A very young Amelia and her wheelchair sat in a sterile corridor, there were hospital beeps and bussel all around and it smelled like it does. In front of her, behind a closed door, the sounds of muffled voices coming through. Amelia was smiling, the doctor had been hopeful and funny, she had used a squeaky toy hammer to check her knee, Amelia had even gotten to use it herself on the doctor.

The sounds stopped, the door handle moved and Amelia looked up with big pecan eyes. A man who had asked her to call him dad came out first, he was not smiling, he only quietly moved to behind her starting removing the brakes, her mom came after, also quiet. From her office Amelia saw the doctor wave before her 'parents' rolled her away. In the car later a sudden discussion broke the quiet. Amela, being young, didn't understand any of the arguing. Her mom had cried though she did remember that. 

A week later she never saw those people again. Amelia didn't mind, her life was a blur at this point and there already was another couple appearing before her, leaning down smiling saying hi, telling her they were her new parents Amelia smiling back.

Then they too got told about the insurance of the adoption service. How it didn't cover her leg, how they would have to pay for it or wheelchair proof their entire lives. The house, the car, the school.

Amelia then saw the smile turn on her new parent, saw hopelessness set in. Then she never saw that woman again.

It's not like they hadn't known, they knew she was in a wheelchair during the entire process, but they had also been told the leg was fixable, that she could after some work get out of it. Just never the price.

An unknown amount of time later. Well two years, but it feels horribly sad to mention that.

Inside a parked car staring into the sunscreen mirror Fran Locklear was testing eye-patches. Looking like a timid pirate she turned to Ember.

        "What do you think?"

Ember stared at her.

        "It's horrible, where did you even find that? Take it off."

        "Mary got it for me, do I have to? I really don't want to scare her."

        "She's an orphan, she's not going to get scared by scars. And what if? Are you going to keep that patch on forever? Start this new relationship off with a lie? And never tell her?"

As she removed the eye-patch Fran did a little anxiety sigh.

        "It's going to be your fault if she cries."

Ember grabbed her hands.

        "Fran, she's about to get the two best moms in the country, of course she's going to cry. Now c'mon we're going to be late."

Ember let go of her hands and turned, stepping out of the car. Fran meanwhile felt her legs lock up.

        "Ember I, I can't move."

Ember stepped around the car opening Fran's door and again took her hands, maybe needing to hold them a little herself.

        "Fran, this was your idea, I was fine with both having a donor or an IUI, But you said: 'No! I want to adopt!' And now here we are. So please muster up some courage for your future daughter."

        "But what if she hates me?"

Ember squeezed, the way she had squeezed during the month after Fran had found out about her own mom, the way she had done as Fran slowly realized she was falling in love with her.

        "Then we deal with it when that time comes. Now hurry up, if we are late she might actually hate us."

Fran's worst nightmare, she immediately jumped out of the car. Still holding hands they started walking down a lovely sunny garden path. Ahead of them, two people were waiting, a man holding a clipboard. And sitting in a wheelchair a tiny little six year old Amelia with brown hair looking towards them.

Receiving that look Fran felt her feet slow down, saw herself disappear more and more behind Ember. Ember meanwhile feeling it in the back of her shoes getting stepped on, turned and whispered.

        "Is this really how you want her first impression of you to be?"

No, but shit she was nervous! But no! No lies Only truth! And strength! and love! Fran swallowed gathered courage and 'stepped up'. 

She stopped in front of the wheelchair, Ember stopping by her side giving her hand one more squeeze. Meanwhile the man walked away giving them privacy. Having herself one more breath Fran got down to eye level with nutty brown large eyes.

        "Hi."

Amelia responded, no smile but she said hi. Fran nodded and continued.

        "I'm Fran, your new mom. N, nice to meet you... "

Still no reaction, meanwhile having said those words Fran had herself a deep breath and no lies! She was going to be an honest mom!

        "My mom's dead as well."

Amelia's eyes grew.

Ember immediately pulled Fran away and whispered.

        "Fran! Fuck sake! Don't mention her dead parents!!"

        "I'm sorry! But you told me to not have any secrets!"

Amelia watched them argue. Her expression sank. They both instantly got quiet. Ember hissed.

        "Do better!"

Fran nodded and went back down on her knees, her bear necklace falling out of her jacket. And green sparkly malachite suddenly took up Amelia's entire interests. Fran grabbed it and held it out.

        "You like this? You can hold it if you want."

Amelia reached for it, lifting it up her entire mouth becoming an O.

        "It's a bear fetish. For fortitude and healing."

As Amelia kept inspecting Ember hissed again

        "Fran please call it a pendant, don't say fetish."

Fran meanwhile kept speaking, impressing herself into Amelia's mind.

        "My grandma gave it to me after my...."

Fran glanced over, but now Ember had walked away, busy signing things. Fran leaned closer and whispered.

        "Fight with a bear."

Amelia's O mouth turned from the necklace to Fran, to her scars, Fran then lifted her left arm pulling back the jacket to show more of them. Then she nodded.

        "That's right Amelia, your new mom can fight bears."

Amelia was only looking at her now, this was working Fran was impressing herself.

        "The bear is my spirit animal by the way, The great Matho. quite the arrogant fella but he's strong and he makes me strong... do you have a spirit animal?"

Amelia shook her head.

        "Oh... my mom's... before she... had the squirrel and my Grandma's is the raccoon and Ember over there your other mom she refuses this but I think she's an anteater ... don't tell her I said that. Maybe we could figure yours out, got any favorite animals?"

        "C, cat."

        "Cat! That's a great start... anyway I think mom number 'two' wants to introduce herself as well."

Fran stood up as Ember came back from the man and they swapped places Fran signing papers as Ember met Amelia. Fran at this point was bubbling, this had been an excellent idea!

An hour later Amelia got rolled around an apartment as above her Fran kept talking, she had talked a lot during the car ride.

        "As we knew you were in a wheelchair we have fully proofed the building, here for instance in the toilets we have installed bars on all walls and removed all the thresholds. Might be a bit overkill since we are getting you out of this chair but... I didn't think it was."

Fran pointed into a bathroom and then Ember rolled them onward.

        "Here's your room Amelia and as you can see, still no thresholds. You can roll in and out from here as much as you want. And we went with quite the neutral colors leaving most of it white, I was thinking you could decide what colors you want... hey do you have a favorite color?"

Leaning in and looking into her own room Amelia who had a hard time keeping up with Fran's fast talking still stammered out.

        "P, pink."

Even if Fran was fast, Amelia had, after all, gone through all of this before... multiple times.

        "Pink! Great choice! Alright, Ember, write that up."

Ember cleared her throat.

        "The saying is: 'write that down.' Fran."

        "Oh..."

Fran came down to Amelia's level.

        "Maybe when the color arrives you could even help us paint? Help us paint your room pink."

Amelia liked painting, she nodded.

        "Okay..."

        "Nice! Maybe we could even get some extra pink furniture as well. A little desk and some books, hey Amelia do you know how to read?"

        "N, no..."

        "Well it's never too late to start, I learned my abd's when I was nineteen for instance"

        "Don't forget C Fran."

        "Anyway! Over there right next door is our bedroom and Ember's office, the door is always open, you can come in whenever. And do absolutely not worry about interrupting anything."

Before rolling on Amelia spotted a large bed, a wall of wardrobes with mirrored inlaid doors and a desk holding boxes and a laptop. Fran meanwhile continued.

        "Anyway this here is the living room and where we spend most of our time. We are trying to watch all movies and we have reached the seventies. Today for instance we are watching the Aristocats. It's a Disney movie, ever heard of Disney?"

        "Y, yes?"

Fran got down again, in front of her. 

        "Do you like Disney?"

Amelia nodded and Fran smiled.

        "Do you have a favorite princess?"

        "Elsa."

        "Elsa?! Why not Belle with her beautiful brown hair?"

        "I don't know her..."

        "Oh... Ember put Beauty and the beast on our watch list! And quickly tell Amelia your favorite princess."

Behind Amelia Ember smiled down towards Fran.

        "It's clearly without question, Merida."

Fran nodded fast and Amelia, getting curious and having fun talking princesses asked.

        "F, Fran, w, who's your favorite?"

Fran proud as all heck obviously said."

        "The best one Pocahontas!"

        "Who?"

        "Okay, we are going to have to delay the Aristocats viewing. I declare the rest of this week as Disney princess school for Amelia! And we will start with Frozen to get you comfortable. Are you okay with that?"

Amelia nodded, she loved watching Frozen. Fran meanwhile turned and asked Ember.

        "That's okay with you Ember?"

Ember nodded.

        "Great! Now, onward to the kitchen, my room."

They rolled on to the final room. It was again wheelchair accessible, open and clean. Amelia was smiling now, Fran was quite funny and she liked movies and she liked painting, they had said she was going to get to paint right?

There was a newspaper clipping on the fridge but as mentioned, Amelia couldn't read yet, could only see the pictures, a bandaged woman in a hospital bed and a bear.

        "Can you smell that Amelia? I put tenderloin with my secret herb mixture into the slow cooker before we left."

Amelia nodded fast, she could smell it, her entire body was reacting to it, and she was hungry and this was her favorite part, first the room tour and then the food. Then in a week the hospital visit and then they were going to return her...

Ember rolled her to the table and it fit her, fit her wheelchair, she could sit here and eat.

Fran started lifting up something juicy out of a machine, started cutting into it, Ember started placing down plates. As the smell went from good to increadible Amelia's mouth started salivating.

Then a filled plate got placed in front of her containing a pile of salad a pile of glistening sweet potatoes and a pile of pre-cut tenderloin dripping with a dark brownish red sauce.

Ember also placed down a fork next to her smiling.

            "Take it easy with the first bite, Fran is sometimes quite adventurous with her spices."

Fran shook her head, sitting down on the table's other side with a plate of her own.

            "Not this time, I wanted it to be perfect for Amelia. Today I didn't do any adventuring. I did it the way you love it, Ember."

Ember sat down next to Fran. Looked over towards her, her eyes forming into hearts. There were a couple of things Fran had done that had made Ember fall in love with her: The bear fight to protect a stranger, the 'thing' and of course her cooking.

            "Did you really?"

            "Yea."

            "Fran, did you know I love you?"

            "Yes."

As those weird women put all of their attention towards each other Amelia put her fork into a piece of meat, watched clear liquid squeeze out the little prong holes and then she lifted it towards her mouth. 

And then chewing while sitting here watching them kiss,.. Feel that taste of buttery melting pork spread to her every poor and enlighten her eyes Amelia realized something. She wanted to stay this time.

Tears started streaking down her face.

She didn't want to get returned, she wanted to stay here and eat more of Fran's cooking, she wanted to hear more of Fran's stories about spirits and animals, she wanted to watch movies and she wanted to paint her room pink.

Her silent crying got louder it interrupted the kissing. Fran not as into it as Ember noticed Amelia, she turned looking scared, it was her cooking after all.

            "Amelia? Are you alright? Was it too hot? I did check it, it should be fine."

Snot and tears running down her face Amelia carefully said.

        "C, can I stay? Please?"

Anyway that's the ending.

This was a short little story I wrote on Amelia's adoption day that I felt was fun enough to share. I'm a bit shy about it but I think putting optional in the title alleviated a lot of my anxiety. 

By the way, it was the insurance money from the bear that allowed Fran and Ember to open up a new clothing store after the mall got torn down.

And Fran didn't cook rabbit this time because  it felt overused and she can cook other things...

 Oh and look at that, Amelia is on her first family trip out of the wheelchair. And yea I think the picture is as insane as Bell described it.