If You Fall

Fifty (one year later)

The new girl stood on the porch with Amanda, her nails bitten to the quick and bleeding, fear in her eyes. She was thirteen years old, and had just been rescued from a prostitution ring her mother had helped run.

Her mother hadn't fared so well, and her body had already been disposed of, along with those of thirty-nine other adults. 

The sixteen children and young women taken from the group had been split up and sent to our various safe houses. 

"Hi," I said softly to her, leaning to hug Amanda. "I'm Addy. I know this probably sounds like bullshit, but you're safe now. And we'll protect you." I waited until she looked up from the ground. "And no one will ever touch you," I vowed. "Unless it's a hug, and then only if you want it."

She must have seen truth in my eyes because her whole being relaxed a few notches.

"'Ey, c'mon, I show you yo' room! Eet dis way, vamos!" The small, dark-haired figure appeared at my side and motioned impatiently. He saw the girl hesitate and sighed comically. "You not to be afeared. You cool, dey cool here, dese people good people. Dese familia. Dey mi familia, too, y tambien yours. You see. Now come."

We were a family for sure. Amanda lived with us as the real Adult, which was ideal as everyone got along perfectly with her, and kids responded to her amazingly well.

"Raul Julio," I said, because that had turned out to be his name indeed. "Let Meredith get used to it here for a minute."

"I'll go with him," the timid girl said. Her hair was cut up to her ears and she was tall for her age. She looked beaten but not broken, and I hoped it wasn't too late for her to be happy again. We'd mostly had success in the year we'd been doing it, though we had lost two older teens to suicide despite doing everything in our power and working with doctors to help them. 

Amanda went with the kids to show Meredith the room she would be staying in for as long as she liked. I went into the kitchen, where it smelled like a bakery.

"There 'bout to be some cookies up in here, up in here," my dumb best friend said, being embarrassing. But at least it was soberly embarrassing.

Bella and Arianna now lived at my old house, where we'd added on another room, though they spent much of their days with us. They had both gone to the same intensive rehab for six months, and came out not only different people but close friends. They were both fairly heavily medicated, and the meds were helping. 

Ari was also working with a psychiatrist who specialized in reintegration therapy, to help merge her alters, and seemed to have gotten over much of her feelings for my husband.

"Half the cookies there would have been, since you ate like half the dough," Ari scoffed. She had cut most of her hair off and gained a serene look in her eyes. Much of her meds were tranquilizers, and that worked for her. Not to mention those of us around her.

The back door opened and Dane and Reed came in with a couple of the goofiest half-grown golden retrievers you ever saw. The lunatics ran off to be slobbery with the kids, and Dane tried to open the oven. "I 'ope these are chocolate chip, and where's the batter?"

"Here, English," Bella said, handing him a dough-laden beater. Her sobriety lifted a weight off my shoulders I hadn't even realized I carried.

"Thanks, gorgeous," he said happily.

Reed came over to wrap his arms around me from behind, kissing my neck and sending shivers through me. "New girl doing okay?"

The guys usually made themselves scarce when a child was expected to arrive, since overall men are scarier to abused kids. Of course once they got used to our men, they warmed up quickly. 

"She's fine. RJ is giving her the run-down," I assured him.

A little guy with blond hair ran in with one of the big pups at his heels and screeched to a halt in front of Reed, speaking in French to him with an earnest expression. Something about TV and his turn.

"I got it," Ari said to us, gesturing for him to go ahead of her out of the kitchen. 

Reed sat on a bar stool and tugged me closer so he could hug me some more, this time facing him. We'd been married five months earlier, a quiet and perfect ceremony here at the house, with all our friends. Our honeymoon had been a month's vacation, and had included the clouds above Mount Fuji, which did indeed look like smoke.

He tucked my hair behind my ear. Those beautiful eyes. This beautiful man. "How are you feeling, chérie?" 

"Hungry," I admitted, and they all laughed, because I was always hungry. "Hey," I said mock haughtily, placing a hand on my rounded stomach. "Eating for two here."

My husband squeezed me tighter for a few moments. "I could never tell you how happy those words make me," he said, kissing me. "How happy you make me."

"Aww," I said, absurdly pleased as I kept one eye on the timer counting down.

"Oh my God, get a room," Bella said, rolling her eyes as she handed Dane the other beater. "We're gonna go smoke. C'mon, Uncle Dane."

"Comin', Auntie Bella," he answered cheekily. 

"Jerks," Reed said, because he had quit right before we got married, citing his reason when he did. "I don't want to throw away any more of this life, chérie," he'd said seriously. "Though we'll always be together, in every lifetime to come. Of course our souls will always find each other." 

A greater truth would never exist.

I couldn't wait to see what the future would hold for our crazy family. In only the one year, we'd had over a hundred kids pass through our door to stay for a night or a week or however long they needed, and some like Raul Julio had stayed for good. We always had a full place and full hearts, no doubt. 

We'd even gone back to the place where Ari was found, to see about the boy, but the cops had cleaned it out and though we stayed in the area for the afternoon, he never showed himself. We still stopped by the neighborhood, just in case.

Because though we knew you couldn't save them all, we were determined to try.

(most of it was) April 22, 2017 to September 18, 2017

(and finally finished those last five chapters) July 10, 2018 to July 18, 2018

A/N thank you so much for reading, I hope you loved this as much as I loved writing it!!!!

Special thanks to one of my bffs Tiffany @TSTurcotte for reading this too and loving them!!