A/N: NOT THOROUGHLY EDITED.

Chapter 5 – A Foot in the Home Direction (Kalenah Conrad POV)

Family is not always the people that share your DNA; sometimes it is the connection that formed in your heart. The people that as you grow play parts – small or large – in your life, they may offer a helping hand in a time of need, or before you really realize, you've built a bond that may be stronger than DNA.

The frames that hold our parts together, I've always believed could make love look as though it was less than how I felt. If someone only heard the way my children, husband and I spoke to one another, received snippets of information withholding our physical images, one would never know that we had two adoptive children. It's only when you look at us that Harleigh's reddish dark brown hair is noticed, or Samantha's caramel brown skin is taken into consideration. Our features garner the curious, questioning or sometimes dismissive stares. As though our differences meant that I loved my Samantha less than my Talia.

When I first saw Talia on the ultrasound monitor, I fell in love with that little person inside me, but when I first saw Samantha – nearly four years old already – I loved her instantly as well. We had a full bunch, however I laid my eyes upon her and knew, felt as though my heart had space for this little girl with no one else to care for her. With that wave of emotion, I went to my husband, discussing this little girl that I had stumbled upon. It was not often that a child like Samantha was found – a shifter among humans – but like my parents, every once in a while we went to nearby group homes, searching, checking to make sure that one of our kind wasn't left because of the death of a parent.

It's as though Samantha was just waiting for me, outside on the porch, watching the other children play, her hands over her ears, a frown on her face that pulled me in completely. With our brood, it took some time to convince Ansel that we should open our home to this little girl permanently but once he met her, he was quite taken to her. And so, Samantha came home, and we continued through the human process of adopting this little gem. I wanted to help. It's a blanket statement but that was just my way. I could not see someone and be able to help, but consciously decide to look the other way.

Leaving Talia's room, I overhear Walsh and Patricia speaking, "what do we do now? Hire someone? Find her a place to live here?"

"We have responsibilities-" already hearing this particular discussion between the two, I make myself scarce though Faith is never far from my thoughts. I had read her file; I knew what that poor child had suffered. Along with Walsh and Patricia we had all decided that she would be in immediately put into therapy once she started classes, giving them pointers for two months they worked on getting her acclimated to her new surroundings and I would be the one to pick up where they left off. The school given the bare minimum when it came to her situation, the resident adviser a friend of the family, would look out for her while she was on campus.

Walsh knew that Dmitri was for the most part someone in our world, and as for Faith, neither Ansel or I could get a read on why he would've kept her hidden away as he did, feeding that child so many lies about a war. He hadn't kept track of many things, leaving us with little to no information on the poor girl, but my insides turned when I read the file that Walsh faxed, when we met without Faith around to discuss her habits. The truth that she would go months on her own since the age of ten or eleven, had never been outside as far as she knew, the lies – but holy truths she believed and – she revealed to Walsh, the look of shock and surprise and the silly outlandish comments she made. The shame she carried at being duped but staying strong and holding onto a love for Dmitri that was truly the worse case of Stockholm syndrome that I had dealt with. It was not typical either since for the most part, Dmitri treated Faith the way I would want my children to be treated had all the lies – Independents, Loyalists, Regime, the war and poisonous air – all had been true. With the conditions – made up as they were – in mind and not other factors included, Faith would be considered lucky, but the truth was there were no Independents, Loyalists, or war, the air was not poisonous.

Even from the beginning, without meeting Faith I knew the girl did not just need a challenging school curriculum and therapist, she needed love, a family, care, kindness and someone with an open-mind and much patience. She needed a mother, a father, not because she could not care for herself, but because she had done that enough.

With the discussion that I over heard from Walsh and Patricia, I go in search of my husband, finding him speaking to his brother in the cafeteria. "Is Talia asleep?" Ansel asks, concerned by my facial expression, nodding, I try to fix my face to quell his worry.

"Yes, she's asleep, but – uhm I would like to speak to you," Trevor blinks and is quick to try and leave us, but I only shake my head, we had a human prescribing Faith's medication, but it would be easier with Trevor, especially now that he had made his concern known. "You may need to be here for this, but is there somewhere we can talk in private?" I ask quietly, holding onto my emotions as best as I can, though it was a struggle to be honest. I knew that I'd have to relieve more to my husband and Trevor, much more than they assumed I knew if I'd have to convince Ansel.

Just asking for privacy, Trevor's eyes widen and he nods quickly, leading Ansel and I to an empty room. Ansel and I on a longer sofa, Trevor pulls a chair up, leaning forward, curious as to what I had to say, and even needed privacy to do so.

Faith had made us dinner, and since she spoke her name, I knew her story, linking Faith to Fatima. Up until the day before I had not even knew the child's name that is the extent to the privacy Walsh had used when it came to her, making sure not many knew of her past. And even then, Fatima had been the name he gave me. I had been creating an image of the patient I would have in my head, Fatima, a meek girl, that would hide herself away, speaking only when spoken too... not Faith that seemed to want to interact, making roommates dinner. "I think we should welcome Faith into our home," I begin, looking at Ansel, while Trevor looked on. Reading my husband, Ansel turned to me slightly, a frown on his face, "Because she saved Talia?" he lifted a brow and my eyes filled with tears for Talia, for whoever had tried to harm her, but also for Faith, for her struggle.

At first sign of my tears, Ansel leans forward to comfort me, whispering, "We can't take in everyone Lena-"

"No, I want to take her in because she needs us," I whispered.

He lifted a brow, "Walsh and Patricia are here – where her parents should be, but..." Ansel shakes his head, "I understand wanting to help the less fortunate, but we've been here for nearly a week and her parents haven't-" I shake my head, knowing that the missionary parents cover story was just that, a story. I lick my lips shaking my head, knowing that I'd be breaking privilege now but still it would be best for Faith.

"She doesn't have anyone - no family and she's supposed to be my client," both brows on the two in the room shoot up high. I take his hands in mine, "she was kept locked inside a house for her whole life, and the man that had her hidden called Walsh and told him to go to his home. Walsh took some time but when he finally went he found Faith, she was starved and alone in a home believing that there was a war going on, and that the air was poisonous-"

"You're shitting me," my Ansel hisses. My tears well and fall over as the ache grows and truth I'd been holding comes out, and I shake my head. "He had her believing that she needed a suit and mask to go outside and that it wasn't safe, granted he took great care of her, he has done so much damage to her mind that I'm surprised that she knows which ways up and down."

Taking a moment to calm myself, I inhale, before starting again "I was supposed to have my first session with her the night after we met. That night when I gave her my therapist alias I go by-" Ansel's eyes widen, in understanding.

"That's why she ran off and hid in her room," Ansel finished for me, his head shaking.

"This makes sense..." Trevor murmurs resting back, his eyes glazed over, "I mean the girl... her bone mass is down, her vitamin levels are as well, weight too. We had someone remove her nail polish to get a better look at just her bare nails and even from that alone we can see she's missing-" Trevor wipes his hands over his face, "And, from the blood test I ran, I cannot tell what she is – certainly not fully human..." I nod, wondering since last night what Faith was and if that may have played a part in why this Dmitri man kept her hidden and locked away. From what Walsh was able to gather, the writings he sent me, Dmitri had no intention of harming Faith, but only in the physical sense.

He had already broken her down to pieces with just the lies he told.

"She needs us Ansel, it'll be hard, I know that but she's alone and in the wrong hands," I don't even finish that thought. Faith ran into a building for my daughter, which I'm grateful for, but a part of me notices that she probably did so because Talia was kind to her. So alone and desperate to have someone, she most likely ran into that burning building because of that kindness. Of course I'm not a mind reader but I'm willing to accept that had something to do with it.

When Ansel doesn't say anything back right away and Trevor leaves us, I still give him time until we head back and we walk to our Talia, though she's asleep Ansel looks down at her for a while, before I see his eyes, glancing over at Faith. We have to tell our children, discuss with them, but I know just from looking into his eyes alone, that we would be taking Faith home with us.

If she trusted us enough to do so.

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A day later after – at the hotel we were staying at with the children – I've finished with my shower, and head out to dress, and I find Ansel in deep thought, a frown on his lips.

"She told Brennan, Thaddeus, Harleigh and Talia that her friend worked four days to buy her record player," Ansel says his head hanging, but when he looks at me I see confusion in his eyes, "Brennan said it was one that cost upwards of forty grand, but Faith said her friend bought it after four days of labor."

Wrapping my towel around me I go to Ansel, sitting next to him on the hotel bed, a heavy sigh, "She... money is a new concept to her, and while Dmitri – had plenty of it and left it to Faith alone – he made her believe that he had to forge, barter and sometimes fight for the things he brought her. So, if she said that he worked for days for the player, Ansel, she believes that he worked for money for those days and found her a rare find. Not that he had forty grand sitting around in a bank account and decided to buy it. Walked into a store and made the purchase." I explain the sad truth to her reality.

Ansel opened his mouth, ready to speak, but closes it suddenly, only blinking before he shakes his head slowly, "and she still believes that it's true? That he-"

"If you were born colorblind, Ansel, and for your whole life until you're seventeen years old, your mother told you that the grass was in fact pink. You have no one to challenge her description and then suddenly one day your colorblindness suddenly cures it self," I take liberties with the description I've made off the top of my head, "You look at the trees and someone tells you, that those things hanging from the branches are leaves, and they are green. One leaf falls to the ground, atop the grass, and it too matches with the green leaf. You see for yourself that the grass is green and the leaf is green, that you had been lied too..."

"You may easily accept that it is in fact green, but you can also fight your own observation even with the evidence right in front of you-"

With pained eyes Ansel finishes slowly, understanding somewhat, "Because someone I depended on told me it was pink... and if I have to face that the grass is green, then I will probably have to question many other pieces of information that I had been given."

"If this man whoever kept her hidden, if he had only lied about one thing then she – but it was not just small lies here and there or even just one, it was-" Ansel stops speaking abruptly turning to me, "how did he explain that this happened? The air being poisonous... what led to the world he created for her?" I frown, "Lena, I've spoken with our children, they have classes with Faith, she held her own that first day and every class accept physical education and Latin was taken as Advanced Placement. She's never been to school but tested into those specific classes – how did he say the world he told her came about?"

"Why does that matter?"

"She's intelligent," Ansel says slowly as though I could not understand what he was saying, those two words included. "Chemistry, biology... hell even Earth science come before that physic's class she's in, she tested out of those classes. How could she?"

"He brought her books, though nothing after 1994."

Ansel huffs shaking his head, "I've spoke to Walsh, I just did not understand it Lena, but I asked him about the house that Faith was in," I blink cocking my head at my husband, "Why?"

"Because if she's intelligent enough to know what she does, how on earth did he fool her for so long-"

"He raised her that way," I reply softly, knowing that Ansel was seeing this from a perspective that would not pass logical explanations. "What Dmitri did to Faith was psychological, he made her dependent on him Ansel."

Though he nods, it is not because Ansel accepts what I've said, it only means that right now he was on a path where he could not quite explain the dilemma he was facing to me yet. "Is she dangerous?" he asks and I know where his mind is currently, first problem pushed to the side.

I do not rush to answer his question, but when I do it is with reluctance, "I – I do not think that she knows enough of the world to be violent Ansel. From what I gather from Walsh and Patricia after two horrendous outings to the mall, Faith was..."

Gosh, I have no clue how to begin to explain the struggle Faith may be dealing with.

"It all goes back to what she believes Ansel. There is a war, and the Loyalists are bad, she considers herself and Dmitri to be Independents. She is not violent but will be more afraid for her life because of how far believing she is of this delusional world."

"So it's like a hallucination?"

I shake my head, "no, not quite. She isn't violent, and from how she behaved with Walsh and Patricia... she's more afraid of the outside world." I myself realize the struggle that Faith would be facing, right now, it had only been two months since she was found. Nowhere near enough time for her to even begin leaving behind her old life. "Ansel, Faith is living in a new world with old rules."

On that bed, a decision is made.

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Faith Ashlynn POV

I didn't understand much, nothing at all really, because what Walsh and Patricia did as jobs, I didn't know, but I knew it mean that they couldn't live with me.

Care for me.

Not that I needed them to care for me.

I could take care of myself but I could not stay in the safe place on the mountains. I no longer had a room in the dorms, so now Walsh and Patricia had a grown child they hadn't expected to find. It takes me a few days to not always succumb to my tiredness but when I do I take the time to speak with Walsh and Patricia.

I'm sorry they called you and you had to come. I wrote and decided to try to speak, but when I tried to speak my mouth felt heavy, dry like I was eating cotton. The thought reminds me of times before.

Dmitri had brought me cotton candy once, the sweetness melting in my mouth, all sugar. A treat for my eighth, ninth and twelfth birthday, he'd bring enough that I could have a bit each day for nearly two weeks.

"We didn't have to come because they called us," Walsh said and I nodded. It was true, they weren't responsible for me, without getting authorities involved when giving me my options I had chose the one that seemed simplest. "We came because we were worried about you," I looked at them both, unsure.

I licked my lips, before starting to write, I wasn't trying to get hurt, I mean.

They were patient, I didn't – I don't know how to explain I wrote and my bottom lip shook.

"Your heads all shook up?" when my vision blurred I could only nod. I kept forgetting. Seeing different places than where I was. Patricia took my uninjured hand when I put the pen down.

"That's okay, it's going to keep happening, I know that Dmitri didn't physically harm you, but you're healing from a trauma Faith, you were kept believing something your whole life, that wasn't true, it's only natural that you get confused now," Patricia explained but it didn't feel like it was easy, like I had control. I didn't, it didn't used to happen before, when I was in the safe place, I had my fears, I hated being alone, but the world I thought I could be entering was so vastly different to what I was expecting.

A part of me, tried to forget what I was expecting, what I knew and tried to pretend that I was going into the world from the movies I had seen, but there was too much of a gap there as well. That one day at school was exhausting, being around so many people, keeping my guard up, I had known something bad would happen, it was only a matter of time.

"We still think that you should stay here, we just aren't stable." I nodded, knowing this conversation was coming, "What do you think of Kalenah and Ansel? You were cooking for them, their family I believe..." Patricia spoke. I had tried cooking for them, but I couldn't live with them.

They'll find out that I lived how I did. "Would that be so bad?" Walsh asked.

"You weren't – there's nothing to be ashamed of Faith, you were kept-"

But not against my will. I tried to explain how I saw it. Yes Dmitri had kept me locked away, but the truth was, I never really fought to be free, I didn't even know I wasn't free. I didn't know anything; I had believed for my whole life that the air was poisonous. It all made sense. What he said. How he behaved.

I lived stupidly, blindly and to me, it was something to be embarrassed about. I would have to live in their home, with their rules, "Faith... you were conditioned, you lived in fear," I shook my head but so did Walsh.

It's not like that, I mean I was afraid of us getting hurt, or something bad happening to Dmitri, or being alone, but I wasn't in fear of Dmitri. My throat seemed to throb as I swallowed.

"Kalenah already knows the truth, we had to tell her, maybe that will be easier than being somewhere – with someone that doesn't know," Walsh tried something different, dropping his first point. "We knew what happened, how we found you and you didn't have that hard of a time living with us for two months," Patricia added.

They didn't have to keep me; no one wanted me, not really. I mean they had tried to enter my blood into the system. I'm not sure what system but no one was searching for me. I hadn't been reported missing. "You can truly grow, maybe living with a family instead of on your own will help," Patricia added.

"I know that you feel like it won't be good, living there... I don't believe that. I think you need to learn how to interact with people Faith, after school you can do whatever you want. But before you run back to the mountain, you need to have more," Patricia said and the way she looked at me was as though she was trying to will me to agree. But her words... I had never said a loud that I wanted to go back to the mountain; I had thought it many times before however.

Many many times before.

It would be different, I would be able to go outside, I could make a garden, Dmitri had left me money, I could pay someone to drive up and bring me supplies regularly. I wouldn't have to face the world, let anyone know that I had been so incompetent that I believed my whole life that I couldn't live outside of the house I had been in. My eyes watered, and my chest got heavy, I had lived outside for a week, but the first time I went to the mall, I saw a little child pulling his parent or caregiver around.

I think that was the first time I realized how foolish I had truly been, though Patricia told me it was different, that I my home was the only thing I had known, I still find it hard to believe and was deeply ashamed that I never...

"You had no reason to doubt what Dmitri said, and if you had, what you feared would happen was death, had I grown up believing what you had Faith, I wouldn't have tried to check what Dmitri said either," Patricia said right then.

"But you need parents, you need caregivers that monitor you, care for you, not because you cannot care for yourself, but because you've never had that, and you need it, I – no we – believe that for you to heal, you can't run back to that mountain house. I think Kalenah and Ansel – their family – will be good for you," I nodded. It really was the only thing I could do. I wouldn't try and fight going to their house, not when I had no other options at the moment.

I moved my head back, looking away from Walsh and Patricia, sighing and accepting my fate, doing exactly what I had when Dmitri had told me something. Just eating it all right up.

"I do have some good news, and some bad news though," what could possibly be worse that having to move in with the Conrads?

"We went back to the dorm house, to see what was salvageable-" my eyes widened and welled all at once. I hadn't even considered my things burning, my gifts, all my records, perishing in the fire.

Patricia smacked Walsh, "I know they meant a lot to you, but Faith, those things aren't-"

Silent tears fell down my face and she instantly stopped whatever she was going to say, and Walsh, began, "the records on your bed, the ones you put on the floor, pretty much all your clothes and the books perished, however your records against the wall, well maybe twenty or thirty of them, survived..."

We had brought nearly two hundred with me, I wiped at my tears, with my good hand, I refused to cry in front of them, not when they wouldn't understand that those things were all I had, I hadn't even been in this world long and all the things Dmitri risked – "He didn't do what he said to get you those things Faith," Walsh said strictly but as I shook my head, Patricia stood and I watched behind blurry eyes as they left the room.

When I was alone, the tears came back silently, Dmitri might not have gotten my things that way, but the truth I had was what he told me, I didn't have anything else. Turning to my side, my burnt arm lifted and though it hurt, I laid it back down, my heart heavy and hearting. The pain medication wouldn't take away the pain in my heart, that's what I really needed to stop feeling. That pain the ache in my chest was with me when I slept, in my dreams and when I was awake. When visiting hours were over, not that I had anyone besides Walsh and Patricia to visit a bit of my tension went away when I knew I wouldn't have to speak about living with the Conrads.

The doctors and nurses had come in, checking regularly, making sure I was okay, when the door opened, I wondered if I pretended to be asleep if that would keep them from coming in and prodding at me but shockingly it was the Conrad I hadn't expected to come.

"I saw Walsh and Patricia head to the hotel," I nodded, wondering if visiting time was over, how Kalenah was now coming into my room.

"My brother in law is friends with the chief, so knowing Dr. Conrad, gives us some leeway, thought I'd come talk to you," I could only lift a brow considering she knew very well that I couldn't speak. She was coming to speak and I had to listen.

I watch her carefully as she sits in the chair in front of me, a good distance away, but then again, close enough to touch the edge of my bed. "I figure, I should go with honesty, I think that it'll be best. Tell you what I'm thinking, being as explicit as possible when needed because you've had a lifetime of someone not telling you as it is," she begins looking at me and I question for a moment if I'm listening to Talia's mother or Dr. Marikit Hendricks.

"I think that knowing ahead of time, what will happen makes things easier for you? Am I right?" she asks kindly her blue eyes intent on mine. I nod slowly.

"Okay, so if you were to move into our home, you would be like one of our children, Ansel and I, it would be our responsibility and joy to take care of you. Make sure you're happy, be around in case you need one of us, you'll be included in our family activities, we will treat you like we treat Talia, Harleigh, Paige, all our girls, and the boys." Why? I had to wonder why they would do that. Was it because they were kind like Dmitri? Would the eventually just forbid me from going outside, only when I've just been allowed too?

"Do you need your board to ask questions?" she asked her frame a bit larger than Patricia, already up and reaching for it to give it to me just incase. Placing it on the bed, the dry-erase-pen near my hand should I need it.

Sitting, and coming a bit closer than she was before Kalenah continued, "We have a large home on the outskirts of Bend it's a good thirty minute drive to the school campus, but like you had your own room at the dorms you would have your own room at your new home – should you decide to come," she smiled knowingly.

"We've built a nice safe place, we have a wonderful garden, there is a pool in the back, the mountains are our backyard so you'd be a bit more free than you were in the dorms. We only ask that you keep in contact with us, you tell us verbally where you're going, and we do have a curfew, I make meals for everyone, you can join us, or if you prefer your meals can be eaten in your room. That will be up to you," her face was hopeful.

"You can even – if you'd like – come spend time at the flower shop, but if you did decide to come live with us, I could continue to be your therapist but I would prefer not to be. I'd rather be more of a mother figure for you Faith, I know that it sounds strange but when I heard you were going to be my client, I thought for just a moment that you needed more than just your own dorm room and speaking to me," – "You can't trust anyone out in the world out there Faith, each person is out for themselves, they always want payment, sometimes it's more than you're willing to give, and some people, they take what they want whether you want them to have it or not," Dmitri whispered in my mind as what Kalenah offered began sounding lovely.

For some reason he was in my head more often now.

Pulling my desires back, remembering that the easiest way to deal with disappointment, with reality is to set my standards lows. When I lived in the safe house and Dmitri would go, I began telling my self 'he'd be back the next day,' and when that didn't happen I'd cry my heart out, get so sad that I didn't sleep, that I couldn't eat and worry ate me alive. Then, the next he wouldn't come, and I was so sure that he would. The hurt was just about the same.

By the third day, I'd force myself to eat, because when Dmitri left, every time, he'd say 'prendre soin de vous jusqu'à ce que je serai de retour,' take care of yourself until I get back, so I did. But eventually I got tired of hurting, so I wouldn't let myself say that I knew he'd be coming back on a certain day and then, when he did return, I was never disappointed.

"Remember to always take care of yourself Faith," I blinked, my arm smarting, I hadn't taken care of myself.

"I know it may seem overwhelming with so many people in the house, but it is quite spacious," Kalenah continued speaking while I toyed with the marker near my pinky.

"The other therapist on hand is a friend," oh... not another Conrad? I wondered a bit sardonically. "She works with kidnapped and exploited children as well as those with social and personality disorders."

I finally take the marker in my hand, frowning as I wrote. I wasn't kidnapped. Whatever else happened, it wasn't that. No body wants me; no one is looking for me. I corrected her ashamed of my truth, but she had been giving me truthful exactness, I should at least be considerate of that and continue on the same path. 

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