adopted by sandra bullock (and her gf cate blanchett)

chapter 8

it had been three hours since danielle, sandy, and cate first sat down together in the hospital waiting room.

it was about 4:30 in the morning, and all three women were exhausted.

tensions were high as there had been no change in dylan's condition, and the possibility of max showing up increased by the minute.

sandy had been on the phone with her lawyer for the better part of an hour.

"okay, okay.....yes...thank you so much. yes, alright, thanks again joe, see you soon."

sandy hung up, closing her eyes and turning her head to the ceiling as she let her thoughts clear for a moment.

"my lawyer, joe, is on his way here, he has a criminal charges case and a custody agreement drawn up already. according to him, with the evidence dani's provided and the records from dylan's surgery, there is an extremely low chance that they don't convict him."

this news should've been a weight lifted of their shoulders, but with the uncertainty of dylan's future and max still in the open, it didn't feel as reassuring as it should've.

cate still hadn't been filled in on the details of danielle's story, but she had picked up enough context clues over the past hour to know that max was the reason for the kids injuries and that he needed to be convicted of that crime in order for sandy to have custody of the kids.

sandy hadn't talked to cate about the idea of adopting the kids, she was still set on the idea of talking to dylan and danielle about what they wanted for their future before making any decisions. regardless, she needed to claim temporary guardianship of them just to ensure they didn't go back to max or to the system.

dani knew she should be worried about the case, or if sandy would adopt her or not, but she could only think about dylan right now.

her mind had been so preoccupied during the first part of their time in the hospital that the fact that dylan might not make it hadn't even occurred to her.

when they showed up at sandy's gate, she assumed dylan just needed to lie down, take some asprin and chug a water.

when dylan passed out, she knew it was bad, but not this serious.

now there was a possibility that she could lose her best friend, the only person who was always there for her, her twin.

tears threatened to well up in her eyes as they had been for the past three hours.

cate noticed this, and came over to where dani was sitting.

cate knelt to become eye level with dani, gently cupping the young girls cheeks with her hands and wiping away her tears, and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

no words were exchanged between the two, but as cate stood up and turned to walk away dani held on to her hand, keeping her from leaving.

dani was embarrassed, her cheeks red as she almost whispered "can you....stay? please?"

cate was surprised dani asked her this, she had seemed so closed off and cate figured if she was going to let her guard down for anyone it would be sandy. she was touched that dani wanted her to stay, she certainly wasn't going to say no.

"of course, sweet girl."

cate sat down next to her and dani rested her head lightly on cates shoulder.

cate wrapped her arm around dani, rubbing her arm in soothing motions.

sandy watched this scene unfold from across the room, where she was waiting at the door for her lawyer. well, really she was waiting for a doctor, but she didn't want to let on to dani how nervous she really was.

sandy was a wreck thinking about the possibility of loosing one of her kids.

she had just gotten them back in her life, by some miracle of god, and now that could be taken away.

worst of all, she didn't know if she could be strong enough for danielle, whose other half would be gone.

but sandy didn't want to think about that because he was going. to. wake. up.

as she watched cate and danielle sit together in silence, she thought about their future together.

this is what she wanted, her kids and her girlfriend, a family of her own.

some higher power had brought cate back into her life just this month after five years of bitter silence, the same higher power that brought her kids back into her life yesterday.

sandy didn't know what she had done to deserve it, but she wasn't going to let anything mess it up now.

as she was wrapped up in her thoughts, her lawyer joe approached.

"ms. bullock, how are you?" he asked as he walked in the room.

"joe!" sandy startled, "i didn't see you there, i'm alright." she closed the door behind him.

at the sight of a strange man walking into the room, dani buried her head a little more into cates shoulder.

she really didn't feel like talking to anyone, every ounce of courage she possessed was used to tell sandy and the doctor, and they have that on tape so there should be no reason to ask her to tell the story again.

she hoped she could pretend to be asleep.

dani's small movement into cates side didn't go unnoticed by cate, who held her tighter.

cate looked up and offered a small nod to the lawyer.

she had enough bad experiences with lawyers during her divorce with andrew.

it was plastered all over the news, "Oscar Winner Cate Blanchett Leaves Husband of 15 Years in Vicious Divorce." or her personal favorite, "Cate Blanchett Ruins Marriage, Leaves Husband amid Cheating Scandal."

to their credit, cate had been cheating. but what they didn't know was that he had cheated first, and he had done much worse than that.

the family lawyer took andrews side, because of course he did, leaving cate scrambling for a good lawyer, which she couldn't even afford because her assets were locked under her husbands name.

the lawyer she did get managed to help her finalize the divorce and recover her own bank account, but andrew left with their two houses, boat, three of their four cars, and any valuable jewelry he had gifted her during their marriage.

cate could've cared less about material items, in fact she preferred to have less, but the fact that everyone was so overwhelmingly pro-andrew unsettled her.

maybe it was her own fault for not giving the details of what he had put her through, but the risk of that information turning against her and crashing her career were greater than keeping her stupid fucking diamonds.

sandy and the lawyer were looking at papers, dani was just starting to actually fall asleep, and cate was wrapped up in her reminiscing, when max parker entered the room.

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chapter 8 - 1163 words !