That Monday, Shane took off work and went to the DCF offices to talk to Julie. She didn’t tell anyone she was going—she didn’t want anyone to get any false hope that anything would actually come from this. She knew the chances were slim—judges tended to resist terminating birth parents rights—no matter how unfit they may be. Unfortunately this meant that the kids ended up living their lives in limbo, never knowing if they were going to be reunited with their parents or not.

“Shane?”

She snapped out of her thoughts and turned her head to see the tired woman smiling at her. She got up and followed her into her office.

“Hey thanks for meeting me today, I know you’re swamped. God I remember my caseworker had something like 40 cases to handle, and he was only supposed to have like 23 I think. He must have never slept.”

“You were in foster care? I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah, for six years. Went in when I was nine and ran away when I was fifteen. I have a lot of respect for what you do—but the system, its uh—well it’s seriously fucked up.”

Julie gave a weak smile and nodded.

“I’m sorry for what you went through but I’m glad that Shay has someone in his corner who knows what its like. So what can I help you with?”

“Well Shay is in therapy now with the therapist you recommended. It’s going good but um some things have come up—namely the whole permanency thing. It’s a tough one you know? Cause I really love Shay and would adopt him in a heartbeat if I thought it was an option but I know how it all works and I just don’t think that’s possible. I guess I was just wondering what your opinion was on it all.”

“Actually I’m glad you asked. You’re absolutely right about the permanency thing—it’s a crapshoot most of the time. But there are a couple of things we can discuss. First off, if you hadn’t called me earlier to come in and see me today, I would have called you. This morning we just got a notification that Gabe got picked up on charges of aggravated assault and attempted rape over the weekend.”