Chapter 9 - Adoption and Free at Last

The babies were crying from all of the noise and several giants were alerted. Ye Qing had already confirmed that none of the babies were injured by her actions but that was still unexpected. It was good that she waited for the baby to be moved before converting the energy or else the baby might have been fried. It was against her policy to harm innocent people that didn't have poisoned minds and babies were always innocent; even a baby monster could be raised to never harm people.

The giants rushed into the room and seemed to be panicking which was probably expected from everything that just happened. The reason for their state of panic was currently laid out flat on the floor and trying to not make a sound. The other babies were rolled outside the room as everybody moved around where Ye Qing was laying. Ye Qing felt someone's hands gently moving her and, when she was finally facing the giant that was touching her, there was a blindingly bright white light that came out of the black stick they were carrying.

Waving her arms, Ye Qing couldn't reach the stick. The giant's hand was holding her eye open so she couldn't swat it away without risking injury to herself. The light went away but its afterimage stayed for a while.

Suddenly, there were voices coming from in front of her and one seemed to belong to the giant closest to her. She couldn't see who the giant was talking to but they seemed angry. A third voice joined in and Ye Qing's eyes adjusted in time to see a different female giant with golden hair yelling at the giant that was closest to her.

The closest one stepped away from Ye Qing and allowed one of the other giants to pick her up. The female one was crying while holding Ye Qing tight and the male one that also had golden hair was still yelling at the bright light giant.

{Are they worried about me?}

Ye Qing felt bad. These giants probably thought that she was a baby and, judging by how protective they were, it was likely that they were adopting her. This must be a place where these giants adopt babies. It was a common practice in Daqin to adopt the children of people that died during battle so Ye Qing was familiar with the process. Ye Qing herself had adopted plenty of kids and helped to raise them into heroic men and women.

{But who was that giant earlier that breastfed me? She looked a lot like this one that's crying but... younger.}

It was normal to have a wet nurse when adopting an infant so maybe they had a relative helping? Ye Qing couldn't think of any other reason so she came to the conclusion that her guess was probably correct. At any rate, she would probably be fine until they realized that she wasn't actually a baby.

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When Aria pulled up to the mansion's gate, she wasn't sure that it was the right place. The GPS on her phone led her here but Tatyana didn't say anything about living in a mansion. The gate started opening when she pulled up so this had to be the correct place... right?

While pulling around the fountain to reach what looked like the front doors, Aria was thinking about all of the different explanations for why Tatyana didn't talk about the mansion. There were several hypotheses battling it out in her brain. Could Tatyana be a modern day Cinderella? Are her parents actually the servants of some rich family? Is she the child of a rich man's mistress? Was SHE a rich man's mistress? Aria immediately dismissed that last one. Tatyana thought that leaving her shirt untucked was being rebellious; there's no way that she'd be someone's mistress.

Aria put the van in neutral and pulled the handbrake before turning it off. The van didn't have a parking gear since it had a manual transmission. "Everybody, make sure you're presentable before you leave the van." It would be terrible if they made a mistake and Tatyana's parents decided against allowing her to go with them.

Abigail was the one that knocked on the door. There was the sound of two people arguing on the other side of it. She didn't know what they were saying since it was in another language that she didn't know--most likely Russian given that the Sokolovs moved to the USA from a place that returned to being Russia after the USSR's dissolution. Russia wasn't in the market for US-developed tech so there was no reason for Abigail to learn their language.

The doors opened up and two people that shared different features with Tatyana were each holding one of the doors open. It seemed as if neither one wanted to let the other talk first so Abigail decided to clear the air. "Greetings, Mr and Mrs Sokolov. Is Tatyana ready?"

"She is getting ready right now. Please step in while you wait." Abigail's business-like approach helped Yuri to respond quicker than Natasha could. The picture that he saw had three other girls in it besides his daughter. There was Abby--or Abigail--that he already knew of, the girl that was yawning, and the one with long curly hair... {Is her eye alright?} Yuri decided not to ask about her eye twitching since it was possible that she had some medical issue. It was probably best to ignore it so that he didn't make things awkward for his daughter.

After everybody had entered the building, he shut the door. His daughter had already finished her shower but was still in the middle of choosing her clothes. There were at least three rooms that had become filled with Tatyana's clothes so he was glad that he bought a big place for them to live, even if his original reason for moving here could never be realized. Yuri said yes to his daughter a bit spontaneously and he realized that only after she had run to call her friends. Thankfully, they brought a guardian with them so he could get answers from them. "Greetings, Miss..."

Vanessa stared at the man's outstretched hand before shaking it; this man was probably Tatyana's father so she didn't want to be rude. "Strong. Vanessa Strong."

"Miss Strong. Do you have the address and number for where my daughter will be staying?"

Vanessa had known Aria since middle school so she had that information memorized. Their restaurant hadn't moved or changed numbers in all of that time. "Do you have a pen or something else to write it with?" Mr Sokolov pulled out his phone and she told him the information. She had no clue why he was asking her but it didn't really matter since she didn't mind telling him the information.

While Yuri was still talking to the tall woman, Natasha decided to talk to the girls that were left waiting. "Hi. I'm Tatyana's mom, Natasha. My daughter has mentioned a lot about you girls. It's nice to finally meet you in person." One of the girls didn't seem responsive to her words but the other two stopped looking around their entrance hall and had their attention on her.

Tatyana didn't know what she was looking at from the top of the stairs. The fact that her mother was talking to her friends about clothing and hair--something that was made obvious by her mother waving her hands around to try explaining things visually--was not at all surprising to her. It was her father's actions that had confused her; her father seemed to be having a conversation with Vanessa about something serious. After her father noticed her coming down the stairs he concluded the conversation that he was having so Tatyana couldn't hear what they were talking about. "Sorry for taking so long. It took a while to pack my bags."

"You're only going to be staying for a night. Why do you have so many bags?"

She knew her father wouldn't understand even if she tried to explain it. "I brought everything that I might need." Tatyana had her makeup kit, laptop bag, a small bag full of toiletries, two bags of clothes, and another small bag but with things to help groom her hair. Her mother was still bothering the other girls and taking pictures of them so only her father and Vanessa gave Tatyana a hand with her bags. The three of them walked out to the van and left the others behind for now.

"Italy's Little Kitchen." Yuri was reading the name on the side of the van.

"It's the Romano family restaurant's van. Aria's father is letting us use it for tonight." Tatyana let Vanessa do all of the talking since she was too busy imagining what the live concert would be like. It probably wouldn't be like the recitals or operas that she had been to.

It didn't take long for the other girls to come out after the bags were loaded into the van. The three of them looked tired thanks to someone pestering them; well, maybe not Julia since she always looked tired. The reason for their annoyance was currently smiling behind them and waving at Tatyana.

"Remember to stay safe and to call me if anything happens."

"I will, Dad."

"Make sure that you call me when you get there."

Tatyana hugged her father. "Dad, don't worry. I'll be fine." Tatyana climbed into the van and waved before shouting out. "Love you! I'll see you two tomorrow!" After shutting the door and sitting down they were ready to go. "Onward!"

Aria didn't start the van like Tatyana expected her to. "Seatbelts on or we're not going anywhere." Right. After Tatyana buckled up and Aria started the van they were on their way... until they reached the gate and Tatyana had to hop out to put in the code. After that they were on the road and Tatyana was able to feel like she was free at last.

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"They seemed like nice girls. I wonder if they'd be willing to help me with modeling some of my designs." Natasha was oblivious to how she made them uncomfortable. She lived and breathed design so people needed to get used to her eccentricities. "The little one, especially. I've got an older design that I shelved long ago that would fit her perfectly if I added a hat."

"They've got tests and their graduation coming up. I don't think they'll have time." Yuri didn't think he'd see them again for months. After that it depended on what their plans were for the future. "You can always offer them a job."

"So, what did you talk about with that woman?" Natasha never liked him talking to other women. Even his personal assistant had to be a man to keep her from getting jealous.

Yuri knew how scary his wife could get when she got jealous. "I was asking her about where they were staying and whether or not there would be any boys there. She seemed pretty reliable so I think that our daughter will be in good hands." He looked down while stretching his hand to try to relieve its pain. "My hand still hurts from that handshake. She really lives up to her last name."