##Chapter 19: Teamwork

Elaine tilted her head, motioning at the lawyer to go on. She pulled apart the first bag of chips and poured its contents into a plastic bag, mashing the thin crisps into crumbs to make them fit.

"It's the next topic I wished to speak with you about. It will be the determining factor in what we need to plan out. What is the state of your accommodations? What about those of your family members? If possible I would love to make arrangements with them. It would be more comfortable for all."

Housing, huh? Elaine felt slightly embarrassed to say it aloud. She wasn't sure what the state of Abigail's house was but with the amount of money a lawyer made annually? Yeah, for sure it had to be far better than this place.

"This apartment is the only house I own unless you count my car. My parents live outside of the state all the way in Michigan. They do live in a pretty nice house, though. You got a private jet hidden away somewhere we could use to fly ourselves back and forth?"

"No, I do not currently own an aircraft. I don't get paid quite that much money at this time. What about your other relatives? Your work connections? Your friends? Are there residences inside the city, or close enough to drive to at any rate, and able to be well protected should the need arise?"

She didn't have any relatives in the city, so they wouldn't be able to rely on that. All of the shelters would be highly unlikely to take them due to the nature of the case, and Frank and Hannah had nice apartments of their own, but… burdening them with this felt… wrong.

She knew they would want to help. They just… couldn't. Not when the security they had amounted to an in house guard on Frank's end and a lazy three legged cat on Hannah's.

"No… no I don't think their houses would work at all. What about your place? I know if we could go there we would, but I'm curious as to why your house wouldn't work for a hideout."

Having finished putting the chips into the bags, Abigail was working across the cookies now. They were being stacked in the same rows they'd come in inside the packaging.

"My condo is in a well known area. My name and specific lot number would be easy to access."

Walking across and taking a handful of chocolate chip from the open tin, smiling at the look of sheer dismay on Abigail's face, Elaine began to help her arrange them. "You live in a condominium?"

Moving down to the plastic wrap, Abigail began wrapping up all the chips she'd packed, taking the cookie bags as Elaine finished them up.

"It's close to the courthouse. I can be there in ten minutes if I am needed for anything. The security isn't what I would consider assassin proof, however. So, since neither of us have safe housing, would you say that we will need to leave the city entirely?"

Taking out all her dish towels, Elaine stuffed them against the kitchen window, using the blinds to keep them from moving.

"Yeah, more than likely. Seems like your plan is the only one we really have. I'm fine with bouncing around from place to place or finding a more permanent solution. So long as we keep Grace safe, I can sleep and eat just about anywhere."

Abigail moved to grab the kitchen table. Hefting it, using her legs to carry it along, she set it against the doorway.

"Do you have any important tasks you would need to complete before we make our arrangements known to Grace? I am eager to see if she has any potential solutions."

Elaine packed the chairs in and stuffed them in front with the backs facing the table. She gathered books off the shelves and weighed the chairs down for extra stability.

"Just filing the paperwork for custody and making sure people know I'm taking off for a few days."

Abigail put the bookshelf on its side, whatever books could not fit on the chairs got put atop it. Elaine grinned at their work. They were acting like true proper partners now. She helped Elaine put the TV in front of the living room window, covering it with a blanket taken from the hallway closet.

Abigail nodded at the coffee table where Elaine's laptop was being used as a glorified paper weight.

"If I need to know where certain items are located for the rest of the packing, I will ask you. Please, focus on your work and getting Grace into your custody."

Leaving so much to Abigail to do wasn't fair. Elaine tried to protest only to be shoved to the couch by her shoulders.

"I work in a public government office. I know how much information they will ask you for and how long it will take you to input and send it in. I insist you leave it to me. I'm a bit overbearing when it comes to packing anyway, so this is for both our sakes truly."

She did have a point. The child protective services webpage ran on technology two decades old.

"Fine, but the second I see you struggling I'm helping you again."

The taller woman gave a nod before walking away with a jaunty step. She certainly loved organizing things, didn't she? She also had very nice calves.

Focus Elaine. You could stare at her all you wanted later. There was a form to be found!

It took twenty minutes to find the appropriate document she needed. Sadly, it was a PDF. She didn't have the right tools to open it, so she ended up having to download and wait for the converter to make it into a word processor.

Tired of watching the hourglass flip over and over, telling her it would only be just a few moments more, hah, Elaine let her eyes wander over to the suitcases Abigail had pulled out of the closet.

She was really efficient. Packing all the heavy things first, putting thinner things like cloth atop and between the sensitive equipment to keep it from jostling. Liquids she wrapped in plastic and placed inside plastic bags sitting them upright.

Their eyes met, and at the eyebrow raise she was given, Elaine reached for her phone so she could at least claim to be doing something productive.

Staring was productive. It beat giving in to the rampant sleepiness she felt fogging up her brain as soon as the couch cushions hit her back. She wanted to tell Abigail so badly that she was floating but refrained. It was getting hard to keep herself motivated as much as the situation called for it.

There would have to be naps before they went anywhere. She would be useless soon if she wasn't already.

She spent the next thirty minutes calling all the shelter offices she worked with, telling them about her taking time off and explaining the situation. Elaine offered the consultation services of other social workers in the interim, repeatedly poking at the laptop screen in the hopes of forcing it to load faster.

It did not. No, the document took another ten minutes to sort itself out, much to Abigail's amusement as she whined to the taller woman that technology was being an insufferable brat.

She stuck her tongue out when the woman said it was no surprise that the technology would act that way considering who owned it. Revenge would be sweet and swift however it would come. She was thinking about misplacing a chip bag when the word processor finally lit up, and she opened the custody papers.

God, why did there have to be so many boxes and lines in this thing?

Filling in her information line by line, cursing the fact she couldn't copy and paste it all, Elaine tossed out a random thought to break the silence. She may have been sleepy, but that was no reason to be a bad hostess and ignore her friend when she was working so hard.

"I wonder how many hotels Grace has stayed at. She's going to be so excited. I just hope we can book nice rooms for her."

"Oh, there won't be a need to stay at any kind of hotel or hostel or boarding house of any kind. I have a cabin in the woods about a hundred miles out of the city proper."

Elaine fumbled putting her phone number into the thirteenth box asking for it, hastily back spacing as fast as she could, turning to look at Abigail.

"You have a--Abigail, why didn't you mention it sooner!?"

The woman blinked and looked at the spilled socks as if they were broken.

"It didn't seem relevant. It was much more important to ask you and figure out how you could contribute to the cause so I didn't impose my will onto everything all over again. I would have brought it up in the car if there was no time to discuss it now."

The sentiment was so stupidly noble, Elaine delighted in unfolding every sock Abigail had put into her bag, looking straight at her as she laid them atop her skirt.

"Next time, don't withhold information like that when the topic arises."

The indignant mumbles about "uncultured blonde barbarians and their terrible folding habits" made needing to redo the entire fourth page in the PDF worth it.