CH 33

Nikolas pulled up to the Child Services building and jogged up the steps. He had just got done with school, and he snuck away to go see Gia. After he came home the day before, he and his father got into a huge fight and in the end, Stovros forbid his son to see Gia again. But here he was, running up the stairs to the building where she was. As he approached the nursery, he saw that there were several people standing outside the room. His aunt was one of them, as well as Gia’s brother and a woman he didn’t recognize. Taggert turned around and looked at Nikolas. “Oh good you’re here I need your help. Gia hasn’t left since yesterday. We’ve all been trying to get her to leave. She looks awful and she needs to rest. She needs to come home with me is what she needs to do but she refuses. Or at least get out for a little while. You need to get her to listen to us.” Taggert said. Nikolas sighed as he looked at everyone standing there. He could tell that they had been fighting with Gia all day. “Well I’ll see what I can do. But you know how she is, if she has her mind made up about something, she’s not about to change it no matter what you say. But I’ll try.” He said nodding softy. “Thank you Nikolas, we’ll leave you alone.” Taggert said as he and Alexis and the woman who apparently worked there walked away.

Nikolas stepped in the playroom and quickly scanned the room, his eyes landed on Gia. She was reading a book to Jake in the corner of the room. She looked up as he approached, smiling softly at him. “Hi Nikolas.” She said. Jake looked up at the mention of his name and smiled up at Nik. He got up from Gia’s lap and ran to him. “Nikki’s here.” He said excitedly. “Hey pal, you’re reading a book huh? Can I sit with you guys?” He asked. Jake nodded his head happily and Nikolas walked him over to Gia and sat down with him. “Hey.” Nik said softy as he smiled over at Gia. Taggert was right. She looked terrible. Beautiful still but she looked tired and there was a constant look of emptiness in her eyes. Gia smiled back at him shyly, she ran her fingers through her hair. It wasn’t messy, but she felt like it was. She had been playing with Jake all day. “Hey buddy, why don’t you go play with the train over there? I need to talk to Gia.” Nik said. He was surprised when Jake agreed and ran over to the train set in the middle of the room. “He loves that train set. I should get him one for when he moves in with Marcus and I.” Gia said. Nikolas noticed the way she said “when”. He was glad that she was being so optimistic about this. “Yeah that would be nice, I’m sure he would love it. Hey Gia you look really tired. Why don’t you go home for a while? I can stay here with Jake.” Nik said. Gia stared at him coldly. “That’s what this is about? They summoned you here to try to get me to leave? Well it’s not going to work Nikolas because I’m staying here with my brother. You can just leave now, I’m not going anywhere.” Gia said sternly. She started to stand up but Nikolas clamped his hand around her wrist in a firm hold to stop her. Gia turned to look at him angrily. He quickly dropped his hand. “Don’t touch me like that.” Gia snapped. “Hey come on you know I would never hurt you.” He said, tenderly rubbing her arm. “I’m sorry.” Gia said softening, her face unconsciously leaning into his touch. “Listen to me Gia. I didn’t come here to try to get you to leave. I came here because I wanted to see you. Now your brother told me that you haven’t left since you got back from the hospital and he’s worried about you. When he told me that, I was worried too. I really think you need to take a break Gia.” Nik said. Gia looked at him for quite a while, with her knees bent and half sitting in a crouched position. She frowned and looked over at Jake. “I don’t want to go home yet, I’m not ready to go to my brothers house.” She said. “OK fine, you don’t have to. Come somewhere with me. We’ll go for a drive or something.” Nik said. Gia smiled softly at him. “Fine I’ll go.” She said. Nikolas smiled at her as he got up. He held out his hand to help Gia the rest of the way up. Gia slowly walked up to Jake and looked down at him. “Jakie, Nik and I are going to go for a little while.” She said. Jake looked up from his train. He glanced at Nikolas and back at his sister. “In Nikki’s car? Yay!” He said as he jumped up. Gia glanced at Nikolas briefly. “No Jake you can’t come with us baby. You need to stay here.” Gia said. Jake let out a frantic breath and looked around the room. “No.” He pouted softly. He began to cry as he threw down the train that was in his hand. “Jacob, we’ll be back.” Gia tried to hug him but he ducked away from her. He knew he would lose this battle and he was angry about it. He ran over to the door and turned away from her, crying into his hands. A volunteer who was standing there walked over to him and picked him up. He screamed as the stranger tried to comfort him. Gia was crying as she walked over to them. “We’ll be back really soon Jake, I promise. I love you.” Gia said. She kissed the back of his head and ran out of the room. Nikolas ran after her.

“Gia come on stop running!” Nik shouted. She had run out of the building and was half way down the steps when she stopped. She turned around and looked at him, her chest heaving fiercely. “Why? This is what you wanted right? You wanted me to abandon my brother and leave with you to have fun didn't you? So that’s what I’m doing. Come on lets go!” Gia yelled, tears rolling down her cheeks. Nikolas walked up to her and Gia looked away from him, her mouth clamped shut tightly as she fought her tears. He rubbed one of her crossed arms. “Get in OK?” He said, softy. Gia nodded her head and let him walk her to his car. She waited as he unlocked the door for her and silently got in and sat down.

Gia shook her head. She has been staring aimlessly out the window of Nik’s car and when she felt it stop, she looked around to see where she was. They were stopped at a park. “What are we doing here?” She asked. Nikolas smiled at her. “Well they said that you shouldn’t do anything physically challenging but I happen to think that’s a bunch of crap. I think you need to run around and get some exorcize.” Nik said. Gia frowned. “I don’t think so Nikolas. It’s not right to be having fun while my brother is crying for me.” She said. Nikolas sighed and leaned his head back on his headrest; he turned and thoughtfully studied the worried features of her face. “Gia when I take you back they are just going to make you stay at your brother’s house. It will be there or volunteering. I thought that you would want to have some fun while you can. The next few weeks are going to be rough, why don’t you take advantage of our time together?” Nik suggested. It also tugged in the back of his mind that his father would be furious if he knew that he was here with Gia. He wasn’t sure how often he would be able to sneak away and see her. Gia thought about what Nikolas said. “Fine.” She sighed.

Gia got out of the car and she watched Nikolas go to his trunk. “What are you doing?” She asked. Nikolas shut the trunk. “We’re going to play soccer.” He announced as he held the ball up. Gia scrunched up her nose. “I don’t know how.” She threw up one hand in exclamation. “I’ll teach you.” Nik grinned. Gia shrugged and fallowed him over to the huge field of grass in the middle of the park. “You know that you kick it right?” Nik asked. Gia glared at him “Yes I know that you kick the ball Nikolas.” She said sarcastically. Nikolas laughed. “OK so you just try to get it away from me and I am going to try to kick it between those two trees over there.” Nik said. Gia turned and looked at the trees. “OK I can do that.” She shrugged. Nik raised his eyebrows at the conviction in her tone. He smiled as he tossed the ball down and started to run with it. Gia chased after him and quickly got the ball away. Nik was shocked. He turned around and watched Gia redirect it with her feet. Gia was angry. At her mother and her stepdad. At her brother and now Nikolas’s father. At everyone who told her that she couldn’t be with Jake. With all her might she kicked the ball, crying out angrily as she sent it soaring through the air. With a loud crash, it hit the fence that was a good distance away from them. Nikolas’s mouth dropped open in shock. He shook his head as Gia looked over at him. Gia laughed shyly. “Well I’m impressed.” Nik smirked. “I guess I needed that.” Gia said smiling. Nikolas walked over to her. “You look so beautiful when you smile Gia.” He whispered as he touched her face. Gia sighed as she looked away shyly. She was smiling for the first time in weeks. Nikolas reached out and gently lifted her gaze to his face. Gia let him slowly pull her face towards his and she tilted her head up to kiss him. The kiss was slow and soft, warming their bodies from head to toe. Gia slowly pulled back and looked up at him. “Thank you for bringing me here.” Gia said. She turned her face to the side and leaned forward, resting her head on his chest. Nikolas hugged her to him, and kissed the top of her head. “You’re welcome Gia.” He whispered. A memory of something his father said the day before suddenly popped into his head. If I ever catch you with that girl I’m going to take that car away from you! He had said. Nikolas sighed as he hugged Gia even tighter. This was worth losing anything. He pushed away those thoughts of his father and focused on the fact that Gia was in his arms.

Gia got out of Nik’s car quickly. It was nice to spend time with him, but she was anxious to get back to her baby brother. She rushed into the building and made her way to the playroom. She ignored Marcus’s questions as she rushed by him. She looked around when she stepped in. “Where is he?” She asked when she looked around and didn’t see him anywhere. “He’s asleep.” The caregiver said. Gia looked over at the crib and sighed as she looked down at her brother. She kissed the tips of her fingers and then placed them on his cheek softly, trying not to wake him. She turned around and headed back out. “Gia I have to go.” Nik said walking up to her. Gia nodded her head. “OK.” She said softly. “I don’t want to leave you Gia.” Nik whispered as he moved closer to him. Gia leaned up and kissed him softly on the lips. “I’ll be fine Nikolas, please don’t worry about me so much. Will you come see me tomorrow?” She asked. Nikolas smiled. “Definitely.” He said, without a second thought of his father’s words. Nikolas pulled her in for one final kiss and Gia closed her eyes as she accepted it. Nikolas whispered a soft goodbye before he reluctantly stepped back and walked away. Gia turned around and looked at Marcus who was standing by the door. “Gia I want you to come with me now.” He said. He was expecting her to fight him, and was surprised when she smiled softly at him. “Fine, just for tonight though. I’m coming back first thing in the morning.” She said. “Deal. Come on lets go home.” He said. “Home.” Gia said softly. That was a funny word to her. The house she lived in never felt like a home to her. Taggert nodded softly. “Yeah home.” He said. Gia smiled and took his offered hand.

Gia stepped inside her brother’s home. It was much nicer than she expected. Supposedly there were other tenants living in the building but you couldn’t tell. Everything was nice and quiet. Taggert had cleared his weight set out of his spare room and had put a twin size bed in there. The room was small but he had managed to make it look quite nice for her. Gia saw a bag of her clothes on the bed. Her pajamas were calling her. She turned and looked at her brother. “Thank you Marcus. This was really nice of you to set this room up for me. I don’t really feel like sleeping but what do you say I get my pajamas on and we can watch a movie together like we use to do when we were little?” Gia said. Marcus smiled. “Sounds good. I have to go rent a movie though. Will you get ready while a run over to the store real quick?” He asked. Gia nodded her head and Marcus kissed her forehead before he turned and walked out.

Gia was in her pajamas; she had managed to find some popcorn in her brother’s cupboard. She had popped it and was bringing the bowel into the living room to eat it. She sat it down on the coffee table in front of her. Just as she was about to sit down, the doorbell rang. She walked up to the door and through the fogged glass; she could see that it was a woman. She thought that it was Alexis and quickly opened the door. “Mom.” She breathed when the woman looked up. “Well I hope you’re happy you little bitch!” Florence yelled.