Welcome to Gaia! ::

Holding a baby was easier than Maia had expected, she found. She smiled at the nurse in thanks, and then her attention was on the baby. "He's beautiful," she said. And so quiet. He really was like a breadloaf.

"Do you want to hold him, love?"

There were more visits paid to the baby the following day, and the news was that he still hadn't been found a home. Two days wasn't bad, though. Toby knew that the delay was more because they had so many applicants and were trying to find the perfect one, rather than because nobody was interested.

On the third day, Toby's intercom buzzed.

"Toby?" It was Lori, clear as day. The two had spoken so much over the intercom that the distortion might as well not exist.

"Yeah?" Toby asked.

"Could you meet me in Meeting Room 6? I've got some official business we'll have to go over together. A few questions regarding a case. Do you have time?"

"Give me five minutes."

"Sure thing. See you then. And alone, please."

"...sure." It was the last part that Toby found strange. He looked over to Dari who just smiled and shrugged.

"It isn't about me," Dari assured him. There would be no reason for it to be.

"Yeah, I didn't figure. Weird, though." He finished up what he had been doing in only a few minutes and headed for the meeting room.

Meanwhile, Maia's intercom was buzzing as well. Lori's voice emanated from the speaker: "Maia, it's Lori. Do you have a minute?"

"I'm not. Could you meet me in Meeting Room 6? I need to discuss a case with you," Lori replied. He was aware that this was a bit more suspicious with Maia than with Toby, but still not unheard-of. Protocol was to not announce things like this over the intercom, with good reason, and this really didn't seem like the type of thing to do in a group phone call.

Toby was just entering the meeting room when Maia came down the hall. He only turned his head reflexively to regard who ever was coming, and had to double-take when he realized who it was. His wife? Weird, he thought he'd have known if Maia was coming too. Was it a fae case?

"Hey, Love." He would ask her where she was going to, but here she came. Toby turned back to the room and saw... almost nobody. The usual committee for a new case wasn't there. It was just Lori. Lori must have seen the worry on Toby's face, though, because as they couple entered, the elf smiled and waved a dismissive hand.

"Don't worry," Lori said, "Nothing's wrong."

Toby nodded and took a seat across from Lori.

Lori spread his hands on the table amongst the papers he'd collected.

"Not exactly, no," he said, "I'm generally not the person who would do this, but because you're involved I get special privileges." He was smiling pretty broadly. Toby arched a brow.

"This is regarding the shifter child. It was determined that you two would be the best match. So we're here to discuss that."

"...huh?" Toby asked. It didn't sound right. Had he heard wrong? or something?

Lori looked down at the paper in front of him.

"Well, yeah. You know how it is. If you want to take him, I mean. I don't want to put any pressure on you to make a decision one way or the other," he said. "Do you want me to step out for a while, or...?" He thrust a thumb toward the door.

"Are you serious?" Toby asked, and a grin was spreading across his face. "This isn't some ******** joke, right? Why us?"

"You've taken the classes, you've worked with the Bureau a long time, and you're the closest thing to shape-shifters we've got on the roster."

Toby looked to Maia. So much for waiting years, he supposed! Unless she didn't want to? Toby forced his grin to a more reasonable smile and placed his hand over Maia's. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Sure!" Lori said, pushing the paperwork across the table. Toby only released Maia's hand to start looking through it.

"It's just the usual stuff," Lori said, "The normal human adoption papers and a couple of extras. HQ can help you get ready to take him home. It's only the basics, but you can go out and pick whatever else you want once you've got him settled in. You'd both get time off. Adoption maternity leave, like. I figure it won't be too hard to get people to take on a little extra work, Dari and I especially. There'll have to be a home inspection once you think you're ready, and the birth certificate comes then. It takes a little fudging, but it always does."

Maia still couldn't believe it, even after all that paperwork. They had a baby! A son. It'd come so quickly and already she felt so much love for the little guy. She willingly let Toby pull her the nursery, beaming.

Their son. The nurse got a bright smile as Toby picked him up. "I have an idea for one," she said, and looked to Toby. With all the paperwork, she'd failed to mention it to him. She leaned up and whispered, "Michael as his first or middle name?" The ghost had saved Toby's life, after all. He'd done so much for them. They'd have to tell him he was their son's namesake. How would Michael react?