Press Release

35: Release Early

Astonished, he looks up at her perched there. His Meg. She's so beautiful. Her hair flops around a bit, and her bangs are in her eyes, but she has the cutest nose he's ever seen, and she's purely adorable with her freckles and her no-nonsense face.

When he tries to speak again, she interrupts, "No. I will not hear your reasons anymore. You were a kid, Xavier. A kid. A teenager perhaps, but still a kid. And you didn't deserve to be abused. Not even once. No matter what."

She's so firm on this that he starts to feel a glow in his chest. Maybe it hadn't been his fault?

"But Meg-pie..." he starts, and when she doesn't balk at the pet name, he continues on, "If I hadn't been so obnoxious...."

By pressing her lips to his, she shuts him up, and he wraps his arms around her as she deepens the kiss, tangling tongues with him. When she comes up for air, Xavier has lost the train of the conversation briefly.

"No. No, Xavier. You were a kid, and he was an adult. You didn't do anything wrong. He had no right to lay a finger on you." She's adamant, and the glow he'd been feeling spreads throughout his entire being.

"Are you sure?" the lost little boy asks her, and she brushes his hair from his forehead as she nods, leaning forward to press a kiss to the center of his brow. "I'm absolutely positive. You did nothing wrong, X. Nothing at all. He is a bad man, and he shouldn't be allowed to keep his job after what he did to you. How many other kids has he abused? Even now, he could be smacking some other child who isn't being as serious as he thinks they should be."

Stricken, Xavier looks at her fully. "I never thought of that, Meg-pie. Damn. I let him hurt other kids!"

"Shhhhh," she whispers, pressing her forefinger to his lips, "You didn't know how to help. And now you have the power to change it. To protect those children and all of the future actor children on that set."

The realization makes him smile, and he presses a kiss to the tip of her finger.

==========

Minnie finds an extra car seat at Meg's apartment, and she's packed a light bag for the kid. She doesn't know what he needs, so she throws in three changes of clothes plus his pajamas and a stuffed octopus that looks like it might be well loved. She's not sure about diapers, but she finally finds some in the one-bedroom apartment. She throws these into the duffel bag she's packing along with a couple of blankets that are on his bed. Having no idea how long she will need to keep the preschooler, she searches his room for any additional items she might need. Finding nothing that looks essential, she takes the boy by the hand and leads him down to her car with the extra car seat and the duffel bag, locking the apartment door behind her on the way out. Having no key, she doesn't know how she will get back in if she needs to.

"We see Mommy?" Titus asks her.

Having no clue how to answer him, Minnie murmurs a noncommittal sound, hoping he won't ask too many questions. He politely holds her hand all the way down the elevator, and then he giggles while she tries to figure out how to put the car seat into her car.

When the two of them arrive at her place, she's relieved to see Harry standing out front carrying an overnight bag. Minnie practically wants to weep when she spots him. He approaches the car, opening the door with the child and teasing him, "Well, look at this handsome fella. Wanna come play with the puppy?"

Titus' eyes open wide, and he nods at this strange man, "Yes! Puppy!" he yells.

Harry unbuckles the boy from the seat, helping him down and closing the car door. "You have to hold my hand until we get upstairs," he tells the boy, and the two of them precede Minnie into the building as she follows behind with her purse and the duffel.