Tʜᴇ Dᴀɪʟʏ Dᴏsᴇ Oғ Fᴀᴍɪʟʏ TALK SHOW

"My name is Josh." He looked next to him.

"My name is Rose." She shrugged.

"My name is Jamie." She pushed her glasses up. 

"I'm Micheal." He sat back putting his arm on the back of the sofa.

"Brandon, yo." He held up two fingers.

"I'm Lou-Ann." She sank a bit in her chair from shyness.

"And I'm Alan." He looked across the vastness of the audience. "Well, what a great group of young people." Alan Sanders, the host of The Daily Dose of Family talk show said. "What or should I say who brought you here today?" He pointed at Micheal.

"Well Alan, I believe the credit goes to Lou-Ann for that. She has always been the resourceful one of our group. At least that's how it was back in the day." He smiled at Lou-Ann and she made a tiny wave gesture at him.

"Lou-Ann, can you tell me why you wanted to find all these great folks?" Alan swung his body toward her.

 She was so shy, she wasn't sure if she could speak. Finally, her tiny voice was heard. "Well, we were best friends in middle school. And we just…" she looked over at Rose with a pleading gaze. 

"What Lou-Ann is trying to say… and please excuse her. She is so shy. That's what we love about her because she is in no way shy when it's just us." Everyone laughed.

"Ain't that the truth." Josh belted. Lou-Ann blushed.

"We were our own family, we weren't just friends." Rose stopped and looked at Jamie. 

"We had no one else. It was just us. If we didn't look out for each other, no one would." Jamie explained.

"And me, being the only African American." He made quotations with his hands. "Your producers said I couldn't say the black person on the show." Brandon suddenly looked surprised… "sorry." He snorted, trying not to laugh. "I was their backup." 

"Really?" Alan was intrigued.

"Nah, man. We were a family like she said. It was survival of the fittest and we made sure we survived. We stuck together through everything. I don't know where I would be today if it weren't for them." He pointed to all of them. 

"What brought you guys together in the first place?" Alan leaned on the podium. 

"Well, Alan. We were all foster kids." Josh replied. "We had to stick together."

"Wow. That's really something that you found each other and stuck with each other the way you did. I mean, you all look like you would be in different clicks." Alan looked surprised. 

"Well, we were. I was the quarterback in high school." Josh looked at Rose.

"I was head cheerleader in high school." Rose giggled and looked at Jamie.

"I was class president and leader of the debate club." Jamie smiled and looked at Micheal. 

"I was a stoner in high school. I mean, I wasn't head of anything except when it came to us. I guess you could say they followed me as their potential leader." Micheal glanced at everyone then looked at Lou-Ann.

"Me? I was the captain of the Glee club and the Cosplayers. I'm always a vampire." She giggled and looked over at Brandon.

"I was the basketball captain." Brandon looked at everyone again then to Alan.

"See, you guys are so different," Alan spoke with truth. 

"That is true." Brandon raised his hand.

"But at the end of the day, we were a family. We were misfits in the eyes of our peers, but we were family. We stood up for each other."

"We helped each other." Jamie leaned against Micheal. "We were each others strength."

"Okay." Alan looked at his cards. "How much difference is in your ages?"

"21." Josh started.

"23." Rose crossed her arms.

"19." Jamie pushed her glasses up again.

"21." Micheal stated as he leaned forward, putting his elbows on his legs. 

"20." Brandon looked at Alan.

"18." Lou-Ann murmured.

"So, is that how you each lost touch with each other? One by one graduating?"

"Well, actually Alan, I was barely in high school when it happened." Rose looked sad. "We were all pulled from the our foster family when our foster mom went into the hospital. We begged to stay together. But one by one, we were adopted out. We didn't want that. We were too old to be integrated into a new family especially without each other." 

"Yeah." Brandon agreed. "But now we all each have separate, supportive families. I mean my mom just adores me and my little brother. He was adopted also. And my dad, well he taught me how to hunt and fish. They're awesome. But I missed these guys."

"We were a family. We wanted to stay a family. And even though we were split up. I never lost hope that I would find them again." Lou-Ann spoke with conviction. It shocked Alan.

"My mom told me, when I was 14, if they meant that much to me, to think of them every day. She supported the fact they were my family. She wanted me to eventually find them again." Jamie waved. "There she is. There in the audience.

The cameras panned to get a shot of her mom. 

"Ok. Josh, who was adopted first?"

"That would be Lou-Ann. She is the youngest. And Rose was adopted last. I know, because I was just before her. It took two years, but we finally found homes but something was always missing." Micheal nodded his head at everyone who agreed by nodding as well.

"Okay moms. This is your turn to come to the mike and say what you need to." Alan gazed over the audience.

"I am Brandon's mom. We weren't looking for a teenager. But we were so excited when we got the call, we went anyway. I'm so glad I did because Brandon is an amazing young man. And he's getting married in the fall." She shook with excitement. 

Micheal slapped him on the back, "Congrats man!" He smiled at Brandon. Besides Lou-Ann, he was the only one not married.

"I am Marie, Jamie's mom. I don't know what I would do without her. She is a blessing among blessings. Our son, James, was lost to us in Afghanistan. We were devastated. We got the call that a teenage girl needed a home. Well, we went immediately. She didn't want to come, but we assured her that we would support her in looking up her friends. We tried for a few years to no avail but nothing, until your producer called us. Jamie was so excited. I think Tom, her husband, was even more excited than her. I mean, she talked about them constantly and he really wanted to meet Micheal, Josh, and Brandon."

The audience laughed.

"I'm Margaret, Joshua's mom." 

"Awe mom. Call me Josh, not Joshua. That name is for kids." The audience again laughed.

"Anyway. We had taken my sister to pick up a little girl. She was only 4 years old. We had no intentions of adopting, I mean, I was a grandma and my sister was 17 years younger than me." She laughed. "But when we saw Josh, it was like he just belonged. He told us about his reservations about being adopted and we told him we would work with him every step of the way."

"And they have." Josh was teary-eyed. "My wife Rebecca." He pointed her out, and she waved. "has also been so supportive in the search of these guys. She already sees them as brothers and sisters."

"I can't believe someone would marry your ornery ass." Brandon snorted. Josh chuckled at what he said. "But I'm glad somebody did." 

The audience clapped and laughed.

"I'm Barbara." She looked up at Alan. "I'm Rose's mom. When Rose came to us, she was like a scared little girl. She didn't want to eat or talk. But one day, I called the DHS of Haskell county and talked to them. I don't know how they did it, but they found a picture of all them together. When I gave it to her, she was like a totally different girl. I'm glad she came to be with us." Barbara smiled at her. "Cannon was her high school sweetheart. They will be celebrating their 5th anniversary in 6 days. And I'm going to let the cat out of the bag, because she said I could." The audience chuckled. "They're due in July." 

Jamie beamed with joy. The audience went wild. 

The group all congratulated her.

"I know the other mom's want to go as well, but we have to move on. So they pretaped what they wanted to say when the show is over. The audience will still be here. We only have so much time on air folks." The audience booed. "Its ok, at least you, the audience will get to see it with them."

The audience clapped.

"So, now fast forward. Lou-Ann, how did you know who to call to help find these guys?"

"I had called many different places with my dads help. Mom passed just after I was adopted."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Alan stood next to her and patted her shoulder. 

"Dad was amazing. He knew what people might have leads. If I wasn't calling, then he was. And finally, he found Oliver Sommers and your show. Oliver worked with the agency that helped us get adopted. He now works on your show." Lou-Ann smiled at Alan.

"Yes, I know Oliver well." Alan stated. "He's a great man."

"Well, Oliver wanted to do an exclusive about us being reunited. So he wanted us to do that here on live tv. "Lou-Ann seemed to be relaxing, so her shyness was going away. " I also met the love of my life through Oliver. His son, Vaughn Sommers. We are engaged. It happened two days ago." The audience went wild again. 

The group congratulated her like they had everyone else.

Oliver walked out on the stage. "Alan, we have exclusive video. It is something not even these guys here have seen, but will be taking a copy home each. Can we roll it?"

"Roll it!" Alan motioned.

The video played and there were the guys on the label, each sitting in a different room. A loud speaker was heard in each room for them to come on down to the green room. Brandon was the first to walk in. He sat on the sofa. Then came Micheal.

"Hey man," Micheal said, not paying any attention to who was in there with him. When he looked up at Brandon, now standing, he was in shock. "Brandon?"

"Micheal? Is that you?" Brandon was emotional. They hugged each other like they were each others lifeline.

As they sat trying to catch up, Rose walked in. She saw who sat there and she flew into their arms. Her sobs of happiness were heard loud and clear. 

"I thought I had lost you guys." She cried. 

As they sat there catching up, the door opened again. In walked Lou-Ann. They all saw her standing there, tears in her eyes. Brandon walked up to her, grabbed her and swung her around. The others joined in with a large group hug. They were all sobbing by this time. 

The door creaked slowly. "They all looked up to see Jamie walk in. Before she knew what had hit her, Michael had her in his arms. When she realized who they were, she almost fainted. She broke down. The emotion was thick and she was pinching herself to see if it was real.

Finally, Josh walked through the door. His face in utter disbelief as he walked out, then back in to make sure they were really there. They all huddled in a circle. Their heads touching one another and they sobbed, talked and reunited with their family.

They were heard whispering and talking on stage. They were still shocked and emotional from the video. 

The audience was full of ooohs and awwwws as the camera panned to Alan. 

"This has always been why I created this show. To bring families back together. No matter where you are and what you do, it all comes down to family. The families we have and the families we choose."

The camera panned the audience once more and the guys on the panel before fading to black.