Safe and Sound

1. The Decision

Chapter 1
The Decision

    I couldn't believe that I was actually thinking of doing this. With everything that had happened in the past couple of weeks, people might call me crazy for even having a thought like that.

    So as I walked down the corridor to the ward I was heading to, I wondered whether I was doing the right thing. Whether she would appreciate me doing this. Whether the rest of my family would agree with the idea. But I knew, in my heart, that everything would be alright. That this idea was the right thing to do.

    After all she'd done for us, I needed to do this. Without her, things would probably have turned out a hell of a lot different. She deserved what I was planning to do, because she needed to know that, in the end, everything would be okay.

    The double doors came into view. They were a faded dark blue with some of the paint chipping off in places. It was such a stark contrast to the muted white and pale yellow walls.

    Never, in all of my life, had I felt this nervous. I hadn't felt like this when I first went into space, or when I had been standing at the end of the aisle watching Lucille walk down it in white dress. So why did I feel like this now?

    Maybe it was because Lucy would have had the same idea had she still been with us. If she'd still been alive, would I still be this nervous?

    Even though I wouldn't have lost the bottle to ask for Jodie's opinion on my plans, I probably would've put it off for another couple of days, had I not pushed open the doors when I did.

    The ward was the same as it had been for the past couple of weeks; holding only one, very sad person. I'd talked with the staff, and they said that if she had somebody to go home with, she'd be free to leave, but they couldn't let her leave just to go back to the streets.

    When I'd heard that news, I started looking into fostering her. I already knew that she got on well with the boys, and I couldn't, in good conscience, leave her in here. She's been through enough already, I thought, she doesn't need to stay here any longer then she has to.

    Jodie was curled on her side, facing away from the door, but from the way she tensed up at the sound of the door opening and closing, I guessed she knew that somebody had come in and that she wasn't asleep.

    As I got closer, I could see that the bandages were back on her wrists. I thought they said that she was better.

    "Don't worry. Nothing happened."

    I looked up from her bandaged wrists to her face, and saw that she was looking at me. I couldn't tell if the bags under her eyes were bruises or not, as her face still had the bruises from Catrina.

    "Then what happened?" I asked, sitting down next to her bed.

    She took a deep breath in and turned to face me. Every movement still seemed to hurt her. Another present from the supposed 'CPS' worker.

    "I ripped the stitches out in my sleep. Woke up with blood on the sheets, and freaked out a little." She shrugged the best she could, "They stitched me up again, but I had to go back to having the bandages to stop it from happening again."

    "When did this happen?"

    "This morning." She answered, "Scared the hell out of the nurses, which then cause me to panic more. No harm though. Just numb arms, and another week in bandages."

    "Anesthetic?"

    "Yes. Although I am starting to get a little feeling back in my hands, which is good. I hate it when I can't feel my arms. Having a general is always fun though. I thought I had a wand, and wondered why it rained."

    I didn't mean to, but I started laughing when she told me that, but it reminded me of something that happened to Virgil when he had to have one of his teeth removed a couple years back.

    "What?" She demanded, trying to get into a sitting position, "What's so funny?"

    "Virgil did something similar after having a tooth removed. He started saying how he was a Jedi and where was his light saber?"

    Jodie started laughing at that too, before becoming serious.

    "Why are you really here Mr. Tracy?" She asked, looking me right in the eyes, "You wouldn't just come visit to ask how I was. And if that was the case, you would've brought your boys."

    Why did she have to be as smart as John? Always perceptive, and knowing when there was something being kept secret – even if he wasn't the best at reading social situations, he knew how to read body language.

    "You got me. I wanted to ask your opinion on something I was thinking about."

    "And your asking me has something to do with the fact that the boys don't know anything about this thought."

    "Correct."

    She bit the inside of her mouth, obviously thinking through all the possibilities of what I could be wanting to ask.

    "Alright, shoot."

    "Okay. I was thinking, since you are officially off of the suicide watch list, that..." She cut me off.

    "Yeah, but they think I can't take care of myself. I can, they're just worried about what I might do and 'I'm too young to be out on my own.' I looked after myself pretty well, all things considered..." It was my turn to interrupt her.

    "Let me finish." I said, looking at her. She pretended to zip her lips up, and nodded at me, "Okay. I was thinking, that maybe you would like to come live with us – that we could foster you. And, if you chose to stay with us, we could look into adoption in a couple of years."

    For a few seconds, it looked like she was in a state of shock. Her jaw had dropped, and she just stared at me for a good five minutes.

    "Are you okay?" I asked, feeling a little concerned that she hadn't said anything to my idea.

    She nodded her head, but still didn't give me a verbal answer. When she did finally answer, her voice sounded just as shocked as she looked.

    "You... You want t-to... Really?"

    I chuckled at her reaction. It was similar to the reaction my mother gave me when I told her.

    "Are you sure?"

    "Yes. I want to be a better person, and I know that you, along with my mother, will help keep me on that path. In the past six months, I've never seen John smile. Virgil started playing piano again. Everybody has started talking about their feelings, and they always talk about you."

    "Me?" She pointed at herself.

    "Yes, you. Who else would I be talking about?"

    "I don't know, but you never know. For all we know, there could be an elephant in the room."

    Again, I chuckled. It was something that John probably would've said, had he been here.

    "Anyway, what do you say? You've seen how everybody in the family acts and how mental Gordon and Alan can be, so do you want to be fostered by the Tracy's?"

    All she did was give me a nod, and wipe the tears of joy from her cheeks.