Little Angel's Home

A few days had gone by and that feeling never went away for Juliet, it only intensified. One day she absentmindedly went to the second floor instead of the first and found herself in front of apartment 2C, but never knocked. In those days she was continuously looking for any signs of the little girl, and even left her bear out by the mailboxes in hopes she would take it home, but she never came out.

"Juliet, it's been three days-" her sister started.

"I know it has, Angie!" She snapped at her, then sighed. "I'm sorry, it's just"

She got quiet when she heard a faint sound. So far she was only able to hear the rain falling, and cars passing them by as they walked away from the apartments. They didn’t get to far. Once they started to pass through the ally where the dumpsters were, Juliet swore she heard crying.

"Juliet, why'd you stop-"

Juliet shushed her sister and continued listening, Angie, having sighed and listened as well. Her eyes widened when she heard small cries as well. They got closer to the dumpster and the cries got louder. Juliet went to the side and gasped as she saw the little girl, wearing the same dress as the day she last saw her, no shoes, and covered in bruises and a few burns on her arms. Angie came around and quickly took of her trench coat and handed it to her sister to wrap around the small child, who jumped away from them in fear.

"It's okay, hon, I'm not going to hurt you..." Juliet said softly.

Hazel eyes looked up at the sound of her voice and she started crying more. She clung onto Juliet and cried into her chest.

"What do we do?" Angie asked, slightly shaken by the events.

"Take her to the apartment, call the police..." She shushed the crying child as she wrapped Angie's coat around her, shielding her from the rain, and prying eyes. "It's okay, baby girl, I got you."

As they walked back into the complex, their previous plans all but forgotten, they saw the red haired woman clinging onto an older male walking out. The red head spotted them, and Juliet froze for a second.

"It's you again. Who's the kid?"

She raised a brow in confusion, before realizing she couldn’t see who the kid was, who whimpered quietly at the sound of the woman's voice. Angie obviously didn’t get it right away and Juliet had to step on her foot with her heeled boot to shut her up. Her sister gave her an annoyed looked as she addressed the woman, with a kind smile.

"This is my niece. She fell asleep on the way here and we had to cover her with my sisters jacket so she didn’t get wet."

"Oh you have a daughter?" She asked Angie.

"Yeah, she's... 2."

The woman chuckled. "Yeah, daughters can be quite the handful. Be careful for when they grow up though, they become quite the little terrors."

Angie gritted her teeth, but smiled anyways. "I'll keep that in mind, thanks."

The man and woman walked off leaving the two sisters to hurry into the elevator. The child was shivering in Juliets arms and she held her closer.

"Don’t worry, I've got you..." She whispered.

In the apartment, she went to put the little girl down, but she screamed and held on tighter. Juliet quickly adjusted her back into her arms and rocked her gently, trying to get her to calm down. Angie decided she would call child services, while Juliet held the child. She grabbed a throw blanket from the linen closet and replaced the coat with it, wrapping the little girl in it and sat on the couch with her. She softly sang the song, 'Pillows' while she waited for Angie to get off the phone. Once she was finished, the child had fallen asleep and Juliet was looking at her sister.

"They said they won't be able to come in until next week so they called the police department then forwarded me to them."

"What did they say?"

"Someone has to go in and either drop her off with them and file a police report, or someone has to go down, file a police report, sign a 'temporary guardian' document as well as a restraining order."

"Why the fuck aren't they coming here?"

"They told me it was in the hands of child services, that there was nothing that they could do."

"I need to talk with Andy, but I am definitely not just going to leave her there! Damn police need to do their job and arrest those sick freaks!"

"They also told me that they couldn’t arrest them without the 'proper evidence' that it was all just here-say. The guy was kind of a dick."

"We need to take photos of the bruises, once I figure out where they all are."

She felt the child shift in her arms and looked down to see a pair of sleepy eyes looking at her.

"Good morning, honey. Are you feeling better?"

The little girl nodded and rubbed her eyes before yawning.

"Would you like to take a bath? To warm you up? I have bubbles..."

She nodded excitedly, how she was able to be so happy right now, Juliet didn’t know. Juliet carried her to the bathroom and gently took off her holey, dirty dress, socks, and pull-up. She grimaced and became angry at the sight before her; bruises little the poor child's body as well as cigarette burns adorning her arms and back. Juliet took a calming, deep breath before turning the water on and adding some body wash for some bubbles.

"I need to take some pictures real quick, okay?"

The little girl nodded and Juliet took pictures of her arms, legs, back, chest and face before gently placing her in the tub. The little girl giggle and began playing with the bubbles, making the older woman laugh before rolling up her sleeves and gently scrubbing away the dirt and cleaning the burns, which the child didn’t seem to take much notice in.

"She seems happy right now..." Angie mentioned from the doorway of the bathroom.

"She's to small to really understand what's going on... I'm surprised she warmed up to me that fast."

"You were the one who was nice to her when she found your ring. I don’t know maybe she just knows you're a good person."

"Can you hand me one of Andy's t-shirts? I think there are also a couple pullups from when I watched Marissa's son."

She let the child splash around in the bubbles, smiling when she she managed to get bubbles on her head.

"Sweetie, what's your name?" She asked.

The child looked at her, and tilted her head. Then Juliet remembered the woman had said her name.

"It's Cadence, right?" The little girl nodded happily.

Juliet smiled. Angie came back in with a t-shirt and a pamper and put them on the toilet. Juliet grabbed a towel and picked up the girl and placed her on the ground, sitting on the bathroom floor while she dried her of as carefully as possible. She then slipped the pull up on, which was a little big on her, and then Andy's shirt. Picking her back up she brought her to the kitchen where she made her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some milk, and had Angie watch her while she called Andy and told him what had happened. When she finished the other end was silent and she checked to make sure she didn’t hang up on him.

"Andy...?"

"Those sick bastards..." He growled out, making Juliet sigh in relief that he actually heard her and didn’t get disconnected. "How can someone..." She heard him take a few deep breathes and tell, she assumed, Ashley that everything was fine. "And the police cant do anything right now?" He asked as he went outside for a cigarette.

"Angie said they had told her it was in the hands of child services, but that we had two options..."

"And those are?"

"Well one is we drop off Cadence and make a police report..." She sort of paused, not knowing how he'd react to the second option.

"And?"

"The second is one of us goes down there with the evidence, file a police report, sign a temporary custody document and file a restraining order..."

"Then that's what we'll do."

"What?" She didn’t think she heard him right.

"The hell if I'm going to leave a little girl at the police department where they could be fucking idiots and giver her back to those fucking people. No, fuck that. I'll go down and sign that shit myself."

"But you're recording-"

"I'll let Patrick know what's going on, don’t worry about it. Send me the photos and I'll get it done. Let the department know I'm going to be the one coming down."

"I love you, you know that?"

"I love you too."

She sent him the photos she had taken then called the department to clear it with them. She gave them her name and Andy's then went back to see how Cadence was doing. She had finished her food and now Juliet and her were watching Doctor Who; she had turned the TV on and the little girl started clapping her hands and pointing to the TV when that was the channel on so she just left it there. Angie had left, saying she needed to get home, but to keep her updated. Two hours, and a few episodes of Doctor Who later, Andy text her.

WHITE RABBIT: Hey how old is the kid?

DRAGONFLY: 3 I think? She's really small.

WHITE RABBIT: What size clothing? And diapers?

At first Juliet didn’t understand why he wanted that information, but then she looked at her dress, that had been thrown in the trash.

DRAGONFLY: Clothing is 2T-3T, but she wears pull ups so same I guess. Why?

WHITE RABBIT: I went to Wal-Mart to buy clothes, needed to know. What kind of stuffed animal do you think she would like?

DRAGONFLY: Well she had a bear, but I don’t think she'd care either way.

WHITE RABBIT: A polar bear. Those are cool. Be home in an hour. Love you xx

She stared at her phone before laughing. She loved that big dork. A hour or so later Andy came walking through the door with three bags in his hands. Cadence had saw him and hid under the table in the living room. It probably didn’t help he was a giant wearing a black leather jacket, black torn jeans, a ripped shirt and a pear of black boots with his hair all frizzed up from the rain. He realized he scared her and sat on the floor.

"No need to be afraid." He told her, Crow going under the table with the little girl. "I have a present for you."

Juliet watched the two from the couch. As Andy was going through the bags, Caidence watched him from under the table. Andy pulled out a big stuffed panda bear, having had no luck finding a polar bear, and held it in front of his face.

"Hello Cadence, my name is... uh.... Mr. Sweeney, it's nice to meet you." Andy said is a high voice, well, as high as he could.

He heard Cadence giggle and made the bear start dancing.

"Boy do I love dancing. LAlalalalaLALALALA!"

Cadence came out from under the table and eyed the weird crazy man. Juliet tried really hard not to laugh at him, and recorded everything.

"Look at me and how cool I am." He then coughed and tried the voice again. "Boy I wish there was someone who could play with me..." Andy peaked out from behind the bear and smiled. "You know, Mr. Sweeney needs a new friend..." He held it out to her. "Would you like him? He would really love it."

She slowly walked over to him and took the bear, that was almost bigger than her, and hugged it, giggling and looking at Andy.

"Alright! I got you some more stuff too."

Juliet stopped recording and just watch Andy show Cadence her new outfits, which surprised her that Andy did it by himself. Caidence sat there, entranced with the guy dressed in all black as he showed her some outfits. While she was looking at a little dress Andy handed Juliet the papers.

"They said child services will be here next Monday. The restraining order is for if her biological parents try to take her away."

Juliet read through the paperwork then went to put Cadence is a pair of batgirl footie pajamas, she knew something Batman related was going to be bought. Andy ordered them pizza and shortly after Caidence fell back asleep, clutching her new friend while Crow and Femme curled around her like a giant cat blanket. Juliet put a small blanket over her and kissed her forehead, joining Andy in the kitchen where he read through the documents. Juliet wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you."

"For what?" He looked at her. "Oh the clothes? Ashley helped me. He sorta followed me so..."

"Not that... Well that, but for being the most amazing guy a woman can ask for."

"It was nothing." He gazed at the sleeping child. "I wouldn’t be able to sleep. Not knowing if she was going to have a warm place to sleep, or anywhere to sleep at all. If they were going to feed her... Or if those... those people were going to come and take her home. I just couldn’t... I only did what I felt was right."

Juliet hummed and rested her head on his shoulder. That night she was able to get some sleep, after checking on Cadence and leaving her bedroom door open so she could hear her and a small lamp on for a night light so she didn’t get scared at night. Finally the little girl was safe.