adopted by sandra bullock (and her gf cate blanchett)

chapter 3

TW: references to abuse and mentions of blood/bruising.

~

"yes. that's me."

sandy seemed as shocked to hear those words come out of her mouth as dani was.

of course, sandy knew she had given birth to two children, that was no shock, but to see them here in front of her fourteen and a half years later, that was too much for her.

sandy turned away, needing a moment to collect herself before turning back towards danielle and dylan.

once again, danielle was poised to speak.

danielle had dreamt of this moment for her entire life and now that it was finally happening, she was determined not to make a fool of herself.

unfortunately, the only words she could form at the moment were "oh."

"oh." sandy repeated softly back to her, looking just as lost in her thoughts as dani.

dani took a second to regain composure before starting again.

"mrs-uh-sandy. i want to clear some things up."
she took another deep breath

"my brother and i were recently placed into a foster home after some...well...complicated circumstances caused us to leave our original adopted parents."

sandy saw danielle trying to fight tears, trying to put on a tough exterior. she could only imagine what these kids had been through in the adoption and foster system, she knew she was gambling when she gave them up but she had always hoped and prayed they were adopted early by a loving family. sandy was happy just to see that they had been kept together!

dani continued, "our foster guardian, he...he uhm...he...we had to leave. we had to leave from his house and he doesn't really know that we're gone."

dani mustered all the strength that she could to look sandy in the eye, trying to explain to her without words. she just couldn't admit the truth of the situation out loud, it would all seem too real.

luckily for dani, sandy had always been smart, and she was quick to put together the old torn clothes, the way danielle had flinched earlier and the cut on dylan's head, the fact that they had shown up on her doorstep unannounced and muddy, and bloody.

"oh."

that was all sandy was able to say.

suddenly cate had appeared in the doorway.

dani startled, unsure of how much cate had heard. sandy was wondering the same, but her partner just walked right to dylan, kneeling down.

cate looked at danielle for a moment, silently asking permission to touch dylan. dani nodded almost imperceptibly.

cate continued with her actions, wiping the blood of off the cut on his forehead, taking of his muddy jacket and shoes and placing them in a garbage bag.

as she cleaned him up, dani turned her attention back to sandy.

sandy was full of emotions, regret, anger, sadness, guilt, and worry being among them.

dani was also full of emotions, sadness, dejection, hurt, and hope.

the look they shared said a thousand words.

"i don't want you to think that our coming here, especially in this state, was something just to get your attention, or a ploy to meet you, i hope we didn't distract you from your family or your work-"
now dani was getting to the heart of what she wanted to say.
"-it's just that, we had nowhere else to go. i mean it really when i say that if there was any other option we would have taken it-"