"It's a small world"

Ch12

"Shit." Amelia said under her breath as she and Jasper walked along hand in hand, Lauren running ahead of them.

"What?" Jasper asked frowning looking down at her.

"That's them." Amelia nodded in the direction of the two women walking towards them as she turned around.

"Who?" Jasper asked slightly confused.

"Maggie and Abby." Amelia replied looking up and over at him, concernedly. His eyes shot over and identified the two women, neither of whom he'd met before, he was mildly curious.

 Amelia had stayed up most of the previous night after she'd gotten home from the coffee shop and Abby and Maggie with Jasper, telling him about her meeting with her mother, about what she'd said, what she'd done, he'd comforted her, and advised her but she still didn't want to be confronted again.

"I think they've seen you Mealie." He whispered back, tucking her loose hair behind her ear for her. He looked back over watching the younger woman stop, trying to grab the older woman's sleeve to turn her around.

"Oh, god, Jas, I can't talk to her again." Amelia told him pleadingly.

"Your Mom's coming you're going to have to." Jasper told her as Maggie headed purposefully towards them.

"They don't know about Lauren." Amelia confided desperately.

"I think they might have to soon." Jasper said touching her arm comfortingly as she looked up at him.

"How small is Chicago that they would be here?" Amelia laughed slightly, defeated.

"Amelia." Maggie said softly standing a foot away from them now, Abby had hung back, not moving from the spot she'd been when she first saw Amelia, not wanting to do it all over again.

Amelia and Jasper's eyes were still locked, reading each other thoughts, taking his cue from Amelia's expression he turned towards Maggie.

"Hi." He said extending his hand, "I'm Jasper." He tried to put Maggie off for as long as possible, knowing Amelia needed some time to work out what her next move had to be.

Maggie looked over at him dragging her eyes away from Amelia, slightly put off.

"Hi, Maggie." She said politely shaking his hand, looking up at him briefly, smiling a fixed smile before turning back to Amelia. Jasper's ploy hadn't worked as well as he'd hoped.  "Amelia I really want you to talk to me, please, I'm not going to go anywhere." She said trying to catch Amelia's gaze as she stared away at a fixed point somewhere over Maggie's left shoulder.

Amelia hardly heard what Maggie said as she stared at Lauren's little form, happily collecting leaves from the ground, humming something to herself. She watched as Lauren stood up, the sleeves of her hoodie over her hands just like Amelia's were, clutching a bunch of red leaves, her curly, dirty blonde hair in her eyes, it was a wonder she could ever see where she was going, Maggie was still talking and Amelia still wasn't listening. Lauren was Amelia through and through, the only thing she hadn't inherited where Amelia's dark blue eyes, Lauren's eyes were all Wyzinski, dark chocolate brown. She saw Lauren look up and acknowledge her gaze, she watched as Lauren grinned widely, and saw what she was planning as she began to run towards them, her treasures in her hand, clearly proud, wanting to show her mother. Amelia glanced at Jasper, he'd noticed Lauren headed in their direction as well; he moved to intercept her before she reached them but as she dodged him she tripped over the undone laces of her shoes and crashed to the tarmac. A scream went up after the horrible second of silence and Amelia bolted towards her followed by Maggie who'd turned as soon as she heard the scream also wanting to help the hapless child, Jasper was already by her side, picking her up when Amelia arrived two seconds later, and Abby also hurried over from her spot, away from the confrontation. Jasper was picking her up off the ground attempting to stand her back on her feet and see if she'd done herself any damage, but she was crying too hard and wouldn't stand up. Amelia hoisted her onto her hip, and inspected her dirty and grazed hands and knees, hugging her tightly as she continued to cry loudly.

"It's ok sweetie." Amelia reassured her rubbing her back gently.

"Where are her parents?" Maggie said looking around her for some more concerned adults. She missed Abby and Amelia's eyes lock, unspoken acknowledgement passing between her two daughters. Abby looked shocked as the realization set in. Maggie bent down trying to meet the child's eyes as she turned her head deeper into Amelia's shoulder, laying her hand on Lauren's back she asked gently

"Where are your parents sweetheart?"

Amelia handed Lauren to Jasper who was standing just behind her, Jasper turned away and started pacing with Lauren, whispering to her as her sobs began to subside slowly. Amelia sighed heavily as Maggie stood back up fully.

"She's mine Maggie." Amelia said staring sadly into Maggie's eyes. Maggie looked at Amelia for a long second, she opened her mouth to say something but no words came out, she simply stared at Amelia.