Ok.

Ok.

It was all fine.

Maybe Hannah's confidence in Dr. Fry’s unending honesty was a little shaken by everything. But it was for a good reason. Hannah had been maybe a few days from ending up in a clinic. Those pills gave her the confidence to start dealing with people and businesses. To even start changing out staff and start investigating her own family. 

Oh that was a thought. Had past Hannah hired her assistant yet? She had made a mistake hiring Betty Crumm back in the day. Would make a mistake. 

Whatever. 

Mistakes were made in this Hannah’s past and she needed to make sure they didn’t happen again. Which meant that she needed to make sure to get rid of Betty. Betty had taken a lot of bribes from her mother to make Hannah miss appointments, sign off on bad deals, and a slew of other issues. New Hannah didn’t need that stress. New Hannah needed to take charge, take names, and kick butt. 

“Make a U turn” her car’s GPS spoke up. 

Apparently New Hannah needed to pay better attention and not miss her turn for her sugar pills.

One quick U-turn later, she was pulling into a very unassuming pharmacy. Hannah was used to nicer ones. Everything gleamed and it had the highest quality of make up and accessories. As she walked into this one, it looked dim and dull. There wasn’t much personality. She even saw a lip stick for only three dollars. It was a pretty shade too. Maybe she could pick it up? No. She already caused enough drama getting caught on video like she did. 

But it was such a pretty shade of blue. It’d be fun to try it on even if it wasn’t good quality.

She quickly grabbed it and started wandering around the store a bit. The prices were so cheap. As Hannah looked around she saw all sorts of fun things. Ice cream pints. Plastic packages of cookies. A whole wall of nothing but sodas. All of it seemed so cheap too. Hannah froze as she saw a small selection of cute stuffed animals. These were nothing like the hand made custom made ones her family got her growing up. Still. They looked so cute! Maybe she could prebuy some to give to kids and-

No. No. Hannah wanted to make the world a bit happier after all she made happen before. But this was not the way. She’d need to be smarter about it. Discuss ideas with Dr. Fry first. And get the medications. Keeping that in mind she quickly made her way to the pharmacist counter. 

“Hello. A pick up for Hannah Kerr please?”

A person slowly walked over from the back, the woman taking her time. “Yes and when was the order placed by your doctor? Depending what it is and when, we might not have anything until tomorrow.”

“A bit ago, Dr…” She paused to read the name tag. “Dr Tully. By Dr Fry. She said they were to help me out.”

The woman frowned a moment before typing on her screen. Her eyes went wide and she smiled brightly. “Oh yes. These ones should be very helpful for what I’m seeing here. Make sure to take with three proper meals a day and plenty of water. It’s also good to get extra sun if you can. Walks help with that if you have the time.”

Hannah nodded  as she handed over her card. “Oh can I pay for the lipstick here too?”

“Of course dear. I bet that shade will look nice on you. Dr. Fry goes for a brighter shade herself.” She took the lipstick and scanned it. “Do you want our loyalty card? It can give you discounts and coupons.”

“Oh, I don’t know if I want to keep track of another membership fee.” She stood there a moment, thinking about it. “I mean things are so cheap here as it is. Can you afford that?”

“Well we do try to price things fairly. But don’t worry about that. The card gets you points over time. If you think you might be getting all of your medications here, they help make them cheaper. And it doesn’t cost a thing.”

Hannah thought for a moment. That’s right. Her father mentioned this was how some companies that ran a tight margin made money. They used the data from these cards to take spending habits, target their ads, and sell the data as needed to other groups who would want that information. At least the demographics stuff. 

She was fairly certain her company did a bit of that. At the very least they developed software they helped spot patterns for this sort of thing.

“Thank you, but not today.” She took back her card and waited for the bag of pills and the lipstick.

“Of course. Well, if you change your mind we’ll always ask you at checkout.” Tully went to the back corner, just out of sight. The clattering of pills hitting a bottle echoed in the quiet store before she walked back. All three bottles went right into the plastic shopping bag with the tube of lipstick. “There you go. Hope these help you on your healing journey. Tell Dr. Fry I said hello when you see her next.”

“I will. Thank you.”

Well, that had been relatively painless. And just like at Tiny Hat, Hannah noticed others dressed similar to how she was. One African American woman had tights and an old video game themed shirt. She even had a cute bandana on that had what looked like video game power up items. Hannah wanted to ask where the woman got it from, but wondered if it’d be rude. Well. She could probably find it online or something later if she really wanted it. As it was, her pone was still buzzing away in her purse. 

The video game woman paused and glanced at the purse. “You gonna answer that? It’s been goin’ non stop since I came in. Thought it was a broken register again.”

“In the car. It’s my fiance.” Hannah said cooly, hoping to not make it a big deal.

She pulled out the phone and sighed. Chip was actually calling. Not sending a text. It was crazy. The number of times she’d call and he’d never pick up. Claiming she was far too needy. And here he was freaking out. Talk about your double standards.

“Tell me he isn’t normally this bad.” The woman walked over, taking a glance at the screen herself. 

Hannah cleared her throat. “Well this is the first time I didn’t instantly respond. Normally I’m trying to get a hold of him.”

The woman gave Hannah a side glance, her mouth pulled back in a slight grimace. “Girl. You need to get yourself a man that pays attention and doesn’t freak out. Go ahead and answer the call here. I’ll tell you if he’s being crazy.”

Well. What did she have to lose? There was already a video of her going around online. Doing what? Giving people free food? A call with him freaking out wouldn’t look bad on her. She carefully hit the answer button and held the phone up. 

“Hi Chippy.” She wanted to vomit calling him that. But Now Hannah needed to call him that. “How’s my crispy love?”

“Hannah. What the hell are you doing not responding to my calls?” He was obviously trying not to sound too angry. “You’re supposed to talk to me. And what’s this about you being online? Your PR department called me because they couldn’t get a hold of you.”

Hannah cleared her throat. “Oh, sorry Chippy Pie. I had therapy today and forgot to take my phone off silent. I only just happened to notice my big brother calling earlier.”

He let out a long slow breath and put on a sickenly sweet tone. “Well. When you ignore me like that it reminds me why I need other people to fill the gaps you leave. And I thought you wanted me to slow down on that.”

The woman mouthed something that looked like “what the hell”. Her hoop earrings swung as she started to lean in closer. Hannah took an instinctive step back. She wasn’t used to strangers wanting to be that close. She instead moved the phone so the woman could hear better.

“Well, yes. And I saw the message. Are you really wanting to bring someone over to our new home? I was hoping we’d be the first ones to use it.”

“Well, that ship sailed last week. Now what’s this video?” In the background they could hear some woman whispering for Chip to come back over for more drinks.

She didn’t have anything to hide. “Oh, I thought I’d do something nice and buy some food for people at a fast food place. The one with the cute hats. Remember that old collection I have?”

“Right, that junk. You’re going to throw those away right?.”

“Well, no. My dad and I got them. With him gone I want to keep them.” She gripped the phone a bit tighter. “So I’m going to get a display case where I can show them off. Nothing crazy.”

“Ha! Nothing crazy? Babe you see a shrink. And what’s with all this attitude?” He scoffed. “Look, have fun being cute and buying food for people but you better not be eating that crap. Ok? You need to lose some weight.”

The woman looked at Hannah again, mouthing ‘tell him off’ at her. Hannah held up a finger before speaking up again. “Actually, I’m on new medication and I can’t be on that diet. We will talk to the bridal shop and see about getting the dress fixed or replaced. I have enough money, I’m sure I can rush order something. We still have three months.”

“Hannah. No, you are staying on that diet. And what medication? You aren’t sick.” A waiter could be heard in the background asking if they wanted another round of beers. “Yeah sure. Hannah?”

“Chippy. Sweetie. I need these. I don’t need that dress. And it’s my money. I won’t be touching your assets so you just worry about paying for those rounds with your friend for the night. I’ll be with Mother tonight.”

Before he could respond she hung up. She gave a weak smile to the woman.

“You alright? You are shaking like a leaf.” The woman had grabbed a bottle of sweet tea, and was about to open it. “I was ready to smack him through the phone.”

Hannah looked at her hands, seeing they were shaking. New Hannah maybe wasn’t as brave as she thought. She nodded to the woman as she took the drink. 

“I should pay for this first.”

“Nah. I got it. Got a coupon for a free drink last week.” The woman smiled warmly. “Be proud of yourself. And seriously find yourself a better man. You are young. You got so much time to find someone worth your time.”

If only this wonderful woman knew.