CHAPTER FIFTY

Website where all photos of all outfits mentioned is on my profile.

By the time there's a knock at the door almost an hour later my nerves have turned into irritation. Throwing the door open my scowl falls from my face when I realise that just by who it is in the doorstep I can probably kiss the application goodbye.

"Melissa?" I ask, quietly.

The red head shoots up and almost subconsciously a pale hand lifts and runs over the top of her nose. "Sarah. I'm here to do an assessment for the courts in regards to your application to adopt."

I push the door open wider, thankful for my brief moment of foresight to put the coffee pot back on, and to pull my sleeves down so the only tattoo showing above the pale blue turtleneck is the very top of the 'property of' tattoo on my neck. "Come in. Would you like a coffee?"

Nodding she steps through the door "I'd love one. Where's Abel?" She follows me through to the kitchen.

"He's in here. He didn't eat much breakfast and was hungry." Abel's sitting in his highchair, impatiently waving his arms at the bowl I'd set on the table when the doorbell rang.

Tucking the bib he's wearing properly down in front of him I stop and put a spoonful of food into his mouth. "How do you have your coffee?"

"White, 3 sugars please." I nod, pulling two cups down from the cupboard.

"Take a seat; just I wouldn't suggest either of the two by where Abel is. He's not a neat eater."

"Most young children aren't." She laughs, slightly stiffly and takes a seat at the other end to where I have Abel sat. Pouring coffee in the cups I modify hers, hiding the grimace at the amount of sugar then carry them both to the table.

Sitting down I set Abel's bowl on the table of his highchair and roll my eyes when he shoves his hand in it, lifting his fist to his mouth and sticking his fingers between his lips, only pulling them out when I lift the spoon to his mouth. She puts the papers she's holding down and sighs "I need to apologise to you."

My head shoots up and I know my eyes are wide as saucers at her random words "Why? I should be saying sorry to you, I'm the reason your nose doesn't look the same."

She laughs, completely surprising me "Thank you for that. No, I should be apologising for what I said leading up to that."

"You were right though, I was the orphan that didn't belong."

Melissa shakes her head "You'd been here almost a year. You did belong though, you still do."

I frown slightly and she gestures around the room "I did some research before coming over here. Part of the job, you'd be surprised what turns up when you mention someone in town. Gary told me the amount of work you've got him doing will keep him in business for months. Heather at the paint shop told me that you made one of the biggest sales in the first 6 months of the year. Mr Salt couldn't stop singing your praises when I ran into him at the market."

I shrug "All I'm doing is trying to build a life."

Melissa leans forwards, her arms resting on the table "I know I can see that by the work done here. I don't know if you knew or not, but this place was Hannah's parents' house before they moved to Stockton."

I shake my head "Didn't know that." I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not, Hannah was her best friend, and one of the other two people whose noses I broke. "You're welcome to look around if you like. I don't think you'll find much of the old house though."

Melissa laughs "Oh I can already see that I won't. They're the ones that covered all the windows in this room. Hannah never understood why. Anyway, back to my point. What happened when we were children is history. I know you're not the same person you were, and I'm not the same person I was."

I smile at her "I'm glad to hear that. On both counts."

Melissa smiles "Now, tell me about Abel." Looking at him she chuckles "But you might want to clean him up."

Switching my gaze to him I groan, while we'd been locked eye-to-eye talking he'd picked up his bowl and dropped it on his head, there's orange globs of food in his pale blonde hair and running down the sides of his face, his fingers have been swiping at it and there are trails going from his cheeks into his mouth.

"Well, as you can see. He likes food, and wearing it too. He was born 10 weeks premature, but he's four months old today. His paediatrician said he could start on solids almost 2 weeks ago; he loves carrots, hates peas. Loves apples, but hates bananas. Unless they're mixed with the apples then he looks like he's in baby heaven." While I've been speaking I've been scooping all the mess off the high chair table back into the bowl and retrieving a warm damp cloth to wash his face.

"He loves baths and had his first shower this morning. Not sure how he liked that, he seemed a bit surprised by it really. He loves my dog, who equally loves him and sleeps outside his room when he's napping, and Doj is most upset about being closed outside at the moment."

Melissa glances up as I walk past the table to empty the bowl, chuckling at Doj who's not his paws resting on the bottom of the door, watching each movement whenI come near the door. Glancing over her shoulder I almost sigh when I realise she's writing in shorthand but bite my bottom lip.

"Okay. How are you going to handle looking after him when you open both stores in town you've purchased?"

I glance over at her and she smiles "Told you, people talk."

"Between Donna and I we have three children so we have a nanny who comes in three days a week to look after the three of them while Donna does some work at TM and the normal household things. I have an arrangement with Gemma that she'll look after him one half-day a week for me and the other days I won't be working. The person I've already employed for when I get the businesses open knows that there will be days I won't be in and I fully trust her. Any other people I employ will be given the same information."

"And you don't find having a baby as a newlywed puts a damper on things? Nice article in the paper by the way."

I pause for a second, knowing she's not trying to upset me. Finishing cleaning Abel up I drop the dirty cloth in the laundry bin and rinse the bowl out, turning the waste disposal on to get rid of the carrot leftovers. "I would have married Jax regardless of if he had 10 children by 10 different women. Abel is not a damper; he's a perfect part of my life that I wouldn't be without."

Melissa smiles softly at me "Sorry if that upset you. I have to ask, there's a few that may be a bit emotional to answer."

I shrug, getting a handle on myself. "I know. Muffin?" Lifting the container holding the last four of the muffins I made I carry it to the table, lifting the lid I push it towards her. "They are orange chocolate chip or vanilla chocolate pudding. I was in a sweet mood when I made them yesterday."

Picking one of the pudding ones she looks surprised "How did you make pudding muffins?"

I shrug "It's more of a cupcake actually. Try it though, I haven't had anyone other than family try them and I don't know how they'll go down."

Melissa breaks it in half, letting out a squeak when the gooey chocolate inside starts oozing. "So that's the pudding?"

I nod "It's a vanilla cupcake that I hollowed the inside out of and filled with chocolate pudding. The icing in vanilla frosting."

Biting into the middle of it I know it'll be a success when her eyes involuntarily close. Chewing and swallowing she looks over at me "That's really good. What brand pudding is it? It's better than the stuff I get."

I laugh "That's cause I made it myself from scratch."

"Right, so I won't be able to buy it."

I shake my head "Nope, but you'll be able to buy them when I get the store open."

She smiles "Great for the taste buds, not so good for the waistline. Now, back to Abel. I'll try and get the possible upsetting questions over fast. How did you deal with Abel's hospitalisation?"

"I went up and saw him as much as I could, but unfortunately it wasn't nearly often enough."

"Mrs Richards from the hospital said you were there almost every day."

"Anne's a lovely woman. I was there every chance I had. Unfortunately during the time he was in the hospital I did have to make a couple of trips out of town."

Melissa nods "And you dealt okay?"

I shake my head "No. I rang the hospital every day while we were away both from New York and San Francisco. I'm not making the mistake of leaving him behind again."

"What does that mean?" Melissa looks up from her page.

"During your research did you happen to put my name in a search engine?"

She shakes her head and I pick at the muffin in front of me "In the interest of complete disclosure in case you now do search me and I get penalised for this I'm going to tell you briefly why I have to return to New York. For a period of 2 months during last year I was held captive by my ex-boyfriend, he was arrested and charged however was released. Tomorrow Abel, Jax and I, along with some others, are flying back to New York for the trial to put him back behind bars, permanently." I pause for a second wondering if I need to give her any more information but decide that that is completely enough.

Her eyes flicker with concern "You're taking a baby to a court case?"

I shake my head "No! Not at all. Abel is coming with us to New York but the two, maybe three, days when I'm in court I have arranged someone to look after him." Trish had opted out of coming to the trial, instead claiming babysitting rights for the time we were going to be locked in the courtroom. Her excuse also covered that she could go shopping for Abel while we were not there to see anything.

Cam had laughed at her during the conference call we'd made one night, till Trish pointed out that until Cam had children she was going to use mine as a surrogate grandchild. That had shut Cam up quicker then I'd ever heard, the echo of her teeth snapping together reaching down the phone lines.

Melissa nods, looking back down at her page "So I'm going to try and work through the rest of these questions real fast if that's okay."

I nod "Can I just run him upstairs first?" I gesture towards Abel who's now blinking sleepily in his high chair.

"Of course. I'll follow you if that's okay so I can see his room."

"Sure." Picking Abel out of the highchair "Fire off the questions if you want."

Melissa goes through a rapid fire lot of questions that I'm sure had been on part of the applications, date of birth for both Jax and I, how long we've been married, prior relationships. As we reach Abel's room she asks me what Jax's family thinks about me adopting Abel and I pause mid-step.

"What? Does Jackson's family not approve?"

I shrug "No one knows. We've been keeping it secret. The only people other than my lawyer, Donna and Opie and Happy Lowman who know are the court officials who have handled the paperwork."

"Who's Happy Lowman?"

"Happy is one of Jax's co-workers and a member of SAMCRO." I say quietly, I know that the connection to the Sons isn't secret; you'd have to be living under a rock to not know that Jax is a member.

"Why haven't you told anyone else?" She asks, and I can hear it's more from curiousness then need to know.

I shrug, tucking Abel into his crib and covering him with the pale blanket "I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up in case it didn't go well." Pulling the cord on the mobile that hangs above his bed the motorcycles start turning as we leave the room. "I just need to get the baby monitor, feel free to look around if you want."

When I come back out of the master bedroom with the monitor now attached to my hip I find her standing in the doorway of the kid's room "This used to be two rooms didn't it?"

I nod "Yeah, we knocked the wall out of the middle to make it one. It's set up for Donna and Opie's twins for when they come stay."

"And the other rooms?"

"They're all set up as spare bedrooms, when we have more kids we'll convert them to children's rooms. Did you see the rest of the upstairs?"

She shakes her head "No, I was stuck here. This used to be Hannah's room, well half of it was."

By the time she's seen the rest of the upstairs she pauses at the door to the master bedroom "You know, we were never allowed in here."

Pushing the door open "Go have a look then. But it doesn't look anything like it used to. We ripped out the walls and replaced them; well we did that right through the whole house. The carpet is new right through the house as well, and the entire bathroom has been replaced."

Melissa takes less than 2 minutes looking around the room before coming back to the door "I didn't realise it was so big."

I laugh "Tell me about it."

Walking back down the stairs we end up in the living room where she starts asking questions again.