I was coming in late from a night with Dean, climbing in through the window above the kitchen sink because the family always locked the back door, when I heard it. The choked mule of a tired and upset baby. Immediately all my senses went on red alert. This family didn't have a baby, not when I'd left for school this morning anyway. I took off my shoes and stuffed them in my backpack, resting my stockinged feet on the sleek linoleum floor. I crept to the kitchen door and looked out into the hallway, where I could hear the baby fussing and two hushed voices speaking to one another.

"-so sorry for this at such a late hour."

"No, no, it's fine. And they just gave her back?"

My throat tightened and my fingers flew to my pockets, desperate to find my Manikin so I could stabilize and not start to have a breakdown.

"Oh no! We had to take her back."

….what?

"It was terrible, those poor people. But we have to find her a new family because they won't be able to afford her."

"What? Didn't the agency check their financials?"

"We did. It's a terrible misfortune, what's happened. When they took her to her one month checkup the doctor noticed an abnormality in her bloodwork so they ran some tests. And it turns out she has a very rare disease that will cost a lot of money over her lifetime, and they just didn't have the money to afford to take care of her. So we have to find a family who will be able to."

"That poor couple. Having her for so long just to have her taken away."

"There's nothing we could do. It's policy, a couple has to be able to medically afford the child that they adopted. Obviously if the child was with them for many years we wouldn't be able to do this but there's a grace period for these matters and they fell short of her being officially theirs."

I clutched the doorframe as tightly as I could and pressed my forehead against the wall.

"They badly wanted to keep her, but we couldn't let them."

I ground my teeth together and closed my eyes.

They'd taken a baby from her loving home and stuck her in the system.

They'd decided that ruining her life was better than letting her be happy with people who already loved her. Who probably would have taken second and third jobs to keep her. People wait years and years to adopt babies. It's why we never get them for long. But this baby needed special care. Who would be able to afford her? Who would even want her? She'd be trapped in the foster system for the rest of her life.

They should have let her just die happy.

The foster mum took the baby, assuring the social that they had a nursery all set up. And they did, I'd seen it in my explorations, used it as a quiet room to get away from the other kids. And they weren't a bad family, they'd do a good job with her. But… she'd eventually be moved. Then again. And again. To worse homes. And she'd grow and things would go bad.

The system had doomed her.

Suddenly I had an idea. And the drugs in my system told me it was a brilliant one.

I waited until the foster settled the baby in, crooning words of comfort to get her to sleep. It took almost an hour, and then she went back into her bedroom and closed the door.

I stole into the baby's room. Little No Name. Had the social even mentioned her name? They so often forgot to, there were too many kids for them to remember. But at least most of us knew our names, could repeat them to ourselves to remind ourselves we had an identity. But this little girl had been stripped of her identity. She was just a baby who'd been ripped from people who loved her.

From the fully socked drawers of baby clothes I extracted all the warm clothing I could find to protect her from the biting Oxford night air. Slowly, gently, I started to place clothing on her. She stirred sleepily but faded back into slumber, the stress of the day having knocked her out. Soon she was bundled up even with a little knit hat. I picked her up and cuddled her tight to me with one arm, then with my other picked up the blanket in her crib and tied her tightly to me so that if I needed to I could use my arms. As if knowing how important it was to be quiet she slumbered on, making occasional baby snuffles against my chest.

Quickly I went to my room and I dumped my books on my bed, stuffing my backpack with all my worldly possessions, of which there weren't many. Down the stairs and out the back window, I slipped on my shoes and was running. I had it in my mind that I needed to take her back, back to that home where she was wanted and loved. I would somehow find them and give her back. Save her.

I ended up at the pirate ship. It was the middle of the night and I had no idea where to actually go. I sat on the deck, shivering, arms wrapped around the warm, perfect bundle of life against me. She slept soundly despite the cold nipping at her bare skin. She trusted me, the person who held her. Her innocent little soul didn't know how to distrust yet. I curled around her and felt tears prick at the corners of my eyes.

We're supposed to protect babies. They're so little, so vulnerable. So precious. They have infinite possibilities. Nothing has touched them and if we try nothing will. we can make a more perfect world if we just take care of them. That's my idea of babies anyway.

The drugs started to wear off, leaving behind me in a panic. I couldn't go back to the house, not after stealing a baby. I'd get shipped off to an all girls boarding school to get rid of me. Put there to rot, trapped and away from my Dean.

Dean. He'd know what to do.

We never went to each others houses, but in case of emergencies always gave each other our new addresses. I started the trek to Dean's current house.

When I got there I went 'round back and started counting windows, finding the one Dean had indicated to be his and, finding a handful of rocks, started to chuck them at the glass. Eventually the curtains pulled back and Dean's hazel eyes peered out questioningly into the darkness. I saw him mouth, "Lion?" in surprise, then his head whipped around in alarm and he turned back to me, eyes wide in shock. He motioned for me to make a break for it and without question I turned to bolt, but a burly man with sleepy eyes in only his boxers and a white t-shirt was emerging from the back door in confusion. Fear immediately tore through my heart and I started to run, but before I could get more than five feet a hand had grabbed the back of my collar. I went limp, afraid that if I struggled I'd hurt the baby.

More gently than I expected the man guided me back into the house and into his living room, where his wife and Dean were already waiting. Dean rushed forward and gathered me into a hug, whispering as many questions into my ear as he could manage before the fosters pried us apart and sat us both down. Dean gave his fosters lethal glares of warning as I curled around the still sleeping baby.

"So you're the infamous Franky. We were warned about you when Dean was placed here." I looked up in shock. The foster mum was smiling softly at me, and her voice was teasing, not mad. Dean and I exchanged a look. At this point, neither of us thought anyone paid attention to us at all, least of all the fosters and the socials. The lady smirked slightly, "Ahhh, didn't think we knew about you, did you? Apparently you two come with little warnings every time you go to a new house, that you two are inseparable and quite the pair."

I scooted closer to Dean and he wrapped an arm around me and stared at them defiantly.

"Well, I'm Sophia and this is Derek. We're Dean's foster parents."

"Current foster parents," Dean growled.

Sophia's eyes sparkled mischievously and she said back, "So you keep reminding us."

Derek looked far more upset by the whole situation and butted in then, demanding, "What are you doing with a baby you daft girl?"

I flinched and Dean half stood in rage, growling in the back of his throat. Sophia shot Derek a sharp look and shook her head. She turned back to me, eyes strangely kind. "Franky, why are you here in the middle of the night with a baby?"

I stayed quiet, nose perched on the crown of the baby's head.

We sat there in silence for a while until Sophia realized I wasn't going to speak. Sophia turned to Derek and motioned for him to go into the kitchen and put on some tea. After he left, Sophia stood and knelt in front of me. I leaned back further into the couch's cushions, eying her warily. She looked me straight in the eye. "Franky, I understand that you and Dean have been through some truly horrendous things." I sucked in my breath and tightened my hold on the baby. "And I know from reading up on you and Dean, you're not bad kids. You're managing with what you've been given. So I know there's a reason you're here at two in the morning with a baby."

I bit my lip, then turned to Dean doubtfully. In fifteen minutes Sophia had acted a better mum than any foster I'd ever had. Dean shrugged, naturally more suspicious than me. I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding, and in a low voice told her what I'd overheard.

When I got to why I'd stolen the baby I started to cry, explaining helplessly about how I needed to protect her from the foster system. Dean stiffened beside me and when I chanced a glance at him he stared at me in confusion, as if he didn't recognize me. We so rarely talked about things that upset us, we didn't cry. Tears started to form in his eyes at my distress. I had scared him. When I finished speaking I leaned my cheek on Dean's shoulder and he kissed the top of my head.

Sophia nodded in understanding and I could barely comprehend it. She was listening to me. She wasn't yelling at me, wasn't only half listening, wasn't hitting me. Her interest in what I had to say was almost scarier than if she'd just stood and slapped me right then and there. After I finished she sat thinking about what I'd told her. Finally she said, "Franky, you can stay here and in the morning I'll drive you home and I'll explain the entire situation to your foster family."

"No!" Dean and I said at once. The baby woke with a start and began to whimper against me. For a minute I was absorbed in comforting her, and when she finally quieted I turned back to Sophia. "You can't do that."

"You said this family was a good one? They wouldn't punish you Franky."

"But this would be just another thing to add to my file."

Sophia pursed her lips and the look on her face made me think that she might understand our situation more than I would ever guess. She stood and went into the kitchen and she and her husband carried on a quick conversation. Derek's voice rose in alarm but Sophia calmed him. She came back into the living room. "Alright. I'll drive you back home right now, and you can sneak back in and put the baby back. No one has to know this happened except for the four of us. But you have to promise me you'll stay put. I'll see what I can do about the baby."

Dean and I looked at each other in disbelief. No one did this for us, not ever. No one stuck their necks out for us. Yet this woman, this foster mum, was doing this for me. For us. I could barely believe it. Dean and I nodded. He insisted on riding with us when we drove back to my house. I gave them a wave and climbed back into the window, put the baby back into her crib and took off the winter clothes, then went into my room and crashed.

I didn't hear from Sophia after that, but a few week later the family the baby had been taken from got her back. The dad had gotten a raise after pleading his case to his boss and the mum picked up a second job with the help of a friend, who I found out later from Dean was Sophia.

The baby, Mary, got her happy ending.

Sophia got sick with some terminal illness a few months later and she and Derek had to give back their kids. They moved to some place warm.

Dean and I didn't get the happy ending. Not then anyway.