he got his bearings. Rick smiled down at him, nodding with his head in the direction of the corridor as he showed him a manila folder he had in his hand. The doctor extricated himself from the teen, stuffing his feet in his shoes and followed his husband out of the dim room and into the hallway.

"What did you find?" Drew asked with a yawn, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"A lot actually," Rick explained, taking a sheet from the folder and placing it on top, "Justin has lied this whole time."

"Could have told you that for free," Drew muttered, looking at where his husband was pointing to on the page. "What's this?"

"This is Bri's birth certificate," Rick explained, "as you can see Justin is listed as the father. When a person is listed as a parent on a birth certificate they are notified."

"So, Justin would have known about Bri when she was a baby?" Drew asked curiously.

"Most likely, found out he has a bunch of other kids to different women all over the state of Texas. The interesting thing I came across too, ever heard of the Texas Family Code?"

"No."

"Justin has," Rick smirked, taking out another sheet of paper, looking over his shoulder as he did so. "This is strictly confidential. So, Texas Family Code Chapter 161 is a petition where a parent can terminate their rights to their child, look close and tell me whose signature that is at the bottom."

Drew looked at it and sure enough, there was Justin's signature, handing over all his parental rights for his daughter Brianna Holt. It was the slam dunk they needed but it didn't leave Drew any less confused.

"That's great but why is he back? Why does he want her back now?"

"I don't know," Rick shrugged putting his paperwork back and tucked it under his arm, "but he'll be here later tonight. We need to talk to him then."

The talk went as smoothly as both of them envisioned it would. Justin's abrasive personality didn't mesh well with both Rick's and Drew's protectiveness over their daughter, their need to keep her safe increased tenfold when Justin's true intensions appeared. All Justin wanted was money, that was it. Bri was just a ploy in his terrible plan.

Reflecting on how the conversation played out, it made Drew laugh, this redneck's goal didn't come to fruition so he decided to threaten a cop? Really? It just proved to him how ill-conceived his terrible plan was. Now it was over and they were on there way to their daughter. Riding in the elevator, the couple couldn't contain the smiles overtaking their faces. Rick lightly tugged the other man's hand and pulled him towards Bri's room, a feeling of uncontainable excitement overwhelming them.

They arrived to find the blonde sitting up in her bed, looking at the door worriedly.

"What happened? Is everything ok? Did you get rid of him?" Bri asked hurriedly.

Rick gave Bri a condensed version of events, explaining the evidence he found against Justin, how he had given up his paternal rights when she was an infant, he left out the part of how Bri was just a ploy for money, telling her that Justin had heard she was going to be adopted by a same-sex couple and he didn't agree and wanted to put a stop to it.

"So, what happens now?" Bri asked, digesting the new information.

"Well," Drew smiled, taking the blonde's hand in his, "with no one contesting the adoption and no other interruptions to the process, I think we can finally get this show on the road. What do you say?"

"Yes!" Bri cheered, leaping forward and hugging both the men tightly, "can we do it quickly?"

"Absolutely," Rick chuckled, "we just have to get all the paperwork signed, Nina will take care of it from there and once you are cleared from the hospital you get to come home with us."

"Wow, it's really going to happen?"

"Really, really."

"Over the years," Bri started, "I've seen so many kids come through foster homes, the group homes and then they go off to their forever homes and not for one second did I ever think that that would be me, you know? Some people had been interested but when they find out about my 'complex medical needs' suddenly they're not interested. I guess what I'm trying to say is, you'll never know how grateful I am for meeting you, for you both for choosing me, so thank you, for everything."

"Nothing to thank us for," Drew explained earnestly, clearing his suddenly dry throat.

"We'll always choose you," Rick told emphatically. He ran a hand through his hair, a little overwhelmed with emotion, "besides I was getting tired of living with just Drew all the time."

"Well, it's a good thing for you then," Drew said with a roll of his eyes, "end of the week and this prisoner is free from her cell. What do you think kiddo?"

"I can't wait!"

Welp, I tried

I don't know, there will be one more chapter. I originally thought about doing an epilogue of Bri's adoption party but I dont know

Let me know if that is something you want to see