Disclaimer: all characters belong to Disney as far as I know. No copyright infringement is intended; no money is being made.
Notes: The reunion in this chapter deserves much more space, like a whole one part fic on that subject. Someday it will get written, whether or not I'm the lucky one to write it. And thanks to Lenoir for the title! ^_^
Second Chances
Ep 2: Lifeblood
Fi was in a pep rally, clapping and cheering along with the rest of the sophomore class when she noticed a girl sitting on the bottom row of the bleachers. She wasn't cheering; she was looking down at her lap, probably reading a book though Fi couldn't imagine anyone reading in this din. From this angle all Fi could see was the back of her head: skin the color of chocolate, hair even darker pulled up into a tight bun, an intricate gold earring, and the collar of a lavender sweater.
Then someone above tossed a crumpled paper and hit the girl in the back. She turned to give the crowd a venomous look and Fi saw her face.
"Rebecca!" Fi whispered and the sound was lost in shouting and the stamping of feet. Rebecca Habib, near immortal, Molly's best friend. Eyes of an old woman, face of an African princess. ...She is the Nile that flows forever... Fi had expected never to see Rebecca again and when Rebecca found out Fi was in this school she would run away again.
Fi pulled a notebook out of her backpack and turned to a blank page. She wrote:
Rebecca-I go to school here too. Don't worry, I won't tell anybody about you or hang around you or anything. I didn't tell my mom anything before. So you don't have to leave. BELIEVE ME. Signed, Fiona Phillips
She thought, then added: P.S. if you want to be friends that's cool with me too.
Fi tore the note out of her notebook and folded it up. She'd have to pass it in the crowd heading out of the gym after this pep rally was over.
She did, and in the hall after last period a hand grabbed her wrist. Rebecca said, "Thank you." And vanished into the crowd.
Friday was the winter survival field trip, all of Mr. Mason's science classes went together. They were split into teams and had to build a shelter, start a fire, and explain how they would survive if they were lost. Fi had been looking forward to the trip. She didn't get a lot of chances to get out in the wilderness and she missed it.
Fi piled off the bus with the rest of the class, already talking with her team about what kind of shelter to build. On her team were her friends Cindy and Cameron, and a boy named Zack who reminded Fi of Clu since he was always walking around in his own little world.
Mr. Mason held up his hands, "Whoa you guys, a few rules! Our area is marked off with orange rope. Stay inside the rope! That's a cliff over there, it's a hundred feet and you don't want to fall off! Check your fireplace with one of us teachers before you light anything! Got it?"
"Got it!" The students yelled.
"We have two hours. Go crazy!"
The kids scattered, looking for places to put their shelters.
"Fi, Cam, Zack, over here!" Cindy called. "What if we put the tarp between these trees, and another one over here for a windbreak?"
Fi studied the spot. It was a little close to the edge, but still inside bounds and the trees were the right distance apart. "Looks good to me."
"Ok. C'mon guys, get your stuff out."
Fi pulled her tarp out of her bag and handed it to the boys, "Here, and I've got more rope in case you don't have enough."
While the other three took a minute to argue about tying on the tarps, Fi looked over the edge. The slope was almost straight up and down. No way anyone but a mountain goat could go up it. At the bottom were bushes next to the road. Not at all like looking off a city skyscraper. Not at all.
Definitely, stay inside the rope.
"Fi, can you come hold this?"
"Coming."
A wind picked up just as they got their fire going, threatening to blow the tarps down until Cindy and Zack reinforced them with sticks. Cameron and Fi crouched by the fire, feeding it small sticks and trying to block the wind with their bodies.
"Excuse me."
Fi looked up. There was Rebecca, holding an iron pot. "Hi."
"Can I borrow some fire? Ours went out.
"Borrow fire?" Cam was stumped.
Rebecca crouched down with them in the shelter. "The early pioneers did it. If the house fire went out a child was sent to the neighbor's to bring back a pan of hot coals to restart the family fire."
"Cool!"
"You can have some fire in a minute, I don't think it's big enough now to spare any."
"Put your wood next to the fire to dry it, then it won't smoke so much."
Cam looked really impressed. "Whoa, that's cool. I wish you were on my team."
"Thank you." Rebecca tipped her head and smiled. Even in such a simple gesture she didn't look like an ordinary girl.
"How do you do this? I don't think we have any coasl, do we make a fire in your pan?"
"Try it, put in some tinder and little sticks." The three of them bent over the fire and the pot, transferring burning twigs and trying not to scorch their fingers.
When the fire in the pot seemed to be going ok, Rebecca stood up carefully balancing her pan. She walked very slowly back to where her team had set up camp.
Fi stacked twigs in a Lincoln-logs square around the fire so they'd dry faster, then Cameron suggested they pull up two flat stones to make a miniature windbreak for the fire. When time was almost up, Mr. Mason went around checking shelters and handing out grades.
"Nice work guys, you get an A. You can start taking it down now, there's a storm coming."
"Ok." Cindy reached for the ropes holding the tarps on and Zack went to fill a bucket with old snow to put out the fire.
The air felt heavier; a storm was definitely coming. Sudden wind snatched the tarp out of Cindy's hands. It caught in a tree just inside the rope barrier. Cindy and Fi both went to get it.
Fi felt the ground shift under her feet. She gasped, "What!"
"What was that?"
Another slight lurch, and a rumble. Fi shoved her friend back towards solid ground. That shove was too much. Solid ground suddenly wasn't. Fi grabbed for anything stable, but nothing was. A yard of dirt, trees, and all slid over the side of the cliff carrying Fi with it.
She remembered falling, hitting things, drowning in dirt, a sharp pain as something tore into her arm, then nothing.
"Ow!"
"Geometry can't be that painful, Annie."
Annie laughed, "It's not the math. Something zapped my finger. So anyway, what's with these parallelograms again?"
Ned turned the book around so Annie could see. "A parallelogram has two sides that are..." and he was off into an explanation Annie did her best to follow. They were in the bus's tiny dining room so Annie had space to spread out her notebooks and Ned could help her. The door to the boys' room was right there and every few minutes Jack would poke his head out to offer advice. Clu and Carey were inside playing playstation.
A few parallelograms later the bus phone rang. Molly picked it up. Annie heard, "Hello?... This is she... What? What happened?
The tone of those last words made everyone in the bus go quiet. The boys looked out of their room, Ned and Annie turned to look at Molly, Irene took her eyes off the road long enough to glance back. Then she pulled the bus into a parking lot and parked.
Molly said, "Ok.... Ok. Call me if there's any change. Just a moment." Then she held out the phone and said, "Irene. I need you. To take this call."
Irene took the phone. Molly ducked into her room, sat, and buried her face in a pillow.
Jack said very quietly, "I have never seen mom's face that white before."
"Is Molly crying?" Annie whispered.
Irene closed the phone. Everyone looked at her.
"Fi was in an accident on her school field trip. She's in the hospital in Seattle but she'll be ok." Irene leaned in the door of Molly's room, "Mol, we're turning the bus around and heading over there as fast as the speed limit. Ok?"
The back of Molly's head nodded.
"If you need anything, holler."
Another nod. Irene pulled the door closed. "Molly needs some time to herself."
"Yeah, we know about mom hysteria. You did the same thing when I broke my leg." Clu offered, nodding sagely.
"Mmhm, and my mom when I fell in the river." Annie added. Then the mom-freak-outs contest ended and everyone got serious. "Are you sure Fi's ok? What happened?"
Ned called, "buckle up back there!" as he turned the bus onto the interstate. Everybody buckled, or at least sat, or at least held on.
"What I gather, they were on top of a low cliff and there was a landslide, the whole cliff face broke away. Fi was at the top when the whole thing went. She ended up at the bottom with a broken arm and ankle and a mild concussion, but nothing that won't heal."
"How long 'til we get there?"
"Three hours at least, could be more like four with traffic." Ned replied.
Annie's attention for math was shot, and since her tutor was now driving she could excuse taking a break. But what was there to do but worry?
Finally they reached the hospital. Ned pulled the bus up to the front door and Molly rushed out. Jack and Annie crammed through the narrow door after her.
Hospital personnel recognized a frantic mother and showed them to Fi's room immediately.
Jack's first reaction was, "Oh my gosh you look awful!"
Fi rolled her eyes. "Thanks, I feel awful. Hi mom. Hi Jack. Hi Annie. Don't freak out mom, it's not as bad as it looks."
Fi sure looked pretty bad. Every inch of her was covered with bandages or bruises and her right arm was in a cast. Fi's stuffed alien was sitting next to her pillow.
"You sure it's not?"
"Well I did fall off a mountain."
Annie couldn't help grinning at that, and finally Molly did too. "So what happened, baby?"
"If you don't mind talking about it." Jack put in.
Fi shrugged one shoulder, "I don't mind, but I don't remember much. I pushed Cindy back away from the edge then suddenly everything was sliding. It was the creepiest thing. Then there was dirt and stuff falling on me and I was falling and then zowie, the lights went out. I remember some weird dreams then I woke up here with the world's worst headache."
Jack said, "I'm going to find the guys and the bus." He zipped out.
"So is there anything we can get you?" Annie offered.
"I'm all right. Hey mom, you probably don't want to read that-"
Molly had picked up some kind of medical charts and was reading through them. She looked up and said quietly, "Rebecca?"
Fi looked away and didn't answer.
"Talk to me! This says something about a blood transfusion that I was not told about-"
"Mom I don't remember!"
"And a name, her name. Fiona, was she there?"
Fi quit trying to look 'ok' for her mother. Her face sagged into lines of pain and exhaustion and her eyes flashed a plea for help past her mother's shoulder.
Annie spoke up, "Whatever it is, can't it wait a bit? Fi's in bad shape."
"Oh baby I'm sorry. I was just shocked for a minute there."
"S'ok." Fi had to take another breath to speak again. "Are you guys staying? Will you be here tomorrow?"
"Yeah. We'll park the bus at Melinda's."
"Ok. Hey Annie, thanks for coming in. I'll get out of here in a few days they we can hang out 'kay... sis?"
"Ok!" Annie grinned.
They seemed to be saying goodbye. Molly very carefully hugged her daughter, and they went out.
In the hall a doctor met them, "Are you Mrs. Phillips?"
Molly pounced. "What was that about a blood transfusion? I wasn't told about that on the phone!"
Annie felt eyes on her back. She turned. An African-American girl with jeweled pins in her hair leaned around the corner. Annie saw her arms were full of flowers. She saw Molly, her dark eyes widened, and she stepped back out of sight.
The doctor was saying, "...immediate transfusion was necessary... at the scene, one of the students with compatible blood."
"A student? Not an adult?"
"Yes, I'm sure. We didn't say that on the phone because we didn't know, her injuries were more severe than they looked..."
Annie didn't really understand this. She walked away, turned the corner, and found the girl with the flowers waiting patiently in a stairwell.
"Hey-did you come to see Fi Phillips? Her mom's a little upset but she won't bite or anything."
The girl looked at Annie coldly, "No, I'm not here to see her."
"Um, the tag on those flowers does say 'to Fi.' Are there two people named Fi in this hall?"
A sigh. "Are you a friend of hers?"
"Yeah. I travel on the tour bus. My name's Annie Thelen."
"Do you have a pen?"
Annie rummaged in her purse and found one. The girl wrote something on the back of the flower tag. "Will you please give this to Fi?"
"Sure." Annie took the bouquet. The flowers were all orange and white and they smelled heavenly.
"Go on."
"Wait, will you tell me your name?"
"No." The short reply was softened by a brief smile, flash of white teeth against brown skin.
Annie shrugged and went to deliver the flowers. "Fi, delivery."
Fi looked at the tag, turned it over and read the back. "From who?"
"A black girl who wouldn't tell me her name."
"Rebecca." Fi said very quietly, "Her name is Rebecca, but don't tell mom you saw her."
"Fi, what's going..." Annie stopped mid-question, looking out the door, "Too late. They're talking out there."
"Oh no!"
"Wait, stay put, I'll spy."
"Rebecca." Molly said with some unreadable emotion in her voice. Anger? Betrayal? Relief?
"It's me. Please don't get mad at Fiona, I made her promise not to tell you I was in her school."
"And of course your mother, my Rebecca, is too busy to see me."
Rebecca looked down and nodded, "We're sorry for leaving that way. Both times."
"And if Fi told me she had seen you, you would have to leave again."
"Yes."
"I see."
Annie didn't. She felt guilty for spying, no matter how important it was to Fi. She silently promised never to get into other people's private business again, even by accident.
Molly closed her eyes for a long minute then smiled. "Tell your... tell my Rebecca... she can email me. No sight or sound you know."
Rebecca's face lit up, then she schooled her features to neutrality.
"Tell Rebecca thanks for being my friend. And saving my daughter. Give... her... this." Molly tugged the silver ring off her finger. She wanted to give Rebecca something important, and this was the only thing she had. She didn't think great-grandmother Fiona would mind. "I forgive you for leaving."
Molly dropped the ring and her card into Rebecca's hands. She walked away, carefully not looking back. Annie followed. Her eyes met Rebecca's for a moment: the same color eyes but so different in expression.
"Wait up, Molly!"
"Whew!" Molly looked shell-shocked, and like she might cry. "I'm not sure what I did back there."
Annie put her arm around the singer, "I'm not either, but I think it was the right thing."
"Y'know honey, I do too." Molly summoned a grin and ruffled Annie's hair.
Annie didn't add the last thing she had accidentally seen over her shoulder as she ran after Molly.
Rebecca slipped into Fi's room. "She knows."
"No, she might not, you might not have to..." Fi protested incoherently.
"No! No, it's ok. What she said means it's ok." Rebecca sat down on the end of the bed, her hands holding the ring and the card clasped before her face. She began to cry, tears falling on her lap, past her smile.
--end episode two--
Notes: The reunion in this chapter deserves much more space, like a whole one part fic on that subject. Someday it will get written, whether or not I'm the lucky one to write it. And thanks to Lenoir for the title! ^_^
Second Chances
Ep 2: Lifeblood
Fi was in a pep rally, clapping and cheering along with the rest of the sophomore class when she noticed a girl sitting on the bottom row of the bleachers. She wasn't cheering; she was looking down at her lap, probably reading a book though Fi couldn't imagine anyone reading in this din. From this angle all Fi could see was the back of her head: skin the color of chocolate, hair even darker pulled up into a tight bun, an intricate gold earring, and the collar of a lavender sweater.
Then someone above tossed a crumpled paper and hit the girl in the back. She turned to give the crowd a venomous look and Fi saw her face.
"Rebecca!" Fi whispered and the sound was lost in shouting and the stamping of feet. Rebecca Habib, near immortal, Molly's best friend. Eyes of an old woman, face of an African princess. ...She is the Nile that flows forever... Fi had expected never to see Rebecca again and when Rebecca found out Fi was in this school she would run away again.
Fi pulled a notebook out of her backpack and turned to a blank page. She wrote:
Rebecca-I go to school here too. Don't worry, I won't tell anybody about you or hang around you or anything. I didn't tell my mom anything before. So you don't have to leave. BELIEVE ME. Signed, Fiona Phillips
She thought, then added: P.S. if you want to be friends that's cool with me too.
Fi tore the note out of her notebook and folded it up. She'd have to pass it in the crowd heading out of the gym after this pep rally was over.
She did, and in the hall after last period a hand grabbed her wrist. Rebecca said, "Thank you." And vanished into the crowd.
Friday was the winter survival field trip, all of Mr. Mason's science classes went together. They were split into teams and had to build a shelter, start a fire, and explain how they would survive if they were lost. Fi had been looking forward to the trip. She didn't get a lot of chances to get out in the wilderness and she missed it.
Fi piled off the bus with the rest of the class, already talking with her team about what kind of shelter to build. On her team were her friends Cindy and Cameron, and a boy named Zack who reminded Fi of Clu since he was always walking around in his own little world.
Mr. Mason held up his hands, "Whoa you guys, a few rules! Our area is marked off with orange rope. Stay inside the rope! That's a cliff over there, it's a hundred feet and you don't want to fall off! Check your fireplace with one of us teachers before you light anything! Got it?"
"Got it!" The students yelled.
"We have two hours. Go crazy!"
The kids scattered, looking for places to put their shelters.
"Fi, Cam, Zack, over here!" Cindy called. "What if we put the tarp between these trees, and another one over here for a windbreak?"
Fi studied the spot. It was a little close to the edge, but still inside bounds and the trees were the right distance apart. "Looks good to me."
"Ok. C'mon guys, get your stuff out."
Fi pulled her tarp out of her bag and handed it to the boys, "Here, and I've got more rope in case you don't have enough."
While the other three took a minute to argue about tying on the tarps, Fi looked over the edge. The slope was almost straight up and down. No way anyone but a mountain goat could go up it. At the bottom were bushes next to the road. Not at all like looking off a city skyscraper. Not at all.
Definitely, stay inside the rope.
"Fi, can you come hold this?"
"Coming."
A wind picked up just as they got their fire going, threatening to blow the tarps down until Cindy and Zack reinforced them with sticks. Cameron and Fi crouched by the fire, feeding it small sticks and trying to block the wind with their bodies.
"Excuse me."
Fi looked up. There was Rebecca, holding an iron pot. "Hi."
"Can I borrow some fire? Ours went out.
"Borrow fire?" Cam was stumped.
Rebecca crouched down with them in the shelter. "The early pioneers did it. If the house fire went out a child was sent to the neighbor's to bring back a pan of hot coals to restart the family fire."
"Cool!"
"You can have some fire in a minute, I don't think it's big enough now to spare any."
"Put your wood next to the fire to dry it, then it won't smoke so much."
Cam looked really impressed. "Whoa, that's cool. I wish you were on my team."
"Thank you." Rebecca tipped her head and smiled. Even in such a simple gesture she didn't look like an ordinary girl.
"How do you do this? I don't think we have any coasl, do we make a fire in your pan?"
"Try it, put in some tinder and little sticks." The three of them bent over the fire and the pot, transferring burning twigs and trying not to scorch their fingers.
When the fire in the pot seemed to be going ok, Rebecca stood up carefully balancing her pan. She walked very slowly back to where her team had set up camp.
Fi stacked twigs in a Lincoln-logs square around the fire so they'd dry faster, then Cameron suggested they pull up two flat stones to make a miniature windbreak for the fire. When time was almost up, Mr. Mason went around checking shelters and handing out grades.
"Nice work guys, you get an A. You can start taking it down now, there's a storm coming."
"Ok." Cindy reached for the ropes holding the tarps on and Zack went to fill a bucket with old snow to put out the fire.
The air felt heavier; a storm was definitely coming. Sudden wind snatched the tarp out of Cindy's hands. It caught in a tree just inside the rope barrier. Cindy and Fi both went to get it.
Fi felt the ground shift under her feet. She gasped, "What!"
"What was that?"
Another slight lurch, and a rumble. Fi shoved her friend back towards solid ground. That shove was too much. Solid ground suddenly wasn't. Fi grabbed for anything stable, but nothing was. A yard of dirt, trees, and all slid over the side of the cliff carrying Fi with it.
She remembered falling, hitting things, drowning in dirt, a sharp pain as something tore into her arm, then nothing.
"Ow!"
"Geometry can't be that painful, Annie."
Annie laughed, "It's not the math. Something zapped my finger. So anyway, what's with these parallelograms again?"
Ned turned the book around so Annie could see. "A parallelogram has two sides that are..." and he was off into an explanation Annie did her best to follow. They were in the bus's tiny dining room so Annie had space to spread out her notebooks and Ned could help her. The door to the boys' room was right there and every few minutes Jack would poke his head out to offer advice. Clu and Carey were inside playing playstation.
A few parallelograms later the bus phone rang. Molly picked it up. Annie heard, "Hello?... This is she... What? What happened?
The tone of those last words made everyone in the bus go quiet. The boys looked out of their room, Ned and Annie turned to look at Molly, Irene took her eyes off the road long enough to glance back. Then she pulled the bus into a parking lot and parked.
Molly said, "Ok.... Ok. Call me if there's any change. Just a moment." Then she held out the phone and said, "Irene. I need you. To take this call."
Irene took the phone. Molly ducked into her room, sat, and buried her face in a pillow.
Jack said very quietly, "I have never seen mom's face that white before."
"Is Molly crying?" Annie whispered.
Irene closed the phone. Everyone looked at her.
"Fi was in an accident on her school field trip. She's in the hospital in Seattle but she'll be ok." Irene leaned in the door of Molly's room, "Mol, we're turning the bus around and heading over there as fast as the speed limit. Ok?"
The back of Molly's head nodded.
"If you need anything, holler."
Another nod. Irene pulled the door closed. "Molly needs some time to herself."
"Yeah, we know about mom hysteria. You did the same thing when I broke my leg." Clu offered, nodding sagely.
"Mmhm, and my mom when I fell in the river." Annie added. Then the mom-freak-outs contest ended and everyone got serious. "Are you sure Fi's ok? What happened?"
Ned called, "buckle up back there!" as he turned the bus onto the interstate. Everybody buckled, or at least sat, or at least held on.
"What I gather, they were on top of a low cliff and there was a landslide, the whole cliff face broke away. Fi was at the top when the whole thing went. She ended up at the bottom with a broken arm and ankle and a mild concussion, but nothing that won't heal."
"How long 'til we get there?"
"Three hours at least, could be more like four with traffic." Ned replied.
Annie's attention for math was shot, and since her tutor was now driving she could excuse taking a break. But what was there to do but worry?
Finally they reached the hospital. Ned pulled the bus up to the front door and Molly rushed out. Jack and Annie crammed through the narrow door after her.
Hospital personnel recognized a frantic mother and showed them to Fi's room immediately.
Jack's first reaction was, "Oh my gosh you look awful!"
Fi rolled her eyes. "Thanks, I feel awful. Hi mom. Hi Jack. Hi Annie. Don't freak out mom, it's not as bad as it looks."
Fi sure looked pretty bad. Every inch of her was covered with bandages or bruises and her right arm was in a cast. Fi's stuffed alien was sitting next to her pillow.
"You sure it's not?"
"Well I did fall off a mountain."
Annie couldn't help grinning at that, and finally Molly did too. "So what happened, baby?"
"If you don't mind talking about it." Jack put in.
Fi shrugged one shoulder, "I don't mind, but I don't remember much. I pushed Cindy back away from the edge then suddenly everything was sliding. It was the creepiest thing. Then there was dirt and stuff falling on me and I was falling and then zowie, the lights went out. I remember some weird dreams then I woke up here with the world's worst headache."
Jack said, "I'm going to find the guys and the bus." He zipped out.
"So is there anything we can get you?" Annie offered.
"I'm all right. Hey mom, you probably don't want to read that-"
Molly had picked up some kind of medical charts and was reading through them. She looked up and said quietly, "Rebecca?"
Fi looked away and didn't answer.
"Talk to me! This says something about a blood transfusion that I was not told about-"
"Mom I don't remember!"
"And a name, her name. Fiona, was she there?"
Fi quit trying to look 'ok' for her mother. Her face sagged into lines of pain and exhaustion and her eyes flashed a plea for help past her mother's shoulder.
Annie spoke up, "Whatever it is, can't it wait a bit? Fi's in bad shape."
"Oh baby I'm sorry. I was just shocked for a minute there."
"S'ok." Fi had to take another breath to speak again. "Are you guys staying? Will you be here tomorrow?"
"Yeah. We'll park the bus at Melinda's."
"Ok. Hey Annie, thanks for coming in. I'll get out of here in a few days they we can hang out 'kay... sis?"
"Ok!" Annie grinned.
They seemed to be saying goodbye. Molly very carefully hugged her daughter, and they went out.
In the hall a doctor met them, "Are you Mrs. Phillips?"
Molly pounced. "What was that about a blood transfusion? I wasn't told about that on the phone!"
Annie felt eyes on her back. She turned. An African-American girl with jeweled pins in her hair leaned around the corner. Annie saw her arms were full of flowers. She saw Molly, her dark eyes widened, and she stepped back out of sight.
The doctor was saying, "...immediate transfusion was necessary... at the scene, one of the students with compatible blood."
"A student? Not an adult?"
"Yes, I'm sure. We didn't say that on the phone because we didn't know, her injuries were more severe than they looked..."
Annie didn't really understand this. She walked away, turned the corner, and found the girl with the flowers waiting patiently in a stairwell.
"Hey-did you come to see Fi Phillips? Her mom's a little upset but she won't bite or anything."
The girl looked at Annie coldly, "No, I'm not here to see her."
"Um, the tag on those flowers does say 'to Fi.' Are there two people named Fi in this hall?"
A sigh. "Are you a friend of hers?"
"Yeah. I travel on the tour bus. My name's Annie Thelen."
"Do you have a pen?"
Annie rummaged in her purse and found one. The girl wrote something on the back of the flower tag. "Will you please give this to Fi?"
"Sure." Annie took the bouquet. The flowers were all orange and white and they smelled heavenly.
"Go on."
"Wait, will you tell me your name?"
"No." The short reply was softened by a brief smile, flash of white teeth against brown skin.
Annie shrugged and went to deliver the flowers. "Fi, delivery."
Fi looked at the tag, turned it over and read the back. "From who?"
"A black girl who wouldn't tell me her name."
"Rebecca." Fi said very quietly, "Her name is Rebecca, but don't tell mom you saw her."
"Fi, what's going..." Annie stopped mid-question, looking out the door, "Too late. They're talking out there."
"Oh no!"
"Wait, stay put, I'll spy."
"Rebecca." Molly said with some unreadable emotion in her voice. Anger? Betrayal? Relief?
"It's me. Please don't get mad at Fiona, I made her promise not to tell you I was in her school."
"And of course your mother, my Rebecca, is too busy to see me."
Rebecca looked down and nodded, "We're sorry for leaving that way. Both times."
"And if Fi told me she had seen you, you would have to leave again."
"Yes."
"I see."
Annie didn't. She felt guilty for spying, no matter how important it was to Fi. She silently promised never to get into other people's private business again, even by accident.
Molly closed her eyes for a long minute then smiled. "Tell your... tell my Rebecca... she can email me. No sight or sound you know."
Rebecca's face lit up, then she schooled her features to neutrality.
"Tell Rebecca thanks for being my friend. And saving my daughter. Give... her... this." Molly tugged the silver ring off her finger. She wanted to give Rebecca something important, and this was the only thing she had. She didn't think great-grandmother Fiona would mind. "I forgive you for leaving."
Molly dropped the ring and her card into Rebecca's hands. She walked away, carefully not looking back. Annie followed. Her eyes met Rebecca's for a moment: the same color eyes but so different in expression.
"Wait up, Molly!"
"Whew!" Molly looked shell-shocked, and like she might cry. "I'm not sure what I did back there."
Annie put her arm around the singer, "I'm not either, but I think it was the right thing."
"Y'know honey, I do too." Molly summoned a grin and ruffled Annie's hair.
Annie didn't add the last thing she had accidentally seen over her shoulder as she ran after Molly.
Rebecca slipped into Fi's room. "She knows."
"No, she might not, you might not have to..." Fi protested incoherently.
"No! No, it's ok. What she said means it's ok." Rebecca sat down on the end of the bed, her hands holding the ring and the card clasped before her face. She began to cry, tears falling on her lap, past her smile.
--end episode two--