Chapter 3 Adrianna

"If you could please sign here Adrianna?" Mr. Geldos informed, handing her a gold pen. It sparkled as it caught a shade light through the blinds. She took the pen, nodding slightly, her lips firmly sealed. She traced a finger down the page, stopping when she got to the signature space. Her body trembled as she placed a hand on her bump, feeling a significantly firm kick. Closing her eyes she leaned back on her chair breathing deeply. After a few minutes she adjusted herself and looked at the anxious couple holding hands and swallowing. Adrianna cleared her throat.

"Could you call her Holly, please? I would like that a lot. It's my middle name."

The couple glanced at each other, squeezing each others hand in unison. The lady spoke first.

"Of course, if you wish." She smiled feebly and tucked her straight red hair behind her ears. "We like that name, don't we George?"

The male elf jumped forward on his chair awkwardly. "Yes, yes, that's fine." He looked embarrassed and gripped his wife's hand once again. Adrianna raised one eyebrow though nodded in gratitude. She untwisted her strapped top and drummed her fingers on the table nervously, the pen shaking in her other hand. Suddenly she dropped the pen and stood up carefully.

"Sorry, please can you excuse me for a while? I need to go to the restroom."

Adrianna didn't wait for an answer, already proceeding out of the room. Soon as she shut the door, she burst into a dramatic fit of grief, tears streaming down her face. She ran to the toilets, her flip flops tapping in the silence, her hands felt for support against the white walls as the brilliant lights blinded her. Through slits she noticed the placard and shoved herself into the huge room, sighing thankfully as she found no one else was occupying it. Grabbing some tissues, she leaned against the pillars, looking at herself in the mirrors, her frail form hunching forward, shivering because of the minimal insulation of her clothing. She lifted her bony arms and touched her long auburn waves, dragging her fingers through the thick locks. She came to her stomach; the small bump stretching her black dress. Although it had been 8 months now, the bump was still tiny. She let herself fall down so she was sitting on the floor and then curled up tightly, stroking her tummy. "I'm so sorry," her voice echoed eerily, "I'm so sorry Holly."

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Mulch was eating a sandwich, a rather nice sandwich to be precise from a little place called 'Barnie', one of his favorite places to eat. Actually, he was heading back up to Holly's apartment to fetch his wallet for the oven gloves, the shop was just across the road and Mulch really couldn't resist the temptation. He entered with his swipe card and searched around endlessly, still munching his sandwich. He decided to seat himself down seeing as his wallet was nowhere to be found, he was getting out of breath with all this searching. Unfortunately instead of the sofa, his place of rest was to be the coffee table. It cracked in half as his weight collided with its delicate structure. Mulch sat awkwardly in between the broken pieces, blinking unbelievably. "Shall I laugh or cry?" he mumbled to himself as he got up to study the shattered table. "Well, you were pretty useless eh?" He cursed at the table, "Don't look at me like that! I know you're only meant for cups!" He folded his arms breathing deeply like a stubborn child. "And I'm talking to a table…?" he noted, his features confused. Hastily he grabbed his jacket and wallet, running heroically out of the door. It was time to get a new table…

He skipped down the street, not knowing exactly where he was heading. He decided on the nearest store, not comprehending it was the most exclusive and most expensive store underground for interior decorating. He waltzed in eyeing up the female security guard.

"Evening," he winked seductively. The female dwarf raised her eyebrows unimpressed. "Yes, good morning sir," she corrected. Mulch blinked rapidly, coughed and briskly carried on. Going up a few times in the lift, he finally came to a designated 'table' area. Delighted, he selected a finely polished coffee table, almost an exact replica of the original, a middle aged elf advanced towards him, his hair was slicked back in a no nonsense style and his suit was of perfection. He smiled politely, "Do you require any help Sir?" he asked politely, his voice low and clipped. Mulch placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'd like to buy this one please!" he gestured at the petite structure. The assistant nodded, bending down to check the label. Mulch caught a glimpse of the small tag, squinting to see the tiny numbers. Let's just say there were a lot of them. Mulch wavered. "Actually, erm… I think I've changed my mind, no need to buy another table. You know I have so many I loose count, I absolutely love tables, I really do…" he rambled on, the assistant anxiously waiting for this strange dwarf to shut up about tables. Mulch backed away, tripping over a chair and slamming onto the laminate flooring. He chuckled, beginning to briskly walk away, noticing that everybody was now looking at him. He strolled out of the store, and started to mooch down the street grumpily. He picked up an artificial leaf and fiddled with it for an age, examining the intricate details. Sighing, he dropped it back to the floor, realizing he had to cross the road. What a day, he thought, and stumbled over the curb.

Holly ran all the way to Police Plaza, congratulating herself for bringing her deodorant and wearing a strapped top and shorts. She bounded into the entrance, having to dodge the busy crowd, ignoring the comments from behind as she pushed through. Her huge hazel eyes darted around in panic, what if he was following her? The queues were horrendously long, filled with complaining civilians over petty complaints. She growled menacingly and reached in her bag for her communicator, dialing Foaly's private number. She waited for the line to go through, her sight jerking around left and right just incase he was stalking her. The loud voices in Police Plaza became distant, she felt faint and scared, her body numb with terror. She contemplated on the situation; it was unimaginable, too awful to think about. She tried to push the thoughts away and slowly the noises began to turn back to normal volume. The connection wasn't going through, why wasn't it working? Now of all times, why? She glanced at the row of entrances, the crowd still bustling inside shouting further criticism about every little thing possible. "Damn phone!" she cried out infuriated. Looking back again at the doors, her gaze settled on someone. "Oh Gods…" she breathed. There he was, he was back…

Foaly trotted up to Booth 5 where the meeting was being held, tapping in the code, the doors zoomed open and all heads suddenly turned his way. "Morning," he started. A clearing of throats echoed around the room and Vinyaya stood up briefly to announce the reason of the meeting.

"I assume everybody is here, so we will start," she licked her lips, her burgundy lipstick beginning to fade. Her head was raised confidently, her wise features perfectly calm and collected. "Mister Foaly, please begin." She seated, nodding at Foaly, he was way ahead of her and had already set up a hologram on the table next to him. "Right, my talk today is addressing the fact of overpopulated cities which is becoming quite a problem. I feel the most central problem is criminal activity, my superior systems have proved effective so far of criminal behavior, mostly in central areas have these systems been recognized and appreciated, but my concerns interest the lower populated small towns, on the outskirts of our great cities. We haven't been able to finance these zones of as much protection, and so, my offer is for money to be firmly set on funding these parts. It has come to my attention, the reason the main cities are extremely over populated is because quite rightly, the residents on the outskirts feel increasingly unsafe as the crime rate in these regions has risen, and so have decided to move, especially into Haven." He pressed a few keys on his laptop and suddenly on the hologram, certain areas turned different shades of reds, oranges and yellows. "Red parts are the most populated and on the contrary the yellow places are least. I have estimated the cost of such functions as to build new systems to operate cameras, surveillance and also police observation and ultimately we can proceed with duty work in these areas. Hopefully if agreed and followed through the People can start moving back and feel respectably safe." He seated on his specially adapted chair, not particularly concentrating on listening to the thoughts of others, quite out of character, instead he continued to tap away at his laptop. Matter of fact, he was actually writing a report on his latest design, the 'one com', it was an upgraded version of the last communicator. A grouchy voice coughed loudly over the other side of the room, a cough all too familiar.

"Come on then pony boy, give us the figures! No doubt they'll be slightly over estimated, probably to cover that 'one com' thing you keep talking about, eh?" Sool remarked dourly. Foaly flicked his tail in frustration, minimizing the report to set up the estimate page. "Let's just say I might have to put a few inventions on hold." He clicked enter and the numbers were transferred onto the hologram, replacing the city map, there was a large intake of breath. Vinyaya winced at Sool's features; this really wasn't going to be pretty.

"Damn it pony boy, where the hell do you think we can produce that kind of money!" Foaly turned his head and glowered at Sool, "If you value the safety of the People and their opinions, yes, we can easily get the money. I'm not saying this will be a quick job, but if we are to start this at all, we should make progress now. As long as everybody can make a few sacrifices, including you, everything should be fine." Before Sool had a chance to retaliate, Foaly stood up and leaned on the table. "Now can we all agree this really needs to be initiated?" Mumbles of agreement sounded the room and Foaly sat down once again to finish his report. Vinyaya took a sip of her water, wishing it was vodka. She glanced around at the awkward audience; all of the council, some higher ups of the Retrieval team, including Trouble Kelp, also a few members of Recon and not forgetting some of the Commanders as well. She gulped down the rest of her water, not quite knowing what to do. Suddenly a beeping broke the silence coming from Foaly's laptop. "Sorry, I'm testing my 'one com' to see if it's in action." He took his old communicator from his shirt pocket and slid out the chip, placing it on desk. The 'one com' of course carried a new chip for the new development, what Foaly had to do now was put his old information into the new memory chip, just because it was old information, didn't mean it wasn't needed and so for a while his old com was to be inactive. Unfortunately, this was exactly when Holly needed to call him, and now, she wasn't able to…

Holly whirled, canceling out the line. Kitono hadn't seen her yet, he was caught up in the huge crowd. Holly ducked down out of sight and began to run, as she ran she considered on what to do. She could try and get through to Trouble? Instantly she typed in his number and pressed the com to her ear, still frantically running.

Trouble jumped as his communicator sprang into action, all eyes settled on him. Slipping it out of his belt he studied who the caller was, it was Holly. Normally in a meeting you cancelled your calls, though everyone looked eager for someone to break the silence for a while… and it was Holly too, that surely would get some attention. "Holly?" he asked, the room started mumbling. Unbeknown to Trouble, his phone was on loudspeaker, and unbeknown to him and the rest of the group, this call was going to be extremely alarming.

"TROUBLE, PLEASE HELP ME!" Holly screamed. You could hear a loud crowd in the background. The room fell silent, Trouble and Foaly stood up, deeply shocked.

"Holly, what's the matter!" he asked, his voice shaking slightly.

"Please, I'm in Police Plaza at the moment, I need to speak with Foaly!" Trouble asked no more questions as Foaly ran to him, snatching the phone from his grasp. "Holly darling, were coming for you straight away! I'm keeping the line through to you, where are you?" Foaly galloped out, followed by Trouble and Vinyaya, the rest of the room looked at each other mysteriously, not knowing whether to follow or stay put. Sool smacked his fist on the table, causing the hologram to waver.

"Miss Short, eh? What a surprise…"

Kitono rushed into the entrance, pushing people out of the way antagonistically, a threatening scowl etched on his features. His eyes darted around the room, looking for the target. Growling ferociously, he rubbed the bruise on his forehead while clutching his aching stomach. He carried on, his features fixed with anger; his fists pounding into complaining civilians in his way. Clambering onto the frontline desks, he glanced around for a higher view. The stunned gnome squealed as his boots knocked her pretty flower arrangement off the top. The glass smashed instantly and water splashed all over her suit. "Sir, please remove yourself from my desk immediately! This is a public place and the laws are you behave in a respectful manner, now leave or I shall have to call the police and you will be arrested for inappropriate behavior!" The large gnome tapped her phone and frowned at the handsome elf that stood above her; suddenly he towered over her menacingly and whispered for her ears only. "Is that little speech in the handbook or something?" he snarled aggressively to make his point. "You shut up lady, because I'm busy right now!" He stood back up and glanced at the crowd once again, searching eagerly, it was then he spotted her. Kitono ran along the desk towards her, keeping his focus. All of a sudden he jumped into the crowd, trampling through the packed crowds.

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She returned to the room and sat down on the comfy seat. She looked at Mr. Geldos and the couple and bravely smiled, picking up the pen. Adrianna looked up, the couple's eyes gazing at her; she looked at both of them, admiring their good looks. The woman cleared her throat and blinked, "I hope you know, none of this will concern the baby… we do not think it sensible to tell her the truth, but to live our lives a normal as possible and in her mind, be her true parents," she paused, her lips slightly pouting, "you will have no place in her heart." Adrianna felt suddenly breathless, the woman's words knocking the air from her lungs, a sad, painful feeling rushed over her as if to show her… show her this was wrong. She stood up, and seized the paper and started to rip it uncontrollably. "Miss Short!" Mr. Geldos exclaimed, rising from his chair, the couple did so alike, the woman cupping a hand around her mouth and letting out a gasp. She continued to tear the paper into thin shreds, screaming as she did so, "Stupid idiot!" she yelled, "Idiot!"

Running out, she crossed the street, jogging for a while until she was completely out of breath and satisfyingly far enough from the building. Continuing down the street, she noticed the many people delighted at seeing her cute little bump, she walked all day until the tunnel beams began to fade and the nightclubs sprang into action. She entered her small flat heading for the couch, slumping onto the soft cushions, clutching her bump carefully as she fell. Instantly, she fell asleep.

End of chappy 3! If you want anymore updates, you're going to have to review! xxxwafflestoyouxxx