Hey. Sorry. Enjoy.
No time turned out to be another week. Grace's external incision had been fine, but one of her internal sites had managed to become inflamed, causing what was left of her immune system to focus all of its energy there. It'd caused her fever, which'd caused the red skin, sweat, and semi-conscious state. Dr. Sloan upped her already upped antibiotics and kept her for an extra three days after the infection had cleared before he let her come back home.
She'd spent the majority of her first day back sleeping, Beauty and the Beast on repeat in the background. I made a sandwhich for myself and sprawled out infront of the couch while she dozed, trying to catch up on my last report for sociology. The semester was way over but I'd screwed the first attempt up so poorly that, taking the situation into consideration, she gave me a chance to resubmit.
I wrapped it up a couple of hours later, the sun almost set and Belle about to borrow the same book for the sixth time that day. I pulled myself off of the floor like a cat, arching my back to relieve my stiff muscles. Grace was still asleep so I felt comfortable leaving her alone to go finish the laundry I'd put in the night before, tossing the pile from the dryer into the basket and hauling it into my bedroom to fold.
Shortly after I'd begun the thrilling task, little pops started sounding from various directions. It wasn't until a colorful flash of light, a much louder crack accompanying it, lit up the room that I realized what the date meant.
"Aw, shit," I swore, dropping the shirt in my hands onto the bed and dashing out to the living room. Turns out I needn't have worried; Grace was sleepily stumbling her way to the balcony doors, pulling the curtains out of the way as best as she could and pressing her palms and her nose against the glass.
"You like fireworks?" I asked, pleasantly surprised as I knelt beside her.
She gasped in response, not hearing me as I crept up beside her. She nodded, a grin sneaking its way onto her face as she went back to watching the show.
"Do you wanna get a better look?" I offered, looking at the skyline, mostly blocked by surrounding buildings, and back at her.
She nodded eagerly, coughing into my face in her excitement. Lovely. Her infection had cleared up nicely but she'd developed a case of the sniffles in the hospital. "Let's go," I smiled, beckoning towards the closet. I put her parka, hat, and a scarf on before hoisting Grace up and onto my hip, letting her lay her head against my shoulder as we made our way to the elevator.
I knelt down and pointed to the button for eighteen, letting Grace push it for me. We got off and entered the stairwell, taking the final flight to get to the roof. "How's this?" I propped the door open with the brick left just to the side of it and turned, letting Grace see the open sky directly ahead of us.
"Wow," she breathed, so quiet I'm not even sure she really said it, as bursts of nearly every color of the rainbow lit up the sky all around us. We could see many of the homemade displays from other rooftops and, looking carefully, tiny bursts of light from the other side of the sound.
Twenty minutes in she put her head back down on my shoulder, but nearly an hour passed before she started to shake, the cold getting to her. "Ready to go in?" I asked, laying my cheek on top of her hair. She shook her head, protesting despite her obvious exhaustion.
I leaned forward to find her eyes closed, fluttering against the light, wintery breeze. Dr. Sloane had said she'd probably be tired but I hadn't expected this. I shifted her in my arms a bit and brought her back inside, laying her in my bed when we got back instead of the couch. I turned the radio on, hoping some music would help muffle the midnight fireworks, and went to bed myself.
xXoOoXx
The superintendent finally called me with an apartment opening in March, saying it wasn't exactly what I'd requested but that another one might not be available for a while. He gave me the key to take a look at it, under the condition I have it back to him in an hour or risk termination of my lease. Yeah… okay, I thought, taking it from his grasp and leaving the office.
I took the elevator up to seventeen, coming to find the right apartment at the very end of the hall. I practically fell into the apartment as I shoved the sticking door open, gaping at the amount of light streaming into the living room.
The entrance looked just like our current unit, the living room to the left and the kitchen to the right, but each room was noticeably larger and this kitchen had a little nook with enough room for a table. Stairs climbed along the back and left wall, giving access to a loft about half the size of the living room. The hallway led to two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a laundry room, the master having its own en suite.
The super was right; this was not what I'd requested. We could definitely make it work, though. I locked it back up and hurried back to the lobby, signing an agreement allowing me to hold onto the keys to both apartments for another two weeks in order to find furniture for Grace's room and the loft before moving in.
I got home to find Grace standing behind the couch, staring at Rosalie unblinkingly as she read. "That's not creepy," I muttered, grabbing my laptop off of the kitchen counter and plopping down next to Rose, who still hadn't noticed that I was back. "C'mere, Grace," I said, motioning her to the empty cushion next to me. "We're going to find you some bedroom furniture. If you see something you like just point at it, okay?" She climbed up next to me and snuggled into my side, one hand clutching my sweater and the other coming to rest next to mine on the computer.
We only had to hit three sites before she'd found the furniture set she liked and another two sites before she'd found the bedding set she wanted, a cherrywood twin with a matching desk, dresser, and nightstand and a black based comforter with alternating squares of orange, green, blue, pink, and purple that came with matching curtains. "Well that was easy," I said thankfully once everything was ordered. "And so the last order of business is: what color do you want the walls?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment, going so far as to tap her index finger against her mouth as she contemplated the colors before her, eventually pointing at one of the purple squares of the quilt. "Good one. I think I might paint my bathroom that color."
After a while she got bored of me looking for a second bathroom set and furniture for the loft and climbed down, returning to her post behind the couch and staring at the back of Rosalie's head. That's a thing we're going to have to work on.
I found a kitchen table and just like that all of the furniture was ordered and on its way. Yay, internet.
"All right Kid, let's go make dinner," I said, circling around and grabbing her under her arms, scooping her up and landing her on the counter. "What do you think, Mac 'n Cheese or turkey burgers?" One finger. "Mac 'n Cheese it is."
I opened up the box and handed it to her, letting her dump the pasta into the pot before I poured the water in and stuck it on the burner. "Thirsty?" At her nod I poured her a glass of apple juice, sticking a straw in it before handing it over. I poured a glass of coke for myself and grabbed a bottle of water for Rose, handing it to Grace. "Would you please bring this to Rosalie?" I asked, setting her on the floor.
She made a face, trying to hand the bottle back to me but I blocked her. "C'mon, Grace – you were alone with her for an hour. Did she try anything? Did she even leave the couch?" She shook her head. "You've known her almost as long as you've known me. Just walk over, hand her the bottle, and come right back. It'll be fine."
She huffed, hugging the bottle close as she brought it the living room. She started behind the couch, edging slowly around it until she was about a foot from Rose. I almost thought she was going to go right up to her but she tossed it into her lap and ran back to hide behind the island. "Thank you," Rose called after her, looking confused as she looked up to find nobody there.
"Dinner's just about ready," I said, draining the pasta. "If you want a break."
"Ugh, yes please." She closed the book and dropped it behind her as she rose. "So what'd the super say?"
"Oh, now she's invested!" I teased, adding the milk and cheese. "I've got two weeks before I have to turn in the keys to this place. Do you want to help me paint the new place?"
"Of course! When?" she asked, scooping macaroni into a bowl and handing it to Grace, who was hiding behind my legs, before getting some for herself.
"I'm thinking Tuesday. I have to go out and get the paint, first. I don't have any rollers or tape, either."
"Tarps would be good."
"Ooh, good call. Don't want to have to be putting in new carpeting, too."
xXoOoXx
Three days later Grace and I stood in the middle of our new living room. "What do you think, Kid? Like it?" She nodded, looking towards the loft in awe. "I know what you're thinking, but that isn't going to be for playing. Not for a while, at least."
She pouted as I set her down, handing her the first tarp. "We'll worry about that later. But now… now we need to make this place our home. Do you think you can handle spreading this out for me?" She nodded, taking the task very seriously as she moved away to open it up. I set to work taping over the molding, failing to make it very far before Grace started grunting.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Careful, Sweetheart," I told her, reaching out to help her untangled herself from the plastic sheet. Her stitches were out, so there was no chance of her popping them again but her incisions were still raw and puckered and I didn't want to risk anything. "How about you bring a few to each room instead?"
While she made her deliveries I finished covering the molding in the family areas, finishing the rest of the rooms only a few minutes after Grace. Since she couldn't spread them out on her own, she'd made sure to stack them perfectly in each location. "Last task before the fun part," I told her as she followed me back to the living room, watching disinterestedly as I shook out and laid the tarps flat. I guess she'd given up.
The smile was back, though, when I poured the first color into a tray and handed her a paintbrush. I had the first wall painted before the fumes started to overcome me. Shit. Didn't think of that. I dropped my roller, flicking the ceiling fan on as I rushed to open all of the windows in the apartment. "How you doing there, Grace?" She gave me a thumbs up and her cheeky little grin, apparently unaffected by the scent of the paint. Thank God.
With the air flowing we get the living room done without any further problems, and just as I was getting ready to start on the nook Rosalie walked in. "I come baring gifts," she sang, holding up a box of pizza. "Who's hungry?"
"Not us, because we ate before we came up."
"More for me," she shrugged, setting it down on the counter and pulling out a slice. "What about you, Grace? You really going to say no to a good piece of pizza?" At Grace's uneasy look she sighed, putting the box on the floor and retreating to the other side of the counter.
Grace darted forward, snagged a piece, and ran back to me. "How long is this going to go on, Kid?" I asked, running my fingers through her scraggly hair. She shrugged, munching on the crust first. While she had her snack I took her brush, rinsing off the light grey I'd chosen for the living room and drying it off, reloading it with the red of the kitchen and setting it down where she could reach it when she was ready.
We hadn't even made it through to the first bedroom when she decided she was done, laying down and conking out in the middle of the living room. Without her random strokes to correct all over the place, we cut about twenty minutes off of each room, and in another two hours we were done.
"Finally," Rose groaned, tossing her roller into the paint tray and stretching her back.
"Oh, Rose! You should've stopped if your back was bothering you!"
"After everything you've done for me? Besides, my back is always hurting now." Done with her stretch, she leaned down to pick up the tray.
"Leave it," I stopped her. "I just need to close up the paint cans and then we can go sit; I'm not going to keep anything else. I'll come back and toss it later."
xXoOoXx
I went back upstairs to clean everything up the next day, and over the next week the furniture was delivered. Luckily all of the deliverymen were more than willing to help set everything up. When they found out I was a single "mom," two of them gave me their numbers, offering to set up a date to help move the furniture I already owned up.
I didn't have any problems getting in touch with the first guy, but the second one's wife picked up the phone. After numerous accusations she finally gave me the chance to say that, no I did not want her husband to come over for… personal reasons, that I was a single mother without anybody to come over and help me move my living and bedroom furniture but I couldn't do it myself, and that her husband and one of his friends had offered to help.
She asked if I had any opposition to her coming along and when I said no she said that he as off at the same time as the other one and that he would be there.
Prior to their arrival I got everything off of the shelves and out of the drawers and moved up into the nook where it would be out of the way. With the two men working to get everything moved it only took the late morning/early afternoon to get it all set up, including a lunch break for lasagna.
I knew Grace was kind of over the whole moving thing so I made a game out of getting everything put back in its place, racing as she put the DVD and books in their spots (I could organize them after she went to sleep) and I put all of my clothes in the closet and the dresser.
When I came back out I found that none of them had made it onto their shelves. Instead, she'd made a castle of sorts around herself, stacking cases strategically. While that kept her occupied I was able to make the beds and put away her own meager collection of clothes and toys. In a few weeks, when she was up to the proper weight, we'd get her more but for now, while she refused to leave the house and preferred to stay in her pajamas all day, it was acceptable.
With everything organized I returned to Grace, sitting on the couch and watching her stack her towers as high as she could get them. When she knocked it all over I called her over, pulling her up to join me.
"Now, I know you have a deal with Rosalie," I started off quietly. "I'm not really sure what your deal is, or why you have it, but I know it's there. That being said, Rose is going to have a baby," I told her, much to her wide-eyed surprise. "Yeah, I know. The thing is, Rosalie doesn't have anywhere to go once she has the baby. She can't keep living at school with him or her."
She looked up at me and shrugged, as if to say, "Well where's she going to go?"
"I'd like to let her live here, but as long as you're here this is your home too, and if it's going to make you uncomfortable then she won't move in with us. But I need you to know that she is a good person and whatever the reasoning is for you being scared of her, it won't happen; she's not here to hurt you. And if she doesn't move in with us, I don't know where she's going to go."
She stayed silent, as always, staring at the front door as she, hopefully, thought about it. She looked skeptical as she turned back to me, as though to say, "You'd better be right about this." Despite her obvious apprehension she nodded.
"You're really okay with it?" I asked to make sure. As much as I wanted to give Rosalie a place to stay I wouldn't risk Grace's feeling of safety, no matter how ridiculous I found her disdain of Rose to be.
She nodded again and I pulled out the spare key. "I think she would really like it if you gave her the key." I didn't want to push too hard but while she was feeling seemingly amicable I figured it would hurt to try. She huffed but took the key from my grasp, sticking it in her pocket.
"Don't lose it, okay?" She quickly pulled it back out, returning it to me.
"How about I give it to you when she comes over again?"
A small smile in response. She was nervous, but thankfully willing to try. Hopefully she'd be as attached to Rose as she was to me before long.
Off topic A/N: If anybody happens to be involved in Broadway trading, hit me up. My collection isn't huge but there are a few things I'm dying to get my hands on. Thanks!