The following morning Kelly and Sammy were up nice and early.

She had her backpack ready to go and slung on her shoulder. She had thought long and hard last night what she was going to do, and the plan was as soon as she got a chance, she was going to take Sammy and run.

Once these wack-jobs weren't looking they were gone.

She was hoping that if she left early enough no one would be up. Boy was she wrong.

They got downstairs and Cooper was sitting at the front desk.

He smiled a wolfish grin at her as she glared at him. "Yeah, we had a feeling that you'd make a run for it," he said.

Kelly frowned at him. "I am not making a run for it. I was told I had a whole itinerary of work to look forward to today and Elouise mentioned that some people had some stuff for me to pick up. I figured the backpack would help," she lied.

He chuckled like he knew she was lying but she didn't dignify him with scrambling to explain herself even more, she had already learned that less information she offered up the better her lie was received.

After a few seconds of charge silence he added: "Mom's got breakfast on the table for you and your little tyke. You might as well get your food down now before Franklin comes and scares away your appetite."

Kelly found herself grimacing, not because Franklin's face was unappealing but because she had assumed that as his friend, Cooper wouldn't be making fun of him. As Cooper laughed Kelly just continued to glare. She wanted to snap at him, tell him to be nicer to his friends but she bit her tongue.

Firstly, Cooper and Franklin might not be friends, and secondly, why should she care if Franklin's friends were making fun of him behind his back?

Instead of arguing with him she stomped into the dining area with Sammy in tow and found that Cooper hadn't been lying. Breakfast was definitely waiting for them. The whole table, while there were only two plates set, was covered in food. There was a big plate with pancakes, a bowl of scrambled eggs, platters filled with bacon, sausages and home fries, a large bowl of assorted fruits and a tray of toast and jams. There was a pot of tea waiting for Kelly and a cold glass of frosty milk waiting for Sammy.

Sammy had his wide excited eyes on Kelly whose mouth was watering just staring at the buffet. She hadn't seen this much food in months.

"There's no sparkles right?" Sammy asked her, his voice dripping with hope.

Luckily for both of them there wasn't much and even with those sparkles she knew, just knew that they were to keep the food warm and nothing else.

"Nope, the food's good, Sammy."

Sammy let out a little cry of excitement and jumped into his seat. He knelt on the chair to reach for the food but one look from Kelly had him back on his butt. Kelly served him everything he wanted plus some fruit and eggs for the protein he had missed while they were travelling. He ate everything, even the fruit without complaint.

Kelly was finishing a third cup of tea—her teapot had yet to run out—when Elouise appeared at the door with a paper in hand.

"Unfortunately, Franklin's too busy to come have this talk with you," she told Kelly. "Let's start with Sammy..."

"ME!" Sammy cried bouncing in his seat, he had had a little too much syrup on his pancakes. "Thank you for breakfast it was the best breakfast ever!"

"Why thank you, little man," she said sweetly and then turned back to Kelly. "Franklin's enrolled him in the daycare with the other children."

"You mean with that horrible woman who swears?" Kelly asked dryly with her arms cross over her chest.

"Yes, that's the one, now stop interrupting me," Elouise said sharply. "Sammy's enrolled in school, you get to walk him over, and apparently Miss. Hubbard owes you an apology. Make sure you get it. After that just follow the timeline on this paper. Spend the morning with Tinker, spend the afternoon with Madame Silk, pick up Sammy at four, go to Franklin's between four-fifteen and eight and then back here for a late dinner. You probably won't need it, if he has you over at the mansion that late he'll probably treat you to dinner."

"Wow, that's one jam packed schedule," Kelly said. "You've really made sure that I have no alone time."

Elouise picked up immediately on her apprehension and sarcastic tone. "Franklin has assumed you to be a flight risk, and I don't blame you, or him. We just don't want you wandering off and getting hurt. Lots of dangers around here."

"Natural or just the people?" Kelly shot back.

Elouise seemed far from impressed but said nothing else. She glanced to her watch and then clapped her hands.

"You two better get going, school starts soon." She told them. She bent down and picked up a brown paper bag. "I made lunch for Sammy, and I believe there are school supplies awaiting you in the hallway, courtesy of the Headless Horseman Bookstore. Their daughter goes to the school as well, Cooper and her parents' take turns walking the kids to school, I figure once you settle in Sammy can join them and you guys can all rotate the walking duties."

Kelly nodded as if she totally planned to do all of that hoping that Elouise didn't notice that she literally had no intention of being here come tomorrow morning. Kelly threw her napkin down to the table and handed the paper bag to Sammy. "You're right, we should get going," she said. She went to pick up her bag but Elouise had a strange glint in her eyes.

"You don't need your bag dearie," she said, taking it from her. "Everything you're waiting for has already been delivered. You don't need to pick up a thing."

Kelly narrowed her eyes but decided it would be smarter to just let it go.

These people were a lot more prepared than she thought. Obviously kidnapping and holding people hostage was a common practice if they were this good at it. Kelly smiled a pretend-polite thank you and took Sammy's hand in hers.

If they honestly thought that she wouldn't leave without her stuff they were sorely mistaken.

Kelly already learned that things were replaceable, and she could be fine doing without for a long time now. She escaped a situation like this before and she was sure as hell going to do it again. These people weren't going to beat her.

[-----]

After checking that Sammy's lunch didn't have any sparkles in it and dropping him off at the Daycare he was super excited to go to, Kelly made her way back to town to the first stop on her itinerary.

She had found a copy of the itinerary she had purposely forgotten to pick up, so she could pretend she didn't know her schedule and skip the visit with Franklin all together, in her back pocket. She looked it over carefully, not wanting to think about how it got there as she made her way to Tinker's.

She opened the door to shoe shop to find that clouds of dust were swirling everywhere as the little man ran back and forth as if looking for something. He didn't even pause to say hello, he just kept turning things over, knocking over stacks of paper or samples and he tore apart the store front.

"Are you looking for something? Maybe I can help?" Kelly offered, trying to stifle the coughs the dust was causing.

Tinker didn't even pause. He shot a look at her and said: "No thanks Dearie, why don't you try on your boots?"

Kelly shot him a strange look. "I didn't order boots," she said turning in the direction he was waving in.

There, sitting on the sill was a small pair of runners for Sammy and a pair of knee-high riding boots, the ones she had been admiring the day before, they were done in a wonderful tan color that took her breath away.

She turned back to Tinker. "They're lovely, they are, but I didn't order these," she said.

She couldn't afford those and she really didn't want to skip out on a tab even bigger than the one before, seeing as she already felt guilty enough about the one, she had now, no matter how terrible the people of this town were.

"Course you didn't," he said. "Try them on, come on now, and make this old man happy. See if they fit!"

Kelly sighed but sat down pulling her worn boots off of her feet, completely self conscious of the holes in her socks.

"If I didn't order these why did you make them for me?" she asked hoping to distract them him from the state of her socks.

Tinker settled back at his desk apparently deciding that whatever he was searching for wasn't worth it anymore.

"Franklin commissioned them for you, granted that was before you stabbed him but he didn't withdraw the order when I asked last night so there you go. You get the boots you actually wanted instead of a pair of runners that won't go with any of your outfits. Or so Madame Silk has told me. She's the one who suggested the color."

Kelly was suddenly furious. How dare that presumptuous zombie buy her shoes?

"I don't know what Franklin's playing at but if he thinks a pair of boots is going to make me forgive him for last night's...... whoa, these fit perfectly!" Kelly suddenly cried.

She quickly tugged the other boot on and did them up. They fit perfectly everywhere, around the ankles, around the calves and at the toes. The heel was even just the right size, not high enough to inhibit her walking but tall enough to give her a bit more height.

"Good, I measured correctly then," he said before promptly beginning to rifle through his drawers. Also strange because he hadn't measured her legs at all yesterday, only her feet. "I'll be sure to tell him you like them."

Kelly looked down to the perfect boots, the gift from a man who had threw her and screamed at her, whom she had stabbed in the chest. She shouldn't accept them.

"Don't tell him that! You know everyone knows what I did but why won't anyone acknowledge the fact that he nearly killed me? At the very least you should be upset that he knocked me unconscious! Boots or not I'm not forgiving him and I'm not even sure I'm going to keep these boots if they're from that maniac!"

She was just finishing her last sentence when the door opened and closed.

Tinker had taken a pair of large fancy looking ankle high, pointy toed men's boots out from under his desk. Kelly didn't want to turn to confirm her suspicions but when she did, she found Franklin behind her.

He was glaring at her, probably because he had heard what she said so instead of apologizing, because every synapse of her body was demanding she did that, she crossed her arms over her chest and glared right back at him.

He chuckled sarcastically at her and asked: "So I'm now a monster and a maniac?"

"When you go around throwing people, yes," Kelly shot back.

Franklin scowled at her and strode very purposely past her to Tinker. He took the boots the old man was offering and dropped a few bills on the desk that Tinker took without counting. Franklin purposely avoided her eyes as he walked back to the door and Kelly fought hard to maintain her glare just in case he glanced in her direction.

He opened the door and Tinker called out: "She likes the boots, boy."

Franklin paused and turned back, his blue eyes locking with her again and that jolt of electricity hit her once more knocking the breath from her lungs and the glare off of her face.

Yes, she liked them, hell she was even grateful, she hadn't wanted to admit it at that moment. She would have thanked him eventually, found a way to send him the money she owed him for the boots, but she didn't want him knowing that now.

His jaw twitched as if he were biting back his own harsh words. After a moment of charged silence he forced a smile on his face and finally said: "Yes, I rather gathered," and then left.

Once the door swung shut and his shadow walked past the dusty window Kelly let her breath out. Her knees were shaking and her heart pounding. She told herself that it was the anger and the fear but she had a feeling that it was something else.

She cleared her throat and very carefully said: "I'm going to start with cleaning that window, you want your customers to see what you've got right?"

Tinker only hmmed at her and went back to rummaging. Well if he wasn't going to tell her what he was looking for she wouldn't offer to help him look again.