Adopted by Katie Mcgrath

Chapter 16

Katie's POV

Colin and I had raced to the airport and got tickets to the next available flight to London, as we were on the plane I couldn't help but wonder how afraid Clemmie must have been all alone. I couldn't sleep on the plane I was so focused on getting my daughter back.

As we pulled up to the house I practically leapt out of the car and raced towards the door. Rory opened the door before I could knock. As I was about to speak, he put his finger to his lips and indicated for us to follow him. We walked into the living room to see Clemmie asleep on the sofa wrapped in blankets. I sat down carefully next to her, not to wake her, I felt so relieved to see that she was safe. I started to gently stroke her cheek to wake her up, I could hardly speak without crying. After a minute or two, her eyelids started to flutter open and I could see her beautiful hazel eyes. "Mum?" she asked sleepily, before realising that I was here, "Mum!" and she leapt at me hugging and tackling me down, "I'm so sorry..." she cried.

"It's okay, it's okay. I'm here that's all that matters," I whispered, tears in my eyes.

"Don't ever do that again? You hear?" Colin said from behind us.

"Dad!" she cried and Colin made his way over and joined the hug. She probably apologised more than a hundred times more over the course of the next half an hour. Eventually, Clemmie fell asleep on Colin and I. We just sat there together as a family, time still.

---

When morning broke we were still on the sofa cuddled with each other, I looked across the room to see that Rory was asleep in one of the armchairs. "Morning, love," I heard my husband say.

"Morning," I replied,  looking down at my daughter, peacefully sleeping.

"I'll take her to her room," Colin whispered, "Why don't you make yourself a cup of tea,"

"Sure," I said. It was easy for Colin to carry Clem up to her room as she was pretty small for age.

Clemmie's POV

I woke up from having another nightmare, to be honest, I was used to them now. I realised I was in my room and figured Dad or Uncle Rory had carried me up here. As I made my way down to the kitchen I saw Mum and Dad sitting at the table.

"Morning," I said while walking over to make a bowl of cereal.

"Morning," Katie said. After a few minutes of silence, I spoke up.

"I'm sorry about what happened, I wasn't thinking," I apologised.

"Clemmie, stop apologising, you're with us that's all that matters," Mum said.

"But..." Dad began, "We would like to know why you took off,"

"It's nothing really," I said getting up, "I was just being stupid, can we just forget about it please?" I asked sitting down on the sofa.

"Clem, you ran away to a different country, we can't really forget about it," Mum said, sitting down next to me.

"It just brings up a lot of bad memories that's all," I replied, looking at my feet

"Well do you want to talk about it?" Dad asked.

I took a deep breath to try and calm myself, "Well... um... It's my birthday in two days, and I was starting to miss the rest of my family,"

"Do you mean Uncle Rory, Shaun and Grandma, Grandpa, Nanny and Grandad?"

"No, I mean Blue, she was like a sister for me while I was in the orphanage. She helped me through some of my darkest times. And I feel like I was given a chance and she was left there," I explained. I went on to explain how Blue and I had been together at orphanages since I was placed in the foster system. That every time I had been abused at a foster home she had helped me. I told them how I only trusted two people in Ravenswood and that was Blue and Mr Kenner. I explained Blue helped me when I was having anxiety and panic attacks, and when I was self-harming. Blue had become like a sister to me and we both looked out for each other, leaving her was like leaving a part of me back in England.

"Why didn't you just tell us?" Mum questioned.

"Because even, with all the therapy I  still have nightmares and have some thoughts that are terrible, and not being able to cope reminded me of Blue and that just made everything worse," I said, there was a moment's silence before I continued," And... I overheard your conversation the other night..." I admitted looking down.

"Clem we didn't mean that-" Dad began.

"Yes, you did! Don't deny it," I interrupted, "I overhear most of your conversations about me and it's always the same. It's always been how 'difficult' I am and 'how it's just going to take time'! Well, guess what! It's been three months and nothing's got better. If anything it's got worse and I'm trying to be the daughter you want, I really am but it's... so... hard," I cried breaking down. "And I know how these conversations end and how this  whole thing works, you keep me for a couple of months to see what it's like to have a kid, then a couple of months down the line you send me back because you have a kid of your own and you don't want me,"

"That is not true," Mum stated in a stern voice, "We love you and nothing you do can ever change that, even if it is running away to a different country. Clemmie your our daughter we're not going to return you. But right now not telling us stuff is going to hurt all of us, and the whole running away thing needs to stop because we will always find you, no matter how far," she said, "And yes sometimes you can be difficult and stubborn," she said looking at colin warningly, and then turning back to me, "But that is why we love you,"

"So what's going to happen now?" I asked, wiping away a few stray tears.

"Well... we're going to stay here for a couple of days and celebrate your birthday, then we're going to head back to finish filming Supergirl," she explained

"We? what about what Dr Wells said?"

"I asked him and I told producers to make your role slightly smaller that way you can hang out with the rest of the cast more and not worry. But after this season you will have a guest role as you are starting school in September," she continued.

"Will I still be able to go to all the press tours? Please say yes, no one knows I'm your daughter or who I am for that matter," I begged.

"We'll see," Dad answered.