Adopt Me [HIATUS]

Chapter 5: The Final Day

Eight weeks. Eight long weeks of learning and relearning everything there was needed to learn about caring for a child. Shadow could practically remember every word spoken in that class by heart at this point. Which was good, because he was going to need to remember it all when he brings the child home.

During his final class, as he was heading out the door, he was stopped by his instructor.

"I just want to say, it's been a pleasure getting to know you, Mr. Shadow." Taylor said. "And, in my opinion, I think you're going to do an amazing job with the child you get."

"Thank you, Ms. Taylor." Shadow replied, giving her a light smile. "And I hope you are right about that, because, despite all this preparation, I am very nervous about all this."

"That's understandable." she said. "Kids sort of tend to have that effect on people."

Shadow nodded and bid her goodbye, then headed out to go home for the evening.

Upon arriving, Shadow found he had a message left on his phone from Samuels, asking him to call him when he was available. Shadow had barely been paying attention to the weeks passing, and was slightly worried that there was something about his house that violated the rules of becoming a foster parent. Perhaps they performed a background check and saw his past crimes, and were wanting to tell him that because of his criminal history, he wouldn't be able to be a foster parent.

Shadow rubbed his temple and took a deep breath. Maybe that wasn't the case. Maybe they just wanted to see if he still wanted to do this. Which was reasonable, because Shadow was still asking himself that question.

Shadow sighed and picked up the phone dialing the weasel's number. He listened to it ring a couple times, then the voice of the weasel took over.

"Hello?" The voice spoke. "Samuels the weasel speaking."

"Hello, this is Shadow the Hedgehog." Shadow replied. "I got a message from you that you wanted to talk to me?"

"Ah, Shadow." Samuels chimed. "Yes, I would like to talk to you."

"Alright." Shadow said. "What about?"

"Well, since you have completed your eight weeks of classes, I wanted to talk about what day we should schedule for you to come and meet the kids and select the one you will be fostering."

"It's been eight weeks already?" Shadow asked, surprised.

"It has." Samuels answered, letting out a slight chuckle.

"Well, I guess a weekend would be the best time, since I can meet them without having to take time off work." Shadow replied. "And, if the kid goes to school, then I wouldn't be disrupting them in any way."

"Sounds good to me." Samuels said. "Would you prefer this weekend or the next?"

"This weekend works for me." Shadow replied. "The sooner the better, yes?"

"Absolutely." Samuels agreed. "What day this weekend? Saturday or Sunday? And what time?"

"How about Saturday at around noon?" Shadow suggested. "Does that work?"

"That works wonderfully." Samuels replied. "I'll email you the address, and you'll be meeting one of our group home leaders there. Thank you for all you've done, Shadow. People like you make this world a better place."

Shadow was surprised to hear such cheery words like that. Usually people would think he was a bad guy because of his threatening demeanor, but, from what he guessed, since he was trying to help a little kid, maybe they looked past his appearance and saw him as something else about him. Something maybe even his closest friends didn't know he had in him.

Shadow smiled at the thought. Maybe this whole ordeal wouldn't just help with his loneliness, but perhaps even shape him into an even better person than he is now.

The work week was okay. There were a few fiel missions of having to scout out the doctor's bases, and even fighting him at one point. Shadow didn't mind. He preferred it to sitting behind a desk, signing papers. It also helped him get his mind off of the growing anxiety for the upcoming weekend when he would meet the kid who would come to live with him for a long while.

When Friday rolled around, Shadow was getting ready to head home when he was stopped by Rouge.

"Hey, hun." She said, walking up beside him. "Got any plans this weekend?"

"I do, in fact." he replied.

"Oh come on, Shadow." she said, speed walking in front of him to stop him from leaving just yet. "You've had plans everyday after work and every weekend. What are you even doing that's so important that you can't even have a few drinks with a friend?"

"What I'm doing is none of your concern, Rouge." he answered. "Now let me through."

"Why won't you just spill the beans on your whole 'help-with-my-loneliness' plan?" She asked. "If you do, I'll stop bothering you, and maybe even support you in it."

Shadow sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I'll tell you when I feel comfortable enough to tell you." he said.

"So, you're not comfortable with telling me about this?" She asked. "Is it something personal and you don't trust me to keep it a secret?"

Shadow frowned. He knew she was trying to get under his skin and pressure him into telling her.

"Maybe." He simply said and stepped around her, heading towards the door.

"Come on, Shadow." she pried. "I can keep a secret."

"I doubt you'd be able to keep this one." he grumbled.

"Shadow, can you at least just give me a hint?" She pleaded.

"Rouge, just drop it." he said, getting annoyed with her not stopping. "I told you, I'll tell you what's going on when I feel comfortable with it. It's not because I don't trust you, it's because what I'm doing is completely new for me, and I want to get used to it before I let you know about it."

Rouge stood there for a few moments in silence, obviously trying to come up with an answer.

She then let out a sigh and said, "Fine. Just... promise me you're not doing something illegal or anything that will get you into trouble."

"I promise, Rouge." Shadow replied. "I've gone through everything to make sure what I'm doing is completely legal."

"Okay." she said. "Good. Then I guess I'll see you Monday, yeah?"

Shadow nodded, and gave her a small wave goodbye, and headed out the door to his bike to head home.
Upon arriving home, Shadow took off his jacket and plopped into his chair, sighing. Truth be told, he actually didn't trust rouge to keep this a secret. He knew that if she found out about him taking care of a kid, she'd scream the information to the whole world. And that would lead to a whole lot of problems that he didn't want to face right now when he was so close to accomplishing his goal.

The rest of the day was rather calm. Shadow just watched the news and a channel that featured NASCAR racing. Shadow slightly chuckled at the fact that he could outrun all those cars without a problem if he jumped on that track.

When darkness fell, Shadow turned off his television and headed to his bedroom to sleep. He set an alarm for the next morning so he could prepare himself for the drive over to the house where he would meet and select his foster kid.