Line of Time

Never thought I'd be one...

The next morning after a while of pacing the common area and being observed by Miss Cooper as she walked her boys to school with a toddler on her hip. Chase was seriously questioning his course of action, he didn't know what to do, he wanted to help Tino and give him a family but he didn't know if he would be a good fit. Chase worked at a bar and mechanics shop down the street, most of his free time was spent breaking up fights between drunken bar locals and fixing flat tires. He didn't know if that would even calcify as a good income, but when he brought into consideration the record he had as a teenager, years that he wasn't leaving behind by much at the moment, he wondered if he would even be a candidate to adopt a child, let alone one like Tino was... 

When Miss Cooper came back she found him sitting on the picnic table with his head in his hands. She walked over and looked at him, adjusting the toddler on her hip as he played with a teddy bear. Chase looked up seeing the shadow at his feet. She cleared her throat and gave him a haft smile. 

"What's wrong Chase, bad day at work?" She asked as he sat up, his elbows on his knees as he let out a sigh. 

"They won't let me back for another week, they want to make sure I don't get hurt, since I put up such a fuss with the doctors..." He said. 

"I can imagine, I remember when you got the stomach flue last winter... You weren't the nicest person that week, so I can see why you wouldn't get along very well with hospital staff." She said as he chuckled at that.    

"But anyways, if work isn't the case, what's got you so down in the dumps?" She asked as he sighed. 

"When I was in the hospital yesterday, just before they let me leave I met this kid, he was having trouble with a wheelchair. It got stuck at the end of the hall, though he was just a kid looking for some fun while the nurse wasn't looking or nothing... But after I helped him get his wheels free, he told me that the nurses told him to try and get around himself, because he would have to after he was better and out of there. May, this kids stuck in a chair for the rest of his life and to make things worst, he's an orphan, has been since the day he was born..." Chase explained as May sat down on the table bench and placed her toddler on her lap as she held him. 

"You got attached to him, didn't you?" She asked as if she knew something he didn't. He looked over at her for her reasoning behind her statement.

"Children have a way of doing that to us, there all precious in their own little ways, for example my Lukas likes to read and being alone sometimes while doing so. My Mathias likes to be loud and show off and my little Erin here has a way of telling everyone what he wants with a look he has. All children make us love them for who they are and some of them have a way of making you love them quite a lot faster than others. I can tell that the child your speaking of has already woken something up in you." She said as she got up and smiled at him.

"What?" He asked. 

"He brought out the father in you and if a kid has that power over you, I suggest that you go and you bring him home as soon as you can... Because I bet that there won't be another kid that can do that to you ever again, trust me Chase I know you better than you think." She said as she then walked back into her apartment. After a few more minutes of thought Chase got into his truck and went on his way into the town to find the address that was written on his card that the woman had given him the day prior. Miss Cooper watched as he drove off and smiled to herself. 

"He's going to make a great dad, you wait and see Erin, he'll protect that little boy and make him into a great man just like the one that's driving off now..." She said softly as she put him down for a nap as she then sat down in a rocking chair next to him and took up her knitting.