Always been you//Jolex

Chapter 11

Today, I'm up before Alex reading a medical journal on the couch of the room.
"Crap, what time is it?" Alex says.
"Relax. I told Bailey we're both taking a personal day so we can stay with Sadie and stop home to get whatever files we need to send in the paperwork. We have a meeting with Chelsea at 4, and then we can hang out here for a while."
"Okay, give me 10 minutes to shower and then we can go."
Once Sadie is up, I tell her we have to grab a few things from home and Mer offers to stay with her for a little while, and Alex and I spend an hour of two rummaging through piles of crap in order to find the stuff we need. While we look, Alex brings something up.
"Let's buy a house." He says, as though it wasn't a big deal.
"What?"
"We're starting a family, and while I love this place, we're probably gonna need an actual house with a yard...and neighbors."
I hesitate for a moment.
"Yeah. Let's do it." We continue sorting papers, setting things aside when we find something useful and making copies of the papers we need. We continue to talk about our hypothetical house that we're apparently buying.
"How many bedrooms?" He asks.
"Hmm...4."
"4? Why do we need 4 bedrooms?" He asks, with a devilish grin. I laugh at him.
"One for us, one for Sadie, a guest room, and..."
"And what?" He says, just to be a pain in the ass.
"You're the one who said you wanted a baby eventually!" I laugh, rolling my eyes.
"We're having a baby?" He asks, still just to be annoying. We both want kids, he just wants to hear me say it.
"Not right now, eventually." I say.
"Well, I guarantee I will love you and all of our eventual children." He pauses. "Does our 4 bedroom house come with a pool?"
"Hell yes."
While I finish making sure the papers are signed and gathered and stapled, Alex sits on the couch doing something on his phone.
30 minutes later, we're back at the hospital and it's already 1:00. We spend the afternoon with Sadie, and when they take her up for some routine post op scans, Alex and I look at real estate listings on my laptop.
"Ooh, look at the size of this backyard!" I say, scrolling through the listings on my laptop.
"Yeah, look at the size of the house. It's practically the size of that shack at the wedding venue we had se-"
"Shut up!" I say, teasing him. We continue scrolling, one of us pointing out a house and the other rejecting it for one reason or another.
"What about this one?" He suggests.
"I...actually kind of love it."
It's a large, modern house in the school district Alex and I want to enroll our kids in. It's got 4 beds, 4.5 baths, a refurbished kitchen and dining room, a family room and a playroom for the kids. And, a pool.
He makes an appointment to tour the house tomorrow, since we're moving at warp speed. Schmitt brings Sadie back from her scans right as we're finishing up, with the image in hand.
"I think everything looks normal, but I can't really tell." He says.
"You think?" Alex pops us. "Give me the scans." A pause. "Look at that, Sadie! You're doing great! All of the labs look good... Just learn to read a damn scan." He says, directing it back to Levi.
Before we know it, it's time to meet with Chelsea. I go first, and Alex stays with Sadie.
"Hello! Ready to get started?" She asks.
"Absolutely. I have all the paperwork right here," I say, passing her the packet.
"Great. I did a background check on you and your husband, looked over your criminal record, checked for any offenses, looked at all of your clearances. Not even a speeding ticket. So that's out of the way. I'm gonna start with a few questions. Why do you want to adopt, and why do you think you're a suitable candidate?"
"Well, both me and my husband grew up in the system, and no offense, but it sucked. And she's my biological child, and all I've ever wanted to do was protect her. When she was born, I made sure she was safe with someone who could care for her when I couldn't. Now, it turns out the best way to protect her is here in Seattle, with me and Alex in a permanent home with people who will love her and protect her."
She nods, scribbling notes. A few questions later, she sends me back to Sadie and I send Alex. He goes through the same thing, and she comes to talk to us at the end. She asks us to step outside Sadie's room.
"I'm very impressed with both of you, and everything checked out. No red flags came up, everything is in check. The last step is a home inspection, and then a hearing if we get to that point."
Alex and I smile and kiss, then go back to be with Sadie.