They say that home is where the heart is. Well, this is the beginning of a story of a heart finding its true home.

The violence portrayed here is key to the story, it forms the basis for the two main characters meeting at this stage in their lives.

**********

The man watched from across the narrow street as Sue, a petite 30ish woman of about 5'5" and 120 lbs. with long chestnut hair falling to the middle of her back, walked toward her home, returning from shopping for the evening meal. He had been watching her for several days, keeping track of her movements, waiting for the time when he could fulfill his plans for her.

He was a big man with a military style crewcut, about 6'4" tall, roughly 250 lbs. of mostly solid muscle beginning to turn soft as he entered his middle years. He watched her for a few more seconds, smiling to himself, then strode across the street and up the walk to her house just as she put the key in the door. Grabbing her by the arm, he turned the key with his other hand and shoved the door open, then dragged her into the house, closing the door behind them.

He turned to face her, then spoke quietly, his voice reminiscent of the growl of a large predator, "Keep quiet, girl, just go up to your room as usual, and you'll be just fine. If you scream or fight me, there will be hell to pay, you can be sure!"

Sue, shaking like a leaf at the abrupt attack at her own door, nodded to him and slowly moved to the stairs leading to the two upper apartments. He followed right behind her as they went up the stairs, then grabbed her left arm as she unlocked one of the doors. As she opened the door, he pushed her into the room, noticing that she tripped over the edge of a low coffee table before falling on the floor next to it.

As Sue stumbled, she voiced a sharp squeak of surprise, then knelt on the floor for a moment, rubbing the front of her right leg. She was pretty sure that there would be a lovely bruise there in a few hours, then she remembered the man behind her and shivered with fright.

**********

Meanwhile, unknown to the male, there was a witness in the apartment, Sue's four year old daughter, Leilani. She had heard her mother enter the apartment, heard her stumble, and peeking around a bedroom door, she saw a very large male standing over her mother. When she realized that the male apparently hadn't seen her, she ducked back into the bedroom, staying quiet and out of sight.

**********

The man reached down, snatched Sue by her long hair and yanked her up onto her feet. "I told you to be quiet, and I meant what I said. Just so you remember..." He turned her to one side and viciously slapped her across the face, once, twice, three times in rapid succession.

As Sue's head snapped back from the third slap, she glared up at him and spat out, "Fuck you, mister, I guess it makes you feel really big to beat on a woman my size! You're not a man, you're just a common street thug!", then started screaming at full volume.

Shocked, outraged, and with his anger growing in leaps and bounds, he snarled at her, "Then you want it rough? Well, I can give you rough, girl, let's see how you like it now!" He lifted her completely off the floor, grabbed her with his other hand and threw her as hard as he could at the wall between the kitchen/dining area and the small living room, then strode across the room and punched her several times.

**********

Little Leilani knew that something had gone terribly wrong, she also knew that her momma didn't normally bring men upstairs. When she heard her mother begin screaming, then his response to that and the sound of her mother's body hitting the wall, she ran deeper into the bedroom, heading for the phone on the night table beside her mother's bed, and dialed 911.

"Hello, 911, what service do you want?"

Leilani replied in a quiet voice, hoping she would not be heard over the violence in the main area of the apartment, "Police, am- am- am-ambulance, my momma is being beaten by a nasty big man in our apartment!" all came out in a rush.

"What's your address, hon?"

Leilani thought for a moment, then recited the address to the 911 operator, who assured her that the police and ambulance were on the way.

**********

Meanwhile, the man's assault on Sue continued, his anger had taken complete control as he landed punch after punch, kick after kick, wherever he could find a place to hit. He picked her up twice, and slammed her into the dividing wall each time, barely noticing when the last impact on the wall almost put her through it, then returned to kicking and punching her.

Sue had been holding on to consciousness by a very narrow margin as the attack continued; eventually, though, after the last impact with the wall, the pain became overwhelming, and consciousness fled for the last time.

**********

The 911 operator spoke again, "Hon, police and ambulance should be there in a minute or two, stay where you are."

**********

The man kept beating on the unresponsive body lying on front of him, then snapped to attention as he heard what could only be sirens, and they weren't more than a few blocks away. He jumped up, ran to the door, yanked it open and nearly fell down the stairs in his rush to leave the house. The beating had left bits of skin, bone, and blood all over him and the front of his clothing, yet he didn't seem to see it at all, and continued to run out of the building.

**********

Leilani also heard the sirens approaching, then the man leaving the apartment and crashing down the stairs before exiting the building. She looked out a window and saw the man looking up and down the street.

**********

He noticed that the sirens seemed to be coming from the north, so he turned to the south and ran down the street, turning at the next corner; he stumbled over some trash that had been dropped on the sidewalk, when he straightened up again, he was looking right into the lights of a police cruiser. The officers noticed the condition of his clothing and promptly told him to freeze, he was under arrest. He ignored the officers' warnings, tried to shove one aside and continue onward, but the second officer's gun against his back put an end to that.

They handcuffed him and shoved him into the back of the car before sending in a verbal report of the arrest. He had no idea that the officers had only just stopped there to get some coffee and snacks, or that he would have been safe if had gone the other way at the corner.

**********

Little Leilani, knowing that the man was gone, looked out into the main area of the apartment, spotted her mother's body lying against the dividing wall, bloody and battered almost beyond recognition, and promptly started screaming.

Several police officers and paramedics rushed into the apartment, some heading toward Sue, some toward the screaming child.

**********

Several hours later that night, a woman, very similar in appearance to Sue, maybe a few years older, walked into a room in the intensive care unit of the hospital and looked down at the person lying in the bed, her younger sister Sue. Machines were beeping and booping all around her, there was an IV hooked up to cover Sue's minimal dietary needs, a catheter was in place, bandages on and around her face could be seen, casts on both arms and a leg, even some bandages making a bit of a lump under the thin cover; seeing it all made Roselyn feel rather queasy, her shoulder length hair swaying as she shook her head.

Roselyn grabbed a chair, pulled it closer to the bed, and sat down, clasping Sue's right hand in her own, praying she would recover.

**********

At about the same time as Roselyn entered Sue's hospital room, the five women who lived in the three other apartments in the house where Sue and Leilani lived had finally managed to calm Leilani down enough that she fell asleep. None of them knew Sue much at all, only having seen her enter or leave, mostly alone, but sometimes with Leilani, yet none could leave a child in such distress. JJ, the oldest, the owner of the house, decided that she and her girlfriend Pat would stay with the child through the night.

Nightmares about what had happened woke Leilani several times that evening; each time, JJ and Pat would calm her down and tuck her back in, watching until she fell asleep before wandering out to the shattered living room where they could chat without waking her.

**********

Around 3 AM, Roselyn left Sue's room in the intensive care unit and wandered outside to get some fresh air. While there, she placed a call to her two children Tamara and Seanna, to let them know where she was and that there was no change in Sue's condition. About twenty minutes later, she reentered the hospital and resumed her watch over her sister.

**********

As soon as Seanna knew what had been going on, and that the child had been left alone or nearly so, she quickly changed into a sky blue sweatsuit and grabbed her purse before charging out the door to her car, an old rebuilt forest green '70 Chevy Nova. Once in the car, she started the engine and let the car warm up for a minute or two before backing carefully into the street and driving toward Sue's apartment.

Half an hour later, she arrived in the area near Sue's apartment, then checked a map to find the exact location of the house. After taking a wrong turn, and retracing her path, she finally ended up on the correct street and approached the house. Noticing a driveway that led back behind the house itself, she decided it would be better to park her car there than on the street, and carefully drove down the narrow lane, turning behind the house, and parking next to two small sedans. She stepped out of the car, locked it and walked around to the front of the building, then rang the bell for Sue's apartment.

JJ answered, and upon learning who was calling at that hour of the night, let Seanna in. Seanna ran up the steps two at a time, tapped lightly on the door, and was allowed to enter. When she saw JJ, Seanna's first response was "Is Leilani okay? Was she hurt at all?"

JJ shook her head, replying that Leilani was physically fine, but had been having nightmares about the attack on her mother. Just as JJ finished speaking, a series of screams coming from one of the bedrooms broke the quiet of the night.

Seanna, hearing the screams, dropped her purse on the floor and ran over to the bedroom doors, checking first; when she saw Leilani sitting up in bed in the mother's room, she swiftly entered, sat on the bed beside the distraught child and hugged her close. As she held the child, she could feel the quivering of the child's body and began talking in a calm, quiet voice, anything to help settle the child down.

Slowly but surely, the constant comfort of the hug and the soft words broke through, and Leilani recovered herself sufficiently to notice who was holding her. She had never met Seanna before, but she could have sworn she was looking at her mother; Seanna's appearance was nearly identical to Sue's, with the main difference being that Seanna was a bit taller and her hair was dark auburn rather than chestnut.

Leilani sat there, staring at the woman beside her, the woman who was still holding her close. She shook her head, then looked up at the woman again. "You look like my momma, but I know you aren't, so who am I speaking to, please?"

Seanna smiled down at the child in her arms. "Your momma and my momma are sisters, so I'm one of your cousins, so is Tamara, you have a male cousin, too, Tony Jr. I've been told before that I look like your momma, but I didn't realize the resemblance was that close, child."

Seanna shifted until she was fully on the bed, then up toward the headboard, before patting her lap, suggesting that Leilani could sit there if she wished. Leilani did so, pulling the lightweight duvet up until she was mostly covered by it. Seanna continued to talk quietly to Leilani, watching as Leilani slowly wandered into the land of sleep.

When she noticed that Leilani was asleep, she gently turned the child so that she was lying down with her head resting on the pillow. Just as she was about to leave the bed and tuck Leilani in, the child spoke to her, "Stay with me, please? Please?"

How could she refuse such a request? Nodding her reply, she slipped out of her sweatsuit and settled down in the bed next to the child, holding Leilani close to her as she fell asleep once again, listening to the child's quiet breathing before sleep overtook her as well.

**********

Around 5:30 AM, Roselyn woke to the monitors making lots of noises, followed maybe fifteen seconds later by the sound of several people running down the hall toward the room. A doctor and two nurses entered, immediately scanning the monitors, then yelled out for someone to get the defibrillators, as Sue had gone into cardiac arrest. One of the nurses calmly led Roselyn out of the room, telling her that she would need to go to the intensive care waiting area while they did everything they could for Sue.

As she made her way to the waiting room, she noticed a young man running down the hall toward Sue's room, defibrillator in hand.

**********

Roselyn was exhausted, she had been awake for almost 24 hours. She sat in the chair, waiting as patiently as she could, for what might have been fifteen or twenty minutes, before she nodded off to sleep in the not so comfortable waiting room chair.

She awoke when someone touched her shoulder. "I'm sorry, I fell asleep, how is she?" She looked at the clock over the nursing station desk, it showed 6:45 AM, how she had managed to sleep for almost an hour was an enigma to her.

"Well, Mrs. Ramsay, we managed to save her, although it was a bit touch and go for a while. She seems to have stabilized for now, you can go in and visit with her again if you like. Or you could go to the cafeteria, it opens in a few minutes, then visit with her afterward."

**********

Meanwhile, in Sue's apartment, JJ and Pat were quietly chatting, and were startled to see the sun showing on the horizon. After taking a quick peek into the bedroom where Seanna and Leilani were sleeping, JJ left a note saying they were returning to their own apartment.

*********

Roselyn decided she needed some coffee, maybe it would help her to wake up a bit, so she wandered down to the cafeteria. When it opened, she went in, grabbed some coffee and a maddeningly tempting Danish, then sat down to enjoy her little snack.

After she had eaten, she wandered back up to intensive care and watched her sister for a while. Eventually, the lack of sleep had her nodding off, so she pulled the chair back to the wall, then leaned back and slowly drifted into dreamland.

**********

Just as the clock struck 8 AM in the old mansion in the suburbs of the city, five women and two men walked into a meeting room in the back of the second floor and took seats around the table. The eldest, one of the women, looked at the others and rapped on the table.

"We're here to decide who should be hired to run Daddy's businesses, since Sue is at the moment incapable of doing so, and from what I've heard from a doctor or two I know at that hospital, she may never recover, the damage was that severe. We only appointed Sue because none of us here wanted the position, and Roselyn and Tony, the witch's other children, refused to have anything to do with it. Any suggestions?"

Most of the next two hours was spent bickering over several possibilities without any actual decision being made.

**********

At about the same time as that meeting commenced, first Leilani, then Seanna woke up to the sun's rays shining through the window. They remained close together for a few more minutes, then arose from the bed. Seanna, having brought no other clothes, put her sweatsuit back on and sat on the edge of the bed brushing her hair while waiting for Leilani.

Leilani wandered into the bathroom between the two bedrooms, grabbing a thick white towel on the way. She carefully reached into the bath and turned on the taps, testing the water until it was warm enough without being too hot for her.

Seanna had just finished brushing her hair when she heard the bath filling and wandered into the bathroom to see Leilani leaning over the side of the tub, her fingers under the tap for a moment, apparently checking the water temperature. "Hey, girl, you need to be careful, we don't want you to slip and hurt yourself, huh?" She gently pulled the girl back, grinning down at her, "I'll help you, okay?"

The next few minutes were spent making sure the water was just right and watching the tub fill. Seanna looked around for a moment, then noticed a bottle of bubble bath, opened it, poured a little into the tub and watched the water froth as the bubbles formed.

Smiling as she looked down at the child beside the nearly full tub, she asked her, "Do you want me in the bath with you? Or by yourself? I'm good either way, and I can help you whether I'm in the bath or not." She then turned off the taps.

Leilani turned to face her and giggled. "Both of us! Bath is more fun with more people!" before rapidly stripping off her clothes.

"Okay, then, let me put you in here, then I'll get undressed and join you. A nice bath sounds lovely right now." She grinned as she picked up Leilani, doing a brief airplane with Leilani in her arms before turning and placing her carefully in the tub.

Once she was fully undressed, she stepped into the bath and sat down behind Leilani, giving her a brief hug before grabbing some of the bubbles and splashing them on Leilani. The next half hour was pleasantly spent playing in the water before they settled down to getting clean; eventually, Seanna helped Leilani to stand, then stood herself, before turning on the shower head and rinsing them and the bath.

Once the rinsing was done, Seanna turned off the shower and lifted Leilani out of the bath, then pointed at her towel and grinned. "Time to get yourself dry, little lady, while I go hunting up a towel for myself." Just outside the bathroom, in a small closet, she found several towels.

She entered the bathroom again, giggling as she watched Leilani trying to dry herself with a towel as big as she was. Setting her own towel on the counter, she gently grabbed Leilani's and took a few minutes to dry her off before doing the same with her own towel.

"Stay here for a moment, Leilani." Seanna put her sweatsuit back on, then dropped both towels in a hamper, before picking up Leilani and heading through the other door into Leilani's bedroom. "Now what do you want to wear, little missy?"

She watched as Leilani grabbed panties and socks, slipped them on, then rooted around in her closet looking for something to wear, eventually settling on a forest green jumper and a white top with a matching sweater. Seanna helped her to finish dressing, picking out a pair of children's running shoes as the day looked to be a bright and sunny one, if a bit nippy.

Then they headed to the kitchen for some toast and cereal before grabbing jackets and other necessities on the way out the door.

Seanna knocked on the other upstairs apartment door and waited a moment before knocking again. The door was opened by an older woman, who asked what she needed; Seanna replied that she needed someone to watch Leilani, as JJ and Pat had been up all night. The older woman nodded, held her hand out to Leilani, smiled and said, "Come in, child, if you relax for a bit, I'll take you out to play later."

Leilani looked up at Seanna, hoping against hope that she could go with her, only to be met by a sad smile from Seanna. "I have to go deal with some family business, sweetie, I'll be back as soon as I can, hopefully in time to go out and play with you, okay?"

Leilani held her arms up for a hug, Seanna gladly complied, then set her down and watched as Leilani entered the apartment.

**********

At 9:23 AM, the quiet in the intensive care unit was shattered by a series of alarms from Sue's room. Doctors and nurses came into the room on the run, a quick check showed another cardiac arrest occurring. Roselyn once again was asked to go to the waiting room.

Just after 10 AM, a doctor approached Roselyn, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but we lost her, we tried again and again to revive her, but nothing worked. We kept trying until a few minutes ago, hoping that she might recover, but she didn't. She's gone."

The news of her sister's death hit Roselyn like a massive hammer blow; she swooned, then collapsed, the doctor barely able to grab her before she hit the floor. He arranged for her to be placed on a bed and watched for a while, until she was ready to leave on her own.

**********

In the old mansion in the suburbs, the bickering at the meeting continued, looking to have no end.

Seanna looked up at the old mansion as she parked her car near the front doors, locked it, then walked to the doors and rang the bell. Once the door had been opened, she stalked toward the staircase, then up the stairs and followed the noise to the meeting room.

As soon as she stepped inside the door of the meeting room, the noise ceased as they all stared at her in shock. Finally, the eldest stood, glared at her across the room and yelled, "You filth! What in hell brought you here! Get out this instant!"

Several of the others spoke up, muttering comments and imprecations along the same line, demanding that she leave.

Seanna stood her ground, returning the glare with just as much anger as she was given. "You call me filth, yet you all sit here and do NOTHING while your half-sister may be dying in a hospital bed all alone, except for my momma. You call me filth because I had the guts to know what I needed in my life more than anything else; I've known since I was six that I was a girl inside, it took years before I was able to tell momma about it, but when I did, she stood by me and helped as much as she could, just like her sister Sue and brother Tony, while the rest of you disowned me for needing to be female when I was born with the wrong genitalia.

"You also disowned my mother simply because she supported me, is it any wonder that she wants nothing to do with the rest of you? When Sue lost her husband in the same accident that took my father, you treated her and my momma like shit, as if they were to blame for the accident. When Sue announced a year later that she was bisexual, the lot of you blew your stacks and told her where to go, yet a year after that, you were begging her to take over the company because none of you could be bothered to demean yourself with common work. I also remember that you cut off Uncle Tony after he announced he was going into hairdressing. Too gay for you? Bah! Now Sue may be dying, and you sit here blathering about finding a replacement, rather than doing anything to help her?

"None of you are worth the ground she walks on, or perhaps walked on, as her life is hanging in the balance. You seven are disgusting, so focused on your appearance and being seen in expensive and well-crafted clothing, you've never lifted a finger, you've always had someone else to do the work for you, whether housework, running the company or all the social events you attend and host.

When was the last time any of you did anything out of love for anyone else? The only things that seem to matter to you are your vanity, and access to the company money. Oh, by the way..." She reached into an attache case at her side, pulled out a stack of papers, and tossed a stapled sheaf to each of the people seated at the table. "Ahhh, yes, here we go. As of now, your access to any of the company funds is cut off. Sue had private detectives investigating all of you, and what they found was quite enlightening, embezzlement, fraud, other misuses of company funds just to name a few, so it looks like you no longer need to worry about the company or who ends up running it.

It will be nice to see you all rotting in jail cells, as your family accounts have also been cut off. No money, folks, all gone. I guess you'll all be relying on public defenders, I'm betting you'll all be pleading guilty soon enough since you won't be able to buy your way out.

You seven had the gall to call me filth, yet I have been honest to a fault, working steadily for over four years now. Meanwhile, you have all been stealing from the company and the family for many years, without ever doing an honest day's work yourselves. You're the filth."

Seanna stared briefly at the seven shocked people before her, then turned to leave the room.

At that moment, the sound of clapping could be heard just outside the meeting room's doors. "Brava, Seanna, very well said. And very well done as well, I'm assuming that would be the police arriving out front now with all the necessary warrants?"

"Uncle Tony, what are you doing here? This is the last place I would expect you to be!"

"Well, Seanna, I saw you earlier driving by my house, headed out of the city, so I followed you to see what you were doing."

Seanna stepped outside the room and looked down the hallway just in time to see the first police officers heading their way from the top of the stairs. She waited until the officers were only a few feet away before pointing into the room. "The people you want are in there."

As the officers entered the meeting room, Seanna calmly walked toward the stairs, Tony joining her a few seconds later.

**********

Seanna and Tony left the old mansion, each heading toward their own car. "Uncle Tony, I'm heading back to Sue's place, her little girl is in the apartment next door, I need to get back to her. I'll catch you sometime soon, okay? Take care of yourself and your wife."

Tony nodded as he opened his driver's side door. Take care of yourself as well, Seanna. Say hit to Leilani for me."

**********

Seanna spent the drive back into the city quietly thinking about the recent events in her life. She was very worried for her aunt, and worried also about the child, especially if her aunt died because of the horrendous assault. She narrowly avoided becoming a statistic when she saw a driver swerving back and forth across the road; she slowed down a bit, then had to stomp on the brakes as he went right across the road only a few feet ahead of her, then over the embankment. She pulled over, took out her cell and called in the accident.

Several minutes later, a cacophony of sirens could be heard, she stepped out of her car and waved them down, pointing to the skid marks at the edge of the embankment. She gave her statement as to what she had seen and was allowed to leave.

Back behind the wheel, she resumed her drive into the city with no further mishaps, arriving at Sue's building just after 11:45 AM. She locked up her car, placing the attache case in the trunk, then rang the buzzer for the other upstairs apartment and waited.

When asked who was there, she gave her name, and was let into the building. She ran up the stairs and knocked on the door.

Once the door was open, she smiled at the woman and started looking around for Leilani. When she asked where the child was, she was told she was having a nap and seemed to be okay. The woman then said that she was about to make lunch, and they could stay and eat.

The next hour was spent with the two women working together on the meal; when Judy pulled it off the stove, Seanna went in to wake Leilani up, and inform her that lunch was ready, then waited as Leilani washed her hands before they headed to the kitchen.

They ate their lunch with little conversation, then Seanna told Leilani they would be going to the park for the afternoon. Seanna and Leilani thanked Judy for the meal, Seanna also thanked her for watching Leilani, then they left the building for the walk to the park.

**********

At 1:35 PM, Roselyn woke to find herself lying on a bed in a darkened room in the hospital. She lay there for a few minutes before she remembered that Sue was dead, then she burst into tears knowing she would never see Sue alive again.

Once she had stopped crying, she got out of the bed; finding herself still dressed, she looked around, found her jacket and purse, then left the room and several minutes later, the hospital. She pulled her cell phone from her purse, tried to call Seanna, but couldn't get anything other than "this person is not available right now", so she called Tamara instead and informed her about Sue's death.

Both of them ended up crying this time; Tamara promised to call Tony and Seanna later and let them know.

**********

Seanna and Leilani walked into the park heading for the swings, Leilani's favourite equipment there. Leilani hopped onto a swing, then giggled as Seanna began pushing her, slowly going higher and higher, the giggles turning into full-blown laughter as she went back and forth, back and forth on the swing. Eventually, Seanna pushed her high enough that she seemed to be as high as the top of the swing set, then slowly reversed the strength needed for each swing until she could grab it and bring it to a complete stop. Leilani had been laughing the whole time, she just loved the swings that much, she'd stay on them all day if she could.

As she stepped down from the swing, she spotted some people with a young puppy, looked up at Seanna and pointed to the puppy. "Can I please go over there and play with the puppy, please, pretty please?" She jumped up and down, waiting for an answer.

Seanna smiled at her. "Why don't we go over there and ask if you can play with the puppy? It's definitely a cute puppy."

They wandered over toward the couple with the child and the puppy, walking around some small pools of water in low spots. The couple saw them approaching and waited; the puppy looked up, saw a new lovely young child to play with and strained at the leash.

The children met near the puppy, the puppy trying to climb on them and give them doggy kisses. "Hi, I'm Leilani, but you can call me Lei."

"I'm Sally", the other girl replied. "I see that Toby likes you, he's a six month old golden lab-ra -ra-dor re- re- retriefer, we have some rubber balls we can throw for him. Mommy, Daddy, can we please take Toby over there and play for a while?"

The man laughed, "Toby does need some exercise, maybe you girls can wear him out," as he tossed each girl a rubber ball.

Sally grabbed Toby's leash, then started moving towards an open area where they could toss the balls around, but still be clearly seen by her parents and by Seanna. Toby wanted to start playing right away, but Sally kept a tight hold on him for the moment.

Sally's parents and Seanna found a bench about fifty feet from where the kids were playing, then sat down and watched. Within several minutes, five more children about the same age as Sally and Leilani joined them, and balls, kids and dog were bouncing everywhere.

Seanna and Sally's parents, Mark and Kate, were soon laughing as Toby tried to keep up with seven children at once. One of the children would toss a ball, Toby would run that way, then another would toss the other ball, and Toby would chase it. Children picked up a ball whenever it landed near them, then tossed it again, keeping Toby constantly moving between them.

Eventually, the constant moving around began to wear them all down, and one by one, they sat down to rest, Toby in the middle. Sally's parents picked that moment to walk over, picked up Toby's leash and collected Sally. "You kids should go and find your parents, but thanks for helping to wear down this crazy bundle of energy here," Mark said as he rubbed Toby behind the ears while Toby licked his face.

The rest of the children wandered off toward their parents; Seanna leaned down and picked up Leilani, then carried her to the bench. "Thank you very much for allowing her to play with the puppy, it looks like they all enjoyed it immensely."

You're welcome, Mark said, "it looks like Toby and Sally enjoyed it just as much, so thank you."

Exchanging phone numbers with the thought that Leilani would enjoy being able to play with Toby now and then, they parted ways, Seanna picking Leilani up and carrying her to the outer edges of the park where she flagged a cab to take them to Sue's place.

**********

Seanna and Leilani arrived at the house just before 5 PM; after buzzing JJ, they were allowed in and up to Sue's apartment. Seanna carried Leilani into the main bedroom, pulled the duvet back, laid the child down and tucked her in, then left the room.

JJ, Pat and Seanna were chatting when Seanna's cell phone rang, it was her sister Tamara calling. She answered and they talked for a few minutes, then Tamara changed everything when she said, "Momma called earlier, Sue died a few hours ago."

Seanna's world turned thick as fog, then utterly black as the shock hit her and she fainted right in front of JJ and Pat.