Here is the next part of the story, I hope you all enjoy it.

**********

Seanna led Leilani over to her car, using the remote to unlock it just before they reached it. She opened the back door, helped Leilani to hop into the seat, then buckled her in. Seanna shook her head, she realized one of the first things she would need to do today would be to get a car seat for Leilani and have it set up in the back seat of the car. She smiled down at Leilani, brushed a stray hair away from Leilani's face, then eased out of the car and closed the back door before moving around to the driver's door. She got in, buckled up and started the engine.

After letting the car warm up for a minute or two, she carefully backed up several feet before turning the car toward the drive leading to the street, edging past the two cars still parked there in the back yard.

Making her way cautiously along the narrow lane beside the house, she approached the street itself, stopping for a moment to look both directions to ensure there was no traffic, then turned into the street and began driving toward the downtown area of the city.

Watching the traffic around her as she drove always made her feel slightly nervous, now she was even more nervous due to Leilani being in the car with her. She was lucky, the colder weather over the last several days was making people be more cautious that usual, and they had no major difficulty in reaching the downtown area, although they did have to detour a bit at one point because of a minor accident.

While they were stopped at a light, she briefly looked back and saw that Leilani had fallen asleep. She smiled and continued on toward the specific mall she wanted, as it had a store that offered items like car seats and other child care necessities.

**********

After several more minutes of driving, she spotted the big store's signs across a parking lot and carefully moved into the curb lane, then into the parking lot and around a bit before finding a space about fifty meters from the store's outer doors. She parked the car, turned off the engine, grabbed her purse and closed the driver door before opening the driver's side rear door; once that door was open, she reached in, touched Leilani gently, then spoke quietly to her, "Leilani, time to wake up, we're at the store so I can get a car seat for you."

When Leilani failed to respond immediately, Seanna shifted gears, giggled and softly started tickling the child, who woke up and began squirming and squealing, trying to avoid Seanna's nimble fingers. Both of the them were giggling now, so Seanna let Leilani know that she was about to unbuckle her, then released the seatbelt and carefully grabbed her, slowly backing out of the car. Seanna lowered Leilani to the asphalt out of the way of the door, then closed the car door, using the remote to fully lock the car before leading Leilani into the store.

Once they were in the store, Seanna pulled a cart out of the bunch close to the doors, then lifted Leilani up and placed her in the cart so she could ride around and see things while Seanna steered the cart. Seanna asked a store worker where to find the child car seats, was given directions and worked her way through the store eventually spotting them across an aisle.

Seanna spent a few minutes looking at the seats available, then noticed a store worker walking past and asked if she could get some help regarding choosing a seat, as she wanted one that passed or exceeded the necessary safety standards. The worker led her over to a nearby desk, picked up the phone there, and asked for someone to come to child car seats to help a customer.

**********

Seanna went back to the car seats after the worker assured her someone should be along fairly soon, and was looking at them when she heard a deep, yet smooth as velvet voice behind her, "Hello, are you the customer that wanted help with car seats, Miss?"

Seanna turned around and looked up, waaay up, to see a smiling face looking down at her, the face being a rather pleasant light chocolate in colour, that gorgeous smile showing many gleaming teeth. That voice just turned her to jelly for a moment, she shook her head, smiled back at him and replied, "Yes, that's right. I want a seat that satisfies or exceeds all the safety standards, this little girl needs to be safe."

The male looked down, noticed Leilani sitting in the cart and grinned at her. "Ahhhh, yes, I can understand that quite well, she's a pretty one! Soooo... something that satisfies or exceeds the safety standards, hmmmm?" He spent the next several minutes roaming around the assortment of child car seats; eventually, he returned to Seanna and Leilani, carrying a car seat in each hand.

"These two are the best of the lot, no real difference between them, except for price, this one (slightly lifting the one in his right hand) is $50 more than this one (lifting the other one for a moment). They both exceed the standards by a fair margin, both are good quality."

Seanna took a moment to have a closer look at the two seats and noticed some papers under the wrapping on one. Looking closely at the papers for the seat, she could see that it gave a list of safety specifications for it, so she quickly checked the other one and saw a list there that appeared to be identical to the one on the first chair. "Hmmmm, the two safety specs lists look the same."

He nodded, smiling and showing those teeth again, "So which one takes your fancy, Miss?"

Seanna thought for a moment before looking at him again and asking, "What colour options are available for these?"

Looking at the one in his right hand, he replied, "Black, red, sky blue, navy blue, mint green, forest green, and brown." Turning to look at the other one, "Black, brown, green and red. We used to carry a blue one in this line, but it's not in stock at the moment."

"Thanks. My car is forest green, but the seats are black, so those would likely match best. Could you get me a forest green one, please?"

"Yes, miss, I'll just put these back, then I'll go into the stock area and find one for you. It will likely take five or ten minutes, okay?"

She smiled at him and nodded, then looked around to see if there was anything interesting nearby as he replaced the seats he had shown them and then headed off to the stock room. She noticed other items for cars and pushed the cart over to take a look.

**********

It seemed it was mostly car decorations, several sizes and colours of fuzzy dice, mini silver and gold trophies, air fresheners for cars; she looked through the items for a few minutes but kept being drawn to a pair of three inch dark green fuzzy dice. Leilani noticed her looking at that particular set of dice and reaching over the side of the cart, giggled and batted at them a couple of times.

Seanna laughed, she liked seeing Leilani have fun. She smiled and pulled the set of fuzzy dice off the hook and handed them to Leilani, saying "Keep an eye on these until we get to the cashier, okay?" Leilani grinned and nodded, Seanna looked around and took two fresheners.

**********

That smooth as velvet voice sounded behind Seanna again, sending a shiver up her spine. "Here's the seat, Miss, I'll put it in the cart for you;" he suited his actions to his words and placed the box with the car seat in the cart. "Have a good day, Miss, thanks for shopping here."

Thank you," Seanna replied, "have a good day yourself." Then she turned the cart and headed for the cashiers near the outer doors.

**********

There were a few people in the line ahead of her, so it was a few minutes before Seanna could pay for everything. The cashier for that lane leaned over and put a sticker on the wrapping to show the item had been processed, then Seanna paid the bill and left the store. Seanna breathed in relief when she saw that the cart could leave the store, she knew many stores that set the carts to lock at the doors.

She carefully worked her way over to where the car was parked, again her luck was good, there was an open space on one side of the car. She pushed the cart toward the back of the car, lining it up beside the rear wheel, then pulled out the keys and unlocked the doors. She opened the rear door, carefully lifted the car seat out of the cart, looked at the wrapping for a moment before noticing some tape strips which she then pulled off, thereby opening the wrapping. Shoving the plastic down around the seat, she carefully picked it up, turned it and leaned into the car to place it in the middle of the seat. After taking a quick look at the directions, she fastened the seat in place and turned to Leilani, grinning as she said, "Well, now there's a car seat for you, I'll be able to see you a lot easier from now on while I'm driving."

Leilani returned the grin, lifting her arms up; Seanna laughed, picked up Leilani and carefully put her in the seat, then buckled her in, following the directions once again to endure it was done properly. Seanna closed the door and walked around the car to the driver's door, opened it, settled into the seat, buckled herself in and started the car, again letting it warm up for a minute or two first, then suddenly remembered the cart standing beside the car. "I'm locking the car and taking that cart back, I'll be right back." She exited the car, locked it as she had said she would, grabbed the wrapping from the ground beside the car, then pushed the cart over to the store entrance and dropped the wrapping in a garbage can before running back to the car.

It had only taken a minute or two, but a minute or two can often be all that is needed for trouble to appear. She breathed a quick sigh of relief, unlocked the driver's door, buckled up again and smiled at Leilani. "I should have taken that back first, hmmm?"

**********

Once they were back on the streets again, Seanna asked, "How about we stop somewhere near the museum for a little snack first?"

Leilani responded that that sounded good to her, so Seanna pulled into a Dunkin Donuts about a block away from the museum. After getting Leilani out and locking up the car, they went inside, Seanna bought a small coffee for herself, a juice for Leilani and a jelly donut to share. The two sat there for the next ten minutes or so enjoying their snack, then went to the washroom, cleaned up and returned to the car. The drive over to the museum's parking lot only took a moment, then they locked up the car again and headed into the museum.

They entered the museum just after 10:45 AM and wandered around looking at the various exhibits until nearly 1:30 PM, when Leilani's stomach decided to announce its need for food by making a clearly audible rumbling sound. Seanna grinned and Leilani giggled as they turned and headed for the back entrance by the parking lot, then out to the car. Once they were buckled in and the car was warming up, Seanna turned to Leilani and asked her where she wanted to go for lunch, Leilani's prompt reply was "Long John Silver's!"

Seanna giggled and shook her head, "I don't know if there is one here, Leilani, I'm guessing you want fish and chips, huh?" Let me call my Momma, see if she knows a place like that." Leilani nodded and Seanna pulled out the cell phone, hitting the auto dial for her Momma; it rang twice, then her Momma answered, "Hello, Ramsay residence, Roselyn speaking."

"Hiya, Momma, how are you? I have Leilani here and she wants to know a good place for fish and chips downtown?"

Seanna and her Momma chatted for a few minutes, Momma giving directions for a good restaurant, then they said their goodbyes.

"Okay, Leilani, Momma recommended a place not too too far from here, she says they have the best fish and chips in the city. Does that sound good to you?" When Leilani replied with enthusiasm, Seanna smiled and started driving toward the restaurant.

**********

At one point, Seanna took a wrong turn and ended up on a one way street going the wrong direction; it took a moment to find her way back to the correct street, then they continued onward, eventually reaching the restaurant and parking a short distance from the doors.

After releasing Leilani from the car seat and locking the car, they entered the restaurant, and ended up waiting in line for a table. It took a few minutes, then a hostess led them into the restaurant to a booth along one wall, asking if she wanted a booster seat for Leilani.

When Leilani shook her head and told the hostess she was a big girl, the hostess grinned and agreed, then headed back to the entrance. A few minutes later, a waitress appeared, asking what they wanted for drinks. Leilani asked for juice, Seanna ordered a coffee, and then the two spent the next several minutes looking at the options on the menu. After chatting for a few minutes, they decided to share a platter that they both liked, with a side order of fries; when the waitress returned, they let her know and she headed back to the kitchen.

Seanna and Leilani discussed the visit to the museum, what they had liked the most, things they thought were icky or nice; before they even realized it, the waitress was returning with a large platter and a smaller plate, and a refill for their drinks.

They tucked into the food, enjoying the sampling of various items on the platter, shrimp, scallops, crab meat, some mussels, several slices of salmon, also some slices of fresh trout, a small portion of lobster, some fresh oysters, and a tablespoon or so of caviar, with various garnishes and sauces arranged around the platter, along with half a dozen dinner rolls. It was obvious they would be taking some home afterward, but that made no difference to them, they tasted this and that, going through the various items on the platter, eating a fry now and then.

They both decided they weren't too enthused about the caviar, the oysters were okay, but the rest was pretty good to awesome. By the time the two had stopped eating, only a few fries were left on the plate and more than half of the food on the platter was gone. When the waitress returned, Seanna asked to have the food put into doggy bags, except for the caviar, and then asked for the bill.

The waitress asked why they didn't want the caviar as well, and Seanna informed her that they just didn't like it very much. Ten minutes later the waitress returned with a large paper bag containing several smaller bags, Seanna paid and they left the restaurant.

**********

Once they were in the car, Seanna groaned softly and rubbed her stomach, grumbling that she had eaten too much. She looked into the back seat, where Leilani was strapped into the car seat, and saw that Leilani had nodded off again. "Stuffed full and worn out, I suppose."

She smiled, turned on the engine, waited a moment, then headed back into the traffic, having decided that she needed to stop by her Momma's house to ask her about that credit card she had mentioned and whether a decision had been made about her and the company.

She spent the drive to her Momma's house thinking about Leilani and just how strongly that Leilani had grabbed her heart. She hadn't expected it at all, in fact, until she had heard about the attack on Sue, she had never met Leilani, so she wondered just how it was that that sweet little girl could tie her up in knots in such a short time. She found herself wishing that Leilani had been her true daughter, but that just started the tears flowing down her cheeks, she knew darn well she would never be able to conceive or give birth. All she knew was that she couldn't get Leilani out of her mind at all, she thought about her every moment she was awake and she didn't want it to ever stop.

When she pulled into the short drive by her Momma's house, she was still crying a bit, she had pulled over at one point because she couldn't see through the tears. She sat in the car for a few minutes, waiting for the tears to stop again, then opened the glove compartment and pulled out some kleenex to dab at her eyes. Looking in the mirror, she smiled briefly at the smudged mascara, then shook her head, undid the seat belt, grabbed the bag of leftovers, opened the door and stepped out of the car. Closing the door, she opened the rear one and looked in, just in time to see Leilani wake up from her nap. She released Leilani from the car seat, locked the car and they walked up onto the porch.

Seanna was about to push the door bell when the front door opened and her Momma looked out at them. Her Momma immediately noticed that Seanna had been crying and quietly asked if she was okay, Seanna replied that she would explain in a few minutes.

They entered the house and Leilani ran off toward the play room near the back of the house. They followed her, looked into the room and found Leilani snuggled up with a big golden brown stuffed bear, she seemed to be talking to it.

**********

Seanna and her Momma turned up the hall to the kitchen to drop off the leftovers from the restaurant, then headed back down the hall to the back parlour, settled down into chairs and relaxed for a few minutes.

"Okay, Seanna, what's happening now, why were you crying just before you came into the house?"

"Oh, Momma, it's Leilani, I want her so much to be mine, but that's only part of it, I keep wishing that she really was mine. While driving here a few minutes go, I found myself wishing I could conceive and give birth; Momma, knowing I can't just hurts so much it's hard to cope.

"I had to get a car seat for her this morning. We had a bit of fun in the store, then we had a lot more fun running around the museum. Going to that restaurant for the seafood was lovely, too, we had a great meal, although we didn't like the caviar much at all.

"The thing is, Momma, being with Leilani is filling a hole in my heart that I didn't even know was there. I'll do anything and everything I can to help that child to grow up happy and to keep her safe, that was why the first thing we did today was to get that car seat."

Seanna turned herself into the chair as the tears started flowing once again. Through them, Seanna continued, "I don't care what else happens to me, Momma, the only thing I want right now is to be able to be there for her from now on."

Her mother pointed over to the couch, then quietly told Seanna to go sit there. Seanna stood up, a bit wobbly, then stumbled over toward the couch through the tears streaming down her cheeks; she bumped into the edge of a coffee table, tripped and fell onto the couch, just barely managing to twist herself around so that she landed on it sitting down. Her Momma sat down beside her, hugging her tight.

"Even though you may have been born as my son, I've known for a long time that you are my daughter, I've known about your yearnings and desires that you could be a biological woman, but some things just can't be changed, love. I made sure that you could get decent treatment as young as possible to be able to grow up as a young woman, and you had the sex reassignment surgery when you were eighteen. You have been very lucky in many ways, especially so because we had the money to be able to do things without many years of waiting.

Seanna's tears slowly turned to trickles as she sat next to her mother, being hugged by her, listening to her as she spoke.

"So you may not be able to conceive, or give birth to a child. Well, there are many biological women who can't do those things, either. Does that make them any less a woman than one who can do them? I don't think so, so why do you keep putting yourself down, child?"

"Momma, I've shown you the chats on a few sites, some of the people there have been treated so badly! Disowned by their families, marriages broken, children they can no longer visit, all too many 'friends' deserting them like rats off a sinking ship. Yes, I've been lucky. I've had opportunities that many never get, but what hurts even more is being told by many people that we aren't real because we weren't born women. It's hard enough to fight for ourselves when we're being shot down from people on all sides for any reason at all.

"That's the sort of thing that too many of us put up with whenever we try to take a step forward in our lives. The system is full of shit!

As I said before, when we try to do something like adopt a child, we have people deliberately obstructing us, making it impossible. It's a very rare occasion when a transgender or transsexual person is able to adopt, and those usually have loads of money backing them, that or someone very influential on their side. Take that Cathy woman in that Easy As Falling Off A Bike story, for instance, she herself has a fair bit of money, plus income from four or five houses, yet that pales to what her husband has, or to his influence, directly or through his father. If they didn't have the money they do, or that level of influence, they would be like so many others, being told the system can't help them.

Their influence helped her to get her SRS way earlier than is usual, then that influence helped them each time they found themselves with another child practically falling into their lives, she ends up climbing business and academic ladders like a rocket on fire. That woman has more luck in the tip of one pinky finger than most people have in their entire body or lives. It's crazy, but she sure does have luck on her side."

As Seanna's tears finally stopped, largely due to the anger coming through in her voice as she replied to her Momma, she heard a faint sound coming from across the hall, a sound that had her off the couch and running into the playroom. Seanna spotted Leilani still curled up with the big bear, but now she could clearly hear the soft crying coming from the child. She sat beside Leilani and pulled her and the bear into a hug.

Several minutes went by with Seanna just holding Leilani and the bear close, before Leilani managed to speak through the sobs. "I was sitting here talk... talking to Goldy here about today when I hear... heard you crying over there, you were talking loud enough that I could hear it all. Auntie, what is trans- trans-genner or da other one?" Leilani continued sobbing quietly as she waited for an answer.

"Oh, boy, this isn't going to be easy," Seanna muttered to herself. "Leilani, a transgender person is someone who presents themselves as the opposite gender to their birth one, might take hormones to help change their appearance and some other physical attributes, but may not want to fully change themselves to be fully male or female. A transsexual also presents as the opposite gender to their birth one, often takes hormones to help change their appearance and some other physical attributes, but when possible, will undergo complicated surgery to become as close to male or female as they can. It's not always clear, it often depends on how a person chooses to define themselves."

Leilani, still crying, sat there cuddled up to Seanna, listening intently, then thinking for a few minutes before she looked up at Seanna again. "Auntie, I heard you say 'we' sometimes... Auntie, are you transgenner or transsexshul?"

Seanna, startled by the question, jerked back for a moment, accidentally banging her head off the wall in the process. She let go of Leilani briefly, rubbed the back of her head, then looked down at Leilani and hugged her close once again. "Yes, I am a transsexual, Leilani. As I said to my Momma, I was lucky, we had money enough to get the things I needed, and I'm as close to female as it is possible for me to be."

Leilani hugged her back, smiling through the last of her tears. "You said somfing else, too, about 'dopshun, that people like you 'most always can't 'dopt kids, because people 'struc you by doing things to slow down the 'dopshun or stop it 'pletely. Is that true, too?"

Seanna worked her way through what Leilani had said, then nodded to her. "Yes, Leilani, all too often, that is true, unless a person like me has a lot of money to use, or has someone willing to use their power, influence, to help them."

"Auntie, I know my mommy is gone, I miss her lots! I wish she was still here, but I know she can't be. Will... will you be my new mommy?"

Seanna didn't know it, but her Momma had followed her, and had listened to the conversation between the woman and the child. It was all too obvious that Leilani was extremely intelligent, and even more obvious that Leilani was forming a very strong bond with Seanna.

Seanna sat there for a few seconds, totally stunned by the question, then kissed Leilani on the forehead and told her yes.

Momma finally spoke from the doorway, "I think you two have had a long day already, why don't you both go and have a nap?"

Seanna's head snapped up, almost hitting the wall again. "I didn't even know you were there, Momma."

"I followed behind you when you took off from the parlour. When I got here, you two were talking, so I let you talk to each other."

Seanna smiled and looked down at Leilani, who was curled up against her side, eyes closed. "Well, she's obviously ready for another nap, and with all the emotional stuff I've gone through recently, I guess I can use one as well. I need to talk to you again later, Momma."

**********

Seanna carefully picked up the semi-dozing child and headed for the stairs to the second floor and the guest bedrooms. Padding down the upper hallway, she finally opened a door, looking in at the room that had been hers for so much of her young life. She carried the child to the bed, pulled back the covers and placed her in the middle, then stripped and grabbed a nightshirt before sliding in beside Leilani.

Pulling the covers back over herself and the snoozing child, she lay there holding Leilani close until she herself drifted off to sleep.

**********

Seanna's need to use the washroom woke her up a few hours later. When she returned to the bed, Leilani was awake, looking up at her. Leilani seemed to be thinking for a moment before she asked, "Did you really meant what you said 'bout being my new mommy?"

The look on Leilani's face as she asked that almost broke Seanna's heart, this child needed her love desperately. She smiled as she looked down, opened up her arms so that Leilani could get a hug if she wanted it, and replied, "Gods, yes, Leilani, I do want that!"

Leilani stood up on the bed, then launched herself into Seanna's arms, the love being returned in both directions.

"Okay, love, I need to let you down so I can find something to wear, I'm sure Momma has been cooking up a storm!" Seanna kissed Leilani on the forehead, then leaned over and carefully set her down, before turning to the large dresser against the wall. She pulled out bundles of t-shirts, looking through them to find one that fit her mood, before picking out one with a big, bright sun shining over a wood. Digging through another drawer, she grabbed a pair of stretchy faded jeans; dressing in the jeans and t-shirt, she turned back to the child.

"Ready to go down and see what my Momma has been doing while we were sleeping?"

Leilani nodded, reached up to grab Seanna's hand and the two of them walked down the hall and then down to the first floor. On reaching the lower floor, the smells of a lovely meal came floating out from the kitchen, pulling the two in that direction.

"Hi, Momma, how much longer will it be before the food is ready?"

"Maybe five or ten minutes, why don't you get out the plates and stuff and set the table? Put out bowls, too, part of it is a soup."

"Okay, Momma." She looked down at Leilani, smiling. "Want to learn how to set a table? It's not too hard."

Leilani returned the smile, holding tight to Seanna's hand. "Okay, what I have to do?"

Well," Seanna grinned, "we go over here, open this cupboard, and pull out three plates and three soup bowls. When there's only a few of us like now, Momma likes us all to sit at one end of the table, so the plates go here, here and here, and the bowls just above each plate, a bit to the left of the plate itself, here, here, and here. Then we go to the silverware drawer, pull out forks, knives and spoons for the three of us, and set them around each plate like this, fork on the left side, knife and spoon on the right. Oh, Momma, will we be needing the steak knives at all?"

"I doubt it, Seanna, I put fish on, it should be tender enough to flake off with just a fork. You know what my fish is like."

"Yes, Momma, I surely do. Leilani, love, my Momma makes the best fish dinners I've ever tasted, even better than what we had today."

"Really? The fish today was good, it was sammon and tr-trout, right? And your Momma's is better? Woowhee!"

Momma wandered back into the kitchen, checked the small family table, nodded at the layout and walked over to the stove. She slipped on an oven mitt, lifted the lid of one of the pots on the stove, sniffed deeply, smiled and replaced the lid. She then checked the second pot, the vegetables in it were looking good, that just left the fish in the oven to be checked. Using the oven mitt, she pulled the pan out far enough that she could stick a fork into the cooking fish, seeing that the fork came off clean, she smiled and turned the oven and burners off.

"It looks like everything is ready. Seanna, can you put out three boards so I can put the pots and fish pan on them, please? I'd rather not burn the table if I can help it." Momma then reached into a drawer near the stove, pulled out two large spoons, one with slots in it, one without. When Seanna had placed the boards on the table, Momma put the second oven mitt on, then lifted each of the pots from the stove and placed it on a board on the table. Opening the oven, she lifted out the pan containing the fish and set it on the third board. Last but not least, she put some bread on the table in case any of them wanted it, and a small plate with butter on it for the bread.

"Okay, Seanna, can you get the tall chair for Leilani? It will be easier for her to reach the table that way."

Seanna nodded, walked over to one of the corners at the back of the kitchen and pulled out a chair, the chair looked like a normal kitchen chair except that the seat was quite a bit higher, perfect for a small child to sit on and be able to eat with the rest of the family. Once the chair was by the table, Seanna walked over to Leilani, picked her up and carefully set her on the chair.

Momma grinned at Seanna and Leilani, then picked up Leilani's bowl, used the unslotted spoon to fill it with soup and placed it in front of her plate again, then did the same for Seanna and herself. She used the other spoon to scoop vegetables from the second pot for each person, then switched to normal forks to put some of the fish on each plate. "If you want bread, feel free to take a piece, okay?"

She sat down at the head of the table, motioned for Seanna and Leilani to be quiet and recited a grace before the meal.

Once grace was finished, they all dug into the food. As Seanna had said, the fish was fantastic, almost melting on her tongue. The soup was a clam chowder, so they had fish from two parts of the meal; that tasted almost as good as the fish from the oven, Leilani was actually moaning softly as the food tasted better than just about anything she could remember eating, the vegetables were perfect, she was in heaven!

Seanna and her Momma smiled back and forth, enjoying Leilani's enjoyment of the meal as they ate.

Seanna took a slice of bread, as did her Momma, but Leilani didn't need or want it, the meal itself was enough for her.

Eventually, the meal ended, Seanna and her Momma cleared the table, setting the remainder of the food aside to cool down a bit before they would transfer it to containers, then the fridge. The plates, bowls and silverware were rinsed, then put in the dishwasher.

"Leilani, I need to talk to Momma for a bit, why don't you go to the playroom, okay?"

Leilani smiled, thanked Momma for the awesome meal, then scampered off in the direction of the playroom.

"She was right, Momma, that was an awesome meal, thanks. As for what I wanted to talk to you about, it's the company credit card for one thing. I had to use personal funds today for the car seat and what we ate while we were out, so I'm running out of cash.

The second thing I wanted to ask about was the company, has there been any word at all as to what is happening?"

"Ahhhh, the company credit card is in my office near the front of the house, on my desk. I haven't heard anything about the company."

"I guess they haven't gotten around to making any decisions yet, then. As it's already heading toward 8:45 PM, I guess I won't be going shopping for business suits until tomorrow at the earliest. I wonder what else I might need if I do end up working for the company."

"Well, Seanna, if you do need something else, I'm sure you'll be able to get it at that point in time."

"You're right, Momma. I'm going to have a coffee and relax here for a while, what about you, Momma?"

"Sounds good to me, we can check if anything is on the TV, never know, we might find something decent to watch."

Seanna and her Momma each grabbed some coffee, making it to their individual preferences, then headed to the living room. Turning the TV on, Seanna skimmed through the available channels, it was all repeats of old shows she'd seen before or totally boring ones, with the exception of a nature show that reminded her vaguely of repeats she had seen of David Suzuki's The Nature of Things, a show she had enjoyed years before. The nature show wasn't anything special or spectacular, but it was interesting enough, and the hour passed fairly quickly.

When the show finished, she took the coffee cups into the kitchen, rinsing them and placing them in the dishwasher, before she wandered down the hall to the playroom. Standing at the door, she looked in to see Leilani snuggled up with the big bear, out like a light.

Seanna smiled, walked over to the closet near the front door, grabbed their coats, then headed to the kitchen to collect the leftovers from the restaurant before returning to the playroom. Once in the playroom, she gently shook Leilani, but Leilani stayed asleep, so Seanna slowly put Leilani's jacket on her and zipped it up, then her own; she put her purse on one shoulder, picked up Leilani with that arm, grabbed the leftovers with the other hand, and walked toward the front door. On the way to the front door, she looked into the living room for a moment in order to say goodbye to her Momma, who it seemed had nodded off in her chair during the TV show.

Seanna suddenly remembered the credit card. She entered the office, found it on the desk and stuffed it in her purse.

Seanna set the leftovers down, opened the front door, shifted the leftovers onto the top step, then made sure the front door was locked before she closed it. Picking up the leftovers again, she carried the bag and Leilani over to the car. She set the leftovers on the roof of the car for a moment, unlocked the rear door, put Leilani in her seat, buckled her in, then closed the door and opened the front one; grabbing the bag of leftovers, she placed it and her purse on the passenger seat, then stepped into the car, turned on the engine and let it warm up as usual.

After buckling her own seat belt, she looked behind her, then carefully backed the car into the street and headed for home.

It had definitely been a long day for Leilani, she hadn't stirred at all while being dressed in the jacket, or carried to the car. Seanna kept glancing back for a second or two every now and then as she drove to Sue's building, she was a bit tired herself, but not enough that she would need to sleep right away after they entered the apartment.

The drive to Sue's was quiet, there didn't seem to be many people out on the streets. Seanna had seen a few patches of ice as she reached the car earlier, so she was going a bit slower than usual and watching the roads for signs of ice.

**********

Just before 10:30 PM, Seanna drove down the street where Sue's apartment was located. Still there was very little traffic, so there was no problem with her turning into the driveway and following it behind the house. As she parked the car near the two sedans, she noticed that there seemed to be three house keys on the ring for Sue's apartment; thinking for a moment, she assumed the extra key was for the back entrance.

She turned the engine off, opened the door, grabbed the bag from the passenger seat and set it on the roof; she closed the driver's door and opened the rear one on that side, reached in and released Leilani from the seat, then picked her up, leaning back out of the car before shoving the door closed with one hip. Shifting Leilani to one arm and holding her on the hip, she picked up the bag and her purse and started walking toward the back door. Just as she went past the front end of the car, she slipped on a patch of ice and almost fell. It scared her quite a bit.

She reached the back door, dropped the food and purse for a moment, pulled the keys out and tried the other house key on the door. She smiled as the door unlocked, then she pushed it open and stepped into the house. She reached down, grabbed the bag and her purse and dropped them on the washer before closing and locking the door. Deciding to leave the bag and her purse there for a few minutes, she held Leilani in both arms and padded up the stairs, unlocked the apartment and carried Leilani back to the main bedroom.

She unzipped Leilani's jacket and slowly pulled her arms out of the sleeves, then pulled the jacket off before tossing it on a chair. She looked around, didn't see a nightgown in the room, so she wandered into Leilani's room and checked the dresser drawers. Finding one that she figured Leilani would like, as it seemed a bit worn already, she took it into the other room, stripped Leilani, then put it on her and tucked her in.

Seanna stood there for a few minutes, just looking down at the sleeping child that had stolen her heart so thoroughly. She smiled, leaned down to give her a quick kiss on the forehead, then headed back down to the first floor to get the bag with the leftovers. She brought the bag and her purse upstairs, placed the food in the fridge, then took off her jacket and hung it in the hall closet before she headed into the living room.

She spent the next hour listening to music playing softly on the stereo before she heard what sounded like crying over the music. Turning it off, and deciding that she should call it a night, she entered the bedroom to see Leilani tossing and turning on the bed.

Seanna quickly stripped, put on her own nightgown and slipped into the bed beside Leilani. When she snuggled close to Leilani, Leilani seemed to settle down a bit; when Seanna held her even closer, Leilani drifted into a deeper sleep within a minute or two.

Seanna lay beside the child, holding her close, remembering the love the child had shown her earlier, then she too was asleep.