Thanks very much for the kind reviews

Sorry about the late update, I think the chapter following this might be a little slow too.

Loads of schoolwork – you know how it goes

Thanks anyway to

Dash/TheFLHurricane, soccergurl1990, Nn11 and Meatball-101

I'd actually forgotten about this fic until I got a random review from you, Meatball

Ha.

So yes, that's it

Enjoy! Love LJ xXx

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Throw Me. Chapter Eight. A Helping Hand

- o -

Mirage picks up the ringing phone as Helen comes through the door, having just been to the supermarket and picked Vi and Dash up from school.

"It's for you," she hands the receiver over to Helen, swapping it for the groceries in her hand. Dash makes a beeline for the couch and grabs the TV remote whilst Violet wanders wordlessly off to her room to shut herself in.

"A what? Hang on a second," Helen frowns and places her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone as she speaks to her son. "Dash, can you turn it down? Sorry, yes? Hostages...? I don't know..." She looks into the kitchen, phone cord trailing behind her, where Mirage is stacking the groceries in the fridge.

"Elizabeth, can you handle the kids for a while?"

"Sure, what is it?" Mirage replies, catching some toppling cereal boxes just in time.

"Hostage situation, thanks." Helen smiles gratefully before speaking into the receiver again, "I'll be there."

Mirage shrugs in the empty kitchen, "No problem." And she laughs slightly to herself at the bumper bag of candy at the bottom of the bag that Dash had managed to sneak into the groceries.

"Be back soon, kids – be good," Helen says hurriedly rushing out of the front door. Jack-Jack gives a loud shout from his playpen.

"I'm always good," Dash answers automatically, but his mother has already gone, so he turns up the volume on his cartoons now.

Dash is so lost in the Fairly Odd Parents playing on the TV that he doesn't notice when his baby brother turns himself into a big grey rabbit. Jack-Jack gnaws a while on the bars of his playpen and twitches his nose as the doorbell rings.

Mirage breezes through the living room, not seeing the rabbit replacement for the baby, and opens the door.

"Hi, I'm one of Violet's friends," Francis greets her shyly. Mirage nods.

"Come in, Violet's in her room," Mirage returns to the kitchen and Francis pauses in the living room, briefly watching the cartoons.

"Nice rabbit," he comments before heading down the hall to Violet's room.

"Thanks," Dash responds vaguely.

Jack-Jack strokes his long floppy ears with one grey paw and turns back to normal with an overjoyed chortle.

"Violet? It's Francis, can I come in?" Francis knocks softly on her bedroom door. In seconds, the door is flung open and Violet stands in the doorway with a hardened look of defiance on her face.

"What do you want?" she asks him, bluntly. The shy boy shifts awkwardly in the hall, searching for his words.

"I just wanted to say sorry, about what happened at lunch," Francis apologises. Violet softens slightly and stands aside to let him enter her bedroom.

"Yeah, well – maybe you should be apologising to Tony," she answers with her mother's sharpness. "He's in a pretty bad state."

"How do you know? Did you see him? How did you get in?" Francis rushes the questions and Violet silently curses herself for letting that slip.

"Uh – my Dad knows someone who works there," she gives the first answer that comes to her head and is relieved when Francis doesn't seem to question her any further. He sits on the edge of her bed and says nothing.

"You should've stood up for him," she berates him, but her voice has lost the sternness it had previously.

"I shouldn't have encouraged them, no. But, Violet – I do think he did it, or tried to," Francis replies, quietly. He looks at her through the haze of his dark hair, just as she once did.

"But...Tony, he's not like that," Violet searches for a rational reason but she doesn't have one and only stares at him with widened eyes, desperate for him to understand.

"I didn't think so, no. But there is no other reason. Believe me, I tried every other explanation – he's my friend too; I didn't want to believe it."

Violet has no reply and Francis looks at her crest-fallen expression for a while in the semi-dark of her bedroom before getting to his feet.

"I'm sorry, I should go. I only came to apologise for what I said today and I've done that, so I'm gonna go now," Francis murmurs. "Bye Violet."

And then he is gone, leaving Violet to sink down to the carpeted floor and sit, her knees pulled up to her chest, staring blankly ahead at the opposite wall.

"Goodbye, Francis," Mirage greets politely as she sees the quiet boy head for the door as she entertains baby Jack-Jack.

"Bye – what did you say your name was again?" Francis asks.

"Mirage," she answers, absent-mindedly.

"Huh?" Francis repeats.

"Uh – Elizabeth. Elizabeth Peña," Mirage covers up, hurriedly.

"What did you say before?"

Mirage winces, hoping he hadn't noticed.

"Mirage – it's just a, uh, stupid nickname I have," she laughs it off.

"Okay then," Francis answers, shortly. "Bye, Elizabeth."

As the boy leaves, Mirage shakes her said and sighs.

"I nearly gave myself away, Jack-Jack," she confides in the baby, who shrieks with laughter and throws his bouncy ball across the room.

While Mirage turns her back to retrieve it, Jack-Jack has a brief try at being a balloon but soon gives up and returns to his usual form.