Thanks to x snow- pony x and Justice237 for reviewing.

This was something I hadn't seen before…

"Robert?" Margo didn't seem sure about this- even more than myself. "What have you thought about? Who did you meet?"

"You see…" Robert ran a hand through his hair. "…Well…. I was on my way from the bathroom and I met a kid. And I just nodded at him and so he started talking to me and we kept talking and… he's a great kid. And… And he just never wanted anything more than to have a family. And I… I had to get back here but I just feel it… I feel it in here…" He laid a hand over his heart and I could feel the hair in my neck rising. "…I just… I want to spend my whole life knowing this kid."

Robert fell back towards the couch, as in slow motion and his eyes shining up the whole room.

"It's like the moment that midwife holds the baby for the first time and laid them in my arms for the first time. It was the same feeling I promise. I can't describe it."

"So…" Harry's voice was shaky as if he was about to start crying. "…You'd rather want someone else than me?"

"No." Robert shook his head quickly and answered. "No, no, no. We do. That's why I'm asking Mike what it would be like if we fostered two children." He turned towards me. "Can we do that? Just like that? Say we want to foster two instead of one. We've already got five I thought. And a number of pets so how much could it matter if we foster one or two?"

Robert did look like he had just done the best decision of his life. And his eyes were shining as a kid's on Christmas day's morning.

"Or… maybe I should… What do you think sweetheart?"

For the first time in that moment Robert did turn to his wife. And to Harry who sat in between them and looking from one to the other and didn't seem to understand what was going on- I wasn't so sure I did either.

"I…" Margo stuttered. "It's just so fast. For the start I think it sounds wonderful to be able to give a child a home… well they already have a home here but you get what I mean. And let alone two kids. But I think we could need some time to think about everything. And I also know that Finn, Stella, Ava, Alice and Ruby needs to have their voices heard in everything… And just for starters. Can you at least tell me his name?"

"Michael." So I'd had a feeling it would be. "The kid who dropped the kettle earlier… Michael J. Caboose. The J is for James?"

"James?" I couldn't help but hear that last. "Jack isn't it?"

"He told me Jonas." Harry said. "But Floss said it was Jim."

I couldn't help but to give a short laugh- typical Michael's humor.

"I'll have to look that up in his files." I said. "But maybe not right now. What is a name? Right. Michael is the important part. Which, of course. If you ask me is a very nice name." I smirked slightly. "Or maybe not… But Harry. How do you feel about all of this? Will one extra brother be alright in a whole group of sisters? Or are you and Michael sworn enemies?"

Harry didn't look as if he knew what to say. And neither did I.

And neither did Rob and Margo actually.

"I think we have to go home, talk to each other and also talk to the kids and then we'll get back to you."

"Don't rush anything." I told them, and tried to sound calmer than I actually was. "Harry… can you? Can you leave? I have to talk to… to you." Harry nodded and I could almost see the way he swallowed the lump in his throat. "Don't worry Harry. This will all be sorted out." A tear was rolling down his cheek when he took his snow globe and hurried out of the room and up the stairs while I closed the door behind him.

"You look like we've done something very wrong." Robert said while I returned to my seat. "I'm sorry. I'm so spontaneous. I didn't exactly think about what could go wrong with it."

"No." With a sigh I tried to find the right words. "But before making any decisions- and I have to say I admire you for being on your way to make a decision that none others would even imagine. But there's something you have to know Michael before you make any other. You see. I don't know what it is and I don't know what caused it. But Michael… isn't like other children his age. He's childish, but not just childish as in naïve like anyone else. He is twelve years old with the brain of a… I'd guess seven or eight years old. His body will keep growing but his mind won't. He might be forty tears old and still only get math for first graders. He might be fifty…"

"By the time he's fifty we'll be long gone."

"I know." In the middle of it all I had to say these two made me laugh. "But… Michael will be a kid stuck in an adult's body all his life. And if you make the decision to let him into your heart and home then that is the commitment you make. You can't again put him into a home like this when you're tired of him- yes. There are homes like these for disabled adults. But you won't be able to just drop him off and forget all about him."

"Just like we wouldn't do to our own, biological children."

Rob seemed downright hurt by what I had said.

"I don't believe you would." I promised them. "I just want you to know about the commitment you're making."

"You don't think we know some after five kids? Because really, we don't. We've been parents for a total of almost twenty years. But still, every day there are new challenges and new things to learn. And we wouldn't be making this unless we thought it was something good for us all. And not jus5t about giving a child a good home."

"I agree with everything that my wife just said. And I'm willing to say anything else if it proves to you that we're in this for a promise and we're not going to break that promise." I held up my hands to silent them. "Yes?"

"I think… I think if there's someone out there who can do this it's you two. But believe me. I have seen… all kinds of foster parents. And everything I say or do here is to make sure this foster placement like we all hope it will become. And of course, like we've already said. This isn't a decision you make spontaneously. So why don't you two go home, talk to your children and whoever else needs talking to. And then call me back when you're finished?"

Was this something that could ever be finished though?

"That sounds like… the right thing to do." We all got up and I shook their hands. "Here honey." Rob held up the jacket for his wife. "Well… see you some time later then. We'll find our own way out."

I sunk back into my desk chair when the new foster parents left the room. I would have sat down by the computer, then suddenly remembered the letter I'd been given from Michael's mum. If these people were to foster him I would have to give it to them- and anyone could see they would. But the letter could always hold threats or information they shouldn't have so I took up the letter from the desk drawer, ripped it open and unfolded the letter to what it said.

I hope whoever reads this is the one who is going to care for my son Michael. Maybe even take care of him for the rest of his life, or just temporarily.

First of all, I just thought I'd tell you that my name is Allison and being Michael's mum. I could never stop caring

Second, I just wanted to say to you that it's my fault he got hurt. That his brain doesn't work right. That it's because I couldn't step out and leave my husband until it was too late. And not until years after I saw him doing what he did to our son.

I saw Michael's dad take his tiny, little body in his big hands and smack his head into the top of the laundry machine.

I watched him doing it again and again.

The ambulance came when I called for it because Michael wouldn't move- it looked like he was dead. I have never been crying so badly in my life. I really thought he was. He wasn't, but the ambulance paramedics were talking about something called shaken baby syndrome. I haven't dared to look it up, I'm too scared of what I'll find.

The doctor said Michael was stabilized, he would live. But she couldn't know whether the smacking his head towards the laundry machine had caused any permanent brain damage. That it would show only with time.

And it showed.

While Michael grew up I started noticing he got more and more behind his peers. I noticed he was slow with learning the alphabet and math, he was kind but, like a child he got angry for silly things like me having bought the wrong kind of cereal or not making the food he liked. He's still a child and could get mad for that kind of things but it kept happening over and over again.

He didn't seem to understand how strong he was neither. More than once he hurt me, he didn't mean to and I knew it. He just didn't understand he would.

It was like while Michael grew he didn't understand he did. He's never meant any harm. It was like Michael's body was just as any other person his age's. But his brain couldn't grow with it.

I tried everything and went to every therapist and doctor I could think of. But none of them had any help. I tried to put Michael into a special class at school but he didn't fit in. I tried everything, literally everything. But none of it worked. And none of it could change what I had done with letting my husband doing what he did. None of it could take away what happened to Michael's brain that day.

I never wanted to put him into care. But as I got pregnant and his little brother Lavernius was on the way and was born Michael got very jealous. I still didn't know if he understood if he knew how strong he was. But I couldn't have Michael live with us in fear that he would hurt his little brother.

Please don't think me as a bad person. I did what I had to. It was either dad or once again get in contact with Leonard- Michael's father. So I hope and pray to God whoever will take care of him better than what Leonard could. That wouldn't be so hard.

I hope Michael understand I'm doing this because I love him.

Please make sure he's well taken care of.

Allison

Ps. The letter J for his middle name is just that. It's only one letter. If you still want to make it something then you can make it Jackson. But his full name now is Michael J. Caboose.

Random fact

I only know shaken baby syndrome from reading an article about it. In it was a part of that it could be about someone doing like what Michael's dad did to him with hitting him right into the laundry machine. But to me it was just so terrible and wrong to do something like that.