49 shades of charcoal

Chapter nine

Claire's POV

It was finally here! The day that Shane and I can go to the agency to adopt our child. I'd been so excited about it all month and I know Shane has as well. We both took time off work so we can go down as soon as it opened.

I was sitting on the sofa bouncing with excitement like a little child. I'd been up for hours and so had Shane. I looked over to see him standing in the kitchen with a cup of coffee.

"Babe calm down." Shane said as he walked over and sat next to me. "I'm excited too but if you keep bouncing up and down your going to give yourself a headache."

"I just can't believe we are getting a child today. I mean after what happened I didn't think we would ever have a child." I looked down at my hands. The loss of our baby still plagued my mind at every moment of the day.

"I know honey but today we are going to go down and we will meet our new son or daughter and we are going to spoil them so much that we are going to be jealous of them." Shane took my hand and I smiled at him.

After another 2 hours of painstakingly waiting it was finally time to go down to the agency. We had told them that we don't mind the gender but would prefer a child of around 5 to 8. I was already picturing what they looked like and I couldn't wait to bring them back to Escala and show them their room. We had stripped down the spare room that was to be mine if I had signed the contract and had decided that to be our child's room.

We had been down to every diy store in Seattle and brought loads of paint, wallpaper, carpets, posters and pretty much anything you can think of. We wanted our child to decorate their own room so that they will be comfortable and we had a whole load of furniture just waiting to be ordered. Shane already said that he doesn't care how much he pays as long as our child is happy with us.

We pulled up to the agency and went inside. The receptionist let the head office know we were here and told us to sit down. We weren't waiting long when we heard our names being called and after a reassuring squeeze, we both went into the office.

Shane's POV

We stepped into the small office that was decorated in dark wood panels along the walls with dark wood flooring and a mahogany desk. We sat down in the 2 chairs in front of the desk and behind it sat Mrs Folly and she had the paper work for us to sign.

"Mr Charcoal, Miss Danes I will need you both to sign these forms. You passed all the previous inspections and today we will be able to give you a child." Mrs Folly said. She was wearing what looked like a nun outfit as she was a sister at the local orphanage. She looked to be in her 50s at least.

We both signed the papers and passed them back to her. "The child we think you might be able to handle is a little boy. His name is Josh and he's 6 years old. You may have your hands full with this one. He's been in and out of foster care for 4 years and he doesn't talk much. I must warn you that he does tend to drift away into his own mind and when he does things can get difficult."

"I'm sure will be able to handle it. He probably just needs a good home." I said and smiled at her.

"I have no doubt that you won't be able to handle it Mr Charcoal its more of a case on if he will be able to handle it. This is a very big step in his life. He is after all being adopted by the two richest people in Seattle." Mrs Folly gave us a pointed look. I hated it when people brought up my wealth. No doubt someone will find away to work this into the media about the adoption.

"I promise we will give Josh everything he needs I myself was adopted so I know what its like to be in a new place." I assured her. Mrs Folly nodded.

The door behind us opened and another sister walked in and holding her hand was a small boy. His hair was a dirty blonde and he had big green eyes. He had a small suitcase in his hand and he clutched a teddy under his arm.

"Josh this is Mr Charcoal and Miss Danes they are adopting you." Mrs Folly said sweetly to him. Josh didn't say anything and he looked from Claire to me and back again.

"Hey Josh we are so happy to meet you." I said and I crouched down to his level. "I hope you'll be happy with us we promise that we'll look after you."

Claire came a knelt down beside me. "Josh we have a big place to live in and you have your own room. We thought you'd like to decorate it yourself so when we go back would you like to do that?" Claire asked and smiled at him. Josh didn't say anything but he nodded slowly.

I grinned and stood up holding out my hand to him. He's eyes widened and he shook his head. I frowned slightly but when Claire held out her hand he took it and leant against her. I smiled at how cute they looked and Claire seemed shocked that he took it straight away. As did the sisters.

"Well it seems Josh has taken a liking to you Miss Danes. It normally takes him a while to adjust but he'll get there." Mrs Folly stood up and shook my hand. "Mr Charcoal Miss Danes you are now officially parents."

I heard a small squeal come out of Claire's mouth as she smiled widely. "Come on then let's go home and show Josh around."

I took Claire's other hand and we all left the building together. Jackson was standing by the car and he smiled as he saw Josh. "Josh this is Jackson. He will be driving us around and if you ever need help but you can't find one of us you can always ask him ok?" I said and saw Josh nod slightly as he looked up at Jackson. Even though I could tell he didn't mean to Jackson did look very intimidating.

I opened the door and let Claire and Josh get in before I did and Jackson got in and started to drive us home.

"We didn't know what you liked so we thought we'd let you choose what your room looks like. We have a lot of paint and wallpaper so you gave lots to choose from." Claire said to Josh. Just then I felt my phone ring.

"This is Shane." I said into my phone and Claire gave me a disapproving look. I apologized to her silently.

"Shane its Rose there's been a problem in the technology department we need you to come in right away."

"I can't I have a family matter today and I'd like to spend some time at home. Can't you get Richard to sort it as he's head of the department blocks down there?" I sighed.

"Not really as its the CEOs job to handle these things and last time I checked that was you." Rose snapped back.

"Its a good thing that your good at what you do I could fire you for that." I said back to her smiling.

"Yeah yeah we all know you would t fire me at all just get your ass here." Rose hung up.

I rubbed my head with my hands. I looked over at Claire.

"No I know what your going to say and the answer is no. You are not going to work today you promised to help me get Josh settled in." Claire folded her arms and Josh looked between the two of us.

"I know babe but Rose just called and said there's been a problem..."

"Mr Charcoal." Jackson interrupted. "The technology department has been set on fire."

"What!?" I shouted at him. "Take me to work now."

"Yes sir." Jackson quickly sped up and when we got to the building I saw the smoke. I ran out the car to make sure everyone was out the building luckily I had the top of the range fire warnings put in place so it hasn't spread. I saw Claire and Josh follow me out and I went over to Rose.

"Is everyone ok?" I asked her and looked around. The whole team was standing on the sidewalk and I spotted a few ambulances and firetrucks too.

"Yes everyone got out in time." Rose coughed and I could tell she'd had a lot of smoke intake. I waved for a paramedic and they checked her out.

3 hours later the building was safe to go back inside and I went home with Claire and Josh with a promise that as soon as any information about the fire came up I'd be informed straight away.

This is not how I planned my day to go especially since I'm now 2.5 million dollars down.