WARNING: Dark themes.

The morning after, plus more of Grace's life.


Kat opened her eyes gingerly the next morning against the harsh morning sunlight that filtered into the room. Some idiot had opened the curtains. And she knew who the idiot was.

Turning her head slightly to look up, she saw his beautiful emeralds looking down at her.

"If it's not anywhere near noon, I'm going to kill you," she growled at him.

"It's not. But I wanna get some food down you before we check out."

"Jeff..." she whined as she buried her face in her pillow. "Go eat with someone else. I can't even think about food right now."

She felt his fingers gently trailing her neck, and the long sigh that came afterwards was an indication that something was bothering him. And that usually meant he wanted to talk.

As much as she loved the guy, he was going to have to wait until that nasty pounding in her head stopped.

"You're not going all angsty and shit on me again, are you? The best advice I could give you right now is to forget whatever it is that's bothering you and move the fuck on," she muttered.

"Why do you let him do this to you?" Jeff asked softly.

"What?"

"He hurt you again."

She didn't need him to explain who 'he' was.

"Like I said, move the fuck on."

"Kitty Kat, come on!" Jeff sighed.

She felt his fingers again and smacked them away.

"Stay out of it, Hardy," she muttered, closing her eyes so she could try to sleep again.

"He disrespects you. He hits you. He treats you like crap and you expect me to not say anything?" he bit out angrily.

Randy didn't hit her. Not really anyway. Not the way Jeff thought. But she wasn't about to explain her sick obsession to the one friend she had in the whole world.

She let out a sigh as she kicked the covers off her body, not surprised when she noticed she only had her beater and panties on. Sometimes, when she got too drunk, Jeff undressed her and put her to bed. After being nude for him for several sittings while he'd sketched her, she'd stopped freaking out when he did this. Jeff didn't look at her like other men did when they saw her naked. After the life she'd had, that had come as a very welcome change. And that was probably what had cemented their friendship.

"I'm going to my room to get some more sleep before checkout," she muttered.

"He's not good for you," Jeff tried again.

She turned on him angrily. How dare he assume to know her!

"No? Then who is? You, Jeffy? Are you going to do all the things Orton does for me?" she sneered.

Jeff clenched his jaw, but didn't look away.

"I didn't think so," she said. "So stay the fuck out of it."

She turned from her friend so she could walk into the bathroom only to crash into a hard, wet wall. The impact would have made her fall hard on her ass if a pair of strong arms hadn't caught her.

Matt? The fuck?! Wasn't he supposed to be somewhere else?

"What the fuck are you doing here?" she squealed, suddenly feeling very self conscious because she was near enough naked in his arms. And he was definitely naked under that towel that hung precariously low on his hips.

She didn't like being around people when her wall was down.

"Um, this is my room," Matt chuckled as he let her go.

She quickly made her way back to the bed and covered herself.

"I don't think that's necessary, after last night," Matt laughed.

Last night? Her eyes widened as she looked at her friend, who was still lying on the bed they'd shared.

"He's just messing with you," Jeff laughed. "You passed out at the party and I got too drunk waiting for you, um, in the bathroom, so Matt had to carry you up."

"Wait. Party?" she frowned, a sick feeling forming in her stomach.

"Oh, yes," Jeff chuckled. "The after party. You made quite a few friends."

"Friends?" she spat out, not liking that alien word on her tongue.

"Many, many friends," Jeff answered gleefully.

She narrowed her eyes on him, trying to remember what the hell she had done the previous night. She knew how she got on the few occasions she drank. Going to the party would probably have been her idea. But, damn it, Jeff could have stopped her! He knew how she felt about socializing with his colleagues.

"I don't do friends," she said through grit teeth.

"Well, shit. I wish you'd told me that last night before you kissed me," Matt laughed as he walked over to his bed.

"I kissed you?!" she shrieked in disgust.

"I usually get a better reaction than that," he teased.

"Dude, no offence but I don't know you," she snapped, rubbing her temples as she felt her headache getting worse by the second. "Look, I'm getting out of here. I'll call you."

A quick search with her eyes around the room revealed her sweats neatly folded on a chair and the slippers under it, right by Matt's bed. Jeff didn't fold clothes, so Matt had probably done that. She hoped that didn't mean he'd also undressed her.

"Turn your back," she ordered him, waiting until Matt chuckled and turned before leaving the safety of the bed.

"I don't know why you're laughing. This shit ain't funny at all," she snapped at him as she dressed. "It's humiliating."

"Sorry Kitty Kat__"

"You can't call me that!" she snapped, looking at Matt's back. "I don't know you."

In fact, even the few people who knew her she threatened with death if they called her that. Only Jeff got away with it, and that was only because she'd got close to him in a way she hadn't been able to do with anyone in her whole life.

"Sorry," Matt chuckled again.

She frowned and looked over at Jeff, who was now lying on his back with his hands behind his head just watching them with a smile on his face.

"I know he's your brother and all, but if that fool don't stop laughing I'm going to deal with it," she told him.

This only made Matt laugh harder as he turned back round to face her.

"Sorry Katrina. I just find this morning funny after all the sweet nothings you whispered in my ear last night."

"I don't say sweet nothings," she growled.

"You were trying to sleep with me!"

"That would only ever happen in your dreams."

"You told Eve to back off 'cause I was fucking you last night!"

"Did she buy it?"

"Yeah," Matt shrugged. "I had, like, a million missed calls when I woke up."

She rolled her eyes as she grabbed her little bag and put her hat on her head.

"Jeff, wake me up when it's time to go. I need to go lie down."

Jeff got off his bed to open the door for her.

"If anyone says hello, say it back," he ordered.

She scowled up at him as if he was speaking a different language. Why the hell would she say it back? She wasn't trying to make any friends. Especially not among these people who made a habit of stabbing each other in the back.

"Okay," she answered, knowing he wouldn't buy it. "Later."

Before she'd even took a few steps away from him, a loud Latina, one she recognised as a Diva she regularly photographed, hugged her like they were friends and said, "Hey, chicca! Last night was fun; we should do it again real soon."

In shock, she could only manage to nod her head before the woman continued on her way. She turned to look at Jeff and saw a wide grin on his face as he leaned on the door frame.

Up ahead, right by the elevator where she wanted to go, a bunch of guys stood. They noticed her and waved at her with calls of 'hey, Kat' and 'hey, gorgeous'.

What the fuck?! Scowling, she turned back and walked into Jeff's room.

"It's a fucking jungle out there!" she shrieked. "Who are those people? Did I kiss them too?"

She didn't normally freak out, indeed, it would have been no hardship to just ignore those guys, but it was starting to sink in just how much of herself she had probably revealed the previous night.

"You might have. I'm not sure, lost track of you for a bit when you went to mingle," Jeff laughed.

"Mingle?!"

"Yeah. Mingle."

With a disgusted shudder, she walked out again, this time going the opposite way to the stairs. Jeff and Matt's laughter followed her until Jeff's door shut behind her.

This was a fucking nightmare.


"They can all still see you."

She looked up at Shawn and kissed her teeth at him before hiding behind a magazine again. A useless sexist magazine full of stick thin women, wearing next to nothing. But it was doing the job.

Almost a year she had sat next to these people on a lot of flights yet remained invisible. Now they seemed to have nothing better to do than just gawk at her.

"Look. There's Dolph. Poor guy looks like he's hiding from you."

She looked up at Hunter and scrunched up her nose.

"Dolph?"

"Yeah. Dolph Zigler."

She couldn't help bursting into laughter at that one.

"What kind of stupid name is that?" she laughed, looking around to see who bore that unfortunate name.

"I believe you asked him the same question last night," Shawn said.

"Oh, and don't forget how she said his name sounded like something she'd throw up."

"I did? Well, shit, ain't I funny," she said, raising a hand to wave at her new found friend.

Needless to say, Dolph just looked away from her.

"His real name is Nick Nemeth," Shawn grinned.

"What, like I nameth you Shawn?" she asked.

Both Shawn and Hunter burst out laughing.

"Geez, no wonder the man is standing all by his lonesome," she said, this time going as far as to beckon the guy over.

Again, Dolph ignored her. She couldn't help laughing at that.

She was still laughing when some guy took the liberty to take the seat next to hers, the one she'd been reserving for Jeff. It took her a moment to recognise him as half of the weird act that thought everyone should be jealous of them, the ones that looked totally gay.

"Hey, Kat. How's it going?"

She frowned up at him, and then looked at Hunter and Shawn before looking back at him. The nerve of the man!

"What do you want?" She didn't care that she sounded rude.

"Just wanted to say hi," he replied.

Her eyebrows popped up. She'd been in the stupid job so long, under his feet all the time, and now, today, just because she'd made a fool of herself one time, he wanted to say hi?

"John. John Morrison. We met last night," he smiled, obviously taking her silence to mean she was pleasantly surprised.

"That seat is saved for someone," she said, picking her magazine up again and ignoring him.

"Oh. Ok. I just thought I'd ask if you wanna grab a meal or something when we land."

"No."

Just because he was pretty, he thought it gave him a ticket to just start talking to people whenever he wanted?

"Um... Okay," John frowned.

Obviously he wasn't used girls turning him down. Well, tough!

"That seat is taken," she repeated, when he didn't make a move quick enough.

He mumbled under his breath as he got up but she didn't catch what he said. She didn't care, really.

"Kat, be nice," Hunter chuckled. "What's so wrong with a meal when we land?"

Besides the fact that she didn't want to? Randy would have a fit! She'd had a few flashbacks of the previous night and figured it was best to cool it for a while until he calmed down.

"Are you kidding me? I'd never go out with a guy prettier than me!"

Except for Randy. He was a whole lot of pretty with some wild animal thrown in. Briefly, she wondered if he was going to call her later that night like he had promised. He was supposed to drop by after the show, but she wasn't so sure now if he would. The guy could hold a grudge longer than anyone she knew! He was like a little bitch that way. Even after the quick but intense fuck in the bathroom, he'd still been pretty angry.

"You don't seem to wanna go out, fullstop."

She frowned but didn't meet his eye. Hunter, of all people, had to understand why she preferred to form no bonds, friendly or otherwise, with anyone.

She was saved from answering when a cup from Starbucks was shoved in her line of vision, and she thanked the gods for bringing Jeff into her life. She'd been dying for a coffee since she'd been rushed out of her room, but hated the machine stuff and hadn't felt up to finding a shop or cafe.

"Real coffee!" she exclaimed as she took the cup that was being offered to her. "Jeff, I love you, man."

"I know," Jeff sighed dramatically as he sat down next to her before nodding to Hunter and Shawn.

It was at this time that she noticed Matt had sat next to him. He grinned at her and winked, making her scowl and look away.

"Why's he sitting with you today?" she asked.

"Because everyone thinks I slept with you last night, so none of the Divas are being particularly friendly to me," Matt said, answering for himself.

She rolled her eyes at this piece of news. She wasn't bothered what people thought, but in this case, it was forcing Matt to invade her space. She didn't like it. Didn't he have other friends? Why would it matter if the Divas said anything, wasn't such stuff supposed to give men big heads and some sort of bragging rights? He should have been over there with the other guys, piling more shit on the fake rumour. Maybe even standing with Dolph. Dolph...

She shook the name out of her head and scowled at Matt.

"Why would they care? Thought that Eve was just your friend."

"It turns out she thought there was more to it," Matt shrugged.

"You're not bothered?" she questioned.

"No. If she felt something for me, she should have said. She should quit playing games and talk to me herself rather than sending her girlfriends to harass me. I'm too old for that shit."

A man who didn't take shit. Well, good for him. She would have done the same thing in his shoes.

She would have told him as much, but she didn't want anyone thinking she was giving out compliments. They might even get some sick idea in their heads that she was open to a friendship with the other Hardy. One was enough.

She looked at Jeff and saw the smirk on his lips as if he could see what she was thinking.

She rolled her eyes and looked away, noticing how Hunter and Shawn seemed to be interested in the conversation as well.

"What, you want me to beat him away with a stick?" she asked dryly.

But they just smirked again.

She didn't own the damned airport; people could sit wherever the fuck they wanted! Unless it was in Jeff's seat. But looking at the guys now, it seemed they thought she was softening a bit.

No chance. She knew only too well what happened when she let her guard down.

"I'm going to find Steph. She's taking too long with the fucking donuts," she mumbled as she put the magazine down and got to her feet.

She made sure her hood was up, shadowing her face, and that the music on her I-pod was loud enough for her to ignore whoever decided to talk to her next.


Jeff chuckled as he watched Kat walk away. She wasn't hiding from anyone, but she didn't exactly look approachable, either. Much like she'd always been. But the difference now was that she wasn't invisible.

He could see the many eyes that followed her, wondering who the hell she was, remembering the gorgeous, carefree creature from the previous night, trying to reconcile that image with this one. And he could see them whispering, spreading the gossip they were so famous for, which would no doubt come back to him all twisted, completely different from the original rumour.

"What did I miss?" Matt frowned, looking at Kat as well.

Because he didn't know Kat, he wouldn't have known that her actions had a very significant undertone.

"She's decided you can stay," he answered.

"Huh?"

He smiled at his brother, pulling the book Hunter had given him out of his bag.

"She's trying not to like you. She was dying to say something nasty to you, but you said that stuff about Eve and it was exactly how she would have handled it," he explained.

"And you got all this from the few words she spoke to me?"

"She's quite easy to read," he shrugged.

It was his turn to be gawked at. Shawn looked at him as if he'd said something crazy while Hunter's look was more speculative.

"What? She is," he said.

"It took me years to work out that when she insulted me she actually meant it, and that when she's frowning at me she's wishing I would just keel up and die at her feet," Shawn muttered. "How did you work her out so fast?"

He chuckled at the older man's words. He'd seen how the two of them were together. Kat tried her best to remain distant but Shawn always seemed to get around her wall. She didn't like liking him at all, so she found Shawn quite irritating.

"What can I say? I'm gifted," he chuckled.

"Yes, you are," Hunter mused. "Does she... talk to you?"

He frowned a bit at this. No, she didn't really talk to him. Not about the things that mattered.

"She talks about you guys a lot," he answered. "Never about herself. Sometimes she starts to, but then stops, like she's afraid. I don't know why she'd feel like that, I told her she could trust me with anything. But I don't push her."

It didn't take a genius to guess how hard she must have had it, before she found Hunter. He knew that much about her, how she'd met him when she was really young, before Steph, before even all the glory Hunter now had with the WWE. But he still couldn't work out why and how they'd become family. Had Hunter adopted her?

Hunter nodded and looked away, as if he suddenly understood something.

"How's that book coming?" Hunter asked as he started fiddling with his phone.

"I didn't get to read much of it last night before Kat came."

Honestly, he'd read a few pages and found the book quite horrific, even though it made him want to turn the next page. If it was a work of fiction, he would have thought how brilliant the author was for coming up with such disturbing but compelling stuff. People were always drawn to the dark stuff. But he knew it was based on a true story, and as much as he found himself dreading the horror that was certainly coming for the heroine in the book, he wanted to get to the end just to make sure she came out of it alright.

"You can take as much time with it as you want," Hunter said.

He had no idea why Hunter had thought to lend him the book in the first place. It was a depressing read.

"Thanks," he said, looking down at the book in his hands, adding silently, "I think."

Then he sighed and found his bookmark.

******

CHAPTER 2

The day I turned nine all of that flew out of the window. No more loving daddy, no more adoring big brother, no security.

I woke up, expecting the big presents I always got on my special day. Dad never spared any expense when it came to me, I was his little angel. My big room was filled with evidence of his love for me. Or so I thought. I never questioned why my brother never got as much as me. In my mind, we were just one big happy family, even if my older brother had a different mother.

It took me years to realise why, on the morning that was supposed to be special, I found myself thrown out into the streets, literally, with my mother. It was like the scene of a really bad, low budget mystery. It was chilly and wet. My mother kept screaming, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I made a mistake,' while my dad kept throwing our belongings in the puddles at the end of the driveway, calling her names my young mind didn't understand.

I'd never seen anyone beg the way my mother did, and I'd never seen anyone as angry as my father was. He'd literally turned into a monster right in front of my eyes.

His last words, before he walked back onto his property and locked the gate, were, 'Years you've held her over my head... you ruined my family for nothing. So take the brat. If I see either of you on my doorstep again, I will kill you.'

I may not have understood anything else, but I understood that. My daddy didn't want me anymore. My daddy would kill me.

It was years later, when my mind lost its innocent a long time after my body did, that I understood the words he had said to Mother. I had been unwanted from the very beginning, yet had been used as a weapon against him. My greedy mother had used me to steal Dad away from his wife, to take my brother away from his mother. She had used me to insure she always got the best of everything. She had used me to keep herself in the life she had schemed and whored her way into.

And that day, on my ninth birthday, the truth came out. Daddy was not my daddy. Daddy never loved me. I was never his child, the way my brother was. I still have no clue who my real dad is, but he was the only one I'd ever known. The day he kicked us out, I think he tried to make it right with his first wife. He tried to erase us, as if we'd never existed. And he succeeded.

So that left me with just my mother. On that day, all the smiles she'd once given me disappeared. I realised then that they had never been genuine. My own mother had no love for me. For a nine year old, it was quite heartbreaking. It would have been heartbreaking, whatever age I'd have been. She didn't want me there with her, now that she could no longer use me. But I followed her anyway. I was nine, she was my mother; what else was I supposed to do?

Sometimes she'd throw me scraps of food when she'd had her fill, but most times, I went to bed hungry. And I use the term bed loosely. Dark alleys, under bridges, doorways... She made us sleep in the worst possible filth. She wouldn't actually sleep, of course. She'd leave me with our belongings in the rough streets for me to watch over while she went to work. I didn't realise then, what she meant by that, but I knew whatever they were paying her certainly wasn't being used to keep me clothed, fed and sheltered. I'm quite sure I never saw a cent of what she made at 'work'.

I hated it when she left me alone, even though when she was with me, I was still alone. She was all that I knew, the only thing that was familiar in this new scary world my daddy had banished us into. Everything was big and scary here. There were other kids, but whenever I was left alone, they would come and take whatever I had that they thought was of value. Even the older people, who should have known better, did this. Before long, I only had the clothes that were on my back. Mother didn't care. I had to fend for myself.

I kept thinking of my daddy more and more. I kept thinking of my brother, of the warm bed I used to have, all my lovely, expensive coats and jackets, my warm clothes. The night I finally had enough, I was starving, wet from the rain that had seemed to fall for days and exhausted because I could never sleep with all the scary people lurking in the shadows. I wanted to go home. Surely my daddy hadn't meant it when he'd said he'd kill me. I was his little girl. He loved me. He would never have let me go if he'd known what my fate was.

So I went to look for my mother to tell her I was leaving. I remembered overhearing her talking to this one woman who slept near us, telling her where she worked. I knew the city pretty well by then, it had been at least six months since I'd started this torturous life on the streets. It didn't take long to find the road she'd mentioned, but I got slightly confused when I got there. It didn't look like anywhere my mother would work. Most of the shops looked like they were closed down, and there ones still open looked really scary. There seemed to be very dark bars, with loud music blasting from them and many people lurking outside.

Did my mum work in one of these places? It was horrible to even imagine. What could she possible do here? All my life, she'd been a perfectly made up woman with expensive tastes. She would never have set foot in a place like this.

But then I remembered how drastically our lives had changed. Bracing myself, I walked down the street, keeping to the shadows as much as I could. Noone seemed to notice me, and if they did, they ignored me. I'd seen my mother drunk enough times to realise that most of these people were too. I heard more words I'd never heard before as I watched a group of men standing around two half naked women. They were looking at them like pieces of meat, even touching them as they made lewd jokes. The women didn't seem to mind, they actually looked like they were enjoying it. It shocked me. How could anyone enjoy it when someone was being nasty to them? It was a short time later when I learned why they liked it when men paid them this sort of attention. It meant a few bucks at the end of it.

I walked away from this scene as quick as I could, but soon found that all my efforts to find mother were thwarted. Big men stood in all of the doorways, blocking my entrance. The only place I was allowed into was the little coffee shop at the end of the road, but mother wasn't in there. I was about to give up when I heard very weird noises coming from the alley I was walking past. I didn't realise then what the noise was, and I certainly didn't realise I would hear these sounds for on a quite regular basis for the next few years.

Curious, because it sounded like a cat was dying, I slowly walked down the alley. But instead of a cat, I saw my mother.

She was on her knees and looked and sounded as if she was choking on something. There was a man standing right in front of her, and my innocent mind thought, 'Why isn't he helping? Why is he letting my mother die?'

I did the only thing I could think of. My mother was the only person I had left, my only family. I couldn't let her leave me. So I ran to her to try to save her.

What did I learn on TV? Was I supposed to stomp on her chest? Her back? I hadn't been back at school since I left my daddy, but before I'd left, I'd watched my fair share of mummy's TV programs, like the medical ones she liked so much that fascinated me. I'd always thought I'd go on to become a doctor or something, saving people's lives and stuff.

But I got to my mother and she seemed less than pleased that I was trying to save her. In fact, she pushed me off her and I hit my head hard on a wall as I landed. I was very confused.

It was only as the man sneered and looked at me that I realised what mother was doing. If my stomach had had anything in it, I'd surely have lost it.

"Who's your little friend Trixie?" the man asked, pushing my mother off him.

I didn't like the way he looked at me. I was too young to understand what that look meant, but it made me panic.

"Her name's Grace," my mother said as she wiped her mouth.

"She's quite a looker. The exotic ones are always the best."

My mother flashed me a look as if she was jealous of me. I couldn't understand it. My mother was beautiful; striking blue eyes, long brown hair and skin the colour of chocolate milk. I'd always wanted to look like her but dad had explained to me why that would never be. I would always look oriental, because I had part of him in me. Well, I had part of my father in me, anyway.

Then the look turned to hatred. It still hurt me when she looked at me like this. She was supposed to love me, to protect me.

"How much?" Mother asked.

The man looked at my mother nervously.

"That shit gets people locked up for good," the man said.

"The shit you already do can get you the death sentence," my mother said.

I didn't understand what they were talking about but I still didn't like it. I was very scared and ready to run. I would have, too, if mother hadn't come to stand over me. She pulled me up to my feet, and before I knew what was happening, she lifted the thin dress that was no protection from the elements anyway, and pushed me closer to the man.

I was horrified. I tried to struggle but mother backhanded me. In the end I had no choice but to stand there while the dirty man looked at my exposed body.

"If you breathe a word about it, I'll kill you," the man growled.

I had a feeling my fate had been sealed. My mother discussed numbers with him. And times.

It was only after this happened a few times that I realised she was selling me for a certain amount of money for a limited time. Each time, I got more expensive.

But this time, this first time, I came quite cheap.

This became the worst day of my life, worse than when my daddy threw us out.

But, of course, I was only nine. I had a hell of a lot of time for worse things to happen to me.

I lost my innocence in a dark alley, on a cold, wet night, with my mother watching as she smoked a cigarette. I'd never felt such pain. When I screamed, I was punched in the face to keep quiet. My body was twisted up in unnatural ways as the dirty man did unnatural things to my body. He invaded my very soul, filled it with his stench. He was too heavy on top of me for me to struggle, but I felt every movement he made. I couldn't breathe.

I thought he was killing me. I thought he was stabbing me. I thought any second the pain would stop as I closed my eyes for the last time. I thought these painful breaths were to be my last.

But they weren't.

I was just starting to pass out when he rolled off me. He said I was delightfully bendy and mother laughed. It must have been only a few minutes, but it had felt like hours while I'd been trapped under him, while my little legs had been twisted in awkward ways.

I didn't understand what had happened to me. I couldn't understand why my own mother had just watched while this man brought me pain.

This is how my story started. On this night, my life became more than a nightmare, it became hell.

******

"Want a donut, Jeff?"

He looked up from the book to see Steph offering him one.

"Er.. no, thanks," he answered, looking back at the book to see if his eyes hadn't been playing tricks on him.

How could this story get any worse?

"You alright there, Jeff?"

He looked up at Hunter and frowned, thinking again why Hunter would have given him this book to read. It wasn't his thing at all. But now that he'd started, he felt compelled to finish it in the hopes that it had a happy ending.

"Yeah," he lied. "Um, where's Kat? We'll be boarding soon."

"She was in the music shop," Steph answered.

"I'll go find her," he said quickly as he put the book back in his bag and stood up. "Need to stretch my legs."

He pulled his hood up the way Kat had done hers and walked off, deep in thought. It angered him when he heard about such cruelty, but to actually live the pain through the victim's eyes... It was heartbreaking.


"Hunter, what did you do?" Steph sighed.

Hunter looked at the young man who was walking away and sighed, too. When he'd given Jeff the book the previous night, he'd wished he could take it back. But he'd had time to think about it now, and he'd watched Jeff as he'd read the book. It was the only thing he could have done.

"He needs to know," he answered.

It was true. Jeff was close to her, and it had taken him a shorter time than all of them to gain Kat's trust. That had to mean something, didn't it? Maybe he was the one who would finally help her heal.

"Kat's going to kill you," Shawn muttered.

Matt was stuck in a book of his own, but they were being quiet just in case he could hear them.

"I know," he sighed.

"What if she decides she doesn't want to be friends with him, once he knows?" Steph asks. "He's been so good for her, what if she goes back into herself again?"

He hadn't thought about that. Would Kat give her one friend up if he knew of her past? She probably would. That may have been the reason she'd kept him in the dark in the first place.

"I'll talk to him," he said. "I'll tell him to keep the book away from her."

"How will you do that without explaining why?" Shawn asked.

Fuck it! He'd just take the book back now.

He reached for Jeff's bag where he'd left it but paused when he saw Matt's eyes on him.

"What you doing there, H?" Matt asked, closing his book.

He was sure he looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Um... thought I heard Kat's phone in there. She always forgets it with Jeff when they hang out," he lied.

Matt frowned but shrugged, as if to say he wasn't really bothered about it anyway, and opened his book again.

By then, it was too late to get the book. He saw Jeff and Kat walking back, Jeff with his arm over her shoulders and whispering something in her ear as they looked at a couple of CDs. She laughed at whatever Jeff said, and he found himself wondering how Jeff would react once he found out Kat was Grace. Would he be the one to walk away from the friendship?

For Kat's sake, he hoped not.


Well, there you go. Thank you very much for reviewing the last chapter. Hope you review this one, too, let me know what you think about poor Grace now. Obviously, I'm not going to describe those scenes, but I just had to write a few things about what was going through her head as the monster did this. I think all the monsters who put innocent children through this should be hung!