Here is the next part of Seanna's story, Christmas finally and Seanna starts working in the corporation's head office.

**********

At 4:30 PM, Seanna entered Leilani's bedroom and woke the girls up, saying they needed to get ready to visit her Momma. Seanna quickly packed some clothes for the two girls, enough to last a couple of days, then helped the girls into nice looking jersey dresses. After helping both girls to put on a pair of tights and picking out matching Mary Janes, she led them out into the main area of the apartment.

Once the two girls had their coats on, Seanna zipped them up, then grabbed her own coat and her purse as they left the apartment. Seanna led them down the stairs, out the back door and quickly strapped them into their car seats, then closed the back door and climbed into the driver's seat of the car. She started the engine, let it warm up for a few minutes, then backed up before following the laneway to the street.

Seeing that there was no traffic, Seanna turned into the street and started driving toward her Momma's house.

**********

It took them almost an hour to get to Momma's, traffic was slow in many places, it seemed everyone was out doing last minute shopping. Finally, Seanna was able to turn into her Momma's drive, park the car and turn off the engine.

Seanna sat there for a few minutes, driving here this time hadn't been fun, there had been three accidents on the way which she had had to drive around, and at least two almost accidents thanks to drivers not paying attention, one had been jabbering away on a cell phone. The only reason THAT driver hadn't ended up in an accident was that the drivers around the idiot HAD been paying attention.

With a quiet sigh, Seanna got out of the car, released the girls from their seats, closed the doors and used the remote to lock the car.

Seanna and the two girls walked up to the front door of Momma's house. Seanna rang the bell just as her Momma opened the door.

"Hi, Momma, I didn't expect you to be watching the door. Traffic was lousy, three accidents and a couple almosts, one idiot on a cell phone."

"Hi, Seanna, at least you and the girls made it here safely, come on in. Coats and shoes off, girls, then you can go to the playroom if you like."

Once the two girls had removed their coats and shoes, they scampered to the playroom at the back of the house. Seanna and her Momma brought in the two suitcases from the car, taking them up to Seanna's old room at the back on the second floor, then wandered down to the back parlour across the hall from the playroom after a brief stop in the kitchen to get some fresh coffee.

**********

The two women took seats on the big sofa, then Momma turned on the TV, just in time to catch the evening news. The three accidents that Seanna had bypassed were mentioned, as were two others; everyone was blaming the recent weather, especially the incoming cold spell and the freezing rain earlier that afternoon that left patches of ice everywhere. Seanna mumbled, "Easier to blame the weather than yourself."

Her Momma chuckled, then shook her head. "Too true, many people just won't take responsibility for their own actions nowadays."

The two women could hear the girls chattering now and then from the playroom across the hall. The rest of the news was the usual stuff, some reports on the president-elect's actions of recent days, plus two armed robberies, a missing woman and a big business takeover.

Once the news was finished, Momma suggested that they could get take-out, as she would be cooking for several hours tomorrow. Seanna nodded and wandered over to the playroom, asked the girls what they wanted, and was told, "Yummy chicken!"

Seanna giggled, returned to the parlour, pulled out her phone and called KFC, placing an order for a bucket and three bottles of orange juice.

**********

The order from KFC arrived about 35 minutes later, Seanna paid and took the food and drinks to the kitchen at the back of the house. Her Momma followed her into the kitchen, pulled out some plates, placed a breast, a drumstick and some fries on each plate, then set them on the table. She also placed some a knife and fork at each place in case anyone wanted to use them, then split one of the three bottles of orange juice between two glasses for the girls before setting a full bottle beside the two other plates as Seanna called the girls for dinner.

Momma pulled a few items from the fridge and made a quick salad in a large bowl, set it on the table, then put some on each plate. She figured that the salad would at least give them a bit of healthy food, no harm in making sure children have their greens.

As chicken can be a bit messy, Momma pulled out two bibs, tying one on each of the girls, then set clean dish towels across their laps.

Leilani and Asemba were ravenous and tore into the chicken, devouring it in a few short minutes, then ate their fries and salad. The two women smiled at the obviously hungry girls while taking their time to eat their own meals and chat about recent events.

The two girls waited patiently for the women to finish; when they did, Seanna grabbed a cloth from the sink, removed the bibs and wiped the girls' faces and hands before saying they could go to the playroom for a while before bedtime. The girls were gone as soon as she said it.

Seanna and her Momma quickly cleared the dishes, rinsing them before placing them in the dishwasher, then returned to the parlour. Seanna turned on the TV and found a comedy movie to watch, then settled into the sofa as she sipped at a fresh cup of coffee.

Halfway through the movie, there was a brief power outage. Momma grabbed several candles from the kitchen and lit them, placing two on the coffee table in the parlour and a few on plates on the kitchen table, then carried one into the playroom while Seanna checked on the girls. Seanna carefully picked up the two sleepy girls, balancing one on each hip, then slowly walked up the stairs to her old room.

Seanna stripped the two girls, then dressed each of them in a pretty nightgown before tucking them in with a kiss on their foreheads. Both of the girls were barely awake; a few minutes of reading from one of their favourite stories was enough, both were soon sound asleep.

**********

Seanna and her Momma returned to the main floor of the house, then the parlour, relaxing on the sofa and chatting.

The power eventually come on nearly an hour later, a quick call to the provider informed them that a frozen line on their street had snapped. Seanna was quite pleased at the prompt and efficient service that resulted in the power returning that soon.

The two women blew out the candles they had been using, and returned the candles to their normal place in the pantry next to the kitchen.

Seanna and her Momma stayed up to catch the late evening news, which was just as crazy as the earlier news had been; five more accidents thanks to the icy roads, two more robberies, both in Seanna's old neighbourhood, and a story of a woman who had been skiing at a location about an hour outside of the city, the woman had missed a turn and had skied off a fifty foot cliff, breaking a leg and wrist in the fall.

Once the news had finished, the two women turned off the first floor lights and went up to their beds.

**********

Seanna's Momma woke up at 6:45 AM on Christmas Day. This was a bit later than her usual wake up time of 6 AM, but she was glad for the extra rest as she would be busy in the kitchen for several hours today. Christmas dinner was always a big effort for her. At least this time she would have Seanna in the house; Tamara and Tony, Sr. and family were expected to arrive in the late morning or early afternoon.

After a brief wash, she dressed in a plain bra and pair of panties, an old pair of heavy jeans, a t-shirt, an old flannel shirt and running shoes, then wandered down to the kitchen to do the initial preparations for the big mid-afternoon meal. She turned the oven on to preheat it.

She spent the first fifteen or twenty minutes in the kitchen making the stuffing using a recipe her mother and grandmother had used, http://www.food.com/recipe/betty-crockers-classic-bread-turk... , then added some shredded pancetta for a bit of extra flavour.

Once the stuffing was ready, she rinsed half a dozen medium carrots and two Spanish onions, then chopped the carrots into 1/3" thick slices. She switched to the onions, cut each one in half, then each half into quarters, then set them with the carrots in a bowl on the counter.

She'd seen one of Jamie Oliver's recipes for cooking turkey that mentioned putting bits of rolled pancetta into the thighs and drumsticks of the bird. She thought it might be interesting to try, so she rolled a sprig of rosemary and a sliver of garlic into a thin strip of pancetta, then poked holes in the thighs and drumsticks as suggested in Jamie's recipe before placing each rolled pancetta into a hole.

Once the turkey was ready and stuffed, she set it in the roasting pan, dropped the chopped carrots and onions into the pan around the bird, then quickly cut half a dozen buds of garlic in half before dropping them into the pan as well. She foil wrapped the bird, placed the pan in the oven, turned the oven down to 180°C (350°F) and closed the door. As the bird was 25 pounds, she expected it to cook for about five hours.

It was just before 7:30 AM when she set the bird in the oven, a few minutes later, Seanna came wandering down wearing a nightgown and robe. The coffee pot was still half full, so she poured a cup and warmed it in the microwave before adding a bit of sugar and milk.

Seanna and her Momma chatted as Momma went to work on making some apple and mince pies, then set the apple pies in the oven. The mince pies would need to wait as there wasn't enough space to put more than two pies on the upper rack of the oven at one time.

**********

Just after Momma put the apple pies in the oven, Seanna heard the girls as they started down the stairs. Seanna was surprised, she had expected the girls to be awake a fair bit earlier to open presents, but it seemed the girls had been totally worn out the night before.

Leilani and Asemba bounced down from the bottom step, giggling madly, then Leilani spotted Seanna looking out from the kitchen. The two little girls wandered into the kitchen, received hugs from both women, then Momma set out a few boxes of cereal and popped some bread into her eight slice toaster. Momma then pulled out the mixings for blueberry pancakes, mixing the batter while the two girls watched.

Momma grabbed a frying pan from the wall near the window, then put some butter in the pan, letting it melt before she spooned the first bit of batter into the pan. It only took a couple of minutes before she flipped the pancake, then about the same time before she pulled it from the pan, asking Seanna to grab some plates from the cupboards. Momma set the pancake on one plate, then had Seanna cut it in half and give each half to one of the girls as she started the next one. A few minutes later, Momma and Seanna both had their own large pancake to eat.

With the cereal and toast, the pancakes would fill them up hopefully until the turkey would be ready for everyone to enjoy.

**********

With breakfast out of the way, Seanna led the two little girls into the front parlour where the tree had been set up. When Leilani and Asemba entered the front parlour and saw the piles of gifts under the tree, they both squealed in delight and ran over to the gifts.

Seanna followed them, settled herself down next to them in lotus position, then reached in, picked out a gift and handed it to Asemba. The little dark-skinned girl stood there for a moment as the gift was handed to her, evidently in shock, then shook herself and ripped off the wrapping. The gift turned out to be a pretty golden brown sweater that would bring out the colour of her eyes whenever she would wear it.

Seanna smiled, then handed a gift to Leilani; Leilani opened it to find a beautiful gold necklace with a unicorn and girl pendant.

Shortly after Seanna started passing gifts to the girls, Momma pulled the apple pies from the oven and placed the mince pies in it.

Gift after gift was handed to the two girls, various pieces of children's clothing, jewellery, and lots of toys including several dolls and stuffed toys. There were various games oriented to children under seven years of age, as well as several books suitable for younger children.

Momma wandered into the front parlour while Seanna was handing gifts to the girls and sat on a chair nearby, watching and smiling. Eventually, Seanna ran out of gifts for the girls, so she passed her mother one that turned out to be a lovely forest green knee length dress.

Momma laughed and joined them by the tree, reaching under it, finding a gift that had Seanna's name on it, and passed it to her. It turned out to be an ivory sweater and pale blue skirt combo that Seanna had been looking at several months earlier. Seanna giggled in delight.

For the next ten minutes, Seanna and her Momma passed gifts to each other. Like the ones for the children, there was a mix of clothing, plus items more suitable to older people. Momma had bought several pieces of cookware for when Seanna moved into the new house, along with a nice coffee maker and two vouchers for markets in the area. Seanna had bought her Momma a new knife set for the kitchen and a crock pot.

The old grandfather clock on the other side of the fireplace chimed 10:15 AM as they finished opening gifts. Momma and Seanna spent the next several minutes clearing up all the torn bits of wrapping paper before depositing it all in a large black garbage bag.

**********

The two women and the girls spent the next four hours or so watching various Christmas movies in the back parlour. Every now and then, Momma would get up, wander out to the kitchen to check on the turkey, then return to continue watching the movies.

All four pies were done by 10:15 AM, they were put in the fridge after being left out on the counter to cool down for half an hour or so.

At about 1:15, Momma pulled the turkey from the oven, having checked that it was cooked right through, then set it on the counter. While the turkey was sitting on the countertop, Momma was busy cooking the rest of the meal, preparing butternut squash with onions and pecans, lemon pepper green beans, potatoes and broccoli au gratin, a creamy corn pudding, and maple glazed sweet potatoes with bacon and caramelized onions. She wanted this to be a good, solid meal that would have everyone's mouth watering by the time the meal was served.

Just after 1:30 PM, the doorbell rang, Seanna answered it, letting in Uncle Tony, his wife, his son and her sister Tamara.

At about 2:30 PM, Momma transferred some of the items that had been fully cooked into bowls that were oven safe, then set them in the oven to keep warm while the other items finished cooking. The last of the food was fully ready just before 3 PM, Momma took a short break.

While Momma relaxed for a few minutes, Tamara and Seanna set the table for eight people, using the special heirloom silverware and plates. Wine glasses were set by all of the adults' seats, including Tony, Jr.'s; he was fifteen, old enough to enjoy a bit of wine on special occasions. Ordinary glasses were set by each plate, as well as mugs for those who wanted to have coffee or tea with the meal.

The various dishes were set on small silver platters around the main piece, the 25 pound stuffed turkey on its own heavy silver platter.

**********

At 3:15 PM, Seanna and her Momma called everyone in for the Christmas dinner; people found seats, a brief prayer was said, then Uncle Tony, as the eldest male, was asked to cut the turkey; he graciously agreed, cut and served turkey to everyone, then the table became a chaotic mess of dishes passing hither and thither as people took what they wanted, then passed the dishes onward again.

Everyone tried a bit of all of the various dishes, discovered what they liked and didn't, and worked on stuffing themselves right up to the gills. Uncle Tony and Tony, Jr. were the last ones to lay down their silverware, both had had two servings of pie to finish the meal.

Congratulations were given on a wonderful meal; Tamara, Seanna and Uncle Tony's wife Larissa cleared the table and started washing the dishes. The plates, once rinsed, would be fine in the dishwasher, they were good, solid high quality stoneware.

Once all of the dishes had been set to soak or put in the dishwasher, everyone ended up in the back parlour watching Christmas movies.

Shortly after 6 PM, the two little girls were yawning quite often, Seanna watched them for a few minutes, then took them upstairs. She led them into the bathroom, had them strip while she started the bath, then she grabbed towels and nightgowns, setting them on the edge of the sink. She gave the girls a quick bath without washing their hair, then helped them dry off and put on their nightgowns. She led them into her room, set them in the middle of the bed, and read a bit of a story until the two girls were asleep.

Seanna returned to the back parlour, spending time with the other members of the family, until they left just after 8 PM.

Seanna and her mother spent the last few hours of the evening listening to Christmas music on the radio before going to their beds.

**********

Boxing Day was spent relaxing, although Seanna did take the girls to see a movie at a theater in the heart of the city. When the movie ended, Seanna took the girls back to her Momma's where she packed up most of her clothing to be transferred to the new house.

The 27th and 28th of December were spent moving Seanna's clothing and personal belongings from her Momma's house to the new one, then Seanna's and the girls' clothing and personal items from Sue's place to the new house, where everything was placed where it belonged. Seanna also spent part of the 27th meeting the last furniture delivery and guiding the workers to where items needed to be placed.

On the 29th, Seanna watched the evening news which showed a clip of a woman in Texas catching a flying car seat after it had been thrown from a car involved in a collision on the Southwest Freeway a short distance from the IHOP which the woman and two children had just left. The reporter mentioned that a video of the catch had apparently gone viral on Facebook already, with close to 200k likes in just eight hours.

Seanna and her Momma talked about that and other things after the girls had been put to bed that evening.

On the 30th, Thaddeus called and asked if Seanna would be willing to start working at headquarters after New Year's. She spent about thirty minutes on the phone with Thaddeus, as he gave her information and advice related to the job, and she agreed to start then.

For some reason that Seanna couldn't quite understand or explain, the pictures of that woman catching the flying car seat stayed on her mind over the last two days of 2016. It was clear by the woman's reaction that she valued the lives of children very highly. Seanna thought about it for almost 24 hours, then decided to see if there was any way to trace the woman, whose name had not been given in the video clip.

**********

On the last day of the year, Seanna received an unexpected phone call from Judge Thomas-Black; it seemed the Judge had gone to school many years back with another Judge who had set up shop in the Greater Houston area, whereas Thomas-Black had stayed here.

Judge Thomas-Black had called her friend Judge Thibideau the day before, and had learned the identity of the woman from the video clip. It seemed he had been working with the woman in securing the safety of a transgendered child; the woman had brought the child to Houston to meet the Judge, and had then stumbled over the transgendered victim of a child rape ring shortly after that child was raped. The woman's quick action in contacting the Judge had led to the new child being examined, then the arrests of the ring over the next two days.

It was only after the last one had been arrested that the woman had gone out again, and the result was the catch of the car seat that day.

In fact, Judge Thomas-Black had talked with her Judge friend down there the afternoon of the 30th, then had decided to tell Seanna.

After her chat with Judge Thomas-Black had ended, Seanna sat and thought for a good long while. Judge Thomas-Black had told her the woman was looking for a new job, likely in the Houston area but possibly elsewhere. Her thoughts turned to the possibility that the woman might be interested in working with children, even though she had had a fairly decent job for four years doing business administration in LA. Seanna thought a bit longer, then decided that she would write up a job offer and send it to the woman through Judge Thibideau in Houston.

**********

The girls had whined all day long on New Year's Eve to be allowed to stay up late; Seanna had eventually agreed, she even made them have a nap in the afternoon, but it made little difference, by 11:15 PM, both girls were nodding off on the sofa in the parlour.

Momma had come over a few hours before, and helped Seanna take the girls upstairs, change them and tuck them into their bed.

Momma and Seanna returned to the parlour where they watched the ball drop in Times Square at midnight. The two women shared a brief toast wishing each other the best for the new year ahead, then Momma left to go home and Seanna wandered up to her own bed.

New Year's Day was spent relaxing in the new house, the girls loved the fact that the beautiful doll house was in their bedroom, where they could play in privacy with Seanna only looking in on them now and then. Stuffed animals were on the bed and all around the room.

**********

Seanna woke up at 7 AM on January 2nd; she groaned, she liked sleeping in, but this was her first day at work, she had to go there. She had a quick shower, deciding not to wash her hair, then dressed in a nice three piece suit, pantyhose and three inch heels.

She was nervous as she woke Leilani and Asemba, they'd had a bath the night before, so the three headed to the kitchen. After breakfast, which consisted of cereal and toast, she took the two girls upstairs and dressed them in nice dresses, tights and Mary Janes. Leilani's dress was light blue with slightly darker bands at the waist, neck, cuffs and hem, whereas Asemba's was a medium pink with darker bands.

Shortly after 8 AM, Seanna led the two girls out the side door of the house, locking it behind her, then unlocked the car; once she had strapped them both into their car seats and closed the rear door, she settled into the driver's seat, closed that door and started the car. As she waited for the car to warm up, she smiled at the two girls in the back seat, then slowly backed the car toward the street.

She made sure there was no traffic before she turned into the street, then headed toward the office building and her new job.

**********

Seanna pulled into the CEO's parking space just after 8:30 AM; she quickly released the girls, then locked the car. She headed for the elevators, the girls following close behind her; they had to wait a few minutes before an elevator opened on their floor.

When Seanna had talked with Thaddeus, he had informed her that she would be getting the biggest office in the building, one that had a wide south-facing window to let in sunlight. That end of the top floor was shared by a large board room across the hall from her office. There were half a dozen offices a fair bit smaller than her own at that end of the floor for the various divisions' Operations VPs. The other end of the top floor, beyond the reception area, was a huge ballroom, one hundred eighty feet long and sixty feet wide, used for special events.

Seanna had to stop at the eighth floor first, as that was where the company had decided to set up the new day care center. There were three women working there at the moment, Seanna dropped off Leilani and Asemba and talked with the staff for a few minutes. The gist of the conversation was that these women were only temp workers, filling in until full-time staff could be hired. A bit more chat led to the discovery that half a dozen applications for the day care center staff were sitting on Seanna's new desk, waiting for her to look at them.

Seanna shook her head, said goodbye to the temp day care staff, then headed up to her office on the top floor of the building.

**********

Her morning was quite busy, she attended one meeting where she met with various high ranking company officers, then had a short break where she looked at a couple of the applications that were lying on her desk when she arrived. At 11 AM, there was another meeting, this one with the various Finance VPs and her Uncle Tony. They spent the next 90 minutes planning for the new year.

She finally had a chance to settle down for a while, but it was already lunch time. She headed to the cafe on the first floor of the building, where she ordered a chicken wrap and a green salad for her lunch; she finished it in about fifteen minutes, then headed back up to the office.

Once she was in the office, she resumed looking at the applications. Four of the six applications looked good, she felt that three of the four would be suitable as staff for the day care center, but the fourth had worked in day care for almost fifteen years. Possible management? She took a closer look at that application, it showed that the woman had run her own day care center until a few months ago; the building where she had had her center had been partially destroyed by a heavy storm and the building had been condemned, ending her work there.

Seanna checked the information the woman had given, then called the home number and listened to it ring four times.

On the fifth ring, the phone was answered. "Hello, this is Juliet Landry speaking, how may I help you?"

"Hello, Mrs. Landry, I'm Seanna Ramsay, I've recently been appointed as the new CEO of Ramsay Enterprises. We are looking at creating a day care center in the headquarters building for all company employees, and I have your application in front of me."

"Ahhh, yes, there was a notice put out a week or so ago about your company hiring for that. I took a day or so to look up your company, and after finding that you seemed to be quite reputable, I figured it wouldn't hurt to put in an application there."

"Indeed, Mrs. Landry. I noticed that you have extensive experience running a day care center. How would you like to run this one? I want to say that I'm considering hiring another woman to work with you, but she will cover the business admin side of it, not the operations side."

"Hmmmm... I'm assuming the person you are thinking of hiring for that has a business admin degree?"

"I know for a fact that she does, I will be drafting up a letter offering her a job here once we finish talking. Her job will be to take care of the financial side of things and help out in the day care when not doing the books; effectively, she would be the Finance VP for the day care."

"I was never all that good with the bookkeeping myself, having someone who knows it well would make things much easier for me."

"I'm prepared to offer you a starting salary of $75 thousand per year, I will be hiring three other women who will be working with you, each of them will be offered a starting salary of $55 thousand per year. The Finance VP's salary would be the same as yours. If things go well, each of the people in your department would get a bonus at year end of three to five percent. Any additional hiring would be for you to do."

"Wow, I was lucky if my total income last year was $50 thousand, I've been on the edge of bankruptcy for the last two months."

"Well, I'm sure this will give you some much needed financial stability. Could you drop in at my office before 5 PM today, please?"

"I can be there in 45 minutes, Miss Ramsay, thank you very much."

**********

Seanna spoke with Thaddeus briefly, outlining her plans for the day care center, and informed him of the prospective salary costs. He listened as she spoke, then said that it looked like it was working out well, with four full time staff, they could get the ball rolling.

Seanna looked over the other applications, she had decided to get Mrs. Landry's opinion on the three she had picked.

Mrs. Landry arrived a few minutes earlier than expected and was shown into Seanna's office.

"Hello, Mrs. Landry, I called you in here because I want your opinion on the other applicants for the day care."

Juliet Landry looked up, surprised at what she had just heard. "You trust me to give you my honest opinion? Why?"

"Why would be because you ran your own day care for almost fifteen years with no legal issues at all, that's an impressive record. If it hadn't been for the amount of damage to the building your center was in after that storm last fall, you would likely still be working there."

"All right, let me see these applications, then, I'm assuming mine was with them until you called me earlier?"

"Correct, after reading your application, I decided to hire you, now you can choose your co-workers." Seanna handed her the applications.

Mrs. Landry looked through the applications for the next twenty minutes, then set two aside. "These two, I wouldn't hire them if they were the last workers in the field, one has outstanding assault charges arising from an incident with a child, the other has a poor work record."

"Hmmm, I didn't know about the outstanding assault charges, I assume you've worked with that one at some point?"

"Yes, she worked at my center for about three months, I walked in one day just as she raised her hand to hit a child. I fired her on the spot. I have no idea if she actually hit a child while working in my center or not, but I wasn't going to let her hit one, not on my turf."

"And the other?"

"She applied to work at my center about a year ago; when I saw her work record, I decided not to hire her, she just wasn't reliable."

"Okay, then, what about the other three applications?"

"Those three will fit in well, all have excellent work records, with three to five years in day care already."

"Hmmm... what about the fact that two of those three are a lesbian couple, would that make a difference at all?"

"Not at all, I met those two when they testified against a worker in the center they were working in at that point. This was about a year ago, those two walked in on another worker as she was sexually assaulting a five year old girl using a dildo. I was on lunch break at the time I found out, they stopped in at the cafe where I was eating on their way to court, I'd met them at training conferences over the last few years."

"Excellent, Mrs. Landry. Welcome to Ramsay Enterprises, you are as of now the head of the Day Care division. Your job will be to manage the day care center here, as well as the day care centers at any other employment sites we have in this state."

"Thank you, Miss Ramsay. Out of curiosity, where will the day care in this building be located?"

"On the south side of the eighth floor; roughly half of that end will be for the day care, including a large playroom at the end of the hall. The rest of that floor is the reception area and office space for the lowest levels of management in the corporation, including two boardrooms."

"That should be enough space, I suppose; if it isn't, I'll be sure to let you know."

"I should think so, each floor is 420 feet long by 60 feet wide, the building covers more than half the block on this side of 9th St. Oh, your first task of your new job is to notify the three applicants you approve of that they've been hired. Thank you for your time, Mrs. Landry."

"Thank you, Miss Ramsay, I'll call them once I'm in the day care. Have a good day."

**********

The rest of Seanna's first day at work was spent reading reports from the various VPs regarding recent activities. She was especially pleased to note that the quarter between October and December had brought in a net profit of $12.65 million US. That amounted to a gain of about $1.35 million dollars profit in just two weeks, not too bad, but a fair bit slower than the rest of the quarter had been.

Seanna also took some time to write a draft of the letter she intended to send to the woman in Texas through the Judge there. She left it on her desk after calling Thaddeus' secretary to let him know that she was considering hiring the woman to work in the day care center.

The next few days passed in a similar fashion, occasional meetings interspersed with her learning more about the company. Whenever she had a free moment, she went over the draft of the letter to the woman in Texas, and finally posted it Wednesday on the way home from work.

On the Thursday afternoon, Seanna informed Thaddeus that she wouldn't be in the building the next day, as she wanted to be in court for the next appearance of the elder Ramsays. She was pretty sure the new info in their case would kill any chance of freedom they might have. Thaddeus had replied that he had been considering going to see what happened, but didn't know when the case was scheduled.

Seanna had checked and informed him that the case was scheduled for 9:30 AM with Judge Ravena Adamowicz presiding.

**********

When the clock on the side wall of the office showed 5 PM, Seanna grabbed her jacket and headed down to the eighth floor. She picked up Leilani and Asemba, then headed down to the car, then home, arriving there just before 6 PM.

Seanna decided to get takeout and ordered several dishes from a popular Chinese restaurant about half a mile away from the house. The food arrived just over half an hour later, Seanna paid for it, carried the bags in, set them on the kitchen table and called the girls.

Once they had washed their hands, Seanna pulled out plates and silverware, then spooned some of each item onto the plates, sweet and sour chicken balls, chicken fried rice, shrimp with chopped vegetables and cashews, moo goo guy pan, almond guy pan and deep fried wontons.

The three of them managed to eat about half of the food, Seanna put the rest in the containers provided and placed them in the fridge.

The two girls were in bed shortly after 8 PM, Seanna was in her own bed just after 10 PM.

**********

Seanna woke up just before 6:30 AM on the 6th of January, used the washroom, then showered, washing her hair in the process. The two girls woke up when she had dried herself off and was using the blow dryer on her hair so she would be ready on time.

When she was finished, Seanna ran a bath for the girls, helped them wash themselves, then dried them and sent them to pick out clothes. They chose dresses in a different style than the previous few days, but in colours that were pretty close to the dresses they'd worn on Monday. Seanna helped them to put on the dresses, then tights before picking out the matching Mary Janes for each girl's dress.

They didn't have a lot of time to spare, so they had a quick breakfast of cereal and toast, brushed their teeth and put on their coats. Shortly after that, they were out the door, in the car and on their way to the headquarters building, where Seanna would meet Thaddeus.

Once they arrived at the company offices, Seanna dropped off the girls in the day care, noticing that Mrs. Landry and one of the new hires were already there, as was one of the three temp workers she had met at the beginning of the week. Mrs. Landry had informed Seanna on Wednesday that the two other girls needed to give at least two weeks notice at their current center before they could transfer to work here. Mrs. Landry had also informed her that she was thinking of hiring two other women who were, as far as she knew, currently unemployed; that company had gone bankrupt about six weeks ago, leaving seven women with no income for the foreseeable future.

Seanna knew that the girls were in good hands. She headed up to Thaddeus' office, then they went down to his car.

**********

Seanna and Thaddeus had arrived in the courthouse at 9:10 AM; they had looked around for several minutes before they figured out which courtroom they needed to be in, then they headed to that courtroom, 118, and took seats on the chairs in the enclosed seating area. There were eight or ten other people sitting in that area, it seems some others were interested in what was happening here.

Thaddeus looked over at the lawyers at the two tables. He was quite surprised to see Stephen P. Brandenburg at the defence table, Stephen was a high-priced attorney who usually demanded retainers in the neighbourhood of $200k US per case, if not higher. What made it even odder was that Mr. Brandenburg looked about ready to chew on nails and spit out bits of iron at everyone. Thaddeus correctly assumed that Mr. Brandenburg had found out that his retainer had been paid for with the funds procured via a criminal action.

Several minutes before the case was due to be called, a group of about a dozen city and county guards escorted the elder Ramsays into the courtroom, then to the seats placed behind the defence table. They were ordered to sit down and stay quiet.

Several of the guards took seats behind the railings, where they could keep an eye on the prisoners, two guards stayed beside them.

Just after 9:30 AM, the bailiff called out "All rise, court is now in session, the Honourable Ravena Adamowicz presiding."

Once the judge had seated herself, he then informed everyone that they could sit down.

Just as the Judge was about to ask what was taking place today, Mr. Brandenburg stood up and spoke. "Your Honour, I am asking to be removed from this case, I cannot honourably defend people who hired me using funds stolen as part of the case being tried here. I also discovered, the day after we were last here, that my retainer had been taken under RICO because the money was illegally obtained. With the retainer having been reclaimed, theoretically, I have not been legally paid to defend these people."

"So, Mr. Brandenburg, they have effectively paid no retainer?"

"That is my understanding of the matter, Your Honour. I may defend people, but I will not do it using blood money or similar."

"If you wish to remove yourself, Mr. Brandenburg, I cannot force you to stay, but it will delay the case somewhat."

"Thank you, Your Honour, I apologize for taking up the court's time with this matter." He bowed slightly, turned and left the courtroom.

Judge Adamowicz shook her head. "You people are in one heck of a predicament, I received a detailed listing of the charges against the seven of you this past Tuesday afternoon, I can't recall if I've ever seen a case like this one before. You stand accused of 386 counts of international wire fraud between the seven of you, as well as 157 charges of embezzlement and 79 charges of misuse of company funds. Each count of wire fraud brings a possible sentence of up to 30 years in prison and up to a $1 million fine. Each embezzlement charge, if convicted, brings a sentence of five to twenty years in prison, the misuse of funds charges, being a subset of embezzlement, carry the same range of sentence. Then there are the charges that you conspired to commit grievous bodily harm against Suzanne Kealoha and/or conspired to commit murder against Suzanne Kealoha. If the conspiracy to commit murder charges result in convictions, the standard sentence is life in prison.

"This case is serious enough that the District Attorney took over the prosecutorial duties, and I can understand why. From the little bits of information I've heard, any jury in this country would convict the seven of you on all charges, the evidence is just that strong.

"Since you no longer have a lawyer, the court will have to appoint one for you. Once you have a lawyer, you have two options available: enter a plea and hope the court is lenient, or take the case through to the end and hope that you can beat the odds and win.

"The decision is yours. I'm remanding the case for three weeks so that you can get a new lawyer and have them review the evidence."

District Attorney Thames Blaine Everett III thanked the Judge and assured her the defence would have the evidence early next week.

"I will see you again in three weeks, January 27th, 9:30 AM, in this courtroom. If that is all, then this court is adjourned."