Vicki's cell phone ringing made her jump. She was lost in a book, something she had been doing to occupy her "free time" when the kids were napping.
"Coreen.." Vicki smiled, she needs me, she thought to herself.
"Yes?" Vicki said, Coreen could clearly tell Vicki was smiling.
"Stop smiling," Coreen said.
"I'm not..what's up," yes, she was.
Coreen filled her in on the case, just speaking of the things again made Coreen sick. She had to excuse herself for a moment to throw up. Vicki pulled her cellphone away from her ear, frowning as she could hear Coreen over the phone throwing up.
"Sorry," Coreen breathed into the phone.
"Uh, just make sure you clean my phone good 'kay?" Vicki teased her. Coreen rolled her eyes.
"Stop rolling your eyes Coreen." Coreen looked around, did she have a hidden camera somewhere? Nah, Vicki just knew her very well.
"So, I was calling to see...do you think you could do some computer checking with me?" Coreen asked knowing full well she would.
"Of course I will. Do you need me to go with you when you find her?" Vicki asked.
"No, I can do this. It's just been so long, I think it might cut our time in half. I want to get this over with. I don't know why this is affecting me so much." Coreen said, rubbing her stomach which was still hurting from vomiting.
"Hmm..yeah okay, well I'm on my way." Vicki said.
"NO!! I'll come to you, we can do it from home." Coreen stopped her.
"Ahh..Henry.." Vicki said, smiling again.
"Yeah.." Coreen laughed nervously. Vicki told her to come on over, to tell Henry she was bringing her something to eat. Coreen told her Henry hadn't made it back yet.
"Well, I'll call him. And, I really would like some Chinese." Vicki said.
"Is it going to make you sick?" Coreen knew that sometimes when Vicki was pregnant, Chinese made her sick.
"I hope not because I sure am craving it..now chop, chop!" Vicki hung up her phone, leaving Coreen writing Henry a note.
Just as she started to leave, Henry came back..damn!
"Oh, hey," Coreen said, jumping when he opened the door.
"Hey..going to get Vicki food huh?" Henry said, shutting the door behind him.
"Uh, huh," That wasn't a lie, just not the whole truth. Henry crossed his arms over his chest, tilted his head at Coreen and smiled. He knew it was something more but he wouldn't press. As long as Coreen was going to Vicki and not the other way around, he was okay with it.
"Okay, well I've got some things to set up here anyway. I'm going to a convention for my novels in a few weeks and I've got to get ready." He said, letting her off the hook. She audibly breathed a sigh of relief. Henry grinned at her and let her go.
Coreen arrived at Vicki's with the Chinese in hand, Vicki nearly yanking her arm off getting her in the door.
"Jeez Vic.." Coreen said smiling at Vicki's urgency to eat.
"Mmm..London really wanted this today." Vicki smiled through bites.
"Yeah, I'm sure.." Coreen agreed.
"Aren't you eating?" Vicki gestured with a chopstick.
"Blech..no. I"m still nauseous." she said covering her mouth. Vicki chewed deliberately, raising her eyebrows at her.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm not the one who forgets my birth control.." Coreen smiled pointing to Vicki's belly. Vicki cocked her head and made a face.
"Well, she was meant to be apparently, that's why I forgot.." was Vicki's excuse. She was thrilled nonetheless.
They began to work on the case, searching public records every place they could.
"Wow..this person has moved like fifty times just in the last ten years." Vicki said, hitting the keys on her keyboard. She had her laptop propped on her belly, London gave a big kick popping it up.
"Did you see that?" Coreen said excitedly.
"Yes, and I felt it too." Vicki deadpanned. When she went for her keyboard again, London did the same thing.
Coreen and Vicki looked at one another.
"Think she's..." Vicki started..then shook her head no.
"Why not? She might be trying to tell you something..let's see what's on here," Coreen turned the laptop where she could see it too.
There was a list of addresses for Selena's sister. Her name was Synthia Adams, Selena's maiden name was Adams. She had never married, so she was easier to find or at least her old addresses were easier to find. There were just so many. How to narrow them down was the problem.
"Okay, highlight one." Coreen told her. Vicki did, nothing. They did this fifteen more times until they got to number sixteen. When they highlighted it, she kicked wildy.
"Okay, okay..gotcha little girl!" Vicki told her stomach, putting her hand on it to calm her down. They had been at it for two hours so if this turned out to be right, it would be icing on the cake.
"What if this is right? Isn't that cool?' Leave it to Coreen to think it was cool. But she was right, it was rather different.
"You SURE you don't want me to go with you two?" Vicki asked as she wrote the address down.
Coreen thought for a moment, then said, "No, I think I can do this."
Vicki looked at Coreen, realizing how much she had grown up, how much she had changed. She was proud of what Coreen had become. She smiled at her knowing that Coreen could handle it. Then Vicki made a face and grabbed her stomach.
"Vicki? Are you okay?"
"No.." she whispered out.." call Henry.."