Here is the next part of Seanna's story. I hope you all enjoy it.

I originally intended to write this yesterday, but after dealing with a migraine for the five days up to that point, my body decided it had had enough. I went to bed yesterday at 3:15 PM EST Thursday and didn't get up until 10:20 AM EST Friday. Nineteen hours in bed! Ouch!

The good thing is that the migraine seems to have eased off quite a bit, so I'm getting down to business. LOL

**********

The early morning sun peeped through the windows, looking down on the bed where Seanna and Leilani lay sleeping. Some birds began to sing to herald the sun's rising on this early winter day, but the two in the bed heard none of it.

Another fifteen minutes passed before one of the two on the bed shifted and then sat up. Leilani grumbled to herself, "I really need to pee," as she shoved her feet into a pair of slippers and wandered over to the bathroom between the two bedrooms.

While Leilani was in there, Seanna woke up and noticed that Leilani was not in the bed. "Leilani, where are you?" she called out.

Leilani replied, "In the bathroom, I'll be out soon, darn bladder."

Seanna giggled as she walked toward the bathroom. "I think I'll need it when you're done in there, missy."

When Leilani opened the bathroom door, Seanna walked around her and into the bathroom. "Go to the kitchen, we'll have breakfast."

Leilani nodded, opened the closet and pulled out an old, worn robe she had left there while her mom was still alive. She wrapped herself in the robe's warm comfort, tied the belt, then padded off toward the kitchen to see what they could have for their breakfast.

Seanna joined her a few minutes later, dressed in a similar robe that had belonged to Leilani's mother. "Find anything yet?"

Leilani looked up from the door of the tiny pantry and shook her head. "I'm not sure, really. I think this needs to be cleaned out soon."

Seanna poked her head in, took a quick look around, and agreed. "It's messy in there, some of it looks like it's been there for months."

They closed the pantry door and Seanna looked in the fridge, eventually finding very little food in there, there were a few potatoes in the veggie bin, four eggs in their box, a bit of old cheddar and a 1/4 lb. of bacon. "Bacon and eggs for breakfast! If we get bread, I can make grilled cheese sandwiches later. That reminds me, it looks like we really need to get some food, the fridge is almost empty and that pantry is a mess."

She pulled out a frying pan; she dropped half a dozen slices of bacon in the pan, watched it as it cooked, flipped it when needed, and placed three slices each on a pair of plates she pulled from one of the cupboards. The eggs only took a minute or two, thanks to having done the bacon first, and she quickly transferred two eggs to each plate. She grabbed some bread and dropped four slices into the toaster.

Once the toaster was going, she turned off the stove, put the plates on the table, then poked Leilani to let her know the food was ready and sat down. Leilani giggled and joined her at the table. Both dug into the simple breakfast; Seanna jumped up a few minutes later to grab the toast, slipped the four slices onto a side plate, then brought the side plate and a plate with butter to the table.

Leilani took a slice of the toast, buttered it and set it on her plate, then continued eating; Seanna sat down again, grabbed a slice for herself, buttered it and returned to eating her own meal. They ate quietly, each taking a second slice of toast as they finished the bacon and eggs.

A few minutes later, the food was all gone; Seanna took the plates to the counter, rinsed them under the tap, then dropped them into the dishwasher. She took a quick look in the fridge, then closed it again. "I was hoping we had some orange juice, but we don't."

Seanna shook her head, then turned to Leilani before pointing to the bedrooms, "We need to get dressed, I have to get several business style outfits today, and we definitely need food, so we could be out for most of the day."

They wandered into the bedrooms, Seanna to retrieve her jeans and T-shirt from the chair across from the bed, Leilani to her own room to dig through her clothes to find an outfit. It only took Seanna a couple of minutes to dress, she grabbed a chocolate coloured lightweight sweater from the large dresser, then wandered into Leilani's room to see what she had found.

Seanna approached, then had to duck to avoid a bright yellow sweater Leilani had thrown; the sweater landed on the bed.

"Hey, watch where you're throwing things, kid!" As Leilani turned to face her, Seanna giggled, "Still looking, I suppose?"

"I'm in a mood for bright stuff today. Somewhere in here is a pair of yellow jeans that almost match that sweater I threw. If you want to help, you can take a look through my dresser and pick out a t-shirt for me, and some socks and undies."

"Gotcha!" Seanna replied as she moved to the dresser. Finding socks and underwear was easy, it was picking out a t-shirt that was hard. Leilani had lots of them, there must have been three or four dozen in all. Finally, a pale blue one with a bright sun and a mongrel dog caught her eye. She pulled it out and tossed it onto the bed, the t-shirt falling partially over the sweater.

Leilani yelled, then she popped out of the closet right next to Seanna. "I found them, so what did you pick out?" She skipped over to the bed, nodded at the undies and socks, then looked at the t-shirt. "Hmmmm, dog on t-shirt, teddy bear on sweater, is it I love animals day?"

Seanna laughed and replied, "Maybe it is, get your clothes on and we can get ready to go."

Seanna wandered back into the bedroom they had slept in, found her purse and dug through it for a minute or two before finding the notebook she wanted, then she went back in there looking for a pen or pencil. Finding a pen, she made a list of food items to buy.

She was just finishing her little list when Leilani yelled that she needed help with the sweater. Grinning, Seanna wandered in Leilani's room to see Leilani standing there with the sweater half on, most of the arms dangling down by her sides.

The grin changed to soft laughter as Seanna reached Leilani and helped to pull the sweater down and the sleeves up. It took a few minutes, as Leilani seemed to be pulling in different directions, but it was eventually sorted out, and the sweater was on, just as it should be.

Seanna returned to the main bedroom to grab her purse, then the two of them headed out into the main area of the apartment.

As they were about to put on their coats to leave, Seanna stopped, pulled out her phone and called her mother.

"Hello, Ramsay residence, Roselyn speaking."

"Hiya, Momma, I was just about to head out the door to go shopping for some business suits, then do some food shopping later. Would you like to join Leilani and I as we wander around a mall or five in the hunt for nice looking business suits? Maybe have lunch later?"

"Hmmmm... sit home and do nothing until the one church event I go to starts tonight, or spend the day with you? I'll go with you!"

"Okay, Momma, we're heading out the door now, we'll pick you up at your place in about half an hour. Love ya!"

Momma replied in the affirmative, the phone call ended a moment later; Seanna dropped the phone into her purse, then looked around for Leilani. Leilani was standing near the apartment's main door, her jacket already on, waiting for Seanna.

Seanna walked to the hall closet, grabbed her jacket, put it on, opened the door, pulled Leilani out of the apartment and locked the door; she turned and lead Leilani down the stairs, then around to the back door of the house, locking it after they had exited the house.

Seanna unlocked the car, set Leilani in her seat and buckled her in, closing the rear door before getting in and putting on her own seat belt. She turned on the engine, let the car warm up a bit, then backed up enough to turn and drive down the narrow lane beside the house.

When she reached the street, she checked both directions for traffic; she was just about to start moving when a low rumble could be heard and a high end sports car roared past. She shook her head, the driver was going at least eighty in a thirty zone, like it just didn't matter.

She checked again, seeing no traffic, she turned into the street and headed toward her mother's house.

**********

The drive into the heart of the city was a slow one today, it seems Seanna was catching the tail end of the morning rush hour. It took them almost 45 minutes before they managed to clear the stalled traffic and pull up in front of her Momma's house.

Seanna honked the horn. A few seconds later, her Momma came out, locked the front door, ran to the car, buckled in and shut the door.

"Sorry about how long it took to get here, Momma, traffic was pretty slow today. I hate rush hour, the hour when no one actually rushes."

Her Momma laughed as the car started moving along the street. They chatted for a few minutes, deciding which store they should go to first, eventually picking a mall that had three large stores with decent women's clothing, H&M, Macy's and The Gap.

Seanna was keeping an eye on traffic around them; it was a good thing, too, as someone in a big pickup decided to jump the light at one corner and smashed into the driver's side of a small sedan that was turning onto their street. She sighed and tried to figure out a good alternate route, as the other side of the intersection was almost completely blocked now by the two vehicles.

She was just about to turn onto the street the car had been coming from when she heard a scream, looked out the window and saw a big male, who appeared to have just stepped out of the pickup, waving his arms in a menacing way at the woman in the car. Seanna rolled her window down a bit, and could clearly hear him yelling, "You bitch, you should have kept this piece of trash out of my damn way!" as he growled and kicked at the driver's side door of the car with what appeared to be a steel toed boot.

**********

Seanna turned to her Momma, "Momma, get my phone out, call 911, report the accident and tell them one driver is acting very hostile." Seanna then carefully turned onto the other street, going a short way down the street before she pulled over and stopped the car.

Momma was on the phone, "Yeah, an accident at X and Z Streets, the one driver, a big male, 6' or so, likely 200 lbs, dark hair, heavy beard, just started screaming at the female driver of the car he hit, then kicked her door pretty hard, still screaming at her."

"X and Z Streets, you say? Thanks, we've got police on the way, fire department too, just in case. Five calls on that one so far."

"We're on Z Street pointed south at the moment, about 1/4 of the way down the block from the accident. Should we stay here?"

"Police should be there in a minute or two. You can talk to them once they arrive, as long as you weren't involved, you should be fine."

"Thanks, we'll stay then. Have a good day," Momma responded just before she ended the call, dropping the phone in Seanna's purse.

**********

Sirens could be heard approaching the area, Seanna looked back just in time to see two police cars reach the intersection. One car blocked access to the lanes of X Street beyond the accident, the second pulled to the curb just around the corner on Z Street.

Two officers jumped out of the first car, one a fairly big male, the other a tall, slender female, then approached the accident scene. The guy from the truck was still screaming and kicking at the side of the car, the woman in the front seat pulling as far back as she could. The male officer came to within several feet of the guy, then yelled at him to stop, his response was to turn and swing a big fist at the officer. He missed, as the officer stepped back, but the second officer closed in and tapped the guy lovingly on the head with the butt of her gun, dropping him.

She turned to the other officer and shrugged. "Hey, Sarge, he took a swing at you, I had no idea if he had a weapon on him."

The Sarge took a closer look at the male lying on the ground. "He was armed, Jan, a gun on the left hip and a big knife sheath, too." He then pulled the set of cuffs off his belt, cuffed the male, grabbed the weapons, and with the female officer's help, loaded him in the back of their car.

**********

Meanwhile, the officer in the second car stepped out and took a moment to look around the scene.

Seanna saw him in the rear view mirror, opened her window, stuck her head out, waved and yelled to him, "Officer, we saw what happened!"

He heard a woman yelling nearby, he looked down the street and saw a woman waving from a parked car. Not too sure what was going on, as he hadn't quite heard what she had said, he walked down the street, eventually standing beside the driver's door of Seanna's car.

"Okay, Miss, what's up? I didn't quite hear what you yelled a minute ago."

"Hi, officer. Well, we saw the whole thing, we were in the curb lane a couple of cars back from the intersection. The guy in the pickup jumped the light without paying attention to traffic around him, rammed into the back half of that sedan and turned it into so much scrap metal. Then he jumped out of his truck, ran to the driver's side of the car he had just hit and started screaming at her and kicking the driver's door."

"Did you see anything else?"

"No, sir, once the cars in front of me were gone, I turned onto this street, had my mom call 911 and we decided to wait here."

When she realized that the officer was about to go up to the corner, Seanna closed the window, deciding to stay there a bit longer.

**********

The officer stepped away from their car, walked up to the corner, took a quick look at the back of the car, shook his head and went around the truck to have a chat with the female driver of the car. He passed the first cruiser and noticed someone stuffed into the back seat just as the female officer opened her window. "Hiya, Jan, just got a quick report from another driver who witnessed the crash. I'm assuming the other adult in that car also saw the accident and what followed. I'll go back and talk to her in a bit."

The two officers exchanged info for a moment or two, then he walked past the cruiser to the driver's door of the sedan. He tapped on the window and waited while the woman grabbed a kleenex, blew her nose, then wiped her face with another tissue before lowering the window.

"Ma'am? Are you physically okay? I can tell you're pretty shook up right now, I just need to know if you need to see a paramedic."

"I'm... I'm okay, that, that jerk could have killed me, all... all to get through a stop light a few... seconds early!" She turned around as much as she could in the seat and looked at what had been the back of her car, now it was a crushed pile of metal and seat. She turned back to the front, her face becoming rather pale. "If... If I had been just a little slower, I'd be dead right now," she stated just before she fainted.

**********

The paramedics arrived on the scene, they had been delayed by another accident which had forced them to take a detour.

He waited for the paramedics to exit their vehicle, then pointed to the front of the car. "The woman in there just fainted." As the paramedics ran to the car and yanked open the driver's side door, he commented, "She was damn right, she came damn close to dying here."

One of the paramedics ran back to the ambulance, opened the back, pulled the stretcher down, then wheeled it over to the car. The second paramedic reached into the car, unbuckled the woman, then lifted her out of the car and laid her on the stretcher. The next few minutes were spent thoroughly checking the woman, who awoke midway through the examination.

"Hello, ma'am, you fainted in your car, so we pulled you out and have been checking you to make sure you're okay."

The woman smiled at him, "I'll be okay, I'm just a bit shook up, that's all." She sat up on the stretcher.

The one paramedic said she could go, but if she had any problems, to head to an emergency room immediately. She nodded, went back to her car, reached in, grabbed her purse, pulled out a cell phone and made a call. After talking for a few minutes she hung up.

She wandered back to the paramedics. "I've got a friend coming to pick me up, I'll just sit in my remodelled car until they get here."

The paramedic chuckled and waved her off. "Just take care of yourself, okay?" He then turned and lifted the stretcher into the back of the ambulance and closed the back doors before wandering over to the cruiser blocking the intersection.

**********

The officer that had spoken to Seanna had watched while the paramedics dealt with the woman. Just as she sat up on the stretcher, he remembered that he needed to talk to the other woman in the car down the street, so he headed down there.

Seanna saw him approaching when she looked in the rear view mirror, she warned her Momma that the officer was returning.

Seanna opened the window again as the officer leaned in toward the car. "Thanks, ma'am." He pointed to Seanna's mom and asked her to tell him what she had seen. She did so for the next few minutes, her account being fairly similar to Seanna's.

The officer finally noticed Leilani in the back. "Beautiful little girl you have there, Miss. I doubt she saw anything, being that small."

Leilani piped up from her car seat, "I didn't see it, nope, but I sure heard it! That guy was saying nasty words after the acci-acci...dent."

"Thank you, little one. Well, you folks are clear to go, I hope you have a good day now. Bye." He waved and walked back to the corner.

**********

Seanna chuckled as she rolled up the window and started down the street. At the second cross street, she turned left. She grinned as she looked in the back while at a stop light a few minutes later. Leilani was a sweet little girl, it figured she'd want to be a little helper.

They eventually reached the mall they wanted, Seanna turned into the lot and found a parking spot a short distance from an entrance. After checking to make sure they both had their purses and that Leilani was with them, Seanna locked the car and they headed into the mall.

Checking a store directory just inside the entrance, they saw that H&M was at the end of the mall closest to where they were, and the Macy's and Gap stores were located just inside the main entrance of the mall a few hundred feet away. They decided to check H&M first.

They spent the next hour wandering around the H&M store, checking who knows how many styles of business clothes, but nothing caught Seanna's attention, she wanted suits that would look lovely for work, but could also be used for other occasions.

She gave up finally, signalled to her Momma that she wanted to leave, and holding Leilani's hand, they headed for the internal exit.

After they left the store, they wandered up the mall, looking in at stores on either side then they saw the entrance to Macy's. The store was a lot bigger than the rest, even bigger than H&M, and Seanna was drawn in, pulling Leilani along behind her.

As they had done at H&M, they wandered around the store for a while.

Seanna was glad to see actual skirt suits, and found a style that she liked; there seemed to be a variety of fabrics and colours in that style, so she picked out a dozen suits, but each suit that she dropped into the cart was a different colour or fabric. She then wandered into the area with blouses; a couple of styles appealed to her, she picked out whatever colours she could find in those styles, then checked that Leilani was still with her. She headed toward the cashiers, figuring she could hit a Vicky's Secret store later for some lingerie.

After waiting for about ten minutes in the line she had picked, she finally reached the cashier. She watched as the cashier ran everything through, shook her head at the total cost, then pulled out the company credit card, sliding it into the card reader there. She waited a moment, then entered the pin number she had been told was for the card, and waited again, a bit nervous this time.

When the cash register accepted the card and finished processing the transaction, she breathed a rather audible sigh of relief. She had been worried that the card would not work, and that she would be required to pay in cash, she knew she only had a bit of cash on hand.

She flashed a weak smile at the girl working the cash register, then grabbed the bags of clothing, handed some to her Momma, and taking Leilani's hand in hers, she led the way out of the store toward the food court. Maybe some food would help her to destress.

**********

Seanna, her Momma and Leilani entered the food court area. After looking around for a minute or two, Seanna spotted an empty table; pointing it out to her mother, they walked over to the table and Seanna and her mother dropped the bags on the floor beside the table.

Seanna picked up Leilani for a moment. "Lei, look around at the food places, do you see something that interests you?" She waited while Leilani looked around, then Leilani grinned and pointed at the Manchu Wok shop. "I like their food! Mmmmm!"

Seanna laughed, then turned to her Momma. "I'll take her over there, get her food and find something for myself at the same time. When we return, you can get what you want while we eat and watch all the new clothes." Momma nodded and sat down to wait for them.

Seanna carried Leilani over to the Manchu Wok store. "What do you want, Leilani?"

Leilani pointed to the three items plus rice or noodles option, then picked honey garlic chicken and orange chicken, with mixed vegetables and rice. Seanna smiled, she realized that whatever Leilani didn't finish here could be saved for later and decided she would order here as well. Seanna picked beef and broccoli, then pepper steak, mixed vegetables and rice.

Seanna smiled at Leilani, "I'm going to take you over to my Momma so I can bring the trays over when they're ready, okay?" Leilani nodded and Seanna carried her back to the table, where she explained what she was doing, then went back to the store to wait.

A few minutes later, Seanna watched as the two orders were placed in front of her. She paid for the meals, then grabbed some utensils and some napkins before she picked up the trays and walked slowly over to the table. She dropped one tray by Leilani, then sat across from her.

Seanna's Momma got up, looked around, shrugged and went over to the Wok. She picked pineapple chicken and chicken with mushrooms, mixed vegetables and rice, then had to wait several minutes. Taking some utensils and a few napkins until her order was placed on the counter, she paid for it, picked up the tray and walked over to the table, sitting down beside Leilani.

The three of them enjoyed the meal, each of them leaving some food behind. Momma grinned and said they could have her leftovers.

Seanna went up to the Wok counter and asked for containers for the remaining food; once she had some containers, she returned to the table and packed the leftovers into the containers. Just as she finished, her phone rang, she pulled it from her purse and answered.

**********

"Hello, Seanna Ramsay speaking, who may I ask is calling?"

The voice that came through the phone in reply to her question made her shiver, and it was definitely not a good shiver. "Ahhhh, yes, the veeery interesting Seanna Ramsay, hmmmm, I'm going to enjoy taking that pretty little child away from you."

Seanna exploded, something her Momma wasn't expecting, "Who the hell are you, and why do you think I would let you take the child?"

The nasty voice replied, "I'm Sanjit Singh, I work at Child Protective Services, and I'm going to prove you aren't fit to be a mother. I doubt that will be very difficult at all, considering that you are a transsexual piece of trash, the child will be much better off away from you."

This was just too much, Seanna growled, low and menacing, "No one, but no one, takes that child from me, I'll bet my life on it!"

"We'll see about that, you tranny bitch. Court is at 9:30 on Tuesday morning, Family Court's Children's Division, see you there!"

Seanna was about to reply, but the jerk had ended the call. She was absolutely furious now, and she had no idea what to do. She slumped in her seat, the fury shifting to intense worry, and she burst into tears, growling, "I won't let them take her! I won't let them take her!"

**********

The commotion had brought the attention of some of the mall staff. A female approached and asked if everything was okay.

Seanna shook her head, still growling that phrase, although much quieter now. It took a few minutes, but the female staff person was willing to wait, as she could see that something was very wrong here. Seanna briefly looked up, mumbled, "Help me, Lord," then faced the woman.

"Some jerk from Child Protective Services just called me and told me I have to be in court on Tuesday, they intend to take Leilani here."

The woman blanched, "Oh, dear, I hope you can manage to sort it out, she's a beautiful child."

Momma spoke up, "Calm down Seanna, I'm going to call the company lawyers and have them get someone on this right away."

The staff person smiled at them. "It looks like you will be okay. I'll let you be, do what you can to keep the child safe and with you."

Seanna nodded, "Thank you, ma'am. I apologize for the little show I put on here a few minutes ago." The woman nodded and moved away.

**********

Momma had pulled out her own cell phone, hit a speed dial number, and was talking to someone at the company office.

"Hi, Petra, can you please put me through to Sandy in Legal? Thanks." She waited as the call was connected.

"Sandy, do we have anyone who can handle family law, especially relating to the taking of children?"

Sandy pondered for a moment before replying, "I'm not absolutely sure, but I think Jackie Stormhouse has done family law before."

Momma responded, "Can you please have Jackie call me back at this number?" then relayed the number to Sandy on the other end.

"Give me a minute, I'll check if Jackie is still in the building." Momma was put on hold for a few minutes, then Sandy returned. "I can do even better than that, Mrs. Ramsay, Jackie is here, I'll transfer your call to her line, just a moment."

This wait wasn't much more than a minute, then a low but sexy female voice spoke to her, "Hi, I'm Jackie, what's happening, Mrs. Ramsay?"

Momma explained the situation, and Jackie asked if they could come into the company offices that afternoon.

"Seanna, the company does have someone that deals with family law, she wants to see us this afternoon. You want to fight this, right?"

Even Jackie could hear the low growl in Seanna's voice as she replied, "Darn right I want to fight it! I won't let anyone take her!"

Seanna stalked over to the Wok, asked for a plastic bag for the food, received one, returned to the table and put the food in the bag. She picked up a couple of bags, along with the bag of food, and turned around, ready to leave.

Momma assured Jackie they would be coming there as soon as they had dropped off the things they had just bought. When she ended the call, she picked up the remainder of the bags, watched as Seanna took Leilani's hand, then they headed out to the car.

**********

Seanna was still very upset, so once they had put everything in the trunk and they were about to get into the car after putting Leilani in her car seat, Seanna called to her Momma, and when she looked over, Seanna tossed her the keys. "You drive, please, I'm way too upset."

Seanna and Momma sat in the car, buckled themselves in and Momma started the engine, letting it warm up for a moment.

"I assume we're going first to Sue's apartment so you can drop things off, then over to the company offices to talk with Jackie?"

Seanna nodded, still trembling from the mix of emotions she was feeling as Momma put the car in gear and headed toward the street exit.

Momma turned into the street and started driving toward Sue's apartment. The traffic was light, as it was only early afternoon.

Barely twenty quiet minutes after they had left the mall, they were turning into Sue's driveway. Seanna directed her Momma to take the laneway to the back of the house, as she felt it was safer to leave the car there, even if it was only for a few minutes.

Momma shut the engine off, handed her the keys, then Seanna grabbed as many bags as she could carry and headed to the back door. Dropping a few for a moment, she unlocked the door, picked up the bags and kicked the door shut behind her before heading up the stairs. Unlocking the apartment door, she checked the bags, no food, so she carried the bags into the main bedroom and dropped them on the bed.

She turned around, left the apartment, went down the stairs fairly fast, through the back door and out to the car. She grabbed the last three bags plus the leftovers, then headed back inside, carrying everything up to the apartment. She put the food in the fridge, then carried the last of the clothing bags into the bedroom, dropped them beside the rest, and exited the apartment, locked it and headed back down to the car.

She locked the back door, then trotted over to the car, opened the passenger side door, and entered the car, tossing the keys back to Momma.

Momma turned the engine on again, then after it had warmed up, she backed up a bit, then turned and followed the lane to the street. She checked both directions, seeing no traffic, she pulled into the street and headed back downtown, to the company offices this time.