Crossover Crossroads (The Kell and Maille Story)

The Secret Princess

044: The secret princess

In the morning the nurse found them both, curled: one on the bed and one in the chair. Family often spent the night in the facility with their children, but no one had ever spent the night with Myndee. Secretly the nurse was pleased. This was just what Myndee needed: a big sister.

They awoke at the same time and laughed to find they had fallen asleep together. They ate breakfast together, and when the nurse would have given Myndee her bath, Maille offered to do it. She was gentle, and they talked about the time Maille had gotten soap in her eyes and Kell had put her in his shower in all her clothes.

Myndee's body was frail and emaciated. It made Maille acutely aware of her condition, but she determined not to let on how it made her feel.

Myndee was able to be put back to bed. She was too weak to walk by herself. Maille said she would go home for a while and come back later with a surprise.

As she walked out to her car, she felt an incredible freedom she'd never felt before. The freedom to make a decision and make it happen. She wanted to buy Myndee a princess outfit, exactly like the one she'd described. She knew there would be something in the costume warehouse, so she drove there. She didn't have her pass, and they didn't want to let her in, but she finally persuaded one of the security men to let her in just to the warehouse.

She let herself in. It was only one in the afternoon and the costume warehouse was hopping with people. She asked several of them about princess outfits, and finally found a seamstress to help her when she told her what she wanted it for.

She spent the afternoon sewing with the seamstress. Maille was a pretty good seamstress in her own right. They'd found beautiful pink gauze material, shimmery sequins and loads of strung pink beads. Rainbow ribbons made a lovely wreath with flowers and more pink veil. While Maille sewed for Myndee, Franny sewed for Maille. Everyone in the Costume warehouse got in on the act. They all loved the story of the little girl who was dying having her wish granted to be a pink jeweled princess, but thought that Maille should be one too.

Maille was ready. She let the girls help her dress, in flowing pink and lace. The flower wreath made her feel like a bridesmaid, and she had been one several times, but she draped Myndee's dress over her arm and paid the girls who had helped her. She got a receipt to show that the costumes were hers, and then went back out to her little car.

As she drove back over to Myndee's she thought about Kell. Had he been working on the set? Had he been close by while she was there?

She felt a niggling doubt inside her, a feeling of abandonment, and a crude burning of anger at herself, for allowing the knowledge that he was not gay unleash her baser feelings. Over and over she relived the kisses he'd given her. She could feel every second of their union. But it was over. It had been two days. Maybe she really had scared him away.

Hadn't she used the one thing guys hated? I love you? I'm falling in love?