The only way I could get any sort of information about my biological parents was if I could get my hands on my adoption file. Needless to say, that would have to be done behind the adoption agency's backs.

How was I going to do that?

That's where Ben comes in.

We had come up with a rough plan when I'd brought the idea to him, one that would be quick and easy and wouldn't raise too many questions.

However, when we were just about to get inside the building, we managed to smooth some edges and come up with a final plan of action that would work perfectly.

I knew that the woman responsible for my adoption process was Mrs. Alicia Gregory, who Ben had booked an appointment with. At first, we didn't think she'd agree to meet with two teenagers, but the subject of a group project about adoption for our social studies class seemed to do the trick, and we were booked in for two o'clock.

"You know what to do, right?" I asked Ben in a low tone while we sat in the waiting room, looking up at the clock on the wall and watching the pointers tick by.

"Yeah." He dragged his voice. "And you know your part, right?"

"Yes." I took a deep breath. "I'll be quick, I promise."

"Ben Jones?" The woman opened the door and called his name. She was in her mid-forties, looked nice and looked like the kind of person that wouldn't mind for us to do what we were about to do, as long as it was for a good reason (which it was!), and even if it was behind her back.

Ben jolted up out of his seat with a smile and I followed him inside her office. My eyes immediately looked to the wall on the right, where there was a massive board, filled with pictures of babies, some with their (adoptive, I would assume) parents, some by themselves.

"Thank you so much for meeting us today."

"You're more than welcome." She gestured for us to take a seat across from her, and we did. "I was quite surprised when you said you were doing a school project about adoption, but I couldn't be happier that you're raising awareness within the younger generation about this very important matter."

"It's our pleasure." Ben tossed one leg on top of the other while he laid back against the back of the chair.

"Plus we're getting extra credit for thinking outside the box with this subject!" I added before letting out a small chuckle.

Ben and I exchanged a glance, before looking at the woman with wide smiles plastered on our faces.

"So... how can I help you?"

"We've got some questions about the world of adoption. Could you guide us through the process?"

With that and a few more random questions, we showed Alicia that we were interested in how adoptions work, enough so that she would say yes to giving us a tour around the agency.

Halfway through the hallway, my part of the plan was about to start. "Yikes, sorry..." I held my phone up. "I need to take this, it's my doctor. It's kind of a private conversation, could I take the call in your office?"

When Alicia hesitated for a second, I thought that I had just wrecked our plan.

"It'll be quick, less than five minutes!" I added, trying not to sound too desperate, but knowing from the look on Ben's face that that's exactly what I probably sounded like.

But when Alicia smiled, I let out a shaky breath of relief. "We'll wait for you so you don't miss the tour."

Alicia and Ben sat on some empty chairs resting on the left side of the hallway, and I quickly thanked her before going inside her office, closing the door behind me and making a beeline for the archive drawers she had on the opposite wall of the one with baby pictures and happy families.

This was going to be easy. All I had to do was search for the letter M, and find my parents file, which meant I had to keep an eye out for Moore.

Turns out, there are a lot of other Moores that chose to adopt. But I didn't give up, and knowing I couldn't take too long, my fingers ran through the files and finally I found it. Moore, Jack & Moore, Gavin. This was it.

I found it.

I quickly snapped several pictures of the records, and put the file back in its drawer before making my way out. I glanced back one more time to make sure everything looked the same as when Alicia left, and walked out, closing the door behind me.

While I made my way back to Ben and Alicia, I kept thinking about Noah and how he'd love to know about our wicked plan and how it had actually worked.

And I smiled.

"Everything okay?" Alicia asked.

"Yeah, "I was just waiting on some test results, and I got them." The smile didn't fade. "Everything's fine."

I glanced at Ben when saying the last two words, who looked back at me with a smile.

Mission accomplished.

"So, uh, should we get back to tour?" He asked.

Alicia smiled and led the way, with me and Noah's best friend following behind. And Noah, too. Because Noah is with me, everywhere I go, whether he's there physically or just in spirit.

* * *

Their names were Frank Anderson and Amanda White, and they were from Denver. They were twenty-one and nineteen when they had me, and were not together at the time my process was initiated. Although, from what I could tell by all the papers signed, they were both very much involved in the whole procedure.

Their addresses weren't the same, so I assumed they weren't living together. There were two phone numbers, both landline phones, so I'm guessing it was probably their parents'. I looked at their names again, and re-read them out loud until Ben interrupted me.

"So... where are we going?"

"Colorado."

By the time we decided to hit the road and confront my progenitors, I had filled the whole group in about the clinical trial, the need to talk to my biological parents, mine and Ben's plan, and our trip to Denver. And they were all tagging along, with the exception of Wyatt, who had to fly back to New York for his finals.

However, four extra people on the trip was great for Ben because he had someone to take turns with behind the wheel, and was amazing for me because while doing what would be one of the hardest things I've ever done, I felt loved and supported, like I never in a million years thought I'd feel.

The fastest route was through Nevada, and it was still a fifteen hour drive, which wasn't by any means an easy ride, especially as my anxiety kept building up as we got closer and closer to our destination.

"Maybe we could stop in Vegas so we can try our luck?" Kyle suggested, from the backseat. "And Zoey could get some drinks so she doesn't have a heart attack by the time we cross the Colorado border?"

"Ha, ha." I mocked my best friend. "Very funny. We can stop on our way back."

We could do whatever we wanted on the way back, but for now, getting to Denver to do what I went there to do was number one on my priority list.

Ben suggested we'd make a pit stop in Richfield, Utah, where we could get some food, drinks, snacks and a few hours of sleep at an inn he had found online, that looked decent enough and wouldn't cost us more than thirty dollars a room. Each couple took a room, while me and Harper shared one.

The next morning, bright and early, we were crossing the state border between Utah and Colorado, and I was a step closer from doing what I never thought I'd do.

The first stop after passing by the white and green Welcome to Denver sign, was the address that Harper and I managed to find last night, after researching one of the phone numbers.

They all stayed in Ben's car, rooting for me, while I rang the doorbell.

"Hi dear." An old woman, probably in her late sixties, with short, gray hair opened the door with a smile. "How can I help you?"

"Hi." I politely smiled back. "Uh, I was looking for Amanda White."

"That's my niece."

Hello there, auntie.

"But she doesn't live here anymore. Amanda and Gregory moved up to North Capitol Hill after they got married." Married? "It's closer to where they work." She added with a hint of a chuckle.

My mouth formed an o shape. "Okay, then. Sorry to bother you."

I was turning in my heels, about to walk back to the car when the woman stopped me in my tracks.

"She works at the Museum of Nature and Science. You can find her there."

She paused for a long minute, and stared at me, as if she had a million things running through her mind, questions she wanted to ask, but she was unable to form the words. Instead, she gulped and smiled wide.

"How are you, dear? How's life?"

The only two questions she asked caused me to think that she knew exactly who I was, and what I was here for.

"I'm good. Really good. I'm going to be a senior in high school next year."

"That makes me so happy." She whispered, the smile never leaving her face.

There was definitely more she wanted to know, to say, but she didn't and I didn't stick around much longer. I thanked her for her help and walked away.

The car ride to the museum was only about ten minutes, and when I got there (probably because of the conversation with my aunt), I wasn't as nervous as before when I asked for Amanda White. This time, my friends came with me and stood by my side while I waited.

Amanda didn't take too long to come out, and when she did, she greeted us all with handshakes, and with a smile that looked exactly like mine.

"I was told a girl named Zoey Moore was looking for me." The way she said that sounded almost like a question. Kyle, Ben, Chloé and Harper said their goodbyes and walked off, making their way to one of the exhibitions.

"Amanda," My tongue felt numb as I said her name. "Would you like a cup of coffee while we talk?"

"Of course."

When we sat down across from each other, at the coffee house of the museum, I could tell that I didn't need to paint her a picture as to who I was.

"Amanda, my name is Zoey Moore. I'm seventeen, I live in California with my dads, and I am-"

"I know who you are." She cut me off confirming my exact suspicions.

I apologized for finding her and reaching out to her when it was a closed adoption, but I quickly explained my situation to her, and she seemed more than okay with it. She was sad to know about my low immune system and she was intrigued about the trial, yet glad that it sounded promising.

"I was HIV positive when I had you." She looked down at the paper cup that she held in her hands. "Me and your father both were."

"Great." I fished a paper and pen from inside my bag and wrote down Dr. King's contact details. "All I need from you right now is to put that in writing and send it to this email. It's my doctor's, he's helping me with the trial."

She took it, looked at it and then back at me. "Of course."

But, I did come all this way, and it seemed wrong to walk away and go back home without answers to the questions that I had slowly been interested to ask.

"I met your aunt today. I went to her address first, thinking that was where you lived."

"I did. I used to live there. I... had to come live with her after I got pregnant with you. My parents kicked me out of the house when they knew."

And then more questions popped into my head.

"If you don't mind, I want to know more about me and my past. My biological father, too."

She seemed okay with my request, happy even. "As you can guess, Frank and I weren't expecting to get pregnant, nor did we plan to. I was jobless, he was working at a Taco Bell." She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "We were just young and having fun. When we found out I was pregnant, we knew that we didn't have any conditions to raise you and give you a proper life. But abortion was never a solution, and after talking about it, about you," Amanda's eyes got teary. "We knew that we wanted to put you up for adoption, and give you to a couple that wanted you and loved you, and who would provide you with a good life."

The coffee was getting cold, but I didn't mind. "You made a good choice."

"It looks like we did." She grinned, and her eyes shone.

"What about Frank?"

"Frank and I broke up shortly after we gave you up. Like I said, I had to move into my aunt's, who supported me all the way. She insisted that I would go to college next fall so I got a job, saved every penny and got into University of Denver and got an MA in Anthropology. Frank and I wanted different things... He kept his job at Taco Bell while I graduated, and he only became a teacher a few years later."

I nodded, in silence, and waited for her to continue.

"We had different timings, I guess. Meanwhile, I met my college boyfriend and I am married now. Frank is engaged to another fellow teacher."

"Oh, so, you two still talk?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "You never forget your first love. Plus, it's not like we hurt each other when we split up, we just... accepted the fact that we weren't meant to be as a couple anymore. But we stayed friends."

"Do you think he'd like to see me?"

"Zoey, he would love it."

We talked for a few more minutes, she was curious about me and my life, my dads, and I told her all she wanted to know. And before we parted ways, she told me where I could find Frank Anderson and told me she'd call him and tell him all about me before I showed up at his doorstep.

So, we made an extra stop in Denver before hitting the road back home.

We were in Vegas when Noah's mom called. Noah was off the ventilator and fully awake. 

* * *

author's note: i loved loved loveeeed writing this chapter <3 what did you think?

bad news, the next chapter is the last one! good news, there will be some bonus chapters coming your way!

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xoxo, mars