*Thank-you for the reviews on the last chapter they were greatly appreciated thank-you all so much*
Dean and I walk into the Child Protection Services office where I am going to have my supervised visit with Zoey. He didn't have to come with me but he wanted to come with me to the visit. I only get about an hour with my daughter; which I don't think is long enough but Dean promises me he can get her back for me and get her out of the system. I want my daughter home with me. I miss her so much. I sign in for my visit and Dean takes a seat in the waiting area as I am taken back to the room where I will get my visit. I smile as I sit down on the couch holding onto the baby doll I bought for her. I want it to be a birthday present since I'm not sure if I will see her before her birthday or not. If I do then I don't mind buying her more presents but if not at least she has one thing from me. I sit on the couch nervously waiting for the social worker to bring her into the room. I smile as the door opens and my smile grows bigger and tears fill my eyes as my little blonde haired, brown eyed little girl comes into the room dressed in a pair of blue jeans and an Oshkosh hoodie with her blonde hair pulled into ponytails curling slightly at the ends. "Zoey," I say standing up.
"Mommy!" she yells before she runs to me on her tiny little legs as fast as they will let her go. I scoop her up in my arms and kiss her a thousand times, hugging her tightly. I take in the honey scent of her hair and the smell of her bath soap. It has been so long since I held her in my arms and that I had seen her I thought she had forgotten about me. "Miss you, Mommy," she says as she wraps her tiny arms around my neck.
"I missed you too," I say with tears burning my eyes as the social worker takes a seat at the table so she can supervise us on this visit. "How are you?" I ask her.
"Good," she says as I put her down on her feet. I can't believe how much taller she has gotten since the last time I saw her. She was a toddler the last time I saw her now she is closer to the size of the preschooler she is going to be.
"You have gotten so big," I say with tears in my eyes. "I can't believe you have grown up so much. You're not my baby anymore."
"I a big girl," she says making me smile.
"Yes you are," I say with a smile. "I got you something," I say with a smile as I hand her the baby doll in its box.
"Baby," she says with a smile as she admires the Baby Alive in the box.
"Yes it's a baby do you like the baby?" I ask.
"Open," she says handing it to me. I smile as I take it from her to open it. Once I have it out of the packaging and free I hand her the doll and she cradles it while I get its accessories out. "Thank-you, mommy," she says with a smile.
"You're welcome," I say with a smile as I hand her the baby bottle so she can feed her baby doll. "So do you want to play?" I ask her.
"Yes," she says with a smile as we walk together to play with her baby doll. Luckily the room contains a play crib, play kitchen and lots of baby blankets. Zoey plays with her baby while I pretend to cook something on the kitchen. I can't keep my eyes off of her. She's everything to me and she has gotten so smart since the last time I saw her. She can tell me her colors and she can count up to 10 and say her alphabet. It hurts knowing that I wasn't there for her to learn all those things. We sing a couple songs together from I'm A Little Teapot to Bingo.
We sit down at the table together and color before our time is up. The hour went so fast it was unbelievable it felt like she had just come into the room. She hands me the picture she colors for me before I help her put her hoodie back on and help her with her little sneakers that she took off to show me all the new things she learned at gymnastics. "I come home?" she asks me.
"Not today," I answer her as I zip up her hoodie. "I hope so soon."
"I want you, Mommy," she says bringing tears to my eyes.
"I know," I say with a broken heart, "but right now you have to stay with the nice people you're with right now. I'm sorry, Zoey."
"I love you," she says hugging me tight.
"I love you too," I say hugging her back not wanting to let her go as the social worker tries to break us apart.
"It's time to go, Zoey," she says as she takes her from me.
"Bye, Zoey," I say.
"MOMMY!" she screams and reaches for me as the social worker carries her toward the door. She's kicking and screaming, trying to get to me. Tears burn my eyes knowing there is nothing I can do to stop this. My heart is broken as her tiny little face turns red as she cries. She and the social worker disappear from the room leaving me by myself. I sit down on the couch and cry holding onto the picture she colored for me. I just want my baby girl back. I hope Dean is able to do that for me, not only for me but for us.
I walk out of the room and run into the social worker that gave my daughter back to her foster family. "Hey," I say to her. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Yes, Journey," she says, "you can ask me anything, what's going on?"
"When can I get Zoey back?"
"Our goal at CPS isn't to keep families apart but our goal is to keep families together. In your case you weren't providing a stable environment for Zoey so we needed to intervene on the best interest of the child and the best interest of the child was to put her into a foster home to give her some stability."
"Being away from her mom isn't stable," I say. "I never did anything to harm her and I never would. My baby needs me," I say.
"The only thing you failed to do was give her a stable living environment," she responds.
"What do I have to do to get her back? What do I have to go through to get my baby back?"
"There is a process that you'll have to go through. We can't just give her back to her because you say you're able to take care of her. We have to be involved for a short time," she says.
Before I can answer we are interrupted by a man I have never seen before. "Hello," he says to the social worker. "My name is Leo Schwartz and I am from the law offices of Schwartz and Myers, and Ms. Carmichael is my client," he says. I am almost speechless. Leo Schwartz is one of the most powerful and successful lawyers in New York but then again I wouldn't expect anything less from Dean.
"Mr. Schwartz," she says nervously. "It's nice to see you again," she says before shaking his hand.
"I'm here on behalf of my client," he says, "she would like her daughter back," he cuts to the chase. "And I'm going to make sure she gets her daughter back."
"As you know Mr. Schwartz, there is a process she will need to go through to get her child back."
"I'm aware of that but you took Zoey Carmichael away under what circumstances?" he asks sternly. "She was not an abused child, she was not neglected if anything I have researched that Zoey ate before her mother did and her mother made she was clean and taken care of. She surely wasn't neglected. Were there not other resources that you could have turned to other than separating the family in question?" he asks.
"Zoey was in danger being in the shelter."
"The child was not in any danger," he responds. "The child needs to be with her mother and she will be with her mother. Ms. Carmichael has the right to an attorney and has the right to fight this and I am going to defend her."
"Mr. Schwartz," she says trying to figure out the words. "We were just discussing what she needs to do to get her daughter back until you interrupted us."
"Ms. Carmichael has a stable environment in which she resides and the funds to provide for the child. She also has a job that she will be starting on Monday. I think she is capable of raising her child."
"You know the routine," she argues.
"And you knew the procedures but didn't follow them when you removed her from her mother. We can fight about this Sandra or you can do your home visit, Ms. Carmichael can provide the documentation that she needs to and then you can give her daughter back or we can take this to court where it will not end well for you. You can make the choice, Sandra."
She lets out a sigh and says, "we will do a home visit to make sure everything is safe and to make sure the child has a stable environment but Ms. Carmichael must also provide documentation of her job and prove she can financially take care of her child."
"I'm sure that won't be a problem, Sandra," he says with a smug smile. "Have a good day."
"You too, Mr. Schwartz," she says before she walks away defeated.
"Thank-you," I say to him. "I had no idea I had an attorney."
"Leo Schwartz," he says holding his hand out for me to shake. I shake his hand. "Nice to meet you," he says.
"Nice to meet you too," I say with a soft smile. "But I will never be able to pay for you."
"Don't worry about money or how much it costs. It is already taken care of," he says with a smile.
"Mr. Ambrose?" I ask. He nods with a smile. "I figured."
"I think he cares a great deal about you," he says with a smile. "I'm going to take care of everything don't worry. I will have all your records of the past sealed and your old life will not exist anymore. It's going to take a little bit of work but I will make sure Alexis Ryan no longer exists and that Journey Carmichael has been around for 20 years," he says with a smile.
"Thank-you," I say with a smile. "Thank-you so much."
"No need to thank me," he says. "I will be in touch with you to discuss more with you."
"Okay," I say with a smile before I watch him walk out the door before I make my way to the waiting area to see Dean reading a magazine. "Hey," I say as I stand in the entrance way.
"Hey," he says with a soft smile before he puts the magazine down. He stands up in his three piece suit with a light blue shirt underneath that brings out his beautiful blue eyes. "How did everything go?" he asks.
"It went really well," I say with a smile. "It was good to see her."
"I'm glad," he says. "Did she color that for you?" he asks pointing to the picture she gave me.
"Yes," I say, "she colored this for me. She's so smart now. She knows her colors, can count to 10 and knows her alphabet. I can't believe I have missed that much of her life."
"Well, hopefully she will be home with you soon. I am sure you met your new attorney," he says.
"Yes," I say. "I met Mr. Schwartz. Thank-you so much, Dean, if it weren't for you none of this would be possible. Thank-you."
"You're welcome," he says. "You ready to go? I want to take you by the office to show you around and I have some paperwork to pick up."
"Thanks," I say. "I'm sorry I had you miss work today."
"I'm the boss it's not a big deal. I can always work from home sometimes I prefer to work from home. I had all of my meetings rescheduled so it was no big deal."
"Okay," I say with a nod. "CPS is going to be coming by to do a home visit to make sure Zoey has a place to stay and she is in a safe environment."
"Then I guess I should get my decorator started on her new bedroom."
"She can just room with me she doesn't need her own bedroom."
"She's going to have her own bedroom," he insists. "Don't worry, my decorator will take care of everything."
"Dean," I say as we walk toward the door. "You're doing too much, way more than I deserve. I don't want you spending thousands of dollars just so my daughter can live in your home. She's 2 going on 3 she can share a room with me until we are out on our own. I mean you've bought me clothes, you're paying me to be your assistant and you're allowing me and my daughter to live with you. I don't want you to feel obligated to take care of me. I promise as soon as I am on my feet we will be out of your hair."
"Journey," he says. "You can stay as long as you want. I kind of enjoy the company in the penthouse but I'm not going to force you to stay if you don't want to," he says, "but you're welcome to stay as long as you want."
"Are you sure you aren't some type of angel?" I ask.
He lets out a soft laugh, probably the cutest, most attractive laugh I ever heard and says, "I'm far from being an angel. I have a good heart but I'm not an angel," he says with a smile.
"So you're pretty much a bad boy in your three piece suits you wear to work every day?" I ask with a teasing smile.
"You can't take the bad boy out of someone like me. I have a good heart but I'm pretty much a bad boy deep down inside at least I used to be. I may have mellowed out a little as I got older and more successful."
"Well," I say, "I have always thought bad boys were irresistible, cute, good looking bad boys have always won my heart," I say before we meet his driver at the Black SUV waiting at the curb.
"What does that mean?" he asks.
"It just means I am into bad boys but not really bad boys but the kind that have an inner bad boy but are truly good guys but still have that little bit of a wild streak in them," I say honestly with a smile before I get into the back of the SUV and he climbs in behind me.
"Interesting," he says as the driver shuts the door.
*A/N: what did you think of Journey's visit with Zoey? Does she seem like she is a good mother? Do you agree that Zoey needs to be back with her mom? What did you think of Dean surprising Journey with an attorney? What did you think of him? Will he get the job done to get Zoey back with her mother and to seal Journey's past to protect her? Is Dean doing too much for Journey? What did you think of Dean giving Zoey her own bedroom? Do you agree with Journey that he has to be some kind of angel? Did Journey sort of tell Dean she was interested in him in a way? What do you think will happen there? Could they both be interested in each other? Please review and thank-you for reading.