Chapter 3

'Meeting Rachel'

The big moment was going to happen at any second. It was Monday morning, Lindsey had just signed all the papers that would place Rachel in his custody and was now sitting in the hallway outside of the Judges chambers(where Rachel was during the hearing) waiting for her to be brought out to him. Before he knew it he saw the door open and Delinda stepped out of the chambers, followed by a little girl with dark hair who was wearing pink overalls with a purple t-shirt underneath and pink sneakers, she was clutching white teddy bear to her chest and she looked frightened. But that isn't what Lindsey saw when he looked at her. 'Annabeth. She looks just like Annabeth.'

Annabeth was Lindsey's little sister who died when she was very young. She died of the flu in Lindsey's arms. Despite the poor conditions they lived in Annabeth was always happy, Lindsey never understood it but it was what he loved most about her. He was never the same after he lost her.

Lindsey stood up as Delinda came closer to him, Rachel was a good few feet behind her walking very slowly. "She's extremely shy and nervous." Delinda informed him. Lindsey nodded understandingly as Rachel finally reached where the two adults were.

'Aw, the poor girl looks so scared.'

"Rachel, this is your father, you'll be going with him now and he'll be taking care of you." Delinda said. Rachel didn't say anything, she just looked at her shoes.

"Hello Rachel." Lindsey said softly, still no response. "What's his name?" he then asked pointing to her bear and kneeling to her level. Again, no answer. Lindsey sighed.

'This is going well.'

"Can Sparkles come with me?" Rachel eventually asked in a very small voice.

"The bear?" Lindsey questioned. Before Rachel answered Delinda mouthed the words 'imaginary friend' to him, which unnerved the lawyer. "Sure...if you want...Sparkles to come." Rachel nodded. "So you want to get out of here now?" Rachel nodded again.

It was around noon when Lindsey and Rachel arrived at the apartment because they had to stop and buy Rachel some clothes since Lindsey decided over the weekend that, that was one task he wasn't going to do with out her. The outing went pretty well except for the fact that Rachel hardly spoke since she asked about Sparkles. Lindsey was starting to worry about her. "Hey, would you like to see your room?" Lindsey asked and then lead Rachel into the room located a few feet from his. Her eyes lit up at the sight of the result of Lindsey's toy store shopping spree. The rest of the room wasn't bad either. "Do you like it?" Once again, Rachel's response was a nod. "Good. I want you to like it here." there was something about the way Lindsey said that, something genuine about it, that made Rachel feel a little more comfortable as opposed to his overly-thought words he was saying all morning.

"Can I please have a drink?" Rachel suddenly asked.

'She spoke.'

"Of course you can." he answered heading into the kitchen and realized that one place he forgot to go to was the grocery store. The only liquids he had were tap water, expired orange-juice Pepsi, wine, beer and whisky. By process of elimination due to contamination and age appropriateness/legality Pepesi won. He took a can from the fridge, poured some into a cup and handed it to her.

"Momma says a lot of soda's are bad for you." Rachel said still using a very low voice.

'Yet but she has no problem abandoning you...because that's fine, nothing bad about that at all.'

"Well, sometimes its fine." Lindsey answered.

"Oh, Ok thank you."

Lindsey smiled at her as he went to go put away her clothes. It wasn't long before Rachel came back into the bedroom and sat on the bed. "I gotta peepee." she stated.

"There's a bathroom right behind that door, its just for you." Lindsey said pointing to the bathroom. Rachel hopped off the bed and entered the bathroom, that's when she yelled one of the most awful screams Lindsey had ever heard. Before he knew it Rachel had run out of the bathroom and attached herself to his leg as she sobbed. "What is it? What's wrong?" he asked nervously going over to the bed and sitting both of them down.

Rachel tried to explain in between sobs. "There are...." sob. "Duckies." sob. "Everywhere." Sob. "Don't like duckies." Sob "I want duckies to go bye bye......duckies are evil..." sob "...and scary."

'Figures.'

"Please don't let the duckies get me?" Rachel begged as she continued to cry.

'Nice going. 4 hours with me and already I've traumatized her.'

Lindsey wasn't sure of what he should do, but he know the logic of 'those ducks aren't real and there for can't do anything to you' wasn't going to work and that he had to come up with something.

'I gotta do something, I can't just sit here and watch her cry. Think dammit think.'

He pulled Rachel onto his lap and started to rub her back at an effort to soothe her. "Shh...its Ok Rachel, stop crying. The ducks...won't hurt you. I'll get rid of them." As soon as he said that last sentence the crying stopped.

"Really? You can?" she question.

"Of course, right away."

In the mind of Rachel Flannigan-McDonald, anyone who can get rid of the evil creatures known as ducks must be a nifty person and that person being her new daddy just made it even better. Rachel decided to reward Lindsey with a smile, a kiss on the cheek, followed by Rachel snuggles.

'I could definitely get used to this.'

Later that on that night while Lindsey was giving Rachel(and Sparkles...due to Rachel's request) a bath, Rachel seemed extremely happy. The happiest she'd been all day. Lindsey decided to take advantage of her mood and see if he could get her to talk to him some more.

"So Rachel, so like baths?" he asked.

"Yeah....they're fun." She answered splashing around.

"What else do you like?"

"I like lots of things."

"Like what?"

Rachel thought for a moments "I like cartoons, Sparkles, Frosty(Lindsey had learned earlier that Frosty was her white teddy bear), candy, peanut butter, dollies, coloring, purple, puppies, and other stuff."

"What don't you like?"

Duckies!" She answered sternly "but there's also naptime, scary movies, ice cream..."

"Ice cream?" Lindsey questioned, cutting her off.

"Its very cold, too cold. And melty." Rachel answered.

'That must be a first.'

"I see. I think its time to get out of the tub." Lindsey said.

"Ok."

30 minutes later:

"Goodnight Rachel." Lindsey told Rachel as he tucked her in.

"Night daddy."

'That's still a bit strange to here'

Lindsey started to leave the room but then Rachel called him back.

"Come back....you forgot to say good night to Sparkles."

'What is it with this Sparkles thing?'

"Oh, right sorry. Goodnight Sparkles."

"Kiss her goodnight too." Rachel instructed.

"Ok" Lindsey bent down and pretended to kiss someone good night on the left of Rachel.

"She's on the other side, silly" Rachel said giggling. So Lindsey did the same thing to the right of Rachel.

"Daddy, where's mommy?" she asked suddenly.

'I could careless.'

"Um...I am not sure Rachel."

"Why did she leave me?"

'Because she's stupid.'

"I don't know that either. But I think that she thought you would be better off here with me."

"Oh. How come I wasn't with you before? Where were you?"

'What's with all the sudden questions? And I wasn't with you because you're moms a liar....or an uninformer....and stupid.'

I was here, see sometimes it takes a while for parents to find out they have a child."

"Are you going to leave me too?"

"No, Rachel, no. I am not. I swear."

"Good. I am glad mommy left me with you."

"Me too."

'Me too.'

TBC

A/N: How were the first three chapters? Up next Rachel and Sparkles meet Lilah. In the mean time, review please.