One Week Later
Jack feels awkward as he sits in the sign language class. There is a smattering of teenagers in the room, but most of the people are couples with babies. Sitting there with an eight-year old, he feels like they must look at him as downright neglectful. He'd love to explain why he's here. That he hasn't even known this kid that long, and has only been responsible for them for a bit more than a week, but he knows that would hurt Jordan's feelings. So when they go around the room to introduce themselves he just gives the signs for 'wife' and the fingerspelling of 'Jordan'. Megan elected not to come.
His brain and fingers are old for this, learning a new language, and he's not as good at it as everyone else in the room.
The teacher, a deaf woman in her fifties, uses her arthritis knotted fingers to help him form the words sometimes.
Sam is a genius at the vocabulary, but her grammar is horrible. They keep telling her that she "talks like a book".*
Jordan doesn't sign at all. He just sits on his hands and stares past the teacher as if she was a ghost. Even though he hates his mother, and in every other respect has stopped following her mandates, he follows her in this.
Learning sign language will make him a bit less normal, and he's completely normal.
-0-
The Next Day
"Colonel Carter," Sam says, answering the phone.
"I'm sorry… I was trying to find Mrs. O'Neill," the voice of Meg's teacher says, sounding confused.
"I'm sorry, this is Mrs. O'Neill. I use my maiden name at work. Is Megan okay?"
"I don't know, she won't talk to me, and she insists on seeing you," the teacher says, sounding uncertain.
"My husband is a stay-at-home father. I'll give him a call and have him drop by."
"She really insisted that it could only be you," the teacher says with an apologetic voice.
-0-
When Sam arrives at the classroom, it is empty of all but the teacher and a figure she hopes will be her daughter. The teacher nods her head quickly, and then walks out of the room.
Sam bends down next to the chair, "Megan, are you okay?"
"I'm sorry you had to leave work," the girl whispers.
"That's okay. Can you tell me what's wrong?" Sam presses.
Megan stands, and Sam can see a wide red stain on the back of her pants. "Oh, honey," Sam says, taking off the jacket of her BDU's to wrap it around the girl's waist.
"That is pretty cool. Where did you learn to do that?"
Sam smiles, "I guess it's a side effect of living through the 90s." There is a mark on the seat of desk, and Sam glances around the room until she finds some hand sanitizer and tissue to clean it up.
"I'm so sorry about this," the girl says, blushing.
"It's a part of life, kid, and I think maybe we should take the day off, okay? Go home, change, and then go shopping?"
"Yeah!" Meg says.
-0-
Two hours later the two of them are sitting in the food court sharing a plate of nachos. In addition to the few necessities of the trip - to prevent the poor girl from ever being caught in the splash zone like that again - they had bought a few new outfits.
Although Meg went to the mall every single Saturday with her friends, she had never bought much of anything. The small wardrobe she had was all bought at cheaper stores that her mother would frequent when she wasn't even there.
When Sam offered to buy her something, she knew right what to go for. When Sam told her to pick out something else too, her eyes lit up in this special hungry way that made Sam tell her to get two more outfits.
"Thank you for taking me in, even though you didn't want to," Meg says.
Sam blinks at her in shock, her stomach twisting that this child could even think that, "What makes you say that?"
"Well, Jack bonded with my brother over baseball, and the social workers probably said we were a package deal or whatever, so you ended up with two kids for the price of one."
"Megan, we wanted you. From the second that we found out you existed, we knew you belonged in this family. We sure would have liked to get to know you before you came and lived with us, but we wanted you."
"Why do you treat us so differently then?" the girl asks.
Sam feels a little bit of anger at the girl's words, but is careful to keep it out of her face. If anyone has a case for favoritism, it isn't this girl, "I don't see us letting your brother stay up late to watch violent shows, or letting him skip school to go shopping."
"Exactly my point," she says, scooping up way too much cheese on one chip, and dropping some on her shirt in the process. Sam reaches over to wipe it off with a sad smile, scattering Megan's self-critical thoughts about needing a freaking bib. "You give Jordan chores and stuff, and with me you just do what I say. I mean, I shouldn't complain. You're letting me live with you. It's just that he gets to be your kid."
All this time Megan's been asking for a limit, testing her boundaries. How had Sam missed that?
"Meg, I have been letting you slide because I felt like we needed a connection before I could come down hard on you. You've had a rough life, and I didn't want to lay a bunch of rules on you when you barely knew me. I love you, and I really want you to be my daughter. I just didn't to start off by driving a wedge between us."
Meg looks down, "I had a rough life because no-one paid attention to me."
"Well, love, right here… I am paying attention to you. I'll start cracking down on the rules. How about in order to go out to eat once a week like you like, you have to eat five meals with the family. Not pouting in your room, but with the family."
Meg grins.
Sam goes for more. "You can watch one episode of sci-fi after your brother goes to bed, with either Jack or me, whoever isn't putting the baby to sleep, so long as your homework is done."
"Started?"
"Done."
"Attempted?"
"Done, and you can ask for help if you need it."
"Can we get some ice cream?" Meg asks.
"Only if you eat some salad first. After this, we are going to have to go buy a book. There is no way you can get new outfits without getting a book to read."
"I don't read for fun."
"A book for us to read to you. I do know the very best sci-fi," Sam temps.
-0-
Two Months Later
"What does the baby want?" Megan asks.
Sam picks the child up, feeling her rump. It's not her hungry cry. "Maybe she just wants to snuggle," the baby quiets at the word, understanding it already, "Yeah, snuggle, love?"
Megan stares at Sam.
"What is it?"
"I just didn't know… parents did that," Megan says.
Sam looks at her, "Most people don't cuddle kids your age, but if you want…"
Megan nods. Sam sits down on the couch, and holds out her arm. Megan sits down next to her, and leans against her new mother figure. Sam can feel all the protective layers peeling off the young girl. Megan breaths out a velvety sigh, "You and Jack are the first ones who ever really loved me."
Sam doesn't doubt it, but what a tragedy it is that someone can live in this world for eleven long years without a single person ever loving them. It is past time to call in favors to rush the adoption. They have to get this taken care of right away, even if it means calling the president himself.
-0-
One Month Later
Megan comes off the school bus with an arm around her little brother. Whatever protective feelings that she used to have for her mother have transferred to her brother ever since her mother has been removed from her life.
There is a huge cake on the table, and it has a picture of the little family all together.
"What is going on?" Jordan asks.
Jack moves over so that his son can see his mouth move. He signs the words as well, they've reached the point where they can sign at least the main words in a conversation now. Not that Jordan actually looks at the hands as they move, he's still focused on the lips. "Well, we've got the paperwork filed. If you guys want to be part of our family, we can adopt you tomorrow. So we thought it was cause for celebration, and celebration always means cake!" Jack exclaims.
"Yes!" Jordan exclaims, giving both of his guardians a huge hug.
Megan looks like she has just been slapped in the face.
"What's wrong?" Jack asks.
"Adoption?" Megan whispers.
"Yes," Sam says, touching her shoulder lightly.
"So that means you talked to our dad. You got him to say we're not his kids?" she asks.
"Dad's a loser, what does it matter," Jordan quips.
"Shut up! You don't know anything about it!" Megan shouts, the old Megan, the Megan that was around before three months' worth of love.
"I'm sorry, honey. Jordan told me that he didn't remember his father a long time ago, before we had met you. I never considered the fact that you were older, and might feel differently about him," Jack says softly.
Megan turns her brother so he's facing away from her, and his bad ear is closer to her mouth, and then she whispers in a tone that he is certain not to overhear, "He left. He left because I was a freaking hyperactive nightmare, and Jordan was deaf. I thought that if we ever just… if we could just be normal, he would come back for us."
Sam is about to speak to her softly, out of sadness, but Jack's anger speaks first. Thank God for the anger of a good man, "Well, he doesn't deserve you. Anyone who can't love their kids no matter what just plain can't love their kids. If you want me to say I'm sorry that I took you form him, I'm not. If you want me to apologize for not asking you first, I should, but I won't. You're my kid, and I'll protect you from anything. Your daddy doesn't get to break your heart anymore."
Her lips quivers.
Jordan turns around, frustrated by being excluded, "What did you say?" he demands.
"We were talking about how we love you," Jack says.
Jordan glares him, unbelieving.
"Your sister is mad that your dad didn't want you, and we said it's ok, because we want you so much," Sam says with, just enough of a touch of honesty in her words that she hopes the kid will accept it. Apparently, it is enough.
*Author's Note: My name sign, by the way is "book talker". However, the "talker" sign goes on for like three times the normal length, so there is the added implication that I talk too much.