Fix You ~Completed~

Act Eighty-Nine

~Five Years Later~

"Only Gale would book a bouncy house the size of an entire city block in the backyard of a flipping townhouse," Eddie chuckled as we came to the sliding door and gaped at the giant, red and yellow bouncy house complete with a little slide leering down at us. I hesitated, protectively squeezing the tiny child I held in my arms. "Seriously, how did they get that thing back there?"

"Magic!" was Salvador's excited response, while he wiggled about in my arms. I could tell he was ready to get out there, but I had an issue letting him go. The last thing I wanted was to allow my three-year-old son to get into that inflatable death-trap.

Eddie opened the sliding door, gesturing for me and our little one to pass first. Gale and Dame were standing out on the deck, both decked out in costumes of familiar characters. "Wow, you weren't joking when you said Elizabeth was having a Moana themed birthday," I giggled at the sight of Gale dressed as Maui and Dame dressed as the leading lady, Moana. "You really went all out."

Sal, growing restless in my grip, gently tapped his finger against my cheek and pointed at Elizabeth, who was already in the bouncy castle with a few friends from school. "Let him go, sweetie," Eddie coaxed, patting my back. I reluctantly let the little guy down and watched him dash off after his best friend. "The decorations inside look amazing! You got a Te Fiti cake and everything!"

"We even have the soundtrack on loop!" Gale as Maui cheered, wiggling around in his t-shirt complete with fake tattoos and a wavy black wig. "Dame is not so into it."

"If you go into Polynesian mythology, Moana would technically be Maui's daughter. I feel wrong dressed as her while my husband is dressed as Maui!" Dame explained with a laugh, her cheeks flaring up. I raised my eyebrows. "I don't think Disney exactly had that in mind."

"Disney cleans up the stories and makes them marketable," Eddie agreed. His arm slowly navigated over and settled around my waist, pulling me to him protectively. There was a group of parents sitting on the other end of the deck, happily chatting while their children- kids Elizabeth must have known from school- were in the bouncy house, having the time of their lives. None of them seemed worried, not like me. My eyes glanced over to find Sal in the sea of children. He was hopping beside Elizabeth, giggling like the sweet little angel he was. "Clemmy, he is fine."

"I know," I assured Eddie, awkwardly stepping even closer to him when one of the moms came over to ask Dame a question. That lead to her patting Gale on the back and abandoning our group. "He's just so small..."

"So are you. That's how you know you're related. Well, you're not related by blood, but you're close enough!" Gale chirped happily, extending his arm out and doing another little dance. I tried not to laugh too hard.

It had been a little over a year since Eddie and I had adopted Salvador. He was around two when we got our angel, a child coming out of the home of an anorexic mother and a father by the name of John Doe. I fell so deeply in love with our little boy the minute the social worker brought up his case to Ed and me. I'd begged Eddie that we gave him a chance, and it didn't take much convincing to get him to agree Salvador was a good match for us.

Before we got to take him home, Eddie and I visited him at the home he was being cared for in and we would play with him, feed him, change his diapers. I assumed this was to prep us for parenthood and I truly loved that. Sal was a clingy baby boy and he smiled so often. It was as if he hadn't endured any of the nightmares he left behind.

Gale was right about our resemblance, though, and most people saw that. Eddie joked about it all the time. Even though Sal wasn't my biological son, he shared many of my qualities. We both were small for our ages, spoke softly, and were shy. What made people stop and think twice about his parentage was his beautiful tan skin. Eddie was full-blown Norwegian and I probably had quite a bit in me myself, while Sal was the child of a Native American woman named Hailey.