Chapter Text
The couple looking after them were retired. Foster care supplemented their fixed income, beyond feeding and clothing them they didn’t pay much attention. That was probably why it was the longest foster home he had had during his time within “the system.” He had been there 2 years when the solemn little blonde girl arrived. He was 14, she was 9, and they slept in opposite bedrooms. The rooms were on the opposite end of the house from their guardians. He asked her name.
“People call me Parker.”
“Is that your name?”
“It’s what people call me. The lady called you Daniel”
“My parents called me Danny.”
“Ok.”
He heard crying her first night in the house. He knocked on her door and asked if she was ok. No one had ever asked her that but Nick.
“I saw my brother die.” She said.
“I saw my parents die…a long time ago” He replied. “The hurt fades, I promise.”
He held her until she went back to sleep.
She didn’t know how she’d known he was safe. She’d never had a harmless, older, foster brother before. After awhile she stopped waking up crying and he stopped having to come in.
She liked that he was quiet. He told her stories of ancient Egyptian curses and empires long dead and chased away bullies the best he could.
He liked that she listened. He told her the stories his parents had taught him, and some new ones he had learned along the way.
They had 8 months where, for the first time in a long while, both of them were truly happy. It was the longest foster home Parker ever had, or would have. At the end of 8 months their foster “father” had a stroke and they were separated.
Daniel managed to emancipate himself at 16 and started university 2 years early with a full scholarship. He eventually looked for the little blonde girl with the sad eyes, but he never really knew her name, and found most records sealed to him.
Parker started stealing at her next foster home.