She was the vivid picture of her mother; Lizzie's features clear in his mind.

Sarah had inherited her long and dark eyelashes, giving the small child a very deep look. Her white skin was even whiter than he had seen on the other room. The only thing Kevin couldn't recognize from Lizzie in Sarah was the child's thin lips and her perfectly sculpted nose.

Sarah's eyes did resemble her mother's. Huge and wide open, calling all the attention onto them, just like Lizzie's had done. But there was a difference between them. Lizzie had been sapphire blue; meanwhile Sarah's were jade green.

Minutes seemed to tick by as he kept his eyes locked with hers. Kevin wasn't sure what he was waiting for, maybe an answer from her part, something, anything really, but not this silence between the two of them and her stunning green eyes gazing up at him.

Kevin smiled softly, the corners of his lips twitching up in a ghost of a smile. "I know you're probably asking yourself who I am and what I'm doing here. Well..." Kevin's voice trailed off as he tried to think of a way to let her know everything that was going through his mind at the moment. "I'm... I'm gonna take care of you. I'm gonna take you out of this place."

He shook his head inwardly, forcing a smile on his lips as he tried to continue his line of thought. "They told me your name was Sarah. That's a very pretty name. Mine is Kevin." He stopped himself from sighing in frustration, not wanting to loose his calm posture.

"I knew your mommy," he said after a moment, thinking that the best way to start this would be an explanation of how it all came to this point. "We were friends when we were kids. She was great. She was..." He smiled in despite of himself as he remembered his friend's actions. "She was the best." He let out a soft sigh from barely parted thin lips. "She asked me to take care of you. I hope I can do it. I hope you let me do it."

There. That was all he could say. Even if he tried to force any more words from his mouth, Kevin knew it'd be pointless. He was spent, like he had been running a mile, just by talking with a four year old. He knew there was a huge reason behind this: he would die of he let Lizzie down.

After a moment -- or what seemed more like a century for Kevin -- Sarah finally nodded. Somehow, someway, Kevin knew that was as much acknowledge as he was going to get from the little girl.

A real smile made its way over to Kevin's lip. "That's good. We're gonna be leaving this horrible place now." Kevin leaned closer, as if wanting to tell her a secret. "I don't know you, but this place gives me the creeps." His heart sunk when he didn't even get a small smile from the girl.

Kevin knew he should take the girl's hand in his, but Kevin couldn't help but feel he'd scare her away. Instead, he motioned for her to walk out of the room.

Her eyes focusing on anything except Kevin, she stood up and walked out of the room. Kevin let out a soft sigh of relieve as he walked behind her, her backpack still in his hands.

When they reached the couple standing in the middle of the hallway talking to each other, Kevin spoke. "I think we're ready to go." He couldn't help but feel odd in the situation he was placed. Like he just didn't belong there.

Susan nodded. Sitting on her heels, she looked at the girl. She accommodated Sarah's dress' collar, smiling at her. "Take care, will you sugar? I know you'll be just fine. This fine gentleman is going to take good care of you. I know that." She knew she was babbling, something she always in this kind of situations.

The girl only looked at her with wide eyes, blinking every other second -- silent.

"I guess we should get going," Mr. Smith looked at Kevin, waiting long enough for him to nod before saying his goodbyes to Susan. "I can take you to your hotel Mr. Richardson."

In other situation, he would have waved it dismissively, preferring to take a cab instead, but with Sarah with him, he wasn't sure that would be correct. Instead, he nodded, accepting the offer. "Thanks."

Mark made his way out of the house, Kevin waiting for Sarah to walk before him.

Kevin opened the back door for Sarah when they reached the car. She hopped in, Kevin sitting besides her, her backpack on his lap. Telling the name of the hotel to the other man, Kevin sat the whole way silently, deep in his own thoughts.

*****

Kevin opened the door of the room, motioning for Sarah to walk in first. Looking around the room, Kevin couldn't help but feel like everything was different.

And it was. That very same morning, when he had checked in, he didn't have a four-year old with him. He didn't have to care for somebody else. Kevin sighed. Things were so very different.

Sarah was standing in the middle of the room, her hands folded on her stomach, looking totally lost.

Kevin's heart went out to her. Her hair fell around her face and onto her shoulder and it wasn't hard for him to imagine a hand pushing the dark locks behind an ear, a smile on rosy lips in a similar face, dazzling cobalt eyes shinning at him. God, he thought, please let me be making the right choice. Don't let me screw this one up.

"Hmm..." Kevin stammered. He checked out his watch, realizing it was almost noon. Usually he wouldn't have lunch this early, but then again, he didn't know if plane food would be good for Sarah. "Are you hungry? I think we should have something to eat."

Sarah only looked up at him, tilting her head.

He walked over to the dresser, showing her the menu in his hands. "We can order room service. What would you like?"

Kevin had known asking her would be pointless, but he had been hoping she would talk with him. His hopes were shot down when a minute later she was still looking at him, not saying anything.

He sighed. "I think we can ask for chicken. I hope you like chicken."

After ordering chicken with French fries for both of them, Kevin looked at her again. She had barely moved from her place in the middle of the room. This was going to be hard.

"Sarah?" She looked up at him. "Sarah, why don't you sit on the bed?" He pointed to the huge bed that took half the room. He hadn't asked for a suite, knowing he wouldn't be staying long. "I think you'll be far more comfortable."

Sarah walked over there, hopping on after a minute of trying to. The bed was far too high for her to reach and Kevin had been planning on helping her just as she finally achieved it.

They spent a couple of minutes in tense silence before Kevin sighed again. He knew he had to do something. If she was going to be living with him, he had to do something now.

Walking over to her, he kneeled in front of Sarah, his eyes founding hers. "Sarah?" Kevin sighed. "Sarah, I know this is hard for you. I know it must be really hard to... to go to strange places with strange people. This is hard for me too. Your mom, she was a great person, you know? She was really amazing. I cared a lot for her Sarah. She was one of my dearest friends. She... she asked me to take care of you, and that's just want I'm planning to do. I want to take of you. I just need you to trust me. I need you to..."

Kevin didn't even know what he was saying; he just knew he had to say something.

"I need you understand that I'm doing my best here. Things will be difficult for a while, going over to my house and meeting my friends, but they will settle down after a while. Everything will be fine, I promise you. We will be fine."

And what surprised Kevin was that he was able to talk in plural about Sarah and him with no problem. Like he was already used to it. Like he had been with her for a long time already. Barely a couple hours ago he hadn't even been sure about taking her and now he wanted to believe the two of them would be fine together.

Kevin smiled softly at Sarah, hoping the young girl would give him any sign that she had understood what he had said. He waited for a minute, five minutes, ten minutes and nothing. Sighing softly, Kevin tried to convince himself that the fact that she hadn't answered him didn't mean anything. She needed time. And he was planning on giving her as much as she needed.

*****

Kevin looked around the airport, taking a glance at Sarah standing about four feet to his side. They were waiting for Nick to pick them up. Nick had called Kevin while the two of them had been going over to the airport and had offered taking them. Kevin had accepted after remembering that he hadn't left his car, but gone over to the airport with a cab.

Dinner had been though enough. Kevin didn't know if Sarah could eat with cutlery or not. He was afraid the chicken was too big for her and had cut them up in very small pieces for her. Sarah had barely finished half her plate and Kevin didn't know if that was enough or not. By the time they had finished the meal, it was time to go over to the airport.

"Kevin!"

The man turned around, seeing the blond with his cap pulled down walking over. He smiled softly, giving Sarah another glance, as she squinted her tinny little eyes, looking weird at Nick.

"How was the flight?" Nick asked once he had reached them.

Kevin nodded. "It was fine."

Nick turned, looking at Sarah with big blue eyes. He kneeled in front of the little girl, smiling at her. "Hey there. What's your name?"

Shit. Kevin could have hit himself for his stupidity. "Nick," he started as he saw Nick's puzzled face.

Nick's eyes squinted as big emerald eyes only stared at him, her lips pressed into a thin line. "I think she doesn't like me."

"No, it's not that. She..." Kevin sighed. "She doesn't speak. The social worker said she'd start speaking as soon as she feels comfortable with someone."

"Oh," Nick frowned. He shrugged, then turned around and smiled at Sarah again. "Then, I'm Nick." He extended his hand, hoping she'd shake it.

"She doesn't interact either. I just..."

"It's ok," Nick was still looking at Sarah, who was looking right back at him, blinking ever so slowly. "I hope you like me at some point Sarah."

He stood up, placing his hand on Sarah's shoulder. Nick felt the little girl stiffening under his touch, but he didn't move. "I think it's time to go, don't you?"

Kevin nodded. "Yeah."

"That's all you've got?"

Kevin looked at his hands. Sarah's small pink backpack was in one hand and his gray bag in the other. "Yeah."

"Lets go then." Nick turned around, taking something out of his pants' pocket. "Almost forgot." He gave Kevin a dark blue cap, smiling at him, and then resumed his walking towards the parking lot. The last thing either of them needed was getting recognized.

They crossed the full airport and reached the parking lot in no time at all. Kevin recognized Nick's gray BMW. The blond opened the passenger door, walking over to the driver's side. Kevin unlocked the back seat, opening the door and motioning for Sarah to enter. The little girl complied, placing her hands on her lap, looking straight ahead. Kevin sighed. It was going to be so difficult to be able to reach out to her. He gave Sarah her pink backpack, thinking that maybe she'd like it with her. She took it in her hands, placing it on her lap, her hands on top. Kevin closed the door, taking a seat in front.

Nick nodded more to himself than to Kevin, starting the car and getting out of the place. When they reached the street, Nick took his cap off, placing it on the dashboard, as did Kevin.