Nancy Parker seems to be making everyone upset. We'll fix it. Don't worry. Oh, and Nellie is not bad and she's not going to try to take Max away, she's Liz's friend. I'm typing this from my graduation present. Just got back from Florida today for my senior trip, Walt Disney World is huge, but I think I'll stick with little ol' Disneyland.

Chapter 20

It was early May and Liz had been delivered of healthy twins, a boy, Jacob Kyle, and girl, Helena Elizabeth.

Liz was upstairs with the twins, where Max could easily hover over her. He preferred to stay out of the clinic and so kept his wife out as well.

Nellie smiled when she heard Max's office door open and shut. Liz had kicked him out of the nursery again. Nellie went back to tending the child who had burned her hands on the stove. She was happy for her two friends. She didn't know how she would be able to deal with seeing the man she had once thought herself in love with marry another woman, her best friend. It didn't bother her she was proud to say. She loved Max like a brother and she knew she would find someone else soon.

Maria Guerin was another story. The two rivaled for Liz's attention and Liz gave of it freely. She seemed oblivious to her friends' plight. Smiling Nellie secretly like the other woman her feistiness was a perfect match for Liz. Too bad the woman was so squeamish; she would have made the perfect nurse.

Nellie had just dried her hands when a frazzled woman walked in, a screaming baby in her arms and tiny blonde haired girl limped beside her.

"Sit right there, Katie, and hush." The woman said. "Is Mrs. Evans here?"

"No, I'm filling in for her though." Nellie said. "Did you need a nurse?"

"Yes." She pointed to the girl the woman had called Katie. "Something is wrong with the girl. She was running off as usual and the girl came back limping. I don't know what's wrong with her and she won't say."

Nellie studied the girl and thought there was something oddly familiar about the child.

"Do you want to tell me what happened to you, Katie darling?" Nellie lifted her onto the examining table. "Will you?"

"I want my da." She rubbed her eyes tiredly.

"The girl continually asks for her da. He's a busy man now; he can't spend every minute of the day with her."

"I want my da." She said again.

"We'll find you da in a moment, sweetheart." Nellie bent and gently began feeling for broken bones when the girl winced as she grabbed her ankle she knew she found the problem. "Did you fall down in a field?"

"I fall down." The girl repeated, looking into her eyes, trusting this other woman.

"How old are you, Katie?"

"This many." She held up three fingers.

"Did you fall in a gopher hole?"

"I fall in a hole." The little girl said. "Hi, doggie."

Nellie turned and saw Lady standing in the doorway sniffing.

"Lady, come." Nellie called. The dog scampered over and she picked it up and held it to the girl. "You like the doggie?"

"Yes." She reached out to touch her. Something about the child seemed so familiar but Nellie couldn't place her.

"Well Lady will sit right here with you and let you pet her. I'm going to feel you leg and fix it, ok? It might hurt a little."

"I want my da." She stated again when Nellie mentioned her leg.

"This might be easier, ma'am if you were to stay outside." She turned to the woman.

"Hmm." She said. "I think I'll stay here."

"No." Nellie said. "Please go."

The woman left with a loud humpf and went to the waiting room.

Pulling the stockings down and off caused the little girl to wince.

"What?" Nellie asked watching the little girl's face contort with pain. "Katie, do you hurt elsewhere?"

Looking at the door and then at Nellie she nodded.

"Show me where." Nellie went to the door and shouted to Cassidy who was in the waiting room. Sometimes she was allowed to join Nellie and Liz in the examination room and she spent her days in the waiting room for when she could.

"Cassidy, I need you to go get your aunt."

"But, Uncle Max said…"

"Your Uncle Max will deal with it. I need her."

"Ok." She jumped up and went to get her.

"Ok, Katie." Nellie went back to her. "I'm going to take your dress of ok?"

She looked uncertain but allowed her to take off the tiny frock. Her tiny body was covered with welts and bruises.

"Katie, what happened?" Nellie asked.

She didn't say anything but stared at the door. Liz came in a few minutes later, tying an apron behind her. "Hello."

"Liz, look." Nellie pointed to the girl on the table.

"That looks like when the boys get spanked with the ruler at school." Cassidy said.

"Cassidy, out." Liz said and approached the table.

"The nanny said she fell down."

"That's not a fall." Liz said. "I'll send for the doctor, to make sure there aren't any internal injuries. Are there other children in the nanny's care?"

"Just a baby, about eleven months."

"Cassidy!" Liz called.

"Yes, Aunt Liz?" She poked her head in eagerly.

"Go tell Mr. March to go find the doctor please. And tell him to be quick."

"Yes, ma'am." She ducked out of the room.

"Go get the baby."

"What should I tell the nanny?"

"Just that we're doing a routine check-up for free and see if you can find out who this little girl's da is."

Fifteen minutes later the doctor walked in. "Elizabeth, you're not supposed to be up."

"It's been three weeks since I've had the babies." Liz said. "Look at this child."

"What happened?" He asked as he began gently twisting joints, and feeling around for any other injuries. His brows creased as Liz explained. While they were doing that Nellie slipped out of the room and out of the house.

Disturbed at the information she had gotten out of the nanny, Georgia, Nellie left the Evans house. Something of the nanny's tale just did not sit well with her, along with who they said the father was.

She reached the house at the end of town. The house had only been completed a month before and a new family had moved in. A widower, and that was all they knew about the family. But when the nanny had given the name, her heart had jumped.

She reached the house and knocked on the door.

"Can I help you Miss…:" A maid answered the door, Nellie assumed it was the housekeeper.

"Brighton, Cornelia Brighton."

The house was a nice size, no where near as large as Max's but it was obvious the occupants had enough money.

"Mr. Malloy will see you in his office."

Nellie stepped into the room. Seeing him again took her breath away. There was a hardness in his eye that wasn't there before.

"Can I help you Miss Brighton?" He asked, raising one blonde eyebrow at her.

"You don't remember me do you, Mr. Malloy?"

"I'm afraid not." He said.

"I delivered your youngest child, Mary Sarah." She said. That caught his attention. "In New York."

"I don't believe you did, Miss Brighton a friend of mine did." He said, studying her more closely. That day and the weeks following it had been hectic and a blur for the man. Three months after Mary Sarah had been born he had left New York City. Tired of the masses, tired of the work, and tired of everything that made New York City, he had left for the wide open spaces of the west.

The death of his wife, Sarah had left a mark on him and he mourned for her. The only thing that kept him going were his young daughters, Kathryn and Mary Sarah.

"There was another girl there as well, Mr. Malloy." She said quietly. It stung a little bit to realize that he hadn't even known she was there or that he didn't remember her. Her mind tried to tell her heart that he had been grieve had to still be grieving. But it was no use, her heart wouldn't listen.

"No, I can't seem to recall. If you were there you'd know that that was a rather hard day for me, Miss Brighton."

"Yes." She nodded.

"Is there something you needed to see me about?" He asked. "I've come quite a long way from where I was a year ago, but no where near where I want to be for my daughters."

"I'm a friend of the Evans."

His eyes perked.

"You do know that Liz is here right, her husband owns like half the town." Nellie said.

"Yes, I do." Sean said quietly He wasn't sure how he felt about that yet, which is why he hadn't made his presence known. "How did you know I was here?"

"Your daughter's nanny brought in Katie because she fell into a gopher hole and now she's limping."

"What?" He was around the desk in an instant. At that moment she knew that he had no idea what was going on with his nanny and the children. "Is she ok?"

"We're not sure. Your daughter, Mr. Malloy, had many other injuries on her body." She said slowly. "She seemed frightened of the nanny."

"But they…where are they?"

"At the Evans' house. Max Evans had the back of his house converted into a clinic so his wife can run a small practice there and relieve the overflow from the doctor."

"He's good to her then?"

"Yes." Nellie told him. "He's very good to her. Did you hear that she just had twins?"

"Twins, really?" He smiled. "I can't see Elizabeth as a mother."

"She's a good one. Your children, Mr. Malloy?" She asked. "How often do you check on your children when they're in the nursery?"

"I don't see them as much, as I used to." He said as he looked down. "I've been working. I'm going to go with you to collect them, and you'll tell me what's going on."

"Ok." She nodded, studying him. "You care about your daughters?"

"Very much, they're all I have left, all that matters."

Her heart hoped to one day matter to him as well.

They arrived back at the Evans residence a few minutes later.

Nellie led him around the back so that he could enter without the nanny being there.

"Da!" Katie said in surprised happiness, her tiny foot and ankle was wrapped in a cast, her tiny body ensconced in a blanket.

"Hello, my princess." He said going to her. "What happened to you, my love?"

She shrugged and continued to pet Lady.

"Sean?" Liz asked surprised.

"Yeah." He said shyly. "Surprise?"

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"These are my daughters." He took the baby from Liz's arms. "You and Miss Brighton here delivered this one."

"Really?" Liz said and realized why the baby looked so familiar. "Oh, Sean, when did you move out here?"

"I had money saved up. Sarah and I were going to move out here after the baby was born and I just decided to go on after…" He paused. "I have money in a small coal mine and it's really producing. What's wrong with my daughter?"

"You might consider hiring another nanny." She stepped towards Katie. His face grimaced as he looked at his daughter. "Where is she?"

"In the waiting room." Nellie said.

"I'll be back."

Liz began to get antsy and looking towards the door.

"Liz, go back up to your babies."

She blushed and looked down. "I don't…"

"Just go." Nellie smiled.

"Thank you. You'll be ok?" She was already taking off her apron and the doctor had already left.

"Yes." Nellie nodded and watched Liz quickly leave the room.

"Uncle Max, guess what!" Cassidy skipped into his office. She was welcome in there in anytime she had been informed. Just like she was with her father.

"What?" He looked up at her. "Besidesthat a very pretty little girl isin my office."

"Mr. Malloy is here, he moved in a few weeks ago. That house on the edge of town is his." She informed him.

"Mr. Malloy As in Sean Malloy?" he asked,

"Yes." She said. "I saw his daughters. They're really cute. They're only a little older than Helena and Jacob, and my little brother Robby."

"Is he in the clinic?"

"Yeah. There's something wrong with Katie, the bigger one. Miss Cornelia sent me to get the doctor so it must have been serious, and then Aunt Liz came."

"Is he still here?" She asked.

"I think."

Max stood and opened his office door. Nellie was holding one child while Sean Malloy was holding another.

"Hold it right there, Miss Brighton." Max ground out. Just seeing the other man upset him.

"Max, I'm just going to help him get the girls home and then I'll go over to Kyle and Serena's." Nellie said.

"No."

"Max." She stepped back and looked up at him. "I'm not your sister and I'm not your wife, I can take care of myself, and I do not have to obey you."

"I promised your father that I would take care of you while you were here."

"I know you did. I'm fine, I'll be fine." She said, looking back at Sean. The look in her eyes was so tender towards the man and his daughter that he couldn't help but let her go.

"Be careful." He said. "I'll make sure Cassidy gets home."

"Ok." She said. "Thank you."

tbc