I DO NOT OWN ANYONE OR ANYTHING IN THIS STORY BESIDES THE OC'S.
Neal's Point of View-
I woke up at 6:30 AM going over to the two duffel bags trying to be as quiet as possible not to wake Mozzie up from the position on the couch, I opened one having a file fall out and I couldn't help but to pick it up opening it to see a copy of her dad's case file.
"She kept up on her dad..." I mumbled to myself rolling my eyes, 'Blood is thicker than water I guess...' I thought to myself shuffling through the things in the bag finding an outfit for Olivia to wear putting everything back into the duffel bag the way Sarah had packed it before I walked out of the room going to the spare bathroom starting a shower, I figured she would need to take one especially after visiting that jail last night. I went into the room next to it flicking the lights on, I walked over to the bed sitting on the edge resting my hands on either side of her body. "Olivia, it's time to get up." I said softly shaking her tiny frame gently.
"Its morning already? I don't even remember falling asleep." She said rubbing at her face.
"Yep, the shower is running and your clothes are already picked out..." I said.
"Okay Neal." She said sitting up, I stood up letting her climb out of the bed and I followed her into the bathroom double checking the water to make sure it wasn't too hot for her before I let her climb in to take her shower, I left the door open enough for me to hear her scream for me if she needed anything before I went into my room making a quick bowl of cereal for her to eat when she got out. "Neal!" I heard Olivia yell, I ran out of the room and into the bathroom seeing her already wrapped in a towel out of the tub, "I can't turn the water off." She said.
"I got it." I said as I walked over leaning into the tub turning the water off before ruffling her wet hair.
"Neal, your messing up my hair." She said.
"Sorry..." I said smiling as I walked out letting her get dressed, I went into my room shuffling through the duffel bags finding her hair brush, along with other things she needs to prepare for school. Olivia walked in carrying the towel and dirty clothes. "Your cereal is on the table, but be quiet Mozzie is still sleeping, and you do NOT want to wake him." I said as she giggled when she looked over seeing the sleeping man. I grabbed her things from her before she went to the table climbing into the chair in front of the bowl of cereal hearing the clanks of the spoon hitting the bowl with every scoop, I put her clothes back into the duffel bag since I didn't want to unpack it without Sarah's permission and I took the towel putting it in my hamper before I came out seeing Olivia carrying her bowl to the sink. "I got it, go brush your teeth and hair." I said grabbing her bowl from her setting it in the sink as Olivia grabbed the things I had set out taking them to my bathroom rather than the one she had showered in. I heard her singing the 'ABC' song as she was brushing her teeth. I chuckled to myself as I pulled on my shoes and checked myself in the mirror before double checking Olivia's bag to make sure she had everything, Olivia walked out with her hair brush.
"Can you braid my hair?" Olivia asked.
"Absolutely." I said smiling as I walked with her over to the chair braiding her hair for her, "You need to cut your hair."
"I don't want to though, I love my long hair." Olivia said.
"It is beautiful..."
"Mom's hair is the same color but she colors it with a brush." Olivia said.
"Does she?"
"Yep...when will she be coming home?" Olivia asked as I could tell she was getting upset.
"Today hopefully..." I said hoping that I didn't have to resort to breaking her out.
"Will she be here when I get home?"
"Maybe..." I said as I tied the end of her braid before I set the brush aside. "Go put your shoes on and I will get your jacket." I said as she went to her room as I went downstairs grabbing her jacket off the hook June put it on the night before and I went back upstairs looking into the bedroom seeing her strapping the velcro shoes. She stood up walking over to me, I helped her put her coat on going back into my room grabbing her backpack carrying it out handing it to her. Olivia pulled her backpack onto her back as we begun walking down the stairs, "You have money for lunch?" I asked.
"No..."
"Alright, I'm going to put money on your account for you to buy lunch...what's for lunch today?"
"Hamburgers." Olivia said.
"Yummy." I said.
"Pizza is better than their hamburgers."
"Pizza is better than a lot of things." I said hanging onto her hand all the way to her school, "I got to go to your office, you have a good day at school today." I said squating down in front of her pushing tiny loose strands of hair behind her ear.
"I will, thank you Neal..." Olivia said hugging me, I hugged her back before she smiled at me before she turned and ran off to her class room happily. I stood up going into the office talking to the receptionist about re-registering Olivia and lied to them saying that Leslie was on vacation and that I will be looking over Olivia, etc. I then was pointed in the right direction to the cafeteria where I handed over money putting it on Olivia's account for her to buy lunch before I headed out of the school but made sure I walked by Olivia's class checking in on her before I actually left the school. I walked back to my loft seeing Mozzie finally getting up, and I pulled out a new suit to wear to work today.
"Anything from the suit?" Mozzie asked.
"Not yet...I'm at least going to go in and see what he's up to before we put this plan into action." I said.
"Okay, well, I'll be around..." Mozzie said standing up yawning before he left my loft before I went in taking a quick shower cleaning up Olivia's things before I ran down the stairs almost bumping into June as she was coming in from grabbing the newspaper.
"Good morning Neal, heading to work?" June asked.
"Yeah..." I said.
"You going by the jail to see Leslie this afternoon?"
"Probably with Olivia when she gets out of school." I said.
"Has she already been took to school?"
"Yep, I just came back to freshen up before I went to work..."
"Well, have a good day at work." June said.
"Thanks." I said as I went outside walking to my work not knowing what to expect when I got there. I walked off the elevator going through the glass doors and passed the half wall turning a tad to go to my desk when I saw Sarah sitting there. "Sarah!" I said excitedly, she looked up from the drawer she was looking in.
"Neal!" She said excitedly, she jumped up running around the desk wrapping her arms around me, I wrapped my arms around her tightly holding her in my embrace. It may have been just one day, but it felt like forever since I last held her in my embrace. I held Sarah there hearing her sniffing up tears, I looked over her shoulder to Peter's office making eye contact with him and knew that he would of went through with it so I didn't have to break her out. She broke from my embrace, she wiped at her eyes and she couldn't help but to smile, "I don't know why I'm crying...I'm just so happy." She said.
"I'm happy too..." I said as I pulled her into another hug running my hands through her hair.
"Where's Olivia?" Sarah asked as she broke the hug.
"At school where she is supposed to be...she misses her mommy..." I said smiling.
"I missed her too...but I missed you..." Sarah said kissing me, I hugged her tightly again before Peter walked up to us carrying an anklet and a sheet of paper.
"Neal, you know how this works..." Peter said handing me the anklet.
"She gets one too?" I asked looking over to Sarah.
"She has too, she's out of jail and a flight risk...and here is a copy of your contract..." Peter said handing Sarah the sheet.
"Thanks..." She said taking it and I grabbed the anklet from Peter.
"Do you have any idea of how to get a hold of your dad?" Peter asked.
"Let me think on it..." Sarah said.
"I'll know where to find you..." Peter said glancing to me before he smiled turning around heading back to his office.
"I guess I have to put this on you..." I said.
"My last minute of freedom."
"It isn't that bad...I guess you will have to move into my apartment for now..."
"Why's that?" She asked.
"Your apartment complex is out of the 2 mile range..."
"Then why'd you come to my place if it was out of range?"
"It was worth it." I said smiling getting her to smile, she lifted her foot up and pulled her pant leg up letting me wrap the anklet around her ankle locking it and made sure it was working before she pulled her leg off and fixed her pant leg. "What do you want to be called? Sarah or Leslie?"
"Whatever your comfortable with." Sarah said.
"I like Sarah..." I said smiling as I hugged her again, "I missed you...you want to go get some breakfast?"
"Sounds good." Sarah said as I grabbed her hand leaving the way I just came in not even an hour ago going to a local cafe where we each got a coffee and a danish.
"What kind of deal did Peter come up with you?" I asked as I pulled out her chair for her before I sat down across from her.
"Wear my tracking anklet, do 100 hours of community services and work with you guys to get my dad." Sarah said sipping her coffee.
"Hm, not bad..." I said.
"I guess not..."
"Have you put any thought into how you can help get your dad?" I asked.
"Not really, I haven't been thinking about it...I'm just overwhelmed of being out, I seriously thought I was going to be stuck in jail for years."
"It will come to you..." I said smiling.
"I'm sure it will..." Sarah said smiling, we started talking and laughing, it was great spending time with her and I felt like I needed to make up the time I missed last night.
"Let me walk you back to my place..." I said smiling as I grabbed her hand walking hand and hand with her walking back to my place, I couldn't help but to smile and be happy. I walked into the place noticing June was gone, she must have been out shopping or walking her dog. My phone begun to ring, I pulled out my phone seeing Peter's name lighting up. "I got to get back to work, make yourself at home." I said hugging her and giving her a quick kiss, "I love you." I said before walking back out of the house going back to work.
Sarah's Point of View-
Neal walked me back to his place, I looked around June's beautiful living room before I walked up the stairs going into Neal's loft seeing that our duffel bags were still untouched, at least seemed untouched but I know Neal must have been in there in order to get Olivia ready for school. I went to the one duffel bag pulling out my dad's case file looking it over again and again hoping it will jog my memory or give me some type of help to how to get a hold of him. It got to time to go pick Olivia up from school and walked past June.
"Leslie, your out of jail?" June asked shocked that she saw me.
"Peter was able to get me a deal and I'm locked in with this." I said pulling up my pant leg exposing my tracking anklet.
"Its a lot better than being locked up in that horrible place." June said hugging me.
"It is...I'm going to get Olivia..." I said.
"She will be pleasantly surprised." June said.
"I know..." I said smiling not knowing how Olivia will act. I walked down to Olivia's school waiting outside waiting for her to run out like always, she walked out and when she saw me she screamed and tears flowed out of her eyes as she ran up to me. I picked her up holding her in my embrace letting her cry into my shoulder.
"I love you mommy!" She said.
"I love you too." I said kissing her forehead, she was happy and she let me carry her all the way back to Neal's place, I didn't even go into work because I figured I can get another job and won't have much time to work with how much community service I have to do.
"Don't you have work?" Olivia asked as she wiped her eyes.
"Nope, mom is going to quit her job." I said as I sat down on the couch letting her stand in front of me.
"Why are you here?" Olivia asked.
"It's hard to explain..." I said when a knock came to the door, I looked back from the couch seeing June peeking in.
"I thought I heard someone come in...I made fresh tea, would you like some?" June asked.
"Would love some." I said standing up, Olivia held onto my hand going with me downstairs where I sat on the couch after helping June pour our cups of tea and Olivia climbed onto my lap where she leant back into my embrace resting her head against my shoulder.
"So, what charge did you have against you?" June asked setting her tea down on the coffee table.
"It's a long story." I said.
"We have time..." June said smiling.
"Well, my father is a professional criminal and he had manipulated my mom into his tricks, as I got older I begun falling into these tricks to bring in more money. I got pregnant with Ms. Olivia here and needed more cash if I wanted to get out of that kind of living, I didn't want her raised in that type of situation. My dad talked about and promised that I could get half of a $1 billion if I helped him embezzle it out of the country, he had some 'guys' that would steal it and I just had to help embezzle it. I did the dirty work but didn't see the money, a couple months later when I begun to show that I was pregnant my dad flipped out and one of his 'guys' got arrested for a different crime but thought it was the crime we all commited so this guy spat out all of our names."
"How did you find out he gave your name?" June asked.
"When my dad didn't come home that one night I knew he had ran, he always comes home when he knows that there isn't a chance he could get caught...I then realized I had to run, I changed my identity and changed my location in hopes." I said.
"How can you change your identity so many times? Couldn't they find you by Olivia?" June asked.
"I have a close friend of sorts who was able to change our identities at any given moment, we both tried our best to make sure that no one was able to track or link Olivia to this so if anything bad did happen to me. He knew about my dad and he didn't want my dad to be able to track my daughter as well, he was afraid that my dad would lure Olivia into this work and neither of us wanted that."
"When was the last time you changed your identity?" June asked.
"A year ago..." I said.
"Well, my husband once knew a guy that did the whole help change your identity thing and boy did he have it made."
"Your husband was a criminal?"
"He didn't like that word...we weren't allowed to say it...he did the same type of things like Neal, he had expensive tastes..." June said as I sipped my tea, she went into stories of her husband and it was nice listening to them, Olivia even enjoyed listening to them until the front door opened and Neal walked in while we were laughing.
"What's so funny?" Neal asked as Olivia climbed off my lap running over to Neal, Neal bent down picking her up.
"Neal, mommy got out!" Olivia said excitedly.
"I know...it's awesome right?" Neal asked tickling her stomach.
"Yes!" Olivia said.
"Well, I guess I should start making dinner..." June said standing up taking care of our tea cups.
"Why don't we go out to dinner to celebrate?" Neal asked.
"What do you have in mind?" I asked standing up walking over to Neal.
"What about the pizza parlor at the corner?" Neal asked.
"Pizza!" Olivia exclaimed.
"Pizza it is, June you want to come?" Neal asked.
"No thanks, I'm not much of a pizza girl." June said.
"Okay, we'll be back." I said as we walked out of the house going to the pizza parlor where we got two slices of pizza before we sat down at a table. "You have any homework?" I asked Olivia.
"No mommy, it's Friday remember?" She asked.
"Apparently not..."
"Peter wants you to come in on Monday, he figured by then you may have thought of something." Neal said.
"Okay..." I said nodding as we ate our dinner, we went back to Neal's place and went up to his loft where Olivia watched her Disney channel.
"Why don't we unpack some of your things since you will be staying her for a while?" Neal asked wrapping his arm around me pulling me into his embrace.
"Where to put them though?" I asked.
"We'll figure something out." Neal said as we stood up going to the one duffel bag where both of us were pulling out clothes and items putting them where they needed to be. It got late and I looked over seeing Olivia laying on the couch zonked out on the arm of the couch.
"I should move her to the bed." I said nodding to Olivia.
"I got her..." Neal said standing up from the knealt position, he went over picking her up carrying her out of the room and I followed close behind him seeing him go into the empty room setting Olivia down gently into the bed watching him tuck her under the blanket. I leant against the door frame watching him tuck her in and he leant over her small body kissing her forehead, "Good night Olivia." Neal whispered. Neal turned around and stood up seeing me, I smiled at the cute moment. He turned the night light on before exiting the room, I stopped him kissing him on the lips.
"I love you..."
"I love you too." Neal said as he wrapped his arm around my waist pulling me with him as we went back to his loft.
"Where will I sleep tonight?" I asked as I sat back down on the ground going through rest of the duffel bag.
"In here with me." Neal said smiling, we finished unpacking before we both decided to go to bed and we both climbed into his bed. I scooted close to his embrace feeling his arms wrap around me holding me close to him listening to his heartbeat relaxing me enough.
"Aren't we a matching pair..."
"Why's that?" Neal asked kissing the top of my head.
"We are both bad people and we both have tracking anklets..." I said chuckling.
"But I wouldn't change it for the world." Neal said as I looked up to him smiling before I kissed him gently before I snuggled closer to him again resting my head against his chest listening to his heart beat soothing me to sleep.