The Only Exception

Rachel sighed as she walked into the office. It was just shy of seven AM. She wanted to get some work done before she had to go out and deal with some of the kids in the orphanage. She loved what she did, but there were times that it saddened her. She herself had been adopted because her birth parents had died a week after she was born, and she hadn’t had any family that had been able to take her. She didn’t blame them, from what she had been told, her Grandmother, the only one that was living at the time, had been on her death bed. And she hadn’t had any other family. So she’d been put into the system, but the fact that she was a baby had made it easier to find her a home. She had just gotten lucky that she had been adopted by a loving, caring family. One that had been trying for years to have children and then found out that they couldn’t. Through no fault of their own. They had never lied to her about being adopted, and had loved her like their own. They died a week after she turned eighteen.

Now as she sat she wondered about the girls that lived there. Most of them were teenagers. She felt bad for them, because no one really wanted them, and some of them had become so bitter that she worried they would turn to drugs or alcohol. It had happened before. She knew it would happen again. Finally she turned her attention to her paperwork and a manila file folder caught her eye. She opened it and read over the file.

Leanne Heather Porter

She was confused. The file was old. The woman would’ve been an adult now. And she wasn’t in the pile of applicants that wanted to adopt. She sighed and continued reading the note attached. The woman was looking for her parents and since the adoption agency ran from the orphanage she sighed. It was going to be her job to find out what the woman needed to know. She read over the file and it told her who had adopted her and she shook her head. There was something about the woman that was familiar. At least the name. Rachel put that aside for now and headed down to the file archives that they kept in the basement. Considering this adoption had taken place in 1981 she would have to dig up the physical file.

----

A month had passed since Jesika had given birth to Laila and neither one of the Sanders had gotten much sleep and Kim kept begging them to let her and Gary keep the baby overnight so that they could get some sleep and when Kim and Caroline both cornered Jes about it she snapped at them, telling them she and Matt had everything under control. Thinking about it since it had happened just that morning, she turned to Matt as they lay side by side in bed.

“I was maybe a little hard on them. You think?”

“Just a little, they’ll get over it. They should understand where we’re coming from with this. She was early. Really early. I’m glad she’s…” He broke off when they heard a sound from the nursery. They were both up like two bullets from a gun and in Laila’s room in an instant. Their little girl was asleep peacefully in her crib. What they had heard was the wind making something from outside hit the window. Feeling only slightly relieved they returned to their room. Matt pulling Jesika into his arms once they were in bed. She curled into him and sighed.

“I love you Jesika Sanders. And that’s not changing, I’ve got you and Laila now and I don’t need anything else, since, I’ve got everything I need.” She was already asleep so she didn’t respond, but that didn’t matter to Matt, because he knew how she felt about him.

----

Summer sighed as she lay beside Jimmy. He knew she was restless. She was irritable, but he didn’t mind. He also knew it was because she just wanted to have their baby. She didn’t have to say anything to him as she cuddled just a little closer to her husband. He loved her and just held her close. He lay there and ran his hand over her hair, to calm her some. She sighed content, and closed her eyes finally. When he heard her breathing even out he smiled to himself. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was. They were sleeping in because they had been up late last night, at Summer’s insistence, making sure that everything was ready for Sascha when she was born.

----

Zack glanced up as Colby walked into the kitchen. He smiled at his daughter as she climbed up into a chair.

“Hungry?” He asked her.

“Can I have a pop tart?”

“Sure.” Zack said and the child grinned at him. She had taken to only waking him and Sam up on the weekends, by carefully jumping into bed with them, because they had explained to her that her Mom was going to have a baby.

“Daddy”

“Yeah Colby?”

“Why is Aunt Leanne so sad?”

“She’s not sad sweetie.” Zack said as he placed her pop tart in front of her and got out her juice.

“But she was crying yesterday when we were over there. Is she mad at Uncle Brian?”

“No, it’s hard to explain, but I promise, Aunt Leanne isn’t mad at Uncle Brian.”

“Okay.” And she let the conversation drop. Zack sighed and watched as Sam walked in. She smiled at him and he couldn’t help but grin. She was his wife, and he couldn’t wait until her next doctors appointment. They were both hoping that the baby, was turned enough so that they could tell what she was having. She was six months pregnant and Colby grew more and more excited by the day about her sibling.

----

Brady sighed as he made coffee that morning. He had been woken up by his phone ringing. It had been his parents calling to tell him once more, that he needed to talk some sense into his sister. He had tried explaining to them, that they would eventually get over the over protectiveness that they had for their daughter, but they wouldn’t listen. They wanted to spend time with their granddaughter. Which was why, he had decided that they were having a family dinner that night. And boy were they going to be shocked. He had invited the girl that he’d started seeing two months ago. And the best part about that was, they hadn’t slept together, so no one could even insinuate that he had knocked her up. He just prayed to god that no one brought up anything along those lines. Because he really liked her and he had even forewarned her about it. The fact that she had laughed had made him smile.