Just as they reached the apartment door, Galina placed an encouraging hand on Nicky's arm and gave her a gentle squeeze. She could tell that her daughter was nervous, which was completely understandable given the circumstances, but she also expected this to be a pleasant day. This was their first time really leaving their bubble in almost a month, which she still believed had been necessary. She had followed through on every promise she had made to Nicky that night on the couch following her accident.
"Everything's fine," Galina reminded her, as she pressed the doorbell.
"I know," Nicky nodded. "Gloria doesn't bite…"
She still looked a bit afraid though, when Gloria opened the door a moment later. Even though Gloria smiled at her, Nicky immediately felt awash of shame and nerves in anticipation of what she knew she was expected to do. She forced herself to look Gloria directly in the eye, wanting to get this over with as quickly and painlessly as possible.
"This is for you," she stepped forward, holding out an envelope that had been folded up and hidden in her fist. It was the money she had stolen from the registrar the first and only time she had been left unattended in Gloria's store.
"I did steal it from you," Nicky confessed, speaking rapidly. "I know you know that, of course. I worked in Red's store to earn the money to pay you back."
"Thank you, Nicky," Gloria said, accepting the envelope and slipping it into the pocket of her jeans. "I appreciate that."
"And I'm sorry," Nicky added.
"I know you are," Gloria smiled. "I'm just glad to see you looking better."
Nicky nodded. She had written a more heartfelt and drawn out apology letter which was tucked in the envelope along with the cash she'd owed Gloria. That was the task Red had set her once she'd finished her homework the other day. Nicky had written a whole stack of letters to Gloria, Dmitri, to Ceci and Elena. To her teachers, who had been sending her assignments to her electronically so she could work at home for the foreseeable future. And perhaps most importantly, she had written to the judge and her social worker, who held her entire future in their hands.
"Why don't you go see Ceci and Elena in the living room?" Gloria suggested. "They're busy entertaining the birthday boy."
"What about Julio?" Galina asked, as she stepped inside the apartment and slipped her shoes off. She set them on the mat next to Nicky's.
"Lourdes insisted on bringing him with her," Gloria shook her head. "I don't know why...I think she's more nervous than I am."
"I thought they might already be here," Galina said. "I thought we might have missed all the excitement."
"Nope, you get a front row seat," Gloria said, pulling out her phone and checking it for messages. "She said they will be here in about ten minutes. I honestly have no idea how today is going to go."
"It will be fine," Galina said confidently. "And I'm grateful for the distraction."
"Everything gets decided tomorrow then?" Gloria asked, shooting her a look of concern as she stuck her phone back in her pocket.
"Mhmm," Galina nodded her head urgently. "I've done all I can do. Now I just have to hope it will be enough…."
She had hired a lawyer who had represented Nicky at her arraignment and gotten the judge to postpone ruling for another month. Nicky had been attending therapy sessions twice a week since then, which Galina escorted her to and from. Nicky hadn't been anywhere alone or left at home unsupervised since everything had come out.
She did her schoolwork every day under Galina's careful eye in the back of the store. Her phone had been confiscated and her Internet access was monitored and only permitted for school. If she finished everything early, Galina would assign her extra chores or reading just to keep her occupied. Dinners were eaten at the table together with Dmitri growing warmer towards her again now that he was accepting she wasn't going anywhere. Galina made her go to bed far too early every night and woke her up at an ungodly hour to assist with the morning's baking for the store. It was all okay though, because Nicky couldn't remember the last time she had felt this protected and loved.
"What if it's not enough?" Gloria asked quietly, voicing Galina's biggest fear. "Will you be okay?"
"No," Galina said honestly. "Not in the least…."
She paused in the threshold of the living room, her lips pursed as she watched Nicky on the floor with the baby and her friends. Her entire days revolved around Nicky, now more than ever, and she could not even fathom the thought of that being taken away tomorrow. She was terrified that things wouldn't go well. That even if Nicky seemed to be thriving and growing more attached to her every day, the judge would refuse to ignore the fact that Nicky had technically breached her probation.
"Mom, look what Benny will do if I hold his hand," Nicky said happily, turning her head and catching Galina's eye. She couldn't hold back the smile that tugged at her lips every single time she called her that. She had thought it would be uncomfortable to call someone else 'mom' after her mother passed away, but she was just overjoyed to be able to say it again, and it was music to Galina's ears each time she heard it.
"Look at you," Galina said to Benny, crouching down on the floor to his level. Though he still stubbornly refused to walk, Benny was willingly holding onto one of Nicky's hands and taking one step forward and then back like some kind of dance shuffle. If she tried to let go of his hand, he would scream and grip on tighter.
"We've been trying to get him to walk all morning," Elena complained, "but he's over us."
"He swats our hands away but he won't let go of Nicky's," Ceci added.
"Get used to it girls, little brothers are always going to be pests," Galina teased them. "But just look at him dancing!" She clapped her hands together and Benny's eyes narrowed at them in fascination as he bounced up and down to the beat.
"Are you going to come see me?" she asked the baby. He shrieked with glee at her outstretched hands, and still holding onto Nicky's took a single step forward.
"Up, up, up!" Galina coaxed him, just as Benny plopped onto his bottom and began to scoot himself over to her.
"You're supposed to be walking," Galina told him, scooping him up into her arms and kissing both of his chubby little cheeks. "Happy Birthday, baby."
"I can't believe he's already one," she said to the girls.
"Judging by his lack of teeth you wouldn't even know it," Elena said. "It makes him look pretty funny, doesn't it?"
"Well, I wasn't going to say anything," Nicky joked. "Is Gloria going to have him do the cake smash? That might be painful to watch."
"We're going to have to smash it up for him first," Ceci said, and all three girls began to laugh just as the doorbell rang.
"Will somebody grab that please?" Gloria called from the kitchen.
"Who else did you invite?" asked Ceci, getting up off the floor.
"Go find out," Gloria replied, stepping into the room and sharing an anxious glance with Galina behind her daughters backs'.
Ceci frowned. Her mother's behaviour gave away that this was significant and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she perched on tip-toe to look through the peephole. Immediately her whole body began to visibly tremble, and Gloria was forced to hang back though she wanted to reach her.
"Ma!" Ceci cried, laughing and crying simultaneously at the sight of the petite woman in front of her when she swung open the door. It was a complete and unexpected shock to see her Grandmother there. She looked the same as she always did, with her slight build and her long dark hair streaked with even more grey then the last time she had seen her.
"Let me in, it's cold out here!" Milagros said, stepping into the apartment and taking Ceci's face in her hands. "Let me look at you. Can you believe I'm really here?"
"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" Ceci choked, tears streaming down her face.
"Don't cry, love, now I'm going to cry," Milagros told her, engulfing her in a tight hug. Ceci sniffled and buried her head against her grandmother's shoulder, while Elena overcame her shock and rushed forward. She had been standing still as a statue staring at her Grandma like she couldn't believe she was real, but she sank into Milagros's embrace when she opened an arm out for her.
"You're really here," she whispered.
"Your mom invited me," Milagros told them, looking up to catch Gloria's eye. "I wasn't going to come until next Christmas but I couldn't wait any longer. I needed to see you now."
"Where are Lourdes and Julio?" asked Gloria.
"Parking the car," Milagros explained. "I jumped out when we neared your apartment though. I couldn't wait another minute. Julio kept us entertained the whole way back from the airport."
"He's a sweetie," Gloria smiled. She reached her arms out for Benny, and Galina passed him to her.
"This is my friend Galina and her daughter Nicky. And this is your other grandson, Benny," she held him up for admiration.
"Our little birthday boy," Milagros smiled at him. She nudged Elena with her elbow. "He looks like you when you were a baby. Funny, because you all have different fathers. You two take after your mom though."
Gloria rolled her eyes, as Milagros used her other elbow to nudge Ceci this time. "Not you though. You take after your father. That's why you're so tall. He was a handsome man. That's about all he was good for."
"There you are," Lourdes grumbled, entering the apartment with a suitcase in one hand, Julio's hand in the other, and two purses slung over her shoulder.
"That took a long time," Milagros commented. "The traffic is terrible."
"It's New York," Lourdes reminded her. "But seriously, who jumps out of a moving vehicle and leaves her bags for someone else to carry. Do I look like a friggen bellboy?"
"That's a bad word, Tia," Julio giggled.
"Never you mind," Lourdes told him, dropping the bags onto the floor and scooping him up into her arms.
"The car was hardly moving," Milagros replied smoothly, "it was stopped on the road in bumper to bumper traffic. And I forgot my bags because I was excited."
"Well, you're lucky I decided to be nice and bring them to you," Lourdes told her. "Or you'd have been begging to wear my clothes this whole visit."
"Well, I guess you owe me," Milagros smirked. She glanced at both of her granddaughters. "Our mother used to dress us up like twins, and your Tia was always getting her clothes torn and dirty, climbing trees and doing other things like that. Then she'd try to swap them with mine and think I wouldn't see the difference."
"Don't listen to her girls," Lourdes shook her head, as Ceci and Elena both laughed. "I'm pretty sure she got that story backwards."
"Well, I guess some things never change," Gloria said. "You two have been back together for...what? An hour? And you're already bickering."
"This isn't fighting, darling," Milagros said. "It's sisterly affection."
"I'll have to remember that for when Julio and Benny are at one another's throats in a few years," Gloria shook her head.
"Can I show you our room, Ma?" Elena tugged at her Grandma's arm.
"Of course!" Milagros exclaimed. "I'd love to see it."
"You can sleep in there with us tonight," Elena told her, as she led her down the hall. Ceci was sticking close and squeezed in tight on her Grandmother's other side. "You can have my bed. I don't mind sharing with Ceci."
"Wow, it's like you from the future," Nicky said bluntly, as the room became quiet.
"Hey, watch it," Gloria told her, trying to smile but it looking more like a grimace. Stepping forward she plopped Benny down onto Nicky's lap. "I'm going to get the cake ready. When they come back out we'll all sing Happy Birthday."
"Happy Birthday!" Nicky repeated. She began to hum the tune, bouncing Benny on her knee to the beat of it, while Galina got up to follow Gloria into the kitchen.
"I did the right thing?" Gloria said, it coming out more like a question than statement.
Galina nodded. "I think so. They're so happy to see her."
"What if they want to leave with her?" Gloria asked worriedly. It was this fear that had almost kept her from arranging this visit from her mother, but in the end she had wanted to do the right thing. There was room for both of them, there had been once before, and she had to believe that there would be again. The girls needed all of them.
"You're their mom, nothing can change that," Galina said, stepping forward to engulf Gloria in a hug. Gloria leaned against her, not unlike the way she had seen Ceci bury herself against her Grandmother like a mounting pillar of strength she'd been away from for far too long.
"They belong with you," Galina whispered in Gloria's ear. Then she silently added to herself "Just like Nicky belongs with me."
