(A/N-I'm very sorry about the delays. My life is a mess. The fic is almost over, only 2 or three more chapters. And Nick may be OOC. Never written him before. And...I'm not sure how US Child Services works, so I'm taking a stab at it. Enjoy!)
Ahmaryllis stood up and went to the reception area. Standing there was a woman from Child Services.
"Excuse me, are you miss Ahmaryllis Smial?" she asked in that horrible voice careworkers use when they are about to take children away.
"Ya. What do you want?" Ahmaryllis said.
"We heard about the tragic demise of your family. Since you are only nineteen years old, we are putting you in a temporary foster care."
Ahmaryllis looked confused. "Isn't that only for kids who are under 16 or something?"
"Well, your case is very special. We saw that you had nowhere else to go, and that you might be distraught and unable to care for yourself. So we are putting you up with a family for a little while." the woman said.
"But I'm already living with someone. His name is Greg Sanders. I'll be fine." Greg put a hand on Ahmaryllis' shoulder.
"You see miss Smial, he is not your legal guardian-"
"You're not my fuckin' legal gaurdian either, bitch. I'm not going." Ahmaryllis walked backwards from the woman. "Get the fuck away from me." She turned and stalked to the breakroom. She was joined a moment later by Greg. He sat down beside her.
"Why didn't you tell her that you were almost twenty-three?"
"Because she would've checked my birth certificate and seen that I was nineteen, then checked my background and found all the different ones. It would've been confusing. Too many lawyers and confessions. I'd rather stay nineteen."
"You could have gone with her anyways. You can't live with me forever."
"I know. I need somewhere to start up again. I don't know what I'm going to do."
Greg put a reassuring hand on her knee, but Ahmaryllis pulled away. She was still sensitive about men touching her, even if it was Greg who meant to harm. There was silence for a moment, then Greg got up. "I have some stuff to do. You can help me in the lab if you want."
"No thanks. I'll stay here." Ahmaryllis said quietly. Greg gave her a worried look and went to the DNA lab. When he was gone, Ahmaryllis sank down on the couch. She cried silently; cried for her family, cried for all the others who had died at the hands of the mob, cried for herself and cried for Greg who cared for her so much, care that she could probably never give back. No one came back into the break room, so Ahmaryllis cried herself to sleep.
When she awoke, it was noon. Ahmaryllis stood up and went to look for some food. She was rummaging through the cupboards when a voice said,
"Excuse me, can I help you?" Ahmaryllis spun around. Standing in the doorway was a young man that she did not know.
"You are you?" She asked.
"That's none of your business." The man's voice took on a nasty edge. "Now why don't you go to the reception area and ask someone who you're looking for. You're not supposed to be back here."
Ahmaryllis began to get frightened. "Where's Greg and Sara and Nick? Where are they?"
"Oh, you mean the night shift? They left a long time ago. It's the day shift now."
Ahmaryllis began to hyperventilate. She was in a building, surrounded by people she didn't know. "I have to get out of here." She said. "Oh god, oh god."
The man stepped away from the door and Ahmaryllis bolted for it. She ran through the halls and out the front doors. She looked around for Greg's car. It wasn't there. She ran in the general direction of where he lived, but she had no idea where exactly that was.
She wandered around for a little while, panic-stricken, before recognizing where she was. After walking down a couple more streets, she found one of her old haunts. It was behind a Quickie, just behind the dumpster. She moved it a little bit, revealing a small cubby hole. There, she could pass as homeless. Ahmaryllis had a clear view of the street and all the cars going past, but it would be hard for them to see her in the shadows. She found some expired twinkies and a Powerade with a broken seal. She spent at least four hours there, drawing absently on some paper that she had left there for when she needed to get away from life.
The cubby behind the dumpster had been her favorite spot since she moved to Vegas. There, the whole world disappeared. It was only her and the wall. Surrounded by her thoughts, Ahmaryllis had sometimes spent the whole day there.
She looked up and saw that the sun was slowly beginning to sink towards the horizon. She watched it and admired the colour changes that it made. She crawled out from behind the dumpster and leant against it. She simply sat there and let the colours play across her face until someone came running up to her.
"Ahmaryllis! Ahmaryllis!" They shouted. She looked up and saw that it was Nick. "We've been looking for you for at least 5 hours. Greg's worried about you. Come on. I'll get you back to the lab. Shift is about to start."
Ahmaryllis moved away. "Just drop me off at Greg's house. I'll call his cell from there." Nick nodded and they got in the car. Twenty minutes later, Nick dropped her off with a house key. "Bye." she said. He waved back as he backed out of the driveway. Ahmaryllis stepped inside.
The first thing she did was call Greg. Unfortunately, it came up as his answering machine. She said that she was at his palce and that she was alright. He would get the message. Ahmaryllis put the phone back, but took it off the hook after a moment. She didn't want any calls.
Ahmaryllis ordered a pizza for herself and sat down at the computer. She opened the internet browser and went to the superpages site. She searched for the last name Smial. The only thing that came up was her old house, which no longer existed. She went back to the home page and searched for Bruce Smial. A couple of hits came up and she checked them out. The pizza soon arrived and Ahmaryllis paid for it with a wad of Greg's money. She sat down again at the computer and continued to search. Several hours later, she had narrowed the search for her brother down to a couple of phone numbers. An hour later, there were only two. Ahmaryllis picked up the phone. If one of these was right, she would soon see her brother again.
She slowly dialed the first number. The phone rang a couple of times. A woman picked up. "Waddya want?" She asked in a high, nasal voice.
"Is Bruce there?"
"I don't know no Bruce. If this is a prank call, I'll track ya down and you'll wish that ya neva'-" Ahmaryllis hung up. He wasn'tthere, so she didn't need to listen to a woman rant. She dialed the second number, hoping against all hope that this was the right one. The phone rang six or seven times, and she thought that no one was home. Then someonedid pick up.
"Hello. Bruce speaking." The deep voice of her brother floated through the receiver.
"Bruce? It's Ahmy."