Marissa had left AJ busy with his homework and was sitting under the porch to the main house waiting for the child services inspector to arrive. It wasn't even five o'clock yet but Marissa was so nervous that she had already been out there waiting five minutes, trying to relax. She knew her fretting was a distraction for AJ and she didn't what to worry him.

As she sat contemplating the Magnolias just coming into bloom her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and a smile lit her face.

"Hey you." said Bianca's voice.

"Hey yourself." said Marissa suddenly grinning like a fool.

"I just wanted to check in on you. How are you and AJ? Are you all set for the visit?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"You'll be fine. You are an amazing mom and you have an incredible kid. You are a family! Only an absolute idiot would fail to see that."

"Then I hope the inspectors not an idiot." said Marissa only half-jokingly.

"Don't say that." scolded Bianca, "They are not going to take your son away from you."

"You can't know that!" cried Marissa, finally finding the moment to vent her true fears. "What if they bring up my amnesia? What if they go on about the fact I've really only known AJ for four months."

"For four months you have been no less a mother to AJ than you were before your head injury. You have protected him and cared for him and loved him. You have given him a home. You are his mother Marissa."

"But I'm just so scared they will take him away… what if JR…"

"JR is never going to hurt you or AJ ever again." said Bianca fiercely. "After everything he's has done JR no longer has any rights over his son. Even a bigot like Judge Marshall could see that."

"I know your right." said Marissa with a sigh. "I shouldn't let myself get so worked up."

"Hey! Getting worked up about it just shows how much you care; shows how important this is to you. Just answer one question… do you feel like AJ's mom?"

"Yes. But is that enough?"

Marissa hated feeling like this.

"Marissa…" breathed Bianca, clearly not sure what else she could say to reassure her.

Before Marissa could respond there was a crunch of gravel as a silver Honda turned into the drive.

"They're here!" she cried, her heart suddenly pounding.

"Are you alright?" Bianca asked. "If you need me I can be there in minutes just say the word, I'll be your back up."

Marissa wanted more than anything to say yes, but she knew that Bianca had more than enough on her plate right now. She could hear the exhaustion in her girlfriend's voice over the phone although Bianca wasn't about to admit it. Marissa would have to do this on her own. Bianca was right, she was AJ's mom, she shouldn't be afraid, she should be protecting him – fighting for him. Marissa took a deep breath, trying to get herself fired up – she shouldn't be acting like a kicked puppy, she should be like a lioness protecting her cubs.

"Marissa are you there?" Bianca's concerned voice called down the phone.

"It's okay Bianca and thank you!" she said, the edge of worry now gone from her voice. "I got this!"

…

The woman who climbed out of the car looked oddly familiar. She was the woman who had accompanied AJ into the court room. Her taste in clothing hadn't improved her ugly brown suit was now a hideous green one.

"Miss Tasker." said the woman reaching out to shake hands. "I'm Denise Lloyd. Shall we get started?"

"Sure." said Marissa. "We are just round the back."

Denise looked from Marissa to the front door of the main house.

"So who lives here?"

"No one at the moment it's waiting for when Bianca and I are ready to move in together."

"This is Bianca Montgomery, your girlfriend?"

"It is." said Marissa and she watched as Miss Lloyd made a note on her clip board.

"So where are you and Adam living?"

"AJ." corrected Marissa. "He likes to be called AJ. We live in the pool house out back…" Marissa paused when she realised how bad that might sound, "Although it is more of a bungalow."

"That's fine." said Miss Lloyd taking down another note on her clip board.

Marissa led Miss Lloyd around the side of the house and to Marissa's now slightly paranoid eyes their home look suddenly terribly dangerous perched so close to the swimming pool. She kept glancing over to try and judge the inspector's reaction.

"Does AJ use the pool?" Miss Lloyd asked.

"Only when I'm around to supervise, and never without permission!" said Marissa. "He's an excellent swimmer; he was always in the pool when we were living at the mansion." She felt obliged to add.

Miss Lloyd made a note.

"This way." said Marissa leading the inspector through the patio door into the pool house. AJ was sat at the dining table going through his maths homework.

He gave the inspector a hard look.

Marissa walked up to check on his progress, at the same time she surreptitiously smoothed down his messy hair. It comes to something when your son has longer hair than you. Marissa cursed herself for not thinking of asking Opal to give him a trim the last time she babysat. Would the inspector consider his untidy hair a sign of neglect?

Marissa looked up to judge the woman's reaction but she was simply glancing around the room, ticking off a checklist on her clip board.

"As you can see it has all the mod cons," said Marissa with a nervous grin, "Kitchen, lounge… there is a bathroom through there and bedrooms up the stairs." She felt a little like a realtor as she gave the inspector the tour. Was she talking too much? Marissa found she babbled when she was nervous. She closed her eyes to try her visualisation technique again – she was a lioness… a lioness!

"AJ has his own room?" the inspector asked.

"Yes." said Marissa.

The inspector ticked her sheet.

"I must say it's very tidy." said Miss Lloyd.

Paranoia shot through Marissa once more. Was it too tidy? She had cleaned the place from top to bottom for the visit – gotten rid of all the clutter. Did it look like she kept AJ in some sterile environment and didn't let him have any fun?

"Um… we tidied for your visit. It's not usually this pristine..! Not that it's usually a mess..! um… I mean it's still tidy just not this tidy." Marissa just blurted it out, desperation in her voice. Then she cursed her anxiety… so much for the lioness.

Miss Lloyd gave her an odd look.

"I tell you what." said the inspector, addressing both Marissa and AJ. "Young man why don't you show me your room and your mom can put the kettle on. I would love a coffee."

"Sure." said Marissa.

AJ looked to his mom for reassurance. Marissa smothered her nerves enough to give him an encouraging smile.

"Okay." He said, putting down his pencil. "It's this way follow me."

He led the inspector up the stairs. When they were out of sight Marissa collapsed against the kitchen counter. It was not going well.

…

AJ led the inspector to his room.

She walked up to peer out of the window that overlooked the pool.

"This is very pleasant." she said in conversational tones.

"I'm not going to let you take me!" said AJ bluntly. He had crossed his arms across his chest and glared at the woman. He hadn't liked her very much when she had accompanied him to the courthouse now he despised her.

"I am just here to examine your home." said the woman.

"But what you say could mean they take me away from my mom."

"And you wouldn't like that?"

"No!" said AJ, an angry frown on his face.

"Why?"

"Because I love my mom! She is the best mom I ever had. She's funny and smart and beautiful and she is always there for me."

"That sounds pretty special." said the woman kindly.

She moved to sit on the edge of AJ's bed.

"Do you mind?" she asked.

AJ shook his head, pleased that she had asked permission before sitting.

There was a loud creak as she sat down. The sound came from under the bed. She peered underneath to see the piles of toys and clothes AJ had stuffed there this morning.

AJ went from angry to embarrassed, but she just gave him a friendly smile.

"How do you feel about your father?" Miss Lloyd asked checking down her clip board once more.

"Angry." said AJ honestly. "Angry and scared."

"Why scared."

"What if he tried to kill my mom again? What if he tries to take me away!"

"Have you spoken to your mother about this?"

"Yes. Mom said she would never let him hurt me. She said we are a family and we will keep each other safe."

"That's nice." said the inspector. "And how to you feel about your mom dating another woman?"

AJ shrugged. Not sure what she wanted to know.

"Do you find it confusing?"

"No." asked AJ. "Why would I?"

"So how do you feel about it?"

"I just want them to get married already so that me and Miranda can be twins!"

"Miranda?" the woman asked confused.

"Miranda is my best friend! We were born on the same day. We are birthday twins and her mom is my mom's girlfriend so if they get married we would be really real twins. Everyone in my family are twins, my grandpa and great-uncle; my mom and my mom, now Miranda and I can be as well."

The inspector looked even more confused than before.

"Your mom and your mom?"

"My mom was my mom's twin. When my first mom died, mom married dad and adopted me and became my second mom. Before that she was my aunt."

"Marissa was the twin sister to your biological mother." said Miss Lloyd working it out.

"That's what I said." said AJ confused.

…

Marissa felt ready to burst the tension in her body was so great. It felt like they had been upstairs for hours, in reality the kettle had only just boiled by the time Miss Lloyd came back down the stairs.

"How do you like the coffee?" Marissa asked, trying to sound casual.

"Milky, two sugars." said Miss Lloyd putting her clipboard on the coffee table and taking a seat on the couch.

"Where's AJ?" Marissa asked.

"I asked him to wait upstairs for a minute while we have our interview."

"Interview." asked Marissa, her hand shaking slightly as she put the sugars in the coffee mug.

"It's more an informal chat." said Miss Lloyd. "It really is nothing to worry about."

"Um, okay." said Marissa carrying the drinks over to the couch and taking a seat.

Miss Lloyd took a sip of coffee.

"Firstly, how do you feel you are coping as a single parent?"

"I'm coping fine. I mean I have a lot of friends and family happy to help out. My current job has rather irregular hours so I'm having to rely on babysitters but next week I start as manager at Krystal's Bistro, much better money and much better hours."

"That's good." said Miss Lloyd reaching to her clip board to make another note.

"Now it has been a very traumatic few months for you, how do you feel you are coping in yourself."

"The amnesia I have come to terms with. It makes some things harder and I am still coming across unexpected blanks. Such as when I'm reading and I come across words that I have no clue what they mean; like the word 'mask' the other day when I was reading to AJ. Luckily he's a smart kid and can help me out when I get stuck. As for the other stuff… I guess you mean JR… That is one thing I wish I could forget, but just as long as I have AJ and I have Bianca I know I can cope with anything. "

"Is there anything that we in child services can do for you to help with the transition?"

"Sorry?" asked Marissa confused.

"Is there anything that you need to help you cope with becoming a single parent? We can offer assistance with childcare or counselling. We even offer parenting workshops, although from the look of things you are managing excellently."

Marissa felt her heart racing once more as realisation hit.

"You mean you aren't taking AJ away from me?"

"No, I don't know where you got that idea from." said Miss Lloyd. "AJ had the same fears. I'm sorry I should have possibly explained myself better. This is a home visit to assess whether your home meet the minimum legal needs for a child. You passed with flying colours."

"You're not taking AJ away." Marissa cried, so excited that she leaped from her seat and gave the inspector a massive hug.

"Well I'm glad it's good news." said the woman with an awkward smile when she extracted herself from Marissa's excited arms.

"Woo hoo!" cried AJ tearing from his hiding place on the stairs. He threw himself at his mother and she picked him up and swung him around the room.

Miss Lloyd got up from the couch and picked up her clip board.

"I shall leave you to celebrate." she said putting her card on the coffee table. "But if you do need any assistance at all with anything do let me know."

Marissa kissed her son on the forehead as she put him down and then hurried to the door to gratefully shake Miss Lloyd's hand one more time before she went.

Both she and AJ followed her outside to wave her goodbye. A huge weight suddenly lifted from both of them.

They stood side by side. Marissa looked down at AJ and gave him a big smile and he smiled right back.

"We're a family." said Marissa not sure she really believed it had been that easy.

"We're a family!" shouted AJ doing another jump for joy. Then he paused before tearing into the house.

"AJ, where are you going!" Marissa called after him.

"I have to tell Miranda the good news!" he shouted as he disappeared inside.

Marissa laughed, those two kids were going to be trouble one day.

…