> Derek shook his head and added for Alyssa's benefit "This is the friend I
> was telling you about."
>
> Then to Alex "We're trying to find her mother now, Philip is working on
it.
> But for now we need to find her something to wear and Julia has to get
back
> to the project she was on."
>
> He looked at her from an angle, thankfully Alex being the only one that
> could see and know what kind of look he had. One of near unbelievable
> panic. A thought continued to echo through his head; what if they
couldn't
> find the girl's mother? She had, after all, been dumped in HIS bed.
>
Alex saw the look on his face it worried her. It wasn't often that she'd
ever seen him look so upset. She gave him a reassuring smile and looked at
Alyssa thoughtfully. "I think we can find something for her. As I recall
we have some clothes that Kat out grew before she every really had a chance
to wear them." She wasn't sure what she was going to do about shoes for the
little girl though. You could roll up sleeves and pant legs, but making
shoes that were larg fit was not an easy feat. "Alyssa do you want to eat
breakfast or get dressed first?" The little girl just wanted to get away
from all these strangers and find her mother. "Get dressed," she said
sounding more like a question than a decision.
"All right," Alex said lifting her off the stool and putting her down on the
floor, "we'll be back," she told them and led the child up to Kat's room.
Kat had ended up sleeping in Rachel's room, just to make sure Rachel was
really all right, so the gentle tap Alex made on the door was not necessary.
She led Alyssa inside and closed the door. "Let's see what we can find,"
she said and opened the closet looking for a box on one of the upper
shelves. The Legacy always made it a habit to keep extra clothing around
for unexpected guests. However, the unexpected guests were very rarely
children. There were a few things though, some of which Alex had purchased
for Kat and then discovered that they did not fit her. And Rachel had added
a few of Kat's clothes that she had out grown before putting any actual wear
on them. So, there was some variety to choose from. However, it seemed
only one of the outfits inside the box was Alyssa's size or close to her
size. Most of the others were either too large or too small, well there was
one thing that was too small. Alex found her a pair of socks and helped her
into a bright red shirt and vivid blue overalls. "Don't you look cute," she
said with a smile and let Alyssa look at herself int he full length mirro on
the bathroom door. Then the woman got a hair brush and put the child's hair
inot pony tails. Alex searched in vain for shoes, but couldn't find any
that would do. She sat down on Kat's bed and looked the little girl over.
"You'll have to go around in your socks until we figure something out okay?"
Alyssa nodded. She'd never been a big fan of shoes anyway. Though her
mother had never been thrilled when she padded around in her socks or bare
feet, so this sounded all right, at least until her mother showed up, then
she wasn't sure what she'd do. "All right," Alex said, "let's go get some
breakfast, because I've worked up an apetite already." Alyssa smiled and
took her hand. following her back to the kitchen and trying desparately to
figure out her way around the immense house. "We're back," Alex anounced as
the enteredt he kitchen.
Alex and Alyssa
