Six months later

Abby checked the time and cussed under her breath. The viewing had taken longer than expected but the couple had been nice, it had been easy to make small talk with them and in the end, they had taken the apartment. A contract was worth running a little late. Lydia would understand.

As expected, Lydia was already sitting at a table with an elaborate coffee drink in front of her when Abby entered the place Lydia had picked for lunch.

"Sorry, I'm late." Abby slipped into the seat across from her. "Hope you didn't have to wait for long."

"Just a few minutes," Lydia assured her. "How was the viewing?"

"I have a contract." Abby couldn't help a little victory wiggle.

"Congratulation." Lydia raised her coffee for a toast. "We should celebrate."

"You just want an excuse to make out." Abby narrowed her eyes at her. "We don't need to celebrate every single contact."

"It would feel weird if we celebrated Haley's good grades." Lydia shrugged.

"You can stay over whenever you want, you know that." Abby felt the need to remind her. "And we don't need something to celebrate if we want to make out."

"But when the occasion arises …" Lydia smirked at her from behind the rim of her cup.

Abby just rolled her eyes at her and ignored her until the waitress had taken their orders.

"Haley has an appointment today?" Lydia changed the topic once the waitress had left.

"Yeah, I'm going to pick her up from school in a bit and bring her over," Abby said, already calculating when she would have to wrap up her afternoon viewing to pick up Haley from the psychologist after her session.

"You're coming over for dinner?" Abby asked. Haley liked her psychologist and she was making progress but after a session, she often was moody and quieter than usual. It helped when Lydia came over on those days. Haley liked to just quietly enjoy their company while they were talking about whatever. Sometimes she was up for a movie or a board game but that wasn't always the case.

She needs time. Abby could hear the therapist's voice in her head. Haley was getting better but she still wasn't talking much even on good days and sometimes she retreated into herself completely. Those days were rare but they did happen.

Abby was just glad that she was well enough to attend school again. She had to repeat the year, she had missed too much, but with switching schools due to moving into a nice little house in another part of the city, most of the other students didn't know about that.

"We still have your contract to celebrate," Lydia answered the dinner question.

Abby did not point out that Lydia found things to celebrate or other reasons to come over on most of the days Haley had a session with her therapist. If Lydia wanted to pretend, Abby wasn't one to complain.

"Oh, and I made that appointment," Lydia said when their food arrived. A year ago Abby would never have a fancy lunch in a place like this but Lydia had her standards. She was down for take out pizza on occasion but most of the time she wanted her organic food. It still felt strange to Abby to spend this much money on a damn salad but it was nice that she could just have lunch with Lydia without worrying about money.

"Saturday?" Abby asked and reached for her fork. It was just a stupid salad but damn it looked good. She chose to ignore the knowing smile playing on Lydia's lips when she watched her digging into the salad.

"We can come over around ten." Lydia turned to her own lunch. "Can't wait to see Haley's face."

"Me neither."

Haley's face was priceless. Abby regretted not having her phone ready to catch the moment.

"We should have hired Derek to document this." Lydia was thinking along the same lines. "Wait for us!"

Haley did wait for them at the entrance, impatiently jumping from one foot to the other.

"Don't forget, we're just here to have a look," Abby reminded her when they caught up with her.

"As if there's any way that we leave here without a dog," Lydia muttered. Abby bumped shoulders with her but didn't disagree.

They had an appointment with one of the volunteers working at the shelter who showed them around.

"You must be Haley." The young man bent down to look her in the eye. "I'm Liam. Want to see the dogs?"

Haley gave a good impression of a bobble-head to which Liam laughed.

They had gathered the dogs up for adoption in the back yard. At the sight of eight dogs playing around, Haley stopped dead in her tracks, not sure how to react to them, but it only took one curious little one to sniff at her leg and she was off.

Abby and Lydia stayed back, watching her making friends with all the dogs.

"She's not much of a talker." Liam had stayed back as well but he kept an eye on the dogs, just in case. "Most kids are babbling their heads off once they see the dogs."

"She's more the quiet type," Abby said, not in the mood to explain herself to a stranger. Haley did talk more than she used to but there were still days, sometimes a week, when she completely relied on her phone to communicate.

"Does she have experience with dogs?" Liam was smart enough to change the topic.

"I have a dog," Lydia piped up. "And she's walking the dog of friends of us a few times a week."

By the looks of it, Haley was ready to take home all the dogs but Abby had a more critical eye on them. She didn't care much about the breed, the personality was more important to her. The dog needed to be easy to handle for Haley and it needed to get along with other dogs, a cat, and an erratic person in a wheelchair. Liam answered all her questions in a competent but easy way.

The next time Abby looked over to the playing dogs, her heart stopped. Haley was no longer among them.

This was not happening.

Abby took a few frantic steps farther into the yard. Haley was not there.

"Over there." Lydia put a calming hand on her forearm and pointed with the other one to the corner to their left.

There was another dog. Abby hadn't noticed this one before, she was pretty sure that it hadn't played with the others when they'd come in. Haley was sitting on the ground with her back to the wall and the dog next to her. The dog had its head on Haley's thigh and she was scratching it behind the ear while she was watching the other dogs still playing around. Or she was staring into nothingness again, from this angle it was hard to tell.

"Uh." Liam made when he spotted the pair. "That's Faintheart. She's not a dog for a child."

"Why not?" The dog didn't look aggressive or anything like that. Quite the contrary, she looked content with Haley.

"We don't know what happened to her," Liam admitted, keeping a wary eye on them. "But she's skittish. She actually fainted when our vet had a look at her when they brought her in. Can't stand loud voices or hectic movements. She's a good dog but nothing for a child."

Abby almost laughed at that.

Haley was finding her voice again and she was becoming more alive but she was far from being loud and hectic. She was still directing Jack with the whistle. Which might be a good idea for Faintheart as well.

"We'll have to keep Stiles from Faintheart, at least in the beginning," Lydia said. "How is she with other dogs?"

Liam made a gesture over the yard. Right, if she had a problem with other dogs, she wouldn't be here with eight others. But it looked like she liked to keep her distance.

"But you'll have to give her time and space to get used to other dogs," Liam confirmed Abby's observation but he was looking at Lydia.

"I don't live with them," Lydia explained. "She doesn't have to face another dog right away."

When Abby walked over to where Haley was sitting with Faintheart, the dog visibly tensed up so she made sure to keep her distance.

"Her name is Faintheart," Abby said. "Is she coming home with us?"

"She's coming home with us." Haley put her arm protectively around the dog who melted into her side.

A/N That's all folks, hope you enjoyed the ride. This is it for this series (at least for now) but I'm going to start a new story next weekend, have a look if you like.