Fighting Family

3

Callum's POV

Patrick stared at the three of us with a dumbfound expression.

Axel glared at him, I tried to give him a sorry look, while Weylyn hide behind me.

"Okay so we have options," he said after Axel laid everything out. "Camp is always an option if you want to do that. I can get a social worker down here and we can discuss that. Or we can get you labeled as their guardian. But for now what are we going to do with your mom? She will be charged for two counts of child abandonment if we find her but if more things happened; abuse, neglect, or anything else, we can add those to her charges."

"Nothing else happened," Axel said a bit too fast. Patrick and I shared a glance. Something else had clearly happened but I let it go for now.

"Okay so just the original charges. Are we wanted restraining orders if we find her?"

"Yes," I said as Weylyn shook his head.

"I want to see mama if she comes back," he said, staring at me with those wide eyes that I always caved to back then. I'd grown out of that.

"Not happening," I said harshly. "She had her chance and she left. She threw me away and she left you. She's not going to ruin our lives again. If you want to come live with me, you're getting the order. You can take it back when you're 18 but until then I don't want you seeing her."

He seemed like he wanted to protest but one look at Axel and his voice died in his throat.

"Okay well we're going to put a warrant out for her. And when we find her we'll serve those restraining orders and everything will be taken care of. As far as their criminal records, I'm willing to wave the run away for now but if they do it again camp or jail is on the table."

"Thank you," I sighed. "You've been such a big help as always."

"You know I'm always going to be here for you. That being said, I won't have them be without a legal guardian. Do I need to call someone to help you through that?"

"Jax still has his old social worker's number. We have a meeting set up with her when we get done here." He nodded as he looked over his papers one last time.

"Well in that case I don't want to make you late and I think I have everything I need here. Don't be a stranger next time," he teased as he stood up from his desk and began guiding us to the door. "I feel like I haven't seen you since the wedding."

"You're married," Axel spat as he looked me up and down with a condensing look.

"We'll talk about it when we get home."

"I didn't see her last night." Patrick's eyes widened but thankfully didn't say a word.

"We'll talk when we get home." Axel rolled his eyes but thankfully didn't say a word.

The drive to Francis' office was quiet. Weylyn was holding his breathe, as if one wrong move and I would give him up, Axel was just pissed off for some reason.

My husbands met us there and before long all of us were crowded around a small corner desk that was covered in paperwork for other cases. Francis looked the way she had all those years ago when Jax's dad threatened to take his custody back. Her hair was pulled up to a bun, she wore a black pantsuit, and her 'she/her' button was still pinned to her lapel.

"Jax!" She yelled the second we walked through the door. "Oh my god look at you! You look so good! And who is this," she asked as he looked to the teenagers.

"My brothers. Axel and Weylyn Scott, we need to talk about me taking custody of them and what that would mean for all of us." She nodded before pulling out a scrap piece of paper and began writing.

"Alright well for starters, if you went through the foster class you would get a small amount of money to help pay for them but there are hassles you have to jump through. You could have random home visits, there is always the possibility of them getting taken and separated even if that possibility is small." Weylyn gasped at the thought as he gripped Axel's hand harshly. "Given that you are next to kin, legal guardian won't be hard to achieve at all. It would be a simple signature but you won't receive any help from the government other than tax benefits when you claim them as dependents. You might have a home visit at the start but even that is unlikely unless abuse is reported."

I nod as I looked down at the desk.

"So what do we need to do for guardianship?"