“That one, mommy?” Lizzy whispered.

“Yep, that’s the one.” Beatrice confirmed with a devious smile. “Go make mommy proud.”

Lizzy innocently walked up to Max, who smiled and kneeled down to be at eye level with the little girl. Lizzy had on the most unassuming smile and looked at Max with such reverence.

“Hey there,” Max said. “Do you need something?”

“My mommy said you’re a bitch.” the little girl said before stomping one of her miniature black heels into Max’s foot and running away as fast as possible.

“BEATRICE YOU BITCH!” Max shouted, falling over and clutching her foot.

Lizzy ran back to where Beatrice was, giggling her head off. Beatrice couldn’t hide her laughing and gave Lizzy a high five.

“Did I do it right, mommy?” she asked.

“That was perfect.” Beatrice said, stopping the recording on her phone. Finally she had something of Max on video for a change. “Mommy’s proud of you, hun.”

Max looked around and tried to recover from the surprise attack. It doesn’t look like anyone saw that, despite her shouting. She had no doubt that everyone would see it eventually though, thanks to Beatrice. At least for now, the only thing hurt was her foot. She slowly walked towards Beatrice and Lizzy, who were giggling together.

“I didn’t know you could bring kids here.” Max growled.

“Because you could never have any, hun.” smirked Beatrice. Yeah, that struck a nerve.

“It’s not like she’s really yours anyway.” Max sneered. “I heard Lucas and Dallas talking a little while ago. She’s just adopted. You just picked up someone else’s trash because you couldn’t have any to call your own.”

Beatrice balled her fists, but took a deep breath and grabbed Lizzy’s hand. She didn’t want to say anything too bad in front of her that she might tell Lisha about later. As they walked away, Max called out one last thing.

“Oh yeah, you killed yourself before you could have any actual ones!” Beatrice and Lizzy both whipped around, balled their fists at Max, and shouted in her direction.

“You wanna fight?!” they hissed in unison.

Aven turned around the corner and yelped as she fell to the ground, holding her head. Lizzy reached out for her, but Beatrice grabbed her hand and stormed off. Max went to her side and helped her up.

“Are you okay?” Max asked, holding Aven’s arm.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” she said, rubbing her temples. “Their thoughts were just so powerful that I wasn’t prepared for them…”

“Ugh, I wish she didn’t have to be so loud inside and out. And she’s got that little menace as a daughter now.”

“Daughter?” Aven asked, surprised.

“Yeah, it’s a whole thing.” Max said, waving her hand.

“It was the weirdest thing though.” she said, a little scared.

“What was?”

“Beatrice and that girl’s minds… it’s like I was hearing double.”

“Freaky.” Max said, disgusted. “And I thought one of her was hell on earth.”

Beatrice led Lizzy down the hall and stopped around the corner. Taking a kid to work was a lot more tiring than she thought it’d be. Before she could even fully recover, Lizzy was tugging at her shirt.

“Mommy, can I give the hungry man chocolate?” She pointed at Rex, who was in front of a filing cabinet, looking for some paper or folder.

“Yeah, go crazy.” Beatrice said, desperate to catch her breath. She leaned against the wall, sat down, and closed her eyes.

Lizzy snuck up on Rex, tugged his shirt, and held out a chocolate bar all in one action.

“Want some?” she asked. Rex jumped backwards, yelped, and ran down the hall faster than Beatrice thought was possible for the man. “Mommy, why did he run?”

“That one’s funny.” she said, not opening her eyes. “Go give the funny man more chocolate.”

“Ok!” she cheered, running down the hallway and giving Rex a feeling as though he was being hunted.

She chased him around the corner before he turned down a hallway and Lizzy didn't see him anymore. She giggled and tried to walk back, but found unfamiliar hallway after unfamiliar hallway. People gave her odd stares and started whispering to each other. Lizzy ran around the corner without looking and crashed into a woman.

“What the hell?!” she yelled.

The way she said it sounded familiar to Lizzy. The woman was stick-thin and reached for her cane, which had a skull handle. Her hair was a bit greasy and she smelled of cigarette smoke and alcohol.

“Eh?” Diana said, getting up and looking at the child that had rammed into her. “What’re you doing, little runt?”

“Looking for mommy.” Lizzy answered, intimidated by her.

“Yeah? And who is she?”

“Mrs. Hawthorne.”

Diana paused for a second, confused, and looked at the kid closer. Last time she checked, she was a Mrs. Hawthorne. She didn’t remember having a kid though. Even drunk, that would be hard to forget.

“Do you have a first name for her?” Diana asked with a nervous laugh.

“Beatrice.”

“Huh. I didn’t know auntie had a kid. Guess it is never too late.”

“Mama adopted me.” she said quietly. “She’s your auntie?”

“Yep, same tree, different branch. What does that make you? My…cousin?” Lizzy’s eyes lit up at the sight of a new family member.

“I’m cousin Lizzy!” she said excitedly.

“Then that makes me cousin Diana.” she laughed. “Where’s auntie anyway?”

“I don't know.” Lizzy said, a bit upset. “We got separated. I don’t know if she’s noticed I’m gone by now… she doesn’t notice much that I do…”

“Hey, uh, keep your head up kid.” Diana was really bad at pep talks. She knew she should probably help the kid since she was family, but didn’t quite know how. “You wanna get your mom’s attention, right?”

“Yes.” Lizzy whispered.

“I’ve got an idea then.” Diana said with a wide grin. “This always gets the parent’s attention. Trust your big cousin on this.”

“What is it?” she asked, eager to know.

“How much do you know about what your mother did when she was young?”

Beatrice turned around the corner to finally see Lizzy. She was about to faint from the amount of running she was having to do today. She saw someone whispering into Lizzy’s ear, making her look curious but eager. As Beatrice caught her breath, she realized who it was.

“Shhh, but don’t tell her, alright?” Diana said, making a zipping motion over her lips.

“Ok.” Lizzy said, making a matching gesture.

“Away from my daughter!” Beatrice said, shoving Diana out of Lizzy’s way. “What did you tell her?!”

“Owww.” Diana whined. “I didn’t get to tell her anything before you shoved me.” Beatrice turned to Lizzy.

“Did she tell you anything?!” she asked, paranoid.

“Nope.” Lizzy said with a wide grin.

“Then we’re leaving right now.”

Beatrice grabbed Lizzy’s hand and teleported out of the office and back home. They were by the entrance to the house, and Beatrice could hear something coming from the kitchen. It was crying.

“Hun,” Beatrice said. “Can you go to your room?”

“Aww… But my room’s no fun.”

“Then you can go play with Sausage.” she sighed.

“Yay!” she cheered, running to Bea and Lisha’s bedroom.

Beatrice crept into the kitchen and saw Lisha sitting at the table, face in her hands and sobbing her eyes out. It’s probably why Beatrice had been feeling so drained in the last few minutes.

“Babe, what’s wrong?” Beatrice asked, walking up behind her and taking a seat beside her.

“I… I messed up, babe…” she said through the tears.

“What did you do?” she asked calmly, placing her hand on Lisha’s.

“It’s Lizzy, babe… Iris wants her gone.”

“What?!” Beatrice exclaimed.

“She came by today to take her, but I sent her with you and… she said she’d give us another week before she would take her back to live with the humans!”

“Like hell she will.” Beatrice said confidently. “These seven days will pass and we’ll take such good care of her that Iris can’t separate us.”

What Beatrice didn’t tell her was that she was going to keep Iris from taking Lizzy one way or another. Whether her fake plan works or not, she didn’t really have a real plan for not letting Iris take her. What she knew was that Bea couldn’t let Iris just take Lizzy away though.

“Do you really think that’ll work?” Lisha sniffled.

“She won’t take our daughter from us.” she said confidently. Lisha lightly laughed as she wiped her eyes.

“And when I brought her home you said you didn’t want her.”

“No, I said I didn’t ask for her.” Beatrice corrected. “But I’m glad you brought her anyway.” Lisha looked happy for her to say that.

“But it’s because she makes you so happy.” she quickly added.

Lisha chuckled and gave Beatrice a kiss followed by a hug. She knew how Bea really felt. Couldn’t hide it from her.