Once Abandoned, Now Found

Chapter 31

A/N: Sorry for the wait for this chapter everyone, life hit me like a truck and I had to sort some things out.

There are now going to be time jumps rather than the every day thing I've been writing, and hopefully there'll be some more answers about Alex's life before meeting Maggie and Danni.

Also, I'm planning another story for when this one is done, I've decided I'm going to use the same characters, but brand-new everything else.

The days after Alex's grandparents visited went quickly, but Maggie and Danni wished that they didn't. Their bosses were becoming impatient, and they didn't yet have a solution that didn't involve Alex being left alone.

The answer came in a way they didn't expect.

The three were out shopping, Alex was nearly out of pull-ups, Maggie and Danni were nearly out of wine, and apparently, Teggs didn't have enough cookies. Maggie and Danni were suspicious of the last one but Alex was insistent.

They were all stood by the wine, Maggie and Danni trying to decide between some different colours while Alex waited. Alex was very confused, she knew that the juice in the bottles was for adults only and that it made Maggie and Danni giggly, but she didn't understand all the fuss, juice was juice unless it was grape-flavoured.

Magie and Danni hadn't yet figured out how they were going to keep Alex near them in the store, as Danni had forgotten the pushchair and Alex being a toddler-little, didn't exactly have the biggest attention span.

As they were discussing wine, Alex saw another little waving at her, so promptly walked off to greet her new friend. Alex toddled off away from her mothers, not noticing a large number of shoppers near her until they began to move, disorientating her until she couldn't remember where her mothers were.

Rather than crying, (she is a big girl, and big girls don't cry when they've lost their parents...maybe), Alex frowned and began to walk determinedly, hoping that eventually, she'll see Maggie and Danni.

Alex's resolve to not cry did not last long, and after another aisle Maggie-and-Danni-less, the tears that had been threatening finally fell. She cried silently, shoulders hunched over, arms by her side, Teggs against the floor. Alex wandered until she found a small space to curl up in, bringing her knees to her chest, Teggs on her knees acting as a pillow, and she cried some more. In the haze of upset, Alex didn't hear the tannoy voice requesting her at the customer service desk, or the frantic shouting of Maggie and Danni as they ran frantically around the shop looking for her.

Meanwhile

Charlotte and Lydia had been finding the ingredients for cookies when the tannoy came on.

"Can Alex Briggs please report to the customer service desk, your mothers are looking for you.

Can Alex Briggs please report to the customer service desk, your mothers are looking for you"

"Oh shit" Lydia turned to her sister as the tannoy repeated the message.

As Charlotte was about to speak, a tall brown woman rushed down their aisle, her heels not even touching the ground as she sprinted past them.

"Alex? Alex!" Maggie yelled, looking around feverishly before continuing to the next aisle.

"It sounds like it's a kid or little" Charlotte mused, "they must be going crazy."

"We should help look," the two said in unison.

The pair nodded once before discarding their basket by the shelves and beginning to take up looking for the missing person.

As Charlotte searched, she began to remember all the times she had had to do this for one of her foster sisters, back when she and Lydia were still in the system.

"Alright, if I'm a kid, probably scared, where would I hide," Charlotte muttered to herself.

Wincing slightly as her clean clothes made contact with the shop's dirty floor, Charlotte began to check between the aisles, under shelves, and behind posters and arrangements.

She could still hear the two women screaming for their child, and the tannoy had begun to repeat a description of the child as more and more shoppers helped to look.

Charlotte was praying that the child was still in the store, she couldn't imagine the heartbreak if the child had been taken.

Charlotte rounded a corner and was now in the far back corner of the store, and a promotional table with samples was propped in front of it.

"C'mon kid, you've got to be here somewhere" Charlotte hissed, climbing over the table.

She ducked to look under.

"Alex!"

"'Ottie!"

"Alex, what are you doing down here!" Charlotte scolded, squatting so she was eye-level with the trembling little.

"Was with mama an' mummy, bu' see f'end an' I 'alk off an' then no mama or mummy" Alex said in one go, her breathing erratic.

"Okay, okay." Charlotte carefully pulled her old sister into her lap, humming a song as she rocked them forwards and backwards.

As Alex listened to Charlotte's calming heartbeat, her breathing began to even out and her tears finally stopped.

"It's been a long time hasn't it bub?" Charlotte asked, using a tissue from her pocket to clean up Alex's face, brushing the hair away and drying her eyes carefully.

"'ottie" Alex murmured, curling up tighter into Charlotte's lap.

The unwanted adventure and the emotional toil had taken their toll on the little, and now all she wanted to do was sleep.

Alex stirred when Charlotte's phone rang, but with a hum and some more rocking, was quick to return to dreamland.

"Hey sis" Charlotte heard Lydia say through the phone, "any luck?"

Charlotte could have laughed, the day had brought plenty of luck.

"Yeah, I found the kid, I'm going to bring her out in a second. You won't believe this though, it's Alex!" Charlotte explained.

Charlotte shifted Alex so she could comfortably stand up, Alex cradled in her arms and her phone against a shoulder.

"Yeah I know, they've been calling her name for like half an hour dumbass," Lydia said.

"I know it's Alex, I mean it's Alex" Charlotte emphasised the girl's name this time, hoping for a spark of intelligence from her twin sister.

"Oh...ohhhhhh, seriously?" Lydia asked, in disbelief.

"Yep, she's still tiny" Charlotte commented, noting the lack of weight that she felt as she carried Alex towards the front of the store.

Maggie and Danni felt ready to die, they hadn't prepared for this part of motherhood. Danni was hunched over, trying not to be sick while Maggie was on the phone with everyone she knew in case Alex had indeed left the store.

"Hey, did someone lose a little?"

A/N: We have passed 70k reads, that is insane!!! Thank you to everyone who has read my book, I cannot express my gratitude.

Any suggestions/ideas/questions, put them here.

I hope everyone had a good week, that you have a good week, and I will see you on Sunday (hopefully).