Twenty Eight

He was interrupted by the sound of the door opening, and a very familiar, but unwelcome at the time, shaped-body filled the doorway.

Both my brother and his fiancé stood in the doorway. I could see the emotions run clearly across Jack's face as the situation at hand sunk in. He looked at me with mild confusion, wondering how I was "taking it all in" when I was now in the medical room, and then worry as he realised I was in the medical room with Luke beside me, looking like he was worried. Which, of course, he was. My brother and Markie, both of whom came well acquaintance with Luke over the last five or so weeks. And now, both of them have walked into the medical room which they thought has been empty for a year or so to see me on the medical bed with Luke sitting by my side. It looked like I had become very ill, as from the angle they were looking, the machine was hidden.

However, as Jack stood there he noticed that my top was lifted up, and we had frozen in place, the weird little probe on the machine that touches the conductive jelly and sends and receives the waves in order to produce the image. He frowned at it, before walking in and checking the screen, seeing the ultrasound image – and the heartbeat.

'Oh, Hi Jack, Hi Mark,' I said like nothing had happened. But no one spoke – Jack stood here staring at the screen in shock, with Markie coming in to see what Jack was gawping at, and then he froze mid-pace too, staring at the screen. Luke looked back at me with instant sorrow on his face and I could tell he was feeling incredibly bad.

I'm so sorry, Grace, He told me softly.

It's not your fault, but maybe drop the scanner now. I told him softly, holding his hand. He did what I said, but he had still recorded a tiny bit of footage of the scan that was now playing on the machine on repeat, but at least the sound had gone. I grabbed a tissue from the side, wiping my abdomen down before pulling down my baggy shirt and sitting up. Jack was still mesmerised at the screen and I looked at Luke. He looked as confused on what to do as I do.

'Did you find it okay?' I heard Theo down the corridor and immediately closed my eyes in embarrassment. Is this what it's like to wish that you weren't alive in a certain conversation? I opened my eyes up and Luke was now looking down at the floor in panic as his own brother joined the room in smart trousers and a plain white shirt.

'What are you two doing here – oh my…' Theo said, addressing both myself and Luke as first before seeing what my brother and his fiancé were seeing on the screen.

Well I suppose this is an easy way of telling our brothers. I told Luke lightly and he turned around laughing slightly, rubbing my knee.

I jumped up before flinching at the weight I stupidly put on my leg. Luke also jumped up, gently holding my waist with one arm and letting me put a bit of weight on him. I smiled up at him thankfully and in his eyes were a beautiful look.

'We're just going to go now,' I said, trying to slide through and Jack put his arm out to stop me.

'What is this?' He asked softly, still looking at the screen. I sighed, before looking at the screen and back to him. Theo gently shut the door, leaving all five of us confined in a small room and I backed into Luke scared. He put his arm around my waist, sensing my fear.

'That would be the menu for KFC,' I joked and got the death look from Jack. I sighed again, not entirely sure how to say this. Luke and I hadn't even discussed it properly with each other, and now we have to tell our brothers? Luke, sensing my thoughts, kissed the crown of my head as if letting me know that it was okay.

'What do you think?' I hissed at Jack, annoyed. Was he going to make us spell it out?

'That, brothers of ours, is your new future niece or nephew,' Luke said proudly, and I couldn't help but grin up at him and the adorable tone he said it in just melted my heart. Luke was clearing eighteen hundred steps ahead of me on this whole pregnancy thing and whilst I was already struggling to keep up with what Luke had told me about the last couple of weeks, he was fully committed and dedicated and in a way, it made me feel a hundred times better about myself. He knew exactly what he was doing whilst I had no idea, and it made me feel okay with it as at least someone knew roughly what they were doing.

'What – how,' Markie whispered and I shot him a cheeky grin, 'Jesus, Grace, no, don't – I don't want to know about –'

'How far?' Jack asked, and he seemed angry. Theo looked up alarmed at the tone and even though he didn't say much and appeared as shocked as anyone else, he automatically appeared on our side. Luke mentioned that Theo knew about the baby as he signed the medical paperwork but I don't think he realised how far along I was or even to expect seeing the scan so soon.

'Jack,' Markie warned, frowning at him. Jack looked over at him and they had a brief conversation telepathically before Jack took a deep breath.

'Just over eleven weeks I think,' I mumbled and Jack looked at me.

'So far?'

'You're a nurse; you should know things like this. If baby is that big, it's not going to be two weeks along is it?' I snapped at him before biting my lip. 'Look, I'm struggling to get over this too; can we all just move on and pretend we didn't see anything?'

'How long have you known, though?' Theo asked me before shaking his head. 'Sorry, that seemed insensitive, Luke – how long have you?' He redirected his question. 'I know you mentioned it in hospital, well it was on the paperwork, but this far?'

'The day Grace was taken, they found out when they did the prelims on her,' Luke said softly.

'That long?' Jack asked back.

'Twelve week rule,' I shot back at him.

'You were abducted in that time Grace! You nearly died in surgery, you've been on all kinds of medicines,' Jack argued back.

'Oh I have been informed of that, but everything they used medicine wise was safe for the baby and see look, everything looks fine,' I retorted back. 'Whatever you lot say, we're keeping the baby so if you don't like it then decide now and it's simple – you won't be in his or her life.' I decided.

'It's not that we won't support you, Grace, it's just a bit of a shock,' Theo said sweetly.

'Okay well come back to me when you've decided your opinion,' I said, going to storm out. Well, I made it as far as the hospital bed, before putting too much weight on my dodgy leg, which then caused my leg to collapse. Would have been fine if the side of the medical bed wasn't there, the bit where the paper roll goes was gone, but it was still intact but empty. As I fell, I hit my head again on the corner of the metal bar and blacked out before I hit the floor.

'I swear down, Grace, I'm buying you a sumo suit made from bubble wrap and you are never allowed out of that bubble wrap suit ever, oh and you know you can get those toddler back pack with the reins on them for toddlers who run off? Going to have to get you an adult sized one of them, too.'

I woke up to someone playing with my hair and Luke gently talking to me. I had a massive headache now but I knew I was on some form of painkillers and on an uncomfortable bed. I eventually found the will to open my eyes and I was still in the medical room, with Luke sitting beside me, his hand tangled in my hair. Luke's blue eyes shone down at me, a small sweet smile on his face. 'Welcome back,' He said.

'Is she okay?' I heard Jack ask.

'Are you okay?' Luke repeated and I nodded. 'She nodded,' Luke relayed back onto Jack. Luke gently offered me his hand, helping me sit up and he pulled me back to lean against his chest, his legs either side of me. I took a moment to realise that Theo, Jack and Markie were sitting on three chairs a few feet away from the bed.

'What are they all doing?' I mumbled to Luke.

'Oh, well, after you collapsed again, nice going by the way, I took control. I made them all sit down and think about how they treated you and none of them are allowed to speak to you until they apologise for treating you like a criminal when you told them some of the best news they could have expected.' Luke said proudly and I rolled my eyes.

'Dramatic.' I told him and he shrugged.

'Don't care,'

'Grace, I'm so sorry. I knew about the baby, but I just had no idea it was so far along and as you can imagine, it wasn't what I was expecting to come in to,' Theo said first, leaning forward. 'I really feel awful for how I reacted,' He said softly and Luke changed how he was sitting to look at me.

Theo really does feel awful. He hasn't stopped apologising to me yet. Luke said to me gently, running his fingers up and down my side trying to calm me down as I rested my throbbing head against him.

Yeah, I'm getting that vibe.

'It's alright, Theo, it's not you who I have the issue with,' I said sweetly before shooting Jack a death glare and he rolled his eyes. Theo grinned, though, and got up and hugged me.

'Thanks, Grace, and congratulations. I've ordered you something as a congratulations present but it won't be here for another week and a bit,' He whispered to me as we hugged, and I frowned as he pulled away.

'Intriguing,' I said jokingly.

'I'll leave now, don't want anyone else coming in and joining out party, see you in an hour or so,' Theo said sweetly and with that, he escaped the room with an aura of conflict. I looked immediately back over to Jack and Markie, who were sitting next to each other. Jack was now full on sulking, arms crossed and staring at me whilst Markie looked like all he wanted to do was apologise profusely and give me a hug and move on with life.

'Jack, what the fuck,' was all I could say. I struggled to sit up on the medical bed but with a helping hand from Luke I managed. He moved to sit next to me. 'What exactly is your problem? At the end of the day, it can either be your niece or nephew or you don't have to be in their life. I know which one I want you to be however it's blindingly obvious you have some kind of a massive issue with it,' I lectured him and he rolled his eyes.

'Eleven weeks, you said? You two have been together just over that. You barely knew each other when that was made,' Jack started, 'and so much has happened since then, Grace, and you expect us to be okay with it? You were literally kidnapped and you're acting like it's a normal thing. Of course I love you, and I support you and you know full well I want this kid in my life but you need to see this from our view too. You're my little sister, I made a promise to Mum and Dad that I would keep you safe if anything ever happened to them –' He swallowed, nearly in tears and I was on the edge as well, 'and then you get kidnapped and pretend like it never happened,'

'Because to me, it never did happen,' I told him tearing up. I sniffed and Luke hugged me to his side.

'But it did, Grace, and it was a horrific time for everyone, mainly everyone in this room right now because we're the people who care for you the most. I think I speak for all three of us when I say that we're struggling to keep up with you at the moment, your medical setbacks and watching you break down God knows how many times a day and now you don't know any of that, and you go and drop something massive like this on us.' Jack sighed.

'You scared the absolute shit out of me, because I had one simple job to do, the one thing I promise Mum and Dad, and I couldn't even do that. Then I had to watch you cry yourself to sleep at night or sit in the corner not speaking to anyone or curl up and watch Disney films and it was exactly what you were like after the car crash and it terrified me, it really did. I couldn't cope to see you that broken again. Then you got the all clear but just needed time to cope with everything I thought it would be all fine and back to how it was and then I waltz in here, and I see my future niece of nephew on the screen. Of course I'm going to flip out. That is what older brothers do. And you never even told me either,'

'Because I didn't know,' I added

'Okay fair enough. I'm sorry for flipping out, I was just scared and stressed and I think you can understand that,'

'Yeah,' I mumbled, playing with the hem of my shirt.

'So we're okay?'

'I'm still upset, but yeah we're alright,' I muttered and Jack grinned, coming to hug me tight. 'Only on one condition,' I mumbled to him so only he could understand. He made a noise to queue on the rest of my sentence. 'You don't give Luke the older brother speech,'

Jack pulled away laughing. 'Absolutely no chance, Grace,' He said and I rolled my eyes.

'Worth a try,' I said and I knew Luke was frowning at me.

'But we better go too, and you need to head back up to your room too before they send out the search squad for you, but congratulations,' Jack said, gesturing for Markie to leave the room too.

'Yeah, congratulations you too,' Markie said and with that, they left the room. I knew they would come a bit later and visit me but they probably had some list of jobs to do – centred around me. Luke hugged me a bit tighter and I fell back against his chest as he hugged me tight, kissing my temple.

'Sorry,' Luke muttered, 'I should have been more careful,'

'No, don't be sorry, it wasn't your fault,' I told him, 'At least we don't have to tell them, now just to work on your parents and I think we're golden,'

'Yeah, we're gonna be executed by father, but hey ho, who gives a shit. I have you back, that's all I need, ' Luke said, kissing my temple.

We eventually snuck back into our room, and later that day was removed back down to the exact same medical room which had been cleared out for the psych evaluations to see exactly what I remembered and if I could distinguish between what I was told and what I remembered. I cleared it fine, and got the news they would be moving both myself and Luke into Windsor that night or the very early hours of the morning when there was a minimal chance of being caught by the media. Despite Callus and his creepy men being arrested, there was no guarantee I was safe, but the media advisors told Luke it was best at some point to assure the public I was alive, healthy (to a point) and now was back with him.

I was sitting in front of the TV, watching "How to Get Away with Murder" on Netflix with a bowl of Cocoa Pops on my lap as Luke was packing down my clothing for me, and other belongings in order to take with us when we were eventually moved later.

'So who's coming with us?' I asked Luke as he came into the room with an armful of my clothes to fold and pack down despite my protests telling him I was more than able to do my packing myself. He didn't agree and forced me to sit down.

'Everyone, really, all of your cousins, Theo is staying for a few days before coming back. We're staying there indefinitely though, as, well, as it's pretty impenetrable.' Luke said, folding my many pairs of skinny jeans. 'Do you really need this many pairs of jeans?'

'Well, probably not as they won't fit soon,' I said with a mouth half full of cocoa pops, the formality between us two long gone.

'I dunno, you're eleven weeks gone and you have the smallest bump imaginable at the moment. These should be good for another few weeks,' Luke joked, ruffling my hair as he passed. 'And then I'll take you on a shopping trip. I got you into this situation,'

I made some very non-PG comments back to him and he looked at me horrified as I shrugged. It was true what I said – if he was careful then we wouldn't be in this situation. But he shot back some comments about my failed pill and I ended up grinning. It was only then I realised he had taken a photo of me.

'Oh my God what was that?' I asked him as he came and sat next to me.

'The photo for Instagram, God get with it,' He joked, slouching next to me. Both Luke and Theo were known as being very, well, young Prince's and were both on social media, with high twitter and Instagram followers. Theo, however, was a bit quieter and rarely posted. The same cannot be said for Luke, whose photos and videos were just parties and so on.

The photo he took was cute; you could see the TV in the background with me in the corner of the sofa in a well-lit room, in pyjamas, with a blanket over my lap, cereal on top and smiling as I watched TV. However, both of us knew I wasn't smiling at the TV but rather the comments about how our baby was conceived. It added a hilarious twist to the photo. Luke hesitated for a moment before tagging my Instagram account to the photo and added the caption.

"Absolutely over the moon to have my girl, Grace, back, safe and well(ish), and finally able to show her off to the World. Our relationship hasn't been smooth but we're working on it, and I cannot wait to see what it has in store for both of us."

Luke looked over at me with a cheeky grin and I pretended to throw up before he turned slightly, digging out a piece of paper from his jeans, which must have been handed to him by the media advisor, as he typed it out word for word.

"Both of us would like to thank everyone who helped with the Global manhunt to find her, and if it wasn't for the people who called in and gave the police the tips they did, we could still be searching for her now. She wouldn't be back home safe if it wasn't for you lot so we owe you one,"

'I'm confident the last bit was not written by a middle aged lady in bodycon dresses,' I said and Luke shrugged.

'Well, I can't put in there "Oh, yeah, we never got tipped off, Grace told me telepathically where she was, but thanks for being useless" can I?' Luke said, kissing my forehead.

'Fine,'

"So expect to see much more of my beautiful girlfriend and whatever is to come for both of us!" He finished writing, reading it over once more, before looking at me.

'You ready?' Luke said.

'Wait,' I said, taking his phone and changing my name in the text to my Instagram name, before pressing enter, and the post was out to the world. 'Of course I'm ready,' I said and Luke took his phone, locking it and throwing it across the room before kissing me.

'I hope you always will be ready,' Luke said sweetly as both of our phones started to vibrate constantly as the World started to see the post. Which was brilliant as we no longer had to hide and everyone knew I was safe but it also stuck a massive signpost, telling anyone who wanted to find me again where I am.

We were all packed down and ready to leave by three in the morning. The Instagram post had gone viral completely, with it already attracting hundreds of thousands of likes and comments most were completely supportive and lovely and genuine, complimenting both of us and the few harsh ones were immediately deleted by an overprotective Luke. My following on Instagram had gone up massively, with photos from my graduation and Nando's with Luke the second day I met him getting thousands upon thousands of likes too. It was trending on Twitter and Facebook and all the news anchors were reporting it as a minor story.

I was waiting alone in one of the many reception rooms on the ground floor, reading through the comments.

"So jealous but they seem really nice together"

"Too cute!"

"Not fair – I wanted Luke"

'You'll always get mean comments, don't let it get you down,' A voice said beside me and I jumped and Caroline appeared out of nowhere.

'It's, like, half three, what are you doing up?' I asked Caroline gently.

'Well, you were leaving, can't leave without saying goodbye,' She hugged me gently. 'I'm so glad you and the little one are safe,'

I pulled back from the hug.

'What did you say?' I asked slightly shocked and Caroline laughed.

'Grace, I can see the future, I know you're pregnant. I'm so happy for you and Luke, I really am. You will both make brilliant parents. Well, you will – Luke needs to grow up a tiny bit first but he'll get there eventually. I wish you would have told me, though,'

'When did you find out?' I mumbled, amazed. 'Does Luke know you know?'

'I saw you with a new-born beginning of July for my birthday when you went down to Cornwall, and I went to go and talk to you when you came back because I was uncertain it would be yours or like, Jack's adopted daughter or something, and then you… you know, I checked the paperwork and Luke thought he hid it really well but he didn't and it confirmed it was yours. That's how I managed to pull the strings and get the operation moving as fast as it could even though Luke thinks it was him, so keep that one between us,' Caroline said, joining me leaning on the shelf. Once again, would never have thought a year ago I would be having this conversation with the Queen of the United Kingdom but hey ho.

'Did you say daughter?'

'I meant daughter or son,' She corrected quickly and I didn't believe her.

'Right,'

'So congratulations – when were you planning on telling me?'

'I was leaving that up to Luke to decide, but it looks like he doesn't have to now,' I joked and she grinned.

'I'll pretend I didn't know for him, I just thought you would need a bit more moral support. Luke is good at showing things, but I know what females are like when pregnant. They need as much support as they can. You'll understand the further along you get. So, just so you know, I will support you and Luke fully, and we will accept your daughter or son as our grandchild. Even if they steal the show at my birthday ball next summer,' Caroline teased and I smiled, tearing up.

'Thank you,' I whispered choking up on tears. Caroline hugged me.

'Mum, what are you doing up?' Luke shouted from across the room as he walked in. 'It's stupidly early in the morning,'

'I was making sure Grace was okay and coming to say goodbye to you,' Caroline lied, winking at me in the process. 'Just making sure there was nothing you haven't told me about her too,'

'Of course not, I've filled you in,' Luke said and Caroline smiled.

'You always forget something,'

'I didn't this time,'

'Okay,' Caroline said. 'I'll be around tomorrow afternoon, I don't think your Father can make it, he's got a flight out to Dubai for meetings,'

It seemed like Edward was doing everything he can to avoid me at the moment, only popping in for two minutes when Luke was in the shower to ask if I was okay, and to see if I needed anything before leaving again.

'No surprises there, then,' Luke said, kissing his mothers cheek. 'Now get your arse back to bed, you need more beauty sleep as you get older,' He said with a cheeky grin.

'Watch it, Luke, you might be moving out but it doesn't mean I can't still tell you off,' Caroline retorted as she left the room. Luke came over to me, gently kissing me.

'When do you think we should tell her?' Luke told me and I had to hide my smile.

'Whenever you want too,' I mumbled back and he bent down to kiss me.

'It doesn't matter, it's just you and me against the world,' Luke said softly, but he had no idea how true that statement would become.

/

Holy shit - I had no idea that this was anywhere near 100 reviews and it's only just sunk in that.. that's a lot of people reviewing. Thank you so much for the guest who informed me that it was 100 reviews, and of course Sabinethafangirl for the 100 reviews. I would have given up like I did after chapter five (throwbacks) if it wasn't for all the fantastic reviews so thank you so much.