Finding Family |Adopted by Melissa Benoist and Chris Wood|

27

A/N: Get your tissues.. it's going to be a rough one.

"W-wait what?" Melissa stammered, pacing back and forth with her phone pressed tightly against her ear.

"Babe what did they say?" Chris jumped in, standing up from his chair and coming over.

Melissa barely acknowledged her husband's presence and continued to pace back and forth with the phone pressed tightly against her ear, clearly very agitated. No! This can't be true! They can't do this to Star! She's been doing so well recently!

"Mel, please" Chris begged, feeling panic rise up in his throat. Something must be really wrong. Melissa looks so upset.

Finally noticing her husband in the room, she gave him the phone before going to the couch and putting her hands in her head, feeling hopelessness swell up in her chest. This is all too much.

A few days after the trip to the zoo, Melissa and Chris went to Star's school to have a parent teacher conference. Ms. Sullivan had recommended that the two foster parents work on Star's motor skills through bike riding.

Chris had taken it upon himself to teach his foster daughter these things and the teaching process was going well. With Chris's gentle guidance, Star caught on to the art of riding a bike very quickly and pretty soon, she was riding around confidently without her training wheels.

Melissa and Chris had decided to take Star to the park to ride her bike. At first, it was going really well and everyone was having a blast. However, there happened to be a small divot on the path and Star lost her balance, flying off and giving herself a nasty gash on her forehead.

Star seemed to be perfectly fine and barely noticed the blood dripping down her face. Instead, she walked back over to the bike and tried to climb back on, only feeling slightly dizzy.

Melissa and Chris quickly stopped her and brought her to the emergency room. Hours of paperwork and interviews were done to ensure that the foster parents had not caused bodily harm to their foster child.

Despite the fact that Star had to get some stitches, she seemed perfectly fine so the foster organization had required Star to go to school the very next day.

Fast forward to now. The foster organization was threatening to take Star away from them since a complaint was filed against Melissa and Chris; since they were fostering a child on a temporary license, the two of them had no say in what happened next.

Chris came out of the room and gave Melissa back her phone before sitting down next to his wife and wrapping her in his arms trying to fight back tears but failing, completely lost for words. Why is this happening? We always want the best for her. This is so unfair. Why?

Melissa sobbed softly into her husband's shoulder. She never imagined losing something so near and dear to her this soon. I'm just glad Star is not home to witness this... it's going to be a long day.

"Okay class, let's clean up the toys and get our backpacks on so we can be ready when your parents arrive," Ms. Sullivan called over the chatter of her students.

Star and Emery obediently stopped what they were doing to put the blocks away before grabbing their backpacks off the hooks and following their teacher outside, both girls more than ready to go home and enjoy the weekend.

"This weekend, my parents are taking me and Lucky to the lake! We are going to have so much fun! I can start swimming now a little because my doctor says that for now, it seems as if my chronic illnesses are well managed! Isn't that so exciting!?" Emery gushed, hopping around on the spot.