Immediately, I knew who she meant. Kallie. Kallie was awake, and she was asking for me.

A million thoughts ran through my mind as we followed the nurse down the hall. Did they tell her I was here? They must have if she was asking for me. Was she okay? I knew physically they had been monitoring her, but so much had happened to her and she was only a child!

Xavier chuckled under his breath, and I turned, about to ask him what he thought could be funny about this. But I saw the sparkle in his eye he only ever had for me. He was laughing at me.

"What?" I hissed.

His head shook, seeming bewildered. "Just, this is the best you've been walking since you got back, and you don't even seem to notice."

Glancing down, I realized he was right. We were already clear past the kitchen and had entered the infirmary without my noticing. And all of those steps had been taken without any help; not Xavier, not my mom or Emerald, not even the wall. "I need to see her," was the only thing I said.

We rounded the doorframe and while I was vaguely aware of Iris in the room, the only thing I truly saw was the pair of brown, half-moon eyes that shifted to focus on me.

I flung myself across the room, crash landing in the chair next to her cot, and reached out for her. Kallie's hands, pale and cracked, grasped mine and graced us with the biggest smile I had ever seen of her.

"April!" Her voice was worn, scratchy like her chords were rolling over gravel, but I'd still know her voice anywhere. I probably knew her voice better than her appearance, months of talking through the bars in the dark was most of what I had to go off of.

"Kallie," I whispered back, cupping her small face with the palm of my hand. My vision was blurred, I didn't even remember when I started crying. "How are you feeling?"

She shrugged her bony shoulders, reaching a thin finger up to wipe the tears from my cheeks. The gesture made me laugh through them. "I'm okay."

Then she broke down. "I'm sorry!" She cried, "I left you there asleep in the dirt, and then I couldn't find you again!"

"Shh," I whispered as I crawled up onto her bed to be closer to her, wrapping my arms around her shaking form. "Shhh, it's okay, I promise." Placing a finger under her chin I made her meet my eyes, "sweetie, you listened to me. You did the right thing by seeking help. And it led you to Xavier, right?" I met my mate's eyes, which held a look of thought I couldn't decipher.

She sniffled, "yeah. He brought me here when I couldn't find you."

I hugged her tighter, "and then you got help, right?"

She only shrugged and it was Iris who answered, reminding me of the other girls' presence.

"Sort of. She's been asleep here and there, but she hasn't let the doctors do much besides the IV and a change into the hospital shirt."

Tearing my gaze from Kallie, I met my friend's eyes. "Why not?"

She shrugged, and I noticed how different she looked already compared to what I knew before. Her eyes were brighter, skin clearer and bronzing back up, even without the sun. Her hair had been freshly cut and washed, the glossy black strands dusting her shoulders. "She only asked for you." She said to answer my question.

"Kallie?" I asked the kid.

"I'm sorry," she whispered against my shirt where her head was buried. "I don't know who to trust with what. I wanted you to be here."

I knew how she felt, but still my heart melted into puffy inside me. Of course, she was scared! "What about Iris? She's been here."

"I wanted you." She mumbled, barely even perceptible.

"Okay," I hushed her softly, "it's okay."

Xavier was still leaning against the doorway, watching us from afar, and I noticed no one else from the sitting room had followed us in.

"Xavier?" I asked him softly and instantly he was fully alert on me. "Will you go get a doctor? Or even a nurse will do."

He disappeared and Kallie started freaking out. "No doctors, no doctors!"

Iris simply touched her foot and the child looked up at her. It was a distraction and it worked. "No one will hurt you here."

Kallie whimpered and I made my embrace even tighter around her torso. "Promise?"

"Promise," I answered. "This is the pack I was living in before I got taken."

That got Iris's attention, more than Kallie's. "You weren't living with your mate?"

"No. But I was taken from his pack lands." Suddenly I wasn't sure if I should have mentioned that; I didn't want them to fear Xavier's pack. "Funnily enough, neither are my home pack."

"What do you mean?"

I chuckled to myself, "I'm from Utah."

"Where's Utah?" Kallie piped up, and I'm glad my conversation distracted her from the thought of incoming doctors.

"The other side of the country, almost. I moved here in the hope to find my mate, and to try something new with college. I had only known Xavier for a couple months before I wound up in there with you guys."

"Woah." Iris whispered, as if she couldn't wrap her head around my life story.

Xavier returned then, and behind him was the doctor I had met when I first arrived yesterday.

"You called?" The Pack Doctor asked.

I nodded before tilting my head towards Kallie, who had burrowed as far against me as possible to evade the doctor. "I was wondering if you could unhook her from the machines so I could get her upstairs to a bath." I had unhooked myself this morning, but that was different; I didn't think it was a good idea to just take the chords off of Kallie without permission.

Kallie physically relaxed at the mention of a bath, probably realizing this doctor's visit wouldn't be like any of the previous ones.

"I don't think that's a good idea," the doctor said. "She needs the fluids still."

I argued, "she also needs real food, real clothes, and a scrub down before she can really start feeling better." I pleaded with my eyes to Xavier for help. He caved instantly, of course.

"Look, Doc," my mate said, almost comically. "The kid hasn't eat anything since she got here last week, and she hasn't let anyone bath her because they simply weren't April. Now that April is here, don't you think she could handle a break from this room?"

The doctor tried to protest, "she has nutrients running through the IV, and I still feel she needs to be monitored!"

Xavier put his hands up in defense, "look I may not be a doctor but I've seen when my sister's patients recover simply because they mentally treat themselves by returning back to normal."

The Pack Doctor contemplated the thought. Finally, sighing to show he was giving in. "Fine, but the second she's woozy or complains about something, she's right back in this bed."

"Deal," I said.

A few minutes later and we were walking out of the room and ended up in front of everyone who had been sitting in the chairs of the waiting area to the infirmary. Mom stood up immediately, crossing the room to meet us.

"Are you okay?" She asked and I forced myself to choke down my laugh.

"I'm doing fine, Mom." I told her, "I'm just going to take Kallie upstairs to get her changed."

Now it was Emerald's turn to jump to her feet. "I'll get you a box of Amethyst's old clothes she can pick anything out from!"

"Thanks," I said before crouching down to meet Kallie's eyes. "Is it okay if Xavier carries you up the stairs?"

Her brown eyes narrowed, appearing to be scrutinizing him before she decided. "Okay." Then she turned to him and practically jumped into his arms, taking everyone off-guard, including Xavier.

"Woah," he chortled. "Feeling strong all the sudden?"

"I've always wanted to do that." She answered, shifting herself so he was carrying her on his hip and she was sitting on his arm.

I wasn't sure what she meant by that, but we moved past it, heading back through the kitchen to that stairwell Xavier had taken me up through that morning. Iris stayed behind with the others, or maybe she returned to her hospital room. I needed to remember to ask her why she was still here. Xavier told me the others had returned to their birth packs, and most had been reunited with their parents.

While I was extremely happy to have Kallie here with us, I was also saddened that she hadn't been able to reunite with her pack. I knew her parents were gone, she told me as much in the cellar, but would she want to go back to that pack anyway? My heart squeezed at the thought of her leaving.

"This is your room?" Kallie asked as soon as we stepped through the door.

"Yeah," I said, "it is." But I looked at Xavier when I said it, because I knew he what he was thinking. The second the opportunity arose, he would be asking me again to move to his pack.

Emerald had assisted my walk up the stairs, but had then disappeared to go get the clothes from her daughter's room. Amethyst was four, and a runt, so I worried the clothes might be too small for Kallie, but then again Kallie was undernourished and only a year or so older. They might be perfect until she gained up to a healthy weight.

The process of getting Kallie into the bath was similar to mine that morning. Xavier sat her on the toilet lid and started preparing the water and grabbing the supplies. Though most were still out from earlier. When everything was set up, I pulled him out of the bathroom.

"It's probably best if you stay out here."

He nodded in understanding, "I'll help Emerald go through the clothes."

"Thank you," I kissed his cheek quickly before returning to Kallie, shutting the door behind me.

I realized then that that was the closest we had touched beyond a hug since I came back. And Xavier hadn't asked for more, not even appearing restrained when he had been undressing me to bathe me this morning. My eyes welled once again, and I was so sick of crying, but I just felt extremely lucky to have him. He didn't even need to know that my trauma was deeper than the scars he saw on my stomach to understand he needed to be patient and keep his distance.

"Are you okay?" Kallie asked quietly when the tears spilled over my eyelid, and her genuine empathy was enough to keep them coming.

"Yes, sweetheart," I told her.

"I cry a lot too," she said, "about more than what happened." Her eyes stared deep, cutting to my soul, "will it get better?"

I wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hand. "I hope so." I stood up, "okay, let's get you scrubbed clean."

Grabbing my brush, I did what Xavier had done, brushing through her rats nest one section at a time. Her hair was naturally curled at the ends, and that made everything that much worse in the tangles. And I definitely didn't know very much about curly hair, but I knew it had to be treated differently than how I would do mine. By the time I was able to pull the brush through smoothly, I knew I would never brush her hair again.

It had grown three sizes in volume and was so frizzy it looked like she had walked through a vat of electricity. I set the brush on the counter, had her face me, and then burst out laughing. I didn't mean to, I didn't want to upset her, but what stared back at me was the greatest thing I had ever seen and might have just brightened up my entire week.

"What?" She asked, smiling only because I was laughing so hard.

I waved her to her feet, leading her to the mirror and holding my breath so I could stop the gut-busting fit of cackling. When she looked at the mirror, she joined my howls, cracking up at the lion's mane of sunset orange that nearly reached my chest in volume.

"It'll go down with the water." I promised her, but she was still laughing, trying to catch her breath and attempting to tame it with her hands to no avail.

"Can I show Thavier?" She asked, her cute accent of a five year old coming through.

I swung open the door and both Emerald and Xavier looked up from the pile of children's clothes on floor. "She wanted to show you." I said, giggling under my breath.

"Rawr!" Kallie hollered as she jumped out from behind me.

"Oh my!" Emerald chuckled, a hand on her heart to play along.

Xavier cracked a huge smile, but his breathing told me he was laughing. Quickly, he whipped out his phone and snapped a picture, capturing Kallie's pretend-snarling face and a hunched over, snickering me. I would probably thank him for that later.

"Okay, okay," I laughed, gently guiding Kallie back into the bathroom by the shoulder. "C'mon."

"I don't think you're supposed to brush my hair." She told me matter-of-fairly.

"Probably not." I pinned the top down with my hands, "lesson learned."

She giggled, "yeah."

I untied her hospital gown and then lifted her into the tub. Almost immediately, the water darkened as the top layer of dirt came off her skin.

"Eww!" She laughed, swirling the stagnant water with her hands to mix the clear water with the brown.

Unplugging the drain, I shook my head as we watched the first round of water go down. Then I filled it back up and this time it didn't get so dirty so fast. Two more rounds of water later, I finally brought out the soap. I used two washcloths to scrub her skin before it finally came back a color other than black, and then I lathered her hair up. That, too, took a few rounds of shampoo and conditioner before it felt soft and smooth. I figured combing through the strands wet would be okay, but we'd definitely need to research how to care for curls properly before we washed it again.

When I pulled her out of the tub and wrapped a fuzzy towel around her shaking body, she thanked me.

"I haven't been this clean in a while."

"I know," I said, combing through her sopping hair and watching the ends shrink up into their respective curls.

"Remember when you splashed the soapy water on me during cleaning duty?" She asked, meeting my eyes through the mirror as I combed.

"I do."

"That was the last time I came close, I think."

I looked down to focus on my task, telling myself not to tear up over that simple sentence. She deserved so much more than the life she was given. I couldn't even respond for several minutes.

"Can I get changed now?" She asked.

"Right, yes, of course."

She pulled the towel around herself tighter and I opened the door. Xavier and Emerald were still in their spots on the floor.

"This pile is the ones we think will fit her best. Some of it is Jade's old things because Amethyst is so little." Emerald explained, motioning to the pile closest to her.

Kallie looked at Emerald, and then focused on me. "I can pick anything?"

"You can have it all, if you want." Emerald offered. "I can always buy more things if I have another pup."

"Thank you." I told her, and she nodded, waving a hand to Kallie to come look through it.

While she was occupied, Xavier stood and walked to me. "I had a thought," he started, brushing the hair away that had stuck to my face from the collecting humidity in the bathroom.

When he didn't continue and instead just stared into my eyes, I cleared my throat. "Are you going to tell me this thought?"

He smirked mischievously. "I think I'm going to clean the bathroom up while you help Kallie."

"Wait!" But he was already behind the door.

Annoyed, I crouched down next to the kid and helped her step into a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie that looked absolutely adorable in that size. Then we helped fold the rest of the clothes and set them on the floor against the wall for the time being.

"Thank you," Kallie said to Emerald politely.

"Oh, you're welcome, sweetie." Kallie let the Luna hug her and then she scampered right back to me.

I eyed the door Xavier still hadn't reopened. "Kallie, why don't you go downstairs with Emerald and get some food into your tummy?"

Her little eyes flicked over to Emerald a few times before she consented. She grabbed the Luna's hand and they headed out together, but not until I promised Kallie I would be down to the dining room in a moment.

I let myself into the bathroom, finding Xavier bent over the tub, scrubbing it with a cleaning sponge.

"Oh," I said, a little surprised. "You weren't kidding."

"You thought I was just evading your question?" He feigned the hurt.

"Yes."

"Fair enough." He set down the cleaning supplies. Glancing around the area, I noticed he had gotten quite a bit done in the short time I had been dressing Kallie.

"You didn't have to do this." I gestured to the spotless counter and mostly done tub.

"I wanted to."

My heart fluttered. "Thank you."

He grinned. "Go ahead and say what you really want to say."

Laughing, I did: "tell me what you had in mind a few minutes ago."

"Yes, that." He pretended to think.

"Xavier!" I groaned and he chuckled.

Without saying anything, he washed his hands before coming over to me. That earned him a frustrated growl, but he only laughed again.

"Fine, fine. But don't freak out, because I don't know if we can make it happen."

A flash of an idea passed through my mind but I pushed it away instantly. I couldn't hope for the impossible.

It turned out I could, because the next words that came out of my mate's mouth were exactly what I had been secretly yearning for, but too afraid to even admit it to myself in the sure case that it was an impossibility.

"What if we adopted Kallie."