Thayne POV
March 24th
Jon and I are about to do something huge. We've been working towards this since we got engaged. It's a huge step for us, but we are both older and more prepared for this now. We walk up to the place, hand in hand. We are adopting a pair of siblings whose parents were ruled unfit. They were on the brink of being separated. One of them is a teenage girl, Ryleigh, who's thirteen, and the other is a three-year-old boy named Drew. Once we enter the orphanage, a woman leads us back to a small office. It really is a nice organization and facility. She sits us down.

"I know you all learned everything when you applied for the adoption, but I am going to rebrief you on the situation and state of the kids." She says. "Drew isn't really effected at all, because he's so young. He isn't apprehensive with new people at all. But Ryleigh, on the other hand, she has major trust issues, especially with strange adults. She sees our on-site therapist, and can continue to see her if you two decide to let her." The lady says.

"Of course, anything to help her." Jon says, and I nod. The lady gives us the therapist's card.

"One more thing about Ryleigh, she's very overprotective of Drew." She tells us. "She won't trust you with him at first. She does everything for him. Everything. The last foster family they were with tried to keep Drew and 'give Ryleigh back'." She tells us. Jon and I are shocked, horrified. "My suggestion is that for the first few weeks, you let her adjust to you guys, letting her do everything for Drew. As she adjusts to you, she'll lose the feeling of self-survival and let you guys be the parents. Let her adjust first. Ryleigh has a troubled past that she carries with her. She will legally be your daughter now, so you can parent her however, as long as it's not abuse of any kind, but my suggestion is to really let her adjust and just get comfortable with you." The lady explains.

Ryleigh POV

I look into the office, where two men sit talking to Mrs. Werner. These are the two men who are adopting me and Drew. They look nice and I'm thankful they're adopting us so Drew and I can stay together, but I find myself scared and nervous to trust them and go with them. But I'm going to. Drew doesn't know anything about what's happening. I hear my name called.

"Ryleigh! Come out here, please! And bring your brother!" Mrs. Werner calls. I pick Drew up out of his crib where he was sleeping. I put him on my hip and walk out to meet the people. "Ryleigh, these are the men who are adopting you and Drew." Mrs. Werner tells me. "This is Thayne, and this is Jon." She introduces me. They both have warm smiles and they wave at me. I shyly wave back. "I'm going to give you all a little while to get to know each other." Mrs. Werner says and then she leaves the room, closing the door. The taller man, Jon, talks first.

"Hi Ryleigh." He says gently. "I'm Jon, and this is Thayne, as you know." He reminds me. "We are both on Broadway in Hamilton right now. I play King George III and-"

"I'm in the men's ensemble." Thayne interrupts him. "We are married, as of a week ago." He says. I suspected so, I mean, they both have rings on.

"Could you tell us a little about yourself-if you're comfortable?" Jon asks me nicely. Jon and Thayne seem really nice and aren't pressuring me at all. It's helping my nerves.

"Well, I'm 13, I love Disney and Star Wars, I'm kind of a nerd, I guess. I'm really good at history but not much else in school." I tell them. "As for Drew," I start, gesturing to my sleeping little brother. "He likes Paw Patrol and other random kid shows, but also Disney because I always make him watch old Disney movies with me." I find myself really opening up and becoming comfortable with these people. I don't know what it is, but for some reason I'm comfortable with them, and I find myself kind of trusting them already. Thayne and Jon both smile at me as I tell them more about myself. We end up talking in there for a while, and Drew also wakes up. Thayne and Jon both introduce themselves to him as I hold him in my lap. Drew waves excitedly but tiredly. Jon and Thayne laugh. They ask Drew some questions, but he's only three, so I answer some of them. After a while, Mrs. Werner comes back in.

"Ryleigh, can you take Drew and make sure that you two have all of you stuff together?" She asks. I nod, and then say goodbye to Thayne and Jon and take Drew back up to our room.

"Drew, this might just work out." I sigh happily.

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854 words-excluding A/N

A/N

It's been a minute. Sorry, I lost all inspiration for a while and just wasn't able to update, which is why this is a little short. I will hopefully be updating IHAD soon, within the next few days, but school just started and I have lots of homework from my AP classes so we'll see what happens. Thanks for sticking this long while out and continuing to read!!

❤️~K