Stephanie shivers as she rides through the thick snowflakes coming down. The built-in heater in her new outfit is turned up as high as it can go. Because the roads are icy, she has to concentrate on her driving.

As she was passing an alleyway, she spotted a burning car. Looking at it, she thought she saw someone pounding on one of the windows, trying to break out. She turned her motorcycle towards the burning car to check it out.

When she got closer to the burning car, she could feel the heat from the flames, and the car was almost totally engulfed in flames. Stephanie parks her motorcycle and runs towards the car. She spots a young girl with reddish-blond hair lying inside, unconscious.

Stephanie punches the car window like her father-in-law taught her since she wore loaded gloves. She grabs the unconscious girl and pulls her out of the burning car. She holds the girl tight against her suit and backs away as quickly as possible while shielding the girl.

Stephanie and the girl are blown towards the ground with the car exploding behind them. Stephanie takes the brunt of the explosion, protecting the young girl in her arms.

“Alexa, call my wife.” Stephanie knew she couldn’t transport the girl back to the house on her motorcycle.

Stephanie and Alyona’s House:
Alyona was downstairs preparing dinner, with Kelly and Hunter helping her. Kelly has been spending a lot of time at their house because her parents always worked late. Alyona and Stephanie didn’t mind her being there. They enjoyed having her over whenever they decided to do anything. They always included her in their plans.

As Alyona cuts up some potatoes to go into the stew she is cooking, her cell phone starts ringing. She looks down and notices it is her wife’s working number. She taps her earpiece, “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

“I need a pick-up and a doctor to meet me at our place.” Stephanie knew the police and fire department would arrive soon.

“All right, I’ll have Earl come by. I’ll also call Dr. Winslot and have her meet you here. Are you all right?” Alyona has seen her wife come home from being on patrol, either shot or cut.

Stephanie's new suit was a lot better than her old suit. It protected her better.

“All right, have Earl meet me at Seventh and Robin Ave.” Stephanie figures she could get down to Seventh and Robin without any problems.

“All right, sending a text to Earl right now.” Alyona puts the knife down and texts Earl.

Earl was an old-school taxi driver that Stephanie saved from a bunch of gang members. Earl knew Stephanie and Alyona. He has repeatedly proven his worth by feeding Stephanie information about gang activities and picking up people Stephanie and Alyona protected.

Alyona gets a reply text within a few seconds. She reads, "he said he’ll be there in five minutes.”

“Okay, thanks sweetie. Oh, I’m bringing home a little girl. So, have the spare bedroom ready.” Stephanie manages to make it over to the seventh and Robin without any problems.

“Okay, tell me more when you get home.” Alyona wondered who the little girl she was.

Earl shows up five minutes later at Seventh and Robin. He spots Ghost holding a young girl close to her body. He exits his taxi cab and grabs a blanket from the trunk area.

“Who’s the girl?” As Earl wraps the blanket around the girl. He could tell she had been brunt and could smell smoke on her.

“Don’t know, but you need to get her to my house as quickly as possible. My wife has Dr. Winslot coming over to look at her. Be careful, Earl. Her hands and arms are burned.” Stephanie saw that the little girl had second-degree burns on her arms and hands.

“I will, Ghost.” Earl secures the young girl and gets back into his cab.

Stephanie watches as Earl drives off. She is concerned about the young girl. She turns and walks back to her motorcycle. She notices the snow is coming down thicker. She mounts her bike and carefully makes her way back home.

Her motorcycle was built to handle any environment, but she couldn’t account for all the other people who didn’t know how to drive in the snow. She knew Earl would beat her back to her and Alyona’s house. She spots Earl’s cab and Dr. Winslot's SUV parked in the driveway when she arrives home. She rides past their vehicles and parks her motorcycle in the secret garage where her workspace is.

She removes her helmet and heads inside the house through the secret entrance. It leads to her and Alyona’s home office, which they built a year after Hunter came to live with them.

Inside the House:
Alyona answered the front door twenty minutes later after talking with her wife. She opens the door for Earl and directs him upstairs to the spare bedroom. She could smell smoke coming off the bundle he was carrying. A few minutes later, Dr. Winslot arrived.

Hunter lets Doctor Winslot in because her mother was upstairs with Earl. Hunter shuts the door behind Doctor Winslot.

“Well, hello, Hunter. How are you doing?” Dr. Winslot remembers the check-up she gave Hunter two days ago.

“I’m okay, Mrs. Winslot. Mom is upstairs with Earl. She said to send you up to the bedroom.” Hunter wonders who Earl brought to the house.

“Thanks, Hunter.” Dr. Winslot smiles at Hunter as she heads up the stairs.

Hunter turns and heads back to the kitchen to help Kelly with dinner. She figures Dr. Winslot was here because of the person Earl brought to the house. She likes Earl because he makes her laugh and gives her and her friends rides in his cab.

Dr. Winslot locates everyone in the bedroom and steps in with her medical bag. She can smell the scent of smoke in the room. She looks down at the bed and notices a young girl with reddish-blond hair and a dress that couldn’t have kept her warm in the weather outside. Her arms are bright red and have blisters on them.

“What happened to this girl, Alyona?” Dr. Winslot starts checking the young girl.

“Stephanie said she pulled the young girl from a burning car,” Earl answered for Alyona.

“Here’s what I’m going to need, Alyona.” Dr. Winslot writes a list down and hands it to Alyona.

Alyona looks at the list and knows most of the stuff is in the paramedic bag in her and Stephanie’s bedroom. She leaves the room to go and grab everything. While she is gone, Earl helps Dr. Winslot with the young girl.

Alyona carries the paramedic bag and everything else to Dr. Winslot. Afterward, she leaves to go back downstairs to check on dinner and the kids. Just as her feet touch the bottom step, “How is she?”

Alyona looks over towards her wife as she exits from the home office. She notices that Stephanie has changed into sweatpants and a baggy T-shirt.

“Don’t know yet. Dr. Winslot and Earl are upstairs taking care of her. Where did you find her?” Alyona wonders what would have caused the girl to be burned like she had been.

“Someone left her locked in a car that was on fire. I almost missed her as I passed her. If the cameras in my helmet hadn’t caught her, I would have come right home.” Stephanie couldn’t believe she almost missed the burning car.

“Do you know why they left her or who they were?” Alyona wondered if she should contact Gina and let Gina’s special team handle this case or the bounty hunters she used last time for Hunter’s birth family.

“No, and no. I’m going to go upstairs and check on her. Why don’t you get the munchkins fed?” Stephanie leans in and places a kiss on Alyona’s cheek.

Alyona smiled at Stephanie and walked past her to see how Kelly and Hunter were doing. She walks into the kitchen to check on the Wonder Twins. She hoped the young girl would be okay.

Stephanie walks upstairs and checks in on Earl and Dr. Winslot. She stands in the doorway as Dr. Winslot wraps the girl’s hands and arms.

“Is she going to be okay?” Stephanie was worried about the girl.

“She’ll pull through with minimal scarring. It’s a good thing you found her when you did if she had remained in the burning car any longer. She would have been burned all over her body. She will need help eating and going to the bathroom.”

“Thanks, Dr. Winslot. Also, thanks for your help, Earl.” Stephanie hugs Earl and slips three one-hundred-dollar bills into his pocket without him knowing.

“Any time, Steph.” Earl returns the hug and lets go after a few minutes.

“I will hook this girl to a monitoring machine and check on her tomorrow. Do you have any saline bags and a stand?” Dr. Winslot knew Mrs. Bounty was well-connected.

“Sure, do. Let me grab everything for you.” Stephanie leaves the room with Earl following her.

As Stephanie and Earl walk downstairs, “Alyona is making moose stew. Will you join us for dinner?”

“As much as that sounds good. I’ve already eaten. Save me some, and I’ll come by tomorrow to grab it.” Earl knew Alyona was a good cook. He’s had her food before.

“Deal. You take it safe out there, Earl.”

“I will. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Earl grabs his jacket and heads out to his cab.

After Dr. Winslot hooks the young girl up to the vitals monitoring machine and inserts an IV into her hand, she spots Rusty standing in the doorway, looking towards the bed. She knows Rusty is Alyona's pet dog and protects the house. Alyona once told her that Rusty was trained by her father, who bred wolves. He was well-trained and could take down a police-trained K9.

“Came to check on the girl, Rusty?” Dr. Winslot watches as the German Sheppard walks into the room.

She knew he was friendly to her and would protect her if someone was dumb enough to break into this house between Stephanie, Alyona, and Rusty. The house was well protected. She finished what she needed and had dinner with the family. She checks on the girl before she leaves for the night.

Alyona and Stephanie tell Hunter and Kelly about the young girl upstairs in the guest bedroom. She tells them that she might be a little freaked out after her ordeal. It might help to let her know she is safe and has nothing to worry about.

“Yes, ma’am.” Kelly wonders what happened to her.

Hunter looks at her mothers and knows they will do everything they can to help her. She starts digging into the stew and enjoys it. She also likes the bread they make. Since Stephanie and Alyona adopted her, Hunter has been experiencing different things. Things her birth parents never allowed her to do.

After dinner, Stephanie, Dr. Winslot, and Alyona talked about the young girl as they cleaned the kitchen. Kelly and Hunter went upstairs to Hunter’s bedroom to work on their homework. At the same time, Stephanie and Alyona were talking about the young girl. Kelly’s mother called and asked if Kelly could spend the night with them. She and her husband would be working till morning and need to go in later in the next day.

Alyona didn’t mind, and neither did Stephanie. They enjoyed having Kelly over, and since Kelly was best friends with Hunter and Scott, it strengthened their friendship even more. Hunter and Kelly are more like sisters, which is suitable for Hunter. She had a girl her age to teach her what it means to be a girl.

The next day, all four women were outside clearing snow from the driveway, the sidewalk in front of their house, and several other houses that Alyona was neighbors with. They would bring out hot chocolate for Alyona, Stephanie, Kelly, and Hunter.

Rusty comes outside and plays with the kids in the snow. Stephanie changes out the saline bag for the sleeping young girl. Her vitals were fine, and she seemed to be doing better. Later in the afternoon, Stephanie calls her buddy at the Detroit Police Department to get permission to come down and investigate the car.

She now has a special investigator license, thanks to her father-in-law and sister-in-law. All law enforcement and government agencies had to work with or acknowledge her. Her buddy at the Detroit Police Department wouldn’t have stopped her anyway, but she tries to keep everything on the up and up.

“I’m heading down to the impound. You kids behave yourself.” Stephanie looks towards Kelly and Hunter.

“You be careful, sweetie.” Alyona kisses Stephanie before she leaves.

“I will.” As Stephanie returns the kiss.

Stephanie walks to the garage and gets into her Polestar electric car. Her father-in-law helped her buy it through family connections overseas. In her opinion, it was better made than the Telsa and the other American electric vehicles sold in the US.

Her car was specially modified for the rough terrain and icy weather Detroit is famous for. One of the other team members in New York did the modifications. They also increased her range so she could go longer between charges.

Stephanie heads towards the DPD while Alyona checks on the girl upstairs in the guest room. She notices that Rusty is watching over her. She scratches between his ears and watches as he closes his eyes in enjoyment.

“Protect her, Rusty.” Alyona leaves the bedroom and heads downstairs to help Hunter and Kelly make holiday cookies and cupcakes.

Detroit Police Department Impound:
Stephanie parks her SUV and check in with the desk person before heading back into the yard. There was a bunch of impounded cars in the yard. Some of them had bullet holes and smashed in front ends or crushed roofs from when they flipped over.

Stephanie was looking for Sergeant Flecther. She liked him because he reminded her of her favorite uncle. She has been patching things up between herself and her family. They were still getting used to how she looked and that she had married another woman.

As for Hunter, they were adjusting to the fact that Hunter was a girl with a congenital disability. This was true because Hunter was mainly a girl and her congenital disability was only good for her to pee standing up. Even if Hunter didn’t decide to become a girl, she would never be able to have children as a man.

“Ah, there you are, Sergeant.”

Sergeant Flecther hears Stephanie’s voice and turns around to look at her. He wonders what she wants now.

“What brings you here on a cold day like this, Steph?” He noticed she was bundled up for the cold weather.

“I need to examine that car you guys recovered yesterday.” Stephanie stops a few feet from Sergeant Flecther.

“Why? What’s your interest in it?” Sergeant Flecther was curious and knew it had to be a case Stephanie was working on. Not many people on the force knew she was the Ghost of Detroit.

He also knew she could be ruthless as well. She wasn’t above using lethal force to take gang members out. However, her tactics have changed recently. She has been bringing a lot more gang members in alive with a warning.

“This just between me and you and off the record.” Stephanie knew she could trust Sergeant Flecther.

He was the type of man that, when he said he was going to do something or say he would keep a secret, he meant it. That was why she trusted him so much.

“You have my word that this will stay between us. Now, why are you here?”

“I rescued a young girl from that car last night on my way home. She was trapped inside while it was burning.”

“Is she all right?” Sergeant Flecther had a soft spot for kids.

“She’s fine. She’s at my house recovering.”

“Shouldn’t she get professional medical care at the hospital?” Sergeant Fletcher was wondering why Stephanie didn’t take her to the hospital.

“Trust me, she’s getting the best care money can buy. My wife comes from a wealthy family. Also, we have a soft spot for kids like her.” Stephanie knew Alyona donated a lot of money to organizations that helped abused and trafficked children.

“Okay, so why was she left in a burning car?” Sergeant Fletcher wanted to know more.

“I don’t know, she is still unconscious. When she wakes up, I’ll ask her. Until then, I need to find out who the car belonged to.” Stephanie knew that if she could get the VIN and the tag number, she could run them through the DMV database. She had a tap into their database through the computer systems at Detroit Police Headquarters.

“Well, there isn’t much left of it. The fire did a good job of destroying everything.” Sergeant Fletcher escorts Stephanie to where the brunt-out husk of the car was parked.

“I love a challenge.” Stephanie takes out a pair of rubber gloves and puts them on. She starts examining the car.

As Stephanie examined the car, she noticed the fire started from a broken fuel line squirting fuel onto a hot catalytic converter. The fire wasn’t staged but natural. Still, why did the young girl’s parents leave the girl to die inside the car?

She manages to find the vehicle registration. It was soaking wet, and she would have to let it dry. She looks through the car, seeing what else she can find. She finds a brunt picture of two girls. One girl looks to be older than the other.

“Any luck, Stephanie?” Sergeant Fletcher had stayed nearby and watched Stephanie as she searched the car. He was amazed that she found anything helpful.

“Yeah, I found a few things. I’ll give you them after I take a picture of them.” Stephanie lays the items out and takes pictures of them. She was going to keep the vehicle registration.

After taking pictures of everything, Stephanie carefully hands them to Sergeant Fletcher in evidence bags she carries in her kit. She ensures she gets his signature so there are no chain of custody problems since her father-in-law gave her a special investigator license. She has to follow proper procedures when handling evidence and arresting people.

Back at the house:
Alyona goes upstairs to check on the young girl her wife found the other night. She checks the girl's vitals and the saline bag hooked up to her. She brushes some of the girl’s badly burnt hair out of her eyes. The poor girl was malnourished and in need of new clothes.

Alyona checks the girl’s wrapping and temperature. She notices it is a little high, but there is nothing to worry about. She hopes the girl will be all right. Alyona leaves the bedroom and heads downstairs to check on Hunter and Kelly. She spots them outside in the backyard, throwing snowballs at each other.

When she and Stephanie took Hunter to meet his grandparents during Easter break, Hunter was initially scared of the huge wolves on the property. However, Dallas and Tex made him feel comfortable. Her parents loved him and agreed with her and Stephanie's judgment that Hunter should dress as a girl if that were what Hunter wanted to do.

Alyona watches the kids have fun while she prepares lunch for them and herself. Her father offered to hire a housekeeper, but the house was small enough that she didn’t need one. Between her and Stephanie, they could maintain the home.

She knew her older sisters had housekeepers, but she and Silvia didn’t have a housekeeper. Silvia had children who helped with the chores, just as Hunter and Kelly helped around the house. Alyona didn’t have any papers to grade and didn’t give any of her students any homework over the holiday.

Usually, she heads to her parents' house for Thanksgiving, but this year, they were going to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas here at home. Her folks will send Hunter’s Christmas gifts to her to put under the Christmas tree. She still didn’t know what Kelly’s parents would do, but they worked hard to give Kelly a decent life.

While Alyona was fixing lunch for her and the kids, she spotted Rusty get up and run out of the kitchen.

“Honey, I’m home,” Stephanie calls out to let Alyona know it was her. Also, so Alyona didn’t shoot her either.

“I’m in the kitchen fixing lunch,” Alyona yells to Stephanie.

Stephanie walked into the kitchen and noticed Alyona was wearing a loose dress that Alyona liked to wear around the house. Alyona wouldn't need to change if they had to go out anywhere.

Alyona looks towards her wife. “Did you find out anything?”

“Yep, but I’ll need to let them dry before handling them.” Stephanie noticed Alyona had made a salad for lunch with chopped ham and chicken pieces.

“Well, lunch is almost ready. Why don’t you take them to your lab, and I’ll call the munchkins in?”

“Okay.” Stephanie turns to leave the kitchen.

A few minutes later, she returns and sits down with her family for lunch. Rusty was doing his normal begging to get the kids to share their food with him. Alyona tried breaking him of that habit, but the kids kept spoiling him.

After lunch, Stephanie went to her lab to see what she could find out about the young girl. Alyona with Hunter and Kelly’s help, fold and wash some laundry. She watches as the kids do some light house cleaning. Kelly may not be her daughter, but when she helps around the house. She gives her an allowance.

Around two in the afternoon, she hears from Kelly’s parents. They are so grateful to Alyona and Stephanie for letting Kelly stay with them. It seemed that Kelly’s parents would be by later in the evening to pick her up.

Alyona lets them know, that Kelly is always welcome to stay with them. An outing had been planned for this weekend for the kids. She was planning on taking Kelly, Hunter, and their friend Scott to the mall for a movie and dinner afterward.

Stephanie’s Lab:
Stephanie was sitting down examining the registration and scanned the picture of the two girls into her computer system. She ran the VIN of the car through DMV and discovered that the car was registered to Richard Sumner and that he lived at 562 Walnut Road.

As for the girls in the picture. She ran their picture through the missing and runaway child database. She knew it would take a while for the results to come back. She managed to get a picture of Richard Sumner and ran his picture through the police database.

The police report on him showed that he had a bench warrant out for his arrest for failure to show up in court on multiple occasions. He also had over two thousand dollars worth of unpaid traffic and parking tickets. A smirk appears on her face when an incident between her wife and the city of Detroit comes up. A police officer thought he would write her wife a ticket for illegally parking where she shouldn’t have. What that police officer didn’t know, their cars had cameras hidden in them, and his actions were caught.

Her wife warned him if he ever pulled that stunt again, not only would he regret it. But he would get a visit from someone very nasty and he won’t like who it was. When the cop asked if she was threatening him, she said no. It wasn’t a threat, but a promise. She informed him, that she doesn’t make threats, but promises.

She knew he ran her name and discovered that her father was Jack Allen Bounty, the rich billionaire in Montana. He also learned that her father owned several telecommunication companies in Detroit and was responsible for several neighborhoods being refurbished. His neighborhood was one of the neighborhoods being updated by Mr. Bounty.

As for Mr. Sumner. She was going to go and visit him. She grabs her car keys and sends Alyona a message informing her that she is stepping out for a little while.

Alyona texts her back, okay.

Stephanie drives towards the location where Mr. Sumner had told DMV he lived. She knew the area, because of how terrible the area was. The place was where a lot of people who were poor or were getting help from the city lived. Certain areas of the area were run by a gang that went by the name of Crimson Vipers.

They were mostly composed of Latinos and African Americans. She’s had a few run-ins with them and each time she ended up killing one or two of them. They got smart about how she operated and moved their stash houses and where they operated.

They hired muscle from another gang that went by the name of Street Sweepers. Those gangs were hard-core guns for hire. They were known for committing contract killings against city officials and cops.

They made the mistake of attacking an army ranger and his buddies one night. The rangers showed them what happens when you go up against well-armed and well-trained killers. Even she had to deliver that message to them as well. The only reason she has stopped killing the people she goes after is because of the police commissioner and what he threatened to do to her.

Stephanie turns onto the street she got from the DMV and stops in front of a rundown building. The place looked like it should be condemned, but there were still people living in it. She gets out of her SUV and walks into the building. The apartment she was looking for was up on the third floor.

Stephanie could hear music coming from some of the apartments. Some of them had their televisions turned up so loud, she could tell what they were watching just from the sound. She stops in front of the apartment she was looking for. She noticed that an eviction notice had been stapled to the door.

Stephanie knocked on the door, but no one answered. She knocks again but gets nothing. She takes her lock-picking tools out of her back pocket and picks the lock. She turns the door knob, “Hello?” as she cautiously enters the apartment.

Stephanie could see her breath in the air as she slowly entered. The heat and electricity had been turned off. There was a worn and tattered coach in the middle of the room with a small television set sitting on a table made of concrete blocks and a wood plank. She looked around the apartment and noticed there wasn’t anything left. All that was left were dirty kid’s clothes, empty food containers, and unpaid bills.

Several of the bills looked to be from a local hospital. She looked at the name on the bill and noticed it was addressed to a woman. She looks around some more and finds some woman’s clothes, but nothing else.

She wonders if Mr. Sumner had been married or had a woman living with him. She’ll have to ask the little girl when she wakes up. Other than unpaid bills and dirty clothes, she doesn’t find anything else that would give her an idea of where Mr. Sumner had gone too.

She locks the apartment and starts canvasing the area, seeing if anyone knows the children. She does find an older couple that knew the girls. They were sisters and were very charming. The youngest one, which was the girl she found was named Nicole and her older sister was named Leigh.

Leigh was very talented and won several awards for her singing and piano playing. Nicole on the other hand, wasn’t as talented or as pretty as her older sister. The couple shows Stephanie a picture of the girls and she has to agree with them, that Leigh did look prettier than her younger sister. Nicole was average-looking, whereas Leigh on the other hand could be a child movie star.

The couple informs Stephanie that Nicole looks up to her older sibling. As for the girl’s parents. Mr. Sumner worked for the city downtown. He was a nice fellow but tended to dote on Leigh a lot. As for the girl’s mother, she died recently from cancer.

It tore Mr. Sumner up that his wife had died. It also didn’t help that he lost his job due to budget cuts at City Hall. Mr. Sumner and the girls had been last seen packing their car the night before.

Stephanie thanks the couple and walks back to her SUV. She spotted some teenagers eyeing it like they were going to try and steal it. She drops a coin, along with a fifty-dollar bill on the ground as she gets into her SUV. She looks at the screen as the rear camera shows the boys rushing over to the money.

The coin she dropped was one of her calling cards. It had a picture of a ghostly nun on it. When you tilted it, it showed the ghostly nun turning nasty and screaming at you. It was meant to inform and scare you at the same time. She got the idea from a scary movie featuring a ghostly nun.

Back at the house:
Alyona checks on the young girl. She hopes she will be okay. As she is checking on the girl, she hears the monitors alerting her that the girl is in trouble. She was lucky that her father and mother made her take paramedic training. She manages to help the little girl and stabilize her.

She looks down at the young girl “Please don’t do that again, to me.” Alyona places a kiss on the girl’s forehead.

“Is everything okay, mom?” Hunter heard the monitors as they started to blare.

“Everything is fine, sweetie.” Alyona looked at Hunter and was glad she and Stephanie adopted her. Her parents welcomed Hunter to the family with loving arms.

Her relatives over in England and Ireland said that she needed to bring Hunter over to meet the whole family. The elders of the Bounty clan wanted to meet Hunter and any other children she and Stephanie adopted. She knew her nephew was in the British military following in her father’s footsteps.

The next two days Stephanie chases down leads to find Nicole’s father and sister. She manages to trace them to the local Greyhound bus station. Where they boarded a bus to New York City.

Back At The House:
Nicole wakes up and panics when she finds herself hooked up to a bunch of machines. She felt something down by her legs and noticed it was a huge German Shepard dog. When the machines start blaring, a woman with long white hair comes walking into the room she is in.

Alyona notices the girl awake. She turns the alarm off and looks down at Nicole.

“Everything is okay, sweetie. You’re safe.” Alyona knew how the girl felt.

Nicole looked at the white hair woman standing near the bed she was lying on. She noticed the woman had a kind and concerned face. She looked around the bedroom she was in and felt the German Shepard resting its head on her legs.

“Where’s my dad and sister?” Nicole wanted to know where her father and big sister were.

“We don’t know Nicole. I’m Alyona Bounty and you’re at my house. My wife found you in a burning car and brought you here.” Alyona sits on the edge of the bed, next to Nicole.

Nicole noticed her hands and arms were covered up by bandages. The last thing she remembers was being trapped in a burning car. Her father left her in it.

“I remember. My father and sister left me to burn.” Tears start leaking from her eyes.

Alyona gathers Nicole up in her arms and holds her. She holds Nicole close to her body and rubs her back as the young girl cries. She felt sorry for the poor girl.

Stephanie arrives home and heads upstairs to check on Nicole. As she enters the bedroom, she finds Alyona holding a crying Nicole in her arms. She walks over sits next to her wife and hugs Nicole and Alyona.

The next few weeks are hard on Nicole as she adjusts to wearing bandages on her arms and hands. Alyona, Stephanie, Kelly, and Hunter are very helpful. Dr. Winslot told her she’d have to wear the bandages for a few more weeks. She feels Rusty rub against her. She reaches over and rubs his fur.

She knows Stephanie has been trying to find her father and sister, but all the leads she got were dead ends. Nicole knew Stephanie had friends in New York helping her. As she walks downstairs, she spots Stephanie, Alyona, Hunter, and her friend Kelly folding laundry.

Nicole walks over sits down by Alyona’s legs and starts to help. She leans against Alyona’s legs while she folds laundry. She watches as Rusty lies by her.

Alyona looked down at Nicole and couldn’t believe her father left her to die in the burning car. She strokes Nicole’s hair and promises that Nicole will never be abandoned by her or Stephanie, no matter what. As for Nicole’s father and sister, she’ll speak with her sisters to see if they can help. She knows Jester and Dakota were doing everything they could in New York.