Chapter Eleven.

BERP. BERP. BERP.

"Wake up, baby girl." whispered Randy.

Gracie's small eyes fluttered open. He smiled cautiously down at her from his position on the edge of the bed. Her face showed no emotion. Clearly, he had not won her trust back yet. Testing his theory, he reached out to stroke her cheek, and she leaned slightly away.

He sighed. "Look, I said I'm sorry, Grace. I don't know what else to do."

The nine year old -Randy had to keep reminding himself of that- looked into his eyes. Blinked once. Blinked twice. She chewed on her lip, deep in thought, for what seemed like an eternity.

Very slowly, she allowed herself to wrap her arms around his waist. "Don't scare me like that again." She mumbled against his chest.

Randy pulled his daughter even closer to him. He kissed the top of her small head, and ran his fingers through her golden hair. "I love you. Don't ever forget that."

No reply.

He wasn't expecting one. He knew that she loved him too, even if she herself didn't realise it. Because of her past, it would take her a long time to say that word again. Deep down, he had started to raise questions about it. Gracie had known him for about a month now, and he still had no inkling as to what had happened all those years before Safe Haven.

But even deeper down, he didn't care about that. All Randy wanted was to hear the word"Daddy."

...

The bell chimed, and the door to LeFerret's Cosy Cafe swung open. John and Randy walked in, followed by Gracie. Her head was down and she was completely engulfed in her own world. She wasn't holding anyone's hand this time, instead, her arms were folded over her chest. It did bother Randy slightly though, that she was walking closer to John rather than himself. Perhaps this is what jealousy felt like.

"Your choice of seating, madame." John gestured.

She smiled up at John and made her way over to a booth right at the back. The two men followed her and sat down. LeFerret's, as per usual, was pretty much empty, so a waitress noticed them pretty quickly.

"Afternoon Randy, Gracie." chirped the aging woman.

Randy smiled at her. "Nancy."

"What'll it be?"

After coming in day after day, and ordering the same meal each time, for almost 10 years, the workers at LeFerret's had taken a liking to their best customer (Randy). Now bringing Gracie here too, she was treated the same; like a part of the family.

Randy explained this to John who was confused as to how Nancy knew his best friend personally. John nodded. "Okay... I'll have... two- no four, slices of the Meatlover's pizza."

Nancy nodded and looked at Randy. "The usual?"

He nodded. "Yeah. The usual."

The waitress scribbled 'ham and cheese, grilled' on her notepad. "What about you sunshine?" She turned to Gracie.

The younger girl shrugged. "Not hungry this morning, Ma'am."

Randy twisted in his spot to face his daughter. "No, Gracie, we're not having this again. You have to eat."

Gracie glanced at him, nervous. "The usual, then." She whispered. Nancy threw a worried look towards the nine year old as she walked away.

John and Randy immediately started to talk about wrestling-related subjects, so Gracie turned her head away, disinterested.

Her thoughts resembled those of a camper's knot. She was very confused right now. Randy said yesterday that she was going to be punished for disobedience, which was reasonable enough. But then this morning, he had come up to her room and said 'I love you'. Punishment was for bad people, and bad people don't deserve love, right? That's what her Mom taught her, that's what she learned to live by. Bad people don't deserve love and get lots of punishment. She was one of them.

This was starting to make her head ache.

Deciding that thinking about Randy was too much, she started to think about Pumba. She had definitely surprised herself by taking to John so quickly. At least when she was around him, she knew whether he wasn't on her side, or if he was. It was always the latter. Very quickly, he was becoming her best friend. Someone she could depend on. Someone that would always make her smile. Someone that could make her laugh on the inside. She loved him for that.

Wait. What?

She loved Pumba? No, no no. That wasn't love, ...right? It was just the feeling of extreme happiness and security in the knowledge that those around her weren't going to hurt her. One, why was she even thinking about that four-letter word? After Daddy had left, she swore to herself that she would never speak or think of that word again. Two, why on Earth was she applying that word to Pumba, and not Randy?

The bottom of Gracie's stomach rumbled with guilt. If she was going to love, then shouldn't it be Randy first? The man who adopted her and reached out to her when she needed someone?

Forget camper's knots. This was even more confusing than all the love triangles combined on Soap Opera Saturday.

Thinking causes too much confusion. Let's just focus on pancakes with ice-cream now.

Gracie looked up slowly. Surely enough, Nancy was making her way over to the booth, balancing three plates full of food. Randy and John were still very much involved in their own conversation.

Gracie smiled a thank-you as the older woman placed a plate full of pancakes (topped with ice-cream and chocolate sauce) in front of her. She picked up her fork and knife and cut herself a nice chunky piece of pancake. Randy and John excused themselves to go and get some coffee, leaving her at the booth by herself. Just then, the bell to LeFerret's rang and the door opened. Gracie looked up to see the new customers. Well only one actually. Her eyes widened.

Her worst nightmare had just walked into the cafe.

She watched him as he looked around for a waitress to show him where to sit. Her heart dropped and tears filled her eyes. He was balding much more than when she had last seen him. His once little beer belly was now very pronounced. And of course, those horrible, ice blue eyes, sharp as ever. Thankfully they weren't so sharp that he hadn't seen her yet.

All of a sudden, she was a little six year old girl again who, night after night, had begged for his mercy. She struggled to maintain her composure as he sat at a table not too far from her own. A large amount of bile mounted in her throat. She tried to force it back down, but even that was becoming a struggle. Her asthma had cruelly decided that now would be a good time to play up.

Gracie tried to maker herself as small as possible, a natural instinct to fear. She was praying to God, Buddha, Allah or whatever superior being was out there, for him not to look up and see her. Please no. Let luck be on my side for once.

Luck had never been on her side.

His eyes- those horrible, blue eyes- were scanning the menu. She let out a choking sob. His big dumbo ears, which were as sharp as sharp as his sight, picked up on the noise, and he looked up. She looked him straight in the eye, hoping that he wouldn't recognise her. He squinted at her, trying to remember where he had seen that face before.

A sinister smirk set on his face, and Gracie knew, in that instant, that Alex remembered her, and what he had done to her, all those years ago.

She felt her whole body go numb with fear as he left his table and sauntered over to her booth. Lack of oxygen from her asthma attack was finally starting to take its toll and her head began to droop. Where were Randy and Pumba?

Realising that her two protectors were in the vicinity somewhere, she began to cry their names. Almost no air was going through to her lungs now, making her cries just mumbles under her breathe.

Before she knew it, Alex was at her table. He grabbed her arm and yanked her small body towards him. He pressed his lips to her ears, taking in the smell of her hair.

"Hello Abigail." he whispered in his thick European accent. Gracie was close to unconsciousness.

He chuckled and tightened his grip on her, making escape impossible. "How great is it that we meet again. Now that I've found you, I will tell your mother, Uncle Davie and all my friends where you are now. No-one and nothing will stop me from hurting you again."

Alex laughed again, and turned her face towards him. "My, my... you've gotten so pretty."

Gracie whimpered. Mustering up all the breathe left in her, she yelled at the top of her voice. "Pumba, Randy, DADDY!"

She broke down and Alex tightened his grip on her even more, cutting off all circulation in her right arm. "You little bitch."

"Daddy!" she cried again. Gracie passed out.

Randy came round the corner with John at his side, carrying a coffee. Upon seeing the two larger men, Alex let go of the unconscious Gracie and ran out of LeFerret's.

Randy dropped his coffee, the cup shattering into a million pieces, and he ran over to his daughter. "Someone get me a fucking puffer!"

Realising that no-one probably had one on them, he picked her up and placed her on his hip, baby style. He turned to John.

"Call the emergency room and tell them we're on our way."

…

Déjà vu is a funny thing.

Almost exactly 24 hours ago, Randy was slamming the door to his car in an angry manner. Now, he was gently shutting the same door, with Gracie hanging onto him like a Christmas decoration.

John came around from the other side of the car and stood in front of the two. Randy went to speak but Gracie lifted her head and beat him to it.

"Pumba... can you go inside the house for now?" She swallowed. "I need to talk to Randy, alone."

"Bu-"

She reached out and stroked John's cheek, a silent plea. Who could resist those huge green eyes?

"Okay." he mumbled. John walked into the house, leaving Randy and Gracie alone.

"Hammock?" She asked simply. He nodded and carried her there.

After running out of LeFerret's earlier that afternoon, they had gone straight to the ER, where there was a puffer waiting for Gracie. When she had been brought back to the land of the living, nurses told the two anxious men that she was free to go, and just to keep an eye on her in case of the relapse.

Randy sat down on the hammock with Gracie, and they just sat there for a bit, reflecting on the past four or so hours. Sitting in the hospital bed, Gracie was unresponsive to everyone, even the nurses. She was going through flashback hell. Randy knew that she was holding back the tears and heart-breaking sobs for later.

Later was now.

He also knew that once she started to let all the pain and fear out, she wouldn't stop, so he decided to ask now, carefully. "So... what did you want to talk about, baby girl?"

Gracie mumbled. "M-My past."