A BIG apology to anyone that's been waiting for this or any other of my stories, I've been really busy. Special thanks to those of you who are great friends and have been super patient with me. Love you to bits :)

Chapter 38

"I didn't! I wasn't!" Mattie said trying to get the words to come out straight and make sense.

"You weren't what?" Mac asked. "It looks like you were to me."

"I know how it must look Mac but seriously you have to believe me. I WAS about to climb out the window but not for me. I mean, not to have fun or to meet Max or anything."

Mac frowned. This wasn't like Mattie. Yes she could be full of sass and she could argue the point until the cows came home but this was different. "If that's true Mattie, then what were you doing?"

"I can't tell you." she said almost silently while moving around in front of Chloe's bed. .

"You're going to have to do better than that." Mac's eyes wandered to the bed behind Mattie. There was strangely no movement at all. And the shape in the dark looked kind of large for Chloe. She wasn't a tall girl by any means. "Excuse me." she said, trying to move Mattie to the side to get a better look.

"Um...oh no!" Mattie said trying to look pale. "I think I'm gonna faint."

"Really." Mac said. "How convenient."

"No really." Mattie said slumping onto her knees and coughing loudly. "Maybe it's asthma or pneumonia."

"I don't think pneumonia comes on so quickly after a person eats FOUR slices of pizza for dinner."

"Maybe it's a super bug. A flying superbug that entered my system from..." She caught sight of the air-conditioning vent out of the corner of her eye. "Through the air-conditioner. I really think you should go and check the main unit, we could all die in our sleep. While we were still awake even!"

"Uh huh." Mac said.

"You need to hurry Mac. There isn't a minute to spare!"

Mac walked towards the door and then darted back and around Mattie and snatched the doll out of the bed.

"AAAAHHHHH!" Mattie screamed as the doll's head came loose from it's body and skittered across the floor. "You SCARED me!"

"Where's Chloe?" Mac asked ignoring Mattie's dramatics.

"Sorry?" Mattie said. "Oh no! She's not in there?"

"No she's not in there." Mac said. "I know you knew that already so how about we stop playing games. Were you climbing out the window to go and find Chloe?"

Mattie was like a deer in the headlights. She didn't know what to say. She could end this in a blink of an eye by just telling Mac where Chloe was but she just didn't feel right about tattling. It was partly her fault that Chloe had snuck off in the first place. If she hadn't have gotten herself grounded then they both would have been at the movies.

"I... Mac please don't ask me to tell you. You and Harm are always telling us that we're family that us kids are all the same as brothers and sisters. You want me to tell on my sister and get her into trouble?"

"Ok here's the deal Mattie. YES you and Chloe and Josh are like brother and sisters and I know loyalty means a lot with family. But I'm going to be honest here. We both know that if Chloe so much as glanced at your IPOD while you were in the bathroom, you would run down those stairs screaming blue murder. So let me put this another way. If you don't tell me where Chloe is, I'm going to sit on that bed and put you over my knee and don't think for a MINUTE that I won't do it or that I don't spank as hard as Harm."

Mattie gulped. "Put like that..." she said nervously. She eyes the door cautiously. Could she make a run for it? How far would she get?

"Times ticking here Mattie."

"I know." Mattie said. "Um, I just...what if I didn't KNOW exactly where Chloe was?"

"Then I think you could make a stab in the dark. Now I'm going to start counting. You better have some kind of answer by the time I get to ten. ONE."

"I can't think when people count." Mattie whined.

"Two." Mac said tapping her foot impatiently.

"Well see it all started last week when Chloe and I made plans for tonight. You know how Harm likes us to travel in pairs and stuff?"

"Three." Mac said very aware that Mattie was trying to buy some time.

"Yeah well like I said. I said I'd do this thing with Chloe and she was really happy about it cos we were going to meet her friend as well."

"Four."

"Anyway, so then I got in trouble and I got grounded which made things really complicated because well Chloe hadn't done anything wrong."

"Five." Mac said putting her hands on her hips.

So she was a little upset and you know how Chloe gets when she's upset. Normally I can just like shrug it off because well, it's Chloe and she over reacts... She over reacts a lot."

"Six. This story better move it along Mattie." Mac said.

"I'm trying really!" Mattie wailed. "You can't rush me or I'll leave out the details."

Mac rolled her eyes. "Seven."

"OH common! You're counting too fast!" Mattie said trying to remember where she was up to. "Yeah so Mattie really needed to go tonight because that's when her friend could go but she told me that she wasn't going so I had absolutely NO reason to assume that that wasn't the truth. You know what happens when you assume you make an a..."

"Don't you DARE finish that sentence. Eight."

Mattie decided to let that joke go. Mac had obviously misplaced her sense of humour again. "So we had dinner and she was pouting some...but you saw her pouting right? She was upset. That made me feel really guilty."

"Nine."

"Um so when she came up here and she said she wasn't feeling great and she was going to have an early night, I knew she wasn't going to do that I just thought she didn't want to talk to anyone but I didn't think she'd sneak off." she said finally sucking in a breath.

"Nine and a half and your very last chance."

"Mac!" Mattie cried with panic. "When I saw the stupid doll hair I knew she'd snuck out but I was only going to find her that's all!"

"Ten!" Mac said sitting down and yanking Mattie over her knee in one fowl swoop.

"I told you!"

"No-you-didn't!" Mac said punctuating every word with sharp smack. "You-told- me- a–very long- story. Most-of -which- I- already- knew."

As each spank exploded across her wriggling bottom Mattie squealed a little louder.

"Now- tell- me-where-Chloe-is!"

"She's at the MOVIES!" Mattie wailed.

Mac stopped spanking and helped Chloe to her feet and lifted her chin to make her look her in the eye. "Wouldn't it have been easier to tell me that in the beginning?"

"Possibly."

"It's all about trust Mattie. We have to trust you and you have to trust us. You should have come to us and told us about Chloe's dilemma and we could have worked something out. "

"I guess." Mattie sniffled.

"No guessing about it. WE would have figured something out. Now both of you are in trouble."

Mattie flopped onto the bed but then sprang straight back up again.

"Told you I spanked as hard as Harm." Mac said.

TBC