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Chapter 7

                 

Chapter 7

One month had passed with Zoey living with the Castle's and after one month, all the leads had gone cold. Alfred Shorts was officially on the State of New York's Most Wanted Missing men. As for Zoey, she had remained under Beckett's watch but now Child Services was insisting she be put in a more permanent placement seeing as she no longer required police protection.

In the weeks she had been there, Zoey had grown to like the Castle's, she would never let herself admit it, but she might even love them. Only, she knew that she needed to shake those feelings and fast because, like always, she would be on the move again. On to a new home and a new "family". But she couldn't, they made it nearly impossible. If she could choose her family these were the people she would pick. She had become a little hopeful that maybe Kate and Rick would want to adopt her, but when Child Services started coming back around, that hope slowly faded away.

It was a Friday when the call came in to Kate's phone. Child Services would be there to pick Zoey up that evening. Kate felt as if she had been hit by a ton of bricks. She had grown to really love the kid who was sleeping in their guest room. Zoey had started going back to school and had needed help catching back up. Castle and Beckett would stay up with her for late night study sessions and had even managed to dig more into what made Zoey, well, Zoey. Kate wasn't ready to say goodbye and if she had anything to say about it, she wouldn't be either.

Kate picked up her phone and dialed the only person who she thought could help,

"Hello?"

"Dad, it's me"

"Katie? Is everything alright? Are you ok?", Kate's father asked worriedly

"Ya I'm ok Dad. I need your help with something."

"Of course, anything"

"Lawyer help", she waited.

"...Katie what's going on?"

"Child Services is coming to take Zoey away tonight. The leads in her case went cold. They don't see any reason for her to stay under police protection anymore. They think she needs a more permanent place."

"Sweetheart I'm not really sure what I can do here. It sounds like they have a good reason for doing this"
"I want to adopt her"

"Wait...you what? You want to adopt Zoey. What does Rick say about this?"

"He doesn't know"

"Kate..."

"Dad I'm sure he'll agree with me". There was a long pause between the two. Kate felt like she needed to plead her case more. "Dad. I'm falling hard for this kid. She's lost everything in her life, her parents, her home, everything..."

"You have a connection"

"Ya, Dad, I think we do"

"Do you think Zoey wants to stay with you?"

She hadn't even thought of that. She just assumed the girl wouldn't want to be shipped off again. She had opened up so much since living with then, not just to Rick and herself, but to the others in their lives as well. Even Alexis had befriended the girl.

"I just want to know if this is even a possibility before I get her hopes up"

"That makes sense. Katie, I don't usually work in family law but I can call around and see what I can do. I can't make any promises though"

"That's all I'm asking Dad", Kate couldn't help the smile on her face.

"I love you Katie"

"Love you too Dad...thank you"

*Alright everyone, here's a little teaser into where I'm headed with this! I didn't want anyone to think I abandoned this story! I'm working hard on this I promise! I never would have thought this story would get as many hits as it has! Thank you so much!