Princess & the Player

thirty-four: the new start

Maggie's POV:

Mary Margaret slept across from me in Laurie's bed, on the Doc McStuffins sheets I'd found at a garage sale. Marco slept in Jeb's room.

The next morning, using different colored stickies, we split the house into 2 groups: Mom's and Jacob's stuff, and the stuff I was going to want in an apartment. We also used up a box of garbage bags for things to be binned or donated. 

Marco thought to have me take pictures of everything after it was tagged so I could make an inventory for legal purposes. Outside of clothes and knick-knacks, there were only a few big pieces I felt I should take. Mary carefully packed a couple of suitcases for me for the near future. 

Jill's movers arrived the next day with a big canvas bag. They packed up all the the things with orange tags for me and put them in the bag and then took the bag to storage until we found a place.

Then Marco said his goodbye to me. He had a marketing meeting for the New Jersey project back up North. "I'll be back in 10 days."

"OK," I'd slipped my arms around his torso and he gently hugged me back.

"Big news," he dropped his chin on top of my head.

"Yeah?"

"We've been together more than 14 days. Took us over two months to do it, though. Might want to shoot for a better ratio."

"We broke your record?"

"Yep. Yay, us. Change of venue would be nice, too. How much sleep did we get at the hospital?"

"Not much?"

"That's being generous. I was thinking, what exactly is the 14-day anniversary? Not gold or silver...but then I figured it out."

"Hmm, do tell."

"I don't want to ruin the surprise. Cuídate, querida."

After he left, I went back up to my room and found the gift. His Charlie Parker t-shirt, left on my pillow. 

Damn. I picked it up and hugged it close.

Jacob arrived early that afternoon. He stopped inside the living room and stared at me for a long time. "I didn't know it was so bad, Maggie. I should have visited or something."

"It's fine."

He breathed in and out, slowly turning around. "We really fucked this up, didn't we?"

"Speak for yourself," I gingerly sat down at the kitchen table.

"I'm going to court next week. Preliminary motions or something."

"Did you get a lawyer from the clinic?"

"Yeah. What about your mom?"

"She's got to finish court-ordered rehab. Then she's going to a halfway house. They'll do a plea agreement if she does all that."

"I hadn't heard. So...she'll get the kids back, then."

"I guess if she wants them, eventually. And stays sober."

"Uh..." Jacob grimaced at the idea. "Look, uh, my mom's on her way; she's coming to help. Maybe don't mention that stuff about your mom."

"Help?"

"Come on, now," he chided me for my expression. Because, really, Jacob was a shining beacon of appropriate behavior. "A week from Friday, I got a meeting at the University. May be the end of the job, may be an extension of unpaid leave - depends on the hearing, I guess. If they fire me, there goes the health insurance and the tuition remission. Sorry." He shrugged.