Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Grace and Simon weren’t having a nice day.

Actually, they weren’t having a nice week. 

Scratch that, they weren’t having a nice month. 

“It’s your fault.”, said Grace while searching in a trash can for something edible, “If you hadn’t tried to hurt that kid and their friend none of this would have happened. If you hadn’t done that right now we would still have the mall and we would have been having a decent lunch next to a fire on one of the matresses we stole. Instead here we are, running from place to place and rummaging in the trash in search of food!”

”Oh shut up! It’s your fault too! You were the one that decided to get rid of them so that they wouldn’t reveal where we were hiding at the police, remember?”, said Simon, cutting open a trash bag with a Swiss knife. “At least the police got them when they raided the mall...”

”Yes, and everyone else except for us!”, exclaimed a tired Grace, “Have you found anything edible?”

"If you count old newspapers and other assorted trash as food, then yes!", joked Simon.

"Ha ha ha, very funny... Have you checked in the dumpster there?", asked Grace.

"I wanted to, but strange noises come from the inside of it and I really don't want to be mauled by any rabid animal, sooo..." "Coward. I'll do it myself.", said Grace while walking towards the dumpster.

Once she was close enough, she heard some cries coming from within: they didn't resemble those of a raccoon, nor those of any other animal, but rather like those of a crying infant. She opened the dumpster and saw a baby girl, wrapped in some dirty towels, with a plush of a gorilla next to her. She stared at the baby with a mix of surprise and horror: she had heard stories of babies abandoned into dumpsters, stories that often ended horribly, but she never expected to find one herself. While she was looking at her, Simon slowly got closer.

"Grace? What did you find that shocked you so much?", he said, worried for her.

Grace said nothing, instead she took the baby and the plush from the dumpster and showed them at Simon, that stared at them with shock before closing his eyes, taking a break and starting to scream. Once he calmed down a bit, he started to speak: "Fantastic! Just what we needed! An abandoned baby! Now the police..."

Suddenly, Grace slapped Simon.

"Simon, calm down. We'll leave her someplace safe, where someone else can find her..." "Good idea! Shame that we're on the list of the most wanted persons of this state, and and because of this we can't use any kind of public transportation or even walk..." "So you're saying that we should leave her here?" "What? No! I'm not that heartless Grace... I was just thinking a way to leave her in a safe place without being found by the police and arresting us for child abduction and lots of other crimes..."

After a few seconds of thinking, Simon had an idea.

It wasn't a good idea, but it was the only one he had at the moment, plus it would have made the baby useful to them.

Chapter Text

The old shopkeeper glanched from behind the counter at the teenager that came inside with a crying infant.

She was nervous, as she was afraid of being found by someone, and tried to shop while trying unsuccesfully to calm her baby.

After ten minutes of searching for baby stuff and some food for herself, she went to the counter and picked out of a pocket some cash.

"That's not enough to pay for all of them.", said the shopkeeper at the teen.

"Oh... I guess I'd buy only what I need for her...", said Grace in her best <<fake sad voice>> while struggling to fill a plastic bag and holding the baby at the same time.

The man, feeling guilty, decided to help her: "You can have them too", he said while pointing at the food she left out of the bag, "for free."

"Really? I can have them... for free?", Grace said while faking to be surprised by his generosity.

"Sure, you need them.", said the man.

Grace was happy to see that the shopkeeper was so generous, so she decided to pass to phase 2 of Simon's plan and see how much she could use his generosity to thier advantage.

She started to cry, sobbing desperately for five minutes, causing the old man to get worried.

"Are you ok?" The shopkeeper said.

"Thank you... It's the first time someone has been generous to me since my father kicked me out of home!", said Grace while pretending to be sobbing.

"Your father kicked you out of home?", asked them shopkeeper horrified.

"He-he kicked me out shortly after I gave birth to her...", said Grace, with (fake) tears filling her eyes and holding close to her the baby.

"My God... There's no one that can help you?" "I have some parents that lives not so far away from here... but I've spent most of my money to keep my baby..."

The shopkeeper walked away from her with a few bags and began to fill them with food and other useful stuff, then he went to the cash register and took a few bills and gave them all to her. Grace pretended to be impressed by his generosity and decided to <<refuse>> them: "I-I can't accept them..."

"You need them more than I." "But I..." "Take them, don't worry." "Thank you." "You're welcome."

Grace took all the bags and the cash and began walking towards the door, when the man spoke again: "Wait!"

Suddenly, Grace freezed in fear, worried that the ruse was discovered, but instead, he asked her a question: "What's your child name?"

"Why you want to know?", she asked at the man.

"I'm just curious.", said the man.

Grace tried to think quickly of a name to give at the man, when her eyes stumbled upon a jar with the words <<Caramelized Hazelnuts>> written on it.

"Hazel. Her name is Hazel", she said to him.

"Well then, I hope that you and Hazel will be fine.", said the man.

"Thak you.", Grace said while walking out of the shop with her shopping bags and the newly christened Hazel.

She walked for a while, then she entered into the alley where Simon was waiting for her.

"I hate to admit it, but your plan wasn't as stupid as it seemed.", she said while handing him the bags.

"What I am hearing? The mighty Grace is complementing me? I am surprised and humbled by such an honor!", said Simon sarcastically at her friend.

"Don't get too used by that.", she said jokingly at him, "Now, let's find a place where we can stay the night and prepare something to eat for us and Hazel."

"You named the child Hazel?" "The shopkeeper asked me what her name was." "Are you sure you're not getting attached to her?" "What? No!" "That's good, I really don't want to take care of a baby when we get out of this situation." "Me neither. Now let's go, it's going to rain soon."

Chapter Text

Two Weeks Later

In an empty shop, Simon was preparing dinner on a portable stove for himself, Grace and Hazel.

While he was cooking, he was staring at her partner in crime playing peekaboo with the baby, causing her to laugh.

Simon mused for a couple of seconds on how quickly they got used to her: sure, when the Apex was a thing they used to take care of many young kids, but they never cared for a child so much before. Especially Grace, that got very close to her and acted like a mother to her.

Suddenly, he started to smell something burning, snapping him back into reality and making him realize that it was their dinner.

Quickly, Simon tried to turn off the portable stove, but while doing so he accidentally spilled the pan, dropping his and Grace's dinner on the ground.

"Simon!" shouted annoyed Grace.

"I'm sorry! I didn't meant to do that... I was distracted..." "Well, thanks to you we're going to eat again those terrible protein bars we stole." "Well, there's a pizzeria right near the corner, maybe I can go there and..." "I don't think that's a good idea... I've seen some cops near it." "Don't worry, I'll be extra careful." "Fine. But please be careful, we're so close to escape to the next state and I don't want to lose you."

SImon didn't say anything at her, instead he smiled at her and went outside.

Chapter Text

Simon was not having a good time.

While he was waiting for his pizza to be made, two cops entered the pizzeria and asked if there was a table for two.

Simon hoped that the waiter would tell them that there was no tables left, or that they were all reserved, but instead he accompained them to a table right next to him.

Simon tried to hide his fear and tried to persuade himself that they weren't searching for him and...

"So, what do you think of this case?" said one of the two cops.

"Well, this is not the first gang of runaways kids I've dealt with in my career, Sieve."

"Maybe, but a gang of 37 kids isn't something you see everyday. I wonder how those two teens managed to create and lead such a big one..."

"Well, according to some of the kids we got they were very persuasive... and ruteless. Apparently, the boy once beated up to death a kid that dared to defy the girl."

"Is that true?"

"I don't know, but since he tried to trow under a train those two kids..."

"About them... Were they arrested or not?"

"No. They were sent back to their family. Apparently they weren't part of the Apex. Still, I would have sent them to juvie..."

"Both of them? Don't you think that's a little bit exagerated Mace? I mean, the boy didn't do anything to you, while the other one..."

"Oh please, don't tell me that you're not angry at him for having..."

"Do not speak again about that."

"About what? About the deer that kicked you in the nuts?"

"Mace, please, can you stop speaking about that incident?"

"I'm sorry but that's hilarious. By the way, how do you think that they managed to tame a deer?"

"I don't want to talk about it... by the way, what did the shop owner said about the girl that led the Apex?"

"Well, he said that she had a baby with her and pretended to be a teen mom."

"Do you think that was a real baby?"

"Of course not! It must have been one of those realistic baby dolls."

"But what if the baby is real?"

"Well, in that case they would be in big trouble."

"You think they abducted..."

"I don't know. Maybe it's their kid, but I doubt that since none of the Apex said anything about a baby or their leader being pregnant. In any case, they will probably try to get rid of them sooner or later."

"So that's why some of us heve been sent to check the orphanages and the hospitals!"

"Yep."

"I kinda envy them."

"Why?"

"Because they're not forced to wander from one town to another in search of them."

"True, but I'm sure we're going to find them soon. After all, if the sightings are correct, they've almost reached the border, so all we need to do is to concentrate the researches in that area and then..."

Simon stopped listening.

He struggled to contain himself and not scream and run away from the pizzeria.

He managed to restrain himself enought to take the pizza, pay for it and leave the building before running to the place where they were staying.

He needed to tell Grace that their plan just fell apart.

Chapter Text

"We need to buy more diapers." said Grace while finishing to change Hazel.

"Why we should buy more? Hazel won't remain with us for long." said Simon, that was checking if he put everything they needed into the backpacks they bought a few days before.

"Maybe, but we still need to take care of her until we find a place to leave her once we cross the border."

"Do we really need to do that? We need to hitch a ride on a cargo train as soon as possible..."

"Simon, please."

"Ffffine... but we must be quick."

----

Grace stared horrified at the shopkeeper laying on the ground. He was bleeding from the head and was unconscious. She then looked at Simon, that was still holding the bat he used on him.

"SIMON WHY YOU DID THAT?" she screamed horrified.

"He recognized us! He was going to call the police!"

"You broke his skull!"

"Well, I'm sorry but I had no alternative!"

"He's going to die!"

"I don't care! I don't want us to be arrested!"

"Really? Because you just did the opposite!"

"Can you make Hazel stop crying? I'm trying to find out where we can dispose of the body..."

"Simon!"

"What?"

Grace pointed at a group of persons outside the shop that were staring at them. A couple of them had smartphones in their hands and were either calling the police or filming them.

The two teens looked at them in shock, then ran outside the building. The persons tried to stop them but they managed to escape in a nearby alley.

----

Grace, Simon and Hazel where hidden in an abandoned building. Grace is trying to calm down the baby without success when Simon starts to shout angrily at her: "It's your fault! If you didn't get so close to that stupid baby we wouldn't be in trouble!"

"Her fault? It's partially thanks to her that we managed to arrive here!"

"Really? So I should be grateful for her to be chased by the police?"

"Nobody told you to break that man's skull!"

"He was trying to call the police!"

Grace and Simon remaine silent for a few seconds, then Simon said: "I want you to get rid of Hazel."

"Why?"

"Because she's changing you."

"What do you mean for changing?"

"She's making you too soft and prone to mistakes. It's thanks to her that we're in this situation... We shouldn't have taken her with us."

"Oh! So now she's a mistake? Didn't you call her <<secret weapon>> two days ago?"

"Grace, listen, I don't want to argue with you right now, but she's slowing us down right now. We... You must get rid of her."

"And where I should leave her? The police is everywhere!"

"I don't know. Just... leave her someplace safe and come back here as soon as you did it. I'll wait you for five minutes, then I'll go to the train depot alone."

"Simon..."

"Just go."

Grace left silently with Hazel.

----

Grace couldn't find the courage to abandon Hazel. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't do that.

It was the first time that she started to truly care for someone that wasn't Simon or herself, and the idea of abandining her made her feel bad. A part of her felt that Simon was right about her becoming too soft and that this situation was her fault, but she refused to belive this. Hazel was the best thing that happened to her in years, and she wouldn't lose her.

And so Grace ran away.

She didn't know where she was going, but she knew that Hazel was going to remain with her.

Only hours later, when she reached a safe place to stay for a while, she realized that she left her best friend behind.

This made her feel sick, but she convinced herself that she did the right thing and he was probably safe and sound in the other state.

----

Simon waited five minutes, but she didn't come back.

He waited a few more minutes, but she still didn't come back.

He waited and hour, and she still didn't come back.

Simon, realizing that Grace left him behind, started to cry.

He didn't realize that the police was breaking in the house until they handcuffed and dragged him outside.

Chapter Text

Two months later...

Grace and Hazel were wet and freezing alive.

In a span of a few days the weather lowered and began raining more frequently, making the emergency shelter that Grace built with plastic panels and cardboard that she found in the trash almost unusable. There was also the problem that she recently ran out of cash and supplies, making their situation worse.

The only good thing was that the police had no idea where she was and so the police were forced to stop their searches, but she still took some precautions, like wearing different clothes and changing her hairstyle, in case they started again.

Decided to solve the problem, Grace wrapped Hazel in some clothes and used all the heat packs she bought to keep her warm and started searching for an house to break in and loot. After half a day of search, she found a very neglected house that seemed easy to rob. She looked around it, trying to not look suspicious, and saw that there were no alarms or cameras. She then looked inside the house from a window and saw that the place was mostly filled with computer parts.

Suddenly, she felt something cold on the back of her head, so she looked back and saw a woman in her 50s aiming a rifle at her.

"Care to explain why you were looking inside my house?" she said while keeping her rifle aimed at her head.

Chapter Text

The woman kept silently pointing her rifle at Grace, waiting for her to say something.

"I wasn't going to do anything, I swear!" Instinctively said Grace, soon realizing how obvious her lie was.

"Really? Because I think that you were planning to break into my house."

"NO! I was..."

"Please don't lie, I saw you checking other houses in my neighborhood." The woman said while taking her phone from the pocket of her jacket.

"Wait! Don't call the police!" Shouted scared Grace, but her plea fell on deaf ears. As a last resort, she began to bawl, but the woman looked at her with indifference before looking back at her phone and dialing the police's number.

"Please! I can't lose my daughter!" Cried Grace.

Suddenly, the woman stopped dialing and looked at her.

"Explain yourself." She said.

"M-my parents kicked me out of my house shortly after my d-daughter Hazel was born... They gave me some cash and told me to never come back... I've been travelling from place to place, barely managing to gain enough cash to survive..." Lied Grace.

"Why you didn't try to get help from one of those organizations that help teenage mothers?"

"B-because I was afraid that they would take her away..."

Grace and the woman remained silent for a short while, then she asked her: "Where's your child?"

"I-I left her into an emergency shelter I built with some plastic panels and..."

"YOU LEFT A CHILD ALONE IN A SHELTER MADE OF TRASH?"

"I made sure she couldn't feel cold when I left her..."

The woman stared at her with a mix of anger and pity, then lowered her rifle, took a deep breath and spoke: "... Take me to her."

"What?"

"I said take me to her. I'm not letting a child die of hypotermia."

"You will help me?"

"Only if she's still alive. Otherwhise I'll call the police."

Grace wanted to thank the woman, but she decided to wait and instead accompained her to her shelter. Once they got closer they both heard Hazel's cries and rushed inside to check if she was okay. Luckily she was still warm, but this didn't calm down the woman, that looked around the shelter while Grace tried to calm the baby. Once Hazel fell asleep, the woman spoke with a mix of reluctance and pity in her voice: "I have a guest room in my house. You two can use it for a while."

"Really? That's gre..."

"But I'm not letting you freeloading. You'll have to pay a rent and help me with the housework."

"Pay a rent? But I'm broke!"

"Then get a job."

Grace wanted to argue with the woman about this, but she barely managed to persuade her, so she swallowed her pride and said: "Alright, I accept."

"Good. By the way, what's you name, young lady?"

Grace thought of a fake name and said:"Agatha. And yours?"

"You can call me miss Hughes."

Chapter Text

Grace looked with a mix of horror and disgust at the guest room that miss Hughes gave them: it was covered in dust, numerous boxes filled with computer parts laid around and the bed clearly broke down years ago but she never bothered to replace it.

While Grace looked in horror at the room, miss Hughs arrived with a cradle.

"Do you have any problem with the room I gave you?" she asked while putting it down.

"Yes! It's a mess! It's dusty, filled with boxes of junk and the bed is broken!"

"You can find a vacuum cleaner in the closet down the hall, the boxes aren't filled with junk but computer parts and you should move them in the garage and I'll replace the bed once you start paying the rent. By the way, this cradle is for you."

"Why you have a cradle?"

Miss Hughes walked away without saying anything, leaving Grace alone with a cranky Hazel. Seeing that she wouldn't help her, Grace put Hazel in the cradle and went to take the vacuum cleaner, only to be almost submerged by robotic stuff once she opened the closet.

"I should have tried to broke into another house..." said Grace before dodging at the last moment a metallic sphere that was falling on her head.

Chapter Text

As usual, Grace woke up early in the morning and went downstairs to have a quick breakfast and preparing the baby bottle for Hazel, While she was coming back to wake up her she stumbled upon a ghoulish Amelia, who was going to have yet another cup of coffee.

"Have you ever considered to replace your blood with coffee? This way you won't need to leave your laboratory every five minutes when you stay up all night." Joked Grace.

"Very funny." Said Amelia while going to the kitchen.

Grace then returned in her room, woke up, fed and changed Hazel before dressing up and going to work. Ten minutes later, she reached her workplace, a minimarket, put on her uniform and started to work. She disliked working here, but since Amelia told her that she would have called the police if she tried to pay her with stolen money and she couldn't find a better job due to her situation, she had to swallow her pride and accept to replenish shelves, clean the floor and tolerate the costumers.

When the lunch break came, Grace walked back home to check on Hazel and feed her before making a sandwich and eating it while going back to work. While she was leaving, she heard Amelia shouting something about the new software she was working on crashing again.

Finally, when her turn finished, she took Hazel on a walk in the park before going back home and give her a bath. While she was drying her, Grace heard a knock on her door and saw an even more ghoulish Amelia outside the bathroom.

"One minute, I'm almost done with Hazel."

"Actually, Agatha, I don't need to use the bathroom. I want to talk about your daughter."

"Why?"

"Because when you're not here she often starts to cry and this prevents me to do my job properly. Thanks to her distracting me I made some mistakes while coding and the software not only crashed but also almost bricked my computer."

"Are you sure about that? You've been working on it all night long..."

"Maybe you're right, but I'm sure that she's responisble for them too. If she didn't cry so much..."

"If you don't want to hear her crying then why you don't do anything to calm her?"

"I'm not going to act as a nanny for your daughter."

"Then what should I do? I can't spend too much time wih her during the week..."

"Hire a babysitter."

"And where I find the money to hire one? I spend most of what I get to pay the rent."

"Then find a cheap one. I don't care. I just want to be able to do my job in peace."

Amelia walked back to her room, ignoring Grace and her attempts to reason with her.