A/N: Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay in updates, but college is taking up more time than I ever thought possible! Anyway, I should be updating more frequently now. Thanks so much for all the reviews! Here's the next chapter and I should have another one up in a few days or so. Thanks again! Enjoy!
Later that night Horatio gathered together the three orphans in his charge and told them about Calleigh's letter. He told them about the impending adoption and tried to read their faces to gage their reaction. Kelsi, still too young to understand, just snuggled deeper into Belle's arms to avoid having Horatio see her cry. Emily and Josh both looked a little shell-shock, but slightly relieved at knowing their fate.
"I know I'll never be able to replace your parents," Horatio said after a moment, looking into each of their eyes, "But I'm always going to be here for you, doing the best that I can."
A few days later Horatio and the children went downtown so Horatio could sign the papers to become their legal guardian. The one thing that Horatio was adamant about in all of this was that the kids kept their last name; that was his way of keeping Calleigh and Ryan alive in a world where they no longer physically existed. After the paperwork was signed, Horatio felt a burden rest upon his shoulders, but it was a burden that he could carry.
Before any of them knew it, a whole month had passed since that terrible night. In that time, Josh and Emily had gone back to school, and Kelsi had gone back to her preschool. Horatio was adjusting to being a father of three young children very well, and he, in his own selfish way, was glad to have them around.
All was not as perfect as it seemed, however. Kelsi woke up with nightmares of the hurricane and her parents' deaths often, and it took quite a lot to get her calmed down again. All three of the children were having a hard time adjusting to this new life. They still weren't sure what to do with the questions about their parents that they were always asked, and each time someone tried to sympathize with them over the tragedy, it only opened the wound deeper.
Life wasn't anything like the normal that they had known before the storm, but it was slowly returning to a more sensible level. Horatio tried to be the best father that he could, and the neighborhood was surprised at how well he was dealing with all of this. He hadn't had the heart yet to hire replacements for Calleigh and Ryan, so swing shift was having to take up some of the slack.
Horatio's favorite time of the day was when he got home from work, and he could play with the kids, or help them with their homework, or whatever else they wanted to do.
On this particular night, Horatio found Emily at the kitchen table, working on a book report for her class. Horatio draped his suit coat over a the arm of the couch and then sat down beside his 'daughter'.
"What are you working on?"he asked, watching her mold clay between her hands.
"A book report for school," she answered, pinching off a piece of the clay and rolling it flat on the table top, "I have to make a scene from the story. I'm trying to make Wilbur from Charlotte's Web, but I can't make his head stay on."
Horatio gave her a half smile. "Here," he said taking the headless pig from her, "I think I know just the thing."
He went over to the counter and began rummaging through the drawers until he found what he was looking for. He came back over to the table with a box full of toothpicks.
"Toothpicks?" Emily questioned, "How's that going to help?"
"Watch," Horatio said, breaking a toothpick in half. He stuck one piece of the toothpick halfway into the pig's head, and then very gently he poked the head onto the rest of the body.
"There you go," Horatio said, handing Emily the pig, "All better."
"Thank you so much!" she said wrapping her arms around Horatio, before adding softly, "Daddy."
Horatio thought his heart had burst. Her sweet acceptance of him touched him, but at the same time, he knew he could never live up to the title that her real father had left behind.
"You're welcome sweetheart," he said softly, his voice catching in his throat. He held onto her for a few minutes more, before backing away. "Are you done with all your homework now?" he asked her.
"Yep, all done," she answered carefully putting her pig on the counter where he wouldn't get squashed.
"What do you say you help me with dinner, and then we'll go rollerskating?" he asked, a glimmer in his eye.
"Yeah!" she agreed.
That night at the skating rink was one of the best times Horatio had ever had with the kids. Horatio led Kelsi around the floor at first, but as the night went on, she got brave enough to let go of his hands and skate all by herself. As they raced each other around the rink, Horatio heard a sound he hadn't heard for a long time; Josh, Emily and Kelsi were all laughing and joking around. Horatio found himself laughing along with them, something that had been absent since the hurricane. Tonight they weren't kids that had been asked to grow up too fast.
As Horatio tucked them into bed that night, he felt a glimmer of hope that happiness might find its way back into this broken family yet.
A/N: Please review! I have a special going on with reviews right now; you write me a review and I feel special! ;) There are still a few chapters to go, so stay tuned!