My Little Stargazer(Adopted by Remington Leith)

(2) - Family

After three and a half hours of paperwork and phone calls I was Cherry's foster father. I took her back to my hotel room, attempted to change her out of her clothes and into one of my t-shirts. Then when that failed I flopped onto the bed with her on the other side and was asleep in seconds.

———

The next morning the alarm woke me up at eight o'clock. Cherry was curled into my back, one hand holding tight to my shirt and two fingers from her other hand in her mouth. I carefully pulled away from her. I yawned, stretched, contemplated what to have for breakfast and then if I'd even have breakfast before grabbing a clean t-shirt and pair of underwear and walking into the bathroom and getting in the shower.
After my shower I stepped back into the room to find that Cherry was no longer on the bed.
"Cherry!" I dropped the pile of dirty clothes I'd been holding and started looking for her. The room wasn't very big so there weren't many places she could be. Eventually I found her, curled up in the cabinet under the tv.
"Hey. What're you doing in there?" She shook her head and put her hands over her ears. I gently grabbed her arm, doing my best to avoid all the bruises, and pulled her out of the cabinet. She started shaking and trying to pull away from me. "Hey, hey. I'm not gonna hurt you, okay? I will never intentionally hurt you." She stopped trying to pull away, but was still shaking. "Let's get you cleaned up a little and then I'll get you some breakfast." At the word breakfast she perked up a little. She nodded. I smiled. "Great. Let me get a washcloth." While washing her face and arms with a washcloth I realized she didn't know my name. "My name is Remington. I don't if you heard that last night. But that's probably kinda hard to say so you can call me Rem or Remmi or whatever you want." Her eyes were unfocused and I wasn't sure if she was even paying attention. After washing her I tried to brush her hair out. After a couple minutes I gave up and put her hair up in a very messy bun. After that I ordered room service for breakfast. Coffee and toast with Nutella for me and juice and yogurt for Cherry. From her file I knew I couldn't feed her too much at one time or she'd eat until she made herself sick. Breakfast came and we ate. Cherry was slowly taking tiny bites. I watched as she stuck the spoon back into the yogurt cup, tried to pull it out and got yogurt all down her front. She immediately burst into tears.
"Shit." I sat my breakfast down and went to the bathroom to get another washcloth. 
"No, no, no, no. Don't cry. It's okay." I came back and started wiping the yogurt off of her. I grabbed one of my shirts out of my suitcase and then knelt in front of Cherry. I started to pull her shirt off and she shrieked and backed away from me. I sighed and went after her. "I'm just gonna change your shirt. See?" I held up the shirt before trying to take hers off again. This time she let me. My t-shirt was huge on her, but it would have to do. After we finished breakfast I hastily threw all my stuff back into my suitcase and finished getting ready for the day. Twenty minutes later, despite her protests, I picked Cherry up. I grabbed the handle of my suitcase and walked out into the hall.

———

I met Sebastian and Emerson in the lobby. Emerson was sipping a cup of coffee and didn't look all there. He stared at me for a few minutes trying to process what he was seeing.
"Why do you still have her?" He finally asked.
"I um. . . I'm fostering her."
"Why?" Emerson asked at the same time Sebastian said, "You're an idiot."
"Hey! You don't understand. She doesn't have anyone. No one wants her. I-I couldn't leave her." I looked down at the little girl. She was burying her face in the crook of my neck.
"Fostering a kid without telling your girlfriend is a really dumb idea. You do realize that, right?" Sebastian asked.
"I do. But I did it anyway."
"What's her name?" Emerson asked.
"Cherry." She looked up at me when I said her name. I smiled then turned so she could see Sebastian and Emerson. "These are my brothers. Sebastian and Emerson." I pointed at each one as I said their names. She hid her face again. "She's not much of a talker. Can one of you take my bag back to the bus? I have to run down to the station. Carla told she'd have some of Cherry's stuff for me."
"Yeah. Don't take too long." Sebastian sighed.

———

At the police station Carla was waiting with a box of Cherry's things.
"Good morning!" She said when she saw me.
"Morning."
"So I have her file from her social worker who finally called me back. I thought of a few things I need to tell you. First, she chews on everything. Including her fingers. And if you don't stop her from doing that she'll make herself bleed." As she said this she pulled Cherry's fingers from her mouth. "She has a necklace," Carla cut off as she dug through the box. She came up with a necklace. A simple piece of black string with six cube shaped beads on it. All of them made of the same silicone material in an array of colors. Carla put it around Cherry's neck and Cherry immediately stuck one of the beads in mouth before resting her head on my shoulder again. "And a couple other chewy toys. And second she doesn't like potatoes in any form. Even French fries and chips. She won't eat them. I have no idea why. So, here's all of her things that I could get. Sorry it's not much. And I gave the social worker all those numbers you gave me so she should be busily making phone calls."
"Great. If that's it I really should head back before my brothers leave without me."
"I think that's it. If you have any questions you can call her social worker. Her name is Jess Meyers. Her number is in that stack of papers I gave you."
"Okay. Thank you."
"Of course. Please take good care of her."
"I will." I smiled down at the little girl in my arms. I would protect her with my life. I would protect her as if she were my own daughter. "Don't worry."