*Thank-you to those who read and reviewed Chapter 7. As always your reviews were greatly appreciated. Thank-you.

* You know who I own and who I don't.

Alex had to interrupt the fun Chelsea and Dave were having. "Well, my two ballerinas dinner is ready," she said.

Dave didn't have an idea that she was watching his ballet performance turned around a little red in the face and said, "Okay."

They walked out to the kitchen and had a seat at the table. Alex gave them each a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. She also gave them each a piece of garlic bread before she sat down. Dave dug into his food immediately but Chelsea stopped him and said, "We need to say grace before we eat, Daddy."

"Oh. Right," said Dave.

Chelsea took her mom's and her dad's hand while Alex and Dave took hands. "Are you going to say grace, Chels?" asked Alex.

"Yes, Mommy," she replied. "God is good. God is Great and we thank him for this food by his hands we all are fed. Give us this day our daily bread. God thank you for letting my daddy come back and thank you for them not yelling. amen."

Alex and Dave looked at each other before they began to eat. They had a nice family dinner and had side conversations while they ate. It was beginning to feel like the old days. Something Alex and Dave both missed. They were getting along so well and if anyone saw them eating together no one would have believed they used to fight all the time. "This is really good," said Dave.

"Thank-you," replied Alex.

"I've missed your cooking. It's been so long since I've eaten it. Thank-you for inviting me to dinner," he said.

"Not a problem," she said.

After dinner was over Chelsea got dressed in her pajamas and soon it was time for her to go to bed. She insisted her dad put her to bed instead of her mom. Dave carried Chelsea to her bedroom and laid her down in her bed. "Daddy, will you read me a story?"

"Yes, Princess. I will." Dave grabbed Chelsea's Disney Princess book and read her the story of Cinderella.

When he was finished Chelsea took his hand and said, "Daddy? I had the best day of my life today."

Dave smiled and said, "Me too, Chelsea."

"When are you going to come back to see me and mommy?"

"I don't know. I go back to work on Monday and I'm going to talk to my boss to see if I can get some time off to spend time with you."

"Do you promise?"

"I promise. I will talk to my boss about getting time off to see you."

"Okay, Daddy," said Chelsea as she let go of her dad's hand. "Can you give me a hug?"

"Of course," he said as he leaned down and hugged his little girl and gave her a kiss on her forehead.

He began to walk out of the room when Chelsea said, "Daddy, I love you."

"I love you too, Princess," he said before walking out of the room.

He walked into the living room and sat down on the couch where Alex was sitting. He took a seat beside her. "Hey," he said.

"Hey."

"You know I've missed this."

"Yeah."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm just thinking."

"I see. So what have you been up to?"

"Working and being a mom. What about you?"

"Just working. My wrestling load increased because of Summerslam but now it's back to normal. How is work going for you?"

"It's all right. I don't really like it but it's a job where I make money. I need to make money to put food on the table for Chelsea and me every night. The customers are usually mean and grouchy and everything always seems to go wrong for me. I'm just running register until they decide to train me for customer service and then I'll be the store's book keeper. I can't wait for that day."

"I'm sorry it turned out like this."

"It's not your fault."

"Yes it is. You and Chels would still be living in Florida if I wouldn't have done what I did."

"Don't blame yourself. Stuff happens to people all the time. I made the choice to leave and come here to live."

"You wouldn't have left if it weren't for me pushing you away."

"Well, that's true. You did push me away."

"Well, what do I have to do to pull you back?"

"Dave, you know what you have to do. All you have to do is be the Dave that you were when we got married. You just need to prove that you can be a good father and prove to be a good husband. You just need to show that your life doesn't revolve around your job."

"I'm going to be that guy, Alex."

"I know you will one day but I can't be pulled all the way back until it happens."

"I know. I'm going to take some time off work to spend time with you guys. Well, I have to ask Stephanie first."

"That would be great. Chelsea misses you a lot. It would be really good for you to see her more often and spend more time with her."

"I know she misses me. I had so much fun with her today. I can't believe I was so selfish and hardly spent time with her before. I'm really sad about everything I've missed of hers. She really is an amazing kid."

"She is. And you know I was watching you with her today. You were amazing! I never knew you were such a good dad. It was really cute watching you do ballet. The only thing is your legs weren't straight on your arabesque. You know a lot of the worst has come out of this marriage but Chelsea is the best thing to come out of it."

"I know. If there was one thing I did right in this marriage it was making Chelsea. And don't make fun of my ballet skills. I'm sure yours aren't much better."

Alex hit Dave's arm and said, "I used to be a ballet dancer. My ballet skills are pretty awesome."

"That's right. I forgot you did dance for 17 years of your life. You know she gets a lot of stuff from you. She hates snakes just like you do and she can't choose one thing to save her life. She gets excited over the littlest things and she looks for the best in everyone. She doesn't let what bad things people have done get to her. She still sees the best in them no matter what."

"I know. She has my personality but physically you can tell she is yours. I don't know how many times in a day I look at her and she makes a face that you would make or smiles the same smile you do. I think she's got the best of both of us."

"You know she wants everything to go back to the way it was before. She likes living here but she wants to go back to Tampa."

"I know. She tells me that all the time. I can't stand it here but this is the only place I can afford."

"If you needed my help I would have helped you out financially. I mean this isn't the best neighborhood for you and Chelsea. You two don't deserve this."

"Dave, I don't need any help. I know this isn't the best situation but I'm hoping once I start making more money I can move to another place that is a lot better than here."

"You can always go back to Tampa to live. You can live in the house and I'll move out into an apartment."

"Dave, I can't ask you to do that. Chelsea and me are fine here. I'm not going to ask you to move out of your own house."

"You're not asking me. I'm offering to do that. I bought the house for you and our children. Well in this case child but when I bought it I had hopes of us having more than one child."

"Dave, you don't have to do that. Chelsea and me will stay here until I get the money to move."

"Okay, Alex."

"Really, Dave. It's no big deal. The neighborhood may not be the best my neighbors may not be the best but my downstairs neighbor Tara has been a really big help since we moved in. She helped me fix up the apartment and she's helped me with a lot of other things too. She's great she watches Chelsea for me when I'm working or if I go out which I don't usually do but if I have to go somewhere she will baby-sit for me."

"I know. I heard a lot about 'Ms. Tara' today."

"Really? What all did Chelsea tell you?"

"Oh. Nothing really," Dave said with a smile.

"Okay. Why do you keep smiling like that?"

"Smiling like what?"

"Dave, you know what I'm talking about. You're smiling like you know something I don't."

"That's because I do."

"What do you know?"

"Oh. If I told you then it wouldn't be a secret."

"Oh so now you and Chelsea have secrets?"

" We have a couple," Dave said with a laugh.

"Okay. Fair enough."

"You know you've really done a good job with her."

"Thanks but she's not just my kid. She's your daughter too."

"I know but I haven't been there. I haven't done the work. You were right I tried to buy her love and affection. I never really talked to her and listened to what she had to say. You have been with her everyday since she was born. She learns everything she knows from you. That's why she's such a good kid because you are such a good person. You've put the best values into our daughter and you still have years to go. Because of you our daughter is going to be,one of the best$people an this sorld. Leke tonight at dinner she stopped me from eating and told me to say grace. I have never |hought mbout thinking Gcd for t`e food an front$of me. Uet my 4 year old daughter stops me and tells me to thank God and she herself thanked God."

"Dave, I want to forget the whole buying her love and affection. That was wrong of me to say. You're a good dad. If you weren't you wouldn't be sitting here right now in front of me telling me how great our daughter is. You would be absent from her life entirely. You wouldn't have been in there doing ballet with her earlier. If you weren't a good dad you wouldn't be trying to make things work out. I know you're trying. And just because I've been there for her everyday since she was born doesn't mean she doesn't love you. She loves you a lot."

"I know she loves me but what about you? Do you love me?"

"Do I love you?"

"Yes, do you love me?" He asked again.

"Yes I love you. I will always love you. I don't love the person you became but I'm starting to love the person you're trying to become. Just seeing you in that room earlier, seeing you with her and you sitting here talking to me makes me love you more. I'm not saying I'm going to pack up and leave Louisiana tonight and I'm not saying that everything is going to be fine between us. But I am saying that there is a really big chance that we're going to work this out."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"Okay. I have a question. I want to go back to my secret with Chelsea. I was going to keep it a secret but I really have to know."

"Know what?"

"Well, Chelsea and me were talking earlier," he said.

"Okay," Alex said not sure where he was going with this. Chelsea could have said a lot of things to him. She wasn't sure if it was going to be positive or negative.

"It was so random and it just came out of the blue. We were just sitting there talking about her school and her friends. Then out of no where she tells me that you still love me."

"I just told you that I still love you."

"I know but there's more."

"Okay," Alex said.

"She said that you miss me a lot. I asked her how she knew all this and she told me that you cry in bed every night. She told me that you hold a picture of me crying and tell it how much you love me. Do you really do that?"

Alex didn't know what to say. It was true she did cry every night because she missed Dave. Dave had been the best thing to ever happen to her. Finally she said with tears in her eyes, "Yes. I do."

"Okay. And she also told me that you talk to Ms. Tara about me a lot. She said that you can't stop loving me because it's too hard because I am the best part of you. She also said you hope I change because then everything else will. And that you really hope I change so things change because you can't live without me."

Alex had tears streaming from her eyes. Dave had found out the truth. Finally she was able to say, "All of it is true. Everything. The part about crying at night, the part about not being able to stop loving you and it's true I want everything to change. I just want everything to go back to the way it was before. You are the best part of me Dave. I know that I'll never be able to live without you but I'm trying and do you see how hard it is on me? For the last 7 years Dave you were the person I woke up next to in the morning. I love being in your arms it's the feeling of security. It was all the time at that beginning and then it became less and less. Now it's down to nothing. It's so hard for me to fall asleep at night knowing you're not there to hold me and knowing you won't be there when I wake up. I really do love you, Dave. Like I said earlier. I don't love the person you became but I do love the person you're trying to be. One day I know everything will be back to normal but right now I'm still thinking if it's the best decision or the worst. Spending one day with Chelsea and me isn't going to make me change my mind instantly. Spending one night with you isn't going to make me change my mind. What's going to make me change my mind is you proving you're going to be there. Proving to me that we are your number one and you are on the right track. Just promise me you'll stay on this track."

"Alex, I promise. I'm not falling off this track. You will see. I just heard everything I needed to know to keep me on the right track. I can't break your heart anymore. I've done it enough and I see the results of what it's done. When you finally take me back you won't have to cry anymore at night, you won't have to hold anymore pictures of me and tell it how much you love me. You'll be in my arms and you can tell me to my face how much you love me. I am going to do everything in my power to make everything go back to the way it was. You shouldn't have to live like this," Said Dave as he wrapped his arms around Alex.

Alex buried her head into his chest and began to cry uncontrollably. He ran his hand through her hair and just comforted her. He felt bad that she was so emotional and he felt bad that he allowed it to get to this point. She really did love him but it was his selfishness that pushed her away and he was going to do what he had to to pull her back in. It was clear to him she didn't really want to let him go and he didn't want to let her go either. They sat there for at least an hour while Alex cried. Then she looked up and said, "Thank-you for staying and comforting me. That meant more to me than anything."

"No problem. I couldn't just leave you here crying like that. What kind of person would I be if I just up and left you when you were breaking down. We all reach our breaking point at some time and when we do we always need someone there to comfort us."

"You know you're slowly turning into that guy I married and that's who I love."

" I told you I'm going to do everything in my power to make this right again. I love you too much to lose you completely," he said.

"No matter what, Dave, I will never be completely gone," she said.

Dave looked down at Alex and leaned in to kiss her. Alex didn't pull away this time. She actually kissed him back. The kiss was growing more passionate. Then Dave began to lift up Alex's shirt. She stopped him and pulled away. "Dave, I don't think we should have a repeat of last night," she said.

"You're right. Last night went way too far. I should probably go. It's getting late and I have an early flight tomorrow," he said getting up.

"Okay but for what it's worth tonight has been a really great night. I had so much fun just talking to you and spending time with you. I look forward to spending more time with you," she said as she walked him to the door.

"You're right it's been a really great night. I'm just glad I found out the truth. I was doubting that anything would change. I doubted that you still loved me but after hearing what you had to say has made me even more determined to make this work. We will be spending more time together. I'll call you after I talk to Stephanie about taking time off. I'll let you know what she says," he replied.

"All right. I'll talk to you then," she said.

"Okay. Goodnight," he said as he leaned in and kissed her on the lips. When he broke away he said, "By the way you don't have to dress your best to impress me. I've seen you at your worst and I still love you and you're still the most beautiful woman to me in the world."

Alex blushed and said, "Thank-you." Dave opened the door and headed down the hallway and Alex closed the door behind him. She never thought it would happen but she felt like she had fallen more in love with him that night. She locked the door and turned off the lights and headed into her bedroom. She slipped on sweatpants and a t-shirt and crawled into bed. She grabbed the pillow Dave had slept on the night before and it still had the smell of his cologne on it. She clung to the pillow and fell asleep waiting for the day that Dave would once again sleep next to her.

*There it is Chapter 8. Everything is out in the open now all that their relationship depends on now is time. Chapters 9 and 10 should be interesting chapters to say the least.

* I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Please review and let me know what you think. I really love your reviews and getting feedback from you. Thank-you.