[3rd POV]
The release of "Over the Rainbow" had caught...a LOT of people off guard. There were not any sort of leaks, no talks, nothing. It had just been released randomly, a beautiful song that was dedicated to the Grandmother of Billie.
The public were completely baffled with the release of the song, and the reveal that Billie had a grandmother. Not only that, but she had one that had seemingly raised her, or something of the sort. With how much she seemed to care for her.
The song was already number one on trending across multiple sites, and had it had only been a day. It wasn't her biggest song within a day or anything, but it was still huge. And it was causing a lot of people to ask questions.
The sort of questions that would make a normal person very uncomfortable. Personal questions that Billie's lawyers and those that were helping her keep her past private had to work in overtime to protect. The paparazzi in particular were being incredibly rude, and well...being the paparazzi in essence.
And it had only been a day.
Billie was pretty certain that they'd eventually push it over the edge and get a fat lawsuit slapped in front of them. And frankly, she was really hoping they would. So that she could crush them and make the paparazzi fuck off.
Because they were easily the most annoying people she had ever had the displeasure of seeing. And she hadn't even personally ran into any of them yet, with her being very very careful to not get noticed when going out into public.
The first time she had actually been noticed was with the Magic Shop.
Currently Billie was sitting in front of her kitchen counter, typing away on her laptop. She had just gotten off the phone with a representative from the Make a Wish foundation, and had found out the reason why she had not gotten a request yet. The reason itself made a lot of sense, and Billie was annoyed at herself for not even thinking about it.
It was because nobody knew anything about her.
All the public knew was her name, and that she was a woman. So before she had nothing for them to go off of. And they couldn't let her come and visit the children without her being a more public figure. It was more of a safety thing than anything. More than that, they didn't think she would even want to with how private she had been up until not that long ago.
Billie had promptly told them the second she heard this, that they are welcome to begin sending her the requests if they get any. She would NEVER deny a wish from someone on their deathbed. ESPECIALLY, a child.
She was not a monster.
And she felt terrible once she heard a piece of news.
The first person that had requested her had passed. With Billie not even knowing the 10 year old girl had wanted to meet her.
Billie wasn't really sure what she could do to help. So she decided to get into contact with the family of the little girl, and help them out. On top of that, she had sent a personal donation to the foundation, a private one that she didn't want publicized.
It was a donation of a little over a million dollars.
Billie leaned back in her chair, rubbing her forehead as she breathed out.
"This is what I get for being so private for so long. Not even knowing that a little girl wanted to meet me" Billie whispered to herself, feeling horrible about this entire situation.
She hoped that meeting and helping the family out would begin to make up for the fact that she had never met the child. But she had no idea if it would do anything or not. She'd do it either way though.
She hadn't talked to Haley in a bit, but she'd need to tell her about this too. As she had found out that Haley had a few people hoping to meet her, a few people that were alive and well, and would be for a few more months.
Meaning she'd get a chance to grant the wishes of a few kiddos that deserve the world.
Billie continued to type away on her laptop, making sure the money went through properly, while also sending an email to her accountant, or one of them at least. She'd now be setting one hundred thousand dollars a year to use to spoil the kids that wish to meet her, and whatever isn't spent by the end of the year would be donated to Make a Wish, or a few other charities that she knows are legitimate.
Legitimate was...a hard thing to say for a LOT of charities, with how the world was. But she knew about a few of them, and she'd make sure they got her donations, should she not spend it all on the kiddos that request to meet her.
As Billie continued to type away, she stopped when she heard her door get knocked on.
Sighing, Billie walked over, knowing exactly who was on the other side, as she opened it.
Only to stop, her eyes widening in surprise.
Haley was there...with her entire family.
"What the-" "Are you okay Billie? We heard the song" Claire cut her off, walking forward as Billie wasn't even able to reply before she was pulled into a hug by the older woman.
"We'd have come sooner, but we thought you might have needed the day alone" Mitchell added, as Billie blinked, feeling Claire hug her.
"U-Um...I'm fine, you know. She passed a couple of years ago" Billie responded, as Claire pulled back from her.
"She might have passed a while ago, but that doesn't mean it can't still hurt, kid" Jay said, as Billie looked at them.
It was all the adults, as well as Haley. The kids were likely back at their house, being watched by Gloria, who was the only adult member of the family that was not there.
"God knows I still mourn the loss of my ma" Jay added.
"Yeah, I visit my grandmother every anniversary of her death" Phil said, as Billie looked at him.
"Mmhmm, I do a memorial every year to my best friend, Maximus" Cam nodded, the others looking at him in surprise, as he had a look of realization hit him.
"Ah, he was a pig. But he was the best damn pig in the world!" Cam said, wiping his eyes as tears began to flood them.
"We just thought you should know that we're here for you, Billie. With the way that you and Haley are clinging to one another, it's pretty obvious you'll be family sooner or later" Mitchell said with a soft smile on his face.
Haley, who had been silent up until this point, walked forward. Billie breathed out as she felt her wrap her arms around her, her eyes beginning to water slightly when she heard the next words of her girlfriend.
"You don't have to hold back your emotions, baby. It's not healthy to bottle them up, and we're all here for you. You can just...let it all out" Haley softly whispered, as Billie's eyes began to slowly leak, tears beginning to spill as she leaned into her girlfriends touch, the others soon moving forwards as Claire let out her own cry.
Just watching it was making the woman cry, as soon, Billie was wrapped up in a group hug.
As the entire clan of Dunphy adults hugged Billie as she sobbed against her girlfriend.
The warmth of their love and care was too much. As Billie just...
Let it all out.
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That's the end of the chapter!
Basically just a follow up to the previous chapter. We'll be moving on from the sad stuff soon, promise.
Anyways, have a good day!