From Intern to Family | 9-1-1 Fanfic

Chapter 14

The kids were currently grabbing some food upstairs before the social workers came to pick them back up again. Now it was their opportunity to ask the team any questions.

Athena had arrived a few minutes ago and I could see her downstairs chatting with Bobby.

A few of the kids were looking over the balcony with me and I crouched down next to Oscar, "Those two love each other." I teased, immediately watching his nose scrunch up.

Oscar was still young, which meant having a girlfriend of boyfriend did not interest him and he thought girls still had cooties. "That's gross." He grumbled as I laughed.

A couple of the other kids had taken a liking to me, since I wasn't that far in age to them. Plus, I had a lot of practice looking after kids because of Oscar and the girls. Buck also seemed to catch their attention, but that wasn't surprising considering he acted like a child.

We all stood around as the kids ate and chatted. Bobby and Athena came to join us upstairs too soon enough and I couldn't help but laugh when Oscar walked away from them.

"We were thinking of going out for some food tonight as a group, anyone got any ideas?" Bobby called out as the adults gathered over by the kitchen.

Eddie dragged me over too, noticing my awkward hovering. His hand rested on the back of my neck and I stuck my tongue out at him as revenge.

"Well me and Athena went to this nice little cafe not far from here. Coop knows the owners." She explained.

Eyes turned to me and I leaned back into Eddie's hand, "Oh Willow and Poppy? Yeah their food is great. When it gets to the evening they do diner food and give out free sodas." I grinned. The team all looked to one another and nodded, seemingly agreeing on the cafe.

We split up again to interact with the kids and Bobby went downstairs to greet the social workers again. I sent Willow a text to let her know we were coming, just so they weren't overwhelmed with the amount of orders.

The social workers came upstairs and I immediately noticed how the pair were different from earlier. It was two women this time and one of them was Andrea. Bobby didn't look too pleased at her appearance either, judging by the slight furrow of his eyebrows.

All of the kids groaned in disappointment and began grabbing their backpacks. Oscar and the girls all walked over to me and I kneeled down to hug them all. Zara squeezed me tightly, "Andrea has been talking about you." She whispered and I gave her a sad smile.

"Ignore her, okay? I'm not getting into any trouble here." I assured her. Dani tugged my arm and frowned, "You're not home enough. I miss you." She complained.

I gave her a tight hug and ruffled her hair, "Sorry kiddo, I'll do better." I promised, looping my pinky with hers. The kids called their foster place a 'home' all the time, but I hated the word. That place was never going to be a home.

They all slowly made their way back to the rest of the group and I moved to stand beside Buck. Andrea was glaring at me as she shuffled the kids down the stairs. Luckily for me, I had a strong fireman who was glaring back at her.

Buck wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me into a headlock, obviously trying to distract me from the social worker. I argued with him and laughed, digging my elbow into his ribs to let me go.

He eventually did. I noticed that everyone had left though by the time I was released. "Okay everyone, get sorted and we'll head out!" Bobby called as everyone went downstairs to get changed.

Athena and I stayed upstairs to clean up, since neither of us were in uniform. I put the dishes in the dishwasher so the B-shift firefighters had clean plates. We chatted aimlessly and I didn't feel as nervous as our usual encounters.