The Voice that changed their Life (Good Charlotte Fan Fiction)

Chapter 9

Days and nights passed by painfully slow. The only moments time seemed to fly by were when they were calling Megan on the phone. But after that it was like another day out of gum, thick and sticky. Nothing could take Benji's mind off of Megan, not even his twin brother who came by every few days to help and calm his brother down.
"You know that everything in here is perfect for a child.", he told Benji on one of his visits. "They can't do anything else except for letting you get through with the adoption."
"Why haven't we heard anything of them yet?", Benji asked slightly desperate and Joel just shrugged.
"The guy said it will take a week. It's only been four days so far."
"Only half of it has passed?", Benji moaned and put his hand on his head. "I can't bare this. It is just too much. I wanna go and pick her up right away."
Joel shook his head, stood up from the armchair he was sitting on and sat down next to Benji on the couch, wrapping his arm around his brother's shoulders.
"Benj, calm down. You can do it. You know you can do it."
Benji dropped his hand and turned his head lightly so he could look into his twin's face which looked so much like his own. They had the same eyes, the same nose, even the same mouth. Everything about their faces was exactly alike, except for the single mole Joel had on his cheek and he didn't . But still people had a hard time telling them apart.
"I know that you are right. But I just can't wait anymore. It's making me anxious and I can't stand myself when I am so anxious."
They heard the front door opening and Cameron came in, followed by her two little dogs.
"Hey guys", she greeted them and removed the leashes from the dogs and put them inside a drawer of the hall-stand.
"How's it going?"
As soon as she locked eyes with her husband, she knew what their conversation was about and dropped her shoulders a little.
"Bae, are you still worrying about it?", she whispered and he could only nod.
"You could always call them and ask how far they are with everything, you know?", she offered for the hundredth time and he nodded again.
Then he sighed and rested his head on Joel's shoulder.
"You know, I might just do that. Just to be sure they are on our case and didn't lose it or something.", he muttered and got up from the couch.
Joel's eyes followed his brother's movements until Benji left the living-room to use the phone that was stationed in the kitchen.
"Nothing seems to calm him down these days.", Cameron said and sat down next to Joel.
He looked at his sister-in-law and shook his head. "Nope. But it's just three more days. How are you feeling with all of this?"
Cameron shrugged lightly. "I just hope those remaining days pass fast."

Well, they didn't. But they passed eventually. Benji Madden and Cameron Diaz got approved to adopt Megan Fraser. To Benji, everything that happened after those great news happened in a blur. They needed to sign more paperwork and had to agree that they were doing a test phase first, which meant that Megan was going to live with them for a month to reassure everyone of the actual situation and let everyone get used to each other. After those four weeks everything would be made official and they would receive the papers stating that they are the legal guardians of Megan. It would even change her last name to Madden, because that is what they agreed on.
When Benji and Cameron came to pick up Megan, the little girl couldn't wait to finally leave the orphanage. She had already said her goodbyes to the other kids and the few things she had were packed in a bag. Dog was in a tight grip of her hand as she ran towards Benji and let him lift her up into his arms. Mrs. Maleficent handed the papers to Cameron and the woman stowed those safely in her purse. These papers showed them to be allowed to take care of Megan for the next four weeks and also included her child ID card.
A cab took them to the airport, the same airport where they had picked up Cameron in Megan's first cab drive. This time it was their first destination and they had to catch their plane. Benji and Cameron didn't bring much luggage, except for Cameron's purse, because they only took the flight to get Megan and now the next one to take her with them back home all in one day. It was just a one hour flight but the drive would have been much longer.
As they got out of the cab they could already see paparazzi all over the place. Benji got out first and told Megan to wait inside. He took off the hoodie he was wearing, leaving him in a black t-shirt, and helped Megan into the hoodie. He pulled the hood over her head and all the way down so her face was disguised.
"I can't see.", Megan simply stated and moved her head up to be able to lurk out under the hood.
"Don't worry, I'll carry you.", Benji said while Cameron handed him his baseball cap and sunglasses.
She put her own sunglasses on as well and got out of the car. While the woman paid the cab driver Benji held his arms out for Megan and lifted her up as soon as she was out of the car.
"Why are we doing this?", Megan asked and held onto Benji with one hand and pulling the hood down with the other. They had rolled up the sleeves so she could use her hands.
"Those people with cameras, they already know who Cam and I are, they don't need to know who you are. Not as long as we can keep you away from them, anyways.", Benji said and grabbed Megan's bag with the hand that wasn't holding Megan.
"Dog! He's still in the car!", Megan suddenly whimpered and Cameron leaned into the cab and picked up the stuffed animal.
"Got him!", she said and then she put him safely into her purse.
"You'll get him back as soon as we are on the plane, alright? Now we're good to go."
They walked straight towards the entrance doors, but the paparazzi had already recognized them and were following them now.
"Hey Benji, how're ya doing?", one of the men asked and Benji just ignored him.
He hurried through the first door with Cameron right behind him.
"Who d'you got there? Who's the kid?", another one asked and Megan buried her head into Benji's shoulder and held onto him tighter as the flashlights of the cameras went off all at once. The clicking noise bothered her and she wished they would just disappear and leave them alone.
"Hey Cameron, you look beautiful today. What are you up to?", the first man asked again but Cameron stayed quiet, just as Benji did.
Together they made it through the check-in and from then on the paparazzi couldn't follow them. As soon as they were good to go and found their terminal, Benji put Megan down on her feet and bent down on one knee in front of her.
"Are you alright?", he asked her and gently lifted up the hood that was still covering her face.
She looked at him with wide eyes and nodded lightly.
"They scared me.", she whispered and Benji bit his lip lightly, wondering if they better should've taken the long drive home instead of taking her through paparazzi filled airports.
"As soon as we're out of the plane we'll probably meet people like them again. We'll do the same to get through them and it won't take us too long from the airport to our home, alright?"
Trying to make his voice all happy and cheerful, he smiled up at her. The little girl put her lips into a small smile and moved forward, placing her forehead against Benji's.
"You won't let them come close to me?", she mumbled and he shook his head lightly, careful not to break the contact between their foreheads.
„Never.", he promised.
Megan placed a soft kiss on top of his nose and nodded.
"Alright.", she said. "Let's get into the air now."