Chapter 125 - 125: The Visitation
Annette awoke groggily in a hospital bed.
"Welcome back. You really are a piece of work, you know that?" asked Ruth who was sitting in a chair by her bed.
"What happened? Where am I?" asked Annette.
"You had a nervous breakdown and trashed your house. Captain Hawkins heard the commotion, and called the police. They managed subdue you, drag you out of the house, and stop you from bleeding out, before the paramedics took over and brought you here. Six stitches in your left hand and arm, and about two grand worth of glassware destroyed," reported Ruth.
Some of the fog in Annette's mind cleared, and memories came rushing back.
"Mikaela! Where is Mikaela?" she asked, as the blood pressure monitor started to beep rapidly.
"Hey, hey, calm down. Mikaela's safe and fine. She's with Captain Hawkins, and the police officers who subdued you," said Ruth, gently patting her arm.
Annette slowly calmed down.
"When can I get out of here?" she asked.
"As soon as you can explain to the police why you trashed your house," said Ruth.
"How bad is it?" asked Annette in resignation.
"Bad enough to lose custody rights. The only way you're keeping Mikaela is if you buy her a phone so that she can make emergency calls, and if you sign an agreement to designate Captain Hawkins and me as her legal guardians in your absence, and go to therapy. The alternative, is Mikaela goes to next of kin," said Ruth.
"I suppose I don't have a choice, do I?" said Annette bitterly.
"Hey, the only reason you're in a hospital bed and not a prison ward is because Ivan still believes that you love Mikaela, and wants you to be in her life! Don't break that little sliver of trust he has for you!" snarled Ruth.
"Yeah well, all of this happened because Mikaela blackmailed me into agreeing to another supervised visit for Ivan. Why can't the little brat just forget him?" grumbled Annette.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you say that. Now, here are the forms for you to sign. And you have thirty minutes to come up with an explanation for why you broke your daughter's birthday tea set," said Ruth, tossing a file onto the bed, and getting up to leave.
---
"How are you feeling, Mom?" asked Mikaela, as she entered the hospital room with Edward.
"Better, but very guilty. I'm sorry Mikaela, I didn't mean to scare you, or to hurt you. I was just extremely scared and angry," said Annette, her eyes wet with tears.
"Why?" asked Mikaela.
"Because Mr. Stanislaus and your father are actually trying very hard to take you away from me. They don't want to just let me see you, they want me thrown in jail," said Annette.
"Why?" asked Mikaela again.
"Because they think I'm not a good mom. They said so in the court," said Annette.
"But you and Daddy were fine for a while, so why not make up? If you're together, then there is no problem right?" asked Mikaela.
"It's not that simple Mikaela. Your father and I have actually been fighting for a long time. It is only now that we finally broke up," sighed Annette.
Mikaela mulled over this for a moment.
"What have you been fighting about?" she asked.
"Lots of things, but mostly over what is good for you. You've seen how Mr. Stanislaus came in that horrible car right? And how he shows off how much money he has? Well, that is how your father is as well. He wasn't so bad at first, but when he got that new job, he got so much money that he decided to stop listening to me, and start doing all those flashy things. Plus I'm sure he's been cheating on me with all those girls in his new office," sighed Annette.
"So? What's wrong with having money and cool cars and cool stuff?" asked Mikaela.
"Everything! It is bad for the environment, bad for your health, and such a waste of money! That's not the kind of life I want!" cried Annette.
"OK, so you don't like money and cool stuff, but why do you think Daddy is cheating on you?" asked Mikaela.
"Hmph! Why wouldn't he? That new company of his is filled with floozies," scoffed Annette.
"Well, you can get a boyfriend too, you know?" said Mikaela.
"Tell that to Sky, you hated them," said Annette bitterly.
"I said a boyfriend, not my math teacher, who couldn't decide if they were a girl or a boy, and was also pretty mean to me," snapped back Mikaela.
Annette took a deep breath, and tried to calm the throbbing in her head.
"OK, I get it. You want your dad, but I want you as well. I don't want you to be taken away from me," she said, her voice cracking.
"Fine Mom," said Mikaela, opting to drop the subject for now.
---
"Daddy!" cried Mikaela, hugging Ivan tightly, the visit for Ivan had finally been organized.
"I missed you so much Princess," said Ivan, hugging her back, as Annette watched sourly from Edward's couch.
Edward's living room actually felt crowded, with himself, Ruth, Stefan, Annette Ivan and Mikaela all meeting there as the designated "neutral ground".
"And I thought cease-fire negotiations were high-stakes," he muttered, feeling the tension in the room, mostly from Annette.
"I'll say," giggled Ruth, which earned her a glare from Annette.
"Ms. Petra, how about you show me around your house? I've already seen this one," suggested Anna, who had come with Stefan.
"That... is actually a good idea," said Annette, calming down slightly, and allowing herself to be pulled from the couch by Anna.
"Well, Princess, how have you been?" asked Ivan, as Anna and Annette left.
"I've been OK. Mom hasn't been too happy though. She's really scared you'll take me away," said Mikaela.
"Well, don't worry. I won't take you away, not forever anyway, you can still see Mom whenever you like," said Ivan.
Ruth cleared her throat as a slight warning to Ivan.
"However, I'm still in trouble with the cops about that whole mess with Sky. They know I didn't hurt you, but they can't just let me take you home with me, not yet anyway," said Ivan, which caused Mikaela to pout.
"Fine, I'll stay in Mom-jail for now," she sighed.
Ivan couldn't help but chuckle at that.
"Well, even if you can't stay at my place, you can still call me either on your new phone or on the computer," said Ivan.
"Oh yeah! Totally forgot that I can do that!" exclaimed Mikaela, pulling out the new phone that Annette had been forced to get her.
Chuckling, Ivan added his contact information into the phone, and handed it back to her.
The phone buzzed, and an unknown number flashed on the caller ID.
Puzzled, Mikaela clicked the answer call button.
"Mikaela, it's Anna. Daddy got me a phone too," came Anna's voice through the speaker.
"Hi, Anna! That's great! We can keep in touch now!" said Mikaela excitedly.
"Yeah, by the way. I hate this computer of yours, it's too big, and I don't know how to work it," said Anna petulantly.
"Why are you trying to work it? And what are you doing in my room?" demanded Mikaela, a feeling of possessiveness about the computer coursing through her.
"Ms. Petra is showing me around," replied Anna.
"Well, hands off on my computer! You have one at home right? Use that!" snapped Mikaela.
"Fine!" snapped back Anna.
Mikaela angrily hung up.
"What's gotten into her?" she asked nobody in particular.
"I'll go bring those two back," said Stefan, getting up from his chair.
"Now don't worry about Anna, Princess. Tell me what else you've been up to?" asked Ivan, bringing Mikaela's attention back to him.
"Oh yeah, thanks for the computer. It is so cool! Don't bother about what Anna said about it being too big," said Mikaela.
"What else did you get for your tenth birthday?" asked Ivan.
"Well, Captain Hawkins gave me this really awesome tea set, but then Mom trashed it the other day, so she and him got another one, and I made him keep it here at his house," said Mikaela.
"Yeah, I heard about that. How about we have some tea in it?" asked Ivan.
"A tea party? Great! Captain Hawkins, can you pull it out?" asked Mikaela.
"Sure," chuckled Edward, and went to the kitchen to pull out the tea set.
---
The front door opened, and Stefan entered, with a sulking Anna and Annette at his heels.
"A tea party?" asked Anna, Mikaela carefully unpacked the tea set and laid out the delicate cups and saucers.
"Yup, with real tea," said Mikaela.
"Aren't you getting too old for that?" asked Anna.
"Hey! This is real glass tea cups! Not toys!" shot back Mikaela defensively.
"Anna, behave yourself!" chided Stefan.
Anna glared at him, but said nothing more.
Ivan sat on the floor, and whispered in Mikaela's ear: "I get to join you for real this time,"
Mikaela giggled at that, and shuddered with excitement.
"Yeah! Anna, if you don't want to play, that's fine. Daddy will be my royal guest!" she crowed, as Edward came into the living room with a large kettle of tea.
"OK, I'll pour this into the tea-pot, and then you can serve it out," he said, and carefully poured the steaming tea into the porcelain tea-pot.
---
"Wait, we're missing two guests," said Mikaela as she counted the cups.
"Who?" asked Annette puzzled. There were seven of them, but Mikaela had pulled out nine out of the twelve tea cups that had come in the new set.
But Mikaela was already out of the door.
She trotted down the driveway and over to the parked SZPD Stormkreuzer.
Annette watched wide-eyed as Officer Vasquez and Officer Martinez came up behind Mikaela to the front door.
"There. Now we have all the guests," said Mikaela, as Camille and Michelle padded into the living room.
---
Mikaela sat on the floor, at one end of the square coffee table.
Camille and Michelle flanked her left and right, with Ivan on Michelle's left, and Stefan on Camille's right.
On Stefan's right sat Edward, and next to him was Anna.
On Ivan's left, sat Ruth, with Annette to her left, rounding out the circle of nine people around the table.
"Mikaela looks like she's got bodyguards," said Anna, voicing aloud Annette's line of thought, as she and Annette were directly opposite Mikaela, Camille and Michelle, who were in SZPD uniform.
Mikaela ignored that comment, and carefully poured out the Earl Grey tea, and passed the cups and saucers around the circle.
"Cheers," she said, holding her tea cup.
The guests, all clinked their glasses together.
"Mmm! This tea is delicious," said Ivan, savoring it.
"Captain Hawkins helped me pick it out. And he said he'll brew it for us," said Mikaela proudly.
"How did you get so fond of tea parties anyway?" asked Anna.
"Well, I always wanted to have one like how Alice did in Alice in Wonderland," said Mikaela.
"I see," said Anna,
"Well, these cakes are pretty good," said Camille, biting into a chocolate sponge cake.
"I mixed that myself, and Captain Hawkins baked it for me," said Mikaela, puffing out her chest.
"She's actually pretty good at mixing ingredients. Didn't even make a mess," chuckled Edward.
"Daddy, can I sleep over at Ms. Petra's house? It looks really nice," inquired Anna.
"I don't mind, but you need to ask Ms. Petra and Mikaela," said Stefan.
"Sure, Anna. It will be fun," said Mikaela.
"I don't mind, it will be a nice change I suppose," said Annette.
"Thanks, Mikaela, Ms. Petra," said Anna, shivering with excitement.
---
"Well, looks like those kids are getting along," chuckled Edward, as he, Annette and Ruth sat now in Annette's living room, where Anna and Mikaela were watching Disney's Frozen on Annette's TV.
"I'll admit, Anna is a good kid. I was skeptical of her at first, but now I think this is a good thing," said Annette, who was looking far more relaxed now.
"Mom, what's for dinner?" asked Mikaela as the movie's end credits began to roll.
"Spaghetti and vegan meatballs," said Annette.
"Can't we have pizza or something else?" asked Mikaela, wrinkling her nose at the mention of vegan meatballs.
"No, we can't. I've already cooked it, and you aren't wasting any," said Annette firmly.
"I'll have the vegan meatballs Ms. Petra. Daddy always says no when I ask him to get some," said Anna.
"You're Daddy's right. Vegan meatballs are yucky," said Mikaela.
"Are not!" said Anna defensively,
"Are too!" retorted Mikaela.
"Mikaela! Behave! Anna is a guest here," snapped Annette.
"Fine! You can have the meatballs," glowered Mikaela, as Anna smirked and stuck her tongue out at her.
---
"OK, Anna. What is with you? You've been agreeing with my mom all day. Why?" asked Mikaela, as she and Anna were finally in her bedroom, and on the bed. A teddy bear in between them.
"We'll be having her teach us at school soon, so why not try to be the teacher's pet?" asked Anna.
"So that's what this is about?" asked Mikaela, feeling a little relieved.
"Well, I kinda did like the vegan meatballs, and Ms. Petra is really nice," said Anna.
"Well, she isn't that nice to me," grumbled Mikaela.
"Maybe if you were nice to her, she'll be nice back," said Anna with a shrug.
"Tried that, doesn't work," sighed Mikaela, rolling to her side of the bed.
"Anyway, thanks for having me over. I'm having a lot of fun. Good night, Mikaela," said Anna sleepily.
"Good night, Anna," said Mikaela, and turned off the lights.