The other children were up early the next morning and were begging Jonas to let them out of the basement. Jonas sighed scooping the still sleeping Fiona into his arms, followed the kids. Their house was still there but many were destroyed.
"Jonas. Our house isn't down." George said with enormous disappointment, he and his sisters would at Jonas and Gabriel's house for a little while longer before their father came to get them. Jonas looked down at his Fiona, his dear sleeping Fiona, and sighed, she would probably be fine to be the Gary kids' guardian, and the three kids needed it for sure.
"Jonas we have pancakes?" Georgie asked. Jonas nodded, and Fiona stirred slightly in his arms, sighed and fell into a deeper sleep. It was a sad day, and as the kids ran back to the house, Jonas leaned over Fiona and kissed her. Fiona opened her eyes to see Jonas' looking warmly back at her; she smiled and wrapped her arms around him. Jonas set her back on her feet and the two of them walked back to the house hand in hand.
The four kids had already gotten the main ingredients for the meal down and where waiting for Jonas and Fiona when they came in.
"Who's ready to make pancakes!" Jonas said, and all four of the kids shouted, "I am! I am!"
Fiona smiled and set to work with Jonas. Together the six of them made about 24 pancakes and probably ate half of the batter. Fiona had never in her life had as much fun as she did with those four kids than with all 49 or 48 other kids in her year.
"I have never been this full in my life!" she exclaimed afterwards as all of them where lounging in front of the fire.
"Hey Jonas there is a letter from the Hunaks!" Gabriel said as he brought in the mail. Gabriel handed it to him and Jonas quickly read it.
"What does it say?" Gabriella asked.
"There is a party at their house in two days." Jonas said.
"Yeah our first Christmas party of the season!" the four young children exclaimed with glee.
"Jonas, can we go, please?" Gabe asked.
"Yes we'll go. Now you all better get to bed, there's going to be a lot of baking to do tomorrow." Jonas said, gently pushing Georgie to the door. The four kids scampered from the room and climbed the stairs to their bedrooms, babbling away. Jonas and Fiona watched them head up, smiling.
"Fiona?" Jonas said when the two of them were alone together.
"Yes." Fiona answered looking at him concernedly.
"What would you say about becoming Gabriella and her brother and sister's mother?" Jonas asked. Fiona looked at him confusedly.
"I am not their mother Jonas." Fiona said.
"No, I mean... being their mother like the family unit mothers, they don't have any relation to you except that they've taken care of you for your enter life." Jonas said sheepishly.
"Yes that is by fine with me. Do they have any say?" Fiona asked.
"Well Gabriella already told me that she wished that her mother was still alive. She knows that will probably never happen said that she rather be in one of the worst orphanages' than her house." Jonas said.
"Oh Jonas, that is terrible." Fiona said shocked.
"Yeah, well you saw what Georgie's arm looked like, that's their father's work." Jonas said.
"What do we need to do so that Gabriella and her siblings live with us?" Fiona asked.
"We have to fill out some forms and get it so their father is either deprived of his right to parent them or he hands over his parenting to us. Knowing him it's probably the first one." Jonas said, Fiona nodded now that she knew what Gabriella was so scared of, she knew how important to get her and her siblings out of where they were living. Fiona began working through what would happen if this were going on in the community.
"We need evidence most of all. And something else but I can figure out what." Fiona said.
"I've got some evidence." Jonas said, Fiona looked at him quizzically, "I always take a quick snap shot of Georgie, George, and Gabby's wounds every time. We should probably ask the teachers about how they act in classes."
Fiona nodded, "We do not have the video or sound records like the communities do but we could get the children to say what their father has done to them."
"Yeah if their allowed to." Jonas agreed. Both stopped talking suddenly when they heard footsteps coming their way.
"Jonas?" Gabriel's voice drifted from the doorway at the top of the stairs.
"Yes Gabe." Jonas said. Gabe climbed down the stairs, and came to stand right in front of them.
"Yes Gabriel?" Jonas asked.
"I um... I have some um some video cameras." Gabriel said timidly.
"You were listening weren't you?" Jonas said annoyed, Gabe nodded guiltily.
"How big are the cameras Gabe?" Fiona prompted.
"They're smallest in the world." Gabriel said. Fiona glanced at Jonas he nodded.
"Gabe can they record, sound and visual?" Jonas asked.
"Yeah," Gabe said.
"We should probably check them first." Fiona said. Jonas nodded, "Let put one in our kitchen."
"Yeah we'll be talking and baking in there tomorrow. And that's where you treat most of their injuries." Gabriel added. The three of them where still talking when the clock chimed 2 o'clock am. Jonas sighed and they headed up to bed.