Always There

"Mitch, I need you home now!" Maria exclaimed into the phone. She was sitting, hunched forward on the couch in her living room with a hand through her tousled hair. "Well, I'm sorry, but this court case can wait. Olivia missing, can't." She paused listening to the reply on the other end, scowling. "Of course I called the police. Yes, they said they'd keep our names out of the paper while they search for her. I've called Crystal's mom, my parents...because they'd wanna know what's going on, Mitch."

She stood up and began to pace in the living room, moving to the front picture window. It had been three hours since she received the call from the school. Ben would be home in an hour and a half, she still only had Nate at home with her, wondering why mommy was sad and the Suffolk County police had left twenty minutes prior to her calling her husband up. She was just really out of sorts.

"You promise you'll be home by four?" She sighed. "Okay. Please just hurry."

Clicking the 'end' button on the phone she dropped it to the couch, unsure of what to do or think. Folding her arms across her chest she stared out the picture window again, at the front lawn that was covered with a light dusting of early winter snow. She licked her lips began to fidget as she stepped away and went toward the kitchen to find something to keep her busy.

Almost at three-thirty on the dot, Benjamin's school bus pulled up outside and he came barging through the front door with a million and one questions about how come Olivia wasn't on the bus and if he could play with his Playstation 2 before he started his homework.

Maria was completely in a daze. She said yes to everything he asked. He may have asked if he could go scalp the neighbor's dog for all she knew. She was fearing the worst. That someone had snatched her daughter up. Her teacher had marked her absent even though she'd been dropped off at school. Did someone lure her to their car the moment she drove off? Was she okay? Was she alive? Her worst fear would be that the police would come to her door with apologetic looks on their faces, telling her they found Olivia, dead somewhere, facedown in her blood; beaten and raped.

Maria pictured the worst possible scenarios, and when the door bell rang, her heart felt as if it were about to burst from her chest into a million pieces.

Running to the front door, she swung it open without a second thought, only to cry out in relief and stand there in some mild surprise.

There before her was Olivia. With Billie Joe. A black, Lexus town car was parked in her driveway, with some guy, in a suit, sitting in the driver's seat. Maria looked between Olivia and Billie Joe and back again before grabbing Olivia and pulling her daughter close to her.

"Where the hell have you been?" she demanded right off the bat.

"She was with me," Billie Joe answered. Maria looked up at him as he continued for Olivia. "She showed up at my place around 11, claiming she ran away." He paused, taking a quick glance at the inner hallway of the house. "We had a little...uh, father-daughter talk."

Maria licked her upper lip briefly before shooing Olivia into the house without a word. "Thank you...for bringing her home," she began.

"Well, I initiated it, but Bob there is the one that did the driving," he turned and gestured to the driver of the Lexus. "I hired a driver. Good guy."

"Would you, uh...would you like to come in? Bob, too, if he wants."

Billie Joe gave a slight nod. "Sure." Beckoning to Bob, he watched as the hefty driver got out of the car and began to walk up the pathway to the door.

"Hello, ma'am," Bob said.

"Thank you for driving my daughter home," Maria spoke appreciatively.

"Just did what Mr. Armstrong hired me to do."

"Either way. Why don't you both come in. I'll get you some coffee or something," she offered, standing aside for both men to enter her home.

Leading them through the from hall and toward the kitchen, she gestured for them to take a seat at the kitchen table why she began to maneuver around to start making a pot of coffee, but her hands were shaking so much, she couldn't concentrate on what she was doing. Billie Joe stood up and walked up to her, placing his hand on her back.

"Maria...it's okay. She's home. She's safe," he whispered.

Maria placed her right hand to her forehead and hunched forward after wiping away tears of relief. "You have no idea how scared I was. I thought someone had kidnapped her. I thought 'what if she's dead?' I couldn't face knowing I'd never see her again."

"Well, you don't, 'cause she's here. And very much alive."

He bit his bottom lip and snaked his arm around her shoulders and turned her enough so that he could bring her in for a comforting hug. He rubbed her back soothingly and stifled a breath of contentment when she rested her head on his shoulder. He definitely hadn't been expected that sort of reaction out of himself.

"Don't mean to butt in, but ya think I could use the bathroom, ma'am?" came Bob's voice.

Maria lifted her head a little and nodded as she pointed and directed him to the downstairs bathroom down the hall and to the left. As soon as Bob was gone from the room, neither one of them noticed that Olivia had sheepishly poked her head into the kitchen. They more or less just looked at each other for a moment.

"I'm sorry about Friday," Billie Joe apologized. "I said I didn't hate you and couldn't hate you...and I still mean it. I always will. I was just upset, and surprised. But I can see where you were coming from, and I forgive you for that."

Maria tipped her head, pressing her forehead against his as she smiled a little. "Thank you," she said in a wispy voice. She lifted her eyes for the briefest of seconds only to discover that Billie Joe had locked eyes with her at the same moment.

Before either of them knew it, Billie Joe had cupped her face in his hands and pressed his lips against hers and her hands clamored to grip his shoulders, pulling him closer against her body as they stumbled back into the counter.

Olivia, still unnoticed by her parents, bit her bottom lip and smiled.