AHeartlessNobody

Where there is a Flame, Someone's Bound to Get Burned(Heart and Mae)

As much as she wished she could at least be a little satisfied or even smug about Jenna cheating on him, leaving him as a single father, she had to say she wasn't. She didn't even want to think about that woman, or about any of the other girls James had probably slept with behind her back when they were together, "Well then. I'm that upset you. Sure does hurt when you find the person you love most in bed with someone else and that they never loved you anyway." She shrugged, "Oh well, guess justice was served to a certain extant." Then he went on this whole spew about how they should let go of the past and start new. That of course was easy for him to say. He wasn't the wrong who had been wronged in this certain situation. She was.

And sure she hoped when he said he wanted to 'make room for better memories' and change the future. She just hoped when he said that he didn't mean a future between him and herself. Because that sure as hell wasn't about to happened. She may have been willing to give him chance as a father, but he had used up his chances on being with her. She wouldn't trust him in that way ever again. Or at least she liked to think that she wouldn't She was a bit unsure of everything happening here, and while she was a little bit more reserved about her feelings, she was still naive about that sort of thing and easily swayed with just a few good sounding words and promises. In hearing his comment of her nervousness, her face reddened slightly in embarrassment and her hands slowly moved from her hair, an annoyed look on her face, "I am not nervous. You think you know everything about me but you don't." In truth that was a bold face lie, because he had been right. he had been nervous and worried about everything he said.

Hearing the home phone ring, she stood up, walking over to it and picked it up, listening to Mrs. Hannah on the other end, she sighed and told the woman she would be there in a minute. Hanging up the phone she ran her hands through her hair in a frustrated manner, "Mrs. Hannah's bringing Lily back. Apparently Lily got sick." The woman lived just two streets down so it was just a few moments later that there was a knock at the door. Walking over, she opened it up and took the pitiful looking girl into her arms, holding her close, saying a thank you to the old woman, before closing the door and walking back to living room, "My poor baby. Come on, lets get you to bed." She left James be for now. If he wanted to follow her, do something or say anything, she wasn't going to stop him, but it better not make the child in her arms feel any worse than she already did. Walking to the little girl's room, she layed her in bed and tucked her in, sitting on the edge fo the bed as she stroked her hair, trying to help the sick little girl fall asleep.

Where there is a Flame, Someone's Bound to Get Burned(Heart and Mae)

"You made your choice, James. The moment you laid in bed with that--" She stopped herself, closing her eyes tightly, a frustrated look on her face, so many emotions running through her and her anger building up again, "I gave you so many chances James. Time and time again when I called. When I emailed and texted. I even came to your house. I know you were home James, yet you still ignored me." She gave a frustrated sigh, burying her face in her hands. This wasn't fair. At all. She wasn't even sure if she could trust him to not hurt her daughter, and yet here she was considering it. She sighed heavily, looking back up at him, a slightly upset look on her for a moment before she put that cold mask back on her face and spoke again, "You do realize, if you hurt her, I will make sure you regret it for the rest of your sorry life."

Sitting up straight again and thinking about it hard for a moment before she glared at him once more, "One shot, James. ONE. But there are conditions. Until I can trust you to be around her, I will be present with every second you are with her. And you can't come see her just any time you want. You have to run the time and place by me first. You can't upset her in anyway. If I see her even the least bit upset thats it. And whoever you're with right now, I don't want to see her until much later. One new parent is enough for Lily, a step mom being brought into the picture would be too much for her for now." She crossed her arms, "And you're right. You don't deserve it. I shouldn't even be giving you this chance. So you better make it count."

Sighing, she stood up from where she sat and pulled her dirty blonde hair back into a pony tail as she spoke, more or less playing with her long hair, something she always did with she was nervous, worried, or upset, all of which applied at this moment. It was a habit that she had ever since she was child and one that many people had commented on before, since she never realized she did it until somebody said something about it, "How did you even find my house anyway? Where you stalking me or something?" It would explain how he found her in that store. And to be honest, it was scary to think about. What if she hadn't walked outside when she had? Would he have tried to take little Lily? Nothing could stop him. He was her father and because he had never been around neither had technical custody. There would be nothing she could do about it if he had taken her.

That brought her to another thought. What if he tried filing custody for her? She knew she would never win in that battle. If the judges saw how behind she was on her finances, they would surely award custody over her to him. It scared her and she prayed it didn't come down to that. If it did, she would never forgive him, and she was sure neither would Lily.

Where there is a Flame, Someone's Bound to Get Burned(Heart and Mae)

"Hoping for this?! You don't know how wrong you are James! I've been hoping I would never have to see you ever again! But apparently fate isn't too kind." She moved closer, poking him in the chest with every degrading name she called him, "You're a low down, sneaky, cheating, bastard!" She took a step back again and crossed her arms, scoffing when he asked if they could just talk about what was going on, "Talk? Why should I talk to James? So you can make me fall for you again? So you can earn the trust of that little girl in there? Only to leave again? I'm not stupid. People like you don't change. I'm not going to let you near MY daughter. Because when you leave all it will do is cause her more trauma." She looked back at the house to see her daughter peaking out through the curtains and sighed. She turned her gaze back to him, a frown on her face, but a little calmer about the situation at hand, "She means the world to me James. I don't want you hurting her. She would never be able to recover emotionally from loosing a parent."

Placing her hands on her hips, she thought for a moment, and very unwillingly nodded her head, "We can talk. But not with Lillian around. I just....I need to make a quick phone call." She unlocked the small picket fence for him to follow her and she walked into her house, looking to see her daughter sitting on the couch, trying to act as though she hadn't been watching the two adults, "Lily, I'm going to call Mrs. Hannah, okay? You're going to go spend the night with her tonight. Go get you some of the pasta I made you for dinner while you wait for her to come." She walked into her daughter's bedroom and picked up the house phone, making a call to one of the other teachers she worked with. The woman just adored little Lily and Lily loved going over to the old woman's house because she had a lot of cats to play with. Once it was settled that Mrs. Hannah would come to pick up Lily, Amelia quickly packed a bag for her daughter and walked back to the living room, giving James a stern look, "You sit in the living room for now. Don't even think about trying to talk to Lily right now." She said so only the man could hear, then walked into the kitchen where her daughter was, "Okay sweetheart, you're bag is packed." Hearing a honk outside she smiled, "Oh. There's Mrs. Hannah now." The little girl ran happily out the door and Amelia followed.

She handed the woman the little girl's back pack and chatted with her for a moment before the two left in the car, driving back to the old woman's house. She slowly walked back into the house and sat on the couch and living room, looking at James with a very annoyed look on her face, "James, I don't understand you. What could you possibly want with me? With Lily? Give me one good reason why I should even let you talk to her, much less become a part of her life."

Where there is a Flame, Someone's Bound to Get Burned(Heart and Mae)

Seeing the man at her gate, little Lily was at first somewhat nervous about speaking to the man. The girl glanced back to the house, for a moment thinking about if she should go get her mother, but then walked up to the gate, staying out of arms reach of the man standing there. She was a smart girl for her age. She knew about being safe around people she didn't know. Her mother had taught her well. She shifted slightly as she stood there, looking up at the man somewhat shyly. She was shy around new people sometimes, but she was also very open. She thought for a moment, "Nope. It's just me and Mommy. Mommy says my daddy was a no good bastard. I don't know what that mean but she really doesn't like him."

She smiled up at him, an innocent look on her face. She was a sheltered little girl who didn't know much about bad things, so when she called him that, she dint realize it was a bad word, probably having heard her mother say it to someone else. As she stood there, she tilted her head to the side, "Are you really one of my Mommy's friends? She didn't seem to like you very much." Such honesty. Lily never told lies and while that was a good thing, she tended to speak what was on her mind sometimes when she really shouldn't and at the same time it made her all the cuter and more innocent.

Before James even got a chance to answer though, the front door to the small house opened up and out came a smiling Amelia, "Lily! Time for dinner! Come inside and wash....up..." she trailed off, her smile faltering at the sight of James at her gate and speaking to her daughter. She quickly moved down from the doorway and toward the gate in a somewhat worried fashion, unsure of what he could be telling her, "Lily! Baby, get inside. I'll be inside in a moment." The little girl nodded and skipped happily to the house and when she disappeared inside, Amelia turned on James with a glare, a furious look on her face, "What the hell are you doing here?! You need to leave! Now!"

Try(Heart and Scotsman)

Amelia was so used to being on her own. It had been that way for a long time, and really the only other person she had in her life was her sweet little girl. Lily. She was such a doll, and never once did Amelia ever regret having that beautiful little girl, even if her father had hurt her. Lily looked like James. Same brown hair. Same bright smile. But she had Amelia's blue eyes. Not only did she look like James, Lillian acted like him a lot too. She had the same light hearted personality(or at least, that was the personality he had had when she and James first got together) and gentleness to her, understanding when someone was hurt whether it be emotionally or physically. Amelia hadn't realized that about her young daughter until later, and had decided to try her best to hide those bad feelings from her daughter. She never wanted her daughter to share those horrible emotions and worries with her. All she wanted to see on that cute little face was the bright smile that she loved so much.

Humming lightly to herself, she cleaned off the write board from the day of teaching a class full of second graders, waiting for her daughter, who had just started pre-k that year, to come back from the bathroom. It was great to work in the school system, where she could keep an eye on her daughter and if anything bad happened she could get to her quickly. It made her feel much better as a parent. Putting down the board cleaner, she looked toward the door, speaking to herself, "Where is that girl? I hope she's not running the halls again. Last time she did that she bumped into Mr. Lanford. Boy was he mad when he dropped all those eggs for his science experiment." She laughed lightly to herself at the memory. Mr. Lanford was the fifth grade's science teacher and a very grumpy man who Amelia believe hated children all together. Why he taught kids, she couldn't find a clue. but he seemed to dislike Amelia's daughter most of all.

She moved toward her desk and as she sat down, sorting through the paper's, when the pattering of two little feet came from down the hall and suddenly the a little girl with brown hair burst into the room, giggling, each running over to their own mother. Lilly jumped into her mother's lap, out of breath from running, yet still talking excitedly, "Momma! Momma! Can I go outside to the play ground! PLEASE?! PLEASE?!"

Laughing Amelia held the little four year old in her arms, "There's my little Lily Pad. Slow down and catch your breath. Your asthma's going to act up if you don't."

The little girl, although obviously impatient to hear her mother's answer to the earlier question, did as she was told and took a moment to take deep breaths and calm herself before looking more calmly and pleadingly up at her mother, "Can I go now? Pleeeeeease?"

Smiling softly at her daughter, she nodded, "I suppose. But Uncle Sid will be here soon to pick us up, so you don;t have long." They only had one car and seeing as Amelia worked all day she always let Sid borrow it while she was at work as long as he picked them up after words, "And don't go running down the hall. We don't need another incident like the egg incident." She didn't see any problem with it. She could see the play ground from the class room window and the play ground was fenced. No one form outside the school could get in and the kids couldn't get out. The only way to get on the playground was through the school hallways. It was perfectly safe. She watched the child run eagerly off, laughing, "Hey! I said no running!" Sighing with a shake of her head and a small smile she sat back in her chair.

She continued to shuffle the papers, a smile on her face and when she had them all in order she stood up, moving toward her bag, hoping that Sid would be there soon with their car so they could go home.

Try(Heart and Scotsman)

Name: Amelia Carter
Age: 24
Occupation: Teacher
Children: A four year old daughter named Lillian(Lily for short)

Appearence:
When they dated in college

Now as a teacher

Other: She cares for her daughter deeply and shields the little girl from anything she thinks might cause her emotional damage. That includes anything having to do with her father.

Where there is a Flame, Someone's Bound to Get Burned(Heart and Mae)

Of course. It was so like him to make a snide comment. She raised an eyebrow, giving him an uncaring look, "Even? Ha. Not by far." She stood up straight, her glare on him for a moment before she felt a tugging on her shirt and looked own at her daughter, "Huh? Oh, Lily. Go change back into your normal clothes. We'll get it and then head home, okay?" The little girl nodded, looking shyly at James with her bright blue eyes before moving quickly back into the dressing room.When Lily was gone and out of ear shot, Amelia turned her hard gaze to James again, "Lily's six now. In case your wondering. And my family? She's my family. The only family we need is each other.

She wasn't going to tell him straight out. No. He would have to figure out the truth for himself. Though, with all the clues she was throwing out for him, it shouldn't have been to hard to figure out. She looked like him. Her telling him her age, which lined up with their last intimate interaction. Hell, even her name, the same name as his dead mother, was a clue! If he didn't realize it soon, he was even dumber than she thought. But then again, even if he did figure it out, she didn't expect him to act on it. Clearly he was still the same spoiled and egotistical man he had always been. She didn't want her daughter subjected to life with a man like him as her father. Lily deserved better. She would rather the girl have no father than someone like him as one. She wasn't going to let him hurt Lily like he had hurt her. She was so worried if she did he would be a great father for a few months, maybe a year, and then walk out on Lily. That would cause more emotional pain for the little girl then never having him in her life at all.

She wasn't going to let him do that to her. Never. As far as she was concerned, he would never get the chance to. This little chanced meeting would be over with soon and she could just forget about James again. It would be difficult the first few days, but Amelia was stronger than she had been six years ago. She could make it. And she was sure it wouldn't be hard at all for him to forget he had seen her. After all, he had a daughter. Probably a beautiful wife at home. All the money he wanted(that damn money she hated. one of the very reasons he had changed). He probably wouldn't even think twice about seeing her here except to maybe joke with his friends about how he had seen his 'pitiful' ex girlfriend again.

She glanced over to see her daughter walk out of the dressing room and smiled at her, "Come on Lily Pad. Lets pay for that and get home." She took the little girl's hand and lead her off to the cash register. As she paid for the dress, Amelia felt her daughter tug on her sleeve and looked down at the shy little girl, "What is it sweety?"

The little looked up at her with curious and worried eyes, "Mommy? Who was that man? Why did he make you so mad?"

Amelia blinked in surprise and frowned deeply. She always hid bad emotions from her daughter that seeing Amelia so upset was something new for the little girl. It ashamed Amelia that her daughter had seen that snappy side of her. She smiled softly at her daughter, as she did when trying to comfort her, "No one honey. Don't worry about it. Just...someone from the past. And that's all he is, is the past. I doubt we'll ever see him again anyway." After the dress was all paid for, she picked it up and took her daughter's hand once more, "Now come on, when we get home I'll let you play in the front yard, alright?"

That made the little girl very excited. She bounced up and down, giggling and following her mother. As Amelia left the store, she glanced up to look at James once more before turning and leaving the store, hoping to put all of this behind her for herself, as well as her daughter.

...

Once home, Amelia went inside and started cooking dinner while little Lily played outside in the front year, inside of the white picket fence that ran around the house's property. She giggled and ran around, blowing bubbles and chasing butterflies. She was a very energetic and fun loving child, as it showed when she played. She laughed and fell back into the grass, laying there giggling all the while as a butterfly flew over her. Sitting up, she smiled brightly and grabbed her bubbles, blowing more of them, glad to just be having fun and outside.

Where there is a Flame, Someone's Bound to Get Burned(Heart and Mae)

Amelia couldn't get it out of her head as she walked down the halls to where the playground was. James was here, in this very town. And not only that but his daughter just happened to be in her classroom. What were the odds? Was fate just against her so much that she would have to be reminded of one of the hardest times in her life? It wasn't fair to have all of those memories thrust upon her again. Memories of they happy first year together, when they truly had loved each other. Memories of his popularity causing him to drift away from her. Memories of seeing him in bed with another woman. And worse of all, the memories of him completely shunning and ignoring her in that frightful and confusing first few months of her pregnancy. She had been so scared. So helpless. All she had wanted for for someone, ANYONE, to comfort her. To tell her it would be okay and everything would turn out fine. She understood if he didn't want to be with her anymore, if he didn't love her, but to treat her as if she never existed? That was the worse thing he could have done to her.

She walked through the doors and out to the playground, immediately smiling to see her little girl climbing up the monkey bars and hanging upside down from it. She was a very energy filled little girl that was for sure. She reminded Amelia of herself when she was Lily's age. Always running around and playing, seeming to bring a smile to anyone's face who was fortunate enough to see her. Walking over to the bars she grinned up at her daughter, putting her hands on her hips, "Lillian. Time to go sweety. We have to go get you a new dress for your birthday party, remember? If you don't hurry all the shops will close before we even get a chance to look around." Who needed James? She sure didn't. So what if he was happy and had a family of his own? So what if he had shunned her and had said she was a stupid and worthless girl? It was his lose because he would never get to have the privilege of calling this sweet little ray of sunshine his daughter.

Reaching up when Lily hung upside down again giggling, she wrapped her arms around her and pulled her off laughing, "Come on you silly Lily." She carried the girl happily over to the old 1995 monte carlo and let her get in before getting into the drivers seat and left from there, heading to the indoor mall just a few miles away. Once there she lead the little girl inside and smiled holding her hand, "Okay, so, we need to get you a dress and a new pair of shoes." In reality, she couldn't afford even that. She was behind on her bills majorly and shouldn't even be getting anything they didn't need, especially if it meant using her credit card, which was already a large bill. But, she had promised the girl over a month ago to do this for her and she for sure was going to keep that promise! If it made her daughter happy she would do anything.

Walking into one of the stores she let the little girl look at some dresses while she herself just browsed around. Amelia found a rather pretty dress. One that she wanted to get so badly to wear for her mother daughter night with little Lily. She hadn't bought anything new for herself in months. But one look at the price tag and a deep frown came to her face. She couldn't afford it. Sighing, she looked at the dress another moment before she turned, and gave her daughter the same smile she always gave the girl to keep her from worrying about her mother, "Did you find anything yet Lily Pad?"

"Uh-huh!" The little girl held up a pretty little green dress and Amelia smiled, "Okay, lets go try it on." She walked her daughter over to the dressing room and let the little girl go in by herself. It only took a moment but soon she came out and Amelia smiled at her daughter, "Oh, sweety, it looks great on you." Kneeling down she hugged her daughter close to her and smiled more, "Here, turn around. I want to see what it will look like with your hair up." The girl turned around obediently, and Amelia took to rolling the girl's hair up, hoping to put it in a pretty looking bun, when she saw her worst night mare come into the door of the shop. James. He was still with his daughter, probably looking for something for her. She quickly looked away and went back to doing her daughter's hair, thinking and hoping that maybe if she pretended not to have seen him, he might not see her. Or if he did he wouldn't dare come over to her. So, she rolled her daughter's hair up again, focusing on that instead of her old lover being in the same store as her, and worse, while she was here with their daughter he knew nothing about.

Where there is a Flame, Someone's Bound to Get Burned(Heart and Mae)

Amelia was so used to being on her own. It had been that way for a long time, and really the only other person she had in her life was her sweet little girl. Lily. She was such a doll, and never once did Amelia ever regret having that beautiful little girl, even if her father had hurt her. Lily looked like James. Same brown hair. Same bright smile. But she had Amelia's blue eyes. Not only did she look like James, Lillian acted like him a lot too. She had the same light hearted personality(or at least, that was the personality he had had when she and James first got together) and gentleness to her, understanding when someone was hurt whether it be emotionally or physically. Amelia hadn't realized that about her young daughter until later, and had decided to try her best to hide those bad feelings from her daughter. She never wanted her daughter to share those horrible emotions and worries with her. All she wanted to see on that cute little face was the bright smile that she loved so much.

Humming lightly to herself, she cleaned off the write board from the day of teaching a class full of kindergartners, waiting for her daughter, who had just started first grade that year, to come back from the bathroom. It was great to work in the school system, where she could keep an eye on her daughter and if anything bad happened she could get to her quickly. It made her feel much better as a parent. Putting down the board cleaner, she looked toward the door, speaking to herself, "Where is that girl? I hope she's not running the halls again. Last time she did that she bumped into Mr. Lanford. Boy was he mad when he dropped all those eggs for his science experiment." She laughed lightly to herself at the memory. Mr. Lanford was the fifth grade's science teacher and a very grumpy man who Amelia believe hated children all together. Why he taught kids, she couldn't find a clue. but he seemed to dislike Amelia's daughter most of all.

Turning, she began to shift through papers on her desk, putting things into a neat pile, and looked up at the one student left in her class room. Parents who picked up their children were supposed to pick them up out front before three o'clock. When it turned three, Amelia had told the people in the office to send the little girl's father to pick her up from the classroom, that way the little girl didn't have to wait outside. Smiling gently at the girl, Amelia walked over and pulled out a few coloring sheets and a box of markers, "Here sweety. You can color these until your daddy gets here, okay? I'm sure he'll be here very soon. I'm sure he just got caught in traffic of something of the sort."

She moved toward her desk and as she sat down, sorting through the paper's , the pattering of two little feet came from down the hall and suddenly the a little girl with brown hair burst into the room, giggling, each running over to their own mother. Lilly jumped into her mother's lap, out of breath from running, yet still talking excitedly, "Momma! Momma! Can I go outside to the play ground! PLEASE?! PLEASE?!"

Laughing Amelia held the little four year old in her arms, "There's my little Lily Pad. Slow down and catch your breath. Your asthma's going to act up if you don't."

The little girl, although obviously impatient to hear her mother's answer to the earlier question, did as she was told and took a moment to take deep breaths and calm herself before looking more calmly and pleadingly up at her mother, "Can I go now? Pleeeeeease?"

Smiling softly at her daughter, she nodded, "I suppose. But don't go running down the hall. We don't need another incident like the egg incident." She didn't see any problem with it. She could see the play ground from the class room window and the play ground was fenced. No one form outside the school could get in and the kids couldn't get out. The only way to get on the playground was through the school hallways. It was perfectly safe. She watched the child run eagerly off, laughing, "Hey! I said no running!" Sighing with a shake of her head and a small smile she sat back in her chair. She would have offered that the little girl left in her classroom could go as well, but she wasn't sure what her father was like and if he would approve of that. It was kind of a liability thing.

She continued to shuffle the papers, a smile on her face and when she had them all in order she stood up, moving toward her bag when a man walked in the room. When she looked up to see the girl's father, a soft gasp escaped her lips, her eyes wide and the paper's slipping from her hands, falling to the floor in a mess. Snapping out of her surprised state as quickly as she got into it, she bent down nervously picking up her papers, and looked up at him warily from under her long lashes.

After gathering all of her papers, she stood up straight, and stared at him for a moment before looked at his daughter and back at him, "Started a family I see. A lot must have happened in the past six years for you since we last saw each other, James." She moved over, putting the paper's in her bag, getting ready to leave, "You're daughters a good student and a very sweet girl. She must not take after you." Okay, maybe that was harsh, and the sour tone she had showed she was clearly not pleased with seeing him again. Putting her bag on her arm, she looked at him, her chin held high as if to put him down, "You know, pick up is supposed to end at three. Don't make this a habit." She stated, before walking out of the class room door and down the school hallways.

Where there is a Flame, Someone's Bound to Get Burned(Heart and Mae)

Name: Amelia Carter
Age: 24
Occupation: Teacher
Children: A six year old daughter named Lillian(Lily for short)

Appearence:
When they dated in college

Now as a teacher

Other: She cares for her daughter deeply and shields the little girl from anything she thinks might cause her emotional damage. That includes anything having to do with her father.