e p i l o g u e

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Kayla tightens her grip on my hand and stops walking. Her eyes are wide as she looks up at the house. I pull her slightly off to the side to let the couple behind us walk up to the door.

"Hey La La, it's alright," I say softly. She doesn't look away from that house.

"Don't leave me alone in there. Please, Danny."

"Never." I squeeze her hand and she nods. The front door bangs open and a maybe seventeen-year-old kid storms out with his head down. He shoves his hands into the pockets of his jacket and keeps walking. Kayla tugs on my sleeve.

"Hey kid," I call out.

"Door is straight in front of you. Go adopt your baby," he snaps

"We were hoping to talk to you," I say anyways.

"Sorry not interested." The kid keeps walking. Beside me Kayla speaks up, finally looking away from the house.

"Second door on the left. There's three beds. Well a bunk bed and a twin bed. They all had the same ratty blue blanket thrown across the top." The kid stops walking and turns back to look at us.

"You were in the system." It's a statement, not a question. Kayla nods and looks back at the house.

"My whole life," she murmurs.

"So you actually care." The kids turns to me. "But, let me guess, you are just following her wishes like every other dumb newly-wed that walks through here." I laugh dryly.

"Nah I was in the system too. That's where we met, back when we were kids." The kid looks at the house with a raised eyebrow. "Not this one. It was a totally different level of hell."

"So you get out and live your happily ever after then?" He takes half a step closer to us.

"No. We uh never got out," Kayla answers.

"Well shoot," the kid mutters.

"I'm Kayla by the way."

"Daniel," I supply. The kid nods at me.

"Noah."

"We want to get you out. If you're okay with that," Kayla says. The kid looks skeptical at best. "We can start slow too. We have the foster license so you could maybe come for a week or something. We'd love to have you for a Thanksgiving dinner, a real one." It's not a total lie. Noah kicks his shoe against the ground.

"Yeah sure. Whatever." Kayla grins and launches herself at the kid. She throws her arms around him in a hug and Noah looks to me in panic. The best I can do if offer him a shrug. She pulls away and tilts her head back to look at his face. I shake my head at her then loop my arms around her shoulders, tugging her back against me.

"You're gonna scare him off, La La."

"I'm not gonna scare him off, Danny." I raise an eyebrow at her.

"You sure about that, Sweetheart?" She tilts her head back to grin up at me.

"Oh, absolutely." I laugh and look back to Noah.

"So there's gonna be a boatload of paper work in there," I state.

"Yeah," Noah answers.

"Inside," Kayla mutters.

"It's going to be okay, La La." She turns to Noah.

"Are there still bars on that window in the back?" she questions softly. Noah glances to the house.

"Locks on the door too," he says. Kayla takes a step backwards, further into me. Noah looks at her.

"Did you..." he doesn't finish.

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