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Part 18
Mac sighed as she and Harm entered the front door to their house.
"Hey!" Mattie greeted them, unusually still awake at this time of night, "Did you guys manage to get some advice from Bud and Harriet?"
"Not really," Harm shook his head as he dropped his car keys on the counter-top, "When we got there, Tiegan and Tyler's foster Mom was there to explain to the children why she can't take them home with her at the end of all this."
"Ooo, harsh…"
Whatever Mattie had been thinking about prior to Harm and Mac's return, it certainly wasn't anything like this.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Apparently, a set amount of money doesn't buy what it used to on the property market. Some legal loophole meant that the insurance people only had to cough up the original price of the house, when it was leased to Wendy and now, the new house is short of two bedrooms. The six youngest children are going, as are two with severe disabilities…but not Tiegan, Tyler and their foster-brother Robby."
Mattie was silent for a second, but then jumped back in, powering her way to the heart of the matter;
"You guys want to take them, don't you?"
Harm and Mac looked at each other and knew that the other had actually considered the possibility many times, perhaps since they had first met the children.
"We thought that it was a possibility," Mac nodded, "But we don't know anything about Tiegan and Tyler, just that they've been fostered by Wendy and Alfred Moon since they were babies. The fact that they were never formally adopted, well, we don't know if that had to do with the children's biological mothers' wishes and circumstances, or…"
"Or the Moon's personal wishes and circumstances," Mattie finished off, nodding, "Yeah, I can see how this might be a problem…"
"It might be," Harm stressed, "But not necessarily. We won't know until we find out…But I guess this means that we've got to make a decision, now…Do we go for this?"
He looked to his girls, who looked knowingly to each other.
"Are we all 100 sure?" Harm stressed, before either one could speak up, "Because although we've only got a few days to do this, we have to make sure that it's going to work for all of us. There can be no backing out at the eleventh hour; it'd destroy those kids and Wendy and her husband, too."
Harm looked to Mac, to see her opinion.
She firmly nodded her head. 'I'm sure of it.'
Harm looked to Mattie.
She nodded as well. 'Yes, I'm sure, too.'
"Okay then," Harm surmised, "Let's do this."
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