#and at the end of the last movie Dave only adopts the guys! Neither him or the chipettes wanted to stay as family

[stuworbutwithchipmunks]

I think we should talk more about how CGI Brittany has the career 80's Brittany always wanted.

[cianmars]

Pieces of a Puzzle:

Rogers, David, and Mary have been together for ten years and have already have a ten year old daughter, Alice, together.

They all have their own issues and problems, but they’re happy. That being said they feel like something’s missing.

They’re waiting to adopt a baby, the last piece of their family, and only have four months to wait. In the mean time they decide to foster six year old Emma, what they assume is going to be a short stay, before she finds her forever family.

Chapter 4- Meeting Emma  David meets Emma at the hospital.

AO3

It took David almost two hours to get to the hospital, through the morning traffic, but as soon as he got there he headed for the canteen where Matilda has asked him to meet her.

“Tilly.” He smiled and the two friends hugged in greeting, he was careful of his shoulder as he did so, but it was aching much less than it had been the day before.

“You know only you guys are allowed to call me that, right?”

“Us, and Emily.” David pointed out with a smirk, they had been friends with Matilda in college over a decade before, he was made up that his friend had found someone to love just like he had found his two true loves. He gently took hold of her hand. “Wow, look at that rock.”

“She’s a banker.” She pointed out in a joke they had often made. “Here I got you a coffee and some toast.”

“Thanks.” He dumped some sugar and milk into the coffee and took a log sip. “I’m guessing Mary told you that I hadn’t eaten?”

“Kian.” She smiled. All three of her friends had always fussed over each other when they were worried, but Kian and Mary had been extra worried since David had been hurt. “How’s the shoulder?”

He stretched it instinctively. “It’s much better than it was.” But not what it had once been. He took a bite of his toast. “So I have a few questions.”

“Shoot.”

“What size clothes is she in? I’m gonna take her to grab some bits on the way home, and we’re gonna get some more tomorrow with Kee and Mare.” He explained.

“The checks for her won’t be coming in until the end of the week.” She warned, as she did with all the foster parents who worked for her.

“You know we don’t care about that.” He told her truthfully. “We’ll just stick the money into a bank account for the kid until she’s older, for college or a car, whatever she needs. That’s allowed, right?”

She smiled, they had done the same thing before, they always pointed out that they didn’t need the money and that it wasn’t the reason why they fostered. Between two trust funds and three good jobs she understood, she didn’t know how much David and Mary had inherited but she had a feeling they could live the rest of their lives on the interests alone. “I don’t see why not.” She frowned. “Emma’s tiny, she’s only the size of a four year old, but she’s super intelligent but only on things which can be read – she’s had barely any life experiences, the only ones I can tell she’s even had are negative.”

“Al was in like size seven or eight when she was Emma’s age.” David frowned despite the pleasant memory of his daughter when she was just six. “And we’re going to make sure she gets that, I promise.”

She gently squeezed his hand. “I know you will. You got any more questions for me?”

“Mostly medical – allergies, conditions, and treatments for everything.”

After they went over the things they signed the paperwork, Matilda liked to do it away from the child so they wouldn’t make the child feel like an object or something, then they went to the children’s ward.

“Emma, this is David Charming, he’s one of your new foster fathers.” Matilda introduced with a smile. “Dave, this is Emma Swan.”

David walked over to where Emma was sat, in the chair beside the bed, he crouched in front of her so he could look her in the eyes. “Hey Emma, it’s really nice to finally meet you, Matilda told me lots about you. My name’s David, you can call me Dave, David, Davey, I pretty much answer to anything.” He joked.

A small smile tugged at Emma’s mouth. She held her Matilda book closer to her, against her chest, as though it were a shield. “Hi.” She mumbled shyly. “David.” She added quickly, sticking to the name Matilda had introduced him as, just to be safe. She didn’t want to overstep her boundaries, she knew she was just another foster kid.

David smiled gently. He took in the kid in front of him; Matilda was right, she looked like she was four, and acted shy but she was trying to put on a brave face. A blue beat up backpack was next to her, her arm looped through the strap as though it were a lifeline, it was almost empty. “Matilda, huh?” He said smiling at the book she was holding, he smirked back at the social worker, then smiled gently at his new foster daughter. “I’ve never read that but I had watched the movie, have you seen it?”

Emma bit her lip. She slowly shook her head then pushed herself to speak more. “I’ve not seen it… Matilda gave me the book… Have you seen Harry Potter?”

David’s smile widened and he nodded his head. “I have, I love those movies, and I’ve read all of the books. My husband, Kian, and my wife, Mary, also love Harry Potter, we dressed up as Harry, Ron, and Hermione last Halloween, and my daughter Alice dressed up as Luna. They all wish that they could have come with me to come and take you back to our home, but Mary had to go to work, she’s a fourth grade teacher, and Kian had to go to work too, he is a type of policeman, I am too but I’m off work for a little while.”

“Why?” She froze, she hadn’t meant her curiosity to get the better of her.

David gave her a smile letting her know that it was okay. “I was trying to stop some bad guys with Kian and some other police detectives, we put them into prison for a very long time, but they hurt me.” He pulled down the neck of his tee to show her the two marks from the gun shots between his heart and his shoulder. He had nearly died, and it had messed up how well he could use his arm, too messed up to be working other than a desk job at the moment. “So I’m off work for a while.”

Emma slowly relaxed, he genuinely seemed not to care that she had asked him a question, in fact he seemed to like that she was connecting with him.  She was glad that he caught the bad guys, she didn’t like that he had been hurt, he seemed like he might be nice and kind… but she was still reserving judgement. “Okay.”

David smiled. “Y’know, my brother owns a bookstore with his wife, we could go there one day, if you like?”

Emma’s eyes widened at the idea. She nodded her head though she tried not to  get her hopes up.

Matilda smiled at the pair of them, she could tell that Emma was holding back, it was heart breaking to see that on a child so young, but she knew that if anyone could help her the Charmings could. In the meantime she would be looking for an adoptive family for the little girl, she would make sure it was perfect for her. “Emma, sweetheart, I’ll give you a card with my number on it, if you need me at any time you can call me. Let’s put it in the front pocket of your backpack.”

“Okay.” Emma took the card and slipped it in, not wanting her social worker and foster father to see all of the little bits of food she had hidden away.

The doctor entered and handed David what seemed like a million leaflets about different things, along with a copy of the medical file which he might need, he expertly hid the feeling of worry and the face he felt way out of his depth. Then came all of the medicines –antibiotics and steroids, plus prescriptions for a couple more things which he could pick up on the way home like inhalers and their accessories, and PediaSure to try and get her weight and growth up, plus pain relief medicine for her arm and other injuries. He put the file, leaflets, and medicines into the backpack he had purposely brought. When he was passed a card with the next appointment for Emma’s arm he slipped it into his wallet, they had said that he could switch it to a nearer hospital and he thought that he would talk to his spouses about that – they’d probably go with whichever Emma preferred.

The child sat still through all of this, a sign that she had gotten used to this, it hurt David, but he was certain that Matilda would find Emma a family where she would never be moved again. Once he had everything he crouched down in front of Emma, Matilda had helped her into her oversized and well-worn jacked, and she was holding her backpack super tightly. He smiled gently, and slowly and carefully placed his hand on her uninjured one. It was colder than he expected. “One of the hospital rules is you have to leave being pushed in a wheelchair,” he nodded towards the one the doctor had brought in with him, “I’ll push it for you, I can do it nice and slow, or we can race over the bumps and hills, it’s your choice.”

Emma thought for a minute. “Racing.”

David only just heard her quiet voice, but he beamed as he helped her into the wheelchair, and made sure that Emma hadn’t forgotten anything. “I can carry your backpack for you, if you like?” He offered.

“No!” Emma’s panicked voice was about sixty times louder than her previous answer. She immediately regretted it. She sank back in terror.

David slowly and calmly held up his hands in a surrendering gesture. “Okay Emma, that’s okay, you can keep a hold of your bag, that’s not a problem at all. Emma, I promise you that I’m never going to hurt you, neither are Mary or Kian. You’re safe with us. I know that’s hard to believe right now, because a lot of adults who were supposed to look after you didn’t, but we’re going to prove it to you.”

Emma had never heard words akin to that come out of an adult’s mouth. He genuinely seemed to believe his words, but no adults had ever said anything like that to her, especially with such conviction. She found herself starting to believe him. She supposed she might as well give him a chance, she had given worse people more chances in her six years of life, she nodded her head. “’Kay.” She mumbled.

Matilda had never seen a foster parent so expertly calm and reassure a child they had met thirty minutes before, especially Emma, who had so many reasons for being guarded and scared.

“Thank you, Emma.” David gave her an honest but charming smile. “Now, let’s break you out of here, yeah?”

A small smile appeared on Emma’s face, she had been in the hospital for ages, and Matilda had told her that David and his family lived a little outside of the city, in an actual house, she had only ever lived in apartments, so she was a little excited to see it. “Yeah. Let’s go.” She let David help her into the wheelchair and he made sure she wasn’t going to fall out, he did so without any hesitation, she wasn’t used to that either.

As promised David raced down the hill like corridor, he made sound effects as though they were a race car, and for the first time in what felt like forever Emma found herself giggling. David’s antics even made people they passed in the hospital laughed or smile.

David felt his heart lighten as he heard her little giggles, he could tell that she was restraining herself from all out laughing, but hearing her laugh had the same effect on him as Alice’s laughter did, he was sure that her adoptive father would love her as much as he loves Alice. And as much as he would love the new baby.

“Thanks for the loaner.” David said to Matilda as he finished fastening the carseat into the back of his car. “We’re going to get one tomorrow so we can get this back to you as soon as possible.” He looked down at Emma in Matilda’s arms. “Hey, kiddo, let’s get you in here, and you can have your backpack in with you.” He lifted her up and placed her into the carseat.

“It’s no problem, thank you for making coming today.” She knew several foster carers who despite being nice wouldn’t have accepted a child two days early. She passed Emma her bag. “I’ll be by in two days, okay? On Friday, but if you need me before then you have my number.”

“Home check?” David smiled.

“Yeah, you know I gotta… Plus I haven’t seen your new digs yet.” She nudged him playfully.

“We’ll see you on Friday then, I’m sure Alice will be made up to see you.” He smiled at Matilda then down at Emma. “My little girl, Alice, loves books just like you – all my family do, you’ll fit right in.”

Emma just smiled and held onto her bag before saying goodbye to Matilda.

After David said his goodbyes to his friend he climbed into the front and did up his own belt. “We’re going to stop off on the way back home, we’ll pick up your medicines and some more bits for you, we want you to feel at home in our home. And tomorrow me, you, and Mary, and Kian, are going to go back into the city and pick up more things for you and for your room.” He told her in a happy tone.

Emma frowned, she knew that foster parents got money to look after her and to buy her things, but it was normally a few days before they got that. David didn’t seem to care about it being his own money, even her birth parents had hated to even spend a dime on her, so why didn’t this stranger?