Also known as a completely indulgent coda to episode 4x10. Also a flash forward into the future a bit. Henren with a Hen-centric vibe with a splash of Madney.

Take all of that how you will and enjoy!

Chapter Summary: As she gathered her bearings, she looked down to see a face she didn't think she'd ever see again, "Nia," she gasped in complete shock.

"I hope I'm not forgetting anything," Maddie checked Jee-Yun's nursery for the fifth time. "Oh! Did I give you her favorite blanket?" She was starting to panic as she searched for the blanket she wasn't seeing.

Hen smirked and tapped the baby bag on her shoulder, "you put it in here, remember?"

"Oh right," Maddie said as she chuckled nervously.

"I have everything I need," Hen assured as she walked towards the door of the nursery, Maddie following right behind.

"I'm sorry. I promised myself I wouldn't do this. I don't why I'm doing it. It's not like you and Karen are strangers or people that haven't taken care of children before it's just," she trailed off. As they reached the living room Maddie went straight to Jee-Yun's playpen and picked her up.

"It's the first time you guys are spending an entire weekend away from her. I know and I get it. The first time I did it with Denny was rough," As Maddie walked closer to her, Jee-Yun started to reach out her hands and she took her into her arms.

"Yeah, it just the ever-present parent worry."

"Which we're still working on getting a handle on. Her more so than me, at this point." Chimney said from the kitchen.

"Let's pretend for two seconds that you won't be the one texting me every hour asking how she is," Hen countered with an eye roll.

"Or what she's doing." Maddie knowing better than she did how he was.

"Oh that's not worry, that's just me making sure I don't miss out on her doing anything cute or passing any milestones when I'm not around," Chimney defended weakly. Chimney was just as nervous as Maddie was about taking sometime for themselves and leaving Jee-Yun for the weekend, no matter how much he tried to play it off.

"Uh huh, sure."

"We know we have nothing to worry about, she's in very good hands."

"She sure is, we're going to have fun this weekend, aren't we JeeJee?"

"Yeah!" the 14 month old exclaimed, one of the few words she loved to say.

Hen held her hand up for a high five, which she returned enthusiastically. "Let's go so mommy and daddy can finish packing and get their weekend started," turning back towards Chimney and Maddie, she said, "and think of it this way it'll be good practice for the honeymoon in a few months."

"You're right, you're right," Chimney smiled as he walked towards them. He bent down to be eye level with Jee, "okay yeon-in, be a good girl for Auntie Hen this weekend," kissing her on the cheek. "Thanks again," he said as he opened the door for them.

"Happy to do it," Hen said as she patted Chimney on the shoulder and walked out the door, "have fun you, don't bring back another one."

Chimney sent her a look. She laughed as she heard Chimney ask, "we don't have to worry about that, right?" as he closed the door.

She and Jee-Yun were out of the building and on their way. As she drove, she glanced in the rearview mirror to see Jee playing and babbling with a toy. It would be to have a baby in the home again. Her and Karen's last foster care placement was a few months ago. Even then their recent placements have been older children. Then hadn't had a toddler in the home since Nia. Nia. There hadn't been a day that went by that she hadn't thought of her since the day she was reunited with her mother. She was doing well, Hen was sure, smiling at the thought.

It was noticed that they'd come up on the park nearest her home and she decided to stop since it was still early in the day. An added bonus of there being very few kids as it was midday on a Friday during the school year. Grabbing Jee-Yun, they played for a little over an hour before she started getting a bit restless and fussy.

Hen found a good bench that wasn't directly in the sun, giving her a snack while enjoying the gorgeous deep blue, cloudless sky and gentle breeze. As she was cleaning Jee-Yun and any mess they were making, she heard the loud, yet squeaky, "Mama Hen!" Before she had time to register what was going on, a small bundle run into her legs.

As she gathered her bearings, she looked down to see a face she didn't think she'd ever see again, "Nia," she gasped in complete shock.

"I missed you," she said plainly, as she looked up at her with a toothy smile.

Before Hen could respond, she could hear, "Nia, baby, I told you not to run off like that!" Hen looked up to see a woman she instantly remembered as Nia's mom jogging up to them. She had to catch herself from saying her name out loud, remembering she's not supposed to know it.

Nia stood up straighter, keeping a hand on her lap, "look mama, it's Mama Hen," she said towards her mother. Hen was still in a state of disbelief.

Evangeline gave a small smile, "so you're the famous 'Mama Hen' I've heard so much about?"

"Uh," she pushed past the brain fog and held out a hand to her, "hi, I'm Henrietta." She settled on the safest option with her words. She had no idea what to say, how much she could say.

"Evangeline," she introduced. Hen moved moved the bags out of the way and offered her a seat, "I don't wanna interrupt," looking towards Jee-Yun in her stroller.

"It's okay. You're not interrupting anything. We were just chilling out here for a bit, please," Evangeline took the offered seat next to her.

"Nia talks about you all the time. It's nice to finally put a face to the name. Are Karen and Denny here too?" Hen's face must have portrayed her emotions because she followed with, "she talks about all of you. Don't you, Nia?"

"Yep! Who's this?" Nia asked of Jee-Yun.

"This is my friend's baby, Jee-Yun. Can you say hi, Jee-Yun?" She asked the baby in the stroller.

"Hi Jee Un" Jee-Yun didn't respond, but smiled at the new face she was seeing.

"She adorable," Evangeline commented.

"And she knows it," Hen chuckled.

A small silence fell between the two women as the listened to the conversation the two girls were having, Nia contented to tell Jee-Yun everything she could think of. That's when Hen took the time to really take Nia in. A couple of inches taller and a thicker mass of curls that were a little of shades darker. Her face was fuller. She was the same bubbly little firecracker she was when they met. She'd developed even more personality, if that were even possible.

"I just wanna thank you," Evangeline broke the silence, "I know legal reasons prevents them from telling who fosters your kid, but it was so good to hear about you guys through her. And when she first started talking about everything I thought she was going to tell me something bad, but all of it was good and she thinks so highly of you. Just, thank you." Hen could see the emotion in Evangeline's eyes as she spoke.

"It was no problem at all. We loved having her with us."

"You know it's hard to get people related to you to care about your kid, let alone total strangers. Plus you hear so many bad things about the foster care system. It was such a scary time when I realized that I had to give Nia up." Hen didn't respond, sensing there was more, and giving her space to continue.

"I turned her over voluntarily. The day I was being evicted from my apartment. The day I had realize that part of parenting where simply loving your kid wasn't enough. She needed stability that neither me nor her dad were able to provide at the time. Still, easily, the scariest day of my life. After they picked her up, there wasn't a minute that went by that I didn't think of how she was, hoped that she was being loved, cared for.

In the meantime, I knew I was working hard to get her back. I had almost gotten to the point where I might be able to, few months in, when the pandemic hit. Then my fear went from possible abuse to someone telling me she had COVID. Then I was laid off of 4 jobs straight," she sighed deeply, "and thoughts of giving up my parental rights altogether started. Thankfully, life decided to take pity on me and give me a chance to prove that I was a good mom."

"Just seeing how happy Nia is, you're doing a very good job. Everything worked out as it should have," Hen told her sincerely. Seeing Evangeline's love for Nia warmed her heart. Though her emotions weren't allowing her to let Nia go at first, through continued talks with Karen and Denny, they came to terms with it together. Nia was happy and thriving. It felt nice to have it confirmed.

"'m glad that she was placed with such great people." Hen thought for a second before pulling a notepad out her bag, writing her number, and handing it to Evangeline. "What's this?"

"My phone number. If you and Nia ever need anything, feel free to call, anytime."

"Oh, I don't wanna- I can't-"

"I insist," Hen looked at Nia, "we love Nia, we'd be willing to help, if we can and if you want us to."

Evangeline stared at the piece of paper for a second before folding it up and sticking it in her pocket. When she looked back at Hen, she saw the tears. Then she was pulled into a slightly awkward due to how they were sitting on the bench hug. "Thank you. I feel like that's all I keep saying to you."

"It's okay and you're welcome, Evangeline."

"I wanna join in the hug, too!" Nia wrapped her little arms around her.

When Evangeline pulled back, she took out her phone out of her pocket and checked the time. "Oh, Nia and I should get going. It's her father's weekend and he'll be at my house soon," she rose from the bench, "ready to get going, Nia?"

"Okay." Nia let Hen go and grabbed her mother's hand.

"Hey, uh, and let me knowing if I'm over stepping any boundaries here, but would maybe wanna do this again sometime with Nia. Maybe with the rest of your family can come to. We can make a whole thing out of it. I know Nia would love to see you guys again."

"Yeah, I would have to talk to them about it, but I don't see why not."

"Great! I'll call you and we'll set it up. If a weird New Hampshire number calls you within the next few days that'll probably be me. It was great meeting you, again."

"See you later!" Nia waved as she walked away with her mom.

"You too." She watched as they walked away, still in a level of disbelief at everything that just took place.

She looked towards Jee-Yun in her stroller, "did you enjoy making a new friend today?" She got a smile and a couple of babbles in response.

Hen felt her phone vibrate and pulled it out to see it was a text from Karen, "stop hogging JeeJee and let the rest of us, mainly me, love on her!" Hen laughed as she put her phone back up.

"Alright, Jee, let's get you to your Aunt Karen before she starts blowing up my phone," she made sure she had everything, threw away all their trash, and started back towards the car, "I wonder how she's going to take it when I tell her this one."

As soon as they came in the door, the first thing Hen saw was Karen sitting on the couch. Without words, Karen got up, kissed Hen, and took Jee-Yun out of her arms. "I know Auntie Hen was just trying to hog all of your attention."

"JeeJee tell your aunt that we went to the park," Jee-Yun babbled to Karen, "see."

"Uh huh, I guess I can let it slide."

She sat the baby bags down on the couch. While her back was turned she said, "You'll never guess who I ran into at the park."

"Who?"

"Nia and Evangeline."

Hen turned around at Karen's extended silence. "Wow. I don't- I don't know what to say. How are they?"

"They're good. Nia's thriving, happy, as talkative and cute as ever. I wish you could have seen her, how much she's grown. She still looks the same, but also so different. She even connected with Jee. Evangeline is doing good. She was very thankful to us for taking care of Nia." Hen gushed. It was starting to hit her, how much she truly missed Nia.

"I'm so happy to hear that!" the smile on her face fell into confusion, "wait, how did she know that we fostered her?"

"Apparently Nia talks about all of us all the time. She even called me 'Mama Hen' when she saw me."

Karen smiled, "I hope that was okay with her mom."

"She didn't seem upset about it at all. She actually said it was good to finally put a 'face to the name'. I actually gave her my number and gave her the offer to call if she needed anything."

"You knew I'd be fine with that and hopefully she was too," Karen said simply.

"She was. She cried. When we were talking, I got the feeling that she doesn't have many people she can rely on in her life and was happy that someone offered to just be there for her."

"You know, I was just reading an some research on the benefits of foster parenting maintaining relationship with the children and families post foster care. More so than anything it was about how families having support can cut down on children re-entering foster care. If Evangeline is fine with it and wants to build that bridge, there's no way I'm going to say no."

"Speaking of, she actually wants to meet you and Denny, set up time where we could all meet and see Nia again. She said she'd call me within the next few days."

"I'd love that! I know Denny would too." The opportunity to have her back in their lives was something they'd never expected, but weren't going to pass up.

A piece based on the "in a year she won't even remember me" moment (if you hadn't already guessed).

How did I do? Let know what you think!