CHAPTER 2
The morning of the wedding, Fran and Val arrived early and found Sarah in her dressing room. When the door opened, Sarah whipped around to find Fran and Val standing in the doorway.
"You must be Fran and Val. I'm Jocelyn, Maxwell's sister. Nice to meet you both." She said as she shook Fran and Val's hands.
"Likewise, so Jocelyn, has Maxwell always been a big success?" Val asked. Jocelyn laughed.
"Oh heavens no, before he left London, he didn't even want to become a producer. When he told Nigel and I that he was a producer we didn't believe him until he sent us tickets to his first production." Fran, Val, Jocelyn and even Sarah laughed at the comment. As they were quieting down they heard the band begin to play.
"Well, that's our cue to take our seats. Good luck Sarah." Fran said as she hugged her. Val did the same. They left and took their seats. The ceremony was beautiful. The reception went until about ten at night. At nine thirty, Fran and Val said their good-byes and left. They didn't hear from Sarah for a while until one day at the bridal shop. Val answered the phone.
"Hello, bridal shop how may I help you?"
"Is there a Val and Fran there?"
"Val is speaking and Fran is right next to me. How may I help you?"
"My name is Niles, I work for the Sheffield's. We need Val and Fran to come down to the hospital right away." Niles said.
"Oh my goodness! We'll be right there." Val hung up the phone. "Fran let's go we have to get down to the hospital." They got the hospital and were told to wait in the waiting room. Meanwhile, outside a hospital room Maxwell came out.
"Are they here Niles?" Niles nodded. Maxwell went into the waiting room to get Fran and Val.
"Oh, Maxwell, what happened? Is Sarah okay?" Fran asked. Maxwell tried to keep a straight face.
"Why don't you two come with me?" Fran and Val followed Maxwell to the hospital room. When they entered the room, they found Sarah holding a little pink bundle. They both let out breath of relief. They turned to Maxwell and Niles who grinning like idiots. They went over to them and hit them and the shoulder… hard.
"You jerks! We thought something was wrong. Don't do that to us." They said together. They immediately turned their attention back to Sarah.
"Oh my goodness, Sarah. Congratulations." Fran said. "What are you going to name her?" Sarah and Max thought for a second then said together.
"Margret. Margret Sheffield." Fran and Val awed. A few days later, Sarah and Margret were released from the hospital. Fran would go over almost every day to help Niles out since he was mostly taking care of Margret. After a while, Fran got tired of saying Margret so she started calling her Maggie. After a short while, Niles and Fran formed a close friendship. Four years later, Sarah had another baby. A little boy who they named Brighton, Fran still came over to help out; Maggie started calling Fran, Aunt Frannie. By the time Grace was born, both Maggie and Brighton were calling Fran Aunt Frannie. Fran had quickly become part of the family. She continued to help the children. She formed a tight friendship with Niles and a loose friendship with Max. She really didn't see Max that much though. He was always either in his office or at the theater. One day Fran was walking around with Val when they heard a car screech and it hit something. They both ran closer and they heard something that made their hearts stop.
"SARAH!" They recognized the voice immediately. It was Maxwell. They ran as fast as they could to where the voice came from. When they got there, they saw Sarah's body on the ground and Maxwell kneeling over her failing to hold tears in, they also saw the children on the sidewalk being held back by Niles. Fran and Val ran over to them.
"Aunt Frannie!" Maggie and Brighton yelled together. They got out of Niles's grip and ran to her. Fran knelt down to meet them. Their cheeks were tear stained and tears were still running down their faces. She brought them back over to Niles and turned them so they couldn't see their mother and the condition she was in. Fran turned to face Max and saw that he was a wreck. The ambulance arrived within a few moments. Max rode in the ambulance with Sarah and the others followed in the limo. Fran was holding Maggie and Brighton and Niles was holding little Gracie. Val was trying to calm them all down but failing. Niles was trying extremely hard not to show how much he was hurting and how upset he was. Fran was able to read him like a book though and knew that he was just as upset as she was. When they arrived at the hospital, Sarah had already been brought in for surgery due to internal bleeding and damages to the head and skull. Max was sitting was on a chair with his head in his hands. Maggie and Brighton tried to go over to him, but Fran held them back.
"Let your dad be alone for right now. He has a lot of feelings going through him right now. Come on, let's go get some lunch and bring it back up here." Fran whispered and brought them to get lunch and as promised brought it up to where their father was. After they finished eating, a doctor came out to talk to Max. They couldn't hear what they were saying but the way Max acted, Fran knew that Sarah was gone. Max came over and knelt in front of Maggie and Brighton, he didn't even have to say anything by the look on his face they knew that their mother was gone. They fell into his arms and he held them tight. They all went into the room to say one last good bye to their mother. Fran waited outside and just looked in through the window. She said a silent prayer for Sarah. When they came out, Maggie and Brighton ran to Fran. She hugged them as they cried. She looked up at Max and caught him wiping tears away. He insisted that Fran come with them to the house. She said bye to Val and went back to the mansion.