Always been you//Jolex

Chapter 10

We take a seat at the long conference table at which Chelsea is sitting, paperwork splayed out in front of her.
"Doctors, do you want to tell me what this meeting is about?" she says, finally looking up from her work.
I look to Alex and he gives me his signature crooked smile and squeezes my hand below the table, giving me the reassurance I need to start.
"You said Sadie has no plans permanent adoption in place right now?" I ask. She nods. "Alex and I want to adopt her. Um, begin whatever process that we have to go through to legally make her part of our family. I couldn't take care of her then. But now I have a job, a husband, a house... and we're in a great school district. This is my daughter. I want to make up for the childhood that I took from her."
"Well, in that case I'll have to start you two on some paperwork, and then I'll have to run a background check on both of you, interview each of you separately, conduct a home study. The list goes on. Adopting a child is a beautiful thing, but you need to be absolutely sure it's the best fit for the two of you, seeing as how this can get complicated, given the history."
"I didn't fight for her then, but there's no way I'm losing her again. We will fight for her."
"Alright. Im going to need to make some calls and get some things sorted out before we can officially get started." She pulls a thick stack of paper from her briefcase and hands Alex and I a packet of forms and crap, and continues, "You can get started on these, and I will reach out to schedule the necessary appointments. Now, if you'll excuse me." She says, pulling her chair out. "My name and number is on the card if you need to contact me." She gathers her things walks out the door, letting it swing shut behind her.
"Holy crap, look at this- autobiographical statement, parenting plan statement, driver's licenses, birth certificates, social security cards, marriage certificate, financial information, health status-"
"Jo, look at me. We can do this, alright?" He says.
"I love you."
"I love you more."
I wrap my arms around his neck and he gives me a gentle kiss on the cheek. I rest my head on his chest, whispering: "We are doing this."
*****A few hours later*****
"You paged?" I say to Mer, who was waiting for me at a nurses station. It's nearly pitch  black outside, almost 11:30. Alex is catching up on some paperwork and charting in Sadie's room, even though she's out cold for the night.
" I heard you guys were applying to adopt Sadie!"
"That's what you paged me at midnight for?"
"Yeah, I was in surgery all afternoon and I wanted to say good luck and offer you some advice."
"Hmm?"
"Well, when Derek and I were adopting Zola, there were some...issues...So I figured I'd let you know, don't accidentally kidnap her, but if you do, page me and I'll think of something."
"What!? Umm...Thank....you?"
She smiles and walks away, leaving me confused and wondering. She does that. It pisses me off.
When I go back upstairs to peds, the room is dimly lit by a lamp at her bedside, and Alex is in the bed with his arm around her as she sleeps resting on his chest.
"Hey." I say with a smile from the doorway, watching in on them together. Alex looks up from something in his lap and smiles back.
"Hey. She woke up with a bad dream." He says, referring to the sleeping child beside him. "Anyway, I was looking at some of this paperwork, just a bunch of signatures and initials, plus all that stuff we were talking about earlier. Documents and taxes and crap."
I walk over to where he is laying and give him a kiss on the head, then pull up a chair. But of course, my pager goes off.
"Damn it. I'm getting paged 911 to the OR. Will you guys be okay?"
"We're fine, go. I'll just be working on these forms."
"Love you." I say with a final kiss before heading out the door.
I scrub in, gown and glove, before entering the OR. Owen is at the table, covered in blood.
"What's up?" I say, walking over to the sterile field.
"MVC, guy had a bunch of internal bleeding but we opened him up to find that all of this bowel is dead. Can we salvage any of it?"
We are working for what feels like forever, and when we finally scrub out and the patient is moved to post op, I do a quick exam and then head back to Sadie's room. I realize it's 3 a.m, and when I walk in the room Alex is asleep as well, so I pull a blanket up over them and give them each a kiss. I finish what paperwork was left so that all that's left to do is attach to some files. A few hours later, finally, I fall asleep.