AN: Hi everyone – thanks for the love for the last few chaps! I like to respond to all my reviews, but if you're not signed in, I can't reply! I do appreciate them very much though and thanks for loving this story! These two protagonists are stubborn as hell but it's fun to write them! And I definitely agree with the reviewer who said Jude should just sit them down, but it probably wouldn't be that easy even then! As you'll see in the upcoming chap, Anne tries to do something similar...

Chapter 29. Escape

I walked up the stairs with a frozen smile on my face, just wishing to get to my room, to reach its sanctuary and develop a plan. Not cry foolishly and curse his name. Think calmly and reasonably of a legitimate way not to be heartbroken. Once my fingertips touched the door knob I knew I was beyond any reasonable thought. I passed through the threshold and the tears began. Damn him! Damn him to hell! Just who did he think he was, kissing me like that in front of Wammy, Ella, Jude and even Near? And then releasing me from my stupor just to say it hadn't mattered? Yet again!

"What a complete git." I seethed as I crossly changed out of my night gown/wedding dress and dressed in a pair of trousers. I tore a shirt off of the hanger in my wardrobe and threw it over my head now wanting to be out of the house as soon as possible. A brisk walk on the grounds might do the trick, possibly even be therapeutic. I doubted it, but I had to go somewhere. Somewhere away from him and my growing penchant for physical violence.

A knock fell on the door and I shouted, "Go away! I want a divorce!"

Silence, then Anne came into the room stunned. "Gracie?! Gracie, what's wrong?"

"Oh," I went back to trying to tie my trainer shoelace as she instantly came to my side and hugged me. "Just the usual. I need to get away from him. It's just painful. I'm tired of how genuine and wonderful he can be one minute and blasé and heartbreaking the next. He's just…a….flipping wanker! I've had enough of the reckless way he plays with my heart. I can't take it anymore!"

Anne listened to me fully and intently as always, her eyes warm with understanding as I carried on with tears and curses and wishes that Wammy had left him in that orphanage and never brought him into my life.

"Grace," she finally spoke. "I thought that you guys had talked things through. You were so sweet together last night. What could have happened already?"

I hung my head. "Last night did end up wonderful, but it was just another instance of seeing a bit more of the L I want to know and then watching that be snatched back out of my reach. I wish I could understand. I can figure out most anything but not him! He's so bloody confusing! I don't think he even knows what he wants! He doesn't want to be a grown up-that's it-he wants to play these childish games for as long as he's able. Bugger it that he's supposed to have responsibilities! Nothing has meaning! He thinks everything's a laugh, granted, we were pretending to get married but still!"

"Wait, what?!" Anne cried, a smile flashing across her face before concern banished it once more. "Back up. Pretending to get married?"

I shrugged. "Simply appeasing Ella. One of her "Let's Pretends". It was all rather fun until he kissed me in front of half the house and Wammy and then said it was all for show." I punched the pillow by my side in frustration and the stupid picture I had looked at before bed for months while imagining any possibility of us being together slipped out from under it and fluttered to the floor. I glared at it with a new hatred. Damn him for being attractive and athletic and sensual and all of it! I'd show him when the picture ended up in my bin as it should have long ago.

Anne quickly scooped up the sketch before I could grab it. She smoothed out the wrinkles on the paper with a small smile. "I don't want you destroying my painstakingly created masterpiece in a fit of fury, G. I'll keep it for now, all right?"

"Right, that's probably best." I sighed, wiping my eyes with a shaky sniffle. I would miss her terribly, but her idea to go visit Liam's family now that she was to become part of it had made sense. It was only right and it was typical Anne through and through.

She glanced down at the picture preparing to speak once more. "You know, I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I don't think you are the only one in possession of one of my sketches."

I was confused. "What? Of course I'm not, Annie. Every person here has always loved your portraits of them. I even saw that one you did of Clarke hanging in his office a few years back. They are treasured."

"No…" She hesitated. "What I'm trying to say is…there was a piece I drew once…and it went missing…Well, the sketchbook didn't go missing, that was still there on the table when I came back for it. But the sketch was gone, the page had been ripped out cleanly from the book…"

I frowned. "Someone stole your art?! Why didn't you ever tell me this? That sort of behavior is unacceptable!"

Anne smirked a little at my reaction. "It was just a doodle, G, not the Mona Lisa. The reason I'm even telling you is because the sketch was of you."

I drew in a breath. "Of me?"

"Yes. I even remember it. We were in the library talking and I drew you sitting at the window seat. Then we left to go do whatever and when I came back for my book, the picture wasn't there. I couldn't figure it out, who would want it? Well, to take it instead of asking me for it anyway. And then I figured it out. It had to be someone who wouldn't want to explain to me why they wanted it, because that reason was private and personal." She finished and looked at me knowingly. "Do you get what I'm saying?"

"Yes." I answered coolly. "You're saying that as well as a wanker and a liar, L is also a thief. Well not to worry, as long as there is still breath in my body that man will pay for his actions and you will get your art sketch back."

Anne rolled her eyes. "Grace! That's not where I'm going with this. I don't care if he has the picture. The fact that he has the picture at all should be what's important!"

I sighed shakily. "Perhaps it would, if he hadn't just reminded me of how little importance he deems my feelings. Anyway, you know I'm going to miss you but I'll be all right here, I always am. Now you better be off. I'm sure Liam is waiting."

Anne stared at me for a moment more, then wordlessly walked to my wardrobe where she pulled out a small dusty suitcase. It thumped on the floor as she bent down to snap open the latches, leaving it splayed open on the rug as she went back into my wardrobe thrusting back hangers.

I watched through tear dampened hair as she started throwing clothes from the wardrobe into the case. "Annie, what exactly are you doing?"

She stopped for a moment with my red cardigan in hand. "I've decided. You're going to come to London with Lee and me, so you need stuff to wear, don't you?"

My heart stopped in my chest as I realized the magnitude of her statement. "What? No, I can't do that!" I jumped up to halt her feverish packing, grasping one sleeve of the garment while she held the other one.

"Why?" she demanded. "If you stay here you're going to mortally wound L and I don't want that to happen no matter how great it seems to you right now. Gracie, I see why you're hurt. He's very hard to figure out and it's exhausting trying to. You deserve a holiday and I really want you to come. Liam's family will be so thrilled to have you!"

"No, I can't impose on their hospitality." I disagreed as Anne continued piling clothing into the suitcase, some of it missing its destination in her flurry of motion. I had to admit that the escape to the big city was sounding more inviting by the second. I did have my credit card…I could book a suite at the Savoy, spare no expense and bloody enjoy myself, as well as get to meet Anne's future-in-laws. L would be the last thing on my mind, just like I would be at the bottom of his list of consideration like usual.

"Lee's all ready to go." Anne informed me huffing as she tried to close the case she had packed full. I made my decision by sitting down on case as she latched it shut.

"Now," she looked up at me with a big smile. "Are you?"

I found myself nodding as a heavy painful weight lifted from my shoulders. She gave me a fierce hug and tamed my wild hair a bit with her hand. "Things are going to be okay." She promised. "He may be hard to crack, but he cares."

I rolled my eyes and snorted derisively. "I'll wager anything he won't even know I'm gone for hours."

"Well," Anne stood up, crossing to the door, opening it a crack and peeking down the corridor. "Unless you want him to know right now, we'd better go."

"Right." I picked up my purse and pulled the strap up my shoulder as I lifted the suitcase. I caught a glance of myself in the mirror. It wasn't defeat anymore when I took in the reflection of the saddened girl staring back at me, it was resolution.

I followed Anne out into the hall, closing my door carefully behind me.

We left at a rather convenient time as the majority of the kids would be immersed in their first lessons of the day and L would likely be consulting with Wammy about the newest cases being referred. Still, the fact that we made it out the front door without incident still surprised me. Not one person was around to even notice our leaving. Granted, Anne had given her kisses goodbye earlier that morning, but for no one to even see Liam jump out of the car to slip my case in the boot or the three of us climb in the car at all was astounding in its own right.

"So you're coming with us, Grace?" Liam jovially called back to me as he started up the car and we started toward the front gate. I was facing the back window looking for any sign of life to note our departure and still not seeing one.

"Looks that way." I answered back, absorbed in taking in the house as we passed through the gate and turned onto the winding road that led toward the north. I hadn't left its safety very much since I was brought in wrapped in Wammy's coat on a stormy night almost twenty years ago. Part of me was afraid to leave something so familiar, another part felt exhilarated at the thought. It was a rarity that I was leaving home with L still there. I suppose we'd see how much he liked it for a change.

I finally sat forward and snapped on my seat belt, slumping in my seat as I watched the scenery pass on my side of the car disconsolate. Anne glanced over at Liam with a weighted look and he spoke up then brightly. "So! Let's have a listen to the radio, why don't we?"

"It's your car." I mumbled and he fiddled around with the knobs before he found an upbeat song that he turned up to full blast.

I groaned as the chorus started. It was the same song Ella had sung while I processed up the aisle to marry an icy, careless creep less than an hour previous. Was fate trying to tell me something?

Not noticing my look of annoyance, Anne and Liam sang along with the radio in a fumbling sweet harmony, catching each other's eyes during the "I love you" part of the chorus. If she wasn't my sister and my best friend, I'd want to throw something at her for being so impossibly, blissfully in love and having no issues with saying those three simple words. I sighed and closed my eyes, hugging my chest as I tried to focus and not think about the kiss that had been even better than the one in front of Andrew despite it being in front of more people. No such luck.

All I could remember was his long fingers resting on my waist, with only a thin, satiny fabric keeping my skin from his touch, the determined look in his eyes as he came close, the feather light kiss that had caused me to feel happiness I never knew possible, then his idiotic, teasing words as he pulled away. Good show indeed. I groaned aloud and covered my eyes with my hand. It was going to be a long car ride with these thoughts to continually torture myself.


I must have fallen asleep because I jolted at the sound of Anne's mobile going off as we drove down a crowded street in East London. Discount retail operations, fish and chip shops and a street market passed my eyes as Anne checked her message and sighed.

"What is it?" I asked, stretching out my neck from its uncomfortable sleeping position.

She turned back to me with a rueful smile. "I just got a text from you-know-who stating that you are missing and that we need to turn back and look for you."

I ignored the stab of excitement that I felt at her news and crossed my arms. "Let him figure it out for his own self. He solves cases left and right, doesn't he? One missing woman shouldn't be too much trouble."

Anne sighed patiently and Liam shot a look to me in the rearview mirror. "Cases? I thought he searched for treasures for a living!"

Anne and I shared a stunned look before she settled back into her seat. "Everybody's gotta have a hobby, hun. L likes to consider himself a modern Sherlock Holmes, except without the ability."

"Yes, he's found a missing stable cat and my barrette and likens himself to a detective." I laughed uneasily. "Mad, huh?"

Liam laughed. "It would be madder if he was the real L, huh?"

"Err, haha yes, that would be something!"

Anne fiddled with her mobile and I just knew she wasn't letting the World's Greatest Detective deduce the mystery for himself. "Are you really telling him where I am?" I whinged as Liam turned down a pretty street with small gardens in front of brick two floor homes.

"Yes, he's not good enough to figure it out for himself, remember? I'm just telling him you're with me and safe so he doesn't have a panic attack and call in the police."

"Like he would anyway." I grumbled, as she received a response that apparently angered her.

"All right, now I'm in the same boat as you. What a git." She snapped her phone shut and threw it back in her purse.

"What did he say?" Liam asked as he parked in front of one of the homes with three balloons tied to the gate.

"Oh, just that he thought I would be less juvenile than assisting Grace in running away. Me juvenile! At least I'm adult enough to tell the people I love how I feel about them!"

I felt sick in my stomach as I thought back on what she had said. "What do you mean by that, Annie?" I asked quietly as I saw her eyes widen in the side mirror.

"Uh, Gracie, just that-"

"THERE SHE IS! MY BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER TO BE!"

I jumped a mile when a lovely large woman tore out of the garden and through the gate to meet us at the car.

Anne laughed and opened her door to be pulled into a big hug by the woman I deduced as Liam's mum. "Daisy! It's so great to see you!"

Mrs. Cornell released her and held her at arm's length with a firm gaze. "You had best start calling me Mum and like it, luv!"

Anne giggled. "Okay, no problem! Daisy I mean Mum, I'd like to introduce you to my sister, Grace. She came with us from Winchester."

I stepped out of the car and carefully walked to the other side where Anne and Mrs. C stood, holding out my hand with a small smile. "How do you do, Mrs. Cornell."

She eyed my hand for a second before I was thrown into a bosomy, perfumey hug and heard her throaty chuckle above my head. "You're another one who'd better call me Mum! We're practically family now! I've heard so much about you, Grace! Welcome to London, darlin'!"

I had absolutely no doubt where Liam had learned his congenial nature now.

"Er thank you." I answered as she let me go and went to kiss her son. "It's good to be here."

"Are Aunt Mitsi and Nan home?" Liam asked as he kissed her back and went to get the cases out of the back of the car.

"Mitsi's still at work but Nan's making up lunch. Come on in! There's plenty and I expect you all to eat loads!"

"Perhaps she's a little like our Mrs. C after all." I whispered to Anne as we passed through the little front gate and up the front steps.

"No, I doubt she'll be making googly eyes at Wammy once she meets him unlike others we may know." She kidded back as she held open the door for Liam with the cases. I stood on the stoop and looked out onto the busy street. I could see the street market in full swing two blocks down and a small park directly across from the house with several children running around a playground. The overcast skies gave everything a darker tinge and I shivered a little as a cool breeze rushed down the street. Nonetheless I was smiling.

To hell with a walk around the grounds, perhaps all I had needed was to leave the grounds completely. And the one who made life so terribly confusing.

"Take that, L." I whispered as the wind wrenched a balloon from the gate and sent it skyward. "I'm finally free."


Written listening to Nothing in My Way by Keane

New song: Delayed Devotion - Duffy

I know ::dodges rotten tomatoes:: I sent Gracie away from L! But, then he has to come get her and that will be intensely romantic...right? At least I hope so. :/


Once more, disasters have struck the world and I'm thinking of anyone currently in need. :( Please take care.