Here we go chapter 14,

Carbybubbles – you are my number one reviewer, thanks so much for the encouragement!! And to everyone else as well, it's all very much appreciated.

-still don't own anything, sadly.

Get me away from this"

"Amelia, Meals." Jasper yelled after Amelia as he caught up. She sighed, turning around not meeting his gaze. He pulled up in front of her looking down at the top of her head, panting slightly. "Mealie you can't just walk away like that." He said softly to her, pulling her chin up. She looked as close to tears as he'd ever seen her, he'd never seen her cry, it was usually hard to get any kind of emotional response out of her. He'd had a good talk with Maggie, he knew she meant no harm; it was just conveying this to Amelia without showing her he liked her that he was struggling with

"I don't know what to do." She said quietly trying to avoid his gaze. He sighed, pulling her into his chest, he felt her breathing heavily against him as she fell forwards.

"What do you want to do?" He asked his head bent, his chin resting against the top of her head. He hadn't realized quite how much this was tearing her apart. She shook her head against his chest pulling back. Amelia rubbed her hands over her face again, thanking god that she'd not worn Mascara today.

"I don't know Jas." She replied looking back up at him. "I want it all to go away." She said shrugging.

"It can't though." He replied.

"Then why the hell did you ask me what I wanted if you're just going to tell me that it can't ever happen?" She shot back at him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She said instantly, shaking her head, realizing she was being unreasonable.

"The way I see it you have two options, you want to hear them?" He offered.

"Which one involves me not having to go back over there and fetch Lauren?" Amelia asked hopefully.

"Neither." He shook his head, smiling a little.

"Brilliant." Amelia replied sarcastically still looking at him, "So come on lets here your plan." She replied.

"Ok." He sighed, "Number one, you go back over there, tell Maggie that you won't talk to her again, tell her that you don't want her to see Lauren, and to leave you and us alone. Then you pick Lauren up and run like hell." He stopped, their eyes still joined.

"Number two?" Amelia asked obviously not overly impressed by the first idea.

"Number two is that you go back over there, in a very similar fashion to number one, tell her that she can see Lauren again and that you'll work on talking to her." He finished.

"Right, now I just need to work on which one to do because I'd come up with both of those already." Amelia smiled at him shaking her head. He pulled her back into his chest and she wrapped her arms around his waist. They stood silently for a minute lost in their public solace.

"What would Birdie tell you to do?" Jasper asked, knowing that she was the one person whose advice Amelia would always listen to.

"She'd tell me to stop being a pig headed fucker and go and speak to my mother." Amelia said laughing, into Jasper's chest.

"So?" Jasper said hopefully pulling her back from him.

"I know, it's easier said than done though." Amelia smiled.

"Either you have to laugh or you're going to cry, right?" Jasper said smiling at her; little did he know it was becoming her motto for life.  "Come on." He said taking her hand squeezing it reassuringly.

Amelia followed his lead obediently, she trailed behind him slightly, her composure back, she was embarrassed at having walked away though.

"You only want to get back over there because you think Lauren's going to be telling them all your embarrassing stories." Amelia smiled at him.

"No it because I think Abby's hot." Jasper grinned teasingly at her.

"Shut up." Amelia smiled back as he put his arm around her shoulders.

Amelia surveyed Lauren as she approached, in the space of about five minutes she'd gone from being relatively clean, if slightly damp and muddy to absolutely filthy, she had chocolate milk all round her mouth, and over most of her clothes, she didn't seem to mind though as she chatted happily to Abby and Maggie, who seemed to have a fairly good handle on her excitable four year old.

"Lauren you're filthy." Amelia said as she bent down to Lauren's eyelevel, wiping a comedy spot of drink from under Lauren's left eye, and trying to get some off from around her mouth as Lauren squirmed trying to get her to stop.

"Mommy stop it." Lauren wined as she swatted Amelia's hands.

"You want me to get her cleaned up?" Abby offered, sensing that Amelia had come back for a reason, and she wasn't all that enthusiastic about hearing what was about to happen.

"D'you mind?" Amelia said standing up looking at Abby gratefully.

Abby shook her head 'no' and held out her hand for Lauren.

"My hands are sticky." Lauren said surveying her chocolate covered fingers and grazed palms.

"That's ok." Abby smiled down at her, Lauren grabbed Abby's hand and they set off towards the closest washroom.

"Maggie." Amelia started, taking a deep breath, getting Maggie's attention back to her.

"Amelia I..." She began

"Just listen to me for a second." Amelia instructed. "I'm sorry about some of the stuff I said to you last night." She started.

"It doesn't matter." Maggie began, shaking her head.

"No, some of it was out of line, and I'm sorry for that, I didn't mean to be a bitch." She paused momentarily before smiling adding, "Actually that's precisely what I wanted to be but…" She trailed off a serious expression crossing her face again. "Look, I still don't know about me but I don't have any right to keep you away from Lauren, so if you want to see her then we can work something out." She saw the grateful expression crossing Maggie's face as she continued. "I don't know if I really want to do this Maggie but she seems to be a pretty big fan of yours from what I've seen so I don't want to deny her that, to have some kind of extended family." She explained.

"Thank you." Maggie whispered looking at Amelia genuine thanks in her eyes.

"I'll tell her who you are, and if you want to spend the afternoon with her some time I can deal with that." Amelia added.

Maggie nodded smiling.

"Lauren, come on." Amelia yelled as she saw Abby and Lauren headed back in their direction. "Abby has my number so if you call we'll work something out." Amelia added.

Lauren ran into Jasper's arms and he picked her up.

"Say bye." Jasper said to Lauren who turned towards Maggie and flashed her a smile. "It was nice to meet you." He added shaking Maggie's hand.

"You too." Maggie smiled at him.

"Bye." Amelia added.

"Bye." Maggie replied quietly as she watched them walk away. She felt like she'd pretty much lost her daughter, but in the space of an afternoon she'd gained a granddaughter and she couldn't wipe the smile off her face.

It's turning into an almost happy ending after all. I just couldn't help it!!