Fixing You; Fixing Me

Chapter 20: Legally Ours!

Author Note: As far as feel good chapters go...I think this is one of my favorites. What do you think? leave me a comment. 

Zach was looking through a case file at his desk. "Hey Ripley you have a visitor" he heard Carl at the front desk yell out to him. He stood up from his desk and saw Glen standing there.

"Carl this is my brother Glen" he introduced

"Ah the famous Glen, I would have thought you would have come in walking on water the way Zach talks about you" he winks at Zach and starts laughing.

Zach shakes his head ushering Glen into the squad room. "Is there some where we can talk privately?" Glen asked.

Zach guided him into an interrogation room. "What's up, is everything okay?" Zach asked concerned.

Glen took papers out of his briefcase. Zach read over them, he looked up at Glen with tears.

"They're signed, a judge approved it?" Glen pulled him into a hug.

"Almost, the judge has approved our application for adoption, we just have to wait for a caseworker to do a home visit and talk with us and the kids. If we pass the home visit the judge will sign the final papers."

Zach sat down "she will never be able to take them away from us" he wiped more tears.

"They will be safe forever from her," Glen reinforced.

"When do we tell the kids?" Zach asked.

"I figured we could take the family out to dinner tonight and tell them then" Glen suggested and Zach quickly agreed.

Glen left the precinct to go home and make the dinner reservations. He had taken off early from work.

He called Derek and told him he would pick the kids up from school that afternoon. Claire came out of the school with Thomas and Derek but broke out in a smile when she saw Glen there.

"Glen, what are you doing here?" she asked with excitement, launching herself into his arms. Glen caught her giving her a big hug.

"I had the afternoon off so I thought I would surprise you." Caleb, Brett, and Anthony came out of school together, the twins were as excited to see Glen as Claire was.

The three Ripley kids wanted to ride with Glen "Anthony would you like to join us? We're going to stop on the way home" he whispered the last part winking at him.

Anthony nodded, looking to Derek for permission. Anthony had been getting closer with Glen recently and Derek had noticed.

"Go ahead Anthony I'll meet you at home" Derek encouraged him. The five left together, all four kids cheered when Glen pulled into the dairy queen.

Glen had made reservations at a really nice restaurant. So the kids got to get dressed up which excited them.

"Caleb, why do you think Glens is so mysterious? He showed up at school, took us to a dairy queen and now a fancy restaurant? You don't think anything is wrong do you?"

Caleb thought about his brother's questions "I don't know Brett, I was wondering the same thing, but I don't think he would take us to a nice restaurant to tell us something bad."

Claire knocked on Glen's door, he called for her to come in "hey sweetie, you look beautiful" he complimented

"Glen is everything okay? I mean I was just worried..." she trailed off.