Chapter Text
Jane had always wanted to be a mother, from the time she was five, she was convinced that she was put on the earth to care for a little infant. She'd always loved to babysit and care for the children in her neighborhood but alas the world didn't have the same plan as Jane. First being diagnosed with endometriosis at twenty, leaving Jane heartbroken at the idea of possibily never being able to carry a child to term. And a number of failed relationships left her hopeless. Life seemed to be against all that Jane had wanted in life and it crushed her. Well that until her best friend, Catherine had something incredible. She and Catherine had known each other since childhood, being in the same primary class for five years straight, and they've been incredibily close since. Catherine had a niece, named Cathy, her eldest sister wanted to give her daughter a piece of the aunt she had. Sadly little Cathy had lost her parents in a car accident seven years ago and since the Aragon family was lacking older relatives to take the infant, twenty year old Catherine took her little niece and adopted her. Since then she's had to prove herself as a mother and Jane has had the opportunity to an Auntie to her bright Cathy. Jane was in wonder of her best friend and knew that she would probably end up on the path of adoption since having a child of her own would be a hard and possibily impossible route.
After ten months of required parenting classes and many many sessions of learning how to handle children whom been taken from unsafe situations, Jane became a certified foster mother and she was elated. The now twenty seven year old has prepared the second room in her apartment for a child in case of the possibly of a call that she could receive. Nothing to out there other than a bed as well as a chest with a selection of toys for both girls and boys, her little Cathy was quite helpful with picking out some lovely toys. She felt more than ready for that call but three months had passed and she was becoming disheartened as her didn't ring with the call from agency and she felt the same hopelessness she'd felt for the past seven years. But finally a glimmer of hope arrived at three in the morning, quite the time for that call to ring.
Jane was fast asleep in her bed, having gone to sleep around eleven after a cup of tea and reading a chapter from her favorite novel. But the blasting ringing from her phone caused her to jump from her sleep as her phone slipped onto the floor and Jane stumbled in the dark attempting to locate her phone. Finally once she found the glowing device, she smacked the green answer button, bringing it to her ear. "Hello, is this Jane Seymour?" the voice on the other end of the phone requested as Jane rubbed her eye, trying to wake herself up a bit more. "Yes this is she." she replied.
"My apologizes for calling you this early, this is Joan from Rockwell's Agency, but we have an emergency placement."
"It's no worries at all, I'm always prepared a ring," Jane replies, "An emergency placement?" she asks, thinking for a moment at the time of the day and feeling her heart sink for the little child that had to removed from a home at this hour.
"Yes, we have two little ones who were removed from their home an hour ago, we tried to reach next of kin but none could be located." Joan answered as Jane thought for a moment, had she heard two? Was Joan intending that there was more than one child? "Two? Two children? Sorry about the question. I want to confirm the number first." Jane says.
"Yes, two. Two little cousins, a seven-year-old and a four-year-old. Both girls. Were you not supposed to be called for placements of multiple children?" Joan asks, "I'm very sorry if not."
"No, no. It was something that was not discussed with me before but I would be more than happy to have the girls in my home." Jane replies, without hesitatiing.
"Perfect, could you come to the building within the hours, the girls are on their way from the police station and I cannot currently disclose their situation of how they've come to us." Joan explains, "We'll assess them both before they go into your custody and we're currently not sure of how long we'll need you to care for them."
"I understand I will be there in a half hour." Jane answers.
"Perfect, I will see you then." Joan replies as they said their goodbyes and the call concluded. Jane had sat on her floor in shock for a moment, finally it was happening. She had a placement and it wasn't just one child, it was two. Two little girls. And her mind began to wander about how they would be and what they'd gone through that even allowed for the chance of her to care for them. Finally once she herself to stop overthinking, she leapt up and began to gather herself. Changing from her nightwear and collecting a few snacks and her child bag that she'd prepared herself, including some coloring books, hair ties and clips, and a binder to record and keep information. She laid sheets out on the bed and mentally made a note to get another bed so each girl could have their own, when she realized that she could call Catherine. Jane fumbled with her phone as dialed Catherine's number. After the third ring, a tired Catherine answer, "Jane do you have any idea of the hour of night it is, I only got to bed an hour go because Cathy is going through a 'I don't want to go to sleep' phase."
"I got a placement." Jane speaks, after Catherine's grumble.
"You did?!" Catherine asks, "When? What's the little's one name? Are they there with you now?"
"Yes, I got the call about ten minutes ago and there's two of them. Two little girls. I don't know there names yet and I'm about to into the car and go meet them."
"Two, Jane you only have one bed, do you want me to bring over Cathy's travel matress she uses for when friends over?" Catherine asks.
"Yes, that would be amazing, you don't have to bring it over now, I'd hate for you to have to wake up Cathy." Jane says, with slight chuckle knowing that Cathy was becoming a night owl as she got into her car, starting it up and heading towards the agency's building. "Who said that Cathy ever went to sleep, I'll drop it off and let you have the morning with the girls." Catherine replies. The friends had talked for a bit longer as Jane arrived and their call ended. Jane took a deep breath as she slid the bag over her shoulder and headed up to the office she'd recieved her papers from. The usually busy office was empty aside from the hallway lights being lit as well as three rooms. She'd found her way to Joan's office who was filling out some paperwork. "Jane, perfect, come in, come in." Joan says as she smiled up as she saw Jane, "The girls are in the room next door, they both seem to doing okay, not much talking from either, but here lets get through you paperwork." Jane had sat in one of the free chairs as they began to review the paperwork.
"So they are two cousins, the oldest who is named Anne was leaving with her Aunt and her little cousin, Katherine. They both are quite close from what we understand right now and we're too unsure to separate the girls." Joan explains as Jane nodded in agreement, noting where the girls were coming from. She wanted to prepared herself to understand anything the girls would go through. After what seemed like forever, Joan closed the folder and glanced up at Jane, "Are you ready to meet the girls?"
"Yes, I'd really like for that. And to get them home and into bed so that they may get some sleep." Jane replies as they stood and she was led to the room next door, and she was able to see the girls for the first. The one she figured out was Anne, was taller and had dark raven hair of two. Her hair in buns, messy and unkept like the child rubbed her head in a fuzzy blanket and the one she assumed to be Katherine was much tinier compared to Anne and her was more brown with little bits of blonde, her hair in a high ponytail with bits pulled out as if Katherine had been pulling on her hair a bit. "I'll leave you to meet them." Joan says as she backed out of the room. Jane nodded as she started to note more things about the girls, they were sharing the same seat, dressed in similiar night gowns, little Katherine curled up to her older cousin as Anne drew a coloring page. She knew how to handle this and her heart swelled as she saw them. "Hi girls." Jane spoke softly as Anne turned her head a bit to see Jane, and the child took a moment to note Jane's appearance in her head, seeing that she seemed kind like the police officier who let them ride in the front of the police car. "Hi." Anne said in barely a whisper, no emotion appearing on the child's face. "How are you both?" Jane says as she took the few steps over to the girls and knelt beside the table as Anne glanced at her once again, as she finally saw little Katherine's face peek out from her cousin's shoulder. "We're okay, right Kat?" Anne asks as Katherine stared wide eyed at Jane, not murmuring a word.
"That's good, now you both are going to be going like a little vacation and spending some time with me at my home." Jane says, trying to make it not seem scary as Katherine's eyes never left her. Anne listened to her words as she continued to color, Katherine seemed too nervous to speak. "And I'm very excited to bring you both home, and maybe in the morning we could out for breakfast, whatever you'd like." Jane says.
"Pancakes?" Anne asks.
"Yes pancakes and anything Katherine likes as well." Jane adds.
"Call her Kat, she likes Kat better." Anne says as Jane nodded, seeing that Anne would be the most chatty of the two.
"Okay, anything you and Kat would like." Jane smiles.
"Could we go to your house now?" Anne asks.
"Yes of course, let's get you both in bed." Jane replies as she watched Anne carefully let Kat lay on the chair, the little one on the verge of sleep as she grabbed two backpacks. "Do you have all your things?" Jane asks as Anne nodded, then she glanced at little Kat who sat up on the chair and shyly glanced at Jane who asked, "Would you like me to carry you Kat?" The four-year-old glanced at her cousin who nodded her head slightly.
"She's good Kat, she's going to take us for waffles for breakfast." Anne says as Kat's eyes returned to Jane and she reached her arms out to be carried and Jane's heart continued to grow in size because of these girls. She took the awfully tiny girl into her arms and Kat laid her head on Jane's shoulder, sleep almost taking over the little one's body instantly. Anne wore her own bag as she carried what Jane assumed to be Kat's as they left the room and Joan said goodbye to the three of them. Jane held out her free hand for Anne to hold as they left the building, leading her to the car. Once she got both girls buckled, she began the drive home. Arriving a bit later and carrying a sleeping Kat upstairs and a tired Anne was at her side as they entered the apartment and Jane was thankful to find the extra bed that Catherine had offered to bring over and it had sheets already placed on it as she laid little Kat in it and helped Anne into the other bed. "Sleep tight Anne, I'll see you in the morning."
"Jane." Anne spoke softly as Jane was able to leave the room.
"Yes sweet?" Jane asks.
"Could you get Teddy and Joey from the bags?" Anne asks shyly, hiding her mouth under the covers.
"Of course, I'll be right back with them both." Jane answers as she gathered the two stuffed animals, a panda bear and a kangaroo. She returned to the bedroom, Anne's eyes following her as she came back. "Teddy is mine and Joey is for Kat." Anne explains as Jane nodded, placing each stuffed animal with the girls. "Thank you Jane." Anne spoke softly.
"Sure thing dear." Jane replies as the night wound down. Jane changed back into her night clothing and found her way back into bed about five thirty and wasn't too tired. But sleep slowly overcame her as she was about to sleep as she felt a little tap on her shoulder and she opened her eyes to see Kat, her cheeks tear stained and more tears threatening to fall. "Hi sweetpea, did we have a bad dream?" Jane asks as Kat nodded her head slightly as she wiped a stray tear off her face.
"Come here, you can sleep here until it's time to wake up and go for breakfast." Jane says as she helped the little girl into bed and Kat cuddled herself up to Jane's chest, almost falling asleep on the spot. Jane sighed a bit, knowing that it was going to be hard but that this was the best thing she'd ever done in her life and she couldn't wait to see how the girls would become, but she had a fear grow inside her. Sometimes these placements weren't forever and she feared seeing the girls leaave her.