Author's note: Ok, I know it took me forever to get this chap posted, so sorry! Usually I post once every or every other day on a long story like this but my college finals got in the way and then I started having computer problems too, but anyways, here it is, hope you enjoy and please remember to review!
"Logan." Veronica reached out her hand to find her husband's in the dark. She was still half asleep, so she didn't open her eyes. She just wanted the warmth and assurance of the touch of his hand.
Finally her hand found his. Except it didn't feel like Logan's big, soft hand; it felt like a leather glove. Her eyes snapped open to find the hand she was holding was indeed covered in a black leather glove. Her eyes followed the arm up from the hand to a familiar face and nearly jumped out of her hospital bed. The man sat in Logan's chair, staring at her. An evil grin nearly split his face in two.
"I wouldn't worry so much about Lilly. I'd worry more about yourself," the man said quietly as he stood and pushed a pillow over her face once more.
She bolted awake into a sitting position and felt her stitches strain at the sudden movement. "Logan!" The loud plea escaped her mouth before she even thought it.
He woke from his uncomfortable seat beside her and looked up, his eyes bleary with sleep. "Huh?"
She laid back down, relieved. "Nothing."
They were leaving tomorrow. Every lead they had followed so far had been a dead end. Keith's search into the Manning's recent contacts had been inconclusive. It seemed that Veronica had little left to investigate. There was one last lead left untapped.
"Logan, can you call the couple that threw you out the other day? The Jessups? Tell them that you're from the adoption agency and that there has been a mix up in their paper work that needs to be taken care of right away. Ask them to come to this hospital to get it straightened out and to bring the adopted child with them."
"Yeah. Veronica, I need to ask you something. What are we gonna do with Lilly if we find her? We can't just take her with us. And even if we could-"
"I don't know. We can cross that bridge when we come to it."
Logan made the call. When he returned to his wife, his expression was slightly disgusted. "That man did not sound happy."
"Is he coming?"
"Yes."
"Okay, then, since he'd recognize you, I just want you to see if you can spot them and get a good look at the baby. If it's Lilly, call me and I'll tell you the plan."
Logan shook his head with a smile. "Confined to a hospital bed and still acting all covert ops. I think that's one of the sexiest things about you."
"Well, wait 'til I show you my stomach after all this and then we'll see how sexy you still think I am." Veronica was half-joking, and he recognized the twinge of self-deprecation in her voice.
"Veronica, I don't think you fully realize something about me. I'm in love with you. You could turn into the most unattractive woman in the world and I'd still think you were beautiful." He leaned down and brushed a kiss across her lips. "But just to let you know, you still look hot, even with all the needles and the tubes."
When Veronica finally smiled, Logan walked out of the room and headed for the main entrance. Sure enough, the Jessups had already arrived.
Logan tried to get close enough to see the baby but stay far enough out of the way so Mr. Jessup couldn't see him. When he finally managed to get a long look at the baby, what he saw shocked him. It wasn't Lilly.
Logan went back to Veronica's room in dismay. He had been sure that the Jessups had Lilly. Now he and Veronica only had one more family they could check before they were back to square one. Veronica didn't seem perturbed by the situation. She just told Logan to wait until the Jessups left and then instructed him to call the last family, the Thompsons, and give them the same story.
Logan almost couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that not only was Mrs. Thompson holding Lilly in her arms, but it was the same woman who had helped him with his luggage at the airport. He quickly pulled out his cell phone and called Veronica to explain the situation.
"Okay. New plan then. Just walk up to her and tell her that it was really us who called them, apologize, and ask them to come up to my room for a minute so I can see my dear beloved little niece one last time before we leave the country."
"What?"
"Did they seem like good, reasonable people?"
"Well, yeah-"
"Then just do it!"
"Okay." He hung up the phone and walked towards the family. The boy wasn't there, but the woman and her husband were.
"Hi," Logan began, embarrassed.
"Oh, hello!" The woman greeted Logan warmly but she was obviously surprised. She turned to her husband. "This is that sweet boy I met at the airport!" The man smiled and shook his hand.
"Is it your wife that's here?" the woman asked quietly.
"Yeah. Look, to be honest, it wasn't the adoption agency who called you. It was me." The couple seemed taken aback. "My wife's sister died and that's why they had to put little-"
When Logan fumbled for her name, Mrs. Thompson supplied it. "Rebecca."
"Right, Rebecca up for adoption. My wife has just been really upset about the whole thing lately and I'm worried about her. I was kind of hoping that you wouldn't mind just going up to talk to her for a minute to let her see Rebecca one last time? It'd make her feel much better, I'm sure."
Mr. Thompson answered, "Of course we don't mind. You know, we asked if there was any family who might ever want to stay in touch, but the whole thing really seemed disorganized. The agency said they were having computer problems. In fact, they were really quite reluctant to talk about much of anything."
Logan smiled at the Thompsons and lead them up to Veronica's room.
Mrs. Thompson walked right past Logan and hugged Veronica as if she'd known the younger girl for years. Veronica was a bit thrown off but played along.
"Honey, these are the Thompsons. They adopted little Rebecca."
Veronica smiled. "Thank you so much for coming. I just couldn't bare not meeting the parents who are going to raise my little niece."
Mrs. Thompson patted Veronica's hand reassuringly and cooed, "Oh, no, sweetie. We don't blame you at all. In fact, we are just fed up with that agency for not giving us your number in the first place. I can't imagine how worried you must have been not knowing what kind of people she had been given to."
"Yeah and the adoption agency seemed somewhat extreme with their methods and ideas of parenting."
Mr. Thompson laughed whole-heartedly. "You know, I've been telling my wife that for months. When we first started reading up everything on them, it almost scared us off but then we decided that since it's the closest agency to where we live, it would be better to just use them." He playfully slapped a hand over Logan's shoulder. "But don't worry, we sure aren't crazy like that." He laughed loudly again. It reminded Logan of a jolly fat uncle he'd once met.
Mrs. Thompson sat down in the chair next to Veronica's bed. "No, of course not. We are Christians, but as far as all the tough-love discipline goes, we just prefer to try to raise our children in a way so that they would be happy enough not to do anything wrong in the first place."
Logan decided he should break in. "Veronica, honey, these are the people I told you about from the airport. She's the one that helped me with the bags."
Veronica smiled at her. "Oh, thank you! That's a little embarrassing."
"Oh, no, sweetie. You know, I was just telling Fred here the other day how sweet of a couple you looked. And that poor husband trying to carry you and the luggage. It's a wonder he didn't just rent a cart." She chuckled and Logan froze at the realization that he could have and how much trouble that would have saved him. He couldn't help but laugh.
The Thompsons stayed for over three hours discussing Lilly, or Rebecca, and how they intended to raise her. Neither Logan nor Veronica could find one thing to object to. It was a silent realization on both their parts that, though they had both assumed they would get Lilly away from them and find something better to do with her, leaving her with her new family was obviously the best arrangement.
Before they left, Mrs. Thompson gave Veronica all of their phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and their home address. "Please call or write or come visit anytime you two want," she offered. "I was adopted when I was a baby, too, so I know how important it is or will be for Rebecca to have someone from her birth family to talk to when she's older. We want both of you to be a part of her life."
"Thank you," Logan said warmly before both the Thompson's hugged him on the way out. "You have no idea how much it means to us." They said their goodbyes and left the younger couple alone. Logan sat down next to Veronica.
"You're getting good at acting, Logan. I almost believed that you wanted to hug them."
"I almost did, I was so relieved. So we're leaving her with them, right?"
"I don't think we could find any better for her ourselves. We just got real lucky that that part of the problem solved itself. At least we don't have to worry about Lill- I mean Rebecca anymore. Now onto the rest of our problem."
