Lita and Lexi were on their way back home the next day late that afternoon after a couple of places the woman had errands to run. Usually the redheaded woman would leave the little blonde at home with Dawn when she knew it would take her some time, but Lexi said she wanted to go with her and the brunette was still busy with a design for a tough client so Lita easily agreed. There last stop was at the grocery store and little trip there was somewhat eventful with the little girl, who refused to sit in the cart, grabbing whatever she could from the shelves and throwing the items in the cart. Majority of the items went back on the shelves, but there were two or three things on Lita's list she came up with Dawn that they actually needed at home so those stayed in the cart.
The redhead let out a long tired sigh when it seemed like the two had been stuck at the traffic light forever. She just wanted to get home now and she knew Lexi had to be getting restless by now. Lita looked over to her right and realized the police station was nearby. The same police station where Adam used to work at and the same police station she had been to a few times the last year to see if they made any progress in finding her fiancé. Every time she went to the station, she was told there was no progress and there were no clues leading them to Adams whereabouts. She was also told they had to officially close the case a couple of months ago, but that didn't mean some of the officers, mainly Randy, didn't continue with the search on their own.
Lita was taken out of her thoughts when she heard the sound of someone honking their car horn. She looked behind her and someone was pointing towards the traffic light. The woman looked at the light and saw it was now green. She still didn't take her foot off the brake and onto the accelerator as she looked back towards where she knew the station was and the honking began again, only this time it was constant. Without a second thought, Lita finally began driving again, taking a right turn instead of going straight like originally planned. The last time she stopped by the station was a month ago and she thought if she was right there then she might as well visit and see if she could talk to anyone, preferably Randy, if they saw or heard anything about Adam. She wasn't feeling too good about receiving a positive answer, but it was worth a shot.
It wasn't too long until the mother-daughter duo arrived outside the station. Lita parked the car before getting out and taking Lexi out of the car seat. She was about to place Lexi down so she she could walk herself, but thought better of it. Even though she was pretty sure they would be safe with multiple officers around, she would just wait until they were inside to let Lexi down.
"Lita!" The woman heard someone call her name once she entered the station. She looked up and saw a smiling Stacy walking towards her. The next thing she knew, the blonde was hugging her. "It's so nice to see you!" The other woman exclaimed once the hug ended. "Hey Lexi," she said smiling at the little girl. "She's beginning to look like Adam more and more. Her hair, her eyes..."
Lita nodded. "Yea."
The blonde woman looked back up at the redhead and frowned when she heard sadness in the other woman's voice who was oblivious to Stacy's sympathy since she was staring at her daughter. Stacy caught sight of the engagement ring on Lita's finger. Lita hardly ever took the ring off unless she was doing something that could ruin it like taking a shower or cleaning. Stacy always noticed the ring present on Lita's finger whenever the two saw one another. It was like she still had hope Adam would show up and everything would be fine. Stacy definitely had her doubts Adam was anywhere near being fine even if he was somehow alive because, just like the others, she thought if he was alive and safe, he would have been home by now.
The frown was replaced by a smile as Stacy spoke up. "How are you? How have you been? I feel like I haven't seen you in a while."
Lita shrugged, looking back up at Stacy. "Breathing," came her simple reply. She was about to say more, but was cut off by a little voice interrupting her.
"Momma, down," Lexi said to which Lita obliged and let her down, but made sure the little girl held onto her hand so she wouldn't run away and wander off.
"How about yourself? How are you?"
"Great. Everything is great. Work is awesome and more importantly, I think Randy is going to propose soon." Stacy excitedly whispered incase someone were to walk by and hear her. The last thing she needed was for someone to overhear her and tell her boyfriend if she was wrong, that had the potential of being embarrassing. But then again, maybe someone hearing her and telling Randy wouldn't be such a bad thing. He could be so clueless sometimes.
Lita didn't say anything for a moment because she was too shocked by Stacy's revelation. She remembered Adam calling Randy a manwhore quite a few times. The younger man used to tell him of stories about his many different conquests over the years the two got to know one another. But she also remembered Adam telling her that if there was one person who could change Randy's ways, then it was Stacy and apparently he was right. It looked like the manwhore was ready to settle down.
"That is great," Lita finally said after a while. "You look really happy."
Stacy nodded. "I am. Honestly, I was doubting I would ever find that someone after my last couple of relationships. I was always secretly jealous of you and Adam. You were like the perfect couple. You two had what I wanted. I definitely didn't think I would find that in Randy." She laughed when she thought about the first time she met her boyfriend. "I mean, I did hate him once I met him. He was so cocky and arrogant. He can still be those things, but that's okay because he's much more than that and I really do love him."
Lita stayed silent as she looked down on the ground. She wanted to be happy for Stacy, but she found that hard to do when she was reminded of what was taken away from her. Who was taking away from her. She looked back up at the other woman and tried to smile, but failed. "That's great," she replied before quickly changing the subject. "Um, I'm going to go inside now. I need to talk to someone so..."
Stacy nodded. "Alright. I was just heading out for my break. It was really good seeing you and Lexi. Um, maybe I'll see you when I get back or some other time? We should make plans." Lita nodded in agreement. "See you around."
"Bye."
With that, the blonde left. She could tell how upset Lita still was and wasn't surprised especially because she did hear about the redhead's condition after Adam disappeared from Randy. She felt horrible for the other woman and hoped that Adam would show up by some miracle. She hoped and prayed he wasn't dead like just about everyone else other than Lita seemed to think. But there was a part of her that thought Adam was alive because it wasn't like a body was found. Maybe, just maybe, Adam was fine after afterall.
Meanwhile, Lita walked further into the station with Lexi trying to escape from hold.
"Oh God," one of the officers whispered to his fellow officer when she spotted the redhead, "She's back."
The woman looked up at her coworker and followed his gaze to Lita who was trying to get Lexi to stay in place. "She's not that bad." She continued after she saw the look of disbelief on the man's face. "I mean, yes, she has been a nightmare before, but I get it. This is hard for her and I'd probably be the same if I were in her shoes. Plus, she's calmed down a whole lot, so yea, she's not that bad."
"Well, luckily Sanders isn't here today." The woman nodded in agreement. Although Lita wasn't a total nightmare anymore when she came down to the station, she did have her moments and it was never a good thing when Lita and Officer Sanders were in the same room. Their animosity had gotten worse over the years and the two did try to avoid one another at all cost, but it didn't always work out that way.
"Momma, home."
Lita nodded. "I know you want to go to home, so does momma, but Momma needs to talk to someone right now. I promise we'll go home soon just please behave right now." She turned her attention to one of the officers walking by. "Hey," she said catching the man's attention. "Um, I need to talk to Randy... um, Officer Orton, is he here?"
"Yea, he's around here somewhere. I was just heading near his office. Take a seat and I'll get him for you."
Lita nodded. "Thank you." The officer left and Lita sat down on one of the chairs telling Lexi to do the same. The little blonde kept telling the redhead over and over again that she wanted to go home and Lita tried to explain to her that she needed to talk to someone first, but Lexi wasn't trying to understand. "Please hurry up Randy," she said to herself as she gave Lexi her phone. She too wanted to leave just like Lexi, but she really wanted to talk to Randy for a possible update.
Thankfully it wasn't a long wait for Randy who showed up a couple of minutes later. "Hey Lita," Randy said before turning his attention to the little girl who was too distracted by Lita's phone to pay Randy any attention. He was about to say something to Lexi, but Lita spoke up before he could.
"Hi Randy," Lita said before getting right to the point of why she was there even though she knew he knew where she was going with this. "I took Lexi to the park yesterday and I thought I saw Adam, but it wasn't him. I really did think it was him based on seeing the guy from the back and his hair. I guess I thought it was him because I wanted it to be him. I just... please tell me you found a sign of him, something that can help us to him, anything."
Randy shook his head. "I'm sorry Lita. I really do wish there was something I could tell you, anything at all, but there's nothing."
He previously told her he wouldn't stop until he found his friend. He didn't think Adam was alive, but he was looking for something to confirm that so Lita could get some type of closure and stop thinking her fiancé was out there somewhere. He let out a sigh as he sat down next to the woman. He wasn't the best at comforting woman or anyone really, but this was kind of a routine for them now. Randy wrapped an arm around Lita who he could tell was trying really hard not to cry in front of her daughter.
"I know you want answers, so do I. He was my friend, my mentor, I looked up to him. You deserve to get some answers and I'm trying to get them for you. And your daughter. Even if it means we find a body, I'll-"
"Excuse me?" Lita interrupted Randy as she removed his arm from her. "What the hell did you just say?" She glared and only then did he realize he said the last part out loud. He hadn't meant to say that out loud, but maybe it was a good thing. Maybe she needed to hear that was an option and prepare for the worst. "If we find a body? What is that supposed to mean?"
"That's supposed to mean that you have to accept that that's a huge possibility. I know a doctor saw him after the accident and she can't really tell us what his condition was other than the fact that it wasn't that great, but it wasn't that bad either. The point is that no one has seen him since then. If he was okay, he would be back home-"
"Shut up!" Lita shouted, interrupting the officer as she stood up which got the duo the attention of just about everyone nearby. Even Lexi looked up from the phone in her hands to her mom. She was pretty confused by what was going on which was expecting because she was only two years old.
"Lita-"
"No Randy! Just stop talking!" She shook her head and took a deep breath before sitting back down and continuing much more at a calm tone even though she was still angry at what he just said. "Look, I do not need to hear your negative thoughts. I came here to see if there were any updates on the search for my fiancé. If I wanted to hear that I need to come to terms with the fact that he could be... gone, then I would have went to my therapist. I would have listened in on Dawn and Christian talking about how I need to move on with my life and accept that he's never coming back. They don't think I hear any of their little secret conversations, but I do. I would have called my mom who would straight up tell me to stop living in this little World where I'm the only one who has any faith that he is out there and that that's far from the truth. Even his mom is starting to believe everyone is right that he's... Oh God..." she trailed off when she felt like she was about to start crying. There was a huge possibility he was dead, but she wasn't going to accept that. "That he's dead," she continued, her voice cracking a bit, "but I know he's not. "I know that even if Adam is hurt and in any type of danger, I know he's alive. I know he is, he has to be. He's hurt, lost, confused. There has to be something big that happened. He's alive, he wouldn't just leave me. He wouldn't do that to me."
"Yea because we all get to decide when we die," Randy muttered under his breath. He winced when he realized once again he said something she wasn't meant to hear out loud. The redhead looked like she was about to explode on him again, but he spoke up before she could. "Lita, I get it, okay? I know you want to think the best because if you think about it too much, you belive it'll happen. You believe that he'll randomly come home one day and every thing will be fine. But the thing is, it's been a year. You have to-"
"I wasted my time coming here just like every other time," Lita interrupted as she got up from her seat and took Lexi in her arms. "Thanks for nothing."
"Wait," Randy said before Lita could walk away. He didn't expect her to stop just like he said, but she surprised him and did so. "I'm supposed to take my break right about now so how about we go back into my office and we can talk about this without any interruptions? I have notes I could share with you. I was thinking about going to other cities nearby to see if I can find anything there."
"What are we going to talk about? Why are you even continuing with your search? You already think he's dead."
"You still need closure no matter how you get it," came Randy's short response.
Lita nodded. "Alright, let's go." Randy nodded and led the mother-daughter duo back to his office. He just hoped she wouldn't begin yelling at him again.
Meanwhile, Adam and Torrie were driving back home after their trip to Miami. Torrie felt that trip was a success even though there were two things she believed were horrible. First, it seemed like Adam had some memories coming back to him involving Lita. That was fine with Torrie because it wasn't like his memories were detailed or even clear to him and he had any clue about the redhead. They just wouldn't go back to Miami which could be a possible trigger for some events in his past. And then there was also the whole Adam not proposing thing. She really did think it was a possibility on the trip, but that was fine because she just knew it would happen soon enough. But other than those two big things occurring, she had a good time and she knew her boyfriend did as well.
"Oh I hate this song," Torrie said when a new song began playing on the radio. She skipped the songs until one she actually liked began to play. "Much better."
Adam took a chance to take his eyes off the road to look over at Torrie for a moment. "No you don't," he shook his head looking back on the road before glancing at her once more. "That's like one of your favorite songs. I didn't like it, but that's all you listened to for months so eventually I began liking it as well. Not on your level, but it was okay."
Torrie looked over at Adam with a confused look on her face. She definitley didn't remember any of that. Plus, rock, punk, or whatever genre this crap was was not the type of music she listened to. She glared when she just knew who Adam was mistaking her for once again. Luckily the blonde man's attention was back on the road and he wasn't paying attention to Torrie so she was able to get herself out of this before he realized he wasn't talking about her.
"Yea, well that was a long time ago. I used to like it, but obviously I don't anymore. Opinions change, it's normal."
Adam shrugged. "I guess so."
That was easy, Torrie thought to herself as Adam continued to drive. "What are you doing?" She asked after she noticed the man took a turn which would lead them off of the highway. "Where are you going? We're supposed to stay on here for like another hour. We're not home yet. This is Atlanta, Atlanta is not our home." She was panicking just thinking about being in anywhere in Atlanta.
"The car needs gas," Adam said gesturing to the gas light that came on a while ago. He felt like driving any longer on the little gas the car was fueled with would be pushing it. He didn't want to take any risks and be stranded so he took the next exit he saw which happened to be somewhere in Atlanta.
"We could have given it another hour," Torrie said as she tried not to show him how panicked she was about being in Atlanta. Maybe they should have filled up when they made a stop a couple of hours ago. "We can make it, it's not too far."
Adam shook his head. "No we can't. We just need to fill up the car and we'll be on our way."
"We should have done this when we stopped for food when we first hit Georgia. Tomorrow is Monday and we have work tomorrow, we shouldn't waste our time."
"We're like an hour or two away and it's not even five yet. You need to relax. We're just getting gas so we don't get stranded which would actually be a lot of waste of time. Not a big deal. Chill."
Torrie didn't say anything in response because she didn't think there was anything she could do now to avoid this hopefully short stop in Atlanta. She looked out the window and outside at the city they left behind them a year ago. They had never been back there ever since they left that one night. She was glad she was able to keep Adam away, but now, now there wasn't anything she could do to keep him away. Well, they were only going to be stopping away a gas station so there was a good chance they would be able to leave unseen. But that didn't help Torrie any with how anxious she felt.
It wasn't too long after they took the exit that Adam stopped in front of a pump at a gas station. He got out of the car and swiped the credit card so he could put gas in the car, but for some reason his card wasn't working. He tried a couple of more times then the machine began making noises and a message came up for him to go see an attendant inside.
"I have to go inside, it won't let me use my card," Adam said when he opened the car door to let Torrie know what was going on.
"Use another," Torrie suggested. The faster they got out of there, the better.
Adam shook his head. "I can't. You hear that noise? Won't stop until I get in there and talk to someone."
Torrie sighed, unbuckling her seat belt. "Fine, I'll come with you. I need something to drink anyways." She got out of the car and the two headed inside the gas station, oblivious to another car that pulled into the gas station with a familiar figure stepping outside and making her way inside the convenience store as well.
Adam went to the front to speak to one of the employees about his credit card not working while Torrie went to the back of the store so she could get something to drink for the both of them. She turned around after she was done getting some bottles of water and sodas out of the refrigerator. She was about to head to where Adam was so they could pay for the drinks and gas and get out of there. Unfortunately for her, that wasn't meant to be. She was not prepared to see what, or more accurately, who she saw next.
"Oh my God," the other woman said as she walked closer to Torrie who she hadn't seen in what felt like forever. "Torrie? Is that you? Where have you been? I mean, you told me you moved, you never told me where and you stopped calling or answering my calls months ago. Are you okay?"
Crap, Torrie thought to herself as she looked over towards the front of the store and saw Adam was still talking to someone at the front. Maybe the other woman didn't see him. The blonde was currently thinking of a way to get the other blonde out of the store without seeing Adam. "Stacy, hi. Yea, I moved back to Idaho," she began to lie, thankful showing came to her mind quick, "my dad has been sick. I just went back to help take care of him. I got a little busy and I guess we lost touch."
"I'm sorry to hear that. I hope he's okay."
"Yea, he's doing better, but you know, he's still not where he should be so I'm going to be there for a while. I have to go now. Maybe we can catch up another time. Here, let me walk you out." With that, Torrie grabbed Stacy and began dragging her towards the door so they could leave. She really hoped Adam was out of sight and still not in the front. No such luck as she looked at the front of the store and it looked like he was just finishing up.
"I can't go without paying for these things," Stacy said gesturing down to the items in her hands. She was about to go back to the police station, but she had a couple of more hours at work and thought she could use some snacks to help her get through the long shift.
"That's fine, I'm not paying either. We'll just pretend we're back in high school. We used to do that a lot, right? Let's go."
"Stop," Stacy said as she got out of Torrie's hold. "What's up with you? We're not teenagers anymore. You can walk out without paying if you want, but I'm not going to."
Torrie was about to say something but stopped when she saw how shocked and surprised Stacy looked. Stacy looked like she just saw a ghost and she was trying to say something, but no words were coming out of her mouth. Torrie cautiously looked over to where Torrie was looking and just like she thought, Adam was heading towards the two. "Hey Torrie, got the whole card thing handled. Let's just pay for those, get some gas, and we'll be on our way back home."
"Oh my God," Stacy finally said after a while. "Adam, is is… Oh my God. You're here. How? Where… Oh my God."
PurpleRain012: Thanks for reading. Thanks for the reviews. Special thanks to Wolfgirl2013, Totaldramfan123, Kay, atil, and AJAmbrolleigns. Hope you liked the chapter. :) Ooooh. What's going to happen now? Cliffhangers are so much fun! Well, writing them is fun, reading them, not so much. P.S. Check out Forever in a Year by Totaldramfan123. Characters include Edge and Lita among others. It's a really good plot, I hope I thought of it. :P But seriously, go check it out! You won't be disappointed. Check out her other stories too while you're at it. :)
MistressDaisy94: We hope that you enjoyed the chapter! Torrie was trying to promote stealing now.. XD.. We own nothing in this story except I only own my side character Officer Sanders.. all of the is complete fiction.. blahblahblah you know the drill. Love you guys and see you in the next update!