Lost and Found
If she has to hear Maddie talk about her date with Brent Edwards from last night one more time, she's leaving.
Yeah, she said the two of them going out was fine, that she didn't like Brent anyway, but she really, really doesn't need to hear the details of their make-out session in the back of his car. Really.
"You getting the purple comforter or the green one?" her friend asks, standing near the bedding with her cart full of dorm stuff. "Don't want to match."
"Maddie, we're not going to the same college," Kate reminds the other girl, wandering toward the clothing section. "But purple."
The other girl hauls down one of the sets, stuffing it on top of her pile of pots, silverware, and the microwave already in the shopping cart. Kate has most of her stuff already, tagging along for moral support and in a rather futile attempt to keep Maddie's inability to shop by a list to a minimum. It's not working.
"What's next?" Kate asks, snagging the list of items from her friend's hands even as Maddie wanders off down an aisle, abandoning the cart to Kate. Everything that they typed up weeks ago is crossed off. Handwritten items that were added to the bottom also have lines through them. What on earth are they still doing making 'emergency runs' to the stores to grab 'things needed to survive daily life'? "Maddie," she says, stalking down the aisle and shoving the list into the other girl's hand. "I'm going to look at jackets. Find me when you're done?"
The blonde girl nods, already entranced by throw pillows.
Kate finds the clothes, moving around the clearance summer dresses and sleeveless shirts to the jackets. She reaches out, letting her fingers touch the supple leather, the ridiculous fur-lined ones for winter. Trying to figure out why someone would want to wear what is essentially a creature around their neck distracts her so she sees the little Mary Jane shoe almost too late, skipping to the other foot in order to avoid it.
Glancing back confirms it isn't a mirage; there really is a shoe in the middle of the aisle. Attached to a slender leg that disappears under the hems of the fur coats. Kate kneels, peeking under the coats until she finds the girl curled up in the middle of the rack.
"Hey, sweetie," she says quietly, not wanting to startle the girl.
Bleary blue eyes open as the girl yawns, trying to stretch as much as the metal racks will let her. Her hair is tangled but looks like it might have been braided at one point, head cushioned on a coat she must have pulled down. "Can't talk to ya," the girl mumbles, sitting up and pushing her fists into her eyes. "Stranger."
Kate nods. Makes sense since her parents hammered that information into her head as soon as they knew their daughter would understand the concept. Still. "Where's your parents?" she asks, glancing back out from behind the dark cave of the coats.
"Dunno. Dad had a hat."
No one with a hat in the area though there is a security guard making the rounds, walkie-talkie spouting off something that she isn't fast enough to catch despite years of hearing the police scanner in the living room that her mom borrowed from a friend in one of the precincts.
Weighing choices, Kate waves a hand to the guy and he strolls over in no rush.
"Hey kiddo? Want to tell the security guard what your dad looks like?" Kate starts before the guard is on the walkie-talkie.
In minutes, the stupid fur coats are surrounded by local police, mall security, and one face that looks far too familiar.
"Alexis?" the man asks, breathless but sounding relieved when the girl crawls from under the coats. He grabs the girl up, hugging her up against his chest, her shoes dangling against his knees. "Oh, thank God." And then he's turning to Kate, his smile wavering as adrenaline rushes through his body. "You found her?"
Kate shrugs, shaking her head a little. "Not really. Just looking for a coat for college. It's nothing."
"Still," he says, holding out a hand, one that isn't keeping the girl up on his hip, "thank you. We've been looking for hours. I… I don't know what I would have done if…"
"Just glad you found each other again."
"Kate! What do ya think about these?"
Maddie's down at the other side of the store with two throw pillows raised up in the air. So Kate smiles at the crowd, nodding at the little girl and her father. Turning to go tell Maddie that she doesn't need more throw pillows, the man catches her wrist.
"Thank you. Seriously."
"It's nothing. Pure happenstance that I stumbled across her when I did." Swallowing the bubbling excitement, Kate only gives them one last quirking up of her lips before stepping backwards. "Stay safe, Mr. Castle."
She doesn't get to see his mouth fall open just a little as she jogs down the aisle to Maddie, taking the pillows from her friend and tossing them onto one of the sample beds. "You don't need anything else. Check-out. Now," she says, steering Maddie and her cart toward the registers.
"So. What'd you do to draw the crowd?" Maddie questions, tugging her elbow from Kate's grip.
"Found a girl sleeping in a bunch of coats. Reunited her with her dad. Check-out, Maddie."
"Must have been someone pretty important to draw that large a group of law enforcement. Anyone we know?"
Kate shakes her head, loading things onto the belt since Maddie is too busy interrogating to do it herself. "No clue." She holds up the multi-pronged corkscrew and bottle opener. "Really? Legal age is twenty-one."
"Says the girl who snuck some of her mother's wine to my place last week so we could watch Sex and the City."
"Shut up."