"Grace can you help me with my hair, I'm failing miserably." Bailey said, shuffling out of the bathroom in her shorts and t-shirt, her hair half held up with her right hand while she held a comb in her left.

Grace looked up from her computer and laughed a bit, motioning for Bailey to come closer.

"I thought I could do it on my own but I think I just tied it into a knot instead." Bailey said.

Grace stood and inspected the teen's attempt at the hairdo. She hadn't done too horribly but she had created a sufficiently impressive mess.

"I wouldn't go as far as to say a knot but you've created quite the mess," Grace laughed. "Come back into my bathroom and I'll help you out. Do you have a picture of what you were trying to do?"

"Yeah." Bailey said pulling up the photo and showing it to Grace.

Grace smiled inspecting the photo.

"I think I can manage that." She said.

Together Grace and Bailey sat in the bathroom, Grace twisting and looping Bailey's hair into the half up half down bow. Bailey's hands were twisting in her lap, nerves starting to build about the night to come.

"Any particular reason your wringing your hands like towels, hun?" Grace asked.

Bailey bit the inside of her cheek.

"I'm nervous about tonight." She admitted.

"Why? The hard part's over isn't it. You made it into the exhibit." Grace said, pulling the last few strands of Bailey's hair into place.

Bailey shrugged.

"I didn't tell dad and papá but each of the participants have to talk about why they painted what they did," Bailey said. "I'm not all that great at talking in front of people."

Grace nodded and moved in front of Bailey, kneeling down so that she could meet the teen's eyes.

"Have you written what you want to say?" She asked.

"Yeah," Bailey said looking down at her lap. "But it's not very good."

"You're gonna be fine. You're not only talented with a brush Bailey," Grace said, catching Bailey's chin with her finger and bringing it up so that she was looking Grace in the eye. "You have a way with words too. When the time comes, you'll know what to say."

Bailey nodded.

"Has anybody ever asked you to define something that you've spent your whole life thinking you'd lost?" She asked.

"I can't say that they have." Grace said.

Bailey nodded.

"Yeah," She breathed. "That's kind of where I am."

Grace looked at Bailey for a moment but the look in Bailey's eye told Grace not to push the matter.

"How about we finish getting you ready. Your dads will be here soon to pick you up." Grace said.

It took Bailey a while to finish getting ready, putting on her makeup and taking her dress out of the garment bag. Marjan and Grace had been thrilled when Bailey asked them if they'd help her find something for the event. They'd spent days hopping from store to store, TK and Carlos started expecting the women on their doorstep every Saturday and Sunday morning for a number of weeks before they came home with a dress in hand. She had only just fastened her bracelet around her wrist when there was a knock on her door.

"Come in." Bailey said.

The door was pushed open and Judd poked his head in.

"You have visitors at the door darlin'." He said, opening the door a bit wider.

Bailey stood up, her coat and bag in hand.

"You look lovely." Judd smiled.

"Thanks Uncle J." Bailey smiled.

She followed Judd out of the guest room and into the living room where she saw her dads talking to Grace.

"Ah, there she is." Grace smiled.

TK and Carlos turned and saw Bailey standing in her dress.

"Oh Bailey." TK said.

"You look gorgeous mija." Carlos said.

Bailey smiled and walked over to her fathers, they hugged her lightly before pulling back. Carlos looked over at TK and nodded.

"We have something for you," TK said. "It's a bit overdue if you ask me but we wanted to make sure that the timing was right and now seems a good as any."

"Babe," Carlos said, putting a gentle hand on his boyfriend's shoulder. "You're babbling.

Carlos pulled a box out of his pocket and opened it towards him before pulling out a thin chain. Bailey was confused until she saw the pendent that was hanging from the necklace. A small sterling silver EMS symbol hung from the chain. As it turned she saw a delicate etching of 126 on the back.

"It's beautiful." She breathed.

"This way," Carlos said, motioning for Bailey to turn around. "You will always have us with you."

Carlos gently clasped the necklace around Bailey's neck before pulling her hair through so that it fell naturally at her back again. Bailey turned around, tears in her eyes.

"Oh sweetheart, no tears," TK laughed, swiping his thumb under Bailey's eye to catch the tear before it could fall. "Happy things."

Bailey laughed.

"I know, I don't know why I'm crying." She said.

"Because you're happy." Carlos offered.

"Incredibly." Bailey said, wrapping her arms around her dads.

"We love you so much Bailey." Carlos said, kissing the top of her head.

"I love you too." Bailey said.

Bailey pulled back, swiping her hands under her eyes lightly again to make sure that her cheeks were dry.

"We should head to the museum; we don't want to be late." Carlos said.

"The family awaits." TK announced, ushering people to the door.

"Hey Bailey," Grace called. Bailey turned and looked at her Aunt. Grace approached her with a smile, adjusting the necklace that now hung on her neck. "I think you have your speech."

Bailey smiled.

"I think you're right." She said.

The 126 was gathered happily in the lobby, waiting for the exhibit to officially be unveiled when they heard a mic turn on, gathering the attention of the dozens of people in the room. They turned to see a man taking the stage and standing behind a podium.

"Welcome all to the 17th annual Austin Art Museum High School exhibit unveiling. As most of you may know this is an annual event in which we add five pieces of art from local high schoolers to our ever-growing exhibit. Tonight we have a few firsts for our event. Our first silhouette piece as well as our youngest artist. Tonight promises to be intriguing and promising. So, without further ado let us begin our evening. Please welcome the owner of the Austin Art Museum, Mr. Gabriel Peters." The man said, stepping away from the podium as Mr. Peters took his place.

"Good evening and welcome again. Thank you for joining us this evening as we celebrate the lovely pieces of art that these young adults have put so much time and effort into. I won't bore you with a long speech so instead I will simply say this. You don't find beauty in art in just the image, but also in the meaning and truth behind it. So as you admire tonight's pieces I encourage you to not only respect the pieces as a whole but also listen to their creators, you may just learn something," Mr. Peters says with a gentle smile, nodding to somebody on stage who carries up a canvas covered in a black sheet. "Our first piece of the night, 'Chosen Family," is a silhouette piece painted by our youngest nominee. She has asked that before we reveal her piece that it remains covered until she has spoken. Please join me in welcoming to the stage Miss Bailey Williams."

TK and Carlos both looked at their daughter in surprise, the rest of the 126 sharing similar expressions. The only one who didn't seem to be surprised was Grace who gave Bailey a reassuring smile as she took the stage. Bailey stood at the podium, her head held high and a smile on her face. She took a deep breath and waited for the room to quiet before speaking.

"Thank you Mr. Peters for that lovely introduction," Bailey began, taking a breath before starting her speech. "Family is defined in our dictionary as a group of one or more parents and their offspring living together as a unit. Or a group of people related to one another by blood or marriage. But my idea of family isn't so conventional or easily defined. I was put into the foster care system at the age of three after my parents were killed in a robbery homicide, I in turn was injured and now live with something called thermoregulatory dysfunction or the inability to control or maintain my body temperature. This may seem like a strange way to begin a speech that's supposed to be about a painting but bear with me. It is because of this condition of mine that I was introduced to the most amazing group of people. This new group of people now includes people that I call Uncle and Aunt, Grandpa, and Dad and Papá. For so long I thought that you only got one chance at family, and that my chance had been taken from me the night my parents were stolen from me," Bailey said, her voice catching in her throat. TK clutched at Carlos' hand and swallowed hard. He wouldn't cry, he wouldn't cry. "But I was wrong. Some families are created in different ways but are still in every way, a family. For my piece I decided to paint my family, not the family that I lost but the family I chose, the family that chose me," She said stepping back and carefully pulling the sheet off of the canvas, revealing the piece.

"Fire house 126. My name is Bailey Reyes-Strand and this is the family that we chose."

TK had failed, tears were practically pouring down his face but he wore them with pride. The piece was beautiful. The burning fire behind the silhouettes of every member of the team only emphasized the bold words written along the top. Carlos wrapped an arm around TK's waist and pulled him close.

"That's our girl up there." He said.

TK nodded.

"Our daughter." TK replied with a smile.

"She's right you know." Owen said, stepping up to the couple.

TK turned and looked at his father.

"About?" He asked.

Owen gestured up towards the painting.

"Fire House 126, it really is the family we chose." He said.

Everybody had filtered back to TK and Carlos' for a bit of a post-gala celebration limited to family. Bailey had been bouncing in her seat on the way home from the museum, they were going to tell everybody about the adoption plan tonight. She'd used the last name Reyes-Strand in her speech at the gala but the 126 hadn't thought much of it since she'd begun using the name more often anyway. They weren't aware of the new meaning that it held.

"You know the bouncing won't get us there any faster Bails." TK laughed, looking back at his daughter.

"I know, I'm just excited." She said.

"We know you are but you're making your father nervous." Carlos laughed.

"She is not." TK defended, though he had a bit more of an edge in his voice than he'd intended making Carlos and Bailey laugh.

When they finally pulled into their driveway some of the others had already arrived.

"Bailey, the temperature dropped quite a bit, do you have a coat in here?" TK asked.

"I'll be fine to the door." She said.

"Okay." TK said.

They quickly moved inside so that the cold air couldn't chill them too badly, though Bailey still moved to the kitchen quickly in search of a warm drink.

"I'm gonna go grab her sweater from upstairs," Carlos said. "Do you want to pull out some snacks for everybody?"

"Yeah." TK said

People began to trickle in steadily as the minutes passed and soon the whole family was there, just as they had been so many times before.

"So what do you think?" Carlos asked.

He and Bailey were in the kitchen brewing drinks.

"About what?" She asked.

"About all of this? The family." Carlos clarified.

"Oh," Bailey said, she looked around at the room full of people and smiled. "It feels right. I always wished for parents, just people who were willing to call me their daughter or at least family. And now I have that."

Carlos pulled her against his side, planting a soft kiss on top of her head.

"All of that more," He whispered. "Let's go find your dad and make this announcement, yeah?"

"Yeah." Bailey smiled.

Carlos flitted through the room in search of TK, he found him talking with his dad in the corner.

"Hey babe, you ready?" Carlos asked, lacing his fingers with TK's.

"Yeah," TK said. "Is she?"

Owen raised a brow.

"Ready for what?" He asked. "I thought we were done with surprises."

TK laughed.

"We've got one more dad." He said.

Together they met Bailey by the fireplace.

"Before we tell them I have something that I want to say. Something that I didn't say in my speech but want everybody to hear." Bailey said.

"Yeah, of course sweetheart." TK said.

"Ready?" Carlos asked.

Bailey nodded and turned to face the room.

"Everybody," Carlos said, pulling people's attention from their individual conversations. "Hey, thank you for coming tonight and thank you for supporting Bailey."

A round of 'of course's' and 'yeah's' swooped through before the room quieted.

"Now, we have one more little surprise for you tonight but before we get to it, Bailey wants to say a couple things." Carlos said.

Bailey took a breath.

"When my teacher asked us to paint our idea of family I was at a loss. My whole life the only idea of family that I had was the vague memory of my parents and the faded photo that I have in an old picture frame. I thought that if I moved on then I'd be disappointing them or somehow hurting. But when I met all of you I realized that by moving on I wasn't replacing one family with another, I was expanding it. And I thank God every day that it was the 126 that answered my call that day," Bailey said, looking around at her family, happy tears in her eyes. "Because you all have become my family."

"Oh sweetheart." Grace said, wrapping her arms around her niece tightly.

Carlos cleared his throat and swiped a finger under his eyes.

"With that said," He smiled pulling Bailey in front of he and TK, a hand on her shoulder. "We have a bit of an announcement to make."

Everybody fidgeted in their seats.

"The topic of family seems to have a heavy weight on tonight. And we'd like to add to it. Carlos and I have officially filed to adopt Bailey." TK said.

There wasn't a dry eye in the room as people stood in surprise and joy. Bailey was laughing and crying as she was hugged by everybody. This was her family; this was her home.