I didn't notice that I submitted the wrong chapter! This is acutally Chapter 4. If you read the old Chapter 4 you might want to re-read it because something has drastically changed ... Those of you reading it for the first time enjoy! Please R&R! Thanks!
Chapter 4- Right Here Waiting
Mercer House-
"Owwww," Grace cried as blood dripped down her little pinky finger.
"You shouldn't go through the garage baby," Sofi said softly as she wiped the cut with a paper towel before placing a band aid on it.
Jack was up in his room when he heard Bobby and Angel yelling outside. He had told Cynthia Cord, Grace's former foster mother that she could come over and take Grace home with her and he figured that's what all of the noise was about.
"What are you doing here?" Bobby asked angrily.
"Your brother gave me permission to take her home," Cynthia said pushing past both of them.
Jack looked through the living room window as the three of them argued. He wanted to get the medication through his system before Angel and Bobby got in the house but it was too late, so he grabbed everything and headed upstairs. The commotion going on outside was loud enough to hear in the house and it was giving him a headache. He drew out a little more Fentanyl, more then he did at the hospital, and was about to inject it through his pale milky skin.
"Damn it!" he yelled as the needle dropped to the floor.
"Jack!" Bobby shouted from the hallway causing Jack to drop the medicine on the floor.
Jack gathered everything off the floor and stuffed it into the hamper.
Jack swung the door open, "What?"
"Did you tell Cynthia that she could take Grace home?" Bobby asked furiously pointing back at Cynthia who was standing behind him.
"Who?" Jack asked unconcerned.
"See, he won't even acknowledge her or me. Where is Grace?" Cynthia asked almost frightened that these men might get rough with her.
"You're not taking Grace nowhere," Bobby said putting his hand on Jack shoulder, "Tell her Jack."
"Man I'm busy," Jack wined as he closed the bathroom door in Bobby's face.
Bobby spun around to face Cynthia, "You're not," he said as he walked downstairs.
Cynthia chased after him as he headed for the kitchen. Sofi was holding Grace tight as she heard both their angry footsteps plod down the stairs.
"Give her to me!" Cynthia yelled.
Sofi looked at Bobby and he shot her a look to go into another room.
"Let's talk about this calmly shall we?" Bobby said sliding a chair out for her to sit on.
"No, I'm taking my little girl home," she said watching as Bobby's face grew dark red.
"Look lady, I don't know what my brother told you but he's heavily medicated and can't make this decision now," Bobby lied.
"He seems pretty lucid to me."
As they continued to argue, Jack had set everything back up and was injecting himself with a strong dose of Fentanyl. He felt dizzy and light headed so before he passed out, he went into his room and stuffed everything under his pile of dirty laundry which had been sitting there for almost two weeks.
"If you take her out of this house lady, I swear to God," Bobby threatened as Cynthia looked for Sofi and Grace.
"You know what? I'm getting tired of this. I'll call Mrs. Waits and see what she has to say about this," Cynthia warned as she dug into her purse to fish out her blue cell phone.
Bobby waited as she dialed the numbers frantically, "Hello Mrs. Waits? Hi, it's Cynthia Cord. Listen, I spoke with Jack Mercer, Grace's father, and he instructed me to come and get her, but his brothers won't allow me to do so."
Bobby saw as Cynthia's facial expression grew from frustration to delight as she talked more with Mrs. Waits.
"Mm hmm, thank you," she said before hanging up, "Mrs. Waits said if Jack said I can take her, I can take her," she smiled viciously.
Sofi handed Grace over to Cynthia, "Where did she get this from?" she asked looking down at the band aid on Grace's pinky finger.
"It was a little accident," Sofi whispered.
"You bunch of animals," Cynthia mumbled as she walked to the front door.
"Where do you think your going?" Angel asked as he blocked the front door.
"Excuse me," Cynthia asked in shock.
"You heard me," Angel said sweetly as Grace reached out for him.
"Ted-die!" she giggled happily.
Cynthia took a step back after feeling ambushed, "You will let me by or I'm calling the cops."
"Call em. Here," Bobby said handing her a cordless phone.
Cynthia didn't have time to look up because she was already looking for her cell phone again, "Hello? Detroit police? I need someone to come here right away."
Ten minutes later the police showed up, handcuffs intact. Sofi took Grace upstairs with her as Cynthia, Bobby, and Angel stayed in the living room to talk to the police.
"So who am I arresting today gentlemen?" a familiar officer asked looking at both Angel and Bobby.
"No problems here officer besides the fact that this woman is trying to kidnap my niece," Bobby said pleasantly.
"Like any of you bastards have children," the officer laughed.
"Not one of our children, my brother Jack's daughter," Bobby smiled.
Lt. Rex and his partner, who had just questioned Bobby, had arrested Bobby and Angel dozens of times through the years. The lieutenant was only able to catch Jack during one crime, a petty theft charge. Jack didn't do any jail time because Bobby had confessed to doing the crime. The Mercer brothers always had a story, and quite frankly Lt. Rex was tired of reading the book.
"What is it today fellas?" Lt. Rex asked while looking at Cynthia.
"I'm the foster mother of Jack's daughter Grace. I called to ask them how Grace was doing when Jack answered the phone. I thought he was still in the hospital and when I asked him if he wanted to keep Grace he said no," Cynthia said.
Lt. Rex looked at Bobby, "Is this true?"
"Yes, but my brother's on some heavy shit right now, so you know he ain't thinking straight," Bobby answered bluntly.
Cynthia was repulsed by this family and couldn't believe they were allowed to even look at children, "Listen, I was going to adopt Grace until these two went into the adoption agency and took her. Grace is my late best friend's daughter, Jack raped her, and surely you don't want him raising her?"
"That's bullsh…" Angel was about to say until the Lt. raised his hand.
"I'll call the adoption agency, but I'm pretty sure that if Jack told Ms…"
"Cord," Cynthia smiled.
"Yes, Ms. Cord. If Jack told Ms. Cord to come pick up the child, you can't override his authority," Lt. Rex said looking at Bobby.
Cynthia gave the lieutenant the number of the adoption agency and he called it from her phone.
"Hello am I speaking with Mrs. Waits...This is Lt. Rex from the Detroit police department…I'm good and yourself?…That's good, listen I have Cynthia Cord here with me at the Mercer's household…Yeah, and what I want to know is who has custody of her?" Lt. Rex gave out a bunch of mm hmm's and yes's and then he hung up.
"Well what did she say?" Cynthia asked impatiently.
"She's sending her daughter down here, she's can't make it here herself in this weather," the lieutenant said tilting his hat towards them.
"Yall have a nice day," the lieutenant's partner smirked while exiting the house.
"Great, now I have stay here," Cynthia sighed with disgust.
"Don't get too comfortable Malibu Barbie," Bobby sneered.
"You can sit down, we don't charge," Angel said showing her to the couch.
Upstairs, Jack was in his room lying on his bed. He only heard half of their conversation before he fell asleep. Sofi was reading a book to Grace in Angel's room, but Grace wasn't paying attention because she was looking for Angel.
Twenty minutes later a green mini-van pulled in front of the house and a thin brunette woman who was dressed in business clothes walked up to the front door.
"Come in," Angel said escorting her to the living room.
"Who are you?" Bobby asked as Cynthia ran up to her.
"I'm Ms. Waits, I'm here about Grace," she said sweetly.
"Can I please take her home?" Cynthia begged.
"Where is she?" Ms. Waits asked.
"Upstairs," Angel said as he ran upstairs to go get her.
When he came back down, they were all sitting uncomfortably on the couch.
"Well hello Grace!" Ms. Waits said extending her arms to the little girl.
"Cat!" Grace giggled as Ms. Waits pulled her into a warm hug.
"You know her too?" Bobby asked as she took Grace from Angel's arms.
"I looked after Grace for while before Ms. Cord could," Ms. Waits answered while playing with Grace, "So what seems to be the problem?"
"There wouldn't be a problem if they just let me leave with Grace," Cynthia shouted as she stood up from the couch.
"The father gave up custody?"
"Yes! Doesn't that mean I'm allowed to take her now?" Cynthia wined.
Ms. Waits turned to Bobby and Angel, "I'm sorry but if your brother wants to give Grace up for adoption then you must return her to Ms. Cord. She has no other family to take care of her and since Ms. Cord is willing to provide for Grace, she is legally allowed to adopt her."
"I keep telling everyone my brother's in no position to make this decision," Bobby yelled.
"Why? What's wrong with him?"
"He just got out of the hospital. He was injured very badly, so now he's on a lot of medication and his mental state isn't too good," Angel said in Jack's defense but he was lying, Jack wasn't prescribed any medication.
"Is he here?" Ms. Waits asked.
"Yeah, he's upstairs," Bobby showed her after she handed Grace back to Angel she followed him.
Bobby lightly tapped on Jack's door, but there was no answer. He entered the room and saw that Jack was sprawled out on his bed.
Ms. Waits walked over to him and checked his pulse, "What is he on?"
"I don't know," Bobby lied.
"He looks pretty out of it, did he take too much?" Ms. Waits asked after checking Jack's pulse again.
"I watch him. I don't think he took too much."
Just as they thought Jack was out cold, he woke up angrily.
"What the fuck are you doing in my room and who the fuck are you?" Jack yelled agitatedly.
Ms. Waits's face turned up into an angry stare, "Watch your mouth."
"I'm sorry but he's just out of it," Bobby said.
She grabbed Jack's arm and looked at the messy puncture marks on his inner elbow, "Does he have a nurse?" she asked.
"No," Bobby said wondering what she was looking at.
"Let go of me," Jack screamed as he jerked his arm away from her.
She rummaged through his room looking for his prescription medication.
"Jack what medications are you on?" Ms. Waits asked urgently.
"Who are you?" he slurred.
"Is he even on medication?" she asked Bobby sternly.
Bobby sighed, "No, not yet."
"I'd advise you to call his doctor and tell him that Jack needs to be prescribed something. You said he was released when?" she asked as they both left the room.
Bobby followed behind her, "Yesterday."
"He has bad open wounds on his inner elbow. A nurse should have cleaned it up and bandaged it. Make sure he is prescribed something, he seems like he's in a lot of pain."
"What? How do you know?" Bobby asked.
"I'm a registered nurse at in my mother's office building. I'm also a social worker."
"Oh," Bobby said to himself.
"Since your brother clearly isn't ready to speak for himself, I'm going to allow Grace to stay here. It's best for her to be around family. I want all of you to come by my mother's office tomorrow and we will sit down and talk some more," she said as she took Grace from Angel.
"You're letting Cynthia take her?" Angel asked.
"No, she's going to stay with you and your family, Mr. Mercer," Ms. Waits said cheerfully kissing Grace on the cheek and handing her back to Angel, "Make sure your brother gets back to the hospital," she told Bobby.
Angel looked at Bobby wondering what was going on. Cynthia had left in a hurry after she found out she couldn't take Grace so Bobby and Angel were left alone with Ms. Waits.
"Is three o'clock good for tomorrow?" Ms. Waits asked.
"Perfect," Bobby smiled.
"See you then," she smiled back.
"By the way, my name's Catherine," she said walking down the Mercer's walkway.
"Cat!" Grace yelled.