“Thank you for your time Ashley.” A tall, gruff looking officer said.

She nodded her head and walked away with slow sluggish steps. Her surroundings seemed surreal and her body moved as if trudging through ankle deep mud. Police cars, glass, caution tape, and cops littered the street as she made her way over to Dano who was smoking a cigarette close to the sidewalk.

“You OK firefly?” her friend asked.

Words couldn’t seem to find her so she simply nodded again and hugged herself. Daniella beckoned her into a hug which she gratefully accepted. At least with her family, she felt a little safer, a little more balanced. She desperately wanted to see Spencer.

“You talk to Pez?”

“Yeah.” she muttered softly into the taller girl’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry. You’ll see her soon enough.”

“Where are they?! Where are my children?!” An alarmed sounding voice yelled behind them.

Gideon and Aiden had just walked over to the girls when they all turned to watch Rachel Bearclaw tare past the officers and pull them all into her arms somehow.

“My babies. Baruch hashem you’re all safe.” She kissed each and every one of them on their heads before hugging them again. Tears were in her eyes as she spoke in broken Hebrew and English, her distress evident in her tense posture.

“We’re fine Ima, don’t worry. Col beseder.” Gideon said calmly.

She took the time to look all of them over. Making sure that the EMT’s didn’t miss any cuts or scrapes before she got to Ashley. The small girl was in a worse way emotionally than the others and she quickly pulled her out of Dano arms and into her own. “Oh sweety. You’re going to be fine. You’ll come home and I’ll make some of my famous Matzah Ball soup and you’ll be just fine.”

Home. It should have seemed awkward to her that she felt her home was at someone else’s house. She didn’t share her blood with any of the Bearclaw’s. Her mother or her father should be the one comforting her, making sure that she was ok, telling her over and over again how worried they were and promising that everything would be alright. But it wasn’t them. It was a woman and a family that treated her like she was one of them. At least she had someone.