Chapter 124 - 124: A Breakdown
"Captain Hawkins, I'm here to help you clean," said Mikaela, reaching up on her tiptoes to ring the doorbell.
"You don't have to do that, Mikaela," chuckled Edward, letting her in.
"Anna is my best friend! I'm not letting her into a dirty house," declared Mikaela, pulling a bucket and mop behind her.
"All right, all right. But first, you need to dust the furniture and floor," chuckled Edward, helping her around the house, dusting his spartan furniture.
They then went around the house, mopping the floor.
"Phew! I didn't know how hard that would be," said Mikaela flopping down on his couch.
"Welcome to grown-up world," chuckled Edward, handing her a glass of cold water.
Mikaela eagerly drank the water, and sighed contently.
"Well, the house does look a lot cleaner now," she remarked.
The doorbell rang, and Edward answered it to find Annette standing with her hands on her hips.
"I get that you're excited about Anna coming over, but did you have to turn my cleaning supply closet into a mess?" she asked Mikaela pointedly.
"I asked you to help, but you said that you weren't a maid, so I had to do it myself," retorted Mikaela.
"Yes, well, now come over and clean up," said Annette imperiously.
"Fine Mom," sighed Mikaela, getting up from Edward's couch, and slouching behind Annette as she went back across the street.
---
Mikaela sat apprehensively on the couch in Edward's living room.
She had brought over her collection of board games and puzzle toys to play with Anna, and was suddenly feeling that they were not good enough or fancy enough.
The rumble of an engine outside caught her attention, and she jumped to the window to see a silver Lamborghini Aventador pull up to the curb.
Its scissor doors opened, and Stefan and Anna stepped out.
Mikaela opened the door and dashed outside.
"Anna!" she squealed engulfing Anna in a hug.
"Mikaela!" squealed back Anna, returning her friend's hug.
Mikaela pulled back, and looked up at Stefan.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Stanislaus," she said, trying to appear poised.
"Nice to meet you too, Mikaela," said Stefan, shaking her hand.
"Come on! Let me show you Captain Hawkins!" said Mikaela pulling Anna into the house.
---
"Captain Hawkins, meet my friend, Anna Stanislaus," said Mikaela ushering a slightly nervous Anna forward.
"I'm Anna Stanislaus, she, her," said Anna, looking up at Edward.
"Well, nice to meet you Anna," said Edward, crouching down to her level and offering her his hand.
"Your pronouns?" asked Anna, shaking his hand.
"I'm a man, ain't it obvious? But if you insist, you may call me captain," chuckled Edward.
"Very well, Captain Hawkins," said Anna.
"I'm Mikaela's mother, pronouns she, her, but you've already seen me around school," chuckled Annette, shaking Anna's hand.
"Of course, nice to meet you, Ms. Petra," said Annette.
"My, my, so polite," said Annette, giving Anna a gentle hug.
"Hello Ms. Petra," said Stefan, who had just entered the house.
"Hello Mr. Stanislaus. You should have told me that your daughter was so polite," said Annette, cautiously shaking his hand.
"Yes, well, this is a new thing that she's been doing," said Stefan.
"Well Anna, what shall we play first? I've got scrabble, chutes and ladders, UNO, and Jenga," said Mikaela, showing Anna the pile of games and toys.
"Hmm, how about Jenga?" asked Anna.
"OK," said Mikaela and unpacked the Jenga set.
"Would you like a beer, Mr. Stanislaus?" asked Edward.
"Please," said Stefan, and Edward went to the kitchen, got two bottles of beer, and returned.
"Wine for me, please," said Annette.
"Coming right up," said Edward, and brought her a bottle of wine.
"Whoa, easy there!" said Stefan, as Annette chugged down nearly a quarter of the wine, straight from the bottle, ignoring the wine glass that Edward had brought.
Annette flushed a bit, and set the bottle down.
"I heard you wanted to lock the alimony payments behind a trust fund," she said.
"It's a play date Ms. Petra, let's not talk shop," pushed back Stefan.
"So, Anna, looking forward to fifth grade?" asked Mikaela, as she carefully pulled a Jenga piece out of the tower, and placing it on the top.
"I suppose," said Anna, taking out a piece as well.
"By the way, what was that car you came in? I've not seen anything like it," asked Mikaela, wondering why Anna was not her usual self.
"Don't remind me. I felt so embarrassed stepping out of that thing," said Anna with a shudder.
"I thought it looks cool," said Mikaela.
"That's until you are in it. It's loud and bumpy," grumbled Anna.
"Yes, well the Toyota was in the shop for repairs. It was either the Lambo or Uber," said Stefan.
"We could have taken an Uber," pointed out Anna.
"Why pay for an Uber when we've got a perfectly good car?" countered Stefan.
"Because it's embarrassing!" snapped Anna, knocking over the Jenga tower in her agitation.
"Well, Anna here has a point. You could have avoided a lot of grief by just doing what she said," chuckled Annette, going over to Anna and patting her head affectionately.
"Sorry about that Mikaela, round two?" asked Anna, somewhat relieved by Annette's head pats.
"You and my mom seem to get along pretty well, so OK. Round two," said Mikaela, somewhat relieved that Annette had taken a liking to Anna, but a little miffed that Anna was disagreeing that Stefan's Aventador was cool, and a little envious that Annette was being so gentle with Anna, while she was normally so strict with her.
Nevertheless, she started rebuilding the Jenga tower.
"Mr. Stanislaus, you're my daddy's lawyer right?" she asked him, deciding to spring the trap.
"Yup," said Stefan.
"He spends more time with your dad then with me," butted in Anna.
"Well then, how about you make it so that Daddy can visit me? That way everyone is happy," suggested Mikaela.
"Absolutely not!" snapped Annette.
"Well, I am working on getting the cops to drop the case against your daddy, but they say that he is too dangerous to let him near you because he hit your mom," said Stefan.
"What if I told you that Daddy only did that because Mom and Sky were being very mean to him?" asked Mikaela.
"Well, you'll have to tell a judge that," said Stefan.
"All right! Fine! You can see him, but only once a month, and only when Captain Hawkins and Ms. Hirschfield are here, OK?" said Annette, Ruth's words about how Mikaela's testimony could land her in jail ringing in her ears.
"Yay! When can you set it up?" asked Mikaela excitedly.
I'll let your mom and Captain Hawkins know.
"OK! And you better spend more time with Anna," said Mikaela.
"You've got it. Come on Anna, I'll play Jenga with the two of you," said Stefan, sitting down on the floor to play with them.
---
"Mikaela, I am going to be nice, and tell you to go to your room, and don't ever call Mr. Stanislaus again, or I will ground you for life," said Annette, struggling hard to control her temper.
Mikaela fled to her bedroom.
She locked her bedroom door, and sat on the floor, trembling slightly as Annette's screams of rage, and the sounds of breaking glass and banging filled the house.
---
"911 what is your emergency?" asked the dispatcher.
"There is a domestic disturbance at 114 Pine Springs, I can hear screaming and breaking glass," reported Edward.
"Officers are en-route to your location, please stay calm," said the dispatcher.
Within a minute, an SZPD Stormkreuzer patrol car arrived, its lights flashing and siren wailing.
It stopped outside Annette's house, and two policewomen, sprinted towards the door.
Edward crossed the street, and waited.
The two officers marched a sobbing Annette out of the house.
"Relax Ms. Petra, nobody is going to take you or Mikaela away," said one of the officers, soothingly.
"But you will! He will! You don't know him like I do!" cried Annette, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"We won't. But you need to get cleaned up, you've cut yourself," said Camille Vasquez, wrapping a first-aid bandage around Annette's bleeding hand.
"Camille, go get Mikaela, I'll keep an eye on Annette," said Michelle.
She pulled out her radio. "Central, this is unit 256, requesting a bus and CSU, at 114 Pine Springs," she said.
Camille nodded, and went back into the house, as Central confirmed that the ambulance and CSU were en-route.
---
A gentle knock sounded on Mikaela's bedroom door.
"Mikaela? It's me, Officer Vasquez. Can you open the door? Don't worry, nobody will hurt you," called out Camille's voice.
Trembling, Mikaela fumbled for the latch, and finally opened the door.
"W-what happened to Mom?" she asked, as Officer Vasquez gave her a gentle hug.
"Don't worry, sweetie. Your mom just got extremely scared and angry, we've calmed her down," said Camille softly.
Mikaela buried her face in Camille's uniform blazer and shed silent tears.
Her trembling slowly subsided, and she pulled away.
"Come on, we just need to make sure that you're not hurt, OK?" said Camille, helping Mikaela out of the room.
"My tea set!" cried Mikaela, as she saw the mess of broken glass that included her wrecked tea set in the living room.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get a new one," said Camille, gently patting Mikaela on the head to calm her down, and gently steering her out of the house.
---
"Mikaela, are you OK?" asked Edward as Camille brought Mikaela out of the house.
"I-I'm OK Captain Hawkins, b-but Mom broke the tea set you gave me," said Mikaela forlornly.
"Don't worry about that. Tea sets can be replaced, you cannot," said Edward, patting her on the head.
A paramedic approached Mikaela.
"Hey there, I just need to make sure that you're not hurt, OK?" she said gently.
Mikaela nodded, and allowed the paramedic to examine her.
"All OK. You're a very brave girl," said the paramedic, after she had checked Mikaela's vitals.
"Where's Mom?" asked Mikaela.
"She's in the ambulance. We need to take her to the hospital for the night," said the paramedic.
"Do I have to go too?" asked Mikaela.
"No you don't, we'll stay with you for the night," said Camille.
"Can Captain Hawkins stay too?" asked Mikaela.
"We actually have to stay with him. Your house is now a crime scene," said Michelle, as CSU went into the house to document the evidence.
---
"What a damn mess," sighed Camille, as Edward handed her a glass of cold water.
"What caused that nervous break down? She wasn't this bad when Ivan hit her," asked Michelle.
"Well, Mikaela managed to get her to agree to a visitation with her father," said Edward.
"How did she manage to do that?" asked Camille in surprise.
With a wry chuckle, Edward explained how Mikaela managed to get Stefan's contact information, how she orchestrated a play date with Anna, and how she backed Annette into a corner by asking Stefan if she could testify on Ivan's behalf.
Michelle let out a low whistle.
"She planned it better than some military operations," she chuckled.
"Yeah, but what made Annette so terrified of Mikaela offering to testify?" asked Camille.
"You two can't act on hearsay can you?" asked Edward, uncomfortable.
"No, we can't," said Michelle.
"Mikaela got a new computer from her father on her tenth birthday, it had a video message from him that triggered a repressed memory of that altercation with Mr. Zakhrov. She remembered that Annette panicked, and had sedated her with sleeping pills," said Edward.
"She did what? That wasn't in the police or medical reports!" exclaimed Camille.
"We took her to Boston General. I'm pretty sure we can pull ER records," growled Michelle.
"Hold on a minute! You said you can't act on hearsay. You need to hear it from Mikaela when she wakes up in the morning," said Edward firmly.
"You believe her don't you?" asked Camille.
"Yes, but," began Edward.
"Look, we'll just check. We'll leave it up to you and Mikaela if you want to press charges," said Michelle.
"OK," said Edward, kicking himself for going deeper into the quagmire.