AN: There is a huge time jump from the last Ch to this one, I may go back and fill in the blanks at some later point. I do not own POI, just own my OC Alexis.

*a couple of weeks later

John looked at the glass with Alexis's picture on it once more as Finch sat at his computer.

"So now what?" Finch asked him. "The threat to her life is gone and I'm quite sure that neither of us is going to even suggest sending her back to that wrenched place."

"I'll ask Detective Fusco if he can find someone willing to take her, Finch said a second later as he started typing on his computer.

John stared at the picture of her as a little girl standing next to her parents and felt the pain of sadness. He didn't really want to let her go after the last couple of weeks spent cooped up with her in the safe house. She wanted to have a family that much he had gathered after hearing all of the stories of her past and he truly wanted to give her that. He wanted to help her with her past so that it wouldn't haut her like his still did. Alexis was due at least that much because of what had happened to her. John felt like he was letting her down by letting her go. How could two supposedly dead and wanted men take in a suffering teen, who needed a lot of help.

As Finch sat behind his computer, he couldn't help, but wonder the same thing. In his eyes a hurt teen would only suffer more if she stayed with them. She needed a consistency to her life that they couldn't give her. Halfway through dialing Fusco's number, he stopped and hung up. He was not going to be the one who let that girl go this time. It was now just a question who will be her primary care taker.

"Mr. Reese, I have a different solution to this predicament that we've found ourselves in," Finch said as he looked at Alexis's picture.

"And that would be...?" John asked as he coldly stared at Finch.

"We both have become very fond of Miss Bishop and we don't want to be rid of that attachment, so I suggest that we take her under our wings, permanently."

John's eyes narrowed even further.

"She won't be in anymore danger here than she would be anywhere else. We both understand how she's feeling, so we can connect to her in a way that no one else can."

Reese sighed. "Why not? I like that stubborn kid anyway."

Alexis stared at the wall in front of her trying to figure out a plan. She knew that she was not going to let anyone put her back in the system; she would live on the streets first. Finch and Reese had become the people that she leaned on the most and she knew that she was going to miss them when she left. That still didn't make her choice any different, though.

There was a soft knock on the door and then both men entered quietly.

"So you're sending me back," Alex said as she let out a sigh. She knew that all of this had been like a short dream between the nightmares of her life.

"No, we are not doing that Miss Bishop," Finch said as he sat down in the chair opposite of her bed.

She raised an eyebrow. "Then where am I going?'

"You're staying here," Reese said with a smile.

"Indeed, we looked over all of the other options, but we realized that we did not truly want to let you go," Finch said as Alex looked between the two men.

"Wait a minute, so you guys are going to file for my adoption!"

"Yes," both men said at once.

"But we need to know who you would like to be your guardian," Finch said as he revealed a sheet of paper.

"Well, both of you are supposed to be dead, so I'm assuming that you are going to use one of the alias that you have. Over all though I would like Reese to be the one named on my adoption papers," she said with a smile.

"Then it's settled," Reese said just before they both left the room.