Chapter Five

Title: Welcome Back!

-AMC-

Bianca started out the day making Minnie Mouse pancakes in the kitchen for Miranda while Miranda was in the living room, watching her usual cartoons. The phone rang and Bianca went to get it.

"Hello?"

"Hey Binks, it's me."

"Oh hey Kendall! How are you?"

"I'm as good as expected, I guess. How are you doing?"

"Aww, I'm sorry. Ryan still not talking to you?"

"Nope, but I deserve it. You still haven't answered my question. How are you doing?"

"I'm great!"

Kendall knew Bianca was lying.

"Binks, I know you better than that. How are you really?"

Bianca sighed, "Gosh, how did everything get so messed up? One minute I'm coming home, the next minute, I nearly kill someone by an accident."

"I know sweetie. Hey, you know what? Why don't I take care of Miranda for the day? So that'll give you time to get yourself together."

"Thanks for the offer, but I have to turn it down. I'm sorry; it has nothing to do with you, honestly! I want to spend the day with my

daughter because she reminds me the good things in my life right now. And I need it."

"Oh no, it's okay! I totally understand, but I really want to see you guys! I didn't even get to catch you at the hospital. Please come down to Fusion and hang out with me and the gang. We would definitely love it!"

"Sure thing, I'll see you guys later. I love you. Bye."

Bianca hung up on Kendall before Kendall could respond. She let out a big heavy sigh and started setting up their table for breakfast. Then she put Miranda's pancakes on the table and grabbed her egg omelet that she had made earlier, and then she called over Miranda. She ran to the kitchen and quickly sat down and began quickly eating down her food.

"Whoa whoa, slow down!" Bianca said.

"Sorry mommy. I'm really hungry," Miranda said as she chewed her food with her mouth open.

"What did I say about chewing with your mouth open?"

Miranda stopped chewing and swallowed her bite. "You happy now?" she said.

Bianca gave her a stern look, "yes."

"So what are we doing today?"

"Well I was thinking that we can go to Grandma Erica's house and give Grandma Erica, Grandpa Jack, Uncle Reggie, Aunt Lily, and Uncle Sean the gifts we bought them, remember?"

Miranda nodded her head.

"And then, we stop by Fusion to see Aunt Kendall, Simone, Danielle, and Erin."

"Don't forget Babe," Miranda squeaked.

Bianca's face slightly turned white. She gulped and tried to come up with ways to tell Miranda that they wouldn't be seeing Babe. Yes, Bianca had given Babe a chance after finding out about Miranda; but the pain was too great. She didn't think she could ever forgive Babe for taking away all those months that she deserved to have with her daughter. One time, Miranda had looked through the pictures and asked her mother who was the lady in the picture that was taken when Bianca was pregnant. Miranda assumed that Babe was Bianca's girlfriend at the time (she knew her mother was gay ever since she could remember). Bianca corrected her and told her about Babe. But Bianca didn't tell her about the baby swap ordeal.

"Umm... I don't think Babe is working today, honey."

"Oh..." Miranda sounded disappointed.

"And if there's time after visiting Aunt Kendall, we can go to the park!"

"Yay, the park! I'll go get ready right now!" Miranda said as she got off the chair and ran to her room.

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Bianca pulled into the parking lot near Fusion. She sat on the driver's seat a little longer, staring at the light blue sky. She noticed that dark clouds were arriving, and a bad sense of feeling crept upon her; she couldn't shake it off. It was like she just knew something bad was going to happen, but she didn't know what it was. Then, a slammed door brought her out of her daze. Bianca turned around to face Miranda, but Miranda was no where to be found. All of sudden, she heard tapping on the driver's window. She screamed and hopped back. It was Miranda. Bianca let out a big relieved sigh and got out of her car.

"Don't do that to me!" Bianca scolded.

"Gosh, sorry. Jeez..."

Bianca let out a big huff and grabbed Miranda's hand and walked to Fusion, got onto the elevator, and waited in silence. The door opened. All Bianca could see is a bunch of people running all over the place, holding papers, dropping papers, fighting with others, crying, being angry. She was definitely shocked. She slowly walked out, and everyone just stopped at whatever they were doing. They couldn't believe their boss saw them at their worst; they just straightened up themselves and went about their business. Then, she spotted Simone, Danielle, and Erin talking and went up to them.

"Oh my gosh, Bianca!" Simone hugged her best friend's sister. "Aww, look at Miranda!" Simone squatted down to Miranda's height and hugged her so tightly.

"It's so great to see you, and I'm so glad you're finally staying here!" Danielle said.

"Yeah it is!" Miranda shouted.

Literally the whole floor heard Miranda and bursted out with laughter. Miranda was so embarrassed she hid behind her mother.

After the laughter died down, Bianca asked Simone where Kendall was; and Simone said that Kendall was busy with something else and that she would come soon. But then all of sudden, the lights went off; and a disco ball came down from the ceiling. It lit up and started spinning.

"Since when did we have a disco ball?" Erin asked Simone and Dani. They just shrugged.

Kendall came out of nowhere, shrieked when she saw Bianca and Miranda, and ran up to them as fast as her high-heels could take her and hugged them desperately. Then she shrieked some more and hugged them.

"I wanted to welcome you to Pine Valley!" Kendall shouted over the music that was blasting loudly. Any one could have thought that the music was coming from ConFusion instead.

Bianca quickly walked over to the stereo and turned the power off. People groaned.

"You guys are supposed to be working. Ryan and I don't pay you guys to listen to music all day!" Bianca said, with her mothering tone.

"Whoa Binks, pipe down the maternity side. We're just celebrating your return," Simone said.

"Oh really? Then, where is your side?" Bianca bit back.

Hurt crept onto Simone's face. Simone had became pregnant shortly after Ethan's death and named her son Ethan Jr., in loving memory of his father and her one true love. But people's gossiping ways had nearly ruined Simone's life after Ethan. People claimed that Simone was neglecting Ethan Jr. and that she was an unfit mother when in fact, she was awesome at it. The police had arrived at her door and took Ethan Jr. away from her and gave him to a family who adopted him. Simone was never the same since.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say that." Bianca really felt so guilty.

"Yeah..." Simone just turned around and left.

Bianca sighed, "Great...Kendall, thank you so much for the welcome, really. But I'm going to take Miranda to the park before it gets bad outside."

"But I didn't even get to catch up with you guys!"

"I'm sorry, but next time, okay?"

Kendall nodded and hugged both Bianca and Miranda good-bye and watched them walk off to the elevator.

"Miranda, ready to go to the park?" Bianca tried to smile, but she obviously knew it wasn't working because Miranda could read her very easily. But Miranda decided to drop it and just smiled at her mother.

The car ride to the park was strangely quiet. Music wasn't on; Miranda didn't watch any of her DVDs. It started raining very slightly outside, and Bianca thought it wouldn't be for another thirty minutes that it was going to rain more.

She got out of the car with Miranda and walked to the swing set. She saw a candy vendor nearby; she told Miranda to stay at the swings while she went to get some candy for both of them. She left and walked over to the vendor. She bought two grape Laffy Taffy's for Miranda and a lollipop for herself. Then it started pouring all of sudden and Bianca was totally drenched. It was so foggy outside that she couldn't see three feet ahead. Her bad feeling got worse, and it was pointed toward Miranda. She called out for her daughter and didn't get a reply. Worry started taking over, and Bianca just dropped the candies and ran over to the swing set. She completely freaked out!

Miranda was missing...

TBC...

-AMC-

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