I Knew I Loved You

Chapter Six: An Unexpected Offer

Charlene brushed some hair from her face as she rushed down the stairs trying not to trip as she did so, she grumbled to herself moving to answer the phone hating that the one in the bedroom wasn't working like it should. 

Making a mental note to get a new one, Charlene picked up the phone wondering what was so important that they had to wake her up. 

Manuel had left early this morning so that he could re-join his training camp with the promise to call although Charlene knew his head wasn't in the right place right now. 

It was hard seeing him so down and Charlene wished that there was something that she could do; his results had come in the day after hers and it hadn't been good news. 

Manuel had been diagnosed with a low sperm count and poor sperm quality, something that he had taken hard and Charlene had done her best to reassure him that they would work this out. 

They were going to have children one day and they were both sure of that, they now had to work out just how they wanted to do that; the fact that they now knew what the problem was made it easier to decide their next path. 

"Hallo?" Charlene said answering the phone breathlessly, she had no idea who it could be and she hoped it wasn't more bad news; she and Manuel already had more to deal with. 

The run down the stairs had taken it out of her and she was just glad that she hadn't broken her neck coming down them in a hurry. 

"Is this Charlene Neuer?" the voice on the other end of the phone asked, they had been calling for a while now and they knew it was early in the morning but it was a matter of importance. 

Charlene blinked the sleep from her eyes, she didn't recognise the voice and it made her worry that some fan had discovered her and Manuel's home number again. 

It had been a nightmare last time, they had called them all the time and had even shown up at the house at one point to try and speak with them. 

Only a restraining order seemed to get the point across that no matter how much the fan admired the couple, they were not interested in being her friend especially when she was stalking them. 

"This is she," Charlene confirmed warily, she dreaded to think that they would have to change their home number again if some fan had found it; it had been such a nightmare to change it last time. 

The woman on the other end of the phone sighed in relief, she had begun to worry that she had the wrong number for Charlene; she looked down at her paperwork hoping that this would work. 

"This is Sharon Notaro, I was one of the social workers that collected Abigail Schmidt from the hospital," the woman said introducing herself, she wasn't sure that this would work but she didn't know what else to do right now when it came to the little girl. 

They had exhausted all other avenues, her and her partner had done everything they could and had run out of options quickly considering the situation at hand. 

Charlene felt her stomach turn, she was a little surprised that she was getting a call now when it had been two weeks since the accident. 

It had been hard to forget the little girl that had somehow wormed her way into Charlene's heart despite everything else that was going on in her life. 

"Is she alright?" Charlene asked wondering why they had called her, she assumed that Abigail would have found a placement by now or placed with someone from her mother's family. 

They would be able to help Abigail rebuild her life after what had happened and while her mother was facing time; from what Charlene had gathered from Abigail while talking with her, her father had passed on when she was little.