* Please review! I really do feel bad for Gideon. Try and keep in mind that he does love Avalon, in his own way.*

After Van and Avalon had gone to her house with one of the officers and packed her a bag, they drove over to his house. Van deposited her and her stuff in his room to talk to his dad about her staying with them for a few days. He left her laying in his bed because she didn't want to do anything else. She snuggled into his blankets and closed her eyes before he walked out.

" Can I talk to you outside?" Van asked his dad. Avalon was so upset about everything, Van didn't want her to hear him talk. She had calmed down since leaving the police station and Van didn't want to do anything that might set her off again, so he rolled his dad out onto their porch and away from door quickly.

" Is something wrong?" Chad asked. He watched as his son took a seat in a chair he had pulled up next to Chad's wheelchair once they were ouside. Van took a deep breath, placing his hands on his knees.

" So we went to the police station to have Avalon's fingerprints done and..." Chad listened in shock as Van recounted the entire story to him. His eyes went from Van's face and light brown hair to the bedroom window that over looked the lake, the window to the room the young woman was laying in. He knew there was something off with Gideon, had had a feeling that the man wasn't what he presented himself to be, but never had Chad imagined Gideon was a kidnapper. Never could Chad have guessed the other man could be holding a secret that dark. " Do you mind than, that she stays here until we figure things out?"

" No, no, I don't care." Chad said. " What's going to happen?"

" We don't really know. I guess her real dad is flying in to see her and to prove he's her dad, the cops want to do DNA on her." Van said.

" Will she do it, do you think?" Chad asked.

" I don't know." Van said with a sigh. " But I think she needs too. She needs to understand and see the proof for herself." Chad nodded at the words, showing his agreement.

" How does she feel?" He asked.

" She's upset. You should have seen it when she saw them leading him in. It was horrible, Dad." Van said, looking over to the window. " I didn't know what to say, how to make her feel better. She was crying and yelling. I have never seen her that way before." And for once in his life, Van thought someone else had it worst than him. Avalon's entire life just came to a screeching halt. This was nothing compared to what Van had been going through before she came to town.

" Why don't you see if she wants to go swimming or something? Do something to take her mind off things." Chad said with both men looking at the window. Van nodded as he started to chew on his thumb nail. Swimming with Avalon usually meant she held onto his shoulders while she pressed into his back and he swam them around. It was relaxing for them both and something she loved doing.

" Yeah, that's a good idea." Van said. He sighed before he stood up and took a hold of Chad's chair. He started pushing his dad forward and towards the house when Chad said,

" I've been thinking about working with those fake legs, you know, the prosthetic ones."

" You are?" Van asked in surprise. The prosthetic legs were in Chad's room, still in the box they came in. Chad had never even wanted to look at them before.

" Yeah, I mean we have them so I should try them out and if I can walk again...that would free you up for other things." And giving Van more free time to live his life would be a gift to Van and Chad knew it. He couldn't see his son's face but he hoped the news would make him happy. He deserved a life, a real one, not the one Chad had been forcing him to live for the past few years.

" That would be great, Dad. Me and Avalon have been talking." Van stopped the chair and came around the side of it to grab at their porch door. " We want to get jobs, maybe get our own place sometime. I mean, now that this shit happening, I don't know what's she's going to do but we talked about working and living together." Chad nodded and grabbed at his wheels.

" I think that's a good idea." He said as he pushed himself into the house. Van nodded and felt his heart lighten up. He had been nervous about telling his father their plan. He didn't want Chad to think he was leaving him, like his mother had done but for the first time since before the accident, Van wanted a future for himself.

" Thanks, Dad." Van said, following Chad into the house.

Van hurried through the house as Chad went on into the living room. He went straight to his room and found Avalon laying on her back with one arm stretched out and over on his side of the bed and her other one across her stomach. Her eyes were closed but Van knew she wasn't sleeping. Avalon always slept on her side of her stomach, never on her back. He closed his bedroom door then walked over to the bed. He climbed on top of her, settling his weight down on and smiled. That usually made her laugh. He would get on top of her, slowly lowering his weight down on her, crushing her, while she pretended like it didn't bother her or hurt. He would press into her more and more until Avalon would break and yell for him to get off. She would often try and fight to push him off while Van would laugh at her efforts.

" Hey." Van said quietly. " You want to go swimming?"

" No." She said, bring her arms up to put them around his ribs to let her hands rest against his back.

" You want to go for a walk?"

" No." Avalon said.

" Fishing? Let's do something, Av." She sighed but opened her eyes and looked at him. She rubbed her lips together as she looked from one of his eyes to the next. He was almost pleading with her. He needed this as much as she did. He needed something to do, anything, to take his mind off what was happening.

" Okay, let's go fishing." She agreed.

But only Van fished. He stood on the edge of the dock, holding his fishing line in his hands while she laid on the dock with her eyes shut and her legs dangling off the edge. Under her head was his bunched up shirt. She had one arm flung over her eyes and her other hand was holding onto his ankle. He watched her legs as they slowly kicked back and forth.

" Van?"

He jumped at his name and turned to the side to look back at the top of the dock. Sargent Miles was standing with another man Van didn't know. A man who looked about his height and about his dad's age. A man who was staring at his prone girlfriend with a look of complete longing on his face. His hair was dark with a sprinkling of gray hairs at his temple. His face was scruffy, like he hadn't shaved in days and there were a few wrinkles around his eyes.

" Who is it?" Avalon asked without moving.

" The Sargent." He answered, turning back around. He started to reel in his line as Avalon pushed herself up. She turned to looked back at the two men. The second man looked like he was holding his breath. Avalon looked up at Van as he set his pole down. He reached out a hand to her and helped her to stand as the men started towards them. Avalon let her fingers thread through Van's as they stood side by side.

" Avalon, this is Randy Gibson." Miles said gently. Van felt Avalon press into him more and link one of her legs around his so it was in between both his legs. " He's your...Gabriella's, father." She blinked a few times as she nodded. She squeezed Van's hand hard and covered it with her free one.

" Hello." She said with her voice small.

" Hello." Randy said. " Wow, you look just like your mother." He said with his eyes starting to fill with tears. " I can't believe it."

" I don't know you." Avalon said.

" I know but I brought you something." He held out his hand as he and the officer came to a stop, just in front of the couple. He held out a small photo album. " Maybe if you see some pictures of us all together it will trigger something." Avalon started to hold her breath but she took a hold of the book, never taking her eyes off his face. If he was her dad, her real dad, a man she had spend four years with, she should know him, right? There should something that that sparked her memory, right? " There are pictures of your mother, me, and you from your birth to right before you disappeared."

Avalon let go of Van and looked down at the book. With her hands shaking and her stomach on fire with nerves, she flipped open the cover. Van looked over her shoulder at the first picture. It was of a woman with light blond hair and the man in front of them. She was standing to the side, grinning at the camera with her hands on her very pregnant stomach. She looked...

" She looks like you." Van whispered. " If all your hair was blond."

" It is blond. That same color." Avalon whispered. She turned the next page and the couple was in a hospital bed with the woman looking down at a bundle in her arms.

" I have more pictures back in my hotel room. I just pulled out important ones." Randy said quietly.

The next few pictures were of a little girl at her first birthday, another of her with a dog, then sitting in grass, or sleeping in a bed. Avalon flipped through the photos closely, feeling her heart beat harder and harder. The woman in the picture was the woman from her memories, she couldn't deny that. Avalon had spend her life holding onto the woman's face, holding onto the one thing she remembered of her mother.

" You like our new truck, Baby?" The father asked as he picked up the small girl and set her on the hood of their bright red truck.

" I like that it's so red." She said. " It looks like an apple, Daddy." The father chuckled as he kissed her forehead. " Can I have an apple?"

" That was the first brand new truck I ever had." Randy said slowly as he watched Avalon run her fingers over the picture of him and her by the truck, a truck he still owed. She was perched on the top of it with Randy's arms around her to hold her. Avalon swallowed and nodded. Van's hands came to her shoulders when he felt her tense. He started to rub her slowly to help relax her.

" Does any of this seem familiar?" Miles asked. Avalon sighed, looked up at the men and slowly shook her head. Randy pressed his lips together and closed his eyes. He drew in a deep, long breath before he opened his eyes again and looked at her.

" You loved that truck. The day I brought it home, the three of us took it to the drive in movie. It was the first time we took you there and you fell asleep thirty minutes into the movie. " Randy said. Avalon shut the book and handed it back to him.

" I'm sorry." She said. " I just don't remember you. I don't know you." Randy nodded with the sadness and stress of the events coming over his face.

" I know you don't, Baby, but I remember you. I never stopped looking for you or loving you." Randy said. Avalon just shrugged slowly.

" I'm sorry." She said.

" It's okay. Keep the book though. Maybe if you look at them more, it will help." Randy said. " I'm staying in the hotel in the town. I can stay as long as I have too. We can do this slowly, get to know each other, okay?" He said gently. Avalon started to chew against her lip piercing as she frowned. " Please, Gabriella."

" My name is Avalon." She said, making him nod.

" Of course, I'm sorry." Randy said.

" We need you to come to the hospital. We need to get a swab of the inside of your mouth for DNA testing. Mr. Gibson has already provided us with a sample." Miles said.

" I'm not sure I want to do that." Avalon said, clutching the book to her stomach.

" I could get a court order for you to do it but I don't want too. We just want to help, Avalon. We just want to get this all sorted out." Miles said.

" Where is my dad?" Avalon asked as she frowned. Randy blinked at the word, letting a tear slip from his eye and travel down his cheek as he stared at her. The pain he was feeling was written all over his face and Van felt bad for him. He was begging her silently, pleading with his eyes and face. That one word had just cut him deep, Van could tell. He sighed and squeezed her shoulders.

" Av." He said. " Look, can we just have some time? I mean, can I bring her in in like an hour?" He asked Miles.

" That would be fine." Miles said with a nod.

" Your mom, she would have loved your piercing." Randy started. He smiled but it was forced and they all knew it. " She loved that stuff, tattoos and piercing. She always wanted have a one but was to scared of the pain. She didn't even have her ears done. She..." His voice dropped off as he clamped his mouth shut and covered it with one of his hands. He closed his eyes and everyone gave him time to gather himself. Avalon felt her eyes start to burn with her own tears as the man in front of her cried silently. He shook his head and wiped at his cheeks before he looked back at her. " She loved you very much." He finished with his voice shaking.

" I'm going to take him back to the hotel. Give me a call when you are on your way." Miles said.

" Yeah, okay. I will." Van said.

The couple stayed on the dock and watched the two men turn and walk slowly away. Randy threw her a few looks over his shoulder as he and Miles talked. The officer placed his hand on his shoulder to offer some support. Avalon took a step back before turning and grabbing her boyfriend. Van wrapped his arms around her at the same time he felt her tears start to wet his shoulder.

" I don't want to do this." She whispered.

" I know you don't, Av, but we need some answers. You do this DNA test and it comes up that Randy's not your dad then we know." Van said. She lifted her head up with her eyes shining even brighter than they usually did. Clear tears were making their way out of the green depths and down her soft cheeks, making Van's chest tighten.

" And if he is?" She whispered. Van was surprised by the question. Was she accepting that Gideon might had taken her as a child? She was accepting that he wasn't what she had thought along? Was everything settling into her now?

" Then we will deal with it." Van promised.

Van and Avalon were driving to the hospital a short time later. He held her hand while she opened her mouth and had it swabbed. It was going to take a few days for the DNA test to come in so they had no other choice but to return to his house and wait. She went back to not talking and Van didn't push her. She needed the silence to gather herself and he understood that.

Van made them grilled cheese sandwiches and he, Avalon and Chad ate them in the kitchen with the guys watching her while she stared at her plate. She broke off little bits of her sandwich, taking her time to chew each bite until it was almost nothing before she swallowed. Chad and Van exchanged a few worried looks but didn't say anything. After they finished eating, Avalon went straight to Van's room and laid down to sleep.

NRNRNR

" Avalon." She jumped at the whisper of her name and opened her eyes, shocked to see Gideon crouched down by Van's bed.

" What are you doing here?" She whispered.

" My lawyer paid for my bail." He whispered.

" How did you get in here?" Gideon frowned and shook his head.

" That's not important. Come with me, please. We need to talk." He said. Avalon looked back at Van but he was sleeping on his stomach with his head turned away from her. One of his arms was under his pillow while his other one was around her waist. She looked back at her dad, trying to shake the sleep from her brain.

" Miles said there was a restraining order against you, that you're not supposed to talk to me. You could get into trouble." She said.

" I know, Sweetheart, that's why we need to sneak out so we can talk. If we wake up Van or Chad or wait until the morning, they will be able to keep us apart. Just come home with me for a bit and let's talk about all this." Gideon urged.

" I have to come back here afterwards. We don't need you in any more trouble." She said as she careful took a hold of Van's arm to lift it off her before she sat up.

" Just come on, Sweetheart. This is all a big mistake and I can prove it." He said. She nodded, pushed the blankets off her then stood up. The father and daughter embraced hard. One of his hands went to the back of her head as crushed her to him. Avalon closed her eyes and held onto him as tightly as she could. This was her father...deep down inside her, she knew it. She trusted what he said. They would talk, he would explain everything to her then to Miles and things would be fine. She felt sorry for Randy, sorry that he had lost his daughter and then came here for nothing, but he was not her father and she was not Gabriella Gibson.

" I love you, Daddy." She whispered.

" I love you too, now get your shoes on." Gideon said.

Together, the father and daughter slipped from the boyfriend's house. With her hand locked up in his, Gideon and Avalon hurried through the woods, under the cover of the darkness. Happiness made her heart light. In the morning, everything would be cleared up and she'd have her father again. In the morning, he would prove that he wasn't the monster they were trying to make him out to be. The DNA test would prove she wasn't related to Randy and they could all carry on with their lives. She and Van could carry on with their plans. Yeah, like Gideon had done her whole life, he would fix things. He would make everything make sense to everyone. That was something she had always admired about her dad, whenever something seemed bad or hopeless, he had the ability to make it all better again. He had always been able to smooth things over and make the world seem right away from her and there was no doubt in her mind that he would do the same thing here