Chapter 6
As promised, the second chapter for today! Enjoy!
The next morning David and Mary got up early and made breakfast for everyone. Killian and Emma followed and explained what had happened the night before which made David and Mary a bit hesitant to leave Elizabeth with them. However, the couple promised to keep a better eye out as well as install an alarm system for the time being which seemed to be enough for the older couple, for now. Elizabeth was the last to wake and she looked very much like a zombie the way she walked into the kitchen and silently took her place before placing her head on the table.
"Good morning sunshine" David said teasingly
"Mornings are never good" She grumbled back
"I would imagine so…especially when night didn't come till after 4am" Mary said in a knowing voice.
Elizabeth lifted her head up off the table and looked at Emma and Killian "You told them, didn't you?"
"Had to kid. They didn't exactly sleep through it like we thought" Emma said with a wink
"Elizabeth please promise us you won't do that again" Mary said in a concerned voice. She knew Emma and Killian were going to be great parents, but they also had never had a…well I guess even at 18 she was still a teenager, and teenager were a whole different level of parenting
"I know, I know. I promise" Elizabeth said before dropping her head back on the table
David just laughed and brought her over a stack of pancakes "here you go sweetheart"
"Thanks" Elizabeth said finally getting the strength to sit up right as she reached for the syrup and drenched her pancakes. After breakfast Mary and David talked over specific details with the new little family about how life was going to look going forward. He would finalize all of Elizabeth's documents and send them, along with all her belongings in the next week. He also gave Emma and Killian some money so that Elizabeth could get some things to hold her over till her things arrived. He also let them know what papers they would need to fill out and mail back to make the adoption official as well. After that they got their things packed and decided to get a head start on their trip home that afternoon. By 5pm, it was just Emma, Killian, and Elizabeth.
After the three finished off the last of the leftover pizza from the night before, Emma and Killian thought that it was time to go over the ground rules for Elizabeth.
"So Elizabeth…" Emma started before Elizabeth interrupted her
"Aren't you supposed to call me Zoe?"
"Well love, when we're in the house here, you can still be Elizabeth. It's only when we leave the house that you have to be Zoe." Killian said coming into the living room after cleaning up
"Unless you want us to call you Zoe then we can do that" Emma chimed in
"I don't know…I mean…I guess I should get used to being Zoe…"
"Well how about this? We'll call you Zoe for now, and you can let us know if you change your mind okay?" Emma said placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. Eliz…Zoe, simply nodded back at the kind woman. "Now, Zoe, we do need to go over a few ground rules"
"Purely for your protection love."
"Like no sneaking out in the middle of the night?" Zoe said with a small smirk
"That would be at the top of the list, yes" Emma said with a bit of a chuckle. "At least until the trial is over, we aren't going to be able to let you out of the house without one of us present"
"Wow…"
Killian felt like he could see the anxiety rising up in the young woman and quickly jumped in "Now Zoe, we promise not to be overbearing. We don't expect you to tell us everything about you right off the back. We simply need to make sure that, when you're out and about, that no one tries to harm you. As soon as we feel it's safe, we'll allow you to have as much freedom as we can" He said smiling at the girl. He hoped she would take what he was saying to heart.
"This is all just…a lot to take in…I mean…you guys are great and all, don't get me wrong. It's just…I have never had anyone in my life that cared about me like you and the Nolan's seem to" Zoe said looking down at the ground. It broke Killian and Emma's hearts. What had happened to this girl that the simplest act of kindness brought out this in her?
"Well get used to it kid. We are going to treat you like we would if you were our biological kid. You will always have a family with us" Emma said deciding to finally hug the girl. She wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do but it was the only thing she could think of to show the girl that she cared.
Zoe leaned into the embrace but wasn't quite ready to reciprocate the gesture just yet. She really didn't understand these people and why they seemed to care so much about her. But, she also knew that she desired to be a part of their family. She just hoped that she didn't do something that would cause them to push her away. More accurately, she didn't want her walls to push them away.
"There's one more thing love" Killian said breaking the comfortable silence. "We know that last night was a lot for you but, because of the nature of the people who are after you, we're going to have an alarm system put in. It's not because we don't trust you, but because we want to make sure that we are taking every precaution we can. It will be armed at all times and we will change the code every day so if for some reason someone figured it out they wouldn't be able to come back and try it."
"So if I snuck out again…?"
"A very loud alarm would sound. Also, we'd kind of start to think you don't really like us all that much" Emma said with a hint of sarcasm. She wanted Zoe to know that they weren't trying to make her feel like a prisoner. "Also, we need to work on your back story!"
"Back story?"
"Aye, the story we tell people about where you came from. They may think it a bit strange if we told them Emma birthed a full-grown teenager" Killian said as he ruffled her hair.
That caused Zoe to actually laugh out loud. It was the first time they had seen her genuinely happy since she arrived the day before. "That makes sense. Well, David and Mary told me that we are telling everyone I'm 14"
"Aye, we are also telling everyone that we adopted you, which will be true in a matter of days here"
"Does this mean I have to go back to school?"
"Not if you don't want to. We know you have already graduated so we can tell people you're homeschooled, that way they won't question why you're home during the day and in 4 years we will just doctor up another graduation certificate" Emma said feeling pretty proud of coming up with that on the spot. One of her favorite parts of her job was coming up with different persona's so this was right up her ally.
"That sounds good I guess…But what about being able to drive? Once this trial is over, how am I going to be able to get around?" Zoe said hoping that they would just say that they would get her a fake license or something
"Well love, we're going to have to abide by the law on this one. For legal purposes you're 14 which means you'll have to wait till you turn 16 again before you can get another drivers license. But Emma and I will be more than happy to drive you anywhere you need. We just can't risk you driving around and having people question your actual age"
"Well that sucks"
"We know. We wish we could bend the rules but, that only puts you in danger of someone finding out who you really are" Emma said
"I understand" Zoe replied a bit cowardly. She really hadn't realized how much was about to change when she agreed to do this.
"Now Zoe, I must ask, did Mary and David already confiscate all your old documents and any of your electronics?" Emma said approaching the conversation lightly. She felt like this was one of those 'open mouth, insert fire hose' type of conversations but they had to cover everything now before it became a problem later.
"Yea, they took everything at the station when I arrived. But I have a question"
"Of course love, you can ask us anything"
"Do I have to call you guys mom and dad? I mean…it's fine if I do…it's just…"
"No love, not until you're ready. When we're in public it might be good in order to sell our story to the neighbors and what not like you did last night with frank, but here, you can all us Emma and Killian."
"We understand that in reality, you're still an adult, we can be whatever you want us to be. If that is more of an older brother and sister roll we can be that or we can be your parents. But we're going to let you set the pace on that" Emma added
"Thank you. You guys really have been so sweet. This is all a lot to take in and I think I need some time to think about it. If that's everything, I'm going to go ahead and excuse myself to go to bed"
"Aye, that's all. Sleep well. Tomorrow we will just relax and get to know each other, how does that sound?"
"That sounds good. Goodnight" and with that Zoe went to her room.
