Jul 14, 2023
Day 2 of #JaredWeek : Family ➡ Jared and his Beautiful Family
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Canada
seen from Belgium
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Australia
seen from Netherlands
seen from Canada
Day 2 of #JaredWeek : Family ➡ Jared and his Beautiful Family
A Christmas To Remember: Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Pairing: Pairing: Jared x Foster Daughter Reader, Gen x Foster Daughter Reader
Word Count: 2,700 ish
Warnings: Mentions of fighting and attacking kids (not child abuse but kids attacking kids), Anxious reader, prob language
A/N: Sorry this kinda a short and filler chapter, next chapter will be up by tomorrow tho
“Have you heard anything yet?” You barged into Ms. Shaw’s office to ask.
“Y/N while I appreciate the enthusiasm I’ve told you many times you need to knock before entering.” She reminded you.
“I’m sorry, but did you hear back yet?”
Ms. Shaw sighed and closed the file she was reviewing. “No, not yet.”
“But it’s been two weeks.” You grumbled.
“These things take time Y/N. It takes months for the do a background check and to review the request and for the office to make sure they are putting the child in a safe home, and to ensure that the potential adopters are not taking in a child for tax reduction or fraud or countless other reasons.”
“But I’ve lived with them before.”
“Yes, but I told you when I called child services that it would be a while for them to get re-approved. They still need to go through the process as before it will just be quicker because they are already in the system and that they were approved before.”
“How could it be quicker if it’s been two weeks.” You sassed your mood switching quickly to anger and frustration.
Ms. Shaw huffed, “What’s wrong Y/N?”
“Do you mean besides the fact the damn adoption agency is procrastinating their only job?” You bit back. “Oh, nothing just the fact that I’m stuck here still when I was promised to be taken away from here and there’s nothing I can do here, and I nearly cracked my head open because I made the mistake of walking into the back room or should I say wrestling ring and got knocked down by dim wits.”
“Who?” Ms. Shaw asked drifting away from your previous conversation.
“Who do you think? Caleb and Eric because apparently they have exclusive rights to that room and god forbid anyone else try to use it!”
Ms. Shaw let out an exhausted sigh and pushed her chair away from her desk. “I’m sorry Y/N, I’ll deal with them in a minute. And I promise I will tell you as soon as I know something.”
“Yeah right,” You grumbled, “The only thing you’ll be telling me is to move on.” You said to yourself as you left.
You let the door shut hard behind you as you left but even that did little to quell your anger. You wanted more than anything to get out of this place. Ever since you accept the offer you had been anxious to get out of this place and the longer it took to happen the more your doubts crept back in that you won’t.
You had begun lying awake at night pondering why it taking so long. Did they have doubts about taking you in, did the kids not want you back, did they find someone better, did the agency decide that they weren’t fit enough to be foster parents, was there someone out there hindering the process out of spite of you, or did someone think you were better off with someone else or where you were? Whatever the reason you were getting frustrated with how long it was taking and the longer you had to wait the more you anticipated you’d be called into Ms. Shaw’s office to find out the offer had been retracted.
You could hear the boys still at it, so the back room was not an option and the girls had taken over the bedroom and had turned it into a hair salon and you really didn’t need them pulling your hair and turning it into a snarly mess.
Right now you just need some time yourself and without seeing any other options you made a haste decision and put on your worn sneakers and your light sweatshirt and headed out.
You did have much freedom being a foster kid to leave the house, being confided to the house and all and never needing to leave the house as everything was brought to you, but the yard was fair game and for the older kids you were given more liberty. So you decided to take a short walk down to the end of the street, which was only four houses down, but it gave you a chance to get away.
You’ve never felt so trapped in the house before not even after you had a taste of freedom living with the Padaleckis, you assumed it was because with them you always knew you would be returning to the foster home at the end of the month and didn’t let yourself get used to the liberty of being out the house often. But now that you were supposed to live with them again and have that freedom once more, you can’t stand to be stuck in the house all the time.
It had been a chilly few days with temperatures in the teens for the last few days, but right now you didn’t mind the bitter cold as it gave you a chance to get out of the house and cool off even if your worn out sneakers did little to protect your feet and your sweatshirt wasn’t helping much to keep you warm either.
You know you should have told Ms. Shaw where you were going and that you’d be back soon, but you weren’t really thinking when you left, you just left needing to get away and clear your mind of all the thoughts running through your head. Besides you didn’t feel like she has been much help to you as of late, so you weren’t bothered.
You knew your current mood was all your fault. When you said yes to Jared offer you jumped head first into the decision and got your heart set on it. You’re not really sure why you did, you’ve been in the system long enough to know better. You’ve seen it a thousand times before, kids promised to be moved into wonderful homes and they got excited about it. They’d daydream of what their life was going to be like and plan their room and things they looked forward to and then everything fell through. They family decided they didn’t want another kid, couldn’t afford it, or the state had interfered, deciding the child was better off in foster care. If life has taught you anything it was to never get excited and be happy about something until it actually came through, but apparently this time you let your heart decide instead of your brain.
You really thought that when you accept the offer Ms. Shaw, Kyle, and the rest of the foster agency would work overtime to finalize the adoption in order to get you out of the group home and into an actual home with a family who wanted you and would love you seeing as that is the whole purpose of their jobs. You never dreamed you would still be here two weeks later, obviously if you had you would have never set your heart on it so quickly. I mean how long does it take to approve a family whose already in the system and has fostered before?
You walked the path from the foster house to the end of the road several times thinking things over and trying to calm yourself down from the anger and anxiety that flowed through you. As far as you knew no one in the house besides you and Ms. Shaw knew about your impending move, but the way Caleb was acting earlier, the way he purposefully target you almost made you believe he knew something was up. That was the last thing you needed.
As much as you all tried to deny it, pretend your life was better off on your own, and that you didn’t need anyone. You all craved the never ending and endearing love that comes with having a family. And when someone else in the home gets that everyone becomes jealous and lashes out at the child chosen to have a family.
That was the case for Caleb. He always says that he’s just waiting until his eighteen and to go out on his own. That they are easy ways to make money and he didn’t need a family to show him how to make it in the world and he certainly didn’t want their pity love. But that was just the front he puts up just like the rest of you. The last time a kid was adopted Caleb’s envy overtook him. He snap at anyone who dared to look at him and poor Timothy, the adopted kid, fell down a flight of stairs, breaking his collar bone. It was ruled as an accident, the old boys will be boys and their game of chase got out of hand, especially since Timothy didn’t say otherwise, but every kid in that house knew the truth, he was pushed.
You feared what would happen if Caleb found out you were leaving or that you might have if things fell through.
You kicked an ice chunk in the front yard and wandered into the back. God, you hoped things worked themselves out soon. If Caleb didn’t know what was going on, you were sure it wouldn’t be long till he figured it out. He always had a sixths sense for these kind of things. And once he figured it out he it wouldn’t be long till everyone else knew and the ending result would be bitter and jealousy from everyone else.
When you first met him Caleb had made it his goal to make your life a living hell. Despite you being a year older, he was bigger and stronger than you and he used those strengths as an advantage over you. He used to say somethings that hurt you and you, not willing to let him get away with it, would try to get back at him, which usually resulted in screaming matches between you both and occasionally fist fights.
Over the years things have died down between the two of you because you learn to ignore him and he wasn’t interested in bugging you if you wouldn’t fight back. But if he found out that you were moving out and into a real home, he wouldn’t care if you paid no attention to him he would punish you for getting what he wants, though he’d never admit it.
By the time your head had cleared, and you had decide to head back in, there was no patch of snow untouched in the yard. You had pulled the sleeves of your sweatshirt down over your hands as they had quickly started to hurt due to the freezing air. You sniffled as you open the screen door and you were surprised when the main door open as well.
“Y/N what we are you doing out there for so long!” Ms. Shaw said as she pulled you out of the cold. Your nose began to run, and it became difficult to breathe due to the sudden change in air temperature. Ms. Shaw inspected your layers and found them soaked and began to pull them off of you. “Out there in that fridged temperatures with this light old thing.” She muttered to herself. “Go on up and take a shower and warm up and I want you in my office when you are done.” She told you not giving you a chance to argue.
You huffed but did as you were told.
Once you had finished in the shower you made your way downstairs and into Ms. Shaw’s office for whatever talk you were about to have, but you were surprised to see all the older kids gathered in as well.
“Good now that everyone is here we can get started,” Ms. Shaw said as you walked in. You found an open spot on the floor and sat down, and she continued on. “I don’t know going on the last few days, but you guys have gotten out of hand.”
‘Great, it’s one of those talks,’ you grumbled to yourself. You took a glance at the clock knowing you were going to be here for a while. Whenever she had to call everyone in for a meeting, especially a private meeting like this it was never good and usually meant you were all for a long and stern lecture.
“I don’t know whose brilliant idea it was to start fighting, but that needs to stop right now. It is never acceptable to be hitting and punching each other, not even for fun,” She said using quotations with her fingers, “and if that continues you will not like the consequences, I can promise you that. You have all been here long enough to know that I will not tolerate such violence and that goes for the attitude too. You know I wouldn’t tolerate you talking back to me and especially to potential adopters! I don’t care if you don’t like them, I don’t care if you hate meeting days, I don’t care if you think they dress weirdly, look weird, act strange, or whatever. You put a damn smile on your face and fake it. How some of you talked to the last family and acted around them was absolutely rude and I don’t want to see it again!” She said sternly.
“Additionally, I don’t want to see or hear about you guys fighting over the toys and games or excluding the younger kids from the back room. Excluding your personal items, which are to stay in your designated areas, nothing in this house is yours. It all belongs to me and if you guys can’t share then I can easily take them away. Have I made myself clear?!”
A chorus of “Yes, Ms. Shaw.” Responded.
“Good. Whether you realize it or not the younger kids look up to you all and copy you, wanting to be like you. And I’m sick of them picking up your bad habits.” Ms. Shaw paused and let out a sigh, her hand came up to pinch the bridge of her nose before she spoke again “Also I can’t believe I have to say this to your group, but you are not to leave this house or the property without talking to me first. Due to your ages I have allowed your group to go into the yard at your own discretion, but you are to remain in the yard and not wander off just cause you feel like it. And if you are permitted to leave the property, you are to stay within the boundaries set. If you guys don’t want to follow these rules than the freedoms you have been given will be taken away.”
“So if you want if you want to keep the game system and the freedoms I have given you, you need to stop. Am I clear?”
Once again you all agreed.
“Good now you may all go and find something to do, quickly.” She emphasized.
Nobody wasted anytime scrambling off. When most of the kids had dwindled out Ms. Shaw called for you and asked you to stay.
After making sure the door was shut, she sank down in the chair behind her desk and pulled out her computer. After she pulled up what she was looking for she turned the laptop around for you to see. It was an email from Kyle.
Good Evening Amy,
Sorry for the late reply, things have been crazy in the office as the number of children we need to place has tripled due to the CFS agency closing. Nevertheless, I received your call today and your email from earlier this week.
To be honest, the lack of response was not because I have been busy, but simply because there is nothing new I can tell you. The application is still in the approval process, and I, unfortunately am not able to look in and see where it is there. I wish I could provide you with more information, if it has just started or almost finished, but it is out of my capabilities.
Rest assured you can tell Y/N not to worry and be patient. The family has been calling me about the application as well and are eager to welcome her into their home.
I will notify you as soon as I know something definite.
Take care,
Kyle Winters
Eastern Children Adoptions Agency
‘They had been calling about it,’ You reminded yourself when as you laid in bed that night. ‘They were just as anxious as you are. They still wanted you. They hadn’t abandoned you. Everything was going to be fine.’ You tried to reassure yourself.
But what if it wasn’t, so far the world hasn’t missed a chance to screw you over and you knew it wouldn’t miss the chance this time either.
You tossed and turned throughout the night, unable to sleep with thoughts running wild in your head. Soon you found yourself completely changing your mindset. ‘Kyle was just saying that to make you think everything was okay. Because the truth was they didn’t want you. You were staying here.’ You told yourself. The whole reason you were in this mess was because you let your heart take control and you weren’t about to make that mistake again. Can’t be disappointment if you don’t let yourself get your hopes up.
A Christmas To Remember: Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Pairing: Pairing: Jared x Foster Daughter Reader, Gen x Foster Daughter Reader
Word Count: 9,100ish
Warnings: Prob some language, prob some mental health problems, unsure reader, anxious reader, fluff
Narrators POV
Jared was sitting at the cafe table sipping his coffee along with his fellow coworkers. He, Jensen, Rich, Rob, and some executive producers had been called for a meeting in the L.A. office to discuss and plan the schedule for supernatural reunion conventions now that the show has ended.
Since they hadn’t seen each other much since the show ended, except for Jensen and Jared of course since they lived so close and even then both of them were busy with their own shows, the boys had all decided to meet at a café for coffee and to catch up before heading to the meeting.
Jared had been quiet though; he wasn’t his usually giddy and goofy self this morning. Though to be honest it wasn’t just this morning, he had been in this funk for the last few weeks. Thankfully Rich and Rob weren’t asking about his unusual state which Jared figured was probably due to Jensen. Jared made a mental note to thank him later, he really didn’t want to talk about this with anyone. Although he knew Rob and Rich would be there to support him, for right now Jared and Gen just wanted to keep this a quiet family matter.
“We should probably get going,” Rob suggested, “We all know how L.A. traffic can be.”
Jared’s phone rang before anyone could answer. He took one glance at the name that popped up and knew he needed to answer it. He politely excused himself and stepped away from the table to a quiet corner of the café
“Why don’t you two run ahead, let them know we’re on our way.” Jensen suggested. Rob and Rich agreed and called themselves an Uber to take them downtown.
Jared took a deep breath before he answered the phone, “Hey Baby what’s up?”
“Oh just another lovely morning here,” She said with a deep sigh. She sounded exhausted and judging by Odette’s screaming in the background he’d gather that was why.
“Did she not sleep again? That audio lullaby thing in the background that Courtney suggested didn’t work?” He didn’t know why he was asking he knew what the answer would be.
“Nope!” Gen said popping the p, “And neither did giving her something of ours that was meaningful. And with the sleeping with us, the trying to tire her out more, the baths, the stories, and all the extra attention before bed. That makes this what… the seventh thing we’ve tried and failed. I honestly don’t know what to do anymore, we…I can’t keep doing all these tantrums in the morning till she crashes from lack of sleep.” Jared could tell she was barely holding on and was on the verge of crying from all the stress. “But that’s not why I’m calling you this morning though.”
“Oh! What else happened?” Jared questioned, fearing the answer.
“I’m currently on my way down to the school for a meeting with the principal.” She said as she fought to put Odette in her car seat.
Jared closed his eyes and threw his head back against the wall and let out a deep sigh. It was eight thirty, the kids had been at school for only an hour what could have possibly happened already? “Shep?” He asked.
Gen hummed in response, “Yup. This is the third time he has acted out and the second time this week. The principal is concerned that this behavior is becoming a regular thing and wants to talk with me and him to see if we can work some things out to end this behavior.”
“What did he do?”
“She wouldn’t really say over the phone, but from what I could gather it was more of the refusing to do his school work and rudeness to the people around him. But judging by the tone she used I’m guessing something has escalated today which is why I’ve been summoned to a meeting first thing in the morning with a screaming kid.”
Jared let out an exasperated sigh, “I’m sorry I wish I was home right now, so you didn’t have to go through all this alone. I’m not supposed to be home till tomorrow night if not Saturday but I’m gonna see what I can do to fly home tonight. You shouldn’t have to do this all alone. We need to figure out what’s going on with the kids and get all of this straightened out.”
“We know what’s going on with them.” She reminded him, “They are dealing with the change in the household just as rough as we are, their kids though so they don’t know how to deal with and handle their emotions.”
“I know, I know, but you know it’s not an easy fix. That damn office won’t call us back. We need to do something now, we can’t just wait for things to work out how we want them to, cause at this rate it will be months if not years. We can’t keep going on like this, us or the kids. Shep’s acting out, Odette’s not sleeping and screaming all day as a result. Her school starts back up in two weeks and god knows that they won’t accept her like that, and it’s only a matter of time before Tom’s own issues come out. You have noticed he’s been quieter right? I think we need to seek outside help, someone who can help us, help Odette to sleep, and help Shep work through his emotions.”
Gen sighed, “I’m not disagreeing but one thing at a time.”
“No problem, you just worry about the meeting, and I will start finding places. Why don’t you put me on speaker, see if I can help Odette settle down?” He proposed.
Gen certainly wasn’t going to argue that and quickly did so. Jared did his best to settle his young child down. He was on the phone with her for roughly five minutes before he made progress but all he was able to do was to get her high pitch screaming to stop but she was still crying though.
“I think that’s as best as it’s gonna get.” Gen said with an exhausted sigh as she started her car.
“I’m sorry baby I wish I could be more help.”
“It’s okay you did all you could. Did you ask your mom where she bought that fox?”
“Sorry babe, she can’t remember, and I can’t find anything like it online. I can’t believe it hasn’t turned up yet. Where could it have possibly gone?”
“I don’t know but I hope we find a solution soon. I can’t keep doing this.”
“I know baby, I promise I’m gonna talk to them about letting me come home tonight. It shouldn’t be a problem; I’ll just catch up on the work at home or at set if I need to.” Jared’s eyes had caught Jensen who was pointing at his watch indicating it was time to go. “Look baby I got to go. Good luck at the meeting and I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
Reader’s POV
“Y/N Ms.Shaw says you have to come downstairs.” Caleb said.
“I don’t want to.” You mumbled from your place on the bed.
“She says you have to.”
“Please just leave me alone.” You said with a groan and pulled the covers over your head.
“Look I know you don’t want to do this; I don’t want to do it either, but you know just as well as I do if we try to sit this out she’ll just come up and drag us downstairs herself. And if she has to do that all it will do is piss her off and make everyone’s night a living hell. So please just come down with me, you can act pissed and detached in the corner and no one will say a word.”
You mumbled a fine but rolled back over making no move to get up, nevertheless, Caleb left the room. You knew he was right, if you failed to make an appearance that would only anger Ms. Shaw and she would indeed make your night hell, but she wouldn’t stop there she would make sure your week was hellish in order to make you regret your decision to have stayed hidden away.
You only had one choice, to go downstairs and participate in this stupid gathering, but Caleb was right just because you had to attend did not mean you had to be happy about it.
You waited a few more minutes before heading down, there was no sense of heading down before the special guests made their appearance so you decided you would wait until they arrived and even a few minutes after that.
You always hated these damn events; you never saw the point in them. Sure any outsider could tell you these events had great potential to give a child in foster care a better life. But no one saw these types of events never did that in fact they did the opposite, with each event you attended the more your hope died.
Ms. Shaw shouted your name in urgency which you figured meant the special guest had arrived and not so long after that you heard the front door open.
You waited five more minutes and headed downstairs, though you made sure you hid Vixie under your mattress before you left.
Ms. Shaw had fixed her a week ago and you had made the decision the day she got ripped that as soon as she was fixed you’d hide her away so that nothing else could happen to her until you could give her back to her rightful owner if you even could.
The problem was you found out very quickly that you needed her just as much as Odette did. After one emotional day you found yourself so upset you couldn’t sleep that night, you laid restless, trying to fight off the urge to break out sobbing in order to not wake the other girls but also to not draw attention to yourself. It wasn’t until you gave up and reached under the mattress and pulled Vixie out that you were able to settle down and get some sleep.
At first, you were ashamed that you were dependent on a stuffed animal to comfort you and to fall asleep, but this was all you could do to get by right now, so you decided to not think about it and just continue with what works.
But one thing was certain no one but you would ever touch Vixie again, so she needed to stay out of sight and thus out of mind.
When you made your way downstairs you could see Ms. Shaw and some of the young kids already cozy up to the guest, two women, newlyweds if you had to guess. But unlike the other kids you made no effort to get to know them. You’ve been at this game long enough to know that sucking up to them wasn’t worth it. Most people who come to foster homes looking to adopt never actually adopt a child. You see what happens is most people get excited about starting or expanding their families that they go to the easiest place first, the foster home. And nine times out of ten they realize the children living in these homes are not to their liking, as they have too much baggage, family and behavioral problems, trust issues, and much more.
See they start here, and then they decide there are too many bad apples in the bunch and move on to private adoptions or surrogates where they can get a baby and raise them as they want. Plus at your age, you would never be someone’s first choice or second, third, or even last choice, which is why you hated being forced to attend these damn events and never tried to pretend and be something you’re not.
So with all that in mind, you wasted no time greeting the cheery couple and made your way to the most isolated corner in the living room.
After Ms. Shaw finished talking to them she had everyone sit down and the process began as usual with the couple introducing themselves, what they like to do, what their home was like, and what kind of family they were hoping to have. Then, Ms. Shaw, had everyone go around the room and introduce themselves, their name, their age, what they like to do etc and then ask a question to the couple to try to get to know them better.
When it became your turn you just mumbled off a simple answer without going into detail, “Y/N, fifteen.” There was no sense going into detail, they weren’t going to pick you so why waste your breath trying to be nice and friendly and everything they wanted, it never worked before so why bother?
There was an uncomfortable silence in the room as the next kid didn’t speak as he was waiting for you to finish. “Y/N don’t you have a question you want to ask the Kellers?” Ms. Shaw reminded you.
“Nope,” You said popping the p.
Ms. Shaw gave you a look but when you refused to cave in she cleared her throat and moved on. Afterwards, the Kellers had a private meeting with Ms. Shaw and then they began calling in the kids they wanted to get to know more. As expected it was only the younger kids that were called.
After two hours of boredom, the Kellers finally thanked everyone for their time and said their goodbyes. Once they had pulled out of the driveway Ms. Shaw finally let out a breath she was holding and turned back to the room filled with mostly anxious, nervous, or excited kids. Ms. Shaw gave her usual speech to help settle down the kids that were talked to but weren’t ‘chosen’ today and to encourage the kids who weren’t called in today. As she said today was just day one of the meetings, they just needed time to think.
But her speech was not only to uplift. She has been in this business too long to know just as well as you did that the chances of them coming back were slim to none. Over time she realized she needed to also give a gentle and uplifting speech about the possibilities of potential adoptees not coming back, and that it would be okay, and it would just mean you’re one family closer to meeting yours.
As soon as she began the closing remarks of her speech the older kids began to hurry out of the room and you with them as you couldn’t wait to get out of this room and do your own thing.
“Y/N wait!” Ms. Shaw said halting you. You let out an annoyed huff and sank back down on a nearby couch.
Ms. Shaw finished her speech and dismissed the kids who had remained, and they eagerly ran off to play. “Come with me to my office.” She said turning to you.
While Ms. Shaw sat down at her desk, you chose to not sit across from her but rather on the couch on the side wall. One because it was more comfortable and two it only helped to show your defiance and your attitude.
“You can put on a show all you want Y/N but we both know you’re not fooling anyone.” Ms. Shaw said almost too harshly.
You opened your mouth to speak but then shut it not knowing what to say so instead you just crossed your arms bitterly across your chest.
“I’m not happy with your attitude today. If I’ve told you once I’ve told you a hundred times the overall feel of the home and the kids living in it is a major influence on adoption rates. If one kid is unhappy they don’t want anything to do with any kid in the home.”
“That’s a bit overdramatic, don’t ya think?” You sassed, raising your brow.
Ms. Shaw let out a huff and then leaned forward, elbows resting on her desk. “Y/N, I’m not gonna lie to you. You are old enough to know children placed in foster homes have less of a chance of being adopted than children in other programs. That is why whenever we have someone interested to meet our kids we want to make sure everything goes right during their visit. That means a clean home and happy faces on all kids.” She said putting emphasis on the word all.
You sat in silence not knowing how to respond.
“From now on the anger and the attitude does not come into adoption meetings,” Ms. Shaw said sternly. “Have I made myself clear?”
“Yes, Ms. Shaw.”
You were expecting her to dismiss you now that you have had this little talk, but she didn’t. Instead, she stood up and moved to join you on the sofa.
“Look Y/N I know you have given up on the system and yourself, but I have not and I’m not going to stop until you see yourself as I do.” She reached out and placed a hand on your forearm. “Believe it or not your life has not ended and your opportunity for happiness, family, and love are still waiting for you. Some people don’t find out who they are and where they belong for a while and that’s perfectly fine. Trust me your family will be worth the wait.”
Due to the fact that you didn’t believe a word she was saying you could feel your eyes begin to water and you quickly pulled out of her grasp before she could notice.
“Yeah, sure whatever,” You mumbled moving towards the door and trying to prevent your voice from breaking.
“Y/N I don’t know what happened last December but don’t let that be the reason you close yourself off.”
You had opened the door a crack but then quickly shut it, wanting privacy for what you were about to say. “Did you call them?” You asked turning back to face Ms. Shaw.
“Who?”
“My last home, about the fox?”
“No, I haven’t had the chance and I don’t have your placement contact information.”
“Oh, well the girl at that home really needs it.”
“I will do my best, but she gave it to you for a reason, maybe she thinks you need it more than her right now.”
“She’s five, I’m fifteen.” You said with a roll of your eyes and left the room ending the discussion.
Later that night you were coming back in from taking the trash out to the bin when you found Caleb leaning against the hallway wall with a smirk on his face. You tried to ignore him and move past, but he blocked your path.
“What do you want?” You shouted at him and gave him a light shove hoping he would take the hint and move.
“So your last home was with someone famous?”
“What?” You asked confused.
“You were living with some celeb or something. That must have been nice making them buy anything you wanted, it was Christmas after all so if they were feeling guilty enough to take you in for the holiday I’m sure you could make them buy anything and everything that you wanted.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“I overheard part of phone call Ms. Shaw had with Mr. Winters saying something about needing to get ahold of your last family and it would be hard because they’re some big famous person. What did you do to screw that up? If I was you, I would have done anything that would allow me to stay at a home like that. So spill who was it and where’s all that stuff because besides that stupid stuffie you didn’t bring anything back but your ugly junk. Don’t tell me you didn’t guilt trip them into getting you anything your heart could desire. You did, didn’t you? He mocked.
“First of all, it’s none of your business who or what they were. Secondly no I don’t have anything from my time there because unlike you I’m not an asshole who uses people for what I can get from them. And lastly, not that it’s any of your business either, but I didn’t leave of my own free will, I was happy there but now I’m stuck back here with all you imbeciles and all anyone wants to do is talk about a time I would rather forget so drop it, NOW!” You warned and shoved him out of your way and into a nearby wall which you didn’t feel guilty about at all.
“Shesh,” Was all you heard as you walked away.
One month later
You were cleaning your room when you heard Ms. Shaw shout for you downstairs. Any other time you would have gone down to see what she wants, but you had let your room slip and she has been pestering you for weeks about cleaning up your space so you figured you would just finish your current task and then head down. You were almost done anyways, all you had to do was finish folding your clothes and then put them away. She could wait a few more minutes.
After five minutes, you heard Ms. Shaw shout for you again and you shouted back that you’d be down in a minute with an annoyed huff. Then a few short minutes later as you were putting the last of your clothes away you heard a knock on the door. You slammed the drawer in response and spun around, “I told you I’d be right down! Can’t you be pati….” You trailed off seeing the person who was there. “Sorry I thought you were somebody else.”
“It’s no problem. Can I come in?” Kyle asked.
“Um yeah,” You said shyly. Kyle stepped into the room and came to stand next to your bed. “Why are you here?”
“Why don’t you have a seat?” He said. You hated when people deflected your questions, so you refused his request. Kyle let out a sigh, “I’m here because I’m scheduled to meet with all my kids at the start of the new year, as you can see I’m a little late. Now, do you mind if I sit?” He asked motioning to your bed.
You gave him a simple nod in response.
“Alright so tell me, how have you been?”
You rolled your eyes, “Just peachy,” You said sarcastically.
“Ms. Shaw says you’re not acting like your normal self lately, has something been bothering you.”
“Nope.”
“I see well if you don’t want to talk about yourself then I guess we have to move on and discuss the fun stuff.”
You rolled your eyes and began playing with a loose thread on your shirt, upon closer investigation you saw the whole seam was coming undone. You mentally groaned, you probably only had a couple more wears before it ripped apart completely and who knows when you will get a chance to replace it.
“So how was your Christmas?”
“Fine, I guess.” You quickly mumbled off.
“Good, and how was the home, the new family?”
“Just another family.”
Kyle let out a sigh, “Y/N you know this conversation does not end until you give me some real answers, so the sooner you give me some honest answers the sooner we can be done. So did you like it there?”
You refused to look up and meet his gaze, but you nodded in response.
“What did you like about it?”
There was a brief pause as you thought it over, “I don’t know.”
“Y/N, answers.”
“I don’t.” You said snapping your head back up to look at him.
“Try. Try to explain to me what you like there, was it the feeling? Was it the house itself? Was it the yard? What made you like being there?”
You continued to play with the string of your shirt as you thought it over. “I really don’t know,” you said tears threatening to spill from your eyes, “It just felt normal. I felt like.. like I..”
“Belonged?” Kyle finished for you. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw a small smile spread across his face.
You nodded in response, a single tear slipping down your cheek and you quickly wiped it away. “But I was wrong, I don’t belong.” You said matter o factly.
“Why did you say that?”
“Because I’m back here. They didn’t like me or want me.”
“I’m sure things aren’t always as they appear.” He said before dropping the subject altogether. He sat with you for a few minutes rubbing a gentle hand on your arm helping you calm down. After a few minutes, you could hear some of the girls coming up the stairs heading for the bedroom, and you quickly wiped the tears from your face, not wanting them to see you in such a state. “Thank you for sharing all that with me.” Kyle said as you pulled away. “ Why don’t we head downstairs where we can talk in private.” He suggested as the girls got closer.
You answered by standing up and leading the way down to Ms. Shaw’s office where you usually talked. As you got closer Kyle took the lead and said, “There are just a few more things I want to discuss.” He said before opening the door for you.
You gave a simple okay and walked in, Ms. Shaw was already in sitting behind her desk, but what you saw next halted you in your tracks.
A long torso, broad shoulders, and shoulder length brunette hair that you would recognize anywhere.
Mr. Padalecki
He was sitting right in front of Ms. Shaw’s desk engaged in a conversation with her. At first, you thought you were seeing things, but after you blinked a couple of times you found he was still there. You were thankful that his back was to the door because you couldn’t figure out what you wanted to do; run and hide, yell at him, or run to him as a small part of you desired.
Kyle stepped in closer behind you effectively blocking the door taking away your option of running away. He gave you a smile and urged you forward, “Go on,” He whispered not giving away your position yet, thankfully.
You took a small step forward not knowing what to do or say. ‘What is he doing here?’ You wondered.
“Ahh perfect, Mr. Padalecki I would like to introduce you to our case worker Mr. Winters.” Ms. Shaw said suddenly giving away your position.
Jared turned around immediately, and his eyes laid on you, he gave you a smile, but you wished you were invisible. Thankfully his attention didn’t linger on you too long as he stood up to shake Kyle’s hand.
“Mr. Winters nice to finally meet you. You are a hard man to get in touch with.”
“Please call me Kyle, everyone does. I’m sorry about that, the department has been very busy as of late. In fact, I’ve had to postpone several meetings for this.”
“Well, I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me today.”
“It’s no problem anything for my kids. Speaking of which I know she doesn’t need an introduction.” Kyle said stepping to the side so you couldn’t hide behind him anymore.
Jared smiled at you again, “It’s nice to see you again, Y/N. How are you doing?”
“Fine.” You mumbled out.
“Alright so how about we skip the awkward greetings and move on to the point of this meeting.” Kyle said sensing your uneasiness. Jared nodded his head and sat back down in the chair he was previously occupying while Kyle motioned for you to sit down on the couch. “Alright so Mr. Padalecki, it’s to my understanding that you desire to take Y/N back into your home, are you looking into fostering her full time?”
“Jared and no my wife and I wanted to adopt Y/N.”
Your eyes widen in disbelief. “How do you feel about that Y/N?” Kyle asked you.
Your heart began to race as all eyes in the room turned to you. “I.. uh…well.” You stuttered not able to form a thought.
Ms. Shaw moved over to sit next to you on the couch. She leaned down closer to you and whispered so only you heard. “This is your choice Y/N. That chance you’ve wanted so bad is right there. You said you liked living with them right?” You nodded your head. “So what do you say?” She said louder for everyone to hear.
“Why?”
“Huh?” Kyle asked.
“Why now?” You asked turning to Jared.
He cleared his throat, “Y/N we always wanted to adopt you since the moment you stepped into our home. The process just took longer than we anticipated, the paperwork got backlogged and so we had trouble getting approved. But I told you when you left that I would fix it, that I would make it right and bring you home and I’m here to fulfill that promise. I love you Y/N, we love you and our home has not been the same without you.”
You didn’t know what to do. Here he was saying everything you’ve ever wanted and yet you weren’t sure.
“It’s true Y/N. I have the file right here requesting for the Padalecki’s to adopt you, dated last December.” Kyle said sensing your doubt. He handed it over for you to see with your own eyes. “From the weekly reports I was receiving last December during your time with the Padalecki’s you were the happiest as I have ever seen you.” He said pulling out the Padalecki family Christmas card and showing it to you. “ So what do you say, are you interested in becoming their daughter officially?”
You looked down at the card, he was right you were happy, a bright smile on your face one that has not been there for a long time. Even in the pictures that were taken before you warmed up to them, you looked content, like you had finally found your place. “Yes,” You said tears slipping down your cheeks once more. “and no.”
Your response seemed to shock Jared, but Kyle and Ms. Shaw were not.
“You’re afraid of getting hurt again.” Ms. Shaw said reading right through you.
“Y/N we would never hurt you, especially not like that. We want you in our family to stay, we would never kick you out.”
An awkward silence fell over the room that you could cut the tension with a knife. “Alrighty,” Kyle said clapping his hands together, “Y/N ultimately the choice is up to you, but before you say anything I have a proposal to make.” He came over and knelt down in front of you, “You and I both know this is the opportunity you have been waiting for years for and that if you walk away from this now you will regret it later. But I know you need to see for yourself that everything is going to be okay. So,” He said stepping back to talk to you and Jared, “ I propose that we place Y/N in your home as a foster. That will give you time to decide if this is something you want and if not we can remove you from the home without hassle or fuss. Does that work for you?” He asked Jared.
He nodded his head, “Gen and I are prepared to support Y/N in whatever capacity she needs.”
“Alright Y/N, the choice is yours to make.”
It was silent for a few minutes as everyone waited on you to make a decision. You knew you should be thinking over the options that were presented to you, but all your mind could think of was the fact that you thought you would never see him again and of returning Vixie to her rightful owner while you had the chance. You weren’t sure what the hell you were going to do about the current predicament you are in, but you knew if you didn’t return her when you had a chance that looking at her from now one would haunt you. Even if you never slept again you wanted the burden of looking after her off of your chest and return her back to where she belongs. “Can I have a few minutes?” you asked in a hushed tone.
Ms. Shaw and Kyle exchanged a glance, communicating wordlessly. “Of course,” Ms. Shaw said giving you a small smile.
You didn’t waste any time getting up and leaving the room. Once you stepped into the hall and the door shut behind you, you let out a breath you had been holding. Although a part of you was worried about what they might be saying about you now that you have left the room, at the moment you were just happy to have a chance to think and breathe without them staring at you.
You tried to walk up the stairs as slowly as you could to give you enough time to think and get away from the pressure that has been placed on you. But no matter how hard you tried you couldn’t make your mind work, to decide if you wanted to accept the offer or stay here. It was just too much to place on you at once.
The trip up the stairs to retrieve Vixie and back down was quicker than you would have liked, and you found yourself standing outside the office door, hugging Vixie close to your chest trying to work up the nerve to re-enter the room.
The thing holding you back was the fact you didn’t know what you were going to say. You weren’t sure if you wanted to go back and live with Jared and his family. Sure after you warmed up to him and his family last December your time with them had been pleasant and enjoyable, but you weren’t sure if you went back that things would be the same as they were. And if you did go and things didn’t go as you wanted, you would never forgive yourself for setting yourself up to get hurt again, especially after you had told yourself when you returned here that you would never care for someone again or try to find a family.
Clearing your mind you put your ear to the door to see if you could hear them talking about you while they thought you were gone. Sadly you couldn’t hear anything, so after taking several deep breaths you turned the door knob and re-entered the room.
Whatever conversation they were having stopped as soon as you opened the door. Jared turned toward you giving you another friendly smile. While you understand he was trying to make you feel safe and welcomed, the habit was starting to annoy you.
You walked up to Jared which seemed to surprise him with every step you took closer. “Here I’m sure you know someone who needs this.” You said holding Vixie out.
He looked down in shock as if he failed to notice the stuffed animal when you walked in. “How?” He said flabbergasted as he took the stuffed fox from you.
You simply shrugged and walked back to sit on the couch as before.
“How,” He repeated still dumb shocked.
“It was found in Y/N’s bag when she got back. A very heartfelt note was found with it signed by O. The messenger said they would miss Y/N and they wanted her to have Vixie till she could return home.” Ms. Shaw explained, and you grimaced in response, not wanting to give away the details.
Jared’s face grew into a wide toothy grin. “That’s my girl Odette.” He said proudly. “We’ve been looking for this for the last month. Been kinda driving us insane looking for it,” He said rubbing the back of his head, “As Odette has been having a hard time without this. She’s had it since birth and pretty much the only thing that can calm her down and put her to sleep.”
“How old is she?” Ms. Shaw couldn’t help but ask.
“She’ll be turning five in roughly a month. It just amazes me that she is capable of such a generous act at such a young age. I mean that’s exactly how Gen and I have raised our kids, but to see her be so kind hearted for others needs despite of her own. That’s… that’s something incredible.” He beamed with pride while you couldn’t help but feel like second rate.
Indeed, that was an amazing feat for an almost five-year-old and Odette was his actual daughter while you were….not. But to hear him praise her so much in front of you was almost hurtful and cruel. Was it because no one had ever praised you like that before in your life, not even your own parents, or was it because you wanted him to look at and feel the same way about you as he does Odette?
“Wow,” Ms. Shaw said in awestruck.
“I broke it.” You said interrupting the happy moment the two were sharing.
Jared turned back to you, the happiness falling from his face and his eyebrows furrowed. He turned the stuffed animal over in his hands inspecting it for damages. “It looks in fine shape to me,” He said.
You shook your head in disagreement, “Left leg, it was nearly ripped off.” You said ashamed.
Jared turned Vixie over and inspected her leg closer. “Ahh, I see.” He looked up at you, but you couldn’t meet his gaze. “What happened?”
“I,” You started.
“It’s not your fault,” Ms. Shaw said interrupting you. She turned to Jared, “When it was discovered some of the kids made a big deal over it and poor Vixie got stuck in the middle.”
“Is that true Y/N?”
You nodded in shame, “I was holding her, and Caleb tried to take her from me and her leg tore.”
Jared came and knelt down in front of you, and he slowly reached out and placed a hand on your leg that was resting on the couch. “Y/N look at me.” You cautiously glanced up to meet his eyes afraid of what you might see there. “I’m not upset about this,” He said placing Vixie back in your lap. “It was an accident. One you could not stop or prevent. It’s not your fault.”
“But O.”
“She gave you something that meant so much to her for a reason, she’s more understanding than either of us realized. Besides, you did your best to make it right,” He said pointing to the stitches Ms. Shaw put in. “They’re barely noticeable, alright. No hard feelings, okay?” You nodded your head in response, but you were still worried about how Odette might react.
“Not to interrupt the moment you two have going, but I have other appointments today.” Kyle, who had been quiet and observing this whole time finally spoke up. “Y/N I will need an answer, do you accept Jared, Mr. Padalecki, as a foster parent full time?”
You had forgotten about that question, but now that all eyes were on you once more you felt your heart begin to race as you did not know what to do.
A silence had fallen upon the room once more before Jared reached up to touch your shoulder. “Y/N sweetie I can see that this is too much for you. You need more time to think about this on your own without everyone around waiting for an answer, it’s just too much pressure for you. So why don’t you think, and Ms. Shaw can call Kyle when you have an answer.” His hand was still resting on your shoulder and his thumb had begun rubbing back in forth in a soothing motion. “And hey whatever you decide, there are no hard feelings between us. Gen and I understand. We only want what’s best for you even if that’s not with us.
A small tear slipped down your cheek and you wiped it away in annoyance wishing you could stop crying. “Why did you come here?”
“I told you I was going to make this right, and you’re the type of person that I figured actions speak louder than words. I came here to get you and bring you home if that’s what you wanted.”
You nodded your head unable to speak. There were so many thoughts bouncing around your head and you weren’t sure which to listen to.
His thumb ran back and forth across your shoulder one last time before he stood up and pulled away from you. “It was nice seeing you again Y/N. Take your time and think it over and I mean it, there are no hard feelings whatever you decide.” He picked up Vixie from where she sat in your lap. “Odette will be glad to see her again and so will Gen, she will enjoy the sleep she will get tonight. Thank you.”
“Tonight?” You questioned in disbelief. “You’re flying home tonight; won’t it be late by the time you get back to Texas?”
Jared chuckled. “Well actually a flight to Texas would only be roughly two and a half hours so I’d have plenty of time to fly home and then tuck the kids into bed at eight. But no I’m not going home, I’m just gonna go back to my hotel.”
“The kids are here?”
“Yeah,” He said chuckling again. “We planned this trip up here to see you, but we told the kids we were going on vacation. We didn’t want to tell them the truths and get there hopes up if things didn’t work out. You want to see them don’t ya?” He said seeing your face brighten with enthusiasm.
You nodded your head, “I’ve missed them.” You admitted.
“Tell ya what why don’t you come back with me to the hotel, and we can have a little family reunion” Jared suggested.
“Sorry I’m afraid that’s not allowed.” Kyle said before you could answer. “Until you are re-approved to foster or adopt you cannot take Y/N anywhere.”
Jared’s face fell with disappointment and if you were being honest with yourself so did yours.
“Now hold on before everyone gets mopy perhaps I can offer a solution.” Ms. Shaw said. “As long as Y/N is accompanied by a licensed caretaker, me, your reunion can still happen.”
“But what about the other kids in your care?”
“I have an approved friend who watches the kids when I have to go to appointments and such. She can watch the kids for a couple of hours.”
After plans were arrange you watched Jared drive away. You could tell Jared was reluctant to leave but he left in a better spirit knowing that in two short hours he would see you again. You were worried about finding something to do as you figured the seven of you sitting around talking would be boring and that would put a lot of pressure on you to talk about yourself which you didn’t want. You didn’t want to talk about your month away from them as it was nothing to boast about and you didn’t really want to relish in the memories when you were with them cause if you never saw them again after today then you’d be broken and that would only serve to tear you apart more. But Jared told you not to worry about it he would find something to do that everyone could enjoy.
As time passed you began to grow both excited and anxious for your meeting with the rest of the family. Would things be as they were or have you grown apart during your time of separation?
“Y/N were here.” Ms. Shaw said interrupting your thoughts.
You looked around, “Where are we?”
“An ice rink.”
“Ice rink?” You repeated, “But I don’t know how to skate.”
“I’m sure Odette can’t either, you can learn together.”
You followed Ms. Shaw into the main entrance, the main lobby was crowded apparently everyone had the same idea today. It was hard to make your way through the crowd but due to Jared’s freakish height, you were able to spot him and the rest of the family. The kids seemed just as thrilled to be here as you were.
Out of the three of them, Tom was the only one who was acting okay but he looked miserable with his arms crossed and leaning against Gen. Shep was losing patience the longer he was asked to stand there and from what you could see it wouldn’t be too long till he started acting out. And Odette was currently in Jared’s arms as he rocked her back and forth trying his best to prevent a screaming fit which looked like could happen at any moment.
Well that was until Ms. Shaw urge you forward, and Odette happened to turn her head in your direction as you approached and then her face lit up and she screamed your name which gain the attention of the rest of the family.
You forced a smile on your face as you greeted the family and caught up with everyone. The kids were so happy to see you that they could not stop talking as they each wanted to fill you in on what they have been doing since you’ve been gone. In all honesty, it wasn’t that exciting just regular mundane stuff, school and play but they were exhilarated as they told you, so you smile and pretended to be interested.
After several minutes of catching up the moment you dreaded had arrived as Jared led your group to the counter to get skates. You were absolutely terrified about stepping out onto the ice and your anxiety only got worse the closer you got. You were worried you would make a fool of yourself, that you would face plant onto the ice in front of all these people and then flail as you tried to get back up. You were mortified at just the thought of you slipping and sliding continually on the ice unable to pick yourself back up.
“Come on Y/N,” Jared said pulling you from your thoughts as he was leading Odette out onto the rink, Gen and the boys already out.
“I don’t know how.” You mumbled.
“Well, you’re not gonna learn sitting there.” He said with a smug smirk on his face, but it didn’t help lessen your fear. “Come on Y/N, I’ve got you.”
You let out a deep sigh and picked up the skate and slipped it onto your foot struggling to tie it up. Jared let out a chuckle and helped you lace up your skates. Your heart continued to race as he took your hand in his and led you onto the ice.
You had a death grip on Jared’s hand when you stepped onto the ice and if it wasn’t for Jared holding you, you would have fallen as your foot slipped. You wanted to turn around and go back to the bench where Ms. Shaw was waiting but Jared wouldn’t let you as he blocked your path.
“Shake it off Y/N just put one foot in front of the other, like this.” He said while skating in place, “That will get you moving and once you get a rhythm going you won’t fall.”
You tried your best, but you just couldn’t do what he was doing but true to Jared’s word he never let go of you. You felt ashamed as you watch Odette soar on ahead of you. She had let go of Jared’s hand after stepping onto the ice and she was skating in front of you without a problem, granted she was going slow, but she was still doing it on her own and she’s younger than you. You must have looked pathetic clinging to Jared’s hand and the other reaching out for the nearby wall in case you slipped.
“How’s it going?” Gen asked as she came sliding over to you and Jared.
“She’s getting the hang of it, might even be ready to do it on her own.” Jared said.
“Don’t let go!” You said turning to him quickly fearing he might. The movement was enough to throw off your balance and you slipped. Your feet flailed as you try to regain your footing and catch yourself and your hand reached out for the wall, but neither could save you as your leg came down to meet the ice. You were surprised that the impact wasn’t very hard in fact you didn’t ‘impact’ at all. Your right leg was merrily sliding against the ice while the left side of your body remained up which was due to the fact that Jared had a tight grip on your hand.
“Woah, easy Y/N,” Jared said as he put his other hand under your other forearm to pull you back up, “Let’s wait to pick up the speed till after you’ve got the basics down.” He said jokingly.
Gen skated to the other side of you and took your other hand in hers. “You alright?”
You shook your head as your heart raced and began to move over to the wall, Gen and Jared helping you.
As soon as you got there you clung to the wall. “What’s wrong Y/N?” Gen asked.
“I.. I can’t do it,” You breathed out.
“Sure you can. Falling is a part of the experience you just got to pick yourself back up.” Jared said coming up and putting a gentle hand on your back in an attempt to comfort you.
“I don’t think so.”
“Hey, look at all those people out there on the ice. I can guarantee you they were all once in your place, scared and unsure and I promise you they all fell. Each and every one of them, some probably got bumps and bruises as a result. But you know what? They didn’t let that stop them, they picked themselves back up and continued on, and with time they got better and better until they stopped falling. Even Odette, look at her. Last year she couldn’t skate at all, but look at her now, making her way around the rink slowly but surely and when she falls she picks herself back up and tries again. You can’t let the fear of failure keep you from trying or else you miss all the fun. So what do you say, are you ready to try again?”
An hour and a half later you were returning your skates to the counter with a smile on your face about something Tom had said. Your knee was sore from fall you took this one harder than before, but you could hardly feel it at the moment as you were still on an adrenaline rush from spending time with the Padalecki’s again.
Jared was right, ice skating was a lot of fun, and you would have missed out on it all if you had run away at the first sign of trouble. You were by no means an expert skater and still wobbled a lot, but you took Jared’s advice and didn’t let it bring you down. At one point you had even caught up to the kids and proceeded to laugh and goof around with them with Jared and Gen just behind you.
You were surprised at how saddened you were when Ms. Shaw interrupted the moment, your family moment, and announced it was time for the two of you to head back to the foster home. You quickly hid your reaction though not wanting anyone to see the disappointment on your face and simply decided to enjoy your last few moments with them.
“Thanks for today.” You said to Jared and Gen as they handed back their skates.
Jared wrapped you in a side hug, “Not a problem kid thanks for letting us.”
“We’re gonna be here all week if you want to hang out again.” Gen said pulling you in for a hug as well.
“Sounds good,” You said with a smile.
After saying goodbye to the kids, you and Ms. Shaw made your way out to her car and your heart grew heavier with each step.
“You alright over there?” Ms. Shaw said as she backed the car out.
“Yeah, I was just thinking.” You said trying to avoid her question.
Ms. Shaw hummed in response seeming to know more than you wanted her to, “Tell ya what, it’s almost dinner time, how about we pick up some pizza on our way home, and then once we get home you guys can dive into that while I give Kyle Winters a call?”
You gave her a confused look. “The offer still stands you know?” She reminded you, “And after what I saw tonight and all those thoughts running around your head right now, it appears that you want to go back to them. Am I wrong?”
You thought over it carefully. She was dead right you did. Although you had reservations about it earlier being back with them was healing in a way for you. And the thought of going back to how you were before you met them was unbearable.
You couldn’t help but replay what Jared said over and over again in your mind. ‘You can’t let the fear of failure keep you from trying.’ He may have been referring to ice skating, but you couldn’t help and draw a connection between it and your current situation.
You had sworn to yourself when you were kicked out of the Padalecki home that you would never try again, you would never hope to find the perfect family you were meant to be with anymore. You would simply wait until you aged out of foster care and then try to find your way on your own. But how you have been living since your return has not been living at all, you were simply wasting time, wasting your life away. And now that you’ve had a taste of serenity once more you could not go back to how you’ve been living.
Jared was right, just because you were scared to move in with a new family doesn't mean you shouldn’t still give it a try, after all, that’s the point of the experience to try until you get it right.
“So what will it be Y/N, should I give him a call?”
“Yes,” You told her unable to hide your smile.
A Christmas To Remember: Chapter 13
Chapter 13
Pairing: Jared x Foster Daughter Reader, Gen x Foster Daughter Reader (Mention by not in this chapter)
Word Count: 2500ish
Warmings: Language, hurting reader, reader feels betrayed, mental health problems, reader feels worthless
.
It had been two weeks and you were back into your usual routine at the group home. Well sort of. School had started back up again so you had to deal with that but you weren’t the same girl you were when you left. Besides going to class and doing your chores you did nothing throughout the day. You haven’t touched your word search book since you left that place. In all honesty, you didn’t even know where it was. You didn’t unpack your bag, but when you returned to your shared room after your break down you saw Natalie and some of the other girls doing it for you.
You weren't mad about it and you weren’t grateful either, you simply didn’t care.
“Alright everyone, that’s it for today. I’ll see you next week.” Mr. Kinsley said as class finally ended. Everyone began to close their notebooks and return the book you were currently reading back into Mr. Kinsley's box. He didn’t let you guys keep the books in fear that something would happen to them if he did, so he had to bring them back and forth every week for the lesson. “Y/N please stay after.” He added as soon as you stood up.
While everyone else left you sat back down at the dining room table and rolled your eyes. What did he need?
Mr. Kinsley finished putting away his papers and then stood across the table in front of you. “I’ve been concerned about you.” He said after a brief moment of silence of the two of you just staring at each other. “You haven’t been participating a lot in class and you’re not getting your work done.”
You couldn’t help but scoff. First of all, you hardly ever participate in class and only make small comments if you feel like it, which doesn’t happen that often. Secondly, you only had class once a week and this was literally the second week back after the break. Lastly he doesn’t assign homework, so what work were you not doing?
“What work?” You sassed.
“You don’t seem to be engaged and interested in what we’re learning. And it’s not just this class, I spoke to your math teacher, and she said the same thing. You’re not paying attention in class.”
“Oh, I’m sorry that I have no interest in a book that was written in the 17th century and has absolutely no relevance.” You argued.
He let out a sigh, “There is much we can learn from studying Shakespeare.” When you gave him a bitch face he went on. “The plot of his stories is unlike anything else in literature. And the struggles the characters go through are very much relatable and the work is challenging which allows us to grow as readers.”
You rolled your eyes. “Really when’s the last time you received a vision from three witches that you would be king and was hell bent on fulfilling that prophecy.” You sassed bitterly.
He looked unimpressed with your response. “Y/N you no that’s not what I meant. No, we don’t face the same problems that the characters in these books do but they can provide a symbolic meaning to our problems today.”
You just rolled your eyes at his response.
Mr. Kinsley let out a deep sigh. “Y/N I am reaching out not to get on you about your performance in class but to try and help you. You are not acting like yourself, and I want to understand why and maybe help you work some things out.”
“I’m perfectly fine.” You said and stood up leaving the room. You didn’t care about his concern or anyone else’s, you honestly just wished everyone would leave you alone.
You left the room and made your way to the back room where all the other kids hung out after class. You didn’t care about socializing with them, but you found the days passed faster if you didn’t isolate yourself all day. You could have gone to your room where you could hear the younger kids playing, they have lessons on a different day than the older kids and they have to play away from the dining room during your lessons so that you could ‘work undisturbed’, but they had an energy you couldn’t tolerate plus they reminded you of the Padalecki kids and that was a reminder you did not need or want, so you decided to forgo the comfort of your room until they left it. You would rather pass the time sitting in the back room watching the older kids than force yourself into a cheery mood to play with the younger kids.
You sat on the furthest couch away from everybody else, the couch was by the window, and you figured you could waste the time staring out it when you got bored of watching the boys play on the game system.
“What did he want?” Evan asked.
You rolled your eyes, “Just pestering me because no one’s interested in those stupid old books.”
He nodded and returned to the game he was playing. For the next five minutes or so you sat quietly in the background staring out the window or watching the others. Caleb and Evan were currently bickering about whose turn it was on the game system. When the younger kids finally realized that your lessons were over they came wandering into the room.
They had come into the room at an obnoxious volume squealing and laughing and between the arguing of the game system and the squealing from the kids you turned your head away to stare mindlessly out the window. The boys themselves were annoyed as well; you could tell by the look that crossed their faces. But they didn’t say anything knowing if they tried to kick them out Ms. Shaw would get angry, and that would result in everybody getting kicked out of the room. So they bit their tongues, and you did your best to blocked them out.
While staring out the window you allowed your mind to go completely blank. You weren’t thinking about your past or your future or anything at all. Minutes passed, the game continued on, the boys advancing to the next level and fighting over who gets to play it. The girls played on in the background, playing house or whatever else they like to play, but you had no idea of any of it.
Instead, you were looking at a bird that had caught your eye. A cardinal if you had to guess, most likely a female because it didn’t have the bright red that the males do.
It had caught your eye when it flew into the backyard, and you began to watch as it moved. First, it flew to the ground trying to find nuts and berries in the yard. It pecked around and dug under the snow. After a while, it flew up to one of the tree branches and pecked at the wood. It bounced around from branch to branch and then once more returned to the ground.
It was a simple life, and you would trade places with that bird without hesitation. After all, why shouldn’t you? It would be a life without pain and heartbreak, just eat and survive, those were much easier tasks then trying to find a place in this world.
Evan’s shout pulled you from the peaceful scene out the window and your eyes widened at what you saw, but it wasn’t his shout in frustration about failing on the level that caused your e. It was Isabella or more accurately what she was cradling in her arms, a soft plush fox stuffed animal.
You recognized it immediately. It was Vixie, Odette’s stuffed animal that she slept with every night. You were told it makes her feel safer and that nothing was going to jump out and get her in the night. You remember on one occurrence it got misplaced after Mrs. Padalecki washed her bedding and Mr. and Mrs. Padalecki had nearly torn the house apart looking for it as Odette would not or could not got to sleep without it and she refused any other stuffed animals anyone had tried to offer her. Only Vixie could make her feel safe so that she could fall asleep.
“That doesn’t belong to you!” You said. The only response you got was all heads in the room turned towards you, but nobody said a thing.
“Where did you get that?” You shouted, your tone taking everyone off guard.
“Yo…You don’t like stuffed animals.” Isabella said timidly holding onto the stuffed animal a little tighter.
“That doesn’t mean you take something that’s not yours!” You said stomping over and taking Vixie back.
“When did you get a stuffed animal?” Caleb said in a mocking tone.
“I… I didn’t.”
“So where did it come from? Cause from what I’m hearing it doesn’t belong to you either.”
“For your information, it belongs to….O… Od… The daughter at my Christmas home. I don’t know how it got here it wasn’t in my bag when I packed it, but it belongs to her!” You said defiantly.
“Well, she’s at least 1,500 miles away so Isabella might as well have it.” He said grabbing and pulling.
You began to pull back and Vixie was trapped in a tug of war between the two of you. After a couple of tugs back and forth you heard the awful sound of fabric tearing. Your eyes widen and you quickly let go in hopes to stop the tearing.
Caleb fell back due to the fact he pulled so hard, but you were upset to see he was able to catch himself before he fell, you would have liked to see him fall back on his ass. “Look what you did!” You shouted and grabbed Vixie back which you were able to do because Caleb had loosened his grip on the fox when he fell.
When you inspected Vixie you found she now had a fairly large rip in her shoulder and if you hadn’t let go the whole leg would most likely have ripped off. “You just have to break everything you touch, don’t you! You always have to destroy anything that means something to someone! Well, congratulations not only will a little girl probably never see her precious fox again and if she does, it will be ruined! So great job!” You screamed at him.
You cradled Vixie in your arms and ran back up to your room. You climbed back into your bed and pulled the covers over your head and held Vixie close to your chest and all your emotions broke out. You sobbed into her fur, all those emotions the anger, the pain, the sadness came pouring out and you couldn’t stop them.
You felt guilty about wreaking Odette’s favored stuffed animal, you were confused at how she got here in the first place as she most definitely wasn’t in your bag when you packed and you barely left the bag unattended. You were angry with Caleb for ripping her and Isabelle for taking what wasn’t hers, but mostly you were just heartbroken as Vixie’s presence made you think about everything you had been trying to push from your mind.
Ms. Shaw found you crying in your room later that day. “Y/N Dinner is…. What’s wrong?” She asked after seeing you buried underneath all your blankets and hearing you sniffle.
“Nothing,” you croaked out trying to hide the pain in your voice.
“Uh-huh” She said with a gentle hum, and you felt the bed move as she sat down next to you, and then the covers were pulled off of your head. You remain curled up on your side, hugging Vixie close, your head buried in your chest. “What happened?” She asked in a gentle voice. You remained silent for several moments just trying to stop yourself from crying. When you settled down a bit, Ms. Shaw reached over to brush your hair that was soaked with your tears out of your eyes.
“Wanna tell me what’s got you so upset?”
You pulled your head out from your chest and wiped your tears from your stained cheeks. Once you felt you had composed yourself enough you lifted Vixie from your grasp and simply handed it to Ms. Shaw without a word.
“Cute fox.” She said as she took it from you. “When did you get ‘em?”
“’S not mine.” You mumbled and she gave you a confused look in response. You cleared your throat and said, “It belongs to the girl at my… last house. I don’t know how she got here; she wasn’t in my bag when I packed.” You said.
“Somebody must have wanted you to have her. That’s a nice gesture isn’t it? I don’t understand why you’re so upset.” She said her hand still running through your hair.
You turned Vixie in her grasp so she could see the rip that was threatening to separate Vixie’s leg from her body.
Ms. Shaw gave a gentle hum, “Ah I see. What happened?”
“Caleb,” was all you said. Ms. Shaw let out a deep exasperated sigh, she went to say something but a knock on the door interrupted you both. The door slowly crept open to reveal Isabella standing there.
“I’m sorry Y/N, we were just trying to help you when we decided to unpack your bag and we didn’t think you would care for or want ‘em.” She said pointing to the stuffed animal.
“That doesn’t make it yours!” You spat.
“I’m sorry.” She said her voice barely above a whisper. “Here you might want this.” She stepped up to your bed and held out an envelope that Ms. Shaw took from her.
“Thanks, Bella,” She said and turned the envelope over, on the top written in crayon was your name. “Would you like me to read it?”
You gave a small nod as your eyes were still too full of tears to read it properly yourself. As she opened it you saw the whole letter was written in crayon and the letters of each word were scattered, clearly a young child wrote this.
Dear Y/N,
Mommy and Daddy say you leaving, I don’t want you leave, I want you stay. I will miss you. I give you Vixie to keep you safe till you come home
Love O
You sniffled and wiped the tears from your eyes. Ms. Shaw handed you back Vixie which you took immediately and hugged her close to your chest as you began crying again.
Ms. Shaw placed a gentle hand in your hair and ran her fingers through it. “I could probably fix her. Would you like that?” All you could do was nod your head as you continued to cry.
She sat with you for a while whispering gentle things to you. Once you began to calm down she said, “When you’re ready come find me, and will try and fix her.”
A Christmas To Remember: Chapter 12
Chapter 12
Pairing: Jared x Foster Daughter Reader, Gen x Foster Daughter Reader (Mention by not in this chapter)
Word Count: 2800ish
Warmings: Language, hurting reader, reader feels betrayed, mental health problems, reader feels worthless, mentions of child abuse in foster care system
You arrived back home yesterday. At dinner that night everyone was eager to talk about their last month, but you weren’t. You stayed quiet eating your dinner silently. Nobody could tell you were broken on the inside due to the fact you were always so shy and quiet.
This morning you had refused to come down to breakfast, not caring if you went hungry. You laid in bed staring mindlessly at the wall feeling empty. Natalie was the first to come up and check on you when she came back up to the shared room to grab something and found you still in bed.
“You missed breakfast.” She said simply, you didn’t even roll over to acknowledge her. She found what she needed and stop at the edge of your bed looking at you. “Are you feeling alright?”
“ ‘M fine.” You mumbled hoping she would take the hint and leave alone to drown in your misery.
“Well if that changes come and get someone.” She said before leaving you alone to go play downstairs.
You laid in bed for the majority of the day, wasting away. You didn’t care about anything, all you wanted was to lie in bed and let life pass you by. You had missed breakfast and you could feel your stomach grumble, but you didn’t have the energy or the will power to do anything about it. And when Ms. Shaw rang the lunch bell you didn’t go down to eat again as you couldn’t make any part of you care about anything.
“You’ve been in here all day.” Ms. Shaw’s voice came from the door, she was leaning against the door frame looking at you. “Are you feeling okay?”
You turned and simply nodded your head before turning back over.
Ms. Shaw must not have been convinced because she came over and placed her hand on your forehead. Afterwards, you saw a frown cross her face. “Are you feeling nauseous?”
“No, I’m fine.” You said rolling away from her and turning your back to her.
“I don’t know what life was like for you last month or what was expected of you. But now that your back you’re not gonna slack off. You are expected to go back to your usual routine. You have chores that need to be done, so get up and do them. You know we don’t lay in bed all day unless we are sick.” She said bitterly.
You wanted more than anything to ignore her and just lay in bed rotting away, but you knew what would happen if you ignored her. Ms. Shaw was very much laid back, but she had expectations and she had no tolerance for bad behavior or lazy kids. As she put it, she has gone out of her way to give you a roof over your head and food for you to eat, the least you could do is show her some respect and help out around the house.
So you grudgingly rolled out of bed and grabbed your suitcase that you had yet to unpack and without looking just grabbed a shirt and jeans and threw them on leaving the rest of the pack untouched. You’d unpack it when you felt up to it, if you ever did. After stopping in the bathroom to brush your teeth, you made your way to the bulletin board to check the chore schedule for the week.
Seeing as you had a hard time even getting out of bed you just wanted to fly by this week with an easy job. The only reason you were doing these stupid chores is because Ms. Shaw had no patience for difficult kids and she could have you sent off to another home, one that could be considerably a lot less nicer than this one, if you didn’t show her some respect. You hoped you are assigned a job that only had to be done once a week. But you were not that lucky. To your disappointment when you checked the bulletin board you found that you were assigned dishes this week. You hated washing dishes but to make matters worse the dish dryer was no other than Caleb
“Nice of you to show up Y/N, did the princess finally get all the beauty rest she needed.” He mocked.
You ignored him and picked up the dish rag and the soap to start washing the dishes. Thankfully Ms. Shaw does have a dishwasher which she puts most of the dishes in. You just had to wash the things that can’t go in the dish washer and all the cups. They of course could be put in the dishwasher, but Ms. Shaw leaves them out so there would be dishes to still be washed if there weren’t any non-dish washer items.
You had always thought that was pretty petty of her. She only does it because she doesn’t think it would be fair to the other kids who have chores to do if your chores were done for you. But in your opinion, you thought she should let you get away with not having to do your assigned chores once. Just because there are no dishes at breakfast doesn’t mean you wouldn’t have dishes at lunch or dinner or for the rest of the week. Besides the person who takes the trash out to the road only has to do that once a week. How is that fair when you have to wash dishes three times a day seven days a week?
You did your best to wash the dishes as fast as you could and ignore any comments Caleb made. Which was pretty easy after he got out his initial comments. Besides yourself he was the only other one who didn’t care about your holiday homes and wanted to put it in his past and forgot about it just as much as you did, so you didn’t have him pestering you about that.
***
For the next few days, you developed a routine. You woke up late and came down for the tail end of breakfast and then washed the dishes. For the remainder of the day you hid away in your room, as long as you didn’t crawl back into bed Ms. Shaw couldn’t yell at you. In all honesty, the only time you left the room was for meals and to wash the dishes.
But even though you were coming down for meals, you weren’t eating most of the time you just played with the food on your plate. Just because time had passed doesn’t mean your wounds had healed. You still didn’t have an appetite and couldn’t care about anything. You had buried your feelings down deep and locked them away. It was easier that way to accept the fact that you are nothing in this world and would never be loved by anyone.
Your bag still lay on the floor packed as you couldn’t be bothered to unpack it and had chosen to wear the same jeans and sweatshirt over and over again. It wasn’t like you were leaving the house so how dirty could they get
You were currently sitting in the window sill looking out at the snow that was falling outside. “Hey Y/N,” A soft voice spoke from the doorway. You looked over to see Isabella standing there. “We’re going to head out and play in the snow, wanna join?”
You simply shook your head in response.
“Please we’re gonna build forts and have a snowball fight, boys vs girls. You’re the oldest girl so we need you.” She pleaded.
“No Isabella.” You said flatly and turn back to look out the window. You heard her sigh in disappointment, but she left you alone, nonetheless.
A few minutes later you could see them in the backyard. There was at least a foot of snow on the ground, so it was a good day for it, but you just weren’t in the right emotional state for it.
It reminded you of the days you spent with the Padalecki kids, and it was a painful reminder. Over the last few days, you couldn’t stop thinking about what you did wrong. Days before you were kicked out, you had fit in with the family, at least you thought you did. Then the next thing you knew you were being pushed out the door thought it still remains a mystery as to why.
You had respected their rules and were not only kind and tolerable to their young children, but you played with them willingly and you had actually enjoyed being around them. You found that you liked having younger ‘siblings’ and being around little kids. Which was something that surprised you when you realized it as previously you could have cared less about being an older sister to the other girls here at the group home.
But then the difference was that here it was drilled into everyone’s heads through their years in foster care, that it was every person for themselves and that you couldn’t count on anybody but yourself. So you figured your pity and aid to the younger kids prevented them from learning important lessons that would teach them how to survive in foster care. It was better and far less harsh if they learned these lessons now when they were younger than when they are older. Thankfully you had never endured it, but you have heard stories from kids in your previous placements who didn’t learn those crucial lessons till their teenage years, and it came with a painful beating for making such a mistake. So yes it may be cruel to turn a blind eye, but it would only help them out in the longer run.
But out there, out in the real world, you had made sure to be someone the kids could turn to for help and someone they could look up to. You didn’t have to worry about protecting them from a painful mistake because it would never be something that they would have to endure. You had found a sense of peace with them, you felt like you finally found somewhere you could belong. But you knew now that you had miss read something, that you screwed up somehow, and would always be the one that didn’t belong.
You watched the kids play outside as they built their forts. While building the fort Caleb was having fun pelting everyone with snowballs even before the game began. The boys teams was making quicker work of getting their fort built than girls, but then again it was 5 older boys against 4 younger girl. Tt wasn’t a fair fight at all, and they really could use your help, but you didn’t care.
When watching them became too painful for you, you headed downstairs to the play room which should be empty as everyone was outside. You had always been quiet and reserved but after what happened last December you double your efforts to make sure you were alone, it’s easy not to get hurt that way.
In the playroom, you sat on the couch, watching the fishes in the tank swim back and forth. It was nice and refreshingly quiet. It was rare for anyone to have the playroom to themselves, normally everyone congregated in here as it was the only room that had stuff to do.
“Nice to see you out of your room.” Ms. Shaw said about five minutes later. “I’m surprised you’re not out there playing in the snow with the others though.”
“Didn’t want to.” You mumbled simply.
She sat down on the coffee table in front of you. “Alright, what happened?”
“Hmm,” you hummed pretending to be ignorant.
“At your holiday home. What happened? You’ve been off ever since you got back. What’s got you so upset?”
“Nothing.”
“Then you shouldn’t have a problem talking about it.”
The two of you sat in silence for a few minutes as she waited for you to speak while your blood began to boil.
Why was she pestering you about this? Why couldn’t you go back to the way things were before this disaster. If you kept to yourself, stayed out of trouble, and got your chores done she wouldn’t pay you any attention. What you wouldn’t give for that now.
When you heard the back door open and close and then the sound of voices you hoped Ms. Shaw would leave to go help the kids take off their coats and such. In all honesty, you were surprised at how long they lasted out in the snow seeing as no one had any snow pants or proper boots and mittens. To your disappointment though Ms. Shaw didn’t move from her place on the coffee table.
“I’ve got all day Y/N.” She said as if reading your thoughts
“I made a mistake alright. For a brief moment, I thought there was something out there for me, but I was quickly reminded there is NOTHING out there in the world for me!” You screamed and stormed out of the room.
You wanted nothing more than to hide away in your room for the rest of the day, but as you stomped up the stairs you could hear some of the girls in your shared room so instead you went to the bathroom and locked yourself in. As soon as the door closed behind you, you fell into a pile on the floor and cried your heart out.
Narrators POV
Isabella stood from where she was playing on the floor and excused herself to go to the bathroom. The girls she was playing with continued on without her as she walked across the hall to the upstairs bathroom.
When she tried to turn the knob it didn’t move but what caught her attention was the faint sobbing she could hear through the door.
It was clear to everyone that Y/N was having a hard time since getting back from her holiday placement. Being only eight, Isabella couldn’t understand why but it was clear by the way Y/N isolated herself that she was hurting. At that moment Isabella decided to try and do what she can to help Y/N out.
She remembered seeing Y/N’s bag, still packed from when she returned. She hadn’t been bothered to unpack it given her current emotional state. Isabella thought she would help Y/N out by unpacking it for her.
Walking back to the girls shared bedroom she found Y/N’s bag where she left it after returning from her Christmas home at the end of the bed. Besides the clothes, Y/N took out to wear it was untouched. Picking it up and placing it on the bed Isabella unzipped the bag as the other girls she was playing with earlier joined her.
“What are you doing?” Stacy asked.
“I thought I’d help Y/N out and unpack her bag since she’s been upset recently.” Isabella responded.
The other girls gladly jumped in to help out, whether it was because they wanted to help out a friend in need or merrily just wanted something to do besides play with the same broken toys or makeshift toys out of pencils and bottlecaps was unknown. But with the four of them, they made quick work of unpacking her bag. They did the best they could to fold her clothes and put them neatly away in her designated drawers. Her puzzle book they placed in the semi empty drawer on the bottom as they thought that’s where she normally kept it, but they weren’t sure as the only time any of them had seen it was when Y/N carried it around with her.
What surprised Isabella and the other girls was an item they found hidden away in the hood of Y/N’s sweatshirt. It was a soft fox stuffed animal.
The girls’ eyes widen in shock when Natalie pulled it out because for as long as anyone here knew Y/N, she never was entertained with the idea of stuffed animals and thought that they were useless. With the exception of the special Christmas arrangements that were made for them this year nothing was ever done for the kids. Though without fail every year on Christmas eve every young kid in the foster home would talk nonstop about what toys they might get. They always imagined getting a furry friend of their own that they could play with and sleep with at night.
Y/N on the other hand never entertained the thought. As she said last Christmas, “Best not to get overly excited about it.” She suggested as the girls imagine themselves each getting a stuffed plushie of their favorite animals and were already picking out the names for them, “You’ll just make yourself disappointed in the morning when you don’t get them. Besides even if you did get them nothing would change for you. You’d still be stuck here.” When Y/N said that she wanted to add ‘you’ll be stuck here and unwanted just like the rest of us’ but given their age, she held back.
None of the girls knew where the fox had come from, but it clear it couldn’t be Y/N’s so deciding for the group Isabella took the fox in her hands claiming it as their own. ‘Y/N wouldn’t miss it’ she thought.
A Christmas To Remember: Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Pairing Jared x Foster Daughter Reader, Gen x Foster Daughter Reader
Word Count 3800ish
Warmings: Language, hurting reader, hurting Jared hurting Gen, reader feels betrayed, mental health problems, reader feels worthless
You were sitting on the floor leaning against the bed when a knock came to the door. You ignore it not caring who it was or what they wanted.
The person on the other side didn’t seem to care about waiting for permission to enter though as you heard the door open.
“Hey,” came Gen’s soft and gentle voice, “I came up to check on you and help you pack if you would like.” There was a pause and despite the fact that your back was to her you guess it was due to the fact she was looking around the room at the mess you had made. The bed was unmade, and things had been thrown everywhere.
You heard her sigh and step a little further into the room. “Is this your bag?” She asked as she moved closer. “It’s pretty thin isn’t it?”
You continued to ignore her, finding the far wall more interesting.
The next thing you heard was the sound of a zipper moving and things shuffling as she started rifling through your bag. “Y/N where’s all your stuff?”
You turned your head and looked back at her. “You’re looking at it.” You said, your voice cold and detached.
“Honey this is not all of it. What about your books and your pens? That sweatshirt you love and all your other new stuff?”
“They’re not mine.”
“What? Gen asked in a surprised tone. She moved closer and sat on the floor next to you, but you still refused to look at her. “Honey those are yours, we bought them for you to have, for you to enjoy and to keep.”
There was a pause as she waited for you to speak and when you didn’t she dug under the blankets on the floor to pull out a word search book you had been working on since Christmas. It became your favorite simply because it was more challenging for you, and you liked the challenge. Gen placed it on your lap. “Don’t you want to take these things back with you?”
You threw the book against the wall. “NO, I DON’T!! None of this stuff is mine. You bought it; you keep it!”
“Y/N we bought them for you. We want you to have them.” Gen tried once more.
You stood up and walked away from her. “Urgg give it a break Mrs. Padalecki they are not mine. And I don’t want them” You spat. “You don’t want me in your life that’s fine but stop lying to me and yourself. You think that by giving me a couple of simple trinkets and clothes you made my life better than it was? Well news flash, you didn’t! A lousy sweatshirt and a simple book are not gonna change the fact I am a useless, unloved, and waste of space foster kid whose better off dead!” You screamed at her.
Gen was fighting to hold her emotions back, “Oh Y/N honey we don’t feel…” She didn’t get a chance to finish before you marched over to the door and swung it open violently letting it slam against the wall.
“GET OUT!”
“Y/N let’s talk about this, let us explain.”
“NOW!!”
She let out a sigh and let the tears she had been fighting to hold back fall freely down her cheeks now. She walked past you over to the door but before leaving she turn to you one last time. “I know you don’t believe me Y/N, but we love all love you so…..so much. We are just as heartbroken about the fact you have to leave as you are.” You rolled your eyes, more lies.
Jared’s POV
We decided to cancel our New Year’s party tonight. We figured we’d have to anyways, but we were gonna let Y/N tell us what she wanted. We wanted her to decide for herself if she was still interested in attending the party, we didn’t want to take something away from her if she was looking forward to it. But we weren’t going to force her either way and we would have gone along with whatever she decided.
But after her reaction to the news, we knew that she wasn’t going to be up to celebrating the New Year so Gen called Danneel explaining the situation and asked if they would host the party instead. Then I texted everyone letting them know to head to Jensen’s house tonight instead.
“This all of it?” I asked Gen as we loaded up the car with the food we were going to have at the party tonight.
“Yeah. I can take it down if you want.” She offered.
“No,” I said clearing my throat. “I’d…. If it’s all the same to you I’d rather do it myself.” I couldn’t seem to get out of my head since we broke the news, and I hoped a change of scenery would help quiet the negative voices in my head. “Where are the girls?”
“O’s helping Arrow get her bags, they should be here any minute.”
Once we got Arrow’s things in the car I wasted no time taking her back home. When I pulled into the driveway Arrow happily skipped up the pavement and into the house while I followed slowly behind with the bags of food.
Both Danneel and Jensen greeted me at the door and took the bags from me. “Here’s everything for tonight and Dee, Gen told me to tell you that the recipe for her dish is in there as well. She said if you had any questions just text her. Once again we are really sorry we can’t help out more.”
“No, no don’t worry about it, we understand.” Danneel said in a sweet and gentle voice.
“How did she take it?” Jensen asked.
I shook my head, a tear I had been fighting to hold back slipping down my face. “Not very well. She feels betrayed and I don’t blame her. We tried telling her this was only temporary, that….that we love her so so much, but she won’t listen to us right now.”
Jensen was quick to pull me into a hug, giving me the support I needed. “It’s gonna be alright, Jar. You’ll get her back. You’ll bring her home. Take some time tonight as a family and make sure she knows she’s a part of that.”
“We’re… We’re going to. We just hope she doesn’t try to shut us out.”
“She’ll probably want to, and she’ll need time to process things but make sure she knows that she still has you guys.” Danneel said.
“Thank you guys, really it means a lot.” I said wiping the tears from my eyes. “Is Tom ready? We should really head back.”
“He should be. I will go get him for you.” Danneel said before walking off.
“What time is she leaving tomorrow?” Jensen asked.
“Seven AM, her flight leaves at nine.”
“You going to see her off?”
“We want to, but that damn agency won’t let us, says it’s best for everyone if we say goodbye at the house and not draw it out.”
“Screw them, you do what’s best for your child.” He told me, putting emphasis on the word ‘your’.
I nodded my head in response, fighting once again to keep the tears at bay. Thundering footsteps came from down the hall and soon Tom appeared.
“Dad, can we stay a little longer?” He begged.
“No, sorry bud. We’ve got things we need to do.”
“Pleeaasee dad.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Thomas, no.” I said in a sterner voice.
Tom’s face fell and he let out a sigh, “O-kay.”
Back at the house Tom ran off to play while I made my way to the kitchen. Gen was standing near the cutting board preparing a simple dinner for tonight. Her back was to me, but I could see the weight she had on her shoulders as she stood tensed and if I was honest with myself I was carrying the same weight. I knew the next few days were going to be rough for all of us, I just hoped we could get through to Y/N before she leaves, explain to her that sending her away was never our intention and we want her here with us.
I set my keys down on the counter, “How is she?”
Gen turned around slowly to look at me, her eyes glossy from tears and she bit her lip while shaking her head. “Not good. She’s torn her room apart and she refuses to talk to anyone. And the kids know something’s up and they’re worried.”
I nodded my head expecting as much. “Did you tell them?”
“No I was waiting for you and Shep, so we could tell them all together.” She said choking up as she spoke.
I pulled her into my arms, “I know baby, I know. It’s gonna be okay. We’re going to fix this.” I said while rubbing my hand in up and down strokes on her back. She sobbed on my shoulder, and I cried with her.
Once Gen and I had composed ourselves we called the kids to the living room. The three of them got settled on the couch, and Gen and I sat across from them but neither of us knew where to begin.
“Do you guys remember when mommy and I told you we wanted to grow our family?” I asked after a few minutes.
“Yeah,” They said in unison.
“And then Y/N came to live with us?” They nodded their heads once more. “Well she was only supposed to stay here for a short time, but we love Y/N so much we want her to stay with us and be a part of our family.”
“YES!!! Odette squealed in excitement. While I was glad to know the kids loved Y/N as much as we did, though I never had any doubts on it. The four of them blended nicely together and any outsider would believe they had grown up together. While I was happy to know they were ready to welcome her officially as their sister, it only broke my heart even further. They were going to take this as hard as Y/N did.
Gen moved over to sit next to her and to settle her down. She wrapped her arms around her to help brace and comfort her for the bombshell that was about to drop.
My lips moved into a thin line, and I gave them a small but sad smile. “I’m glad that you guys agree with us, unfortunately the state won’t let her stay with us anymore until we officially adopt her.” I could tell from the expression on their faces they didn’t understand what that meant but nevertheless, they could understand that something was about to happen. Their faces lost all excitement and fell a bit as they waited for me to explain further. “Y/N is leaving tomorrow. But mommy and I are going to work hard, and we won’t stop until we can bring her back home as soon as we can.”
Shep was the first to react. “No, I don’t want her to leave.” His voice broke as he spoke.
Gen reached her hand over and began rubbing his back. “Neither do we honey. Sadly it is out of our hands.”
“She’s leaving us?” Odette asked looking up to Gen, tears falling from her eyes.
I moved to crouch down in front of them. “Not by choice pumpkin. She’s upset about it too. She doesn’t want to leave you as much as you don’t want her to leave.”
“She’s gonna come back though right?” Tom asked trying to hide how upset he was.
“Yes!” I told them defiantly. Although I didn’t know if it was true I was determined to make it happen no matter how long it would take.
“When?” Shep asked with a sniffle.
I let out a deep sigh and grabbed his hand in mine giving it a comforting squeeze. “I don’t know. I hope in a week but no matter what I’m not gonna give up. I will not stop until she’s back here with us.”
Your POV
You stayed in your room for the rest of the night. You didn’t even come down when Jared called you down for dinner and when he came up to give you your dinner and tried to talk to you, you made sure to ignore him. When he came up he tried to urge you to come downstairs and to spend the time with the family, if not him and Gen then at least for the kids. They’re apparently downstairs crying because they don’t want you to leave them. He said it would probably be good for all of you if you spent your night together before you leave, but you didn’t care. Why should you care about how the kids felt when you felt like you were dying on the inside. Sure they would be heartbroken, but it would just be better for them if they would just accept what’s happening rather than delay the inevitable. Besides it was his fault the kids were so upset so you thought he deserved the consequence of his actions.
He kept spilling lies about how he loved you and if there was anything he could do to get you to stay he would do it in a heartbeat, but you didn’t believe a word he said. He sat in the room for nearly twenty minutes before he too gave up and left you in the isolation you were desperately craving. He didn’t leave though before he made the bed back up for you to sleep in tonight and as soon as he left you were quick to tear it apart once more.
You will never forgive yourself for letting your guard down, for loving them, and believing you had actually found a place here. How naive you were to think you had found a place to call home.
The Next Morning
You were woken up by Gen bright and early this morning. “Sorry to wake you Y/N but the foster agent will be here soon.” She had a saddened look on her face when she saw the blankets and the quilt lying on the floor and that you had slept on just the mattress and a pillow. But thankfully she didn’t say anything on the matter probably because she didn’t want to fight with you before you left. She probably wanted you to spend your last moments bonding with them. But the joke was on them because you didn’t plan on even speaking to any of them let alone looking at them.
“Are you sure you don’t want to take these with you? Gen asked as she picked up some of the things they had bought for you and held them out for you.
You stood up from the bed ignoring her outstretched hand, walking past her to the dresser, and grabbing the clothes you had left out to wear today. The shirt was old, faded, and ripping apart in places from years of wear, but it’s what you had.
Gen placed the items down on the bed, “Alright, it’s probably for the best anyways, less you have to lug back and forth. They will be here for you when you return.” She said matter of factly before leaving you, so you could get changed, picking up your bag on her way out to carry it down the stairs.
You rolled your eyes when you saw everyone down in the kitchen. You hoped you could just disappear out of their lives like you had never been in it, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen as they wanted to give you a big send off.
“Good morning Y/N, how did you sleep?” Jared asked. He stood up from his seat as soon as you entered the room, he looked horrible with bags under his eyes like he hadn’t slept all night. What was his problem you thought? He was getting rid of you just like he wanted.
You simply glared at him and move to grab something from the fridge to eat.
“We have French toast and bacon if you want.” Jared said gesturing to the table with the food on it.
You ignored him and grabbed a yogurt from the fridge. God knows you wouldn’t be eating nice when you went back home so you better get used to fending for yourself again.
You moved to the silverware drawer and grabbed a spoon and sat down at the counter away from the rest of the family.
“Y/N sit next to me.” Shep said as he pulled out the empty chair next to him. “I saved it for you.”
Looking up at him was a mistake. He was looking at you with sad and pleading eyes and it nearly broke your resolve. After all, he wasn’t responsible for his parents’ actions. But you weren’t going to break that easy. You shook your head and mumbled an “I’m fine,” before returning to your yogurt.
You all sat in silence for a brief moment until Odette finished eating, she grabbed something from beside her and came bouncing over to you. She placed the papers down in front of you and you saw that they were handmade cards saying goodbye, I love you, I’ll miss you, and so on.
“She spent all night working on them.” Gen said as she stood to your left watching you. “Tom and Shep too.”
You mumbled a quiet, “thanks.” But you didn’t mean it, you were just playing a role for the kids’ sake
Jared’s POV
Yesterday was one of the hardest days in my entire life between telling Y/N she had to leave and then telling the kids. I hoped with a little time to process things and constant reassurance from Gen and myself Y/N would understand that we really do love and care about her, but it seems the more time that passed the less she wanted to interact with any of us.
When Gen came down after talking to her last night she was crying because Y/N had screamed at her. She felt like she had failed as a parent, and I wasn’t feeling any different. She said Y/N was not only acting as she did when she first arrived here; scared, and detached, but now she has become a shell of her former herself. She moved and acted as if she was a robot, programmed without feelings, except for anger, that radiated off of her.
It was only two days ago that she was playing with the kids, laughing to the point we had to ask them to settle down as they were so wound up and now she was acting as if she never even met them.
I was hoping after a good night’s rest the anger she felt would dissipate and that we would be able to spend our last morning together as a family. But Y/N was acting as she was ready to leave us in the past. It broke my heart and only help my determination to fix this as soon as possible. As soon as Y/N left I planned on calling up the agency and giving them a piece of my mind.
Y/N seemed unimpressed by the cards the kids made her which disappointed me and by the way Gen’s face fell, her as well. The cards were the kid’s idea, but we had hoped that they could be the gesture Y/N needed to see how much we really care about her.
The rest of the morning was rough. We all tried to spend time with Y/N before she left but she wanted nothing to do with us. Gen and I took the hint and took a step back it was obviously her anger was directed at us. We hoped that by giving her space she would take the time to be with the kids while she could without having to worry about us.
Tom asked for help on the game they played on the iPad all the time, he said he got another level he couldn’t beat and needed her help, but she shrugged him off. She planted herself on the couch by the window watching and waiting for the car that would take her away.
It came sooner than any of us wanted, except Y/N of course who was more than ready to jump off the couch and head to the door as soon as we heard the knock.
“Hi,” said a woman in a bright cheery voice. “I’m Christine. I’m here to pick up Y/N Y/L/N and escort her back to her home in Minnesota.”
I cringe when she referred to the foster house as Y/N’s home. I cleared my throat, “Yes we were told to expect you.” I said shaking her hand. “She’s all ready just give us a minute.”
“Of course.”
When I turned around Y/N was already standing there shoes on, coat zipped up, and her bag in her hand. Looking behind her Tom, Shep, and Odette were standing there on the verge of crying.
I knelt down to her level and put my hands on her shoulders which she clearly didn’t like but right now I didn’t care, I needed her to understand. “I know you don’t believe us right now, but we love you so much and we can’t wait for the day you get to come home. Because I promise you, we will bring you home.” Tears were falling from my eyes. “You are my daughter.” She rolled her eyes in response. “You are my daughter,” I repeated, “You have been since the moment you stepped into this house and long before that. I’ll fix this. That I can promise you. I will make this right.”
She ignored me and looked over at my shoulder to Christine, “Can we go now?”
“Yeah, we better get going.” She said before looking at Gen and myself, “Sorry to interrupt this moment but we have a plane to catch.”
I nodded my head in understanding and stood up and Y/N pushed past me to the door.
However, Christine stopped her before she could head out the door. “What do you say Y/N?”
She turned around to look at us. Gen was holding Odette as she cried, Shep holding my hand crying too while Tom was fighting to hold back the tears.
“Bye.” She said in a detached tone before she headed outside.
We followed her out and stood on the porch as she placed her bag in the backseat. We all watched heartbroken as she climbed into the car and drive away.
A Christmas To Remember: Chapter Ten
Chapter 10
Pairing Jared x Foster Daughter Reader, Gen x Foster Daughter Reader
Word Count 2900ish
Warmings: Language, hurting reader, hurting Jared, reader feels betrayed.
The sunlight shining through your bedroom window into your eyes woke you up and you rolled over with a tired yawn. You just wanted to roll over and go back to bed, but you knew you should probably get up as there were things that needed to be done today and you figured you should probably help out with them. So with a sigh you crawled out of bed and made your way to the kitchen for breakfast.
As you passed through the living room you saw Odette and Arrow already up and watching Tangled on the tv, they were bouncing in their seats with exuberant energy which you were not ready for yet having just woken up. Arrow had spent the night here last night while Tom went to the Ackles house for a sleepover. Since tonight was New Year’s Eve and Gen and Jared were hosting a party they swapped houses for the night and Tom would come back when the Ackles came over for the party.
“GOOD MORNING!!!!” Odette shouted as she noticed you passing by and Arrow tried to copy her in an even higher pitched voice.
You cringed at their volume and gave a half-hearted ‘morning’ in return and continued on to the kitchen.
Gen was sitting at the counter with a pen in her hand and notepad in front of her while Jared sat across from her typing away on his laptop.
“Morning,” you greeted them and walked over to the fridge to grab something to eat.
Jared glanced at the clock, “Little late this morning,” he said with a teasing tone. You followed his glance to see it was nearly ten, but you simply shrugged in response. “Did you sleep good?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you want me to make you something?” Gen asked.
“No, I’m good.” You said as you decided to eat some yogurt as you weren’t really that hungry. You grabbed a spoon from the drawer and join the two at the counter sitting next to Jared. He immediately closed his laptop when you sat down and wrapped his arm around the back of your chair. “What are you working on?” You asked him before taking a spoonful of your yogurt.
“Just some things for work.”
You nodded and took another bite, “What about you, Gen?”
“I’m just making my last minute grocery list for the party later.”
“You’re going shopping?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I come with you?”
She stopped writing and looked up at you, “Is there something you need?”
“No, I just wanna spend some time with you out of the house and all. Is that okay?”
“That would be lovely.” She said with a smile
A half hour later you were walking up and down the supermarket’s aisles gathering supplies for the party. “Grab two of those, would you Y/N.” Gen asked you as you passed the sparkling cider. Apparently, it was a favorite of the kids and its special non-alcoholic drink served on celebrations such as this. You were looking forward to trying it later on tonight.
You grabbed one of each flavor and put them in the cart.
“Can I ask you a question?” Gen asked.
“Go ahead.” You said as you walked side by side with her down the aisle. “I know I kinda asked it this morning, but why did you want to come with me?”
“I don’t know. I guess it is because I remember me and my mom used to go shopping every Saturday together and I guess I just want to do that again. I can’t really explain it, it was like a bonding thing despite being such a mundane activity. And I guess I want to maybe start that with you, I feel like we never spend one on one time together outside the house. I thought it would be fun. I’m sorry if you wanted some alone time.”
“No don’t be sorry Y/N I will always appreciate the company. And I know what you’re talking about, Jared and I used to do all our weekly shopping together before we had kids, but afterwards life got in the way, one of us had to work or had we had other things. And it became harder when the kids came around, especially when they were really little, it became easier for one of us to do the shopping while the other stayed home with the kids. I would be glad for this to be our thing.” She said smiling at you.
“So who is all coming tonight?” You asked as Gen placed another item in the cart.
“Just a couple of our friends. The Ackles are coming over as you know then a couple of our old castmates Misha and Richard. And then Keegan from Jared’s new show. Though if you are worried about all the guests tonight I can assure you they are all close friends of ours and they know not to press you for questions. And hey same deal goes, if anyone bothers you let us know and we will happily kick them out. Just like we told you at Christmas. Your needs come first, always.”
“No, thank you, I’m fine. I was just wondering how many people are coming.” You told her even though you were a little bit worried about meeting a bunch of new people. “Is Misha and the other one from that horror show?”
“Yeah, we all go way back.”
You nodded your head in response, “That’s nice that you guys’ have made friends that you have known for years, and they have stayed with you.”
Gen sense the change in your tone. “You don’t have many friends back at the foster home?”
“More like any,” You mumbled, and Gen gave you a sadden look. “We mostly all keep to ourselves and it’s hard to really make friends anywhere when you’re moving around every four months or so.” You explained.
“It takes time to find true friends. When I was your age I had lot of friends, but they were only keeping me around for what I could do for them. When I fell down they were never there to pick me back up and I realized I didn’t want that in my life. It wasn’t until I was in college did I find real people I could count on.”
“I hope I don’t have to wait till then,” You said with a slight chuckle.
“Me too, sweetie.” Gen said as she wrapped an arm around you.
A half hour later you were back at the house and you and Gen carried what you could in on your first trip in. As you walked into the kitchen and placed the first bags down you found Jared where you left him. He was on the phone with someone and sounded frustrated.
“That was the whole point of this,” He groaned. His face fell further as the person on the line responded.
Gen placed her bags down and turned to you, “Y/N, Jared and I will bring in the groceries why don’t you run off and find something to do.”
You decided to head outside and play with Koda. You never were a dog person in the past, not that you had many encounters with dogs living in a group home. You weren’t necessarily afraid of them, but you made an effort to stay away from them in the rare opportunities you would cross paths. During your first week here you learned very quickly Arlo was okay, apparently because Golden Retrievers are a calm breed, but Koda still scared you. German Shepherds were always depicted on tv as violent police dogs that you wouldn’t want to cross. But over time you learned Koda was just a sweetheart who is full of energy and loves to play.
Jared POV
“What’s wrong?” Gen asked me as soon as Y/N left the room. I shook my head and looked at her with saddened eyes. Without a word said she knew what happened. I had been working on this for weeks now only for nothing to come out of it.
“Why?” She asked, her voice threatening to crack.
I shrugged not really knowing the answer myself. “It’s an extensive process.” I repeated the same jargon I had been given a thousand times.
“What are we gonna do?”
“We have to tell her.” I said with a sigh. “But this is not the end of that conversation.” I said determined. I watched Gen wipe a loose tear from her eye. “Come on,” I said placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go get the groceries unpacked and then we will break the news.”
She nodded her head and started making her way to the garage. I followed behind her until I heard a scream come from the backyard. I peered out the back window to see Y/N on the ground, Arrow and Odette on top of her while Koda was licking her face. She was laughing as she tried to get out from under them. It was a bittersweet sight, she fit in perfectly with the kids and was an amazing big sister to them. Which only made what was to come even harder.
Your POV
You tugged the toy rope out of Koda’s mouth and tossed it over to Arrow. She failed to catch it and then scrambled to pick it up before Koda could grab it. She snatched it just in time and tossed it off to Odette instantly in hopes that Koda will then go to O instead of jumping on herself.
Odette did the same tossing the rope back to you. You caught the rope and held it outstretch behind you with one hand and used the other to hold Koda back.
“Y/N can you come here for a few minutes.” Gen shouted from the back porch.
You tossed the rope as far as you could and Koda went barreling after it. “I’ll be back in a few minutes guys I’m gonna help Gen for a little bit.” You told the girls before heading in to help Gen with the groceries. When you walked in behind her you were surprised to see Jared leaning against the wall further down the hall. You were even more surprised when Gen didn’t turn into the kitchen.
“Aren’t we going to unload the groceries?” You asked.
“No Jared helped me unpack them, thank you for wanting to help out though.”
“Yeah, no problem.” You told her. “So what did you need?”
“Jared and I want to talk to you about a few things.”
“Okay,” You said simply, you figured they wanted your input for the party tonight. You weren’t sure how much help you could be, but you were willing to try.
You hopped down on one of the bean bags on the floor in the living room and Arlo took that as an invitation to come over, he crawled into your lap, and you began petting his head while Jared and Gen sat down on the couch across from you.
“So what’s up?” You asked enthusiastically.
It was quiet for a few seconds as Jared and Gen shared a glance you couldn’t read.
“Do you remember why you came here?” Gen said almost unsure.
You furrowed your eyebrows in response, that was not the question you expected them to ask. “Um, yeah to spend the holidays with you. The program and all that.”
“Well, the program isn’t actually what you think it is. The reason why it was created is because they wanted to try and promote adoption and foster rates. So the hope was by having a program where children would spend a month,” He trailed off a bit when he said that, and you turned your head in confusion not really understanding why he was telling you this. “Their hope was during the child’s time in the home, the temporary guardians would want to adopt the child.” Jared rambled. He opened and closed his mouth trying to think of what to say next.
“That wasn’t our intention though,” Gen said placing her hand on Jared’s. “We initially sought out to adopt but we were encouraged to do this program first. We wanted to surprise you on Christmas with adoption papers, but we have been having trouble getting the proper approvals.”
You stopped petting Arlo and let him lay his head on your lap. You could now see that Gen and especially Jared were distraught. Your heart began to race, why were they telling you this? What does it all mean?
“I’ve been working non-stop for weeks now trying to get approved but they rejected me again today.”
You sat silently once more waiting for them to go on, but they didn’t. “Oh-kaaayyy?” You said after a few minutes.
“The reason we need to talk to you is because you are wanted back in your group home tomorrow. Now..”
You cut Gen off before she could finish, “WHAT!?” You asked sitting up pushing Arlo from your lap in the process.
Jared looked so heartbroken at your response, “As you were probably told before you moved in here, you were always supposed to leave tomorrow. But we were going to adopt you before then so you could stay with us however we can’t get the approvals and they won’t let you stay here until we get approved.”
One month. One month. You knew that. Kyle told you that you would move out on January 1st and move back home to Minnesota.
Home. That sounded weird now, you never really saw your home as Ms. Shaw’s and you don’t consider this your home either, but yet at the same time you were starting tot that is until now at least. Ms. Shaw’s was a place you ate and slept, but here this is where you felt alive.
Why did you let yourself forget? Why did you let yourself get attached? If you only remained the quiet girl you always are you wouldn’t be hurting right now.
“You don’t want me anymore.” You said flatly, your voice had lost all its cheer and was replaced with a cold tone.
Gen slid off the couch and onto her knees in front of you and place her hands on your shoulders. “No, sweetie we do. We love you so much and we want you to stay here with us, we really do. But it’s out of our hands at the moment.
Jared was now on the floor next to her. “Believe me Y/N I’m not going to stop, we’re not going to stop,” He said placing one hand in Gen’s and the other on your arm, “We’re not going to stop calling them, emailing them, whatever it is I have to do until you can come home to us. I’ll march down to the office and kick the supervisor’s door in if that gets it done.”
You were looking at them but at the same time you weren’t. As they looked into your eyes they saw nothing reflecting back in them. “I have to pack.” It was partially a statement but also a question.
Gen ran her hand up in down your arm, “Y/N honey are you listening, we are going to fix this. We are going to bring you home.”
You had been trying to keep your emotions at bay not wanting to let them see you weak but enough was enough. If they didn’t want you that was fine but there was no reason to lie to you about it, this getting the proper approval nonsense. It was just something foster parents say to make you feel better as they kicked you out the door before they welcomed in your replacement. You weren’t the right fit for their family, fine, whatever, you’ve heard it before, but they could at least have the common decency to tell you the truth.
You pushed them off of you. “Enough!” You shouted at them before storming out of the room and up the stairs. You were fuming with anger; you want to hit something or throw something at the wall.
You slammed your bedroom door as loud as you possibly could, but that wasn’t enough to quell the beast inside, so you marched over to your bed, correction their bed, and ripped the pillows off of it throwing them against the wall, and then doing the same with the quilt and sheets.
Your heart was beating rapidly in your chest and your breath was quickened by your anger. You kicked the blankets on the floor. You then swiped all of the books that had been sitting on the dresser and watch them crash to the floor.
The only thing that pulled you from your rage was the gentle knock that came to your door and the quiet voice behind it.
“Y/N.” Shep said through the door, “Are you alright?” He had clearly heard your outburst and was coming to see what was wrong. This wasn’t like you. Besides your first day here when you still adjusting to your new ‘home’ you had been so calm. Even if he or his sibling annoyed you, you tried your best not to yell at them and rather simply asked for some time alone.
“Go away, Shep” You shouted through the door. You tried to hold back your anger for his sake, he didn’t deserve it.
“What’s wrong.”
“I said go away!” You shouted and pounded your fist against the door. “Go talk to your parents, I’m sure they have a lot to tell you.” You spat.
A Christmas to Remember: Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Pairing Jared x Foster Daughter Reader, Gen x Foster Daughter Reader
Word Count 6000ish
Warmings: Language
** Note this chapter has NOT been edited. I need to get this up before Christmas so I’m posting it now and will edit it later **
Authors note: As far as I have researched Gen's father name is unknown so for the purpose of this story, I am naming him, David. If anyone knows his actual name feel free to let me know.
This is unedited.
_____________________________________________________________________________
You tossed and turned in your bed for what seemed like hours. You with how anxious you were the chances of you getting to sleep would be slim. This is exactly how you felt the night before you moved down here, you were so nervous about flying down, getting shoved into a new home, meeting all these new people, and questioning what the month ahead would bring you that you couldn't fall asleep despite how tired you were.
You couldn't sleep so you laid awake staring at the wall wishing you could fall asleep until a gentle knock came to your door.
Without any acknowledgement from you the door creaked open and Gen poked her head in. "I figured you might be awake." She said when she saw you sit up. "Come on." She said motioning for you to follow her.
Confused you did as she asked following her down the stairs and to the living room. She had a blanket sitting on thr couch and the tv on. "You nervous about tomorrow?" She asked as she wrapped the blanket around you.
"Yeah."
"I figured you looked like a deer in headlights when Jared reminded you. Tomorrow will go fine," She reassured you. "Jared and I both reminded our parents to not bombard you with questions and if anyone makes you uncomfortable let us know immediately. We want you to have a great Christmas and if they are interfering with that neither Jared nor I will hesitate to kicked our parents out."
"No, please don't."
"We will if it comes to it. I meant what I said the other day Y/N, Jared and I will always prioritize our kids needs first. Sure they might be made, but they will forgive us in time."
You simply nodded your head not sure of what to say.
"Want to watch my favorite Christmas movie with me?" She asked changing the subject.
"Uh sure."
"Good, that's kinda why I pulled you out of bed. Hopefully the movie will take your mind off of everything and tire you out so you can get so sleep tonight."
She pushed play on the tv but then stood up, "I'm gonna make us some hot coco when the title screen comes up just push play." She said ha ending you the remote.
Shortly after she left the title screen of The Polar Express came up. You vaguely remember this movie it had been so long since you last watched it and you were so little at the time, a little bit younger than Odette. The only thing you could recall about the movie was the creepy man who was on top of the train, at least you thought.
You pressed play and the opening sequence played with a boy a little younger than you sleeping in bed.
"Have you ever seen this movie before?" Gen asked as she reentered the room and handed you a cup of hot chocolate. "Careful it's hot." She warned as you took the cup.
"Yeah I have. I watched it with my parents one December when I was like two. I don't think I have seen it since, I honestly don't remember anything that happens."
"That kinda nice, getting to watch a good movie again like it's the first time."
You both curled up on the couch and were content watching the movie, the only lights in the room being the from the tv and the Christmas tree.
You couldn't help but laugh when the hot chocolate song played, and you subconsciously curled in closer to Gen as the main character walked into the boxcar with all the unwanted toys. Now that it was playing you remember watching it as a kid and being absolutely terrified off it and being older didnt make you less afraid of it now. Gen was happy to wrap her arms around you as the scene played.
You were halfway through the movie, your hot coco all gone, the blanket wrapped around both you and Gen as you laid your head on her shoulder. Gen was right the movie was tiring you out and there were several times you felt yourself drift off until a character would shout, or the music picked up and you opened your eyes to see what was happening.
You didn't even know Jared was still up until he walked in. You had seen his shadow before you saw him and you nearly jumped out of your skin, completely throwing you out of your sleepy state.
Gen's tighter around you and she jolted up too as she was unsure what had spooked you and was going into full mama bear mode.
"Sorry guys it's just me." Jared said as he came to sit down next to you. "The Polar Express huh. Are you enjoying it Y/N?"
"Yeah," you simply said not wanting to miss anything that was happening.
"Look I want to apologize if it seemed like I was short tempered with you earlier. There was something happening at ..." he said before he stopped and hesitated. He cleared his throat and then continued on, "At work. I was trying to get it together and it just wasn't, but I shouldn't have spoken to you like I did. I'm sorry."
"Its alright even parents can get overwhelmed and need some time to themselves to figure this out."
"I love how understanding you are, but I hate that life has made you act older than you are."
"It's alright." You said shrugging. "I'm actually not, I'm usually very closed off and self-absorbed. It just something about you, both of you, I don't feel the need to carry all the hatred and the weight I used to. You may not believe it but being distant is so hard and heavy on me."
"Well I'm glad you feel like you can be yourself when your here." Jared said smiling. "Mine if I join you?"
"Not at all," you said while holding the blanket out so he could crawl in.
Soon the three of you were curled up on the couch together watching the movie. Despite your tired eyes you managed to stay awake for the rest of the movie. It was a struggle to keep your eyes open but you were so engaged in the movie now you didn't want to miss the ending.
You felt goosebumps and touched as the end, "Though I've grown old the bell still rings for me as it does for all who truly believe."
Jared got up to turn the movie off while you stayed curled up against Gen, as the credits played you felt yourself dozing off.
"What did you think Y/N?" Jared asked.
" 'S good," you slurred.
Gen looked down at you, "Looks like it's time for someone to go to bed."
" 'S fine here."
"Come on, I'll take you up." Jared said pulling the blanket off of you.
If you weren't so tired you probably wouldn't have let him pull it away, but you were basically out at this point.
3rd person POV
Jared carefully lifted you up in his arms and an uncontrollable smile grew across his face when you curled closer into him.
Gen folded up the blanket and came over to look at her daughter curled up in her husband's arms, the two looked adorable and she quickly snapped a picture.
"We did good." She said patting Jared on the shoulder as they brought Y/N up to her room.
"Yes, you did," he clarified.
"Don't say that."
"It's true Gen. I have been detached and short with ever since I got that damn phone call, you were the one who saw she need and was there for her."
"I wasn't the only one she snuggled on the couch with. And I'm not the one whose arms she is currently curled up in." She said with a smirk. "You're a good father for her Jared." She said reassuring.
Jared nodded his head and push your cracked door open with his toe. "We both are."
Gen pulled your covers down and Jared set down on the bed and they pulled the covers up and over you tucking you in.
"Did you get answer?" Gen asked.
Jared gave her a look and then motioned for them to leave the room. He didn't want to take a chance that Y/N would here the conversation. He made sure that the door was completely closed before he answered her question. "Yeah, a big fat no."
"Really why? I mean wasn't that the whole point of this all."
"It is too soon to process this request." Jared said repeating the same speech then have given him a thousand times.
Gen let out a disappointed sigh. "I really wanted to give that to her tomorrow."
"Me too." Jared said in a disheartened tone.
"Should we tell her tomorrow anyways, you know just in case."
"I don't know," Jared said rubbing the back of his head. "I don't know how she will react and if doesn't go through I will feel so guilty." He said with a sign. "Come on we better head to bed ourselves, god knows the munchkins are gonna wake us up bright and early."
Christmas morning
Your POV
One minute you were in a deep slumber the next you were being tremble and jumped on.
"Come on Y/N, let's go let's go, let's go!" Shep shouted as he nearly bounced on you.
"Guys it's too early." You grumbled trying to pull the blankets back up, but you were unsuccessful as they kids pulled them back down.
"It's never too early on Christmas." Tom said as he pulled on your arm.
"Come on Y/N there's presents." Odette shouted in your ear.
"Alright, alright I'm coming," you grumbled as you slowly sat up.
Three sets of footsteps thundered down the stairs while yours slowly followed behind them.
They stopped in the living to marvel at the Christmas tree, it was twinkling with lights like it has been since it was put up, but now there is boxes and boxes wrapped in shiny decorative paper.
Shep stepped closer to look at the presents and was no doubt tempted to snoop at his gifts that is until Jared snuck up behind him grabbed him and turned him upside down as he tickled him.
" Ah, ah ,ah. No presents for naughty kids who snoop at the gifts."
Shep sinply laughed in response until Jared put him down.
"Come on guys, it's time for breakfast." He said trying to nudge the kids away from the tree and to the kitchen.
You were the first to the kitchen as you didn't hold the same excitement the others did.
"Good morning, Y/N, Merry Christmas!" Gen greeted you.
"Merry Christmas!" You said as you sat down at the table as the others entered the room.
"How did you sleep last night?"
"Great until I was woken up."
"Yeah these munchkins will wake up anyone on Christmas morning without a carw." Jared said ruffling each kid's hair.
Gen place a plate down in front of you there was eggs, bacon, and toast shaped like a Christmas tree on it. "I hope you like it Y/N, it's a tradition in our house.
"Its cute." you said with a smile. "How did you get it shaped like this?"
"I used cookie cutters, it's something my mom used to do when I was a kid."
"I like it."
You began eating your breakfast as a family.
"What's was Christmas like with your family?" Odette asked.
You watched both Gen's and Jared's eyes widen with concern, they were afraid you would freak at O's innocent question or get angry. You tend not to talk about your parents anymore because reflecting on how good your life once was just makes living in a foster home harder. You found it's easy to live and accept the misfortunates that comes with being an orphan if you forget the past.
"Not so much different from yours I imagine. I used to wake up just as eager and excited as you guys did this morning. I'd pull my parents out of bed just as you guys did me," you said with a chuckle. "We'd eat breakfast which usually was cinnamon rolls and my when my Nana and Papa were still alive, they used to come over and we'd open presents. Afterwards, I played with my new toys while lunch was prepared, we ate lunch, and we usually always got a lot of snow during week of Christmas, so we went out an built a snowman together."
"OOO cinnamon buds." Shep said and you laughed because that's the part of your story he focused on.
"Yeah, warm and gooey cinnamon buds." You said with a smile.
"Will have to get them next time." Gen said, glad to see you were okay with talking about your past. She wanted today to be a happy day for you.
In the netxt few minutes you all finished your breakfast until Koda started barking and a a new voice shouted through the house. "HO, HO, HO MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
"Grandpa G!" The kids shouted and ran off towards the front door.
"That would be my parents Gerald and Sherri," Jared explained and left to greet his parents.
"Oh," you said suddenly worried.
"You'll be fine Y/N. Go out in meet them when you are ready." Gen said as she began to clean up breakfast."
You took a deep breath and nodded your head. You could hear the kids out in the entry way as they greeted their grandparents, but you figured you would take Gen's advice and head out in a few minutes after you finished your glass of orange juice.
After swallowing the last sip, you steady yourself for the no doubt awkward encounter you were about to have. You had no idea what to do when you met them. You know Jared and Gen expected you to at least make an attempt to get to know them, even though they both promise that if their parents made you feel uncomfortable in any way, they would kick their parents' out without hesitation. The problem is you're not very good with new people, hell it took you so long establish trust with Gen and Jared, but you figured your normal standoff approach wouldn't fly today being Christmas after all.
You stood at the end of the hallway; half hidden in the doorway watching Jared embrace his parents, although you couldn't see his face, he seemed happy. He wrapped his father in a hug giving him a firm pat on the back.
"Dad so glad you could make it, Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas to you too Jared!" He said giving Jared the same pat on the back.
"Come here sweetie," His mother said stepping away from the kids and over to Jared, "It's so good to see you honey. Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas to you to mom!" Jared said as he wrapped his mother in a gentle hug.
You watched as Jared's dad took off his hat and coat and gave a bag of gifts, he carried in to Thomas to put under the tree and as the kids rushed off eager to examine the new gift boxes and wondering what could be wrapped inside you began to step out from your hiding spot and slowly made your way down the hall but still staying back.
"How was your drive?" Jared asked as he hung up his mother's coat.
"Good." Jared's Father said simply.
"I don't think I have ever seen the thruway so empty," His mother said in agreement. "Made the trip shor....oh, hi." She said as she spotted you.
Jared turned around and smiled when he saw you. He held his arm out indicating for you to come closer. "Mom, dad this is our daughter Y/N. Y/N these are my parents, Gerald and Sherri."
You stopped next to Jared and gave the two a small smile, "Nice to meet you," you said in a soft voice.
"It's so nice to finally meet you, Y/N." Sherri said with a warm and inviting smile, but that wasn't enough for her to win you over yet.
'Fake it," You told yourself, 'For Jared's sake.' You gave her a small smile in return not really sure how to respond.
"Jared's told us about you, we're happy you have to chance to spend Christmas with us." He held out his hand for to shake but you'd rather keep as much distance as you could from him and his rather large muscles.
You stepped closer to Jared looking for comfort, "Me too."
Gerald held out his hand for a little longer, but he eventually took the hint you weren't going to shake his hand and he slowly pulled it away, his eyebrows furrowed in response and though you don't know him well enough yet to read him, you could tell he was upset at your actions, or better yet the lack of.
"Where's Gen?" Sherri asked interrupting the awkward silence that had fallen on the room.
"She's in the kitchen finishing cleaning up after breakfast." Jared told her. "We better head on into the living room before those three rascals decide to start Christmas without us."
You all headed into the living room and the adults began making small talk while you sat silently only speaking when you were asked a question. You kept your answers short and simple not ready to give away your whole life story. Gen joined a few minutes later and her parents arrived shortly after that, and you had to to repeat the awkward greeting you had with Jared's parents.
As Gen left to take something her mom had given her to the kitchen while her parents got settled in the living room and the kids eagerly unloaded the new bag of gifts and placed them under the tree.
"How old are you Y/N?" Gen's mom, Camille asked.
"I'm fourteen."
"That would make you a freshman in high school, how that going?" her father, David inquired.
"Um... fine I guess."
"What kinda answer is that?" Gerald asked a little too harshly. You could tell you are not going to get along with him. From what you can see he seems like a very traditional man who expects the people he's speaking to, to maintain eye contact with him, speak loud and clearly, and to give full answers which isn't how you speak apparently, espicically with new people.
"Well, I taught in the foster care system." You said simply. You thought that would explain the rest but due to the blank stares you were receiving it apparently didn't. "High school in foster care is vastly different from actual high school."
"How so." Sherri asked.
"Well, I don't go to school, a tutor comes to us but it's not like home schooling either. We have lessons twice a week, one for math and one for English and we are taught whatever the tutor feels like teaching on a given day."
You watched everyone's eyes widen in concern. "So, you're not taught science or history?" Camille asked.
You shook your head in response.
"And there's not even a set cicrulum for the subjects you are taught?" Gen asked, this is the first time you had spoken about your schooling, and she was as much intrigued as her parents.
"Nope."
"How can they do that?" David asked. "The state monitors and facilitates every other child's education whether it be public school or home school why is school in the foster care any different. Why is the state not devoting resources to the education of foster children."
"There too busy trying to find a place to put us and all funds for the foster care system is used up on trying to pay for meals and clothes." You said blankly.
"Well that's not right." David grumbled.
You put your lip in a straight line not at all fazed.
"Mom can we open presents now?" Shep whined. He and his siblings had been trying to remain patient while you all talked but they were nearly bouncing in their seat and the longer your conversation went on and more anzy they got.
Gen looked to Jared and the two had a silent conversation and she nodded her head. "Why don't you guys start with your stockings."
No sooner did she get the words out they had leapt up and raced over to the mantle to grab their stockings. A small smile broke out across your face as you watched them, they were so excited as they pulled items out of their stockings and ripped the paper off of them to reveal the gifts they had been given. You could see the magic of the seasons when you watched them, and you imagined a younger version of yourself acting just as enthusiastic, but those days were long gone.
Jared had got up and grabbed a gift bag from under the tree and held it out for you. "This is yours Y/N, sorry it's not in a trandiontal stocking."
"It's fine, it was nice of you to think of me." After the Ackles Christmas you had and how close you have gotten to them lately, you knew they wouldn't leave you out today. But you figured you would be included in when they had moved on to the presents under the tree, you didn't expect to get your own stocking to unwrap.
Your stocking was filled with small gifts, they weren't personalized at all, but you would enjoy them, nonetheless. They had given you several things of candy and chocolates. Some fuzzy socks, Chapstick, perfume, and nail polish amougst other things.
"Thank you, Jared, Gen."
"You're welcome." Gen said with a smile.
You put all your gifts back in the bag expect for (your favorite candy bar) which you eagly dug into.
Jared laughed in responses, "How the candy bar Y/N?"
"Excellent. Your twenty questions game paid off."
"Hey, ice breakers are a great way to get to know new people in a short amount of time, we do it all the time when joining a new cast."
As you moved on to the gifts under the tree Gen picked out the first one and gave it to Shep and a routine was started. The person who opened the last gift had to pick the next gift with the exception that they could not pick a gift for themselves. Which upset Odette when she decided to pick an interestingly wrapped gift and then found out it was for her.
You unwrapped lotion that you liked the smell of when you went into Bath and Body Works, a set of fancy pens along with several new word search books. You laughed when you saw them, when Jared promised to get you more books than you could do, he wasn't kidding. You also unwrapped the sweatshirt you had wanted so badly the day you had gone shopping but didn't say anything. In fact, most of your gifts came from your shopping day, apparently, they had been keeping an eye on things you had interest in but didn't say anything about. It explains why Jared or Gen kept disappearing that day, they were going back to get your presents without you finding out.
Each of the kids unwrapped several new toys and clothes and a gift from you. Though they technically weren't from you, you had Gen a couple days ago to pick out their gifts for you. Tom got a new game he could play outside with, something sporty that probably involved a lot of running, Shep got large artist set with several crayons, markers and colored pencils, and Odette got a dress up set. Each kid seemed happy with their gifts and ran over to give you a hug and thank you, and you mouthed a thank you to Gen.
Jared's parents got you a purse while Gen's parents got you a $50 gift card to a clothing store in the mall. You made sure you had a warm and inviting smile on your face when you thanked them.
Everything was going good until Shep pulled the last gift out from under the tree. Actually, it wasn't a gift at all but a letter. Seeing as you didn't have a dollar to your name you couldn't exactly go out and buy Jared and Gen a gift, but they had done so much for you, and you wanted to give them something. You wrote the letter yesterday after coming home from Jensen's house.
Jared and Gen huddled together reading the letter together, silently which you were thankful for.
Jared and Gen,
Merry Christmas! Over the last month you have done so much for me I thought the least I could do in return was to give you this.
I don't know why you made the choice you did, to welcome a stranger into your house but I'm thankful you did. In all honesty, when Kyle told me that I would be moving and why I was less than pleased which based on my attitude during my first week here I'm sure you knew. But no matter how cold and cruel I was to you, no matter how much I pushed you away, you never let me go. You were resilient dealing with my rudeness and my attitude every day. It's not easy for me to trust anyone anymore but little by little you got me to open up to you and learn to trust you.
Words cannot describe how thankful and grateful I am to you both. It's been a long time since I was happy, truly happy, but in the time, I have spent you all I been able to feel joy and happiness again. After my parents died, I thought my life was over despite still being alive but being you and your family has felt like I'm actually living again.
Your hearts are filled with love, kindness, and generosity. And you only goal in this world is to spread those to people in need of them like me.
Thank you for taking a chance on me and loving me I will always be grateful for everything you have done for me.
Love
Y/N
When they had finished with your letter both Gen and Jared were in tears and wrapped you in a tight hug. Nearly a month ago being this close to them would have scared the life out of you but now you felt like there was no safer place you could be.
"Thank you, Y/N." Gen, said between the tears, and you began crying as well.
It took several minutes for you all to compose yourselves and busied yourself by cleaning up the loose wrapping paper that hadn't made it to the trash bag and taking care of the boxes the gifts were wrapped in. Meanwhile Tom, Shep, and Odette ran off to play with their new toys.
"Are you saving these boxes?" You asked Gen after you gathered them all up.
"No most of them I used from my Amazon orders. You can take them out to the recycling."
"Alright," you said and gathered the boxes up to take them to garage. You couldn't carry all of them in your arms at once so you gathered what you could carry and headed out. You threw them in the recycling bin and turn to go back for the rest before the garage door open and Gerald came out with the rest of the boxes.
"Thanks,"
"No problem."
You stepped forward to head back into the house, but he blocked your path. "I want to thank you for sharing everything about your life with us, I know it must not be easy for you to talk about."
"No, it's not, but I'm learning not to be so guarded. After all your Jared's family you kinda have a right to know so of it."
"Can I ask you a personal question?"
"Uh, sure I guess."
"How long have you been on your own?"
"Four years, my parents died when I was ten."
"How did they die?"
"Car accident."
"Were you in the car too."
"No, I was at school at the time."
"I'm glad you weren't in the car at the time. But I'm sorry you have to go through all that and everything else you've had to deal with these past four years."
You simply shrugged in response not knowing what to say.
"I'm sorry if I scared you earlier or just now. Jared told us we need to be careful about how we react or what we do as our actions can be interpreted differently to someone who has gone through as much as you have."
"It's okay. I'll admit I was a little concerned earlier, but I figured I would just see how things played out. Jared and Gen both promised that if anything happen, they would... well." You hesitated not sure if you should tell him his son planned on kicking him out if they made you feel uncomfortable.
"He promised to put you first." Gerald finished for you.
"Yeah," you said with a smile. "He really cares about his family and their needs."
"That includes you too."
"I know. It's just I've never met someone who cares about family so much. I don't think my parents would do the same if the roles were reversed."
"Ah you never know; people can surprise you sometimes."
"My point is your son is a really good person and family is important to him. He's been so kind to me even when I've been less than grateful, I know I have you and Sherri to thank for that. You raised him to be the wonderful man he is."
Gerald smiled, "We can't take all the credit some of it him. Believe me there are times Sherri and I have wondered how he turned out so great, better than us honestly."
"I don't think so I mean I don't know you, but I know your son, and I believe you are just as amazing as he is."
Gerald smiled, "Come on, they're probably wondering where we are."
He wrapped his arm around your shoulder and the two of you back into the house together. The smile on Jared's face when he saw you so close to his father, happy and smiling, brought a wide smile to his face. "There you guys are we were getting ready to send out the search party for you guys."
"Y/N and I were just getting to know each other."
"Oh!" Jared said with a smile.
"Yeah, got to say you've got an amazing daughter here." Gerald said as he ruffled your hair.
"I know." Jared said smiling at you wider and you returned it.
You were glad to see him so happy. He's been feeling so stressed out lately about what you weren't sure it seemed to be more than just work, but nonetheless you were glad to see his happy and free smile on his face with nothing holding him down.
A little while a later you had lunch where you got to know Gen's parents better and then afterwards you and the kids went outside to play with Tom's new toy. As you expected it had a lot of running involved. Several things were spread out in the yard and then you had to follow the games directions on which obstacle to run to first what task to complete and so on within a time limit. Tom seemed to love it, but it wasn't your cup of tea and by two rounds you were tired.
"Can guys come in for a second." Camille shouted from the back porch and the kids all raced off to meet her while you followed behind.
When you walked in there was a bunch of craft supplies on the kitchen counter. "What's all this?" You asked looking over the supplies.
"Well, we to include some of your Christmas traditions in our Christmas, unfortunately we don't have any snow, but we improvised, and we have the right materials to make a snowman." Gen explained.
You raised an eyebrow and smirked "Alright, so how do we."
"Well, we got balloons, white yarn and tape. All we have to do is blow up the balloons and then wrap the yarn around them until we can't see the balloon anymore and then tape the bottom, middle and head together."
"Cool, a little DIY snowman."
"Exactly." Jared said.
(A.N For those who need a visual)
It a few minutes for the project could get started but once you worked out the kinks you all were working on your snowmen. Gen and Shep made one, Jared and Odette worked together to make one, Tom worked on his with Gerald and Sherri, and you did yours with David and Camille.
Once your snowmen were complete Gen grabbed some winter accessories for them to were.
You placed a scarf around your snowman's neck just as the oven went off.
"What's that?" Odette asked.
Jared grabbed a potholder and opened the oven, "Remember at breakfast Y/N told us her family's tradition was to eat cinnamon buds on Christmas morning. Well, we figured they'd still be gone even if they're not for breakfast." Jared said as he pulled them out of the oven.
"How?" You began.
"I texted my mom at breakfast asking her to pick some up on their way if they could." Gen explained.
"They weren't easy to find with a lot of business closed for the holiday, but we manage to find one convenience store open." Camille said.
"Thank you for taking the time to find them." You said.
Sherri poured the icing over the buds once they were cool enough and handed the first one to you which you eagearly bit in.
"How is it?" Jared asked.
You closed your eyes enjoying the sweet taste, "Perfect." You hummed.
Later around 3 both Jared's and Gen's parents had left to go to celebrate Christmas with thier other kids, you were in your room working one one of your new puzzle books when a knock came to your door.
"Come in." You said as you circled another word.
"Hey," Jared said as he walked in. "How are you doing?"
"I'm good, you?" You said putting your book down.
"I'm good. How's the book?"
"It's harder, but in a good way. The words aren't as easy for me to find but I like the challenge."
"Good."
"Did you need something?"
"Yeah I wanted to ask you a question and I want you to be honest with me."
'Oh..kay." You said unsure.
"How was your Christmas? Did you have a good time, is there something else we should have done, something else we can do still?"
"No everything was perfect. I had a great time; it was just like Christmas when I was a kid if not better."
"Oh yeah." Jared said intrigued.
"Yeah, I never had siblings, so it was nice to go out and play with them, today of all days. And although I don't feel the magic of Christmas as I used to, I can feel it through them. Christmas was amazing even before you went out of your way to bring my Christmas traditions to your family." You said smiling at your hand made snowman on your desk.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I had a great time. Thank you, Jared!"
"You're welcome!" Jared said smiling. "And hey Christmas isn't over yet, the kids were asking us if we could watch the Grinch, want to join."
"I'd love to!"
________________________________________________________________
Sorry this chapter is so late guys; I've been working at an internship, and it has been completing draining on me, so I hardly had any time to write. I debate waiting on waiting till next Christmas to post this but decided not to since it's just two chapters (one Christmas and one new year's) and the rest of the story take place throughout Jan/Feb.
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are having a Happy New Year.
Thanks for your continued support and means a lot!