The CPS worker did what he said he would and asked Darwin a lot of questions. He tried not to overtly lie too much. He just hid the truth. Unfortunately, that meant that he wasn't able to answer most of his questions. "Where was he from?" Don't know. "How did he get here?" He walked. "Any known living relations?" No. "Did anyone hurt him?" Also no. "Will anyone come looking for him?" Not likely. Darwin was certain the man would see right through him, he wasn't exactly giving him anything to work with, but the man seemed kind and encouraging all throughout. If he thought something was wrong he did a good job of hiding it.
"Don't worry Darwin." The man said after going through his list of questions. "I'll work on finding any relatives you might have out there. Anyone who could be worried about you and wondering where you are. That's part of my job." Darwin almost laughed. Yeah, good luck with that dude, he thought. Unless he was planning on going scuba diving, he wouldn't be finding any relatives of his anytime soon.
"Trust me. No one out there is worrying about me right now." Darwin said, somewhat melancholically. The Wattersons clearly wanted nothing to do with him, and even if the guy did put on a wetsuit and by some miracle find his relatives, they sure wouldn't know how to take care of him. Darwin wished that he never tried to make the journey home, he could've just stayed in the ocean, had a nice life, but the alterations he gained on the journey made that impossible. He ruined himself, and now he was on his own.
"Well, you never know." The worker told him, trying to be optimistic. "In the meantime we'll make sure that you get taken care of, ok?" Darwin looked at him confused.
"How?"
"Well, Child Protective Services places people into foster families if they can't be with their biological families for whatever reason. Your foster parents will take care of you until we find a more permanent solution, ok?" Darwin took in this information. He wished he could say no thank you, I don't need any more families, I've lost too many already. But he knew that realistically he couldn't survive on his own. He knew next to nothing about the surface world. Like, apparently you needed something called money to eat? With no idea what that was or how to get it he would probably starve fast. As much as he didn't want it, he knew that he needed the help to get by. Besides, he got the impression that this wasn't something he could say no to. The guy didn't ask him if that's what he wanted, he just said that's what he would do. Maybe if he didn't get too attached, he would be ok? Darwin slowly nodded, telling the social worker it was ok. He noticed that Darwin was apprehensive about the idea, but that wasn't unusual. Most kids aren't exactly thrilled to be separated from their family and put into a new one. He was handling this better than most kids his age actually.
After some asking around, they found a placement for Darwin. It was a couple towns away, but Darwin didn't care where he ended up, as long as it wasn't Elmore. The foster home was fine. It wasn't horribly abusive like some others he heard about later, but it didn't feel like home. He was always distant with his foster family, he didn't want to get attached only to get hurt again, and his foster parents didn't push him about it. Most have gone through a good deal of kids themselves so they didn't want to get too attached either. The problem with this is that, as he didn't form a deep bond with any of his foster parents, he was moved around quite a lot. Most were looking to adopt, and this kid didn't seem to like them much, didn't seem like he wanted to be there. So, by the time he was 12, he had been in and out of 5 foster homes, about to move on to number 6. This whole moving thing had become routine to him, so he barely paid attention. He was on his way to his new foster home, looking out the car window, when he was struck with a sense of deja vu. All these landmarks seemed familiar somehow, and he could've sworn that he had seen that building before. It wasn't until he passed the town sign that it clicked, he hadn't been in the town long, but he could never forget it. Never managed to scrub it out of his brain, even after all these years. And now he was back. After 8 years, he was back in Elmore.