1Somebody

Chapter 21

Dave arrived in Washington, D.C. around 1:30 and arrived at Angie's shortly after 2 am. He wanted to know what was going on with this situation. It was so far out of control.

"What's going on?" Dave asked.

"Just take the girls and go," Angie said. "Andrew and I were arguing and he went to the bar. I want Angel and Grace out of here before he gets back."

"Angie, if I take them now then they aren't coming back until he's out of your life," Dave told her.

"Fine, just take them and leave before Andrew gets back," Angie said taking him to the girls' room.

Somehow Dave managed to take Angel, Grace, and the stuff that Angie had insisted that needed to go with them to the car without waking either girl. "If you need a place to stay call me," Dave said knowing exactly why he was taking the girls.

"I know; just go," Angie almost pleaded before Dave got into his car and left.

Dave didn't sleep well that night knowing that Angie could be getting hurt. He didn't love her by any means, but she was the mother of his children. He would always care about her on some level.

Angel and Grace were pleasantly surprised to wake up at Daddy's. The first thing they questioned Dave about was that Melia wasn't there. Dave assured them that she would be back tomorrow.

Dave was excited to get a week off (well almost a week). It had been a while since he had that much time off. He also had some things to decide on. He wanted the girls to go to a regular school, and be normal kids, but he wasn't thrilled about the idea of leaving them with his parents or sister either. It would be too easy for Andrew to find them there. He didn't want anything to happen to them.

It was Tuesday, tomorrow Melia would be here and things would look a lot better. She would have another prospective to add to his thoughts.

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Melia knew that she and Dave were falling back into their old relationship, but he hadn't expected them to start over for long. She cared about him too much.

Adam had taken this surprisingly well. She was sure that he was going to freak out or start lecturing her on what a huge mistake she was making. Part of her missed it, but generally she was happy that he was minding his own business or the moment.

She was talking to Vince again today. Her brilliant idea had been a big hi. A big enough hit for her to need some more help. She couldn't do it on her own anymore. She hoped the boss man though so, too. She wanted her job when she finished this meeting.

Vince agreed with her about getting more help. He also wanted her to take on more responsibilities, which she thought was absolutely nuts. She hadn't thought anything like this would happen.

She had also manage to apply and be accepted to a college that offered most of her required classes online. She'd also found out she'd completed about 3/4 of her degree requirements.

She decided to talk to her brother about what she should do. He might be able to advise her without being hostile. He wanted to take advantage of them having a mostly normal sibling relationship while they still had it.

She listened to Adam tell her to do whatever made her happy and remind her that she could do whatever she set her mind to. He also suggested making a list of priorities then she could figure out what else she could do around those.

After a little consideration Melia decided that right now building a strong relationship wit Dave and the girls, all three of them, was her biggest priority. Her next biggest one was still being independent. She decided to take Vince up on his offer and see if she could find time for continuing her education right now while doing everything else.

Early the next morning, she was off to Washington. She, Dave and the girls would be back to the way they always were, and she hoped Dave would be happy for her. Things were totally looking up.

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"Melia," Angel and Grace yelled as she came into the apartment.

"Have you guys had breakfast yet?" Melia asked, "and where is your dad?"

"No breakfast yet," Angel said. "Daddy said we had to wait for you."

"Dad's in the shower," Grace supplied. "He put a movie for us in."

"Well then what do you want for breakfast?" Melia asked.

"Pancakes," Angel and Grace instantly answered.

Melia and the girls began to make breakfast and the sight and smell of food made her nauseous this morning. She swore Dave better hurry his ass up and get out of the bathroom. She was seriously about to throw up.

"Who's here?" Dave asked a few minutes later noticing the smell of food and the giggles from the kitchen.

"Melia's back, Daddy," Angel said. She was still kind of quiet, but other than that she was doing pretty well.

"Help them," Melia said knowing pancakes was one of the few things that he could make without messing up too badly.

Melia went to the bathroom and emptied the non existent contents of her stomach. She felt miserable at the moment. She spent about 15 minutes in there feeling miserable and throwing up. She still didn't feel good when she stopped throwing up, and she wasn't hungry.

She brushed her teeth then went back to everyone else. She didn't want to worry them over probably just eating something the previous evening that didn't agree with her, or being overly anxious.

"Are you okay?" Dave asked.

"Yeah, I'm feeling better now," Melia told him. "Vince said that he was going to get me more help and offered me the chance to be the tutor for the older kids."

"He did, that's great," Dave said. He liked that she wanted to have a career and she was getting opportunities where they could spend more time together. "I've been trying to figure out what to do with the girls about the school issue."

"Sounds interesting. I guess that just put a new spin on things didn't it?" Melia asked."Hopefully I will be able to work on completing my degree and everything also. It's going to be crazy, but it will hopefully be worth all the havoc."

"Just make sure that you can still take care of yourself. I mean things will obviously be a little crazy with all of us for a while," Dave said. "Are you sure your okay?"

"Don't worry about me, I'm sure I'm fine," Melia said. "I was just anxious to tell you and nervous about how you would react. I'll be fine."

"Are you sure that you don't want anything?" Dave asked shoving another bite of pancakes into his mouth.

"Yeah," Melia said before turning her attention to the girls' dramatic retelling of going to sleep at Mommy's then waking up at Daddy's. Melia had to laugh. It was hilarious listening to them.

Melia spent the rest of the day trying to avoid anything that smelled like any sort of food, but still spending time with Dave and everyone.
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