"Hey pumpkin. You're up" She said to the little girl that was coming down the stairs to the living room, rubbing her eyes for the fact that she had woken up from her nap "Come here" She picked her up to sit on her lap and Camilla placed her head against the woman's chest.
"Is Daddy here already?" the little girl asked making the woman look down at her.
"No, not yet. Do you want to watch some cartoons?" She asked her trying to prevent the child from keep asking questions about her father. Camilla nodded against her chest. The woman leaned over to the table center to grab the control remote so that she could change to the cartoons' channel. They watched it with Camilla giggling every once in a while and then she lift her head and looked at the woman.
"Mommy, I'm hungry"
"Okay, let's eat then" She said getting up and carrying the little girl on her hip towards the kitchen "Do you want anything in particular?"
"What is particular?" the girl asked with a confused look on her face making the woman laugh a little at her.
"I'm sorry sweetie, I sometimes forget that you are only three. I meant if you want to choose what you will eat." She said sitting the little girl on a chair by the kitchen table.
"No, not really" Camilla said getting on her knees and putting her elbows on the table
"Okay" the woman responded and started to prepare a bowl of fruit, cereal and yogurt, chatting with kid while doing it. After a while, she noticed that Camilla had a sad look on her face. "What's wrong baby girl? Are you sad?" the girl nodded in response "Why is my baby sad?"
"I want to see my Daddy" Camilla said starting to whimper.
"Oh baby, you will see him soon, okay?" She walked to the other side of the kitchen to comfort the little girl "Don't cry, okay?" She kissed her temple and wiped her tear, and Camilla nodded "Come on, let's eat." She held her hand out to help Camilla out of the chair and they walked back to the living room.
Camilla was eating and watching cartoons kneeling on the carpet and sometimes getting up to sit on the couch, while the woman was pondering to make the little girl a little bit happier. And she decided to do it. She took the cellphone that was on the center table and dialed Alex's number. She placed the phone near her ear and waited for the other line to start ringing, when she heard Alex' voice she muted the call to speak to Camilla without being heard by him.
"Camilla I have someone that wants to talk to you, but you to promise me that you won't answer any of the questions that they ask you, okay?"
"Okay, I promise" the girl answered and then the woman un-muted the call and put it on speaker mode "Hello" Camilla said
"Camilla?" she heard a man's voice but didn't recognize it at first until she heard it again "Where are you baby? Who are you with? Where are you?" she looked at the woman standing beside her, widening her eyes so big in surprise and having an even bigger smile on her face, which made the woman smile too.
"Daddy!" She said jumping in contentment "Hi daddy, I miss you" she giggled for being speaking to the man she had been wanting to see since they left her house.
"Camilla tell daddy where you are okay? I will come there right now" she nodded her head as if he could see her "Where are you?" she opened her mouth to answer him but then remembered the promise she had made to the woman standing beside her, and looked up at her. The woman shook her head as no to Camilla's silent question "Baby where are you?"
"I am not supposed to tell where we are, Daddy" she said and looked up to the cartoon that was on because it had caught her attention, and then she giggled at it "You can't find us?"
"Who is us baby?" She heard her father ask and for a moment, she forgot what the woman made her promise and answered his question.
"Mommy and I"
The woman grabbed the phone as fast as she could and hung the call up before Alex could say anything else.
"Mommy?" the girl with a sad shocked look on her face "I didn't say goodbye"
"What did mommy tell you?" She asked the girl "You could not answer any of his questions."
"Sorry" Camilla said holding her own hands and looking down to floor "Can we call daddy again? So I can tell him goodbye?" she asked, unfolding her hands and looking back up, with excitement filling her voice and her eyes.
"No, not today."
"But mommy… I didn't say goodbye to daddy" the girl insisted.
"Camilla Skye!" she scolded her for insisting, and in return, the little girl cried. "I'm sorry baby…" she said and leaned down to held Camilla but Camilla step away crying even louder.
"Nooo" she said to the woman who was trying to hug her "You are being mean." She cried. Then the doorbell rang, the woman got up and walk towards it. Camilla stopped crying suddenly remembering that her daddy told her that he would come to get her and followed the woman to the door hoping it was her father standing there.
"Hi. Thank you so much for coming. You saved me." The woman greeted a young girl who was in her early twenties.
"No problem. I was free to come, it wasn't a big deal"
And then Camilla started to cry again when she realized it wasn't her father at the door. They both looked at the little girl that was standing at the living room entrance crying.
"Skye, this is Mia. She will stay with you for the rest of the day." The woman told Camilla making her look at Mia who was waving at her.
"Hi Skye, I know you don't remember me, but I used to take care of you when you were just a tiny little baby" the young girl lied.
"Hi" Camilla managed to say through her crying that was subsiding.
"Okay, she just finished eating, so when it's around 6:30/7:00 you can give her her dinner which is done already. She has to be in bed by 8:30 top. She is going to cry when I leave, her blanket is on the couch right there." She told Mia, who was nodding her head in acknowledge. She the squatted in front of Camilla "Baby girl, I'm going to have to leave for a little while, okay? Mia will stay with you, okay?" she told her.
"No, I want to come with you" she started whimpering again and hugged the woman wrapping her little arms around the woman's neck trying to either make her stay or to go with her.
"I can't take you with me baby." The woman said and kissed Camilla on her temple.
"Then I want to go home to daddy, please." She cried and the woman got up wrapping her arms around Camilla's body to support her.
"I can't take you to your daddy's home either, but mommy will be back soon" she said handing Camilla to Mia. The little girl fought, throwing her legs in the air and scream when the woman made her let go of her "Bye baby, I love you." She said and left.
"MOMMY!" Camilla screamed through her sobs still fighting from Mia embrace.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Where have you been, Jo?" Alex asked her again since Jo did not answer his previous question. She just stood there looking at him with disbelief in her eyes.
"Wh-Why does it matter?" she asked him back "Alex…"
"Why does it matter?! Oh my God Jo! I think I deserve to know where you were for the past seven hours." Alex said throwing his hands in the air and putting them on his hips waiting for her to answer his question "So where were you?"
"You want to know where I went? So let me see…" she started "I drove to the hospital's daycare first and then from there I drove to the mysterious place where I am keeping our daughter at." She told him laughing in anger with tear slipping from her eyes "Oh I almost forgot. Jane came with me and helped me with everything, and then we drove back here together." She said and turned her back to him to go upstairs but Alex grabbed her arm again "LET GO OF ME, ALEX!" she yelled threatening him.
"Jo. Come on." He begged her "You know that's not what I was implying by asking you where you have been…" he told and tried to pull her close to him but she pulled away.
"Oh, really?" she asked him sarcastically.
"Come on, Jo. I was worried sick about you. You can't do this to me…" he said pulling her closer again and this time she didn't step back and let him hug her.
"I can't have you not believing me..." she said through sobs "Not you Alex. I can take anyone else doing it, but not you Alex. Please…"
"I'm sorry Jo. I didn't mean to accuse you of anything. It's just… She said she was with you and I stop thinking. I'm sorry." He said rubbing her back up and down.
"What?" Jo pulled her head from his chest and looked at him. "Why would she say that?" Alex just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I drove to hospital's daycare because that was the last place that you, I mean we saw her at and then I planned on getting out of the car but I couldn't, so I just sat there crying. The Stephanie saw my car and walked too it, we talked for w while before she had to go into the hospital. So after that I started to drive without any destiny and stopped a few miles later. Then I got out of the car and started to distribute the papers with her picture on and I gave one to a blonde woman who I found out to be your ex-wife." She said and he scrunched his face "I know. Weird, right?"
"I didn't know she was back…" he told her.
"Apparently she is. So then we sat together and talked for a little while."
"What did you guys talk about?" he interrupted her.
"She told me how sorry she was and that she wouldn't know what to do if someone took her little girl too, and then she gave me her card and told me to call her if we needed anything. Oh and she said hi."
"She gave you her number? And she has a kid." he asked.
"Yes." She answered his question. "Then I stayed ther-"
"Izzie can't have kids." He interrupted her again.
"Well she can if she adopts them." She said looking at him weirdly "So as I was saying. I stayed there for a little longer after she left and then walked back to my car. Then I saw your missing calls, and I was going to call you, I swear, but then Jane called me and told me that she was at the airport and I went to get her and then we talked and drove here together. I'm sorry, I meant to call you…"
"No, I'm sorry. For doubting you and all. We have to call Morgan. He will probably make you say all this again and will make you have to prove it." He said looking down at her.
"Of course he will… but I don't care anymore…. As long as he brings my child back home I don't care what he has to do."