A/N: Carole being an outsider and new to life with Pete Mitchell (in person) was too interesting NOT to revisit...

Week 18 - UDC 10 - Bonus

Imperil

It was confusing, sitting at the table and watching while Helen handed off two lunch sacks to Nick, who put both in his backpack and didn't hand one off to Pete. Pete, in turn, rolled his eyes at her. "It's been a year and I still don't get to keep my lunch in my book bag."

Nick snorted in laughter. "Pete, you were getting it taken from you all the time!"

Carole frowned at that. "He was?"

"Yes," Walt interrupted and pointed to the door. "Let's go, boys."

Carole continued to frown as she watched them load into Walt's car, then turned to look at Helen, who was looking back at her contemplatively. "What?"

"Go put your shoes on, young lady, while I make a phone call to see what the situation is, aside from what you told me last night," Helen told her. "And then we'll see from there, because I have to report this to Pete's social worker."

"Why?"

"Because you took a bus by yourself and then hitched the rest of the way here from Texarkana and imperiled yourself, Carole." Helen took a deep breath and then her composure broke and she smiled reassuringly. "I'm glad you got here safely, but you could have just as easily not."

Carole nodded as she stood. She did know, after all. "I just... it made sense at the time, to come to you and Walt, Helen."

Helen nodded as she snatched a notepad off the counter. "Is Shelly's number the same?"

"It was, the last time I called her."

"Good. Shoes."

Smother

They found Alan at his desk, writing, and Helen chuckled, which caused him to pause and glance up, then frown at the blonde girl beside her. "Either you suddenly gained a teenager I don't know you've got, or..."

Helen smiled. "No, this is Carole, Alan. She arrived last night and I'm a mandated reporter, so..." She handed him a folded piece of paper, which Alan took and read for a minute or so before looking at Carole with an assessing expression that made Carole look away. "I'd rather not send her back into that mess, and she'll be of age soon anyway."

Alan nodded slowly. "I agree. Miss..." he paused and looked down at the paper again. "Is it pronounced Hy-ra?"

"It is, sir."

Alan nodded again and moved to get a clean file, then put the piece of paper in it. "Sit, please, both of you. Miss Hyra, I'm starting a file on you for documentation purposes, understood?"

"I think so?"

"Good enough. Tell us about the last few weeks or months and how you got here from rural Tennessee, then."

Flourish

She looked out the front window as she held Nora, startled to see a familiar car pull up out front. "That's odd. I know Helen works on Fridays." A young girl got out of the passenger side, and then Helen led her up the front walk. Chelsea moved to open the door, only to frown at both of them. "Helen?"

Helen sighed and motioned to the girl. "Can Carole stay with you today, Chelsea? I don't want to leave her alone at the house, and after having her do an assessment with Alan, you're the one I thought of who would be home."

Chelsea let them in, only to chuckle at Boots racing into the room from the back of the house to make a fuss and sniff at both of them. "You're not afraid of dogs, are you?" Carole shook her head and bent down to let the Border Collie Bernard puppy sniff at her hand and then he licked at her playfully. "You can go, Helen."

"You sure?"

"Yes. Go to work." She watched as Helen got Carole's attention and Carole waved her off while picking the puppy up with a grin, and then Helen nodded and went out the door. "So, how are you with toddlers?"

Carole frowned. "Toddlers?" She heard, rather than saw something plastic fall and Chelsea smirked. "Oh. I like kids. How old is the one you're holding?"

Chelsea angled Nora so she could see her better. "This is Nora and she was born in October."

"Momma! Nicky throw Legos!"

Carole chuckled as she put Boots back down, and he again licked at her hand. "A puppy, more than one toddler, and an infant? How do you get anything done during the day?"

"It's always a challenge," Chelsea told her as she handed Nora off and Carole took her, and Nora burbled happily at her. That made Chelsea pause before nodding and going to see what the other two were doing.

Carole was left to stand in the living room with an infant in her arms who was smiling up at her.

A/N: Re: Boots the Border Collie/Saint Bernard mix... I wish the Lowell/Finney family many hours of fun and fur EVERYWHERE. Also, as there wasn't a maiden name mentioned for Carole that I know of, we're going with the fanon in this case and giving her Meg Ryan's actual maiden name.