Okay, so, some things I learned while writing this chapter. The adoption process is complicated. Social workers' visits are longgg. So, this might not be completely accurate to what it would be like in real life, but I didn't want to bore you guys with a bunch of mundane questions that don't really lead anywhere. This is just a taste. And also, full disclosure, somewhere along the way the social worker Janet morphed in my head into looking, speaking, and acting like Rosalind Price. I loved her on AoS... So if you want to imagine Janet that way too, that's how I see it in my head.

Janet

Everything in the safehouse—no, their house—was painted with a nervous tension in Bobbi's eyes, from the way the water in the pot somehow managed to boil over though she watched it like a hawk to how the cinnamon in the little spice jar seemed to clump together as she tried to shake it out until a huge amount finally plopped into the surface of the oatmeal in a poof of brown powder. The chairs of the kitchen table seemed to stick just a bit more than normal though they'd mopped the entire room the day before, and Bobbi could have sworn they'd put up enough pictures yesterday to mask the bareness of the walls, but now it was like everywhere she looked there was a bald spot.

"Breakfast!" she called when she was finally scooping it into bowls. She placed the bowls at the table with the plate of cut fruit in the center and then washed her hands before heading to Isabelle's room to see what the holdup was.

"I don't know," came Isabelle's voice as she approached.

"You could wear this," Hunter suggested patiently, and Bobbi paused outside the door, listening with the beginnings of a smile taking over her face.

"Don't I have to wear a dress?" the girl asked.

"Why would you have to wear a dress?" Hunter replied. "Because this is a special occasion?" There was a pause. "You don't have to if you don't want to, love," he told her. "I had a really good friend once, and she hated wearing dresses. And the color pink. And makeup. But you know what? She was really cool, and one of the best friends I ever had." Bobbi stopped dumb outside the door, frozen in place. He was talking about… A fresh wave of anguish rolled through her.

"So I can wear this?" Isabelle asked.

"Yeah," Hunter confirmed.

"Can I meet your friend?" she requested.

There was another pause, and Bobbi quickly blinked away any tears that were even thinking of beginning to form in her eyes. "Sorry, love, she died," Hunter told her softly.

"Oh."

"She was a really good friend of Bobbi's too," he went on. "Do you know where your name comes from?"

"No," Isabelle replied curiously.

"Well, you have her name," Hunter informed her. "Because Bob and I loved her a lot, and she was strong and smart and not afraid of a dam—of anything."

"Not even the dark?" the girl asked, a bit of awe coloring her voice.

"Definitely not. She loved nighttime," he revealed.

"What would she wear?" Isabelle asked suddenly.

There were some sounds of rummaging. "These, for sure. Izzy loved boots ever since she was a kid, although back then they were for playing in the mud rather than running into comba...t." The corner of Bobbi's lips turned upwards again at his catch and then failure to be able to age-appropriatize his sentence. "And this. She loved the color red."

"My favorite color is red too!" Isabelle exclaimed happily. There was some light shuffling from the room, and before she knew it the door was opening. Isabelle ran out first towards the kitchen wearing a bright red shirt with a cat on it, jeans, and a tiny pair of black boots the size of whose zipper almost dwarfed the laces.

She knew she had tears in her eyes as she looked at him. "Bob, you okay?" Hunter asked.

Bobbi couldn't speak, just wrapped her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder. He seemed to understand immediately, mumbling, "I hope you don't mind me telling her…" She gave a slight shake of her head against him, two small dots of wetness forming on his shirt. "I miss her too, Bob," he whispered. They just stood there for a few more seconds in each other's embrace.

"Are you coming?" Isabelle called impatiently from the kitchen.

"Be right there," Bobbi replied in as normal a voice as she could muster. She pulled away from him, though his hands remained looped around the back of her neck, wrists resting on her shoulders. She gazed at him through damp lashes. "Thank you. What you said to her was...I couldn't have done it better."

"You gave our daughter the perfect name," he told her. Hunter leaned forward to read a soft kiss to her lips, eliciting a smile out of her. Bobbi took a deep breath and wiped her eyes on her sleeve, then turned to walk back into the kitchen and join Isabelle for breakfast. Somehow her fingers traced down his arm and laced together with his.

After breakfast Hunter did the dishes despite her protests—keeping her hands busy helped keep her mind off things—so with Isabelle in her room playing with her stuffed animals Bobbi decided the next best thing would be to get some work done on her tablet. Even when Bobbi had returned from HYDRA, Coulson was still looking for ex-agents in peril or needing a job after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., a project near and dear to her that she had somewhat taken over as of late. Though her tablet didn't have the computing power of the Playground mainframe, it was enough to collate some of the data she'd already collected on a couple of analysts and a specialist that she was alarmed to find had been in deep cover at the time of the Fall and was now missing going on three months.

She had just sent a detailed brief on the analysts to Agent Chaev in the San Francisco west coast satellite base when a Skype call came in from the Playground. She accepted it with a small smile, wondering who it might be.

Of the top five she would have guessed, Melinda May was not one of them. "May," Bobbi greeted her. "Is everything all right?"

"You tell me," the agent said in what she could only describe as a gentle voice. "Your meeting with the social worker is today."

"Yeah, it is," Bobbi nodded.

"How're you doing?" she asked.

"I'm...okay," Bobbi gave a light laugh.

"And you will be after this meeting as well," May stated. "You are as well-equipped for this as anyone could be, and you deserve it just as much."

"Thanks, Melinda," Bobbi smiled.

"The rest of the team wanted to call and say good luck to Isabelle, but I told them it wouldn't be a good idea to remind Isabelle of them right beforehand."

"Yeah, thanks…" she said. "It's probably a good thing to keep our life right now as normal-people as possible right now for Isabelle's sake. But...if I'm honest, it's more me I'm worried about. I just don't want to be the one to screw this up." Bobbi paused. "Which sounds ridiculous, because if any of us screws up it's all over anyways."

"Bobbi," May said carefully. "Do you think your decision to give Isabelle up when was born was wrong?"

She was silent for a long moment. "No. I don't know. Whenever Hunter and I fight I always end up defending it, but with him it's like I'm not allowed to have a gray area; it has to be black and white." She ran her hand through her hair. "Maybe I am rethinking it. Hunter brings up good points, and…"

"Bobbi, do you trust me?" May asked.

"Yes. Even if we haven't stayed in touch much over the years, we were close once," Bobbi reminded her.

"Then hear me. You made the right decision."

"But how can you know that—?"

"Because I know what your situation was. Because I know how unequipped you were to take care of a baby. Because I knew you back then, and I can tell you you weren't ready."

"Not ready?"

"Not ready."

"Please, elaborate," Bobbi deadpanned.

"Not ready after everything that went down with your ex-husband. Not ready to leave your life's work with S.H.I.E.L.D. Not ready to share your life with your family. Did you ever tell your parents you were pregnant?"

"No," Bobbi admitted quietly.

"Because there was already so much of your life you couldn't tell them about. Because you hadn't yet learned how to balance keeping the necessary secrets while connecting and sharing yourself with the outside world." May stopped for a few seconds, then continued. "And not ready because deep down you knew your all wasn't enough to give to this child." Bobbi made a small indignant noise in her throat even as May added, "I know that feeling."

"After Bahrain?" Bobbi asked softly. "I know you and Andrew were trying…"

"Yes," came the specialist's clipped response. There was a pause, then she continued in her normal speaking voice. "You would have given your all. I'm not saying you wouldn't have. But it would have been a lonely life, for both of you. Trust in yourself, in the decision you made four years ago. Nobody but you could possibly know all of the circumstances of that time, and even know it must be hard to recall your exact mindset. But that same mindset is the one you would have taken into parenthood, raised Isabelle with. You made the right choice for you and for her, Bobbi."

"But why are you telling me this now?" Bobbi asked.

"Because you're ready now. And you need to believe in yourself, including your past choices, to convince the social worker of that."

She took a deep breath. "That does help. Thank you." The doorbell rang, jerking her into attentiveness again, and something clattered loudly onto the counter in the kitchen. "Got to go," Bobbi said.

"You're ready," May told her.

"I'm ready," she repeated, ending the call. She set the phone down and then headed to the kitchen, and together they answered the door. Her fingers were laced through his again as he pulled the door open.

A woman stood there with a polite smile already on her face, a collection of organized paperwork tucked under one arm. "Hello, Ms. Morse?" she asked.

"Yes," Bobbi said, breaking her connection with Hunter to hold out her hand. "It's nice to meet you."

Janet accepted her hand and shook it. "Then you must be Mr. Hunter, the father," she said, releasing Bobbi's hand to shake his too. "I'm Janet Marchese, the social worker assigned to Isabelle's case," she introduced herself. "But you can call me Janet like the kids do."

Hunter nodded, then stepped backwards and gestured inside. "Come on in."

"Thanks for coming," Bobbi added.

Janet smiled as she stepped in. "Thank you for having me." She gave a quick glance around before looking at the two of them, waiting to be directed.

Bobbi led the way to the dining room, and all three of them took seats at the table. "Isabelle's in her room playing. I can get her if…?"

Janet smiled. "That won't be necessary yet. Let her play for now." She placed the papers in a single pile on the table in front of her before opening up a notepad, and Bobbi's heart began to beat measurably faster. "How has the transition been, having Isabelle living with you?" she asked conversationally, directing the question to them both.

"She's wonderful," Bobbi said, looking at Hunter, barely able to hear the question—or herself, for that matter—over the thudding in her chest. "Having her here...it's been a big change, but just interacting with her is amazing."

Hunter grinned, nodding. "Exactly what she said."

Janet's smile increased. "That's good. I'm glad to hear it." She placed her hands down gently on the table, her body language signaling a start to the real business. "Since this is your first visit with a social worker, I'll start by explaining some procedural information. I am going to go through a variety of questions with you regarding Isabelle, but the only person who needs to be present is you, Ms. Morse."

"Wait, but I'm trying to gain custody too," Hunter said, looking at Janet confusedly.

"I'm aware," Janet nodded. "However, legally you never gave up your parental rights to the state, and thus don't need quite as lengthy a process to regain custody."

"So how does that work for me then?" Bobbi asked. Hunter squeezed her hand under the table. "Because I was the one who gave her up, what do I have to do?"

"As long as I deem you fit after this meeting, Isabelle will remain with the both of you," Janet assured her. "But I will need to conduct another house visit in six months before the adoption can be finalized, as well as do two individual interviews with you, Ms. Morse, in the interim."

Bobbi nodded. "Will Hunter gain custody before I'm cleared to?"

"No," Janet shook her head. "The last step is the house visit, so I'll inform you after then whether the adoption can go through, at which point you will get approval from a judge to make it official." She paused. "Do you have any more questions I can answer, or shall we begin?"

Bobbi and Hunter looked at each other. "I think we're good," he spoke for them both. "I'll just go check on Isabelle before we start." Janet gave him an understanding nod and he got up and headed to their daughter's room.

"Is there any time schedule I should be aware of for today?" the social worker asked.

"No, we're free all day," Bobbi answered.

With one nod, glanced at her watch and then picked up her pen. "I'll start with some objective questions while we wait, just the basic stuff. Who lives in this household?"

"Just the three of us."

She made a note on her pad. "Any relatives or family in the nearby area?"

"My parents live in Ohio and Hunter's mum is back in England," Bobbi replied. She suddenly wondered if not having family close to help was a mark against them. "But Hunter has a sister with two kids of her own—she's about an hour and a half away, I think."

"And your and Mr. Hunter's working hours? Are they flexible?"

"Fairly flexible between the two of us, yes," Bobbi confirmed. "We are given the option of working from home two days a week each, and if there was ever an emergency it wouldn't be that hard to get time off."

"Your occupations?"

Her usual cover as a police detective definitely wasn't going to work here. "I'm a geneticist, and Hunter works as an engineer."

Janet nodded. "What about Isabelle's medical records? Do you have a copy that I can look at?" Janet requested. Bobbi got it for her, and the woman began to scan quickly over it with her pen. "May I keep this for my records, or do you need it back?"

"It's yours," she told her.

"Thank you. Now, I see Isabelle is up-to-date on all of her immunizations and has no recorded long-term medical conditions. How has her health been, in your opinion, since you've had her?"

"Good. She hasn't gotten sick so far, and she doesn't have trouble with physical activity or anything like that," Bobbi said. Hunter returned and sat back down next to her again.

"She's fine. Playing with Hoppity and Thor." He glanced at Janet and clarified. "Her stuffed rabbit and monkey."

Janet smiled. "Lovely. How would you classify the relationships between the three of you?"

It took her a minute to formulate an answer, but eventually she got it. "We both love Isabelle," Bobbi said. "And she's beginning to view us as her mother and father. As for the two of us…" She glanced at Hunter. "We're figuring things out. But both of us care too much about Isabelle to let anything that happens between us affect how we treat her."

"Can you expand on that, please?" Janet asked politely, jotting a few things down. Bobbi tried to read what she was writing on her yellow legal pad, but between the—purposefully—messy handwriting, the odd angle at which she was trying to decipher it, and the discreet manner with which she was attempting her peek made it impossible to tell what she was writing down.

"We were married, but we divorced before Isabelle was born," Bobbi explained. "It was a mistake, but I never told him that I was pregnant. When he found out a few weeks ago, Hunter was understandably angry, but we've worked through a lot of it since then. We make a point never to fight in front of Isabelle though, or within her earshot. No matter what happens between us, she comes first." Hunter glanced at her, obviously feeling the need to jump in a bit here. She only hoped it was to show solidarity.

Whatever fears she had about it were unfounded. "There's a lot of history between us," he began. "We've done being in love to never wanting to see each other again and everything in between. And now we're...trying it again. But whether we end up back at the altar or just as friends and co-parents, we'll always be connected through Isabelle."

"We're committed to her," Bobbi added helpfully.

"How would you describe her behavior since she's been in your care?" Janet asked.

"Well-behaved," Bobbi replied immediately. "We have real had any problems so far, and nothing that a slightly raised voice and a talking-to didn't take care of."

"What indicators have you identified to work out how she is feeling?"

"She gets clingy when she's sad or scared," Bobbi said somberly.

"And usually she'll tell us when she's hungry or thirsty," Hunter added.

"She sounds like a vocal young girl," Janet observed. "Have you identified any triggers for her that would cause her to feel sad or scared?"

"She can get sad when something reminds of her old home, and we try to respect that," Bobbi answered.

"How has she settled in? How often does she talk about her old family or friends she left behind?" Janet asked.

"Family, yes. Friends I haven't noticed so much," she revealed. "The first week or so was especially hard, because we ourselves were still trying to figure out what had happened. So we comfort her when that happens, but we don't try to make her forget about that part of her life—we felt it was important in the beginning that she didn't see us as replacements."

"How are you two feeling about the whole situation?"

"I...I'm concentrating on making new memories with Isabelle, not focusing on the old. I don't resent her previous family—they took care of her when I couldn't."

Hunter nodded. "Same, about the memories. And I'm trying to be someone she trusts, most of all."

"Looking back, if you could, would you change anything?" Janet asked, looking directly at Bobbi.

May's advice came back to her. "No. I always did what I thought was best for her. Except...I would have told Hunter. What I did was never fair to him." She glanced at him to see him nod his thanks almost imperceptibly.

"The two of you being divorced, does that affect how you treat each other in a way that Isabelle might notice, now or someday?"

"Like I said, before...we're working it out," Bobbi said.

Hunter picked up her slack. "No more than any parents would. No child can grow up in a house with absolutely no disagreements, whether their parents have a traditional marital situation or not. We're not perfect, but we do our best."

Janet finished up her last note and then drew a line through her pad, separating what she had previously written and what she was going to write next. She pulled a piece of white paper out of the stack she had next to her and slid it across the table to Bobbi. "Could you write her daily routine down here please?"

"Sure," Bobbi nodded, pulling the paper toward her and beginning to write. "She usually wakes up around six thirty to seven, sometimes as late as eight, so breakfast around then. Lunch around noon, depending on what we did that morning. And we usually have at least an hour of learning time in the afternoon—practicing letters, numbers, stuff like that. Dinner at six thirty, bathtime afterward, story time and bed around eight thirty." She put the pen down again and slid the paper back to Janet.

The social work perused it silently, then looked at both of them. "I'd like to talk about Isabelle's eating habits. Is she a good or a fussy eater?"

"Good so far," Bobbi smiled, happy to be moving away from the harder questions. "But we've discovered she hates broccoli but will eat kale with impunity."

Janet returned her smile. "What are her favorite and least favorite things to eat?"

"She likes sugary cereals, which we're now trying to curb," Bobbi laughed, becoming more comfortable in the woman's presence. "Apples too, which we're much more a fan of. The only thing she's disliked yet is broccoli, actually."

"In terms of Isabelle's eating habits, how much does she eat, how often and how long does it take her?" Janet asked, seeming to mush three related questions together. They seemed odd questions to Bobbi—what did their ability to be responsible parents to Isabelle have to do with any of that, unless the point was that they'd paid attention to it enough to answer them?

Bobbi smiled nervously. "I'm not quite sure how to quantify it. As for time, she usually keeps pace with us."

Janet nodded understandingly. "For most of the questions I'll ask, there isn't an exact answer I want. I just want to get a general idea."

"She likes a large breakfast and dinner, not so much lunch. Usually we feed her juice or milk and fruit with breakfast, fruit with lunch, and definitely a vegetable with dinner. Sometimes she asks for more, sometimes not—I think depending on how much we tired her out that day."

Janet glanced at her watch again, something which would have been subtle had Bobbi not been a trained, elite spy. It was like she was timing something. Oh. Oh. "You mentioned educational activities earlier, can you elaborate on them?" the social worker asked.

"Practicing letters or counting, writing her name, identifying colors, a bit of reading," Bobbi listed off. "Some basic addition and subtraction with concrete objects, although that's a bit more advanced."

"How is her writing and drawing abilities? Do you have any examples you can show me?"

"Sure," Bobbi stood up. "Let me get them." She walked out of the room and then returned with a small stack of papers, which she placed down on the table. "Excuse me for a minute while I check on Isabelle." She gave a light laugh. "We don't usually leave her alone for all that long, so I guess it's making me a bit nervous."

Janet nodded, glanced down at her watch again, made a note on her pad, and then took it upon herself to look through the artwork. "There's quite a bit here. How often do you sit and draw with her?" she asked.

Bobbi heard Hunter answer as she walked out of the room. "She loves to draw, but not by herself. She likes doing her own and then 'fixing' ours. So we spend a lot of time doing that."

She walked towards Isabelle's room to find her still playing with Hoppity and Thor. She squatted down by her daughter. "Everything okay, Isabelle?"

"Yep!" the girl chirped back happily. "Hoppity's teaching Thor his ABCs, but he keep forgetting J like me." She looked up at Bobbi. "Can I meet her?"

"Your social worker? Sure," Bobbi smiled. "Come on." She took her by the hand as the girl stood up, then led her out into the dining room. "She wanted to meet you," she explained to Janet with a smile.

Janet smiled warmly at Isabelle. "Hello, Isabelle, I'm Janet," she introduced herself, holding out her hand much like she had to Bobbi and Hunter.

"Hi," Isabelle said shyly, putting her hand in Janet's quickly and accepting the handshake before returning to Bobbi and wrapping her arms around her leg.

"I hear you like drawing; do you want to draw in here while I talk with your parents?" Janet offered, asking Isabelle directly.

Isabelle looked at Hunter. "Daddy, will you draw with me?"

"Sure, love," he replied, getting some paper. "Let's draw over here, okay?"

"Okay!"

Janet waited until they had settled before turning back to Bobbi, "How is her reading ability?" she asked, no longer using Isabelle's name.

"She prefers it when we read to her, but we encourage her to do it as well. She can read basic sentences, but not more than that."

"There's no preschool listed. What are you educational plans for her?"

"We've been researching preschools like the one she was enrolled in before, but we do want to have some time with her to get to know her on our own before then. We're thinking of enrolling her in the spring through summer, and then of course she'll start kindergarten next August at the nearby public elementary school."

Janet nodded. "What activities does she like, or are ones you're interested in putting her in?"

"She likes running around, definitely. Kicking a soccer—" she glanced furtively at Hunter, who shot her a teasing scowl back, "—soccer ball in the backyard. Besides that, we plan on having her try out gymnastics and martial arts, but of course it depends on what she wants to do," Bobbi answered.

"Has she been taught to swim?"

She frowned. "I actually don't know, as it's fall. But if she hasn't, that's definitely something we're going to teach her this next summer."

"All right, I think that's enough questions for now," Janet said, setting down her pen. "I'd love a tour of the house, if that's all right. Specifically the kitchen, bathroom, and her room."

"Of course," Bobbi said, standing up. "We'll be back, Isabelle."

"She wants to see my room?" the girl asked, looking between the two of them.

"Why yes, I do," Janet said. "Want to show it to me?"

"Okay!" she agreed happily, leaping up from her seat and scampering off towards her room. Janet followed with a smile, Bobbi and Hunter trailing not too far after her.

"This is Hoppity, and this is Thor," Isabelle introduced her to her stuffed animals. "And that's Rapunzel." She pointed to the large Tangled poster on the wall.

"You have a lovely room," Janet complimented her, making Isabelle smile and duck behind her mother's legs again. Bobbi picked her up and Isabelle latched her arms around her neck as they made their way to the bathroom, where Janet opened a few cupboards and looked at their various shampoos and conditioners. After that was the kitchen, where she investigated the childproofing on their drawers, making notes on her pad the whole time, even when Isabelle kicked her legs a little and Bobbi set her down again. If she wasn't mistaken, Janet was also noting at the state of their outlets and surge suppressors as well, and also the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

"Just one thing left for today," Janet said when they got back to the table. She squatted down at Isabelle's level. "Would it be all right if I talked to you for a few minutes alone?"

The girl shook her head, eyes wide.

"She's a bit shy 'round new people," Hunter supplied helpfully. "What if we were still in the room, love?"

"Sure, would it be okay then?" Janet asked. Isabelle thought about it for a minute and then nodded. "Great," she smiled. Bobbi pulled out a seat of Isabelle at the table, hand lingering a few seconds longer than necessary on her daughter's back before she retreated to the counter with Hunter. "Actually, could you stand outside her field of vision?" Janet requested. Bobbi and Hunter repositioned themselves. "Thank you."

Isabelle squirmed in her seat, twisting to look at the two of them in their new location. Bobbi felt bad for her, knowing how much she didn't like being alone with strangers since Ward. But she couldn't exactly explain that whole incident to the social worker so she kept silent. "It's all right, love," Hunter assured her from behind. "We're right here."

"Nothing scary's going to happen," Janet promised. "I just want to ask you some questions about your new home." Isabelle just watched her. "Do you like living here?"

She nodded, little fingers fisting the hem of her shirt.

"What about Bobbi and Lance?" Janet asked. "They take good care of you?"

"Yeah," Isabelle said.

"Is there anything here that makes you feel unsafe or scared?"

The girl squirmed in her seat and ducked her head again, and Bobbi waited with baited breath for her to say something about Ward, the man who had terrorized her probably more than she'd ever experienced. "The dark," Isabelle revealed finally.

"Well, that's okay, I was scared of the dark when I was little too," Janet told her kindly. "Who do you go to when you feel scared?" Isabelle turned and pointed to Bobbi and Hunter. "And they help you feel safe again?" Another nod. "How?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. They hold me."

Janet prompted her, "Anything else?"

"Daddy makes me laugh," Isabelle said. "And they hug me."

"What about Mommy?" Janet asked.

"She kisses my head and says she loves me," Isabelle replied. "Then I feel better. I don't like being scared."

Janet smiled. "I can understand that. Let's move onto something happier do you do for fun?"

"Draw," the girl supplied shyly, and then with growing confidence, "and we read books about a mouse or a moon or Piggy and when Skye and Leo aren't busy we play or watch Tangled." Bobbi felt Hunter's body stiffen beside her. Less dire of a slip-up than mentioning the fact that living with them had put her in the crosshairs of a psychopath… She found herself thinking that if Isabelle ever became a spy herself she would inform her about this moment: her first botched cover. Then Bobbi frowned. Did she even want their daughter following in their footsteps? Putting herself in danger every day, risking her life for someone else's mission? Her lips quirked upwards again only when it occurred to her that this had been one of Hunter's arguments to her almost verbatim back when they were married. She'd shut him down because she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

If Isabelle ever did decide to become like her, Bobbi resolved that she would just have to train her until she was absolutely capable of the same.

"Skye and Leo?" Janet asked, increasing the tight feeling in Bobbi's chest. "Tell me about them."

"They're my friends," Isabelle told her seriously. "They're awesome. Next time Skye said she'd teach me how to play Sequence."

"That's wonderful, Isabelle," Janet smiled. "Are you happy here?"

Isabelle nodded and somehow Hunter's hand was in here again, both of them smiling like Christmas has come early.

"All right, I think that's all I need then," Janet said, looking back at Bobbi and Hunter for the first time since starting the interview with Isabelle. The girl happily clamored out of the chair, in such a hurry that she might have fallen down on her face had Hunter not scooped her up and hugged her.

"I love you too, you know," he whispered close to her ear, tickling her sides. She burst into peals of laughter, struggling to free herself from the self-proclaimed tickle monster. When he finally stopped she gazed happily at him, breathing heavily with rosy cheeks.

She bopped him on the nose. "I know!"

Bobbi laughed at their antics before turning her attention to Janet. "Who are Skye and Leo?" Janet asked.

"We thought she might be a little lonely when she first arrived so we invited some close friends over," Bobbi covered quickly.

"Friends with kids," Hunter added.

Isabelle added credence to their words without knowing it. "Skye loves to watch Disney movies just like me! And Leo has the coolest toys." Bobbi and Hunter looked at each other, resolving to make sure Isabelle knows things in the lab were not toys later.

"All right," Janet smiled, making one last note on her pad before closing it and setting it on top of the stack of paperwork.

"When will we know the results?" Bobbi asked.

"You'll receive a copy of my official report in about a week, but I can tell you now that I see nothing here that would make me want to place Isabelle with any other family so far," Janet told her warmly. "Your marital situation is somewhat unconventional, but legally there is no custody issue seeing as Mr. Hunter never gave up his parental rights. I'll check back in in six months, and in the meantime you can set up an individual appointment with my office." She fished her business card out of the stack of papers and handed it to Bobbi before holding out her hand. "It was wonderful meeting you, Ms. Morse."

She shook it. "You too; thank you."

Janet repeated the process with Hunter and waved goodbye to Isabelle. When the door was shut behind her, Bobbi met Hunter and Isabelle in the kitchen. The girl held her arms out to her and Bobbi took her, settling her weight on her hip. "I like her," Isabelle said. "Janet's nice."

"I'm glad you think so," Bobbi laughed. "This won't be the last time you see her. You did really well while she was here, Isabelle, thank you."

"So I can stay with you?" their daughter asked, looking up at her. Bobbi was surprised at the loaded question—apparently their point about the stakes from a few nights ago had stuck—but answered it anyway.

"Yes, you're staying with us," Bobbi promised.

"When's she coming back?" the girl wanted to know.

"Not for a long while," Hunter supplied.

Bobbi smiled. "So for now, it's time to go home."

This is the end of the adoption process segment of the story - for now. I've got some fun stuff planned for the next few chapters, and then we'll move into season 2 midseason finale territory, which is a whole other can of worms. Thanks for sticking with me! I'd love to know what you thought :) Also, Happy Hanukkah to anyone who celebrates it!