"I'd be happy to look after Chrissie, Mrs. Beckett." Malia shook her auburn hair out of her face as she held the phone between her shoulder and head, trying to make dinner and talk at the same time.

"Ten dollars an hour? Isn't that a bit much? I normally only get five dollars."

"Okay, then. I'll see you at seven. Thanks, bye."

Malia dropped the phone onto the bench separating the kitchen and dining room. Clumsily she pressed the 'off' button with her elbow and went back to cutting up potatoes.

After putting the potatoes into the oven to roast with the chicken, Malia grabbed her cell phone and plopped herself down on the couch, in the lounge.

She checked how many texts she had, only four, from Becky, Sarah, Jake and her mother. She read her mother's text first, 'Hi, love. I won't be home 4 t. got to work late. Luv mum xoxo.'

Malia rested her head in her hands. She couldn't remember the last time that she and her mother had sat down for a meal, that wasn't take-aways, at a reasonable hour.

Sighing she checked the other messages, Becky and Sarah both wanted to know if she was busy in the weekend and Jake was just asking how she was.

Quickly she texted them all back.

To Becky she sent, 'Na, I ain't busi ae. Sundae aftanoon? Da ice skatin rink bi da beach?'

To Sarah, 'I'm free satrdae. Hoyts in twn? Star wars 3?'

And to Jake, 'Im alryt ae. Ma mum won't b hm again bt wots new. U?'

She shoved the phone into her pocket and flicked on the TV.

The news was on. Random lights appearing everywhere and disappearing just as suddenly, a few people have gone missing, someone was murdered, someone was in a car crash, and there's still a war going on.

Disgusted Malia turned the TV off and threw the remote into the couch beside her.

'What a horrible world we live in,' She thought, 'bad things are happening left, right and centre.'

Zzz zzz. Malia's phone vibrated in her pocket. She took it out and checked it; it was from Jake.

'Yea, im gud. Du u want 2 cum ova? So u aint alne. I just bort lethl wepn 1-4.'

Smiling to herself Malia replied, 'Cnt ae. Im babisttn crissy. U cn cum here if u lyk.'

She would never admit it to anyone but she hated staying home alone at night. Though she didn't need to tell Jake or Becky. They could tell when she came to school the next day, she would be tired and flustered. She hated the dark quietness, and when she turned her music on, she hated not being able to hear anything else. To tell the truth she was paranoid as well. Her mother is a police officer and her father was before he was killed. Malia and her mother had almost died at the same time as her father, but her mother had found a knife and stabbed the man that tried to kill them. The man had gotten away and was never caught. Malia and her mother changed their last name, but Malia was always afraid he would find them and try to finish the job. That was seven years ago. Malia was now fifteen, but still couldn't get rid of that fear, though she could sometimes work around and hide it from most people including her mother.

Zzz zzz. Malia picked up her phone, a reply from Jake, 'K b round soon.'

Malia checked her watch. Seven oh five. The Becketts were always late dropping Chrissie – their four-year-old daughter- off, but never more than ten minutes after the time they stated.

Right on cue, the doorbell rang, making Malia jump. Her green eyes flicked out the front window to the porch by the door. She cursed herself for her jumpiness. For some reason it was worse than usual and she had an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

Walking to the door, she opened it for the Becketts.

"Mali!" Chrissie screeched and threw herself at Malia.

Mali crouched down and gave the blonde four-year-old a hug, "It's good to see you too."

As Malia stood back up, Mrs. Beckett said, "Thank you so much for taking her on such short notice."

"It's no problem, really."

"We should be back to pick her up by twelve. Thank you." Mr. Beckett said before leaving with his wife.

Malia shut the door and turned away. The door slowly started to open again. With a gasp of horror Malia threw herself against it.

"OW!" She had trapped the person's fingers in the door, "Shit! Mali! Open the damn door! It's Jake!"

Malia quickly fell away from the door, "Why the hell didn't you knock!?" She was angry and scared.

"I thought you saw me!" Jake looked at Chrissie, who was standing behind Malia staring at him, "Hello Chrissie."

"Hello." She squeaked before running into the lounge.

"Give me a look at your fingers." Malia ordered, she had gotten over her initial fright.

Jake held out his hand for her, and promptly pulled it back with a hiss when she poked his fingers.

"What'd you do that for?!"

"Toughen up. They're not broken or sprained, only bruised." Malia went to the freezer and pulled out some frozen peas.

"And you had to poke them to figure that out?"

"Like I said, toughen up. Now, put those on it. It'll help. She chucked him frozen peas and he caught them in his good hand.

A mischievous grin wormed its way onto Jakes face. "You know, I haven't kissed you yet, that's got to be a record."

"Well, I don't know, at the start we could've waited for longer." Malia grinned as closed the distance between them. They wrapped their arms around each other and their lips met. Malia felt fireworks explode inside her as Jakes tongue massaged her own.

Their kiss was cut short by a terrified shriek from the lounge. They jumped apart and Malia grabbed the broom with no head that was leaning against the bench and a knife before running into the next room.

A tall man wearing black clothes and a black balaclava was holding Chrissie with one strong hand over her mouth. The other hand held a gun to her head.

Malia was glad he was wearing a balaclava, if her wasn't she would probably be too terrified to move. She was terrified now but the man was holding a gun to Chrissie's head. The girl was four-years-old and would never hurt a fly, that threw Malia into a rage, "Let her go.'" Malia growled dangerously.

The man shifted his gun to make it point towards Malia. Using the moment that the gun wasn't pointed at anyone Malia threw the knife and at the same time Chrissie bit on the hand over her mouth. The man yelped as the knife cut into the back of his forearm and Chrissies teeth drew blood. He let go of Chrissie and dropped the gun.

Chrissie stumbled towards Malia and hid behind her, tears streaming down her face.

The man pulled the knife out of his arm, wincing as he did so, and advanced on Malia, forgetting about the gun.

Malia backed towards Jake as he mouthed 'the police are on their way.'

Suddenly there was a bright light and everything went cold. Just as quickly as it came, it disappeared. Now Malia and Chrissie were somewhere different, somewhere new. The walls of the long corridor were shiny and metallic. Turning, Malia scooped up Chrissie and sat her on her hip. Chrissie buried her face in Malia's shoulder.

Suddenly a thought struck her. Jake! Jake was still with the man and had no weapons.

Malia started to panic. Where were they? How'd they get here? She had to get home. Had to help Jake. What on Earth was going on? Tears started to roll down Malia's cheeks. Angrily she wiped them away. She didn't want anyone to see her cry, and she had to stay strong and in control for Chrissie.

"Don't move." A voice said from behind her.

Malia slowly turned around, both arms still wrapped around Chrissie. A tall man with messy dark brown, almost black, hair, dressed in a dark zip-up jacket and dark pants held a gun towards her, a large, automatic gun.

SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA

Authors note: The start or my 2nd SGA Story. I hope you enjoy it. I would love any reviews and/or advice.

Thanks.