Adopted by Phan

Chapter 11

Dan's P.O.V.

I was so scared. It was funny, Phil and I had talked about kids for ages, especially during the Sims series. Dil had almost become our way of having children because most of the series was before we had moved out of the apartment and there was no way we could have someone else living with us.

When we moved out and into a proper house out towards the country we purposely never made a house tour to avoid questions about why we missed a couple of the rooms. In videos we only ever showed the living room, kitchen and our own rooms, avoiding showing more than a few rooms so fans couldn't work out the layout of the house.

One of the 'guest' rooms was actually to be converted for whatever child we would have eventually adopted because we had no expectations or specific requests when it came to the child so we had planned to decorate it when they came home.

Across the room I knew Officer Briny was watching us closely, our reactions to all of the information something that would probably tell him how good we would be at parenting in some way.

My mind kept going back to Jay, who had clearly been very upset and probably terrified too and I was worried. I might have only just met her but she was still my child, literally and mentally.

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Mrs Harrow poked her head around the corner and walked in when she saw Officer Briny watching her.

"Jay's really upset, she was crying before but I think she'll be fine. She's just overwhelmed." Officer Briny nodded.

"I think this is about the time we'll take her to yours. Do you have a car?"

Phil shook his head, we had walked down from the house to the corner store to buy some marshmallows for the new baking video. We did have some but Phil had eaten them so we had to go and get some more.

"We could walk back, it's about 5 minutes away." Officer Briny shook his head.

"I'll drive her back. If you two want to walk and then ring when you're back I'll bring her over. I'm not letting her back out onto the streets just yet."

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The walk back home was tense, Phil was shaking he was so nervous and I had clamped my mouth shut, a million thoughts running through my head. It was just before we reached the house when I spoke, the thoughts getting too much.

"Do you think we did the right thing?" Phil smiled and nodded, his hand found it's way into mine and squeezed it tight, comfortingly. I squeezed back, the front door of our shared house stopped us in our tracks.

Phil unlocked it and I stepped inside, watching as he sent Officer Briny a quick text to say we had arrived. The house was still warm, we had left the heater on because it was slightly drafty and a little cold but we hadn't exactly expected to be out of the house for hours.

The starting part of our baking video was spread across the kitchen counter, Phil hadn't bothered to tell me we were out of marshmallows until I had discovered the bag with two left in it during the video. I piled the bowls onto one side of the bench and glanced around to see Phil had disappeared.

I found him in the living room, head in his hands. I could hear quiet mumbling and I knew he was scared or upset, it was something he did every time.

"Phil?" My voice shook, I thought he might have been regretting it.

"It's okay Dan, I'm not regretting it." He said, voicing my thoughts exactly.

"I'm just so scared. Even if we aren't good parents, she still needs a place to be loved, even if it still isn't the best." I nodded, knowing that I had been thinking the exact same things. I was worried we weren't going to be good parents and she would have to go through another home that didn't give her what she needed.

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A few minutes later we heard a knock on the door and Phil went to answer it and bought back Officer Briny and a very scared looking Jay. She had wrapped her arms around her chest, a method of almost self-defence and something I had done before when I was scared.

She was taking in her surroundings which was a good thing I suppose, her eyes taking in ever little detail. Her eyes landed on the mantelpiece and the photos of myself and Phil. They were of some of our most treasured memories, all the way back to when we first met and up to now. There were some photos of us with some other people too, namely Cat and Louise because they were around a lot so they featured quite a few times.

Officer Briny was taking in the house too, eyes landing on me a few times.

"I'll just go look around and then I'll leave you guys to it, Jay you look exhausted." She nodded, the tiredness seemingly taking all of the fight out of her. She was almost a different person, no longer fighting and no longer speaking.

Honestly, I felt so bad for her. Because I had knocked her over all of a sudden she had been torn from her friends and was in a strange place with strange people. I knew it was for the best but something told me she was still regretting her decision.

"Are you allergic to anything Jay?" That was Phil. She shook her but thought for a second before she something.

"I can't have pizza or avocado, it makes me sick." I looked at her curiously, having never heard of someone who couldn't eat pizza.

"Well I guess pizza is off the dinner menu for now, do you like Chinese?" She shrugged.

"I haven't had it for a few years so I don't know." Phil looked up at me and I nodded, it would do for now. I wasn't the biggest fan of it but Phil liked it so I rolled with it.

"Chinese it is."