The Mom job

Darcy and the gang sat in the destroyed living room of the Lewis house. Jesse sat on one side holding her hand while Sky sat on the opposite side doing the same. Though she had protested being brought home with them because she wasn’t family which caused Mrs. Sanchez to start cursing in Spanish and glaring her into submission. Darcy absolutely did not laugh, not much at least. Eliot sat in the arm chair across from her while Nate used the first aid kit to clean her cuts.

“So uh first thanks all of you for coming to save us and uh giant elephant in the room what’s next?” Darcy looked to her mom. She wanted to tell her friends the truth but it was her moms secret to share not hers.

“Darcy I talked to my husband and to Jesse and well we decided we’d like for you and Sky to move in with us.”

“Really you’d want us?” Sky asked her voice hesitant but her face shined with hope. Sky had grown up in the system and if anyone deserved to be spoiled by Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez it was her. Darcy was glad for her but she couldn’t help the glance she sent to Eliot. She had just met him and the team. She didn’t want to give them up yet but how could she leave her friends.

Eliot looked to Nate his eyes panicked. He wasn’t sure he was ready to let Darcy out of his sight yet. He needed to be sure she was ok. He more than anyone knew how things could come back to haunt you later. How in the dead of night you couldn’t keep the dreams away. It was good he guessed that she could live with her friends. The team could always check on her. He was happy for her, really he was Mrs. Sanchez was crazy, she would protect her but, not like Eliot could. No one would protect her like Eliot could. He would die to keep her safe. He could also teach her to protect herself to be strong to make sure no one ever laid a finger on her again.

“Well Mrs. Sanchez” Sophie started.

“Please call me Gloria, you don’t have to tell me anything but I know you’re Darcy mother.”

Sophie opened her mouth to protest then snapped it shut. This woman had helped to raise her child. Taken her in when the guardians Sophie had chosen had failed her and she did it out of the kindness of her heart.

“You’re right of course. I am Darcy’s mother but my work, our work is dangerous. We have many enemies I’m afraid. I never wanted Darcy to be part of this life. I would appreciate it if you took guardianship of Darcy on paper, but I prefer for her to live with me with us. That is if you want to?” Sophie looked at her daughter who looked at both her friends then nodded smiling brightly despite the blood that trickled down her her lip.

“I don’t exist on paper and Darcy will need a paper trail for college and such. I thought perhaps you would assume guardianship but Darcy would live with us in Boston. She could come back to California for breaks and when our work requires us to travel. Of course both Sky and Jesse are welcome to visit us in Boston.”

“What are you going to do with the Lewis’s house and their things?” Darcy asked not really wanting to sort through through the mess that was the house.

“The house is yours Darcy it was never in the Lewis’s name. I’d like to sell it and anything you don’t want, put the money in an account for you.”

“If Mrs. Sanchez is taking guardianship of me and Sky than that makes us sisters and sisters should be equal. Sell everything I don’t want any of it but split it evenly into three accounts one for each of us.”

Jesse and Sky started to protest. Jesse because her family had plenty of money. She didn’t need to take anything from Darcy. Sky because she thought it was all to much. She never dreamed she would make friends when she started ClearLake. Who wanted to be friends with the emo orphan. Meeting Jess and Darce was worth the taunts from the other girls. The rich ones with important parents who didn’t want to share their school with a scholarship orphan and weren’t shy about letting her and everyone know it. Now she was getting adopted not just into a family with her two best friends but with a woman who had literally stormed the FBI with a knife to rescue them. She didn’t need anything else. Just having a family was enough for Sky.

“Sky don’t you dare say a word. Sisters share equally that means that any money I get from this god awful house is for all of us. That also means you have to teach me some of your computer skills, because sharing is caring.” Sky laughed and Hardison looked intrigued.

“You like computers?” He asked the young girl who blushed and nodded.

“Like, Sky’s the best hacker I ever met besides you Hardison.”

“Oh yeah well in that case I can teach you a thang or two if your interested.” Sky nodded happily this was turning out to be one of the best days of her life. Considering she started the day being held hostage that was saying something.

That night after the girls retired to Darcys room to sleep, Eliot dragged a chair and placed it just outside of the room. Sky who was on her way to the bathroom startled at seeing the man slumped outside of the bedroom door. She raised her brow at him and he smiled sheepishly.

“I can’t sleep so I figured I could stand guard just in case. If it makes you uncomfortable to have me here I’ll go”. Eliot sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He was an idiot but when he had tried to sleep he had been assaulted with a vision of that bastard West dragging Darcy off. In his mind they made it to the car Eliot had been to late. He woke up in a sweat reaching for a gun he hadn’t carried in years. He knew he’d never get to back to sleep after that. So here he was guarding a door to try and convince himself that she was safe that he he hadn’t failed her.

Sky looked at the handsome man in front of her. He kept fidgeting with his hair and wouldn’t meet her eyes. Yeah Darcy had another devoted follower. Jesse always joked that Darcy picked up strays and turned them to devotees but now Sky could see it for herself. Darcy didn’t do anything consciously it was just that she was so warm. She saw people and helped them.

“She’s something else huh.” Sky nodded towards the bedroom door where Darcy and Jesse were. Eliot smiled, nodded still not speaking. “I was the scholarship kid at the fancy school with the all the rich important kids. I wasn’t liked and I didn’t want to be. I sneered at anyone who tried to befriend me made rude, sarcastic comments and was generally an asshole. Jesse didn’t like me at first did you know. Then I got injured and Nurse Leslie wouldn’t give me meds why waste them on an orphan I guess. Darcy just comes into the infirmary popping gum flirting up a storm. I mean I’m straight but when she adjusted her shirt and looked up at him through fluttery lashes, I questioned my sexuality a little. I mean have you seen those things?” Sky made a vague shape in front of her body and Eliot laughed. “She could stop a truck with those or take over the world.” Eliot huffed a laugh, Sky smiled. “Well anyways so there I am bleeding from a gash on my forehead and this tart is flirting with the nurse. I was so angry I wanted to punch her in the face. Then she just grabs my arm calm as be and says “‘’Sky honey you’re bleeding all over the floor you should take care of that.” So I follow her all the while plotting her death. She pulls me into her room and then sticks her hand down her shirt. Now I’m scared because while I may have just questioned my sexuality I’m really not ready for this. Darcy just smiles and starts pulling things out of her shirt. I mean she pulled out liquid stitches, bandaids, antibiotics, gauze, Tylenol. I’m just standing there bleeding and wondering if I have concussion.”

Eliot burst into laughter and Sky joined in with a smile. “She totally robbed the infirmary for me. Patched me up then shoved some food at me. That was it, I knew after that she was one of my people. I don’t have many people being an orphan and all but I realized that when Darcy cares for you she gives you her all. You can’t help but give her your all in return. It’s kinda of scary for people like us. When West took me and Jess he told us he had proof of the school being dirty so we followed him to the auditorium like the idiots we were. The whole time we there scared, hungry neither Jesse or I gave up. No matter what West said. We knew that Darcy would come for us. She would never stop looking, never stop until we were ok because that’s just what kind of person she is. Though we had no idea she was bringing in you guys. Jess thought for sure she had gone to her uncle Chucho.”

“She’s something else that’s for sure. Did she tell you girls how she found us?” Eliot asked making room for the girl on the chair he had brought.

“She told us she called her mom and you guys came.”

“Yeah course she said that, glanced over the part where West told her to meet him after class. She bashed his head in with his own laptop. Then she stole his wallet, brought a plane ticket to Boston. She walked into like twenty bars looking for Nate before she found him, soaking wet and terrified. She begged us to help find you guys. Then insisted on going back in because she wasn’t about to let you guys be alone. Kids the bravest damn person I ever met. Spent the whole time locked in that damn cell they call detention talking to me. I ain’t no good with people. I’m old but she’s special and I know better than to let someone like that out of my life. So you go on to bed. I’ll watch over you girls ain’t no one getting past me.”

Sky beamed at him and kissed his cheek. “I always wanted a big brother.” She told him before scampering away. Eliot could only shake his head with a fond smile. It seems he had just adopted two little sisters into his weird ass family. He didn’t want to think about why he hadn’t included Darcy as a third sister. He would be content for now to think of her as family, maybe one day a future.

Sophie sat outside next to Gloria Sanchez in silence. She knew the woman would probably have questions for her and she deserved answers. Nate and Parker were cataloging the Lewis’s stuff to be sold tomorrow at auction. It seemed they had spent a good chunk of the money Sophie had sent for Darcy’s care on Art and expensive jewelry. Sophie took a deep breath angry that both Lewis’s were dead and she couldn’t re-kill them or at least beat them a little. She had been so sure of her plan. So sure that she was doing the right thing for her daughter. Instead had given her only child to grifters who had used her own heart against her. They told her everything she wanted to hear, had retired to a wonderful all expense paid life and treated her daughter as an after thought.

As if she was reading her mind Gloria said “It’s not your fault you know, that they tricked you. They weren’t bad people Darcy had food, clothes a roof over her head. They just weren’t interested in her.”

“I should have known, its what I do. I read people. How could I have missed something so big. When I’m on a job my mistake could mean a job. I never fail but here my failure meant Darcy’s life. How could I not see what they were?”

“Because you were blinded by them the way many people were. They were older, used that to make people comfortable to believe they were harmless trust worthy. She was not alone tu hija (your daughter) She had us, my family loves Darcy.”

“Thank you Gloria for taking care of my child. You didn’t have to and you didn’t gain anything but you took in a lonely girl, made her part of your family. I can never tell you how much that means to me.” Sophie let her guard down for just a bit so the other woman would see how truly sincere she was. She would give the other woman anything to thank her for what she had done for Darcy.

“Did you know I wanted more children. My husband and I wanted a big family. I have four brothers. Paul my husband he has 3 older brothers. We’re both used to bigger families but after I had Jesse there were complications. The doctors said I would never have any more children. For years we went to specialist after specialist to be told the same thing. Jesse would be our only child. Paul works in the government so we thought why not adopt but even when you have money, having a brown wife can get in your way. Then Darcy moved in next door. She was just a tiny little thing all blue eyes. I hoped she would be friends with Jesse but I wasn’t going to hold my breath. There are a lot of kids in this neighborhood but the parents don’t want their kids playing with the little immigrant girl. Darcy walked right over to Jesse, grabbed her hand, those girls have been inseparable ever since. Not once did she ever listen to the other children when they told her not to play with Jesse. She became part of our family, you don’t have to thank me for loving her. That girl of yours is very easy to love. But I think maybe you’re not here for thanks but because you have heard of my brother no?”

Sophie didn’t bother to deny it. Gloria was a mother like Sophie she understood. Sophie would do anything pay anything to eliminate the threat against her child. She had looked into Gloria’s brothers. They were part of the Sinaloa Cartel. Gloria’s maiden name was in fact Guzman. Her father was the infamous EL Chapo former leader of the Mexican Cartel. Alfredo Guzman aka uncle Chucho had a soft spot for Darcy. He was also the hitter for the cartel.

“Noah West’s father is a congressman. He’s left a trail of bloody girls in his wake. His fathers money and power has erased them all. He’s sick tried to sell two of those girls and is obsessed with Darcy. I was on Eliot’s com. If he lives he will never stop looking for her. Whatever it takes how ever much it cost, I want him gone. I wont have a threat to those girls living!” Sophie looked at the other woman with hard eyes. She wasn’t lying. West now knew that Darcy would never give up on her friends she had willingly walked back into that hell hole for the girls she thought of as sisters. He had money, connections and even if he didn’t find Darcy he would be able to trace her friends.

“You do not need to do this Sophie.”

Sophie stood up frustrated, she needed to make Gloria see! It was the only way to keep their girls safe, not just Darcy but Jesse and Sky as well. As long as Adam West breathed they would be in danger.

“That man is a beast a rabid animal that needs to be put down. Eliot would do it but he’s tried so hard to put that part of his life away. I don’t want to ask but I will, for Darcy I will.”

“I love my brothers. Though the life they live is not something I would choose for myself or my daughter. They are family and you watch your family you protect them, love them no matter what. I wouldn’t want that man upstairs to choose that life again. Not everyone can do those things and keep their souls. That man who is guarding our girls has a soft heart, life has made him hard but has not broken him. In your team he has found peace and family. In little Darcy a hope for a future. Once she is much much older, Or lo matare (I will kill him) No te preocupes (don’t worry) Adam West died in his holding cell two hours ago. I told you those girls upstairs are my girls too and I will protect our girls.”