~~~~~*~~~~~

“Hi daddy, is Maggie around?” Gem asked, bursting into the bakery the next morning bright and early. Greg Little glanced up from where he was filling the chilled counter with the morning's freshly made pastries and raised a questioning eyebrow as his mouth pulled up into a crooked smirk.

“Why, if it isn't my oldest daughter,” he quipped, “come to spend some quality time with your father?” Gem rolled her eyes and chuckled under her breath as she continued her way towards the kitchen. She was in a hurry and couldn't afford to make herself late for work. She just needed a quick word with her sister before she hot-footed it back across town.

“I'm looking for Mags, is she around?” she said.

“Out back,” Greg replied as he straightened and ran his hands down the front of his batter-smeared apron. He didn't spent much time in the kitchen during opening hours, but he was the first to arrive in the mornings and always got started on the days orders before Maggie arrived at around eight. It gave him just enough time to get suitably covered in flour and eggs to make the customers feel assured he was still in charge of the business. He didn't want them thinking Maggie did all the work, even if that was starting to be the case.

Gem nodded once and continued on towards the kitchen, the heels of her black ankle boots making a tapping sound on the floor. It was a familiar, comforting sound – it reminded Greg of his mother's shoes when he was a child. She'd always worn smart, black shoes, even at home when no one would have thought twice about her walking around barefoot or in socks. Even now, the smell of shoe polish reminded him of Sunday mornings when his mother would line up the family's shoes and sit on the bottom step of the stairs polishing them until they shone.

Tap, tap, tap. It was the sound of the women in his family.

“Gem,” Greg said, clearing his throat gruffly. Gem turned her head and raised an eyebrow, her expression saying exactly what she couldn't say out loud. What? “Remember what we talked about the other night...”

Gem just about managed not to roll her eyes, although it was a challenge. “I haven't forgotten,” she said, a little tartly. “I'm kinda in a hurry here, daddy...”

“Go ahead,” Greg said, eyeing her suspiciously even as he gestured with his hand at the door to the kitchen. He was no fool, he knew most of the time Gem told him exactly what he wanted to hear and then did what she wanted to anyway. But this time... this time he was determined not to fall for the same old line. “But don't keep your sister too long. We've got orders coming out of our ears, and we're hoping to close early today.”

Perfect, Gem thought with a smile. Just what she needed.

The kitchen looked deserted when Gem entered it, but it was only because Maggie was half hidden by the huge refrigerator door as she looked for the jug of whipping cream that was hidden in the back somewhere. She was in the middle of preparing a batch of choux buns that needed their filling piped in before she dipped them in a rich chocolate glaze. To say she was preoccupied was an understatement.

“Sis?” Gem called before spotting her sister's back peeping around the fridge door. Maggie didn't answer but continued rifling through the fridge's shelves in her hunt for the cream. There was so much crammed into the tight space that she could barely keep track of what everything was. She'd told her dad a million times they needed to trade the old thing in for one of the larger, more modern refrigerators, but each time he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. He was as attached to that fridge as he was the sign above the store front which his father had hand painted.

“Daaad!” Maggie called, unknowingly ignoring her sister in the process. Her head was so consumed with all she had to do that morning she hadn't even noticed her sister's arrival. For the first time in a while she'd managed to convince her father to close early for the day, and she was determined that nothing was going to stop them from doing that. She had plans with Justin, and she could hardly wait till closing time. “Did you use my cream this morning? I can't find it.”

“Mags?” Gem said.

“No,” Greg called back from the front of shop. “I haven't seen any cream.”

“I need it for my choux buns,” Maggie said.

“Maggie.”

“Dammit,” Maggie swore, hunching down to look right at the back of the bottom shelf. If she couldn't find the cream the buns would be wasted. She didn't have time to head to the store to buy more, and even if she did it wouldn't be at the right temperature for piping straight away. It was an irritating setback.

“Maggie!” Gem snapped, her cheeks flushing a frustrated red. She didn't appreciate being ignored, no matter what the reason, and this delay wasn't helping her blood pressure any either. If she was late to work she risked being taken off emergency cover as a penalty, and she really couldn't afford to lose her extra shifts.

“What?” Maggie asked as she leaned backwards to peer around the fridge door. Her face was flushed, despite having just been in the fridge, and her eyebrows furrowed into a deep frown on her forehead when she saw the irritated look on Gem's face. Gem could tell she was stressed, but she couldn't afford to notice. She was too much of a hurry.

“I need to speak to you.”

Maggie let out a mixture of a grunt and a groan and stood, slamming the fridge door closed a little harsher than she intended. She raised an eyebrow at her sister and leaned back against the now closed door, waiting rather impatiently for Gem to speak. Her expression reminded Gem of when they were teenagers–bad-tempered and sulky–and had been forced to spend time together. Their mother had been adamant that having a sister was like having a best-friend for life, but as she was an only child herself, neither girl had been convinced.

Maggie was already suspicious. She had a niggling feeling she knew what her sister had come to talk about, and she was trying her best not to bite and interrupt before Gem confirmed her suspicions. No matter what she had to say, Maggie already knew the answer. This moment had been building for a while, and the bubbling tension in her stomach at the arrival of her sister confirmed she was ready to put her foot down. Finally. Nothing was going to get in the way of her leaving work early, not her sister, not even a lack of whipping cream.

An awkward silence existed before Maggie shrugged her shoulders. “Okay, go ahead,” she said irritably. I don't have all day.

“Dad says you're busy so I won't keep you,” Gem said as she leaned against the door-frame and gave Maggie a weak smile. She looked tired and troubled, but Maggie pretended not to notice. Gem was an expert manipulator, and for all Maggie knew she might've found a way to make herself look right at her wits end to aid in her efforts. “I need to ask you something and I didn't want to do it over the phone.”

She won't use the telephone because she knows it's easier to talk me round in person, Maggie thought, her face hardening. She stared at her sister, waiting for the inevitable, secretly hoping she was wrong. It would be nice to be wrong about this, she thought, but she'd seen that look on Gem's face a hundred times before.

Gem lowered her voice to a whisper and glanced over her shoulder just in case their dad was in earshot. “I know I said the other night it would be the last time,” she said, more to the door-frame than to Maggie. She turned her head and looked at her sister with big doe-eyes. Maggie deliberately kept her face stony. “...but I'm really struggling, Mags. I know you'll probably hate me for asking again, but—“

“But what?” Maggie snapped. Whoops. So much for holding back. “You know I'll be upset about it, but you ask anyway?” She let out a frustrated huff and folded her arms across her chest. She really wasn't in the mood for this.

“I know it sucks,” Gem said, a little taken aback. “But you know I'd do the same for you.”

Her words were like a red flag to a bull and Maggie felt her chest tightening as she tried to keep her cool. “Really?” she said, spluttering a laugh. “I hear that expression so often, and yet it's never actually happened.”

“What?” Gem asked, her brow darkening. “What do you mean?” She glanced at her wrist watch to check the time, which was another red flag for Maggie. Once again Gem had turned up out of the blue needing something and she didn't even have the courtesy to stay engaged in the conversation; her mind was already travelling onto the next thing. How long had she allocated for this chat, Maggie wondered. Her sister was obviously so used to her agreeing to everything that even a slight stall in the conversation set Gem back for time. It infuriated Maggie how predictable she'd apparently become.

“Everyone's always telling me that when it's my turn they'll drop their plans to help me out, but frankly, I don't believe it. Maybe, just maybe, that offer isn't good enough for me any more.”

This time Gem let out a huff. She didn't have time for this, and she hadn't even got to her question yet. Typical Maggie, choosing this kind of moment to have a heart-to-heart when she really didn't have the time to stick around and listen. “Maggie—“

“No,” Maggie said, frowning directly at Gem. “Whatever it is, the answer is no.” The more she thought about it, the more irritated and angry she felt. She was fed up of being leaned on by every member of her family; her dad at the bakery, her sister with the children. She'd had enough. Her staying in Silverwood had been the best decision for practically everyone in her life except her. Gem wouldn't have been able to use her as a glorified babysitter if she'd still been in Florida.

“No you won't help, or...?”

“No, I won't help, Gem. For once in my life I'm actually saying no.”

Gem's eyes immediately blazed, and she frowned back, the toe of her ankle boot tapping agitatedly against the tiled kitchen floor. As expected, she didn't seem at all apologetic. If anything, she looked completely pissed off. “Jeez, Maggie. What the hell's gotten into you?” she said. “I'm just asking a simple favour and you're acting like I've asked you for the moon. So much for helping out the family.” She tilted her head to the side and scowled at Maggie, her eyes flaming.

“I'm always helping out the family,” Maggie objected, her voice raising in anger. “There isn't a day in my life when I don't do things for other people, with or without appreciation. I know everyone thinks I have nothing better to do, and so I have no justified reason to say no, but you know what? I don't care anymore. I'm saying no for me.”

“Nice attitude,” Gem sneered as she fought back the tears that were prickling at the back of her eyes. She was determined not to cry, no matter what. She hadn't openly cried in front of anyone in years, and she wasn't about to start now. She bit down hard on her tongue to get control over her emotions. She didn't want to fight with Maggie, she didn't have the spare energy, but it was a really inconvenient time for her sister to have grown a backbone. “Thanks for nothing, sis.”

“You know what? I don't even care what you think. You burst in here and expect me to drop everything for you, and for what? Because we're family and that's what we're supposed to do? When have you ever offered to do anything for me, Gem? You know you only offer to pay me back one day because you–and probably everyone else around here–thinks that day will never come. I've done my share of helping out around here, it's your turn.”

“Why shouldn't you help out?” Gem snapped back, her voice rising to meet Maggie's. “You still live at home, you have no financial worries and you've got total job security. What makes you think you're so hard done by? Try raising two boys without—”

Maggie let out a loud snort and turned away, opening the fridge and looking inside so she didn't have to look at her sister's angry face. She was full of righteous indignation, which was fuelled by the fact she knew she had her dad's support. She'd heard what Greg had said when Gem had entered the bakery–the wall between the shop front and the kitchen was thin and offered no soundproofing–and she felt a lot more confident speaking out knowing she had her father's support. “Why don't you try raising your boys?” Maggie snapped, resuming her search through the fridge. “Don't lecture me on how hard it is. I know how hard it is. I spend more time with your kids than you do.”

The wounded silence she received suggested to Maggie that she'd gone too far, but it was too late to take back her words. And really, in her heart of hearts, she knew she was right. Perhaps she shouldn't have said them so abruptly and in the heat of the moment, but there was nothing she could do about it now. She shoved aside a covered dish of butter and the bowls of chilled fruits that were still to be made into pie filling, not even noticing when Gem turned on her heel and stormed out of the kitchen.

By the time Maggie had located the missing jug of cream–which had been in there all along hiding behind the leaves of two pineapples–Gem was long gone.

“Gem?” Greg asked as his eldest daughter burst out of the kitchen and strode across the shop front to the main door. She kept her eyes fixed on the exit and didn't respond when she heard her name. Silent tears were streaming down her cheeks creating smears in her make-up. “Gem!”

Gem ignored him and wrenched open the door, sending the shopkeeper's bell into a frenzy of noise. She tried to yank the door closed behind her, but the anti-slam mechanism fought against her, causing it to jar in her hands. She pulled her hand free and marched out of the doorway without a backwards glance, rubbing roughly at her cheeks with the back of her coat sleeve. Greg watched with concerned eyes until she was out of sight, then went straight out back to the kitchen.

~~~~~*~~~~~