A/N: I've returned from Ireland this week and I'm glad I'll be able to post chapters on a regular basis again.

I realized that when I posted the last two chapters I completely forgot to thank blossom-of-snow for proofreading and editing this story. Her help and friendship are invaluable to me, so I apologize for not mentioning it in the last chapters I posted.

Sharon did not expect Judge Richwood's call about finalizing Rainie's adoption to come so soon after her lawyer handed in the initial paperwork. Of course, she knew it wouldn't take long for the adoption request to go through, but she expected it to take at least a month. Instead, she only waited for a single week. She wasn't sure who, but it was clear that someone put a rush on her request, so it landed on Judge Richwood's desk sooner than anticipated. Loathe as she was to admit it, her status and connections in law enforcement probably expedited the process.

The idea that the next day she'd officially become the mother of a third child filled her heart with uncontainable joy and excitement. Just like Sharon, Rainie had been an only child for her entire life. Now she'd have two older siblings, who loved her very much and cared for her, even if they didn't know her very well yet.

Sharon wasn't worried that Ricky and Emily would not accept Rainie as their sister. They'd known about the adoption for months, and any issues and problems they've had with the idea of Rainie becoming their new little sister were long resolved. Still, Sharon was worried about the fact that Rainie didn't really know her siblings. She'd only met Ricky once, and even though she conducted several FaceTime calls with him, telecommunication wasn't a replacement for the two of them spending time together. With Emily, it was even harder, since she lived in a different time zone and led a busy lifestyle. Rainie had joined a few of Sharon's skype calls with Emily in the past couple of years, but the few stolen minutes of conversation here and there did not even form the basis of a relationship between the two young women.

When Emily and Ricky told her that they could not make it to Rainie's adoption ceremony, Sharon was disappointed. She had hoped that her two older children would be there to welcome Rainie into their family and show their support. Sharon knew that any reservations they'd had no longer existed, but she wished that they could be there and share the moment with their new sister.

Unable to put her worries aside and give in to sleep, Sharon decided a change of scenery might be helpful. She rubbed the kinks out of her neck on her way to the living room. The balcony door was open and the cool night air that came into the living room made her shiver. Her muscles tensed for a moment until she came to close the sliding glass door and noticed a dazed Rainie sitting on one of the lounge chairs with a throw blanket covering her. Stepping into the balcony, Sharon took a seat at the adjacent lounge chair.

"I see I'm not the only one who can't sleep," she said.

"I was just thinking," Rainie replied.

"About?"

"I was just thinking about the fact that after tomorrow I'm going to have two mothers," Rainie said, "and that one day, I will be a mother, and my child will have two mothers too."

Sharon allowed herself a few moments to process Rainie's words. "I didn't realize you were contemplating the idea of motherhood," she said.

"You think it's a bad idea for a gay couple to have children?" Rainie asked curiously.

"No, not at all. I didn't mean it like that," Sharon replied. "I meant that you're still very young, and you're not in a relationship, and I didn't think you figured out how you felt about children yet."

"I've thought about them before. I had a lot of unprotected sex with men when I lived in the street. I've had many pregnancy scares, and they got me thinking about the kind of mother I wanted to be," Rainie admitted. "I still think about it a lot. I want to have children someday."

"And you will," Sharon smiled at her daughter. "You'll be a wonderful mother."

Sharon leaned back down on the lounge chair. Rainie seemed to have clearer views of what she wanted from her future, and even though plans could change, Sharon had a feeling that out of all her children, Rainie would be the first to make her a grandmother.

"How does it feel?"

"Being a mother?" Sharon asked.

"Yeah."

"It's the best feeling in the world," Sharon said. "It's like being in love, but not romantic love. It's bigger and more consuming."

"Do you think my mother felt that way when she had me?" Rainie wondered.

"I think she did, Rainie."

"She never really said she loved me," Rainie said. "But when I told her about the adoption the other day, she got angry and said she'll always be my mother. It felt more like a threat."

Sharon wasn't sure what to say. Sharon Beck was finally realizing that her actions had consequences and that choosing her abusive boyfriend and the drugs over Rainie backfired.

"She made me feel like she thought of me as her property," Rainie continued. "Most of my life, I let people treat me like I was an object they could use and toss when they're done. And with this adoption –" Rainie looked at Sharon for a long moment, debating her strength. "I feel like maybe I'm finally my own person, making my own decisions and choosing to associate myself with a mother who treats me with respect."

"I'm happy you feel this way, Rainie," Sharon replied. "I hope you know what an honor it is for me to add you to my family officially. It means a lot to me."

"And to me," Rainie replied. "Are Ricky and Emily really cool with it?"

"They are, sweetie," Sharon reassured her. "They care about you a lot, and they're excited to call you their sister."

"I never thought I'd be someone's sister one day," Rainie sighed.

"Not that I know, but I think the world is not as lonely when you have siblings," Sharon shrugged.

"I barely know Emily and Ricky. I don't know how exactly we're going to become siblings," Rainie looked at Sharon with concern.

"It's not gonna happen overnight. I agree. But you have your whole lives to create a meaningful relationship with each other," Sharon said.

"I guess you're right about that," Rainie sighed.

Sharon reached out across the space between the two chairs and took Rainie's hand in hers. She knew that Rainie was still unsure about her place in Sharon's family after Ricky's initial reaction to the adoption. Sharon was confident that in time, Rainie would understand that she belonged in the family just as much as Emily and Ricky did, even if she had not been a part of it since day one.

"It's getting cold," Rainie said as she got up from her lounge chair. "Make some room."

Sharon moved a little bit and let Rainie lay down in her lounge chair and pulled the throw blanket over both of them. Rainie smiled at her and rested her head on Sharon's shoulder. Sharon watched her daughter as she closed her eyes and her thick ginger eyelashes shone in the moonlight. The sight of Rainie calmly snuggling into her side flooded her heart with love that she could barely contain. She raised her eyes to the moon, and her lips mouthed a silent prayer to God to always guard her children, all three of them.

-TBC-

As always, I'd love to know what you think about this chapter, so feel free to leave a review or send me a PM.