Hi people! I'm sorry it took so long. Remember it's kinda A/U.
Okay, here's chapter 3, Hope ya like it. Read and review!
Chapter 3
"Ritza! Ritza!" Someone was shouting Cruz's name.
Cruz opened one eye. "Lettie?"she asked and looked around her living room. After a minute, it hit her that Lettie was dead. "Why am I in the living room?" she asked out loud.
"Ritza!" Now there was soft crying too.
A light bulb went on in Cruz's head. ~Kaylee! Dios, it takes me forever to wake up.~ She rolled off the couch gracefully without hitting her head. "I"m coming, baby." she called.
She got herself up and ran into her room where the little girl was crying and shaking uncontrollably. She paused for a minute, staring at the little girl. She ran over to her and pulled her out of the blanket she was tangled up in. Kaylee's crying got louder.
"Shh.. Baby girl, I'm here now, it's okay." Cruz held the little girl in her arms and without even realizing what she was doing, she started rocking her gently. She looked at her clock and saw that it was 8am. Finally, Kaylee calmed down and stopped crying. Cruz picked Kaylee up and carried her into the bathroom. She set her down on the sink and got some tissues. She wiped Kaylee's face and Kaylee looked up at her with a big grin on her face.
"You passed." Kaylee shrieked.
"Passed what?" Cruz tried hard not to look pissed, but she got interrupted from sleeping.
"Whenever I used to cry when Theresa was here, she used to hit me and yell at me to stop crying. You didn't do that." Kaylee looked pleased with her discovery.
Cruz~ How can you be mad at that?~ "Ay dios mio! You should be an actress, muneqita, You fooled me! I thought you were really upset." She lifted her off the sink and put her down on the cold floor.
As soon as Kaylee's feet touched the floor she ran off into the kitchen. "I'm hungry!"
Cruz groaned silently. ~I guess *I'm* not getting back to sleep anytime soon.~ She followed Kaylee into the kitchen. "You just ate a little while ago." She reminded her.
"I know." Kaylee sat down at the table. "But I'm still hungry."
Cruz sighed. "I know you are, but I don't have alotta food here. Faith was gonna come over later and watch you so I could go shopping."
Kaylee made a face.
"You don't like Faith?" Cruz asked, praying that Kaylee would say that she didn't like her.
Kaylee shook her head. "Not really."
Cruz~ Oh thank god.~ "Understandable."
Silence for about 3 minutes. "So who do you want to watch you?"
"Noone! I wanna go with you 'cause you may not know the foods I like."
"Okay. Let me call Faith." She walked over to where her phone was. "Can you tell me why you don't like her?"
Kaylee shrugged. "Just a feeling. Plus I got the idea that you don't like her."
"Well..... That's true, but it's a long story." Cruz picked up the phone and since it was the same phone she used to call Faith 5 hours ago, she just hit the redial button.
2 rings. "Hello?" Faith answered.
"Yokas, It's Sergeant Cruz. You don't needta come over later. I'm just gonna take her with me."
Faith was surprised. "Oh, okay. But why? I thought you wanted time alone."
"I'm not gonna know what foods she likes." Cruz tried to avoid the second statement.
"No problem." Faith hung up the phone.
Cruz stared at the phone. ~Fine be like that.~ "Kaylee." she called.
"I'm right here."
"You need to take a shower. Wait are you too young to take showers?"
"Um... I don't know."
Cruz tried to think back to when she was 7. ~Was I taking showers or baths then?~
"Do you wanna take a bath?"
Kaylee made a face.
"Okay, stupid question. Let's go. You're taking a bath." Cruz walked over to Kaylee, picked her up and carried her into the bathroom, setting her down on the sink.
"What am I gonna change into? These clothes are dirty."
Cruz thought for a minute. "I think we're going shopping first."
Kaylee groaned.
"Yeah you and me both, chica." Cruz~ Why am I spending all this money on her? I'm not gonna be able to keep her. Or will I? Hmmm....~ Cruz looked at Kaylee. She had on faded jeans and a long sleeve shirt. "You can wear that and a sweatshirt of mine."
Kaylee hopped off the sink and waited for Cruz to walk into her room. Cruz turned and walked into her room. She started rummaging through her draws, finally finding a sweatshirt that won't look too stupid on her. "Here." she handed it to Kaylee.
Kaylee took the sweatshirt and pulled it over her head. "What store are we going to?"
Cruz shrugged. "Where do you wanna go? Kids R Us?" ~Are they cheap?~
"I never went shopping really. Theresa just found me clothes and shoved them at me."
"Oh. So let's go to Kids R Us."
"Okay."
Cruz looked down at what she had on. She saw black sweat pants and a white T-Shirt. She sighed. "Baby girl, I gotta take a shower. I'll be quick, I promise."
Kaylee nodded and Cruz headed off towards the bathroom. Kaylee looked around the apartment. Kaylee~ What if she leaves me? Or makes me leave her? Or won't let me stay here? What am I gonna do? I have nowhere to go. Nobody in this world loves me. I'm all alone. Especially after what Theresa did.~ A tear escaped her eye. She quickly brushed it away, even though no one was with her. She walked around the living room looking for something of value to take incase she gets abandoned again. She couldn't risk going into the bedroom and she saw nothing good in the living room. She was careful not to move anything.
She heard the water turning off in the bathroom. ~That was a quick shower.~ She ran over to the couch and sat down, an innocent look on her face. Cruz opened the door.
"Hey chica." she called.
"Hi." she whispered back.
Cruz had a towel around her. "Hang on a sec. I need to find something clean, but then I wanna talk to you." Cruz walked over to her room and closed the door.
Kaylee nodded. Kaylee~ This is it. She's gonna kick me out. I should've gone into the bedroom. She had to have had something good in there.~
Cruz looked around her room, finally finding clean jeans and a black long sleeve shirt. She got dressed and opened the door. She came around the couch and sat next to Kaylee.
Kaylee turned to Cruz waiting for her to say something.
"Kaylee, I wanted to talk to you about your situation."
Kaylee looked at Cruz a little confused.
"I'm a police sergeant and it's my responsibility to take you to Social Services where they'll find you normal people to live with. They're called foster parents. Are you with me so far?"
Kaylee nodded, trying hard not to cry. "So what did you wanna say?" she whispered.
"I wanna find out if you wanna go to Social Services."
"Where else can I go?" Kaylee~ I hope this works~
"Welllll..... If you want, you can stay here with me, not permanently, but well maybe permanently." Cruz looked at Kaylee trying to decide if she was upset or happy.
"Oh." Kaylee looked down at the floor. Kaylee~ I did it!!!! I'm in!~ Kaylee looked back up at Cruz. "I just didn't think you were the 'mommy' type."
"I'm not. But your over the diapers and the throwing up part, right?"
"I don't know. I mean, I'm over the diapers but I may get sick once in awhile."
Cruz smiled. "Once in awhile I can live with." Cruz looked towards the door. She could've sworn she heard voices outside. Cruz turned back to Kaylee. "I can't explain it, but I feel a connection to you. I think that I was supposed to meet you and help you."
Kaylee stared at Cruz.
"Let's go shopping.." Cruz got up from the couch and Kaylee followed. Cruz got her wallet, her keys and grabbed a random bag and threw her wallet in there. "C'mon chica." ~That was dumb. I just put my keys away.~ She took her keys out and let Kaylee walk in front of her out the door. She closed the door and locked it. "I'm not gonna carry you, okay? Maybe later if you're tired."
Kaylee nodded. They started walking to the stairs and Kaylee slipped her hand in Cruz's. Cruz smiled to herself. ~Maybe I can really help this girl. Who knows what would've happened if I hadn't been standing at that bus stop. I feel a connection with her. I can't explain it. She's like a magnet. I feel like I gotta protect her and I can do that by having her stay here. Can I be a mother? I never used to think so and I'm still not sure I can.~
By this time, Cruz and Kaylee were outside in the crisp New York City air. Kaylee was skipping along happily, pulling Cruz with her.
"What time is it?" Kaylee asked. "Are any good stores open?"
"It's about 9:04 and no good stores are open, which is why we're going grocery shopping first."
"Oh. Okay."
3 blocks later, they reached a Pathmark and went inside. "I'm hungry!" Kaylee exclaimed.
Cruz grabbed a shopping wagon. "You wanna sit in it?"
Kaylee shook her head back and forth. "I wanna feel like a grown up."
"Let's start with chips. You eat Cheese-Doodles or Popcorn or pretzels?"
"I like all of those, but I haven't eaten them in a long time."
"Pick two out of them."
Kaylee chose pretzels and cheese-doodles. She placed them in the seat part of the wagon.
"What do you drink? Milk?"
"I don't like milk."
Cruz raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. "So what do you drink?"
"Tap water."
Cruz made a face. "You like that stuff?"
"No."
"Do you want normal water, like Poland Spring?"
"Okay."
They continued shopping like that, with Cruz asking questions about what Kaylee ate and Kaylee choosing stuff.. It took them about an hour and Cruz wound up spending about $55.
Cruz stood on the checkout line wondering how they were gonna get all this crap home. "Excuse me, you deliver right?"
The cashier nodded. "It's $3 extra though."
Cruz sighed. "Okay I'll do it."
The cashier handed her a clipboard. "Fill it out and then put how many bags you have."
Cruz nodded. "Kaylee, can you count how many bags there are?"
Kaylee nodded. She started counting as the cashier put them in the cart. "6." she said when the cashier was done.
Cruz wrote the number down on the form and handed the clipboard back to the cashier. "How long is it gonna be?"
"Whenever the delivery guy comes back."
Cruz~ Duh, what a pendejo~ She turned to Kaylee. "Let's go."
Cruz and Kaylee walked out of the store and walked the 3 blocks home. "We can't go clothing shopping til the food gets here, so what you wanna do?"
Kaylee shrugged. "I dunno." She looked around the living room. "You have a lotta books."
Cruz nodded. "You wanna read?"
Kaylee nodded her head excitedly.
"Go pick one out. Nothing too scarey," she warned.
Kaylee got up and began looking through the books. She found one that seemed a little interesting and brought it over to the couch where Cruz was. She handed Cruz the book and sat down on the couch leaning against Cruz. Cruz looked at the book and saw it was 'The Wizard of Oz' by L. Frank Baum. Cruz~ What the hell is that still doing here? It used to be my favorite book.~ "Okay. Have you ever read it?"
"No." Kaylee looked down.
"Hey, I'm sorry." Cruz reached for Kaylee's face and held it up high, without hurting her. "Let' read it okay?"
"Kay." Cruz pulled Kaylee into her lap and began to read 'The Wizard of Oz.'
About 45 minutes later, the buzzer rang. Kaylee moved over on the couch and Cruz got up. She pressed the 'Enter' button. She thought she heard more than one person stampeding up the stairs. She walked over to the door and opened it so the delivery person wouldn't have to knock.
Out of nowhere, someone appeared in the doorway and pushed Cruz back into her apartment and didn't let her go.
"What the fuck are you doing? Get offa me!" she shouted. The man didn't let go of her and a couple more people came into the apartment. They headed straight for Kaylee and grabbed her. "No! Leave her alone!" she shouted.
"Ritza!" Kaylee cried, struggling to get free. The two people then walked to the door and with Kaylee kicking and crying for Cruz walked out the door. The man holding Cruz walked her into her bedroom and let her go. Cruz was in too much shock too walk after the man. He then walked quickly to the front door and closed it leaving Cruz dazed, confused and just about in tears..........
TBC!!!!!!!!
Okay people, let me know what you think. I already started on chapter 4 so it shouldn't take that long.