Lost Little Girl [open]

[Adonis Voskopoulos]

2 weeks. It had only been 2 weeks since Adonis suddenly had custody of his daughter thrust upon him in the wake of his ex-fiance's accident. They were quite possibly the longest three days of his life. When he got the call from the hospital that Vivan had been struck by a car while taking a walk (apparently throwing little Maddelena out of the way), Adi could feel his life changing. He drove to Albany faster than he ever had before. The man was shocked that he didn't get pulled over. Viv was in bad shape, and her parents were inconsolable. They said she'd recover, though they weren't sure how fast, and how bad of lasting effects she would suffer. 

After spending a week with Vivian's parents, the man made the decision to pack up all of his daughter's toys and bring them back to Pilot ridge. He had to get back to work, and he didn't want Lena's grandparents to have to worry about her as well as their severely injured daughter. Adi knew it was the right thing to do, but he had no clue how overwhelmed he would be once he got back home. 

Lena cried for her mom nearly every night. She was apparently in the middle of potty training, and Adonis definitely didn't know how to handle that. She was afraid of Zues, and it pained Adi to have to lock the dog up in the basement while the girl was playing - even though the bull mastiff meant well. And since the accident the little girl had become incredibly reserved and quiet. Which was the problem right now. Adonis had taken the three year old to the library with him, so he could check out a few parenting books (focusing mostly on the potty training for now. Wet pants were getting real old real quick). And while he was reading the back of one of his selections, the little girl he had in tow suddenly wasn't by his side anymore. "Lena?" the man whisper-yelled, looking around his immediate area and in the next row over. "Maddelena!?" he yelled again, quickly becoming frantic. 

Sleep deprived and scruffy was not how Adonis usually kept himself. And it probably made himself look even crazier when he ran up to the closest person he could find. "I'm sorry. Have you seen a little girl? About this tall? Dark curly hair? Wearing a pink shirt? I think it was pink... oh god."

[Lilly Love]

It was a little known fact but Live loved to read. However, she read things that most people might classify as "boring". She wasn't into fiction or teen drama novels, she basically lived one anyways; she liked to read about the world and cool facts and stuff she didn't know anything about but wanted to understand. It was the nerd in her coming out.

She had finished reading two books this past week about psychology of children. She found them to be decently interesting, enjoying learning about how the brain and body develops at young ages and what milestones were important. Live found it funny to read about how there were certain needs that had to be met when children were growing up or they wouldn't develop right, like food, affection, confidence, etc. It was funny because she knew exactly what needs hadn't been met when she was a child and she knew just how they had screwed her up. Oh well, no use trying to change the past right?

Live had returned her books and was scanning through the parenting section. She wasn't really sure if she wanted to continue much reading about developing children but she figured she would give the section one last good look over before moving onto something new. She had just pulled a possible find off the shelf to look through when a strange man ran up to her.

Now Live was not a people person. She much preferred to be left alone, especially in a library. She felt like there was something sacred about it, however when the man began to ramble, asking Live if she had seen a girl, she could tell he was in deep distress. She figured she probably shouldn't be a total ass to this poor guy. Live let out a huff, "You lose your kid?" She said bluntly, her dull gray eyes meeting the mans, her face looking disinterested and annoyed. And yes, that was a Live not being a total ass response.

[Adonis Voskopoulos]

Adi didn't appreciate the woman's answer. In his slightly panicked state being judged was the last thing he was worried about or needed. The man rolled his eyes. "A no would have sufficed, thank you," he said, moving past the woman who clearly had no intention of helping him. Adi walked to the nearby shelves, and kept looking up and down the rows and rows of books. Why did this library have to be so big anyway? It wasn't like the town of Pilot Ridge had that large of a populous.

"Lena!" Adi called out in a loud whisper, not wanting to disturb the tutoring session taking place near by. "Maddelena Aria this is not the time to be playing hide and seek," Adi called out in his intense whisper again when he swore he heard a small giggle from god knows where. He tired to follow the little footsteps but lost them again somewhere around where the judgmental woman was.

"Seriously, did you see her pass by this way? She thinks running and hiding is the funniest game ever and frankly I don't have the energy or mental capacity for this right now," Adonis asked, practically begging for the woman's help since he was nearly positive Lena had come by this way.

[Lilly Love]

Live wasn't trying to sound judgmental, she was just asking what seemed to her to be a plain and simple question. But then again, her general bitchy attitude led her to constantly look like she was either just being rude and judgmental. Oh well, she really didn't care to much if thats what people thought of her. It was mostly true anyways.

She was gonna try to help the man when he quickly took off to search without her. She simply shrugged it off and returned to the book in her hand. She could hear the mans desperate whispers as he continued to look for his kid. She felt kind of bad for him, he seemed legitimately panicked. Live supposed she would probably feel the same way if she had a kid and lost it, not that she planned on having a kid any time soon, if ever really. Children were honestly just too big of a responsibility.

Live heard small giggles and little footsteps run behind her but when she turned around, the little girl had already scurried around the next case of books and out of sight. She placed the book in her hand back on the shelf and was about to follow when the man came back, begging for her help.

Live let out a sigh and rolled her eyes (force of habit), "She just ran by. If you go down that side of the isles and I'll go down this side, then eventually she will get caught in the middle."Live wasn't exactly sure if this would work or not but it seemed a better plan than just running around trying to catch the kid. And if this didn't work, Live had a back up plan but it would probably scare the living daylights out of the poor girl.

[Adonis Voskopoulos]

Normally Adonis probably wouldn't be so frantic. It was obvious his daughter was just playing games. But he was tired. He was so tired. The last couple of weeks had been the hardest in the man's life. And in this state he couldn't be rational about the situation and his anxieties were getting the best of him. He hated the feeling of desperation washing over him, but there was no denying it. And that was why he begged for the woman's help.

He was grateful to hear that the woman saw where his daughter went, and followed her instructions, since he hadn't seen which isle of books little Maddelena had scurried down. Turns out three year olds were much faster than Adonis had anticipated. He nodded, and fast-walked to the other end of the isles, looking down them while the woman looked from the other end. But strangely enough when they got to the end of the rows of books, they hadn't come across his daughter. He looked down the last isle, giving the woman a confused look.

"Wait..." he muttered, looking around behind him. There was no way the girl could have gotten past either of them without their noticing, but they definitely hadn't seen her in any of the isle's of books. And he had lost track of Maddie's giggling. "You didn't see her right?" Adi asked, mostly to make sure he wasn't actually going insane.

[Lilly Love]

The panic on the mans face was more than obvious. He looked like he might explode soon with all the anxiety and worry he had built up. Of course, if Live knew what the man had been through recently she would have understood. She wasn't really one for compassion but she knew how it felt to have life got to shit and the amount of stress that could bring about.

Live knew she had seen the girl run past, and based on the direction she had headed, they should have ran into her. She honestly expected to catch the girl in the next few isles and have her giggle and run to her daddy or something; basically she was hoping it would be easy. Helping people was not exactly Live's favorite pass time.

Live looked around when they came to the last isle clearly confused. There wasn't any way the child should have been able to slip past the two. And Live had even actually been looking, like giving a genuine effort to spot the kid. She looked down at the man and gave a shrug, "No..." She replied with a shake of her head She listened for a moment but couldn't hear anything. After letting out a heavy sigh she walked down towards the man.

"Okay...I have another idea." Live stopped in front of the man and crossed her arms, "I can find her in about ten seconds but...it might scare your daughter." While Live did enjoy pranks and messing with people, she wasn't one to bother children. Besides, she had just read all this stuff about childhood trauma and crap. She didn't really want to be the reason this kid could never sleep with the lights out again.