Chapter 2

Half an hour went by and Jack's hope diminished as quickly as it had sprung up. They had obviously already picked someone else. He knew he'd somehow done the wrong thing, just like always; he should have gone downstairs and at least tried to speak with them. Something. He wasn't above begging. He moved from the window because he didn't want to see them walk away with any child who wasn't him. He threw himself, depressed, onto his bed which felt even more uncomfortable than usual because he was in a bad mood. He wouldn't let it bring him to tears, he'd cried enough in the beginning. He was slowly becoming bitter, which wasn't a good thing to add to his natural wave of stubbornness.

Jack nearly had a heart attack when Ms. Madison called to him, through his closed door, and told him that there were people down stairs that wanted to meet him. She was a woman who was almost as large as the big man with the beard; if his stature was intimidating hers was just plain scary. It didn't help at all that she wasn't always nice. She was mostly in charge of the orphanage, which really just meant that she liked to boss the children around. Jack sort of hated her.

She told him that he'd better get dressed (even though he already was). She didn't yell, but she might as well have for all the distaste that leaked into her voice. It was no secret that she picked favorites, and Jack certainly wasn't one of them because he refused to kiss up to her whenever he was in trouble; he may be orphaned, but he had some pride left. Any other time Jack would have looked crossly at the door and maybe stuck up a middle finger for good measure, but right now he had something else on his mind.

He'd waited 3 very long years for someone to talk to him and suddenly he realized that he had no idea what to say. It wasn't like the first time, when he had practiced all night, because he wasn't expecting this. He hadn't prepared and it was scaring him to death. His anxiety threatened to take him quickly into unconsciousness, every time his heart beat (hard) his vision clouded. Jack was getting dizzy thinking that maybe this would be the only chance he got and he knew he'd better make a good impression. He took a deep breath and went to open his door, running a hand through the disaster that was his brown hair; wiry and unruly. It was too late to try to do anything with it, but he was glad that he had at least showered that morning and brushed his teeth; he'd be clean and smell good and maybe that would help to take the attention off of his hair. He took a reassuring breath, nice and slow.

As he turned the knob, he thought that the stairs might give him crucial seconds to prepare something good to say. But He was stunned into silence, not that he knew what he was about to say anyway, when he opened the door and there stood the couple. Jack knew that he had his mouth wide open, but what he didn't know was how he was going to close it, ever again. The couple broke into smiles simultaneously,

"catching flies?" the woman asked him, amusement dancing through her words. Jack thought he was in love already because they both had beautiful smiles with very nice teeth, and he was glad for her sense of humor. He closed his mouth. Their smiles, impossible as it seemed, widened. Jack looked at them in wonder.

If they didn't take him home, he'd die, he was suddenly so sure, because no one would ever compare to these two; their smiles were warm and alluring and he dared to flirt with the possibility that there was love there, from them, for him. Was it too soon? It didn't matter to Jack; they looked at him the way Jack had been dreaming about for years, like they were happy to see him.

"I could not wait any longer!" the man told him loudly, his voice thick with his obvious good nature and an accent that Jack would later find out was from Russia.

"Yeah, my either," the woman echoed playfully, "we've waited, like, maybe our whole entire lives for you and the stairs were just kind of ridiculous after all that," she winked at Jack, waving her hands in a dismissive gesture in reference to the stairs. He wasn't nervous anymore. He thought she was funny with her over-the-top sarcasm. That didn't mean, however, that he wasn't going to pass out, he hadn't decided yet.

"I'm Jackson, and I'm quite pleased to meet you both," it was the only thing he could think to say and he knew he should say something. He didn't want to beg them to take him if he didn't have to. He gave them his widest smile, and it was completely genuine. He hadn't missed the fact that she had said that the two of them waited their whole lives for him. Him! Jack didn't think it would be a good idea to jump around enthusiastically, but he so wanted to.

He couldn't believe it. Her smile widened and Jack felt like he must have said the smartest thing ever, because that smile was over flowing with pride. He still recognized it, because love and pride and good feelings had been given in abundance by his mother. He missed her terribly.

The man held out his hand to Jack, who didn't hesitate to shake it. Jack could feel his strength, even though he hadn't even squeezed jack's hand, and hadn't shaken too hard. It was magnificent.

"Strong grip," the man told him, smiling, taking his hand out of Jack's and putting it on the boys shoulder and squeezing like he and Jack had done this their whole lives. The man had sounded so pleased. Jack could smell wood and pine and he was delighted by it, because it reminded him of winter which was, of course, his favorite season.

Okay, Jack was totally going to pass out, it was overwhelming.

"Jackson, meet Mr. and Mrs. North," Ms. Madison told him in that cold and clinical way that she said everything to the children she wasn't fond of, "they want to adopt you," she went on. She sounded, as always, very bored, with the hint of a sneer in her tone, even though her face held no real expression. She was behaving like this wasn't the best news anyone had ever gotten. Maybe it was because she didn't see why anyone would want to adopt Jack. Whatever it was, it really didn't matter right now. Jack was just glad that's someone, finally, wanted him. So glad, in fact, that for once how much she didn't care, didn't trouble him. He didn't even look at her for long.

"We were thinking, yes, that we would meet you first in case you didn't like us," Mr. North told him, then laughed loudly as though the idea was so ludicrous he couldn't hold it back. He might have well said, 'of course you do.'

Maybe it was silly, Jack thought, because he loved them already. Jack found that he even loved this man's laugh; loud and sure and stable.

"I like you, I really, really do" jack told them, his voice quite desperate, because he was suddenly afraid that if he didn't prove it, they would leave, thinking he didn't want to come with them. He knew what it was like to not feel wanted, so he threw himself forward and hugged them both at once, nice and tight (they way Jack had wished to be hugged for so long), hoping that they would feel what he felt (loving and grateful) and take him home. They hugged him back (though Mr. North grunted in surprise first) and Jack knew then and there that he was going with them. There was something in that moment. Magic, Jack thought, probably from the snow. Thank God it snowed today!

"We saw you online and we knew you were for us" the woman told him softly when he finally let them go, it was probably true that the hug had gone on for a little too long, but it had been a long time since Jack had felt any real affection and he was starved for it. It wasn't the same when the smaller children who lived there flocked to Jack and always had sticky hands around his waist. He loved children, but what he was looking for couldn't be found there.

She had bent slightly and it was so obvious that she wanted to be gentle and nonthreatening. Jack looked up at her and knew that he could never be afraid of her anyway, he nearly laughed at the thought.

"Online?" he asked them, completely taken by surprise. Jack wasn't sure what he thought about how they had come to decide that they wanted him, he wasn't even sure he cared, really. If Jack had given it any thought at all, he probably would have convinced himself that Ms. Madison had begged someone to take him, since she didn't like him and probably wanted him out. The important thing right now was that someone saw and talked to him and touched him. He didn't care how or why, maybe he would later. He just wanted to hug them again, but he was worried he'd scare them off. They'd clearly said that they wanted him, waited for him even, but they could change their minds, he held back and decided he'd try to hug them later.

Jack had learned pretty quickly at the orphanage that not everyone was open to the sort of physical affection he was used to sharing. Some of the others didn't like to be touched, so much so that they would scream and cry. One had hit Jack in his face, and Ms. Madison had acted as though he had deserved every centimeter of the bruise that followed. Jack wondered what that was about, because he loved to be hugged. But he had stopped giving people unsolicited hugs after a while, and then the only ones to hug him had been the children.

"Yes! You have whole profile on website, we were looking to adopt child and we knew you'd be perfect!" Mr. North told him, eyes crinkling at the corners with his smile. They were almost as blue as Jack's.

Jack didn't even have an opportunity to wonder what his profile said before, unexpectedly, he thought that he really was passing out, because he suddenly couldn't see. It took him a moment (an embarrassingly long one) to realize that he wasn't passing out, his vision was blurring because his eyes were welling with tears.

Mrs. North made a noise that was loud and clear and high pitched. It clearly meant that she thought this was the sweetest thing shed ever seen and Jack cried harder, sobbed truth be told. She got on her knees and hugged him, "it's been hard for you, hasn't it?" she asked like she cared, like she understood, and he tried to tell her, through his tears and the thickness in his throat, that it felt like one hundred and fifty years had gone by with no one giving a damn, but he couldn't speak. He only nodded.

He briefly heard Ms. Madison say something about paperwork and when he looked up, she was gone and so was Mr. North, but Mrs. North had stayed holding him so long that he knew she would have bruises on her knees. When he started to sniffle and laugh because he was so thrilled, she pulled back and looked at his face long and hard and he thought she was beautiful; her lips full and red, her cheek bones high and rosy her eyes the darkest brown he'd ever seen, but filled with warmth. Jack was glad to see it there. He'd been an orphan for years, but he still remembered what it had been like when his mom had looked at him like that, and the emotion behind it was pretty unmistakable.

She smiled, just a little; it was nothing like her wide smile from earlier, this one was small and wrapped in sweetness. She wiped his tears away with the palms of her hands and took a deep breath like she was the one who had been crying. It was a wonder that he didn't feel nervous about crying near them, he hadn't thought, even for a second that it would drive them away. There was something about them, he had felt it the moment he had seen them and even more so when he'd hugged them, and he knew now that they would be his parents.

Though they didn't bring him home for a few days. It might have driven him crazy but, to tell the truth, he sort of liked the excitement of it. They visited him every day. They had told him (more specifically Mr. North had told him) 'we are wanting to teach you lesson about waiting.' Jack almost told him that he had waited for years, but thought better of it.

A/N:

Little orphaned Jack just breaks my poor heart .. i LOVE him :)

ps. THANK YOU to all who read and what not i'm so pleased. feel free to review and pm me to tell me what you think so far =]