"Sorry." Brian apologized as he walked back into the program director's office. "Work call I couldn't miss."
Joan the program director got a look of concern on her face. "This is the concern that I brought up to Krystal and the other case workers when reviewing placement for Shiloh. With all due respect Mr. Quinn, I know who you are and I know how busy you must be. So I'm going to ask you myself, do you really think you can take this on?"
Brian was a bit taken aback and honestly down right insulted, "I wouldn't be here if I didn't care and didn't feel like Skylar and I couldn't handle this. She has completely changed her job so it would be possible for us to have Shiloh live with us. So with all due respect I know we can take this on."
"She's a difficult child." Joan interrupted.
Brian rolled his eyes and started to bounce his leg on top of the other, a habit he had when he was getting aggravated. "Thats all we keep hearing is how difficult she is. So quite honestly if she's that damn difficult I would think you would be happy to pass her off to someone else." He snapped.
Skylar reached over under the desk and squeezed her man's hand reminding him to keep his cool. However inside she couldn't be prouder. Any doubt that she still had about Brian being ready for this was gone the second she saw how upset he was getting.
"Alright if you truly feel you are up to the challenge, let's continue." Joan responded in a standoffish tone. She truly didn't believe this was going to work but the board was in agreement to try. Sliding over a packet of even more paperwork she began to explain the process, "So a total of $300 will be deposited into the bank account you have provided every month on the first. This is what it cost to care for each of the children so that is what you are expected to spend. Anything extra is considered your responsibility."
Skylar and Brian exchanged looks, the fact that the state expected a child to survive on $75 a week was laughable.
"We will try this for a 90 day period and then you are expected to return here for an update hearing. At that point we will get a status and go from there. She will need to return to New Jersey for doctors appointments considering she has a state insurance that isn't accepted in New York. I assume you have also set up schooling for her already?" Joan asked.
"Yes, she'll be starting on Wednesday." Skylar answered.
"Good, we will need weekly reports from them as well. You can fax those over to me." Joan said. "I'll go grab Krystal and Shiloh."
Once Joan left the room, Brian and Skylar Both let out long sighs. "Whatta bitch." Brian said.
"I'm not a fan of her either but we need to play nice with her. She is the runner of the program." Skylar responded.
"Shiloh is basically a pain in the ass to her. She needs more help than a crappy doctor in New Jersey is going to give a couple times a month." Brian said.
"We got this right?" Skylar asked taking his hand.
"We're gonna give it our best shot." He sighed trying to relieve some nerves. The last meeting they had with Krystal she explained in great detail what Shiloh could behave like. Nights were the most difficult, if she had a nightmare which happened often, she could wake up crying, hyperventilating, or angry. The severity of the nightmare varied and sometimes it could take hours to calm her down. They were told to expect bed wetting on the regular as well. She was fearful of new people, especially men, and had a hard time connecting with other children. Shiloh was very smart but due to missing school a lot she was very behind for her age level. Realistically she should be in the 1st grade but was still in kindergarten and struggled a lot.
The couple waited in silence for what seemed like forever. Then finally they turned at the sound of the door opening. "Skylar!" Shiloh exclaimed happily running in smiling brightly.
"Hi!" Skylar greeted bending down to hug the little girl tightly.
Krystal looked equally as happy to see the pair. All Shiloh talked about lately was how fun Skylar was and how she was so nice to her. She prayed with everything this would work out. Krystal was a huge driving force in pushing for this. "Nice to see you both again." She smiled shaking their hands. "You ready to get going kiddo?" She asked kneeling down next to Shiloh.
Finally the little girl began putting everything together, "I get to go home with Skylar?!"
"And her boyfriend, Brian." Krystal added. She knew Shiloh's uneasiness around men and hoped this wasn't going to trigger her in anyway.
"You saved Rizzo." Shiloh mumbled shyly.
At first Brian was confused then remembered...the stuffed bear that jerk kid took from her in the hallway. "Ohh..so that's his name?" He smiled getting down on one knee next to the little girl. "I hope he comes along with you too." He winked causing Shiloh to let out a little smile.
As Skylar looked on her heart was growing even more. The way he was interacting with Shiloh was nothing short of amazing, he was ready.
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It was a tearful goodbye. As happy as Krystal was she was going to miss Shiloh. The little girl certainly stole her heart but she was praying perhaps she would find a forever home with Skylar and Brian.
As Skylar said goodbye and thanked Krystal for everything and promised to check in with her, Brian walked around the other side of the car to load in the one tiny bag Shiloh had. He understood there was a budget to keep in mind but it sickened him thinking of how little this kid actually had. When he turned around he noticed the shy little girl looking on from the curb. "Ready to go?" He asked loudly over the sound of cars in the distance.
Shiloh took a couple nervous steps backwards. Brian noticed he was making her uneasy and stopped in his tracks. He would have to be very careful at approaching her. She seemed to do better when he was down on her level so he sunk to his knee again and spoke much softer this time, "Heard pink is your favorite color, so we got a pink booster seat in the car for ya. Wanna take a look?"
Brian observed as Shiloh cling to her stuffed bear looking towards the car nervously. "I promise our house is gonna be a lot more fun than this place. Whatta say we give it a chance?" He asked in his softest most gentle voice.
"Expect her to be super nervous, especially around your boyfriend." Krystal told Skylar as they stood back watching the exchange between the young girl and Brian. "Chances are she won't want to be around him for..." Krystal suddenly paused as she watched Shiloh put her arms up signaling for Brian to pick her up and place her in the car. "Unbelievable." Krystal said under her breath in awe of what she was seeing. "She has never let a man even get close to touching her."
Skylar smiled, "One thing I've learned over the years, you can never underestimate what Brian is capable of. He will shock you every time."
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The car ride was quiet heading back to New York. Skylar kept looking back making sure she was alright. Shiloh would smile shyly and then continue looking out the window at the passing cars and trees as they drove on.
In her head, Skylar was going over her own checklist of things at home. Once they got the word that Shiloh would be staying with them, they converted the guest room into a bedroom quickly scrabbling to get a bed and dresser for the girl. They didn't go crazy decorating because they weren't sure what she would like so Skylar decided they tomorrow they could go pick up some things.
Bessy and Joe gladly gave them some toys that Milana never played with anymore so Shiloh had things to play with when she first arrived. Bessy also included an old baby monitor so they could hear Shiloh at night if she was having a nightmare.
"Wow!" Shiloh said in astonishment when the skyline of New York City came into view. The giant buildings,the bridges, the lights it was all new sights to her. She had never seen anything so big in her life.
"Never been to New York Shiloh?" Brian asked as he turned off one of the exits looking over his shoulder to make sure no cars were coming.
Shiloh silently shook her head in response. Skylar turned around and smiled, "Well we will make sure to get out and do some fun things. Let you see everything."
After a little bit longer Shiloh observed as they turned onto a quiet street and after passing several houses pulled into a driveway. "Home sweet home!" Skylar called out taking off her seatbelt and hopping out of the car quickly.
As they walked in, she grabbed tightly to Skylar's hand, more nervous than ever. The house was bigger than any of the others she ever stayed in. Brian placed her bag down on the stairs and guided the girls into the living room. Shiloh jumped out of fright when she saw a black cat immediately jump on the coffee table.
"It's okay." Skylar immediately said in a calming voice when she felt the little girl stiffen up. "His name is Benjamin, he's not mean."
Brian walked over picking up his oldest cat and took a seat on the couch with him on his lap, "He's just an old cuddle monster!" Brian smiled as he kept petting the cat. "No need to be afraid of this guy, Huh Benjamin?!" He said kissing the top of his furry head.
Brian then heard a loud meow on the other side of the room and saw Sapphire scratching at the curtains. "That one on the other hand, is a pain." He said placing Benjamin down on the couch and getting up. Brian clapped his hands loudly, "Sapphire!" He yelled, "Knock it off!"
Shiloh jumped a mile high and hid immediately behind Skylar at the sound of a man's voice yelling. The little girl was shaking like a leaf trying to hold back tears. The night her mother died while she was hiding she tried to kept quiet and not cry so the bad man wouldn't find it, it was a habit she still had.
"It's okay, He was just yelling at the kitty." Skylar said leaning down trying to ease her fright. Skylar looked up at Brian, they were going to have a real problem getting this girl to fully trust and feel comfortable here.
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For dinner they had decided to play it safe and order pizza. All kids liked pizza. As the three sat at the table Skylar and Brian were starting to see the severity of what Shiloh's life had been like up to this point. Every time she finished a slice, she would look towards them for permission to have another even though they insisted she have as much as she would like. They were in shock that this little body devoured 5 huge slices of New York pizza. Brian was a grown man and he couldn't even do that.
Afterwards Skylar took her upstairs and helped her with a bath. As she took her clothes off to hop in the tub, Skylar had to hold back tears at how skinny the child was. Her hair was knotted in a lot of places but instead of doing it all at once, she decided to take this step by step. She got a majority of the knots out on the left side and decided tomorrow to work on the other side. As Skylar rinsed out her hair, Shiloh looked around at the huge bathroom she was in, she had never seen a bathroom like this.
When they emerged from the bath, Brian was in Shiloh's room putting another blanket at the foot of the bed. Shiloh looked around, "Who else sleeps here?" She asked.
"No one. This is your room." Brian answered.
"Just me?" She asked.
"Is that okay?" Skylar asked confused.
"I never had my own room before." She smiled sitting on the comfy full sized bed. "This bed is so big."
She jumped a little when Benjamin hopped up next to her. "He's just saying hi." Skylar smiled petting the old cat.
Shiloh nervously reached her hand out and Brian smiled as he watched Benjamin rub up against her hand purring. "I think he likes you." Brian whispered.
"I like him." The little girl giggled.
"I thought tomorrow we could have a girls day and get some stuff to decorate the room." Skylar said. Brian was going into the office for a couple meetings so she had Shiloh all to herself.
After reading a couple books, the adults started to slip out seeing Shiloh's eyes get heavy. "Our room is right down the hall at the end. You come get us if you need to, okay?" Skylar said.
"Ok." The tiny girl answered through a yawn not bothering to fight sleep anymore.
Skylar needed a shower herself so while Brian went downstairs to return a couple work calls, Skylar decided on a bath. When she was all set, she was happy to see that Brian had finished his calls and was waiting for her in bed flipping through Tv channels. They were both exhausted. Skylar checked to make sure the baby monitor was turned on so they could hear her and then snuggled into her man's side. "Think she will have a nightmare tonight?" She whispered.
"We'll see." Brian answered kissing the top of Skylar's head and closing his own eyes.