"They're nice. Not too old." Sawyer took a shot with the ball he'd been dribbling and easily made the basket.

Katie grabbed the ball as it landed on the driveway, took a shot, and missed narrowly. "I don't like them."

"What's not to like?" Sawyer pushed some hair out of his face.

Katie took another shot. Missed. "She's so nice, you can tell it's fake. 'Ohh, what a pretty dress you have on! Look, Jack, she can draw a picture of a bunny. Oh my, what pretty hair you have! I bet you'd look so cute if it was in braids.' "

Sawyer hid a laugh. "She wasn't that bad."

Katie threw the orange ball at him. Nearly missing his stomach. "She asked me if I liked Barbies or My Little Pony dolls more."

"It's not her fault she didn't know you don't play with Barbies," Sawyer replied in what he hoped was a diplomatic tone. He tried to hide a grin, but it escaped.

"I'm a girl, so of course I play with Barbies. I also want to be a hairdresser when I grow up and have a million babies," she shot back.

"Did you see her husband? He was weird."

"He didn't want to be there," Katie laughed. "You could tell. He hates kids."

"He'll probably lock you in the basement if you don't eat all your peas," Sawyer cautioned.

Peas were one of the few foods Katie couldn't stand. If they were being served with the meal, she'd move them as far away to the edge of her plate as possible. One of the workers, a middle aged woman called Jill (Ms. Kramer to them), had tried to make Katie eat her peas once.

They hadn't seen Ms. Kramer since the night Katie had poured the peas on the floor and ran to her room.

Katie liked to say that the Pea Monster ate her up that night. Sawyer verbally agreed with Katie when she said this, even though he knew that, in reality, she'd probably been fired for trying to force kids to eat horrible foods. It wasn't the first time she'd done this and besides, hadn't the kids at Safe Place been through enough?

The real story would be more powerful than the Pea Monster one. If you told it the right way, it could be twisted to mean that the staff liked Katie enough to fire people who got on her nerves.

Kind of.

"If he does, I'll hack him to death with his scalpel," she retorted, throwing the basketball aside on the lawn. "Look at me, I'm a big famous doctor and I like to cut people." She grabbed a few blades of grass from the ground, wielding them like a sword. "Hack, hack, you're dead!"

Sawyer snickered. "Send him to the Pea Monster."

Katie nearly fell over with laughter. "Then she'd kill him with her big teeth! And he wouldn't even have his scalpel to cut off her tongue."

"Eww. You're morbid, freckles."

"Morbid?"

Sawyer grinned. "You got a sick mind. You should be in some horror movie."

"The bad guy wouldn't have a chance!" she declared, picking up the ball and taking another shot.

This time, the ball made it through the hoop.

James and Katie didn't really hate Jack and Juliet as much as they let on. Secretly, Katie thought that Juliet was kind of pretty, with her long hair. She wondered if Juliet would let her braid it. She was pretty good at French braids.

It was just that, as Katie aptly observed, Juliet didn't really like Sawyer. Not that she hated him. She just preferred Katie. And Katie had heard her tell her husband that she only wanted to adopt one kid.

It wasn't fair. Katie knew that she wasn't going to live with her mom and stepfather again. Her mom would just let him hit her. Like she did with Katie. The court representative had told Katie that her home wasn't safe enough. That she had to be in an environment that was safer. That she might end up living with a better prepared family.

That was the exact phrase he'd used. "Better prepared." As though Katie had been unexpected, and it was her fault for being beaten. Also, for her mom being beaten. Katie had to live with another set of parents who knew not to beat their kids.

Or kid, as it turned out. Because even though they hadn't actually told Katie that they didn't want to adopt Sawyer (or James, as everyone called him), she could tell when adults were trying not to lie but also not telling the truth.

They'd adopt her, sure. She was only seven. She was cute and (seemingly) well behaved and apparently spent every free minute playing with Barbie and Ken.

Sawyer, on the other hand, was twelve. He'd be moving to the teen house soon. He wasn't really a little kid. And people would look at him and think, "He's going to be difficult."

Not that Katie wasn't stubborn. But somehow, a stubborn seven year old seemed a lot more appealing than a sullen (as people referred to Sawyer) twelve year old. People liked that he spent time with Katie and tried to protect her, but they thought Katie would do better with a different friend.

No one had separated the two, exactly, but they wouldn't be sad when Katie had to leave Sawyer at Safe Place.

So, she just wouldn't go. She wasn't one for throwing tantrums, but she'd put her foot down. Either Sawyer was coming and was going to be adopted, or they wouldn't get her.

Even if they had been the only family to visit Safe Place within the time Katie had been there.

Katie had asked around, after she found out that Jack and Juliet were interested in adopting her, and discovered that she couldn't refuse to go and that was that. Even if she and Sawyer had been biological siblings, it wasn't an all or nothing deal. People tried not to separate siblings, but it wasn't always possible. Likewise, Katie's feelings about her potential new adoptive parents had some value, but it wasn't the deciding factor.

Besides, she and Sawyer weren't really brother and sister. Sure, they spent a lot of time together, and Katie certainly looked up to Sawyer as an older brother. But they had only been at Safe Place together for less than a year. It was easy to argue that their bond occurred because there were not many people at Safe Place near to Katie's age. The two were friends, but Katie could make friends anywhere.

Then there was the abuse element. As far as the courts were concerned, Sawyer had been an unfortunate victim of several bad circumstances. His parents were dead (allegedly, his mother had been killed by his father, who then killed himself), and his grandparents died not long afterwards. He didn't have any other family who wanted to raise a preteen. So, the state had to take care of him until he turned eighteen. Adoption or foster parents were preferable, but as far as the courts were concerned, he didn't have any emotional trauma.

Katie, on the other hand, had been beaten by her father. Her biological mother, married to that man, had turned a blind eye to it. Partly because she may have been being beaten (evidence to this was uncertain, mostly because Katie's mother denied it and refused to be examined for past injuries). There was no intent to change. Katie's mother would not divorce, or even separate from, her husband. The danger to Katie was real and immediate. She had to be removed from the situation. Therefore, she went to Safe Place. Ideally, though, she should be adopted by loving parents and be able to live out the remainder of her childhood normally.

Making Katie live with two people she did not like (however nice they seemed) without someone she had grown to view as family was not an ideal option. She could try to run away from this family, at the very least.

Jack and Juliet were somewhat aware of this situation. Moreover, Juliet liked Katie, and did not want to start their relationship with her denying her adoptive daughter something that she really cared about. Money wasn't really an issue: Jack and Juliet were both doctors, and could easily afford the expenses of raising two kids.

Moreover, Juliet had been aware that there was always some risk with adoption. If it was a baby, the mother could have been a drug addict. If it was a child, the child could have been in a hostile situation, hence the need for removal from that situation. Even if everything seemed fine, Juliet was well aware of the parents who went on the news declaring that their beloved seventeen year old boy was now a drug addict, a rapist, and a serial killer. Because, apparently, that gene had existed in his father's DNA. And, as it turned out, the boy's father had a violent history prior to impregnating the boy's mother.

Jack, who had been hands off about the whole situation, mostly left the decision to Juliet. She had wanted kids, not him. She was the one who couldn't get pregnant. She was the one who was looking into adoption. Whatever she decided, they would make it work. In the meantime, he hoped that she would just make the decision and stick with it.

So, in the end, Juliet decided to adopt Sawyer (who she stubbornly called James) as well as Katie.

It ended up being a good decision for all involved. Jack discovered that he liked having a son. Katie had started out as somewhat of a tomboy, but not as much under Juliet's growing influence. Maybe it was her way of getting Sawyer and Jack to spend time together. They played sports together on weekends, and Jack sometimes took Sawyer fishing.

It also helped to have a built in babysitter when Juliet and Jack decided to take the evening off from parenting and go out to dinner.

(A/N: In this chapter, I make reference to a character from a horror movie series. The first person who correctly guesses the name of this movie will have a cameo in an upcoming chapter.)

Please read and review! Sawyer and Kate want you to.