Home, Phase One. Jessica was tired, dizzy, and slightly sick to her stomach after the flight from Arizona, but none of that was enough to deter a wide, delighted smile from spreading across her face when she spotted the tall man with an empty, collapsible luggage cart by his side. "Mr. Robert!" she squealed, and ran to throw her arms around his waist.
"Wonderful to see you again, Miss Jessica," said the Hayles butler, patting her back and smiling down at her fondly as well. Robert had been with the family as long as she could remember, and drove her around as much as Carmela did, along with helping take care of her sometimes; when Carmela had been on maternity leave after Lola was born, Robert had practically been her only confidante. "And wonderful to see you survived your journey on...that," he added, looking unimpressed at the sight of the wagon. Jessica laughed, glad to have someone else acknowledge the absurdity of it. "Er, where are your things?"
"Back here," said Jessica. "Here, I'll jump up and help you get things down - "
Realistically, Jessica knew there was only so much she could do, but she did imagine it was somewhat helpful for her to take one of her biggest trunk's handles while Robert took the other during the process of lowering the thing onto the luggage cart. Once all her bags were unloaded, she walked with him to the Range Rover and walked toward the back, intending to help Robert re-load all her luggage. Before she could, though, he raised a hand to stop her.
"You should get in the car, Miss Jessica - you remember Mr. Hayles' instructions."
Jessica's smile flickered for the first time and she touched the brim of the hat covering all of her light red hair. "Yes," she said. "Sorry - thank you, Mr. Robert."
Daddy's instructions had been very clear. As far as everyone here was concerned, Jessica was gravely ill; therefore, she could not be seen running around like a healthy person, helping the butler pick up bags. She had to keep a low profile and draw as little attention to herself as she could while she was out in public, just in case someone they knew saw her and started asking awkward questions. Jessica's face sank briefly back into the glum lines it defaulted to at Sonora as she climbed into the front passenger seat, though she brightened again when she found, neatly arranged for her use, a divided tray holding micellar cleansing wipes, a sample-sized packet of her face cream, a lip gloss, and even supplies to touch up her nails if needed. She was happily rubbing in face cream when Robert finished unloading the luggage and opened the driver's side door.
"Thank you," she said, pointing to the tray.
"That was Carmela's doing," he reported. "She knows you always like to freshen up when you get home from school, and thought you might appreciate the chance to do so before you got home this year."
"Yes," beamed Jessica. "Where are we going first?" she asked, slipping on her sunglasses.
"Into the city," said Robert.
"Great," said Jessica, applying lip gloss. "How have things been here? How's your mom, is she doing okay?"
"Much better," confirmed Robert. "She appreciated your card very much."
"I got hers - I don't know when she sent it, Daddy had to figure out how to send it to me, these people don't have normal mail. I'm so glad she's better."
"As am I," said Robert. "Now, these people - how have they been treating you?"
* * * * * * * *
Atlanta traffic had not grown any lighter since Jessica had left, and so Jessica had finally had an opportunity to vent until she almost felt better. Also helpful was how Robert was almost as indignant as she was.
"Appalling," said Robert as they walked toward an apartment building. "I'm more than half-inclined to go back with you and set a few things straight with them."
Jessica smiled sadly. "I think they would just float you upside down or something," she said. "They're not very reasonable."
"Even so - here we are."
Instead of leading her to the front door, as would have been normal, Robert had steered Jessica aside to the side entrance. Jessica giggled nervously as he took out a special key to open the staff elevator.
"I feel like I'm in a spy movie," she said. "I never thought I'd use one of these elevators."
"I'm sure you won't find them much different from those you're used to, Miss Jessica."
And, indeed, she didn't. The staff elevator was not aesthetically appealing and didn't have soft music in the background, but it went up steadily and opened on the correct floor, at least based on the wallpaper - they were in a different corridor than usual. However, a turn around a corner and Jessica smiled again and ran to the door. Three people looked up when she threw it open, immediately followed by a burst of chatter as they all tried to welcome her and hug her at once.
"I missed you - I missed you all so much!" she exclaimed, only reluctantly letting go of her father in order to properly hug nine-year-old Mara Morales, the two of them kissing cheeks in European style - an old habit. "Oh, where's Carmela gone?"
Carmela, it turned out, had gone to get Lola. Jessica smiled at the toddler when her nanny put her down. "Hi Lola," she said, bending down to eye level. "I missed you, too."
Lola looked at her with huge dark eyes, then began to cry and shrank back. Laughing, her father picked the baby up; Lola put her arms around his neck at once. "What's the matter, little one?" Arthur Hayles asked. "Don't you remember your own sister?"