Elliot pushed the cart through the aisles of the Walmart until he arrived at the girls section. Hannah may be thirteen, but she was extremely petite, and Elliot doubted she would fit in any clothing from the juniors or women's sections.

He wandered around the different clothing racks, never really stopping to look closer at anything. The whole thing felt a little intimidating. Kathy had done the bulk of the shopping for their kids, and he rarely paid close attention to the sizes and styles his children wore.

Hannah had nothing, which meant she needed everything, and Elliot wasn't certain where to start. After he passed by the same stack of t-shirts three separate times, he decided it was time to call in for backup.

He scrolled quickly through his recent calls until he landed on Kathleen's name. He tapped the video button and hoped the cell service would be reliable enough within the Walmart for a video chat. Thankfully, she picked up quickly.

"Hey, Dad, what's up?" She propped her phone against something and squinted her eyes. "Where are you?"

He bypassed the question. "Have you talked to your brothers?" Eli had been so distracted, he probably didn't fill anyone in on anything before catching his flight, and Dickie wasn't really consistent about talking to anyone but Lizzie.

She shook her head. "No. I mean, I talked to Lizzie yesterday, and she filled me in on some stuff, but she didn't have specifics. What's going on, Dad? Lizzie said you guys find a kid in the woods."

He briefly explained the situation they found themselves in and how he volunteered to be a guardian for Hannah.

Kathleen dropped her head into one of her hands. "You seriously didn't talk to Olivia first? What the hell, Dad? She's obviously got a say in this."

Elliot bristled, not wanting to go into deep details about the tense peace he found with Olivia. It wasn't any of Katie's business anyway. Instead he hurried to his reason for calling. "Look, Hannah has literally nothing, and I haven't shopped for a teen girl…probably ever."

Kathleen laughed out loud. "Yeah. That was more of a mom job. Which, I mean, we preferred it that way. You wouldn't let us wear like anything cute."

"That's not true." He grumbled.

"Come on, Dad. I wore a spaghetti strap dress to Nicole's sweet sixteen, and you almost made me go change! Mom had to jump in the argument so I could sneak out the back door."

He grumbled something unintelligible in return.

She continued. "Some days I couldn't believe you worked sex crimes. I mean, someone mentioned bra shopping, and you would find some excuse to leave the room." A bubbly laugh escaped her lips. "School shopping was more of a mom sort of thing."

He rolled his eyes. "I think it would have been weirder for everyone if I had been interested in talking about buying bras. Believe me, you guys didn't want me there. No one wants to shop with their dad." He rubbed the back of his head.

"You're right," she chuckled. "We got away with WAY more clothing that showed a lot more skin without you there."

He groaned. "Okay, okay. I don't want to even think about any of that." Relieving his daughter's teenage years was not on his bucket list. He turned the camera and panned around the girls section of the store. "What do I need?"

"Wellllll," she dragged out the L. "You probably need to suck it up and buy her some bras and underwear. Then pajamas and some day clothes. Oh, socks and shoes," she added.

He took a breath and relaxed a bit. Kathleen would drive the fashion bus, narrowly avoiding the inevitable train wreck.

As he slipped through the aisles of clothing, reality began to set in. He was bringing home a kid. A girl. A traumatized thirteen-year-old girl.

As he put three approved outfits into his cart, he felt a sort of elated apprehension. The feeling was akin to the apprehension he felt the last few weeks of every one of Kathy's pregnancies. There was joy, but there was also fear. Another baby meant life would never be what it once was, and whatever comfortable rhythm their lives had settled in would be destroyed.

Hannah wasn't a baby. She wasn't a long-awaited infant that had been carefully prepared for over nine long months. They wouldn't speculate over if her eyes resembled his or if she had her brother's nose.

She wasn't a baby, but her presence in his life felt significant. Deep in his soul he knew their entire reality was about to shift forever.

-000-

She could have shopped for Hannah herself. She knew that, but a small part of her wanted to punish him for dragging them both into a vortex of change and uncertainty. Things had been good—great, even—but like always, he had to recklessly throw them both over a metaphorical cliff.

You jump, I jump, Jack, she thought. And wasn't that the truth. Even if he didn't throw them both over, she would inevitably jump in after him.

She knew she sent him on the errand partially out of spite, but her biggest reason for sending him was to give her the opportunity to spend time with Hannah. Her attachment to both Elliot and Noah formed almost instantaneously, but she remained more guarded when Olivia spoke with her.

Talking to victims normally came naturally, but when talking with Hannah, she felt as if her mouth were full of cotton balls. Every conversation felt forced, and Olivia couldn't get a read on why. It could have something to do with Hannah's life experience, but Olivia also acknowledged her own reticence as part of the problem. Hannah was coming home with them, and perhaps that added more pressure.

Fostering Noah, and even Calvin, had felt natural. For a moment Olivia considered the possibility that her hesitance stemmed from Hannah's gender. She was a girl. Olivia didn't know the first thing about parenting a girl, and it wasn't like she shared a particularly warm relationship with her own mother. Parenting a boy felt natural. Parenting a girl felt like a recipe for epic failure.

Olivia swallowed deeply, and her eyes drifted to Hannah, who was staring blankly in the direction of the window. Hannah's heart monitor chirped rhythmically, cutting through the thick silence.

There was good silence, and there was silence like what currently sat heavily in the room. She was going to screw this up. She knew it. Still, sitting in silence probably seemed like disinterest, and that was not at all how Olivia felt. She wanted to know this girl. She wanted to care for her the way the men in her life already seemed to. She couldn't achieve that level of care if she didn't put herself out there. There was an excellent chance of failure, but she had to try.

"You know," she began nervously, "I haven't seen Elliot so…protective of someone for a long time."

Hannah blinked heavily until her blue eyes focused on Olivia. "Really?" She asked as if she couldn't grasp the concept of someone actually wanting to keep her safe."

Olivia's heart clenched in her chest. "Yeah. He, uh, always sort of removes himself." Olivia dropped her gaze to her hands. "I guess we all kind of do that. In our line of work."

Hannah absorbed that information. "You," she pulled in a deep breath. "You help out kids a lot?"

Olivia nodded. "I do. Elliot used to do it more than he does now."

"I'm…" Hannah bit her quivering lip. "Never mind."

Olivia prodded gently, hoping that with a little push they might gain some ground. "You can talk to me, Hannah. All we want to do is help you. I promise."

"I... I know. I just." She squeezed her eyes shut. "It's against the rules. Talking to people. If they knew I was talking to cops. Child protective services." Her tiny frame shuddered.

Olivia reached for Hannah's bony fingers and squeezed them gently. "I want to tell you something about Elliot and about myself."

"Okay?" Hannah said in a soft, shaky voice.

"We both…" Olivia began. "Neither of us had great childhoods, and the job…" she shook her head. "It's not an easy job, but the thing about Elliot…" Olivia found herself smiling despite the trembling of her voice. "He's a fighter, and he's loyal. Once he's decided to defend someone, he will fight for them until the day he dies. He's…He's not like that with everyone, but he is with the ones he loves."

"He doesn't know me."

"No. He doesn't. But his intuition… people don't give him enough credit. He's protected me since the day he met me without knowing me at all. He just… I guess you can say he knows who his people are." She knew she wasn't being clear, and maybe she could use the same explanation Elliot once gave her. "He says his soul just knows."

A memory tugged at the edge of her consciousness.

"Why me?" She asked.

There was a sense of safety in that moment. They lay tangled together, bare skin against bare skin, his strong arms wrapped around hers, creating a cocoon of safety and warmth she never experienced with any other person alive.

"Hmm?" Based on the deep, heavy quality of his voice, she knew he was only moments away from sleep.

"You say you always knew. How did you know? Why did you choose me?"

His eyes opened, intense blue holding her captive. "I just…" he lifted a hand to her face, brushing a stray lock of hair away from her face. "I just knew. I can't explain it really. I just..." he hesitated, and she could feel his nervousness. He was about to share something deeply personal, something that made him hesitate. He never really did that anymore, so her interest piqued.

Sensing his need for encouragement, she dropped a kiss on his chest, just above his thumping heart. "Tell me," she encouraged gently.

He sucked in a breath, and she felt the sudden tension tighten the muscles in his body. "I felt it. I just knew. I know this is weird, and I know it's probably not something that makes sense, or maybe it's not real to you, or maybe it is. I don't know. I just," he rambled.

"Elliot, stop." She cut off his rambling. "Real or not, whatever you felt was real to you." She tightened her arms around his middle. "Tell me."

"My soul knew, Liv. Maybe it wasn't immediate, but it was quick. I just knew that you were important. I knew you were my, my," he pinched his eyes shut, "my family. You were a part of me. My soul knew you were important. You were one of mine. I can't explain it, Liv." He shook his head. "It was like the first moment the doctors placed my babies in my arms. Maybe a little different, but that instant connection is the best way to explain it. I just knew you were going to be an important part of my life. I knew you were one of mine."

Hannah's eyes began to water. "And you?" She whispered, a sort of desperation hid beneath the surface of the question.

Olivia knew the answer had to be honest. Hannah would know if any sort of hesitance or deception hid behind her words.

Olivia covered Hannah's hand with hers. "I don't know you Hannah, but I know that you are important. I know that the two most significant people in my life, the people I trust most, want you to be a part of our lives." Olivia closed her eyes, readying herself to expose a bit of vulnerability. "I'm worried about so many things…I don't know how this is all going to work and that scares me." She opened her eyes again, hoping to reassure the child laying in front of her. "But I trust them, and I guess I feel it too." She swallowed the lump beginning to form in her throat.

"Feel what?" Hannah questioned softly.

"You are going to change everything."

Notes:

Yeah, I know. The quote isn't exactly "you jump I jump, Jack" but I figured you needed the jack for some titanic context lol.