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The laughter of the children could be heard in the house as soon as Hen crossed the door, after leaving her keys and bag at the entrance she went to the living room where her wife was folding clothes.
She walked over to Karen, leaving a kiss on her cheek before going to greet the children and returning to the living room, "Are that the clothes for tomorrow?"
Karen nodded, showing Hen the clothes she had chosen.
"It's what we have prepared for these surprise events, but... we're missing something for Mara, I haven't made time to buy her dress-up clothes and she's excited to go tomorrow, but I don't have enough time to go in the morning and buy something for her, baby."
Hen nodded, leaving a kiss on Karen's forehead and sitting down next to her as Mara and Denny appeared in the living room running to talk about a movie they had seen in the afternoon, glancing sideways at her phone Hen figured she had a little time to go shopping the next day before her shift. Leaning over to Mara, Hen stroked her daughter's hair, going for the easy option knowing that Mara still had a hard time accepting some things and gifts.
"Hey, honey, would you like to go shopping with me tomorrow? I need something new for the ceremony and I thought you could help me pick it out."
She knew she did the right thing the moment Mara's eyes lit up, looking from Karen to Hen before nodding once.
"Really? I'd like to help you."
"That's great, tomorrow you'll help me then, we'll go just us before my shift and spend the whole morning together." Hen held up her hand and waited until Mara gave her a shy high five before walking over to Denny and saying something to him and disappearing together into one of the rooms.
When he turned to his wife Karen was already leaning towards Hen to give her a short kiss on the lips: "You're the best, you know that, right?"
"Always good to hear. "Hen leaned his face against Karen's chest, listening to her giggle before she felt her wife nuzzle her head." I love you."
"I love you too, honey. Now go take a bath, the showers at the station aren't as nice as the ones at home."
"That's a very polite way of telling your wife that she smells terrible."
Karen's laughter accompanied her down the hall, Hen passed briefly by Denny's room where she listened to the low chatter, finding them in front of her son's computer monitor watching some cartoon, smiling to herself Hen shut the door and headed straight to her room so she could grab her pajamas and shower.
Tomorrow will be a long day, she needed to get some rest.
××
Mara was excited first thing in the morning, she had gotten up before Denny and made her bed before getting ready and going to the living room to wait for Hen and Karen to wake up, it was a surprise for the women to find their daughter waiting in complete silence when they knew Mara was up late like her brother every day.
Karen smiled slyly and leaned closer to Hen to whisper in her ear, "Looks like someone is excited about shopping." Then she walked away but not before saying good morning to Mara and receiving a “Good morning mom” in return.
Hen also smiled, approaching Mara and sitting next to her on the couch.
"Morning, hon. Ready to go?"
"Good morning, when shall we go?"
Pulling her daughter to her for a hug Hen leaned back and reviewed her morning before leaving the house.
"We have to wake Denny up first and have breakfast all together before we go, it will take a while longer, are you sure you can help me and go wake your brother up while I help mom with breakfast?"
Nodding, Mara got up and headed down the hallway with the task of waking her brother, Hen sighed happily and got up from the couch to go meet Karen in the kitchen, where her wife was already waiting for her with a cup of hot coffee, leaning down Hen left a kiss on Karen's lips and walked away to continue cutting the remaining fruits for the children.
"Do you already know what they're going to buy?"
"I don't know yet, I guess I'll let Mara choose what she likes best, although I'll opt to try on suits today. And then I'll try to convince her to help pick out something for herself, I have several stores that have dresses and suits, to see what Mara likes best."
Karen nodded, smiling towards her wife, "I think it's a good idea, besides, the suits look beautiful on you, and I'm sure she'll be happy to help you choose and feel confident to pick something herself as well."
"Mmmh." Hen left a kiss on Karen’s lips.
They both stopped talking when the children entered the kitchen, both with smiles on their faces as they jostled each other playfully.
With laughter and chatter they spent the first hour of the morning together before Hen got ready and left the house with Mara, they still had that shopping to do and the morning had rushed by.
×××
In the end they decided on a store near the center where Hen knew there were both suits and dresses, she and Karen had shopped there a long time ago and had not shopped there again but Hen knew there were also children's clothes on display.
Mara turned out to be a big fan of white and yellow, all the outfits she had chosen together with Hen were in those colors plus some red and blue ones, and the big pile of clothes kept growing as Hen watched her select the outfits on her own, she had to restrain her daughter once she saw a considerable amount of outfits and the owner's face getting whiter and whiter knowing everything she would have to order after they left.
"Honey, I think we're good with those, remember I'll have to try them on for us to select one."
Mara nodded, leaving the last garment on top of the others and stood to the side waiting to see what Hen was going to do, while Hen went to the children's area and began to evaluate some of the garments.
"Well, I think I can also help you pick something out so we're even, how about it?"
Looking up at her, Mara seemed to think about it for a moment before she nodded shyly, approaching Hen and glancing sideways at some dresses on the rack, noticing that Hen absently picked them up and carried them over to the side of the clothes that were already piled up.
Mara's gaze never left the dresses Hen had placed on the dresser, even if she tried to look uninterested in the garments her eyes sparkled with interest. Smiling to herself Hen located the red suit that Mara had picked and for which she had chosen several colors and then approached Mara again.
"How about we do this, I'll try this one on and you try on whatever dress you like best? Or would you rather I bring down some attire for you as well?"
"Can you help me pick one?"
"Of course I do, honey."
Together they scrambled around and looked at dresses until they decided on two, one light blue and the other yellow, both too pretty and Hen was sure she would die of tenderness once Mara tried them on. Somewhere between choosing the dress and the suit Mara had grabbed the red suit Hen had picked up and exchanged it for the same model in white, leaving it on Hen's legs.
"Come, my dear. You can wait by the door while I change and then you can come in so I can help you put on your dress, is that all right?"
"It 's okay."
Hen stepped into the fitting room, leaving Mara by the curtain so she could watch her as she quickly put on the suit, when she finished putting it on she realized that Mara had done a great job in choosing the model and color of the suit. Smiling to herself Hen walked out of the fitting room, catching Mara's gaze as she walked around for her daughter to evaluate the suit.
Mara smiled at her, moving closer to Hen and running her hands over the fabric of the jacket before nodding towards Hen, "I like it, it looks good on you."
"Thank you, honey, you did a good job, it's perfect i liked it too."
Grabbing the dress that Mara had left on the seat Hen took her daughter by the hand and approached the fitting room again.
"Do you want to change by yourself or do you need my help?"
"It's okay, I can do it myself."
"Okay, I'll be right here if you need help."
Hen stood at the side of the dressing room waiting for Mara to come out, she offered her help several times but her daughter kept telling her she didn't need it so she finally stood there smiling silently while she listened to Mara's complaints as she tried to put on her dress.
After a while she heard Mara's resigned sigh before the girl called out to her.
"Mommy?"
Hen's heart raced for a second at the name Mara called her by, it was the first time her daughter had used that word with Hen, although Hen knew she had already called Karen that a few days ago.
Trying to hide her surprise, Hen turned around and opened the curtain to move into the dressing room, hiding her smile when she realized that Mara's battle was against the zipper of the dress on the back of the dress.
"Come here, hon, let me help you with that."
Once she finished putting on Mara's dress she made her turn around so that the girl could see herself in the mirror, Mara didn't say anything for a while, which had started to worry Hen until the girl turned around and hugged Hen tightly, tightening her little arms around Hen's neck.
"Hey, sweetheart, what's the matter, don't you like it?"
She felt Mara's quick movement as the girl nodded at the side of her face before turning away and looking at Hen.
"I love it, is not that, it's just.... Is it okay for me to call you mom, Karen said she was happy, but are you happy with that too?"
Hen stretched out a hand, moving the strands of hair from Mara's face before reaching over and placing a small kiss on her daughter's forehead.
"Of course it's okay to call me that. Listen honey, I am, we are, we are, more than happy to have you with us, you are our family now, you can call us mom and you can call Denny brother, I'm sure he is happy with that too. Whenever you have a question about this you can talk to us, any of us. Can you do that? We are always here for you.”
"It's okay, I can do it."
After nodding and hugging Hen again, Mara smoothed her hands on her dress and looked at herself in the mirror again.
"I like it."
Hen strokes her arms, smiling at Mara from behind the mirror and nodding.
"It was a good choice, it looks beautiful on you, and you picked me a nice suit too, I love both, what do you say we pay for this and go get some ice cream before I take you back home?"
"Yes!"
"Well, let's get changed first."
After changing and putting on the clothes they had arrived in Hen went to pay the bill with Mara at her side before finally leaving the store and heading to the ice cream shop across the street, Hen smiled to herself as she noticed that Mara had not taken her hand from Hen's at any time and was getting closer and closer to her.
They sat outside eating their ice cream, while Mara talked to Hen about a movie they had seen with Denny. Hen admired her little girl in silence, unable to believe the beautiful opportunity that life was giving them to adopt Mara, that Mara could have a home.
Hen knew without a doubt that whatever obstacles came her way, she and Karen would do everything they could to keep Mara with them. Mara was now part of their family.