Adopted (a Zalfie fanfic) [1]

Chapter 29

*Alfie's POV (At last!)*

Five weeks had passed since we began her CBT sessions and we had saw minor improvements in her behaviour. The nightmares were still consistent, but the hallucinations and flashbacks were almost gone and she was a lot less jumpy.

You could tell she was beginning to find joy in life again and we had been on a few more outings as a family in the past month or so. It was so great to see her smiling and laughing with us and joining in with things such as the cooking. This was one of the things we enjoyed doing most together, cooking dinner for the three of us every time she was round at our place.

She was at our house a lot more now and as early April rolled in, near enough all her things were in her room and she was only ever at the orphanage for a few hours here and there. We had passed the moving in date by several months now and we were set back with the urgent need for therapy, but things were starting to look up.

Both of our families had known about Lily ever since we started seeing her and they were all very supportive. We wanted Lily to get used to Zoe and I before meeting the rest so we waited until the time was right. So, by early March, we had introduced her to both families. She had met both sets of parents, Poppy, Sean and Joe. She was cautious and shy around them for the first few weeks but she soon looked more at ease. Poppy had taken a particular liking to her and I think Lily felt the same way. She described it as 'having the big sister she'd always wanted' and it made me so happy that she was bonding with my loved ones. Joe was also very excited to have a 'niece'. He came down from London almost every weekend and came with us when we went out for dinner or for walks near the sea. He made her laugh and they were very mischievous together, which was something I would have never expected.

She obviously also had to meet all of our friends, which meant meeting her favourite YouTuber's for the first time. We invited everyone over at separate times, first Marcus and Niomi, then Jim and Tanya followed by Louise and Matt (and Darcy of course). She also met other friends like Caspar (who came up with Joe some weeks), Oli, the Sacconejolys, ect.

There were a few fangirling moments here and there but soon they became more like her friends too and they all got along amazingly well.

After all of that was sorted, there was only one thing we really had to do. Tell the viewers.

We had purposely left it a few weeks before she was moving in because we felt that was when the time was right and with therapy and everything, it wasn't at the top of our priorities. We both sat down in front of the camera, as we would any other time. We had to edit out most of it because we didn't know how to put it, we just rambled.

In the end, Zoe announced, "We have some very exciting news. This has been going on since late last year and we could never tell you all until now but...we've adopted! We've adopted a girl, her name's Lily and she's thirteen."

"As excited as we are, we would deeply appreciate it if you were to respect our privacy for the next few weeks, even months. I won't be daily vlogging until Lily is settled and comfortable in our home and I won't be sticking a camera in her face. We both have some old vlog footage ready for you and I can still film my gaming videos, they'll just be nothing daily. We hope you all understand as it will take a while for everyone to adjust." I said. Zoe was grinning from ear to ear, as was I. We had been so desperate to tell our viewers for so long, and we finally could.

"We both love you all a whole lot and we hope your just excited as we are. There's going to be a new member of the family guys!" Zoe continued, "Well, bye for now!" She said, and with that, we both put our hands over the lens.

We uploaded the video on both channels that night, and got an amazing response. The comments section was filled with such kind words and everyone was so excited on Twitter. I was so glad our viewers were happy for us.

Zoe and I went to bed that night feeling satisfied that everything was going to work out. Lily was getting the help she needed and her moving in had been rescheduled for a weeks time. She was finally going to be a permanent part of our family.

Authors Note:

Hi guys! Just a quick A/N to tell you all something. I know how this book is going to end now and I think I will be satisfied with the way it all works out. After this fanfic, I was thinking of doing a sequel but I've decided not to. Once this book has ended, that'll be it.

I do think I am going to start working on my own original story soon though but if I do post it on here, I will be writing it all first and then publishing it so that I don't get lazy and update it once every month ahaha. Basically, it might be a while until my next story.

Thank you for all the kind comments, votes and reads, it makes me so happy that so many of you enjoy my work. Oh, and I'm nearly at 40k! Whaattt?

Speak soon! x