I'm back and alive :D
Edited as of 5/30/21

"So, about the results," the worker chuckled nervously, glancing at them from her seat across from them. They were currently all sitting in a private room, which had already been prepared for them. Apparently, according to the man, this news was something that Ashley and Bethany needed to sit down for. The pair had arrived at the station around nine, and had immediately been ushered into an office of sorts. Even though her mind was foggy from the intense pain radiating from her abdomen, Ashley made it a point to try her best to concentrate on the man's words.

    "Yes?" The teenager questioned. She had been fairly quiet this morning as to not giveaway the incredible agony she was enduring, but excitement was getting the best of her.

    "We uh..." he paused, trying to find the best way to word what he was about to say. "What if I told you that there weren't any?"

    "What do you mean?" Ashley asked incredulously.

    "We ran the tests," he explained, "and, to put it in the least confusing way, you don't exist. Not in paper or online files. There isn't even a trace of anything remotely close to your relatives either. Quite frankly, we've never seen blood like yours before."

    "Well, I mean, I am sitting here right in front of you," Ashley deadpanned, choosing to ignore the remark about her blood type. "Is that not proof enough of my existence? Maybe there's just a glitch in the system?"

    "Look," the worker sighed, "We tried everything we could. There is absolutely nothing about you in the system, let alone about your parents."

    Any emotion that she was feeling: excitement, confusion, anticipation- it all faded away. It was replaced with pure grief. Well, grief, as well as frustration at the pain she was in. Just the crestfallen look on the teenager's face was enough to make Bethany want to cry, and that was saying a lot. The woman never cried.

    "I don't think I understand," Ashley whispered, visibly shaking from trying to hold her tears in, "I have to have parents! It isn't like I can just blink into existence!"

    "I'm sorry Ms. Tanner," the man replied, "but we've done everything we can. And, unfortunately, given that you don't have any parents and you are still a minor, some paperwork needs to be filled out for your placement in the foster system."

    Ashley stared at the man in both shock and fear. Then, with tears stinging in the corner of her eyes, she stood up out of her chair and stumbled out of the room.

    The worker went to rush after her, but was stopped short by Bethany. The brunette stood in front of the doorway and gave him a hard glare. "Don't you dare," she growled. "You've already caused enough damage."

    If looks could kill, the man would've already been pinned to the wall by the hundreds of daggers thrown by Bethany. Getting the message, the worker slowly backed up and sat back down in her seat, queuing Bethany to jog out of the door and towards the direction that the distraught teenager had scampered away in.

    "Ashley? Ash~?" Bethany called out, searching every nook and cranny that she could find. Unfortunately, the girl was nowhere in sight. Bethany slowed to a walk and resorted to using her hearing, all the while whispering, "Poor kid."

    The brunette finally picked up on muffled sobbing coming from her right. She turned to see a slightly cracked door, which Bethany pushed open and wandered through.

    "Ash?" Bethany cautiously asked, darting her eyes around in the dark to see if she could make out the familiar figure. "Where are you?"

    The brunette's gaze finally fell on a dark silhouette that was slumped against a wall. She carefully walked over, trying her best not to be too loud or quick with her steps to upset the girl. Without saying a word, she sat down beside Ashley and swung an arm around the girl's shoulder. "I know this is all hard, Ash. Why don't you go ahead and talk? It'll make you feel better to get it off your chest."

    Ashley turned her head to look at Bethany but stayed silent. The teenager rose a hand to her cheek to wipe off some tears that had begun to trickle down her face, but her lips didn't twitch in the slightest.

    Bethany sighed and scooted in closer to Ashley, keeping her arm in its place around the girl's shoulder. "Listen kid, we're friends. But I can't help you unless you start talking."

    The icy-haired girl parted her lips slightly, trying to contemplate whether or not to open up to the woman. Sure, she had only known her for a day or so, but there was just something about the woman that made Ashley feel a lot more at ease around her. It was almost as though those odd extra senses that she had were trying to tell her something, but in a good way this time. The feeling it gave her was so warm and almost soft, lifting her spirits a little bit and enabling her vocal cords to work.

    "I..." she began, her voice consistently wavering from her lack of strength, "I just thought that I might finally be able to piece together what's left of my life. But I even got that ripped away from me too."

   "Ash," Bethany whispered softly. "Things might seem terrible right now—and by all means, they certainly are—but just give it some time and you'll find your way again. You just have a little case of bad luck right now. It happens to me all the time. You should've seen me when I was your age."

    "I don't see how this is just bad luck," Ashley argued, though her voice came out no more than a hoarse murmur. "On top of not knowing anything about my life, I'm about to get thrown into the foster system and be forced to live with some random people. I'll have even more to figure out. I just... I think I'd rather live alone than go through something like that. It's as though they're trying to rub the fact that I don't have parents in my face even more."

    This caused Bethany to frown even more. She had kind of realized that the whole thought of foster care was rough on Ashley, given that she had run out of the room and such, but now that the girl was explaining it...

    It was really hard not to feel tremendous pity for her.

    Especially since Bethany had her fair share of bad childhood experiences. It was true- she had been just as lost as Bethany was at this age, perhaps even more. So, now that she knew exactly what it was like to be in the confused teenager's shoes, she truly began to almost connect with the girl. Sure, the feelings probably weren't mutual, but it still wouldn't stop the brunette from opening up a small piece of her usually cold heart to Ashley.

    "I get it," Bethany softly replied, "I get what you're going through. Things are tough right now, but they'll get better soon."

    Ashley sniffled and countered, "But how can you be so sure? It seems like once I hit rock bottom I just encounter another basement."

    "You'll see, trust me."

    "Right now," Ashley scoffed sarcastically. "I trust you the most out of anyone I know, and I just met you. Trust isn't exactly flowing in abundance at the moment."

   All the brunette could offer in response to that was a small shrug. She pushed herself up to her feet and held a hand out to Ashley.

    The teenager looked at it, up to Bethany's greenish-blue eyes, then allowed a ghost of a fake smile to flicker across her lips in appreciation before she took the woman's extended palm. The brunette hoisted the girl up with ease, then gently remained to hold the teenager's hand as she led the both of them out of the dimly lit room. By the time that they had both made it back to the original room they had been in, in which the worker was still waiting in, Ashley had managed to dry her tears and mostly rid her eyes of redness.

    Bethany shot the worker a glare that said, 'Don't you dare speak a single word'. Then turning back to Ashley, she pulled something out of her pocket. she had a wallet in her hand. She pulled out a few different bills, then placed them in Ashley's hand which she had recently been holding. "Go get yourself an ice cream and cheer up a bit. I think there's a little shop right across the street. I'll catch up with you in a couple minutes."

When she realized that she was about to get any further explanation from Bethany, and that a little cheering up was exactly what she needed right now, she gave the brunette a nod. As soon as the door latch emitted a click when it closed behind Ashley, Bethany launched into the conversation.

    "For starters," Bethany quipped, taking a seat in front of the man. "if there is one thing she doesn't need, it's to be thrown into the foster care system."

    "I don't believe I'm understanding you correctly," the man replied. A tone that suggested she was idiotic was delicately laced into his voice as he added, "So you're saying that she doesn't need guardians? That we should just set her loose in the streets and wish her luck in fending for herself?"

   When Bethany realized that the worker still lacked sympathy for Ashley, her teeth involuntarily clenched together. "When you're sitting up here in this office with a happy little life, you don't get to really understand what the actual kids are going through. The poor teenager just found out that the one chance she had at having her old life back was just ripped away from her. Why rub salt on the wound that's still painfully fresh?"

    "I think you're making me out to be the bad guy in this situation," the man practically hissed in a disdainfully forced cheerful tone.

    "I'm not making out anything that isn't already there," Bethany chimed.

    "Then what do you want me to do, lady?"

    "You don't need to do anything," Bethany sighed, though confidence that she had been lacking in her inner monologue beginning to drip like honey from her words.  She was internally scolding herself, because she usually didn't condone acting on impulse, but there was no going back now. "I'll foster her while we try to sort out her past. I'm the only person she knows right now. Look, she'll stay at my place a couple weeks, months, or whatever, and then when we find her parents, she can returned. No harm done."

     "You're going to adopt a kid that you just met?" The worker deadpanned.

    "Foster," she corrected. The incompetency of this man was beginning to get on her nerves. "But also, yeah. Is there a problem?"

    The worker gave her a confused look but ended up shrugging it off with a drawn-out sigh. "No. We'll need to work out the logistics and paperwork. That is, saying that you even meet the qualifications to foster?"

    "Please," the brunette scoffed, "she'll be getting an entire bedroom, bathroom, and other amenities all to herself in one of the nicest places in town. Do I look like a street rat?"

    "I suppose not," the man sighed before pulling a large, manilla-colored file folder. "We'll have social security run by your residence tomorrow to assure that it's fitting. Now if you could please read the agreement and fill out the information, we'll be set."

    Bethany did a quick one-over on the paperwork, an unimpressed look never leaving her face. She raised the pen and signed at where her signature was needed, then slid the paperwork back over to the worker.

    "You do realize that all of the rest of the information is mandatory, right?"

    Bethany scoffed and tossed her a business-card sort of slip of paper, then stood up and began walking out. "I don't have time for frivolous things like that. Better places to be, you know. If we must, it'll get done when your workers swing by my apartment."

    The man opened his mouth to protest, but eventually gave up and just slumped back in her chair. Just as Bethany was about to exit the room, she sassily turned around, placed a hand on her hip, and curtly said, "Good day."

~

    "Hey Ash," Bethany called out as she drove her vehicle by the ice cream parlor that Ashley had just exited. "Hop in."

    "Where are we going? I thought I had to fill out those stupid papers?" Ashley asked, slightly turning up her nose at the mention of the adoption information. The teenager eyed the door handles, then looked down to her hands that were occupied with ice cream cones.

    "Nah, I handled all of that," Bethany replied with a grin and wink.

    What Bethany was hinting at completely flew over Ashley's head. With a shrug, she just assumed that the brunette had just filled out the paperwork for her or something of the sorts. After her gaze returned to the door she was unable to open, she asked, "Could you, uh, help me with this please?"

    Suddenly Bethany began to panic at the lack of response from the teenager. What if Ashley didn't actually like her? Had she really just made one of the most important decisions of Ashley's life without even consulting her first? What if tAshley would hold this against her? She had been so sure that the idea was great when she first thought about it... but now she wasn't so sure. Snapping out of her daze, she reached a hand out of the window and held one of the cones for Ashley. "Yeah... sure. What kind did you get?"

    "Well," the icy-haired girl began, looking to the cone that was in her hand. "I wasn't sure what kind of ice cream you liked, so I just got two of the one that I thought was pretty interesting. It's named after Black Widow, some superhero that looks really bad-butt." Then, with a grin, she took a lick of the delicacy. If this is what the rest of the world was like, then she was sure she wouldn't have a problem adjusting to her new life.

    The brunette sat shocked for a minute. She didn't know whether to love the fact that Ashley had gotten something for her even though she never asked, or the replacement for a cuss-word was slightly cute. Of course, she could never tell the teenager that, given that she'd probably get embarrassed if Bethany called something that she did cute. And, if she hadn't already decided, that was the moment that Bethany knew she would not regret taking Ashley on as her little apprentice.

    When no words came out about either of the thoughts that were circling in Bethany's mind, she ended up replying with, "She is, isn't she?" As she reached out of the vehicle to accept the ice cream cone. Once it was out of her grasp, Ashley used her now-free hand to open up one of the back doors.

    "Uh-uh," Bethany playfully scolded, "you're too old for that. You get shotgun." Then, in case the girl didn't understand what shotgun meant, she patted the seat on the passenger's side.

   Ashley gave the brunette a smile as she hopped in, then proceeded to mirror what Bethany had done and clipped her seatbelt on.

"Just to be clear, though— never, ever, get in someone else's car if they ask you to. Run away and scream as loud as you can. Stranger danger, kid," Bethany advised the teenager as she pulled down her mirror so she could check her appearance and apply lipstick.

"But what about you? It's not dangerous to get in your car, right? Why should trusting you be any different?" Ashley asked, watching in confusion as Bethany put her mirror back up and rubbed her lips together. The brunette turned to face her, then replied with a smirk.

"Because, darling, I'm your legal guardian now."

For those who are a reread, I'm jealous of Ashley. Too bad I can't have Beth as my legal guardian XD