Hazel Rain

Chapter 47

Kim had slept like shit, a bit surprised by Adam's reaction to her suggestion of adopting Hazel. He put the kibosh on the conversation pretty quickly the previous night and she allowed it...but that wasn't always gonna be the case. She was going to press him on it, adopting Hazel wouldn't remove Kyle and Kristin as her parents, it would just make her and Adam her parents too.

She could hear their giggles and it warmed her heart, they made sure that Hazel felt as loved as Samuel did, that she didn't feel like an outsider in their family. It was becoming clear that despite their best efforts Hazel felt different.

Like Adam had once told her, Hazel was different. There was no denying that, she was their niece and Samuel was their son. Kim wanted to change that, she wanted to give Hazel a bit of normalcy back in her life...why didn't Adam see that? Was it that he didn't want to see it or was that he couldn't see it? That he was blinded by the grief he still felt, and while he had never admitted it, the guilt he felt. The guilt for being the one who lived, the one who got to raise Hazel.

Kim had already emailed Hazel's teacher and requested a conference, while she wasn't upset with Mrs.Montgomery she was a bit disappointed in how she handled explaining the father daughter dance to the class. That coupled with the bullying Hazel had been dealing with Kim wanted a face to face with her.

She also wanted to ring little Connor and Champion's necks but that wasn't very becoming behavior of a police officer. She hoped the bullying was being done out of fear of the unknown, not that it was an excuse or she wasn't furious with the little shits. Just that they were fearful of being in Hazel's shoes and in response to that fear they bullied her in some misguided attempt at dealing with something they didn't understand.

"Mommy! Daddy's making us pancakes and bacon!" Sam was her foodie, the boy could eat anyone under the table. Thankfully, he had an unending supply of energy and was skinny as hell.

"I know...I smell it." Kim smiled as she kissed Sam's cheeks, "Where's Hazel?"

"Coloring" Sam replied, "I'm helping daddy!"

Adam laughed, "By helping he means stealing strips of bacon when he thinks I'm not looking" he pointed his index finger at Sam, "Though it seems he forgets that I'm a detective...I see him." He stole a short but sweet kiss from Kim.

"That's so gross, daddy! Mommy's got cooties!" He scrunched his face up in disgust.

Kim laughed, "I do NOT have cooties, Samuel Ruzek."

"Yes you do! You're a girl...all girls have them Mommy." He looked at her as if she was crazy, "it's okay though, I still love you."

"Good to know, Sam." Kim poured herself a glass of orange juice, "How's Hazel this morning?"

"One day Son, you're going to view girls a bit differently" he laughed as he turned the burner down, "I think she's okay, you?"

"I'm okay, I'd like to talk about last night though" Kim began to set the table for breakfast, "Maybe once the kids are gone."

Both kids were going to spend the weekend with Trudy, she liked to take them for a weekend at least once a month. The kids looked forward to it every time, Trudy Platt-McHolland was a hard ass for sure, but the Ruzek children brought out a completely different version of her.

"Yeah..fine." Adam returned to the stove and finished breakfast.

"Get up!" Kevin pounded his hand on the door, he wasn't going to let him sleep the day away, "Get yo ass outta bed, J!"