It had felt like a step forwards at the time, but Phil hadn't anticipated how much of a step it was. It took him close to a week to notice the change.
It was a few days after their movie night when he noticed that Daisy was constantly cuddling with her toy dog around the house, when she was doing her homework or playing on his computer.
A week later he noticed that she had started falling asleep anywhere and everywhere around the apartment. On the couch, curled up on the carpet, once with her head on the dining room table.
Occasionally it was annoying, but mostly it was adorable. And it meant something, something important.
It meant that Daisy trusted them, totally.
Melinda slid into bed beside him, their new lamp still on. "She's on the couch again."
He smiled. "Did you kick her off?"
She looked scandalised at the idea. "Of course not. She's asleep."
Phil laughed softly, happy. "I'm glad she trusts us." He murmured. "I'm glad she's here."
May noticed the undercurrent concern. "But?"
He sighed, bowing his head. "I'm just so scared that she could be taken away from us." He admitted. "I don't want to lose her. I don't want her to lose us."
"We won't."
"You don't know that."
"We won't let anyone take her away." May said firmly.
Phil scoffed. "What, if they try we'll just... take her and run? Disappear, change our names, leave our jobs, our friends?"
"Yes." There was no hint of humour in her voice, and Phil smiled.
"I'm on board." He said. "But I don't know if it'd be best for Daisy."
May snorted, clearly not buying it.
Phil took her hand, feeling the thrum of rage in her muscles. "If she gets sent somewhere else." He murmured. "We give her our contact details. And we tell her that if she ever needs us, we'll be there." He paused. "Maria's applied to be a registered foster parent?"
Melinda nodded. "Yeah. It'll take some time though." They might not have much time. She despised the thought of Daisy being all alone. Of her needing to wait until the system that had already hurt her so much would let her go. Before she could live with them. Daisy would be safe if she was with Maria, and that was good, that was great. But she wouldn't be with them. "We have to keep her safe Phil." What if Maria wasn't approved? What if Mary decided that Daisy needed to be moved far away from them?
"We are." He said. "We have. This isn't going to go badly, we both know that. We're government employees, we've got a nice apartment in a good part of town, we make more than enough money to look after her, and Daisy loves us."
"And we love her."
"Well yeah." Phil smiled. "I figured that went without saying."
-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-
Phil and Melinda's second meeting with Mary was much less stressful than the first. It was easier to have an appointment made, rather than having a woman come to their door out of the blue to judge whether they were worthy of the child in their care. Phil baked cookies, May maintained conversation, and Phil felt a lot better when they waved Mary goodbye.
"Not so bad." Melinda said.
"No." He agreed. "She should be picking Daisy up from school next week though."
"We can talk to her about it tonight." She said. "She'll be fine."
"I hope so."
The day of Daisy's individual meeting with Mary rolled around quickly, so quickly that she'd almost entirely forgotten about it until she saw Mary waiting for her after school. A creeping sense of shame crawled up her spine as Felicity noticed her too. "Hey, that's not your mom." She said, nodding to Mary.
Daisy bit her lip, trying to come up with a believable lie. Screw it. "That's- my social worker." She muttered, eyes fixed on the ground. "Melinda and Phil aren't- they're not my parents. Mary's organising the adoption."
Felicity stared, her mouth forming a small 'oh'. "I- well... I hope it works out." She said with a smile and, after a moment, squeezed Daisy in a tight hug. "I really like having you around."
Daisy squeezed back just as firmly. "Thanks." She muttered, surreptitiously wiping away a rogue tear before they separated. "I'll see you on Monday."
"Definitely." Felicity beamed, "Good luck this afternoon! I wanna hear all about it on Monday."
"Okay." Daisy mumbled, watching her hurry to her mom, smiling. She turned, going to Mary. "Hi. Sorry, I almost forgot this was today."
Mary smiled, gesturing to her car. "Don't worry." She said. "This is just a chat. I thought we could go for ice cream, do you know any good places around here?"
It didn't take long to drive to the ice cream place, and Daisy remained silent in the car, trying to think of the best way to say everything. Knowing that the wrong word could send her right back to where she'd started all those months ago.
Mary glanced at her. "Is everything okay, Daisy?" She asked.
Daisy panicked for a second, then remembered what she had learned in therapy and from Melinda. How to breathe when she was scared. How to address that fear. How to admit it. She took a moment to calm herself, then let out a sigh. "I'm fine." She said softly. "Just... nervous."
Mary pulled the car into park and turned to look at her. "I know you might not believe me," She said, "But I'm on your side. If this home is good for you then I want nothing more than for you to stay."
Daisy nodded, but the nerves remained. Buried. "Okay."
Daisy ended up getting a cup that contained one scoop each of raspberry and chocolate ice cream. She fiddled with her plastic spoon, watching Mary taste her own mango sorbet. "This is good." Mary said with a smile. "You come here a lot?"
Daisy hesitated. "Sometimes."
Mary had another spoonful of her ice cream. "Why don't you tell me about Phil and Melinda?" She asked kindly. "In your own time."
Daisy swallowed. "I- uh... well, they're always really nice to me." She started, wincing at how artificial her words felt. "They- um, when I first moved in, Melinda gave me some of her clothes, cos I didn't have any, and then they went out and got me some new ones."
She forced herself to pause, taking another spoonful of ice cream. Think about normal stuff. She willed herself. The special stuff that Phil said was normal. "Phil cooks." She said quietly. "He's always making something for dinner. When he's nervous he tries to make something really fancy." A smile crept across her face. "When he's working late, Melinda orders Chinese food, cos Phil hates spicy stuff but we both love it. She's been teaching me tai chi, and how to speak Chinese."
"That sounds lovely." Mary said genuinely. "How do you three cope, with two working parents?"
"Fine." Daisy said, not even stopping to think about it. "I mean, at least one of them picks me up from school, and they're always around."
Mary hummed. "What if there was an emergency?" She asked, "And they were both indisposed at work?"
The question pulled Daisy up short. What if something did happen? Who would look after her then? The answer presented itself almost immediately. "Maria." She said. "She's a friend."
"And you'd be happy to stay with her if it were an emergency?"
"Sure!" Daisy grinned, "Maria's great!"
Mary smiled and nodded to Daisy's hand. "Your ice cream's melting."
"Oh, right." Daisy tipped the cup up to her mouth to drink some of the melted ice cream, wiping her mouth with a paper napkin.
Though she tried to be objective, Mary had to admit that Daisy looked good. Happier and healthier than she could remember ever seeing her. It was rare that a kid her age got adopted. She would be very happy if Daisy could be one of those few. "Have you picked up any hobbies while you've been here?"
Daisy let the ice cream in her mouth melt before she answered. "I've been doing really well at school with computer science." She said, refusing to downplay her own skills. "And there's a soccer team down the street from us that play every Saturday, we usually go down and watch, and I was gonna sign up when the season starts again."
"You like soccer?"
"Well yeah." Daisy muttered, finishing off her ice cream. "It's fun."
Mary hummed. "Last question." She said softly. "Why do you want to stay with them?"
Daisy opened her mouth to speak, but found she couldn't. "I-..."
"It's okay." Mary said. "Take your time."
She looked down, trying to think of an answer. "They help me." Daisy murmured. "They-they're good to me, they... provide." She'd heard people use that word about family. Now it felt like it fell very far short. Like the only reason she wanted to stay with Phil and Melinda was that they were well off.
She bit her lip. "I like talking to them, I-I feel like they understand what I'm saying, they..." She trailed off and thought about them. Phil's understanding eyes and kind smile, always there to listen. Melinda's steady hands and calm voice, soothing her through even the most terrifying of thoughts. "I love them." Daisy said to the floor. "I-I know that's not important, but..."
"Of course it's important Daisy."
Daisy looked up and saw the compassion shining in Mary's eyes. "It is?"
"Of course." Mary said again, resisting reaching out for her. "It's the most important thing."
Daisy could feel her heart in her throat. "So... does that mean I can stay?"
Mary sighed. "We're not done yet." She said, regret tinging her voice. "And it's not just up to me. I need to give my recommendation to the judge. They make the decision."
Daisy bit her lip. "Your recommendation?"
Mary grimaced. She really shouldn't tell Daisy what she was thinking. Shouldn't give her hope in case it went badly, if her last interview went badly, if their day in court went badly. But Daisy was so scared. "So far I haven't seen anything that wouldn't make my recommendation anything but positive." She pushed herself to her feet, gathering their rubbish to throw in the bin.
Daisy stood too, processing everything. It wasn't over. There were way too many qualifiers in Mary's words to let her think otherwise. But so far everything was good. They were good. If they just kept going like this, Daisy would be able to stay with Phil and Melinda.
Forever.