Safe

Part 5

Time will be jumping from here on out, weeks, months or years. Enjoy.

-

"Hey Lawn Chair Mendes," Austin greeted, walking to his desk. The curly haired detective blushed at the nickname and shook his head. It had been a few weeks since Lauren gave him his nickname and Austin had loved to tease him about it. He had used many different nicknames. "How is Lauren?"

Shawn smiled. "She's doing great. She's learning what is right and wrong. Normani thinks Lauren will be okay when she gets older. But we may have to watch out for nightmares."

"Has Olsen found anything? A home or something?"

"No. I don't want her to leave us. I want Lauren to stay with us."

"Is that what Camila wants?" Hailee asked, taking a seat at her desk across Austin.

"I think so. We haven't really talked about it, but I can see how much she likes Lauren around," Shawn told them, grinning when Dinah walked by and handed him a donut.

Shawn smiled when he had seen Lauren dress up similar to Camila that morning. The young girl had loved her room. Lawn and Camz slept next to her every night. She loved her stuffed animals.

They had learned the dos and don'ts from Normani, who had seen kids that went through the same thing. Until they knew Lauren knew the different, Shawn was not going to initiate any touching with the girl. They wanted her to know that she had a say in anything she does. That it's her body and no male had any right to it without her permission.

But the little girl had crawled into a place in their hearts.

Shawn felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He grabbed it and smiled at the picture Camila had sent him. The little girl was grinning at the camera phone, Benji, Lawn and Camz on the chair next to her, and an ice cream cone in her hand.

"Adopt her before it's too late," Hailee told Shawn, smiling at him.

Shawn nodded his head. "I think we will."

-

Camila put the volume down on the television show playing. She turned to Shawn, who was rubbing Lauren's arm. The little girl was curled up at his side, her eyes closed, her arms around her stuffed animals.

"You wanted to talk?" Camila asked, getting her husband's attention.

Shawn smiled. "Yeah. I wanted to talk about Lauren, and what's going to happen. Elizabeth hasn't found anyone. She doesn't think she's going to find anything. I don't want her to go to foster care, to disappeared and have god knows what happen to her."

"I don't want that either," Camila whispered, looking at the little girl, who seemed calm and cozy.

"I want to adopt her," Shawn told his wife, a small smile on her face.

Camila looked at Shawn, seeing a light in there that had been slowly disappearing. She knew that his job was taking a toll. She saw how much weight was on his shoulders every day and always wanted to help, but she didn't know how. She knew all those kids he couldn't save were making him lose faith. And saving Lauren had brought that back. She knew that adding Lauren to their two people family was going to keep that light in him. But she also wanted to have Lauren in her family. She had grown to love the girl as if Lauren were her own in the last few weeks.

Shawn and Camila had met in college, both were twenty. They started off as friends, before dating two years later. At twenty-four, Shawn proposed and Camila accepted. They got married shortly after Camila turned twenty-five. They spent two years starting their careers and lives before thinking of a family. It wasn't until Camila was twenty-eight when she got the news that she couldn't have kids. The two were shattered. They always imagined their future with two kids and a dog. But with a few words, that dream was broken.