Author's Note: I am so sorry for the really long wait. I just got pretty distracted by my other stories and almost forgot about this one, but I promise I won't do that again. Anyway thank you to annewheelerfab1 for letting me use Pumpkin and her other OCs that aren't in this chapter yet, but they will be soon. Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter and please let me know what you all thought.

"So just curious where did Mal actually come from," Georgie asked Tessa while they were on the couch just talking and trying to get to know each other since Pumpkin wasn't allowing Tessa anywhere near the small baby which meant Tessa was stuck there until she did.

"Like I said it's kinda complicated," Tessa told Georgie again making the other girl nod as she still had so many questions, but figured it was best to just let it go because it didn't really affect her and it was obvious Tessa cared about the baby and the baby seemed to love her back.

"Okay well then moving on. How long is she going to be staying with you," Georgie asked Tessa who just sighed as she looked at the sleeping baby that was being guarded by the puppy.

Tessa honestly didn't know how long she would have Mal for. In the perfect world Tessa would never get caught and eventually adopt Mal and raise her the best she could and they would live happily ever after. But the real world wasn't a fairytale.

Not everything ended with a happily ever after. And in reality Tessa was a seventeen year old girl barely even surviving right now just so she wouldn't lose the last piece of her father and her childhood the repair shop.

That her evil step mom was making her work to keep. And by work she really means be her personal servant until she turns 18. There was no way she would get that happily ever after with Mal.

Most likely she would be caught and Mal would be thrown into the system and she would probably get in serious trouble for hiding a baby and not reporting it.

But for now she's okay with living in that fantasy world because at least she gets to experience even just a little bit of happiness again which she hasn't felt since her father passed.

And it was obvious Mal needed her right now. Tessa was brought out of her thoughts when she felt the gentle touch on her arm as Georgie had been trying to get Tessa's attention, but the younger girl had completely zoned out after her question.

"Tessa are you okay," Georgie asked the younger girl with her gentle voice making Tessa nod as she finally came back to reality and what was happening. "Oh um yeah I'm fine. Sorry I just kinda zoned out. Working for my evil family while also trying to take care of a baby on top of having to keep up a whole act is just a lot. And plus I still haven't gotten anything for Mal and it's going to look really suspicious if she's wearing the same clothes every day," Tessa told Georgie which wasn't a lie all those things were true, but that wasn't really why she was zoned out.

Georgie just nodded in understanding as she could tell Tessa was going through a lot and she did feel bad for her for all she was going through. Georgie was used to helping people especially considering Pumpkin was a therapy dog and she had seen a lot of people that were struggling as well and she always enjoyed helping them and Tessa was her new friend.

"Okay well then maybe I should get Pumpkin to move, so you can get Mal since you should probably go now and get her some stuff otherwise it's gonna get too late," Georgie told Tessa who nodded before realizing she had no baby car seat and she didn't even know what kind of stuff she would need.

"Okay but um what am I supposed to do about the fact that I don't have a baby car seat. I mean you can get arrested for not having one. Plus I honestly don't even know what kind of stuff to get for a baby. And to be honest I don't know how old she really is. What if I'm not feeding her the right stuff. Like what age do babies stop needing formula! And..." Tessa rambled out nervously as she began to panic, but Georgie just cut her off as she remembered something.

"Tessa it's okay. I know where we can get you a baby car seat. The props room happens to have one I saw it the other day when I was helping out one of my friends with the show. And here I know everything you need already. Just trust me okay," Georgie told Tessa who just nodded as she started to calm down a little bit.

"Alright thank you so much Georgie I seriously owe you one!" Tessa told Georgie who just smiled as she helped Tessa up from the couch. "No need to thank me. Like I said I'm a sucker for happily ever afters. Besides I can see how much you care for Mal and right now it's obvious she needs someone to care for her. Now come on let's go get that car seat," Georgie told tessa making her laugh as she knew Georgie was right, but she stopped when she realized something.

"Wait but what if someone questions why we're taking the baby car seat," Tessa asked Georgie as she began to panic again. If anyone caught her she could lose Mal and Tessa wasn't ready for that yet.

Georgie just smiled as she got another idea. "If anyone questions us we can just say we're babysitting for your other self. No one will even know that we're lying," Georgie told Tessa hoping to calm down her worries and she knew Tessa was panicking again and being paranoid.

"Okay yeah that works you're right. There's nothing to worry about," Tessa told Georgie who smiled as she hugged Tessa again. "Of course there's not now come on let's go get that car seat," Georgie told Tessa who nodded before remembering that Mal was still sleeping peacefully by the puppy.

"Wait Georgie I need to get Mal real quick," Tessa called out to the slightly older girl who nodded as Tessa ran over to the baby and tried to pick her up again, but Pumpkin started barking at her not wanting Mal to leave still.

"My baby! Put her down!" Pumpkin barked out over and over again trying to get Tessa to give her Mal back, but because Tessa couldn't understand her all she was hearing was the loud barking which accidentally woke Mal up making her start crying.

"Aw Mal it's okay sweetie. Come on we're gonna get you some baby stuff and you can help me pick them out," Tessa cooed out to the small girl as she tried to calm her down.

Mal just smiled as she calmed down and cuddled up more on Tessa just enjoying her love and affection, but she stopped when she got a look at Pumpkin when she remembered she still wanted Pumpkin too, so she just started reaching towards the puppy and crying out.

"Aw Mal you can see Pumpkin tomorrow, but we have to go now. I'm sorry sweetie. Say bye bye to Pumpkin. But it's okay you can play together again tomorrow," Tessa told the baby who just kept reaching towards Pumpkin and Pumpkin was still barking at Tessa to put the baby back down.

"Okay well I don't know what to do right now," Tessa told Georgie who laughed as she picked up Pumpkin. "You know Pumpkin and I could watch Mal for you while you go to the store. If you're okay with that," Georgie told Tessa just wanting to help out her friend, but Tessa just shook her head no as she hadn't been able to spend that much time with Mal yet and she wanted to.

"No it's okay I haven't had that much one on one time with her yet and I would kinda like to, but thanks for the offer and again thank you so much for all your help. I'll see you tomorrow," Tessa told Georgie who nodded as she found the old car seat she was talking about.

"Of course and I completely understand. Well here this is the car seat I was talking about. It's not very good, but it should work just until you can get one at the store," Georgie told Tessa as she handed her the old baby car seat.

"Oh my gosh thank you and no this is perfect. Again thank you so much and I'll see you tomorrow!" Tessa quickly told her friend as she hugged Georgie one more time before saying bye to Pumpkin and then placed Mal in the baby car seat making the small baby smile as she got comfortable.

"Okay Mal let's go get you some stuff real quickly because we have to be back before the audition announcements. If I win this contest then maybe we won't have to worry about anything bad happening. But no matter what I'm not letting anyone separate us okay Mal," Tessa told the baby as she picked up the baby car seat and buckled her into the car.

Just as Tessa was about to close the car door the small baby looked up at her and gave her an adorable smile as she then reached towards her and started talking. "Mama!" Mal called out as she reached towards Tessa making her completely stop what she was doing as she looked at the baby in shock.