A Time For Love (A Time For Love Series-Book 1)

It's Over

With Christmas approaching in only a couple of weeks, Lena was putting the finishing touches on her apartment that she now planned on sharing with both Bird and Stef. They would need to work out the details before Stef was discharged and also figure out how that was going to work under foster care. 

For right now, she was working on getting everything together and couldn't help but continue to buy Bird more presents for Christmas, clothing, and anything else she felt the little girl would need.

After speaking to the doctors, considering Lena was now her guardian, it was still looking like Bird would be discharged right after the holidays, but it could even be sooner.  This would mean she would need to really figure out which school would work best, maybe some activities and what other type of care the little girl would need once she was home. Of course, spending time with Stef was a must as well, especially if the cop remained longer in the hospital, which Lena and both Mike were hoping was not the case.

Lena wasn't fully sure how she was going juggle everything right now with work, and no help from her parents but she knew she would figure it out even if she had to take a leave of absence until Bird was able to attend school, and Mike was more settled as well.

When that would be, Lena wasn't fully sure yet, but being home with the little girl and homeschooling her for the time being was an option, and she would dip into her savings if she needed.

Uncle Alvin had left his niece a very large and substantial amount of money, but Lena felt very strange about even touching it. All his bank accounts were transferred over to her, and she she even reframed from looking at that much less the three bedroom apartment he left for her as well that was fully paid for. It would help her tremendously, but she put it all out of her brain for the time being.

For Lena, the thought of cleaning his apartment out with all the memories in it made her stomach twist and turn. If she did embark on that, she would need to face the fact that he was actually gone, and it was still such a tough pill to swallow. One she wasn't ready to just yet, and she wasn't sure when she ever would be able to.

Mike Foster was also preparing to be discharged, and with the help of an AID along with outpatient PT and OT, he would be good to return back to work on desk duty in a few months. He, of course, would need to attend therapy and pass a few evaluations before going back to the NYPD, but part of him still felt guilty. Very, and he was still trying to deal with the loose of their friend and from the trauma of his sister almost dying. All of it was still a tremendous blow to his life, one he was still trying to come to terms with.

Part of Mike was hoping that in some respsects, his sister would never remember Tess and that she would never remember how much she loved being a cop. Not because he didn't feel she should, but because he knew how badly it would hurt once she did. 

Tess had been the love of his sisters life since they were kids, and the two women had wanted to start a family, they wanted to buy a house together, and were in the process of doing so until it was all suddenly taken away.

Mike felt there was no need for Stef to remember any of that because it would break her in half,  and potentially destroy her mental state, even if he knew his sister was working hard because she wanted to be Bird's mother. All of it just worried him because Stef was his little sister, and he cared a great deal about her.

Stef was doing well, but she was itching to leave the hospital even if she had her doubts about potentially living with Lena. She hadn't really thought about where she was going to live and just assumed she'd be in the hospital forever. 

She didn't remember her apartment, even if they were working on it in therapy since Mike had brought in photos of it, hoping to trigger something. But Stef didn't remember any of it. Not a thing, and she continued to have the same memories about Tess that were pulling on her heart.