Becoming Anne Again

Chapter Eighty-Five

A/N Hello loves! I am not really satisfied with this chapter, but I said I would post again in a week so I figured I would throw this up anyway. I hope you enjoy, even if my writing is messy! As always, I love you all and I am praying for you! If there is anything specific I can pray for please let me know! My inbox is always open.

Anne felt as though she was holding her breath as she waited for Matthew and Samantha.

She was sitting in the visitor's room, clutching the plastic seat so hard her fingernails were leaving indents. Perhaps, if she sat there for the day, just as she was, she could rip the plastic.

The college girl seemed much more at ease—in fact, she had chosen an armchair and was draped across it, her head on one armrest while her legs hung over the other side. Her fingers were swirling in the air, drawing some kind of pattern. Anne followed the pattern, her eyes darting up and down with the girl's finger. For a moment, she felt like she could breathe.

And then Matthew and Samantha had walked into the room, and Anne was holding her breath again.

"Anne, it's..."

"I want you to adopt me."

They froze, and Samantha was openly gaping at her. Anne shifted in her seat, her fingers clutching the seat yet tighter. "I mean..."

"Of course! Of course we will! Anne I..." Samantha was crying so hard that she couldn't finish her sentence, and she scooped Anne out of her chair, clutching her so tightly it felt as though Anne still couldn't breathe again, but there was a warmth that was spreading throughout her entire body, and she thought if she had breathed her last breath, right in Samantha's arms—well, that was okay.

She felt Matthew hugging her from the side, his arms encircling them both. There were tears on his cheeks that dripped onto Anne's scrubs. She hugged both of them as though they alone were holding her from falling off a cliff.

(Maybe they were).

Then Samantha released her. "Oh my gosh, we need to call Alexander Spencer! Right? We should do that now? There's so much we need to do! We still need to get a court order that lets us adopt you even though we haven't fostered you for as long as they wanted us to, and..."

"Samantha." Matthew's lips were quirked upward, and he laid a hand on her shoulder. "Let's just enjoy this."

"Of course." There were tears shining in Samantha's eyes, and she hugged Anne to her chest again. And then, as though Samantha had torn down the dam in Anne's soul, Anne found herself sobbing.

"I love you," She whispered hoarsely, and she groped the air until her hand found purchase on Matthew's arm. "Both of you. I..." She whipped her head up, her eyebrows furrowed. "Do I call you Mom and Dad?"

"You can call us whatever you want," Samantha whispered, and she tucked a strand of hair behind Anne's ears. "But I would—we would be honored if you wanted to call us Mom and Dad."

Anne smiled. "I've never had a mom and dad."

"Before you, there was no one to call us mom and dad," Samantha said.

Matthew rubbed soothing circles on Anne's back. "But you've been our daughter since you first came here."

It wasn't completely true, or at least it wasn't on Samantha's behalf. But that lay to the side, if not forgotten, unimportant in light of what was happening now. The past held its own ghosts, and Anne was ready to start letting them die. What mattered was the here and now, where she was blanketed by Matthew and Samantha's love, and she thought maybe this was like when she was little and she thought her comforter could keep out all the monsters. But Matthew and Samantha formed a better barrier than that ratty comforter, and maybe Anne's faith wasn't misplaced.