An hour later, Gregory was sleeping in Luis' old playpen he managed to dig up from the basement. Not exactly ideal, but then again, nothing about this situation was ideal.
Ten or so feet away, sitting side-by-side on the loveseat, Vanessa and Luis were laser-focused on their devices' screens. Each conducting their own search: Luis on his computer and Vanessa on her phone.
Luis tapped the down arrow, scrolling through the local news articles. "You'd think someone would have posted something about a missing kid…right?"
"Maybe? Unless he was abandoned?"
"Poor kid," Luis murmured sympathetically.
"Not one post." Frustrated, she tapped her keyboard with way more force than necessary. She stood up and started to pace, eyes still glued to her phone.
"Maybe they lost him, and are too afraid that they'll be judged harshly if they admit they lost him..?" It was weak reasoning at best, but if Luis was good at anything, it was being outwardly optimistic.
"Not an excuse," Vanessa snapped, finally looking up from her phone.
"Didn't say it was…"
She groaned and shook her head, as if trying to clear it. "Sorry. I know it's not your fault. Actually, I should be thanking you right now."
"Aw, don't even worry about it. Just try to remember I'm only here to help. This whole situation will go a lot smoother if we're working on it together." Luis closed his laptop, setting it on the coffee table. "I think we both need some rest." He stood, motioning further down the hall. "I just cleaned the guest room a week ago, so it should be all set up."
Vanessa stared at him.
He faltered, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean…unless you want to drive home. But…but it's late. And the roads were already bad. I can't imagine they'd be any better now, and-"
"No, sorry. Long day. It took me a second to process what you were saying. But yeah, I'd like that- uh, sleeping in the guest room."
She started for the hallway but paused, turning back to Luis.
"It's the third room down the hall to the right," he supplied helpfully.
"Yes, thank you. Just, what about Gregory?"
"Oh, well, I figured I would camp out on the couch." He smiled, plopping back down on the couch to emphasize his point.
"No," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "This is your house, and it's only fair that you get a goodnight's sleep without worrying about babysitting."
"Nah." He grinned, already laying down. There was a throw blanket on the back of the couch that his abuela had made for him years ago. "I'll be fine."
"Gregory is my responsibility. I brought this on myself."
Luis tsks her, propping himself up on his elbow. "What's with all the talk of bringing things on ourselves? It's depressing, and I already told you we were in this together." A sudden wave of exhaustion sent him laying back down. "Besides, it's not like the police will care about whose fault it is. We're both just as culpable."
Vanessa sighed. "You're right."
"That'd be a first."
"But I still feel bad about sleeping in a bed when you're uncomfortable on a couch."
"You're not going to drop this, are you?" Luis asked, looking up at the ceiling.
"Nope."
"Then there's only one solution."
-x-x-x-
Vanessa shifted. The air mattress had deflated in some places, and she'd nearly rolled off the bed because of it.
Per her previous concerns about Luis being uncomfortable. Her co worker took it upon himself to rummage around his basement in search of the one thing more uncomfortable than an antique couch -
A hole-ridden, duct taped-together, dust-covered air mattress.
They couldn't risk waking Gregory up, so he used a manual air pump to avoid making unnecessary noises.
"Ness, you can still sleep in the guest room," Luis told her, once they were both settled in. "Or I could trade with you. I take the-"
"I'm okay. Thank you. Let's try to get some sleep. Big day tomorrow," had been her only response back.
Now, three hours later and two hours until she had to report for work, Vanessa was rethinking every single life choice she ever made to get here. She turned on her side, hoping to find rest for half-an-hour or fifteen minutes - contrary to popular belief, she wasn't picky. Sleep was sleep.
She closed her eyes, the long day behind and ahead of her weighing heavily on her shoulders. Nearly asleep…almost asleep.
"Momma!"
Vanessa jolted awake, sitting straight up. Behind her, she heard Luis mutter something definitely not of the English language.
Not having fallen asleep herself, she was the first to act. In seconds she'd hurried across the air mattress and was trying her hardest not to stumble into the coffee table Luis put off to the side to make room for the air mattress.
Once she made it off the death contraption falsely labeled a mattress, Vanessa was pleased to see Gregory was, in fact, not actively dying, on fire, or dead. He looked up at her, face red and scrunched up.
Upon seeing her, he lifted his arms. "Up," he said.
Luis, finally awake enough to remember their predicament, joined her at the playpen. "I'll go make breakfast. Let me know if you need any help." He gently patted Gregory's head. "Good morning, bud."
He left for the kitchen.
"Up," he repeated, eyes pleading with her.
"Yes, yes, sorry." Vanessa hesitantly picked him up, and propped him up against her hip. "Did you have a good rest?"
Gregory laid his head against her shoulder.
"Hm, not very talkative in the morning?" He didn't respond to her question, which oddly was the only answer she needed.
She did her best to make him look presentable, and left him with Luis-who had already made breakfast and gotten himself ready-while she got ready for work.
Shutting the bathroom door, Vanessa slid down to the floor. In truth she was pretty much ready. She didn't go back to her apartment last night for an extra change of clothes, and the only thing she needed to do is pull back her hair. But she just wanted to be alone.
Even though Luis seemed gung-ho about sharing the blame if they're both caught, and equal responsibility if they were not, Vanessa couldn't shake the feeling that something's decidedly… off about this entire ordeal. Well…besides the obvious.
There was a knock at the door. She jumped, leaning forward away from the door.
"Ness?" Luis asked, giving one last tap at the door. "It's getting to be that time." He laughed (Vanessa's always liked his laugh, it was warm and deep and…) "I wouldn't want your breakfast to get cold."
"Thanks, Lu," she called. "I'll be out in sec."
Luis hummed back in response, leaving her be.
She got to her feet. Bracing herself against the sink, she looked into the mirror. "Okay Vanessa, you can do this. Today has to be better than yesterday, right?"
-x-x-x-
They carpooled together in Vanessa's car, and arrived at the pizzaplex at a quarter past eight. She parked in the nearest parking spot to the side door. Gregory was conked out by the time Luis was pulling him from the seat.
He groaned, trying to snuggle deeper into the seat.
"I know, bud, but you have to go to daycare," Luis said, sympathetically. "At least for a few hours."
They moved quickly, keeping an eye out for their coworkers. The side door took a moment to open, the sensor having been frozen over the previous night. Impatiently, Vanessa rubbed the stupid little box with the sleeve of her jacket, hoping to make it work.
Somehow, after winning the battle against the door, they managed to make it to the daycare without any more problems.
It was still early, so the only kids that would be in the daycare would be the early, early morning staff's kids. And not many of them had kids in the first place, so it was really no surprise that the whole place looked nearly empty.
Sundrop pranced up to them. " Oh ," he said, enthusiastic in a way only a robot, programmed to always be happy and excitable no matter the circumstances, could be. "You came back."
"Yeah…" she said, because honestly, what choice did she have? If she hadn't come back, then the daycare attendant could go blab to the higher ups. Which undoubtedly would lead them to questioning her, and Vanessa had never been good under-
"Sunny!" Gregory squealed. He wriggled out of Luis' grasp, toddling over to Sundrop. "Missed you," he murmured, hugging the daycare attendant's legs.
"Well, we should go clock in," Luis said, nudging her to the exit. "I'll be back to pick Gregory up by four. Bye Gregory."
Sundrop gave only the barest hint of acknowledgement, but knowing what these robots were capable of, it was likely he heard him loud and clear.
"Bye Gregory," Vanessa said, allowing Luis to lead her to the door.
Gregory, too preoccupied with the colorful room and potential friends, doesn't see them leave.
-x-x-x-
The rest of the day was spent doing menial tasks, dealing with entitled customers, and researching all the facebook pages and websites dealing with Hurricane's missing and runaway children.
On her lunch, she saw Luis. He was just as frustrated as her, with the progress they'd made regarding Gregory.
"Maybe he was abandoned," Luis floated the idea, apprehension bubbling to the surface, but he quickly recanted it.
"You could be right."
"I hope I'm not."
He was paged not long after, leaving Vanessa alone with her thoughts.