Okay so I'm late on this, sorry, but I've had a lot to do the past two weeks. I hope you already chapter fifteen that I posted last week, if not please don't forget to check it out.

This will mostly be flashbacks so I apologize for the overdose of italics.

"Gracie… oh Gracie, it's mommy. I'm just so excited! I wanted to wait and tell you in person but mommy has a few meetings she can't get out of this week so it'll be a while before she can come up there. But Gracie… I'm engaged! Can you believe it? You're the first person I wanted to know, I haven't even told Auntie Regina. You remember Davin, right? We spent the weekend at Hersey Park together… well he's amazing and I love him and, and we're getting married!

I hope everything there is fine. Your father tells me you have a dance recital coming up. He promises to record it for me if I can't make it. I don't think I will… but I wish you the best of luck, honey. I know you'll be amazing. I love you darling, call me back when you can. I love you, Grace. So so much."

"Gracie… do you love your mommy?" the blond woman before me asked, crouched on her knees as she held my small hands tightly in her own. Her face full of tears and smeared make up. Why was she crying?

"I love you mama," I whispered softly, taking in the somber mood. Behind me my father scoffed and muttered something low under his breath. Mommy turned to him with fury and venom spewing from her mouth. Quick heated words were exchanged between the two of them, making me giggle softly. Mommy looked like an angry dragon.

All at once the mood calmed and mommy faced me again, her eyes brimming with new tears. She brought both my hands to her lips and kissed them gently before offering me a watery smile. I smiled back and blushed under her gaze. Mommy made me feel fuzzy sometimes; daddy said that was because she loved me so much that I sometimes felt like a firecracker popping off from her warmth.

Mommy was magic.

"Grace, mommy has to leave. She is very unwell and she may not return," she breathed out gently, clutching me tightly.

"Mommy… you're hurting my hands," I whimpered trying to wring my hands from her grip. She released them immediately with a sad frown.

"Sorry lovely. Mommy didn't mean to," she said back, clearing her throat.

"This is ridiculous. You should just stay. Get treatment here, she won't even understand what you mean when you say that you have…," daddy started only to be stopped by mama's flashing eyes. She was a dragon again.

"Children understand more than people give them credit for," she snapped sharply. I looked between the two of them and frowned. I hated when they argued. And they always argued.

They continued to bicker back and forth as a car pulled up next the curb in front of our house. I smiled happily when Auntie Regina stepped out and offered me a kind smile. Auntie Regina was the best auntie I had. And the only one too. And she had a son that I liked to play with a lot, even if he sometimes pulled on my hair for fun.

"Mal… we have get going soon," she said with her arms crossed. Daddy pulled me against him before I could escape our porch and get a hug from her. Daddy didn't like Auntie Regina. Daddy didn't like a lot of people, but her most of all.

I never understood why. Auntie Regina made the best treats.

"I'll be right there," mama murmured before glaring up at daddy and then crouching back down in front of me.

"Gracie… mommy needs you to know that she loves you. And she'll always love you," she began.

"Mallory… don't do this," daddy pleaded behind me.

"And do what instead… let you wait to tell her when I'm already dead?" she growled out and then turned to me.

"Gracie… mommy is sick. She has this very bad and dangerous disease; she's in pain all the time. But, mommy's leaving so she can go and get treated for it. And when mommy's feeling better she'll come and see you, alright? She'll drop everything and come to you," mommy promised, kissing me on the cheeks and hugging me tightly once she was finished, her tears staining my shoulders.

"Mallory… why don't you just stay with us? We'll take care of you," daddy begged softly. Daddy was always begging mommy for something or another. One moment he'd hate her and then the next…

"I have to go. Auntie Regina and Henry will be taking care of me so you won't have to worry about me. I love you. So so much," mommy murmured in my ear before releasing me. And then… she was gone. Driving away with Aunty Regina like always and daddy was crying and I was crying and… she was gone.

Mommy didn't come back for a long time after that. She sent me things all the time, though. And she called as often as she could. Sometimes she'd call really really late at night and daddy would argue with her. Sometimes he'd cry and sometimes he was calm. I think mommy cried a lot too on those phone calls.

And she'd always promise to come back late at night too. And daddy would just wait for her. He'd rush home to see if she came back. But she never did. But daddy never stopped waiting for her.

Back then he'd send me to Auntie Regina's house in the summer because mommy promised to spend time with me but she never did. Auntie Regina said that mommy was still very sick. I was seven when I stopped believing that.

"Gracie! It's time for school!" my dad called from down stairs. I'd been up for the past half hour waiting for my mom to call. She said she would in the morning when I talked to her the day before. Sometimes she didn't always do what she said she would but she promised last night.

And mommy usually kept her promises. These days, anyway.

"I'll be down in a second," I shouted down just as my phone began to ring. I jumped off of my bed and to my phone sitting on my desk where I'd put it the night before. I smiled happily at the name flashing on the screen.

"Mama?" I asked happily, smiling widely.

"Gracie, shouldn't you be headed to school right now?" she asked suspiciously. I laughed and nodded my head shyly, not that she could see me.

"I was waiting for your call," I answered softly. She chuckled on her end and I smiled widely, feeling fuzzy as always.

"Well go one downstairs and let your father drive you to school. We can talk on the way," she suggested. I frowned and shook my head. If I let daddy drive me I'd be to school in less than five minutes and then we wouldn't even get a chance to talk.

"But then…"

"I'll call you after school too, don't worry. Mommy's not very busy today," she laughed on her end. There was rustling behind her and she whispered something to whoever was in the room with her. I narrowed my eyes in distaste, knowing exactly who it was.

Davin, not that she talked about him too often. But mom introduced him to me one weekend when it was just supposed to be the two of us. I didn't like him at all. He looked like a biker or something and mommy said he owned a mechanic shop or something like that. And she liked him a lot. She looked at him just the way daddy still looked at her.

"Well… okay but you have to call right after school," I relented.

"Of course," mommy said on the other end, smiling no doubt.

When I got the message I threw my phone across the room and it shattered against the wall. Daddy was angry at me but I didn't care. How could she? After everything she'd put us through? After all the tears daddy cried with her and for her. He still loved her so much and it wasn't fair that she got to treat us like this.

"I don't want to see her. I don't want to talk to her. I hate her," I hissed fiercely as I rushed up to my room. If she wanted to be Davin then she could. But she'd never see me again.

"You're mom's an interesting woman," Davin said as he sat at the picnic table beside me. I rolled my eyes and picked up a stray fry, dipping it in ketchup and chomping on it like it was him. He watched me for a while before chuckling softly and looking down at his own basket of food.

"I really… really like her," he murmured after a tense moment. I ignored him and shoved more fries in my mouth. Couldn't he take a hint?

"And I know that you don't particularly like me but I hope that we can… become friends, for her sake if nothing else," he said with a slight frown, his scars standing out against his pale skin in the sunlight. How did he stay so pale and not burn out here, I wondered absently.

"I don't want to be your friend," I grunted, thinking of my father back home. If anyone deserved to be with my mother it was him. He'd waited for her for so long and now this interloper was moving in on her like it was his right.

"Well… this isn't… I… don't want you thinking that I'm trying to take your mom away from you. I'm not," he said, clearing his throat nervously.

"I know that. You couldn't if you tried. Mommy loves me and she still loves my dad. She just doesn't remember yet. You'll be gone in no time," I sneered before pushing my food away and standing. I didn't want to be around him anymore.

"And what will happen to me when she does remember?" he asked behind me.

"I don't know and I don't care!"

Henry was annoying. Like… seriously annoying.

All he did was mope around and stare off into space. He'd start talking and then just trail off into silence moments later. Daddy told me to be kind to him because he was going through a lot but he just seemed like a whiner to me. He'd talk about how he was waiting for his grandparents to return and then he'd leave.

His mother called all the time wanting to talk to him but he just ignored them all. He didn't talk to me much but sometimes I'd over hear him telling daddy all about his troubles. I felt sorry for him, that he'd been attacked by some older boy and had to hitchhike his way here but that was really all. He argued with his mother over seeing his grandparents which meant to me that he was just as stupid as he looked.

Everyone in town called his grandmother the Monster of Mifflin St. Except daddy, I never heard him call her anything but evil.

"Will we be friends forever, Henry?" I asked as I pulled clumps of grass out around me. We were in his mother's backyard playing with his toys while our mother's sat on the deck behind us laughing about whatever they always laughed about.

The sun was high in the sky, covered by passing clouds every once and a while. The sky was the same color blue as my mother's eyes. It was a pretty day.

Henry shrugged his shoulders and poked his finger into the dirt pile we'd collected. "I don't know. Probably," he said absently.

"I hope we are," I said softly before throwing the handful of grass I'd collected at his head.

"Why are you crying?" I asked softly standing in the living room doorway. Henry sat with his head in his hands, probably trying to quiet his sobs. I watched him for a moment longer before moving closer to sit beside him. He shifted and laid his head on my shoulder while I tried to keep myself from rolling my eyes.

"I messed up, I messed up," he muttered over and over, shaking beside me. I swallowed heavily and sat silently beside him, trying to think of something comforting to say. I never cried around anyone before. Not since I was a little girl so I wasn't sure what to do.

We sat like that for what felt like hours but was probably only fifteen minutes or so, him crying quietly while I sat fiddling with my fingers in my lap. After a long silent moment he sat up again and began wiping his face with the bottom of his shirt.

"I'm sorry," he muttered after a moment.

"It doesn't matter," I murmured softly as I tried to avoid looking at him. He took my hand and rubbed soothing circles around my palm before I snatched it back.

"I should go back upstairs," I whispered, standing suddenly. Being around him was uncomfortable at the best of times and I really didn't want to be bothered with him spilling his guts to me.

"Grace… I know you don't like me but…," he began as I rolled my eyes.

"But what?" I hissed softly. I just wanted to go to bed.

"I thought… maybe you forgot about how we were before. When you used to visit my house in Boston," he said, his lips tilted in a sad sort of smile.

"I didn't forget. I remember a lot of things," I grunted. And I did.

"I just thought… that maybe you had. You haven't really talked to me since I got here," he said, blushing.

"That's because I didn't want to," I said with a shrug.

"You're a lot like Aunt Mallory," he laughed. I narrowed my eyes. I wasn't anything like her. I remembered the people who meant the most to me. I never left them.

"You're nothing like Auntie Regina," I said, facing him fully now. His face dropped and his eyes flashed before he nodded his head mutely.

"She didn't give birth to me."

"So? She's still your mom," I murmured sharply.

"I… that's not what I meant. I'm just… more like my other mom," he clarified.

"Your other mother… what a joke," I rasped, feeling my anger boiling over. Two mothers and I didn't even get one? How was that fair? I'd never done anything wrong in all my life. Never ran away from home. Never choked some rich playboy half to death. Never done anything but wait.

All my life I waited for my mother to finally come home to me and all I got was nothing. But Henry, saint freaking Henry, got two mothers who loved him. Who wanted him!

"It isn't fair," I cried. "You get two moms and all I have is a phone call. Or a weekend visit. And a father who sometimes can't stand to even look at me because I look so much like her. You get to call your mother a monster while revering the Monster of Mifflin St. That's what they call her, your grandmother. They still talk about how she killed her daughter's fiancé. They still talk about how she tried to sell her daughter to the mayor.

You get everything and what the hell do I get? It isn't fair, Henry. You whine and whine to my father about how hard your life is and I do feel sorry for you, no one should… what that boy tried… no one should go through that but I don't like you. There's not one part of you that's redeemable. You avoid your mother's calls and then talk about how much she doesn't love you. Screw you, Henry!" I screamed before storming out the room and to my own. My father met be halfway down the stairs, concerned etched on his face. Like always.

"Grace… what's wrong?" he asked softly, trying to stop me from getting past him. I tugged my way out of his hold.

"I hate him and I hate her. And I… I hate me too," I sobbed before racing up the stairs and slamming my door.

I'm not sure this first person pov worked out as well as I wanted it to. I really wanted to just focus on Grace and her feelings more than outside things.

Anyway there may or may not be another chapter coming later today. By my calculations I have one more Companion Piece that needs to be out before the next chapter can come out so if I finish that today then I'll post everything before the night ends. If not then Friday I'll post the companion piece (From Henry's pov) and then Tuesday I'll post the main story chapter.

And again, all mistakes are my own.