Gracie-Part three
Disclaimer: See first part
Gracie clung onto Max's hand tightly staring in wonder at all the colors and life streaming past them. Hannah took her other hand "don't be nervous sweet heart" Gracie looked up at her and then at her mother "where are we?" Max squeezed her hand "a mall" she looked over at Hannah "even after something like the pulse these places still stand" Hannah nodded and glanced around them at the well dressed people hustling past "but only for the rich." Gracie looked around at the shops and gasped "ohh look!" Max and Hannah looked over to where she was staring "can we go see?" Hannah tapped her pocket "we'll do better than that we'll buy you some" Gracie squealed and started pulling Max and Hannah to the toyshop.
The door jingled as it opened. Gracie stared at the rows and rows of toys, some with their own colorful display "wow" Max laughed "what do you like the look of?" Gracie's eyes came to rest on a black fluffy bear with a scarlet bow around its neck sitting near the back of a shelf "him" she said letting go of Hannah and Max's hands running over and pointing. Max moved over to her and picked up the bear handing it to Gracie "he's lovely. What are you going to call him?" Gracie held him out at arms length and surveyed him "Beau, because he's got a bow around his neck."
"Max come look at this" Hannah said standing in front of the book rack "they have a copy of wind in the willows" Max smiled taking it from her and reading the back "I didn't think they had things like this anymore." Hannah shook her head "oh they do they just sell them to the rich. The only reason we got in here was because we had passes with the name 'Cale' on them" Max shrugged "one of the pro's of knowing Logan." There was a sharp tug on the sleeve of Max's jacket "Can I get some other animals?" Gracie asked looking up at Max with dark puppy dog eyes "sure can. Which do you want?"
After fifteen minutes contemplation Gracie decided on a white and brown dog, a white bear in a pink cardigan and a ginger cat that meowed when you pressed one of it's paws. Hannah grimaced when the shop assistant told them the price while Max smiled and handed over the money in a flourish, clearly loving her new found ease with money.
"Right, now we go clothes shopping" Max said leading them out of the shop holding a bag in one hand and Gracie's hand in the other "for Gracie?" Hannah asked her suspiciously. Max looked back at her "uh, yeah" Hannah rolled her eyes "the whole reason we came was to spend money on Gracie, not on you Max" She sighed dramatically "if you say so." They stopped out side a large department store "this will do" Max said pulling them into the shop "where's the children's section?" she asked an assistant behind a counter, the girl looked Max over with raised eyebrows. Max gritted her teeth barely stopping her self punch the girls lights out at the obvious distaste on her face, she picked Gracie up and sat her on her hip "I'm Max Cale, and you are?" the girl paled and an older woman pushed her out of the way "I'm Kathy how may I help you today miss Cale?." Max glanced over her shoulder at Hannah smiling in triumph.
Once word spread they were 'Cale's' they had four assistants piling clothes into Gracie's arms and getting her to parade up and down for Max and Hannah to see, Gracie was having a ball. "Ok so we have three dresses, a pair of jean overalls, one skirt, two pairs of track pants, underwear, a pair of pajamas, a jacket, three polonecks, two pairs of leggings, one pair of shorts, at T-shirt, a bathing suit and two jumpers" Kathy said setting down six black glossy bags. Hannah shook her head and turned to Max "do you really think…" Max grinned "don't say it I already know" she turned to Kathy "where's the shoes?." Kathy raised an eyebrow a smile pulling at her lips "right this way Madame" Gracie giggled thoroughly enjoying her self.
Half an hour and three pairs of shoes, five pairs of socks and a few hair accessories latter Hannah finally Managed to get Max out of the shop "If I didn't know better, which I don't I'd think you were obsessed with shopping" Max frowned "I am not. Anyway it's not like Gracie has an entire wardrobe of clothes already" Max held up the bags she held "this is all she's got." Hannah shook her head smiling "how on earth are you going to tell Logan how much you spent" Max shrugged and started walking to the car "after all the little 'favors' he's sent me on I think this is a fair deal."
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"Hey Cindy, you seen Max?" Sketchy called out skidding to a stop in front of her "why?" she asked turning around from her locker to look at him "who'd you need to give money to now?." He lay a hand over his heart "now why'd you think I need money, I could be asking because I'm concerned that I haven't seen my friend." Original Cindy shut her locker folded her arms over her chest "you could be, but you ain't" he shrugged "all right, all right so I need $50. Do you know where she is?" she nodded "Max went over to her boytoy last night and didn't come back. Plus she phoned in sick today, you do the math" Sketchy nodded then held his hand out to her "uh huh, not gonna happen" he pouted "no already" she protested pushing past him "anyways I don't have that much on me." Normal stepped in front of her "oh and where do think your going?" she groaned "I'm guessing nowhere?" Normal smirked "perceptive. Now get moving!."
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Gracie stumbled "hey you ok?" Max asked stopping and moving out of the stream of people heading for the door, gesturing for Hannah to do the same. Gracie rubbed at her eyes, still clutching Beau under one arm "I feel funny, like I'm floating" Max crouched down in front of her "what else?" Gracie shrugged and looked down at her hands "shaky." Max started to look worried glancing down at Gracie's trembling hands then back up at Hannah "that's exactly the way I feel before I get a seizure" realization and panic washed over Hannah's features "have you got any medication?" Max looked back down at Gracie in concern "not with me."
Gracie wobbled on her feet and she clung on to Max's arm for support. Max gave some of the bags she held to Hannah and picked Gracie up "we have to get back to Logan's, he has some Tryptophan at his crib" she called over her shoulder to Hannah, rubbing Gracie's back and murmuring in her ear.
They burst out the door and into the lunchtime crowd milling around and gossiping. Max bit back a growl of frustration at having to weave through the crowd when she could feel Gracie was beginning to tremble a lot more and beads of sweat were forming on her brow. Hannah tapped her on the shoulder and pointed down a alleyway that emerged out in a car park "are you suggesting we steal a car?" Hannah frowned and shrugged "more like borrowing it" Max smiled and held Gracie tighter "well when you put it that way…" she veered into the alley pulling Hannah after her.
Max gently placed Gracie in Hannah's arm's and in one leap cleared the fence, running the second her feet hit the ground to the nearest car. She looked around and quickly gave the car handle a sharp tug, the door swung open. Max climbed in and reached under the dashboard pulling out a few wires and re-arranging them till the car's engine revved into life she grinned oh Logan's just going to love this she thought guiltily. The back door opened and Hannah got in still holding a whimpering Gracie, the sound sent dagger's into Max's heart "hey Gracie, I know it hurts but you have to hang in there. We'll get some medicine to stop the pain soon."
Max pulled up outside Logan's ten minutes latter. She opened the door and took Gracie from Hannah's arm's "shh it's alright now, your home" she whispered into the little girl's hair rushing up the stairs to Logan's apartment. Hannah pushed the door open and held it for Max to come through "LOGAN?" Max yelled. He and Bling rushed in "what's wrong…" Logan's voice trailed off catching sight of Gracie in Max's arms shaking with her eyes tightly closed "what happened?" he asked urgently taking her out of Max's embrace. Max disappeared into his bathroom and raided the cabinet till she found the small bottle of pills "she gets seizures like I do" she told him motioning for him to sit down in a chair with Gracie in his lap. Logan complied and watched as Max tipped a few pills into her hand and popped them in Gracie's mouth "here" Bling crouched down next to her handing Max a glass of water "thanks Bling" she said distractedly, bringing the glass to Gracie's lips "go on swallow the water Gracie."
They watched in relief as she gulped down the water and leaned back against Logan. Max sighed and set the glass of water on the table beside her "the seizures aren't to bad when she's this age but they'll get worse as she gets older." Bling straightened up "is the drama over now or can I go, I've got an appointment in fifteen minutes on the other side of town" Max looked up "oh I almost forgot. You think you could bring our bags up? They're in a black car down stars" Bling rolled his eyes and pointed at Logan "it'll cost you over time" Logan smiled and nodded at him then frowned "black car?" Hannah chuckled from where she stood in the door way "I think I'm gonna go lie down and leave Max to explain all the bags and stolen car." Max shot her a glance that would freeze hell "what happened to 'just borrowing'?" Hannah shrugged and retreated into her room.
Max turned back to Logan smiling sheepishly "you know after all the life and death situations that you've in-directly put me in I don't think you can really…" "Max how much did you spend and who's car did you steal?" Logan asked in exasperation. Max bit her lip "well let's just say your not bankrupt there may be a few zero's missing off the total in your bank account and as for the car, Gracie was getting bad and she needed the medicine quickly" Logan shook his head wearily "what am I going to do with you?." He settled Gracie more comfortably on his lap "at least she's ok, which is all that matters" Max grinned in relief "yeah." Bling dumped the bags he carried on the floor "you really went all out on the shopping" Logan looked from the bag's on the floor to Max, his eyebrows raised "I know, I know but I couldn't resist and she had such a great time" Logan nodded "I don't mind. Oh I almost forgot, Bling where's Gracie's papers?" he held the birth certificate up "I was going to drop them off after I took the car back to where ever Max got it from, also added on my salary" he said to Logan smiling.
Max looked at the piece of paper then up at Logan questioningly "I took the liberty of calling her Gracie Eva Cale, do you mind?" Max shook her head tears filling in her eyes "I remember you told me about Eva once so I thought it might be nice for Gracie to have that middle name" Max bit her lip smiling "it's perfect, thank you" Logan shrugged. Max looked up at Bling "and thank you for doing all this to help" Bling smiled and gestured to Gracie "hey if it helps little one I'll do it" Gracie swallowed and smiled up at him, her shaking now no more than a few trembles running through her. Logan looked down at her "why don't we get you some lunch then if your feeling better you can show me all of your new clothes, that sound good?" she nodded and linked her arms around his neck as he stood up. "I can show you Beau as well" Logan looked at her "sure, as soon as you tell me who Beau is."
Max smiled to her self so far things were going well. She looked down at the bottle of tryptophan she still held and couldn't help but wonder how long it would last.
TBC
AN/ Sorry this took so long to get up but I had MAJOR writers block.