Finding Them

It had been two months since the twins had begun to live with their father and older brothers. Charles and Angie had tried to reach out to their family to be completely shunned by all members. No one wanted anything to do with them after what had gone down. Charles regretted what he had done but Daniel wouldn't even speak to him at all.

Bill spent every weekend with Daniel and his children. Instead of what had been said tearing the brothers apart it brought them closer together. Daniel often contacted Bill for advice on how to help the twins as he too suffered from abuse as a child. Bill never minded and often would drop everything to head over to help Daniel with his dogs. The dogs seemed to help calm the twins a lot and it was Bill's job to find a dog for the twins which would be just as good for Darcy and Dakota as Rocky and Ringo were.

Darcy and Dakota had settled well. Darcy was still protective of Red and her brother when he was sick and he had been sick a few times. She was sweet but also had come out of her shell a lot and could be very cheeky when she wanted to be. She wasn't shy to pull her brothers up when they did something she didn't like at all. She had spunk and had every single person in the family wrapped around her little finger. She was still kind and caring, and she hated loud noises. But she would venture to play in another room with one of the other brothers without Dakota which was a huge step for her. She still slept on Dakota's chest though, that hadn't changed at all.

Darcy still loved her red shoes and they had to search everywhere for a bigger size when she grew out of the original ones. She would wear shoes all the time if she could. Her favourite person was still Dakota closely followed by Addy and she loved to sleep with him and Kota. Darcy did like to sleep with Mitty too. She was close with Buck because he was always with the doggies and he would read to her. Darcy loved books, she would sit for hours if someone read to her.

Dakota was still as protective as ever of Darcy. He had shown that side to some of Eddie's friends who had tried to touch Darcy. He had kicked them all in the shins and told them not to touch. Some of his friends thought it was funny to earn a bite from Darcy for making fun of her brother. Mitchell couldn't help but be proud of the twins for sticking up for each other. Eddie however wasn't impressed until Hunter stepped in explaining what had happened. Dakota didn't talk to Eddie for 4 hours much to Eddie's dismay. Darcy joined her brother in ignoring Eddie until Daniel stepped in ending Eddie's torture. Eddie had to apologise to the twins for allowing his friends in the house without checking with Daniel first. The twins were made to apologise to Eddie for not talking to him.

Dakota was also very protective of chocolate and even had a little stash that no one knew about. He loved anything with chocolate on it and every person in the house had to hide while eating chocolate if they didn't want to feel the wrath of Dakota. At first, they thought it was funny, they assumed it was just a stage, but now they knew. Dakota became very close with Buck and they bonded over an understanding of trauma. Buck was very calming to Dakota but still Addy was his favourite after Darcy, as he helped to protect Darcy and gave them food. Dakota still didn't like shoes but he would tolerate them if it meant he could go out of the house. He liked adventures.

Daniel had left the twins with one of the boys several times when he had gone to work. The first time the twins freaked out thinking he had left them and had to come home. But slowly the twins were ok with Daniel leaving for a few hours which he did on Fridays when Hunter was home to go to work and help Mitchell out if he needed it. When Hunter or Jamie wasn't available he would take the twins with him. They didn't like it at first because there were too many people but now they didn't mind it and they always got to have lunch with Buck when they went to the office. Bill had also watched the twins once which resulted in the twins sleeping on the dogs.

The family had fallen into a new normal and had adapted to having the twins home. No one could imagine a life without the twins in it. They were the sunlight in the family and brought so much joy to the house. Daniel loved having the twins around even with the Lego on the floor that he would step on. Jamie had introduced Dakota and Darcy to Lego. Darcy didn't really take to Lego but Dakota loved it and would spend hours building things and then tearing them down. He and Jamie did it together and it was their special time.

Eddie taught Darcy to paint which at first meant she covered people in paint including herself. Eventually, she worked out how to paint the paper. She just liked to cover the paper in paint but she had fun doing it. When Dakota joined in the painting he would attempt to paint different things and he wasn't bad for a three-year-old.

The family was happy as long as the twins were happy. The twins still had a long way to go to heal and they may never be fully healed but it didn't matter. The twins were finally safe and knew how it felt to be loved and belong to a family. Darcy and Dakota were finally having a childhood like normal kids, yes there were bumps but they dealt with them together as a family. It was often chaos but no one would change it for all the money in the world. Daniel had found them and the twins had found family.