Danika September 2. Operation Get Berry & Luna Back

                                    

                                          

Danika might have gone a little bit overboard. She'd worked out Jackson's travel schedule, gotten his address from Chris, gone through the public records department and gotten both a floor plan and a geographical study of the house and yard the man owned, then pretended to be Demi to call the security company and get the gate entry code (lucky for her the idiot had never taken Demi off the Authorized Personnel for the security system, so whilst she was on the phone she went ahead and changed the numerical code). The morning of the second found herself, Buddy, Aalyah, and Vickie standing around the kitchen table at Buddy's Jacksonville house, Shaul and baby Lyric were at the Tampa house with Kaylie watching the little ones. 
"Okay, so here is the plan." Danika rubbed her hands together maniacally, "We all have walkie talkies, yes?" They nodded at her, "Vickie you are the getaway driver, I'll be in the front passenger seat with these layouts..." She tapped the floor plans and the geographical study, "In case anything comes up or has changed, you will be able to radio me directly. Chris did mention that Jackson had a new live-in girlfriend, but I'm not one hundred percent sure if she's at home or not." Danika offered, with a slight pout, "I've sent pictures of both pooches to your phones, get in, get the dogs, and get out."
"Alright, this isn't Ocean's Eleven." Buddy grumbled at her, but sent her a small grin all the same.
"No, this is Danika's four." She countered, "Now, back on topic, the gate code is 619." Vickie snorted, Aalyah took a moment to critically study Danika, "What? Thought we should leave him a bit of a calling card. The internal security number I couldn't change but it's Demi's birthday, so, 1-0-1-1-9-6, you got that?" She watched as Aalyah wrote the numbers down on her arm. 
Vickie looked heavenward, "I'm only going to say this one, Eddie would be very proud of us all right now." That got the group snickering a bit, before she added, "I think we should have brought one of the lowriders to do this, honestly, his ghost could have come along for the joyride." She shook her head fondly, "Seriously, though, what if the cops come?"
"We tell them we know Jackson and are there to feed the dogs, but the alarm must have gotten tripped." Buddy said with a shrug, as the three women looked at him with varying levels of what the fuck, considering he'd been the most vocal about this being a terrible idea. "What? The dude is a prick, I had to work with him recently, and he was truly a cunt." Aalyah swatted his arm, Danika would never, ever, understand why Aalyah hated that word as much as she did. 
Looking heavenward, Danika sighed, before she checked her watch, "It's nine, we should go." 
The group hustled into the rental car - because they hadn't wanted to use one that could be tied to them, Vickie had made a comment about just how alarming it was Danika was willing to go to great lengths to not get caught. Buddy had just suggested that they never end up on Danika's bad side, because obviously she had plans for all sorts of bad situations. It was a testament to how much Aalyah just trusted Danika that she didn't balk at Danika throwing leather gloves at her and Buddy when they pulled up to the house proper. 
"Remember, get their dog beds and bowls and everything." She handed them a list that Damian had managed to get out of Rhea when she wasn't too upset about the dogs being kept from her. Vickie laughed as the pair both clipped their walkie-talkies to them, and headed for the side gate. "So if the cops come, we are jetting right?" Danika looked pointedly at Vickie.
The older woman laughed hard, "I swear, you're more Eddie's kid than Dominik is." She reached over the console and patted Danika's thigh, "Yeah, if the cops roll up, we head out quick." 
They sat in silence for all of two minutes before Buddy's voice cracked over the radio, "Mother Hen, this is Kanga Roo." He sounded so over it, "Myself and Little Star have located the backdoor, Little Star seems to have accidently wiped off the code for the backdoor, could we please have it again, over."
"Kanga Roo, Mother Hen here, code is 1-0-1-1-9-6."
"Roger, Mother Hen." Buddy sounded almost amused. 
Vickie opted to play on her phone for the time being, while Danika kept her eyes on both the side mirror and rear view mirror. It was less than seven minutes later that Buddy emerged from the side gate, with a sheet over his shoulder tied up like a knapsack, trailed by Aalyah who was holding little Luna, but had Berry on a leash. "Seriously, that was anticlimactic, no car-chase, no girlfriend, no secondary alarm system?" She asked as the pair climbed into the back seats of the rental.
"You didn't know if there was a secondary alarm system?" Vickie asked incredulously.
"Well, Dominik and I have two systems, I figured most people in Florida who have anything remotely nice would want two alarm systems." She shrugged, "I wasn't sure, ok, sorry." She looked back to see Buddy glaring at her and Aalyah smirking, "Oh did you have fun, Aalyah?"
"I might have stolen something." Aalyah admitted with a burst of pride coloring her voice. She twisted around in her seat, even as Luna climbed over the middle console of the front seat and into Danika's waiting lap. Aalyah pulled a folded up picture out of her pocket, "This was the only thing with Rhea on it still in the house." She passed it up to Danika - the picture was one of Jackson and Demi from a happier time, they were both smiling in Christmas sweaters. Danika hummed, before she tucked it into her purse. "Did I do good?"
"You did fine, weirdo." Danika muttered, "Alright, the dogs need to stay at your house tonight, because I don't know if the men are done installing the fence at our house yet." She said evenly, "And I don't know if Shaul is still afraid of dog-"
"She is." Vickie confirmed as they finally headed away from Jackson's house, Berry in the backseat was licking Buddy's face, his tail wagging so hard it was slapping into Aalyah, who couldn't help but giggle. Danika smiled at her younger sister, and the man who regrettably was going to become her brother-in-law (not that she didn't like Buddy, she just worried that they were both settling for different reasons, and ultimately she wanted them both to be happier than their parents had ever been).
"Shall we get Whataburger?" Vickie asked as she headed them toward the interstate.
"Oh, hell yes." Danika grinned, "All the fries..." She winced as another round of small contractions hit her, they weren't close enough together for concern, yet, but they were annoying. "Ooouch." She pouted, which got Vickie to pat her thigh again. "Whataburger, then nap?" She offered the car at large, even as Luna licked her face, Danika wrapped her arms around the smaller dog, and cuddled her. 
-/-
September third started out normal, or at least looking back she would think it did. Buddy and Aalyah had shown up that morning with Demi's dogs (Luna and Berry), the pair had taken over the mother in law suit over the garage since both Angie and Vickie were staying in the main house. Rosa and Nico were both howling with the terrible twos in stride (at twenty months they were holy terrors), Lainey had thrown a fit because Danika couldn't make her understand that she couldn't be on the road with papaíto even if she wanted to. Around ten in the morning something was off, her head was pounding and she felt like she was woozy. Angie and Vickie were arguing loudly in Spanish too fast for her to want to keep up, so she opted to make the kids a snack. She got Rosa in her high chair, but a wave of dizziness had her swaying - she shook her head, trying to shake off the lingering nausea and dizziness, she picked Nico up and barely put him in the high chair when the world seemed to fizzle and pop around her, "Lai ..." she started, but couldn't manage to get her daughter's name out. It was like the strings holding her upright had broken, the darkness clouded her vision and she toppled backwards, her head hitting the counter as she went down.