Hi, everyone! I'm so happy about all the reviews I have gotton! I'm sorry it has taken so long for me to update, but I have a writing competition to go to tomorrow...God, I'm so nervous! But I'm excited, too. Well, I hope you enjoy this next chapter!
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I said my goodbyes to Cuddy and hung up the phone. Janette began making monkey noises.
"What did you just do?" My voice was dangerously calm. I was starting to wonder if I should have just left her. I could be at work, aid in saving someone's life. But no, I had to be the hero and try to help this girl.
At my glare she stopped with the noises.
"Well, you see, I wanted food and you were being pissy and I didn't wanna annoy you further and ask for food and then I couldn't reach the plates, so I tried to climb up on the counter, but I slipped and tried to grab onto something and I ended up grabbing a plate, but unfortunately it was the one on the bottom and that ended up pulling all the plates off the shelf, hence the loud crashing noise, and now YOU'RE really, REALLY pissed and I'M really, really sorry and I swear I didn't mean to do it!" She bowed her whole body down as far as she could and raised her hands together in a 'please' motion.
It was both amazing and disturbing that she had managed all that in one breath.
"O…kay…." I slowly nodded. "Did you get cut in the process?"
"No…" She said cautiously. "But, you did." She glanced down at my bare feet. I followed her gaze and noticed that I was now standing in a forming puddle of blood. It was then I felt the pain from the glass embedded in my foot.
I mumbled a few curse words and limped fairly quickly back to my sofa where I proceeded to wiggle the glass out. It stung. A lot.
"Janette, my bag is right by the door. Could you bring it to me?" I winced as I pulled out a rather large piece of my former plates. She brought the bag to me without questions. I turned it over, not having the patience to dig through it, and grabbed gauze and some Neosporin, set those next to me, and went back for some tweezers. Using the tweezers, I managed to get the rest of the glass out when I noticed Janette playing with my stethoscope.
"Wow! You really ARE a doctor!"
"What? You didn't believe me?" I managed words in between gasps of pain. The glass was in there deep.
"Well, yeah. I don't know anything about you. What else was I s'posed to think? Miss Rapist?" She grinned at me. I glared at her. Once I had both feet cleaned and bandaged, I leaned back on the sofa.
"So, what am I supposed to do with you?" The question was meant mostly for myself. She shrugged.
"You could utilize my innate ability of pl-"
"Don't go there." I gave her a warning look. After a few more minutes, I sighed. "I guess you need a bath, huh? Follow me." I stood gingerly and forced myself to walk towards the linen closet. I pulled out a large towel and pointed to another door near by.
"There's the bathroom. The shower is fairly simple to use. Here's your towel. When you're done, I'll have a change of clothes waiting at the doo-"
"No." She cut me off. "I wear this, and only this." She pulled at her hoodie. I sighed.
"Then I need those now. I'll wash them. Depending on the length of your shower, you may have to wait a while until they're dry." She nodded, went into the bathroom, and came out a few seconds later wrapped in a towel.
"I figured, since you're such a prude, I'd save myself a lecture and change in the bathroom. However…" She gave me a sly smile and handed me her clothes. She was just a child and she was offering herself to me. It made me rather angry to think about what kind of family she came from to make her think this was okay. I nailed her with another one of my 'Don't even' glares and briskly walked to my laundry room. I placed her clothes in and allowed them to wash.
I preoccupied myself by watching reruns of Scooby Doo. It had been a long time since I've seen the famous talking dog and the 'meddling kids'. It was quite a nostalgic hour for me. I got up once during the commercials to put Janette's clothes in the dryer.
"Oooh! Scooby Doo! I love this show!" The enthusiastic voice came from right behind me and I turned to face Janette.
"Yes, so do I. Your clothes are currently drying, so it'll only be a little longer 'till they're done. Are you hungry?"
"No! I don't need your charity!" Her mood swings made me believe she might be slightly bipolar. And just as she said this, her tummy rumbled quite noisily. Her cheeks flushed a bright pink and she turned away from me making a little 'hmph' sound.
"What would you like to eat?" I couldn't help but find myself smiling at her.
"Not hungry!" She protested, but her stomach had a different say in the matter.
"Peanut-butter and jelly sandwich?" I offered.
"Don't like peanut-butter!" This, too, she claimed with the same pouty look as before, however, I could tell she was lying. Her eyes had lit up at the mention of peanut-butter.
"What kind of jelly?" I was going to feed her weather she wantd me to or not.
"Grape…" She mumbled almost incoherently. I smiled at her and made two sandwiches, one for her and one for me. I checked on her clothes, still wet, and headed back into the living room. I handed her her sandwich and began eating my own. She mumbled thanks, eyed it suspiciously, took one bite, decided it was safe, and proceeded to devour the sandwich like it was the first meal she'd eaten in a looong time.
"When was the last time you ate?" I asked, amazed.
"Don't…'member…" She spoke between gulps of food. I got up and made two more sandwiches, both for her, and grabbed some BBQ chips. I set them down in front of her. This time, she didn't eye the sandwich. She dove right into it, consuming everything, including the crumbs. She then proceeded to demolish the bag of chips. Once again, I was in awe of this little girl.
When she had eaten as much as she possibly could, we continued our session of Scooby Doo, speaking very little to one another. About an hour later, I heard the buzzer for my dryer go off. I got up, stretched, and retrieved her clothes. She headed to the bathroom and came out a few minutes later, looking just as she had when I met her. Only this time, she was a lot cleaner.
"So, do you have a boyfriend?" Her question caught me off guard.
"No. Not right now. I was seeing someone, but then I found out her was a total jerk. So, I dumped him."
"What was his name?" She asked. I wondered if her curiosity was genuine or if she was just making small talk.
"Michael Stiller. It was a while ago, though."
"ARE you a lesbian?"
"What kind of a question is that?"
"Well, you never denied it earlier, so I just assumed maybe you were. But you say you dated a guy before. So I have to wonder. Full out lesbo, or bi?" Her grin at such a personal (well, not really…) question irked me.
"Neither. As far as I'm concerned, I'm straight."
"Right. So that's why you got flustered when that Cuddy lady answered the phone." I glared at her.
"What about you? You have a preference?" I didn't care to know, but I wanted to drop the subject. My eensy, weensy, little, non-existent crush on my boss's boss was no concern of hers. (It's not a crush! It's admiration! I swear!)
"I'm only eight! Why would I care?" I was about to mention her constantly bring up sex when my subconscious brain caught an error in her words.
"Wait, didn't you say you were fourteen?"
"No idea what you're talkin' about." She glanced to her side and then back at me. I sighed and decided to just let it go.
"Do you have anywhere to go?"
"Now really, think about that one a sec. If I did, why would I have been sleeping under your car in the middle of winter?" Once again, I sighed. I figured I'd be doing a lot of sighing from now on.
"Would you like to stay with me? Until I'm able to find a more suitable home for you." She smiled up at me and I swear I could see sparkles in her violet colored eyes.
"Really?! I can stay with you?" Her grin seemed to devour her whole face. I nodded.
"Until you want to leave."
"I never wanna leave you, mommy Alison!" I was taken aback at her words and even more so when she glomped me. Yep. She's definitely bipolar.
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Yeah, the kid is kinda wierd...she'll get even more funny and evil next chapter when she shows up at work with Cam. That'll definitely be interesting! I'm typing it now, so it should be up soon. But then, I've always been a bit of a procrastinator...
Reviews make me update faster!!!
