A smile reappeared back on her face matching his, “Well then you have nothing to worry about, she’s prolly with my parents right now,” she said, going back to her doll’s hair as if she just solved his problem. Miles chuckled, imagine that. “Hey Stone, we got a 10-33, we need all our guys! Let’s go!” The Captain called to him. Miles jumped to action, leaving the little girl in the corner by herself, still occupied with her doll. *** When Miles made it back to the station, it was quiet, and he no longer saw the little girl, but he did see a lot of commotion taking place in the Captain’s office. He knocked on the door and let himself in, “Uh, Captain, can I have a word?” He observed the room and noticed the little girl sitting next to two women who both had a social services nametag. “Uh, sure. One second, ladies, I apologize.” He walked out with Miles with a stern look on his face. “What is it son, can’t you see I’m busy?” “Um, Cap. are those ladies taking the little girl?” “Yea, she can’t stay here, and they weren’t able to locate any of her family members. What’s it to you?” The Captain had a suspicious grin on his face. “Come on, Cap., she’s a little girl. She just lost her parents. Can’t we do something for her?” The Captain stroked his chin and gave a hard look to Miles before responding. “Well, the department does have a policy for temporary custody for orphans that show up at our door. She could stay with you until they place her with a family. That is, you know, unless you don’t want to mix your grief.” The chief said with a hearty laugh. Miles rolled his eyes, “I could use the company, and she’s not the worst little girl in the world I guess, it would just be until she gets placed with a family.” Miles wasn’t ready to go back to an empty home, he didn’t want to deal with anymore dreams of Sheila haunting him. The Captain smiled and clapped his hands together, “Okay, great! We’ll start up the paperwork. Let me go tell those two ladies in there.” Miles looked inside the office as the Captain was telling the two social workers that he had a volunteer to take the little girl home, he noticed a smirk forming on her face. It gave him the confidence that he was doing the right thing. Besides, it was just a little girl, how hard could it be? He had plenty of time to change his mind while he was in the car driving to his house, he looked in the rearview mirror, and sure enough, they were still following him. “Nope too late to turn back now,” he said to himself. He pulled up in his driveway and waited until the two ladies and the little girl got out to go inside. “Welp here’s my house, ladies,” he said, ushering them inside. “Okay, great. Mr. Stone, we just have some rules we have to cover for your temporary guardianship of Ms. Candace Shipp.” “Okay, sure.” “First things first, Candace is seven, and in grade school, so she will have to be enrolled in an elementary school in your district first thing Monday morning. Second…” The social worker was going through so many rules, Miles thought his head would spin, but when she finally got to the last one, he nodded like he was paying attention the whole time. “The first check-in will be at random, but we will let you know what week we’re coming so you can get a heads up of any appointments you might need to change. Any questions?” He looked down at Candace, who was looking around at the art on his walls. He smiled, “Nope, none at all.” “Well, if you need anything, call us. Take care, Candace.” And just like that, they were out the door, leaving Miles and Candace on their own. “I guess this will do. Where’s my room?” She looked up at him. “Right.” Miles snapped his fingers. “I didn’t get a chance to fix it up or anything but, you’ll be in the spare bedroom.” Candace eyed him, “Is that where 25
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