Good Day

---

Vanessa

Months passed before Brian was able to be released from the hospital. News reporters were in full force when they caught wind of Mr. Peabody’s release. Samuel and Poppie were there with us as we walked out the staff entrance to avoid all of the paparazzi. He held my hand in the SUV as Samuel drove us back to the mansion.

“It’s good to have you back Peabody,” Samuel said as he parked in the garage.

“It’s good to be back,” he said, turning and looking at me. Brian kissed the back of my hand and tears swelled in my eyes.

“Yes it is.” I responded smiling at him. He was still recovering and still in a bit of pain as he eased out the door while Samuel held it open.

“Are you guys hungry?”

“Yeah, could you order us some food?” I asked Samuel.

“Sure, I’ll get enough for everyone.” I nodded and slipped my arm around Brian to give him some assistance going into the house.

“Great, you guys are staying. Call us when the food arrives.” I said as we entered the house. I was happy Brian had returned and I wanted him all to myself for a moment.

“Where would you like to sit?” I asked as we slowly walked down the hallway.

“I know where I want you to sit,” he smiled slyly at me. I blushed and giggled.

“You know you can’t get physical, you literally just got out the hospital,”

“I know, but my tongue is not hurt at all,” he responded, flicking his tongue at me. He chuckled as I knew he was joking, but if only I could. I missed him so much.

“You are so bad,”

“Only for you baby,” he said, leaning down and giving me a kiss on my forehead.

“So where are we going in this house because we could walk for miles in here,”

“We can go and chill out in the living room.” Brian finally said. We turned towards the living room and sat down on the couch in front of the television.

Brian laid across the chaise and exhaled. He was happy to be home. He looked at me and reached for my hand. I willingly laced my fingers with his and crawled as close as possible to him and focused on his face. I looked at his dark brown eyes and saw the happiness and love he had for me. I ran my fingers along the lines of his face and caressed his cheek. He closed his eyes and held my hand against his face.

“I missed you so much,” I said, tearing up. He looked at me and wiped away my tears.

“I know, I missed you too baby,”

“I thought I lost you,” I said, crying harder. He instantly wrapped his arms around me and held me tightly as I cried.

“Oh baby, you ain’t never gonna lose me,” he said, holding me and slightly rocking back and forth. “Ever. I’m not going anywhere.”

I believed him. Brian loved me. I’ve known that for a long time. And I’m sure he knows I love him. I thought I had lost him forever, but he fought to come back to me.

“I’m so glad to have you back,” I said smiling through my tears.

“I missed your beautiful face,” he said, wiping away my tears. I leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips. I missed his lips. Weeks went by before I was able to just see him look back at me in the hospital. He worked hard to be released, having been on a breathing machine. He was determined.

“I missed yours too.”

Samuel and Poppie entered with a huge selection of food he ordered from Calumet Fisheries. He made sure to cover every possible want from fish chips, frog legs, catfish nuggets, stuffed shrimp and a plethora of other items.

“Damn Sam, did you purchase the entire store?” I said looking at the meals they continued to set on the table.

“We wanted to make sure we had a little bit of something for everyone,” Poppie said as she sat down on the floor pillows on the other side of the cocktail table.

“I see, well there is something for everyone.”

“Everything looks delicious,” Brian said as I handed him a container containing an entire meal.

“Good to have you back, Mr. Peabody.” Poppie said smiling.

“Please call me Peabody, the same as Sam. It’s okay?”

“Aww, thank you. I appreciate that.” Poppie smiled and looked at Sam. He leaned over and bumped her playfully.

I noticed the two of them had been closer than ever and I quite enjoyed seeing them together. I knew they would hit it off. I was glad I found her. I thought it was about time to let them in on a little secret that I had been holding on to.

“I have something Samuel that I would like to give you and Poppie,” Both Poppie and Samuel stopped eating and looked surprised.

“To us?” They said in unison.

“Yes,” I pointed at the desk on the opposite side of the room. “Can you look in the first drawer on the right side and bring me the small manila envelope please?”

Samuel retrieved the envelope and handed it to me as he returned to his seat next to Poppie. I opened the envelope and pulled out a picture of three children - a boy and two girls. I turned it around and showed the picture to both of them. Poppie’s eyes instantly widened.

“I have that same picture!” Poppie said pointing towards the picture. I smiled as I had known she would respond first. Sam not so much, he had never seen it before. “That’s me and Shayla when we were little. I can’t remember the little boy.”

“His name is Samuel.” I said and both of their eyes widened as they looked at each other. “When you came to live with us, you would always ask if Poppie was coming too,” I said looking at the picture.

“Wait, what?!” Sam said, looking at Poppie.

“You would always ask if we could go and pick Poppie up when we would go out to the store, or anywhere you saw other kids, you always wanted to have Poppie by your side,” I said looking back at them.

“You searched for me?” Poppie asked, covering her mouth.

“For a very long time. Every chance I got, if I had any information on a possibility of where you could be, I searched and searched and searched.”

“Wow, I....I don’t know what to say,” she said.

“I knew if I found you, you would make Samuel happy.” I said as she looked at Samuel. He smiled and she caressed his face. “So, I had to find you.”

“I didn’t know,” she said.

“It’s okay, we were young, but she found you.” Samuel beamed looking at Poppie.

“Yes she did,” she said. “Thank you Ms. McBride for finding me. For everything.”

“Please, call me Ms. V. The pleasure was all mine. I knew you were a fighter and when I found you, I just had to bring you home with us.”

---

Poppie

Peabody was released from the hospital and was back at the mansion. I was really nice to see him back with Ms. McBride as she looked absolutely lost without him. She brightened up when he was able to leave the hospital as she stayed beside him the entire time.

We were hanging out with them, having lunch after Peabody returned. He allowed me to drop the Mr. from his name, which was a privilege and I was honored. I felt as though I was a part of this family instead of just an employee. I cared for Samuel and he was about to inform his mother about us being together when she threw us for a loop.

Apparently, Ms. McBride had been looking for me for quite some time. She said when she adopted Samuel, he would always ask about a little girl named -Poppie. She was given a picture by one of the caretakers at the facility. It was a picture of Shayla, Samuel and me. I had an exact copy and so did Shayla. Shayla and I had forgotten the little boy because he was adopted when we were still kind of young.

“My mother found you,” Samuel said, holding my hand.

“She did.” I said lacing my fingers with his.

“This time she got it right.” Samuel leaned over and kissed my cheek.

As we all hung out in the living room, with Peabody and Ms. V on the couch, Sam and I cuddled together on the numerous floor pillows as they turned on the television.

BREAKING NEWS: This is Sandra Rodriguez with Channel 7 ABC News - We are interrupting your program to bring you this ongoing situation. Richard Anthony Fitzgerald II has been found dead in a local area motel. Apparently, the disgraced Richard II, son of the Governor Fitzgerald, who has served as Governor of Illinois for years, was found dead by an individual named Sparkle. As information is steadily coming in, our sources stated that the individual, Sparkle, was a well known prostitute, yet that is yet to be confirmed.

Again, Richard Anthony Fitzgerald II has been found deceased in a local area motel. As we know he has been in the news for almost the past two months as charges have been filed against rape, assault and battery, extortion and conspiracy for a murder for hire plot against the Notorious Madame of Chicago, Vanessa McBride. Informational evidence flooded the media reports shortly after the murder for hire took place ending in Ms. McBride’s assistant getting attacked and hospitalized.

Ironically, her assistant was released today and is home resting from this ordeal.

A full autopsy report will be done to determine the cause of death, which should be released in a few weeks.

We will bring you more information as it comes into the studio. This is Sandra Rodriguez with Channel 7 ABC News. You may now return to your regularly scheduled program.

We turned around and looked at Peabody and Ms. V; they were frozen looking at the television.

He was dead. Richard II was dead. That was so unexpected.

“Good riddance to bad rubbish.” Ms. V said as she looked at the screen. She was happy he was dead and so was I.

“You can say that again,” I chimed in. She looked at me and winked.

Ms. V was an amazing person and I could only hope to be like her when I got older.

Today was a good day. He was gone, finally. He wouldn’t bring any more problems to Ms. V. Peabody was back and recovering and I got paid for dealing with that motherfucker. It’s amazing how shit fell apart for him as quickly as it did. Apparently, with him being banned from the company and its properties he lost all credibility when the video was released and his world took a downward spiral.

The Governor had disowned him shortly after the video was released from what I thought, but Ms. V told us that he had been disowned from the incident with me. His own father distanced himself from him to avoid any implications that might arise.

“Absolutely. Is it too early to have a toast?” I asked. Ms. V smiled at me.

“A woman after my own heart,” she said as she got off the couch heading for the mini bar on the opposite side of the room. She brought back a tray holding 4 shot glasses and a bottle of Don Julio 1942 Anejo.

We all took a shot of tequila and dedicated it to good health, good business and good love.