Under New Management

Chapter 7

The next morning, Edith and Margo woke to find that their youngest sister, Agnes, wasn't in her bed. They both got up, and saw her on the couch, snuggled into their mother. Agnes was still fast asleep. Both girls walked over, and snuggled into her as well. They had missed her a lot, and were eager to be with her.

Lucy smiled as she looked at her daughters. They were all around her. Agnes was even still asleep. She'd been on the couch with her since Gru had left. That was one thing that she wouldn't miss from being a spy, all those early morning missions.

Lucy hadn't slept much last night. Agnes being there helped, but with Gru gone, she slept even less than usual, and when she did, she was woken with a nightmare. She had tried to calm herself down quietly, so that she wouldn't wake her daughter, but she wasn't sure if she was successful or not. She didn't sleep a wink after that.

After awhile, Agnes began to stir. Then, Lucy realized what time it was. The girls were probably hungry! They all went into the kitchen. Lucy started to get down the ingredients for pancakes, but realized that Gru wasn't there to help her. She'd burn them if she tried on her own. She started putting the ingredients back, but Margo stopped her.

"We'll help you." She said. "Dad taught us how to make them."

Lucy's heart warmed at that. She smiled gratefully at her daughter, and brought the ingredients out again. They had fun, making breakfast as mother and daughters. Still, Gru stayed on Lucy's mind the whole time.

When they sat down to eat, Edith asked,

"So, dad has a new partner now?"

Lucy nodded.

"Is she good?" Edith pressed further.

Lucy had to keep herself from laughing. Should she tell the girls the whole truth? Why not? She needed to talk to somebody about it.

"No! She has no experiance in the field, at all! She does know any fighting skills, and she's never operated any of our weapons before!" She seethed.

"What?" Margo said. "And she's supposed to help dad?"

Lucy just nodded, and angrily attacked her pancakes.

"Not only that, but she's so, so..." Lucy faltered.

"Pretty?" Margo asked, with a knowing smile.

Lucy nodded, and buried her head in her hands. She would not cry. She would not cry.

"I'm scared for him." She whispered. "He's headed into a very difficult case, with a partner who will only slow him down and make things worse. Normally I can be out there, protecting him. Now, all I can do is sit here."

"That's not true." Edith piped up.

Lucy looked up at her.

"Go after them. You have dad's whole lab full of technology, an army of minions at your disposal, and Dr. Nefario to help you out! You even have dad's ship that you can use to fly wherever you need to go!" Edith said, excitedly.

Could she actually do this? No. She couldn't. For more reasons than one.

"I can't." She said. "I can't interfere with a mission. That's against the AVL code. And, anyways, someone needs to stay here with you girls."

"Yeah, you can," Margo insisted. "You aren't an agent anymore, so who cares about their code. And, we can stay with Dr. Nefario. We stay with him whenever you are both on a mission anyways, so why is this any different?"

The girls all looked at her pleadingly.

"Ok." She said. "Let's do this."