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People simply kept staring at her. Well… then again she couldn't exactly blame them. It probably wasn't an ordinary sight to see a girl in a white wedding dress storm through the airport all alone. Not to mention what her face must have looked like. To be honest she was glad she hadn't had the chance to see herself from a mirror. It might have started another round of waterworks, and she had already had real trouble with trying to end the first. Poor cabbie, though, at one moment it might have looked like she was literally running out of oxygen.

She went through her tiny purse to check out the only items she now owned. Thank god that she'd had the habit of stuffing her credit card along with her wherever she went. She also had a lip gloss, a compact power and her keys and phone.

With a wince she took out the keys and dropped them to the trashcan next to where she sat in the waiting room. No need for those.

After shortly fighting the urge to start crying again, she whisked out her phone. She'd felt it buzz before, but it would have been an understatement to just say she didn't give damn back then. Neither did she know.

It had 27 missed calls and around the same amount of messages. Frankly she didn't care about them either. Nor about whom they were from…

Okay it was an obvious lie, of course she wanted to know whether any of them were actually from Happy. But it was for her own good to not even let herself know. There was only so much a human heart and brain could take. And she'd already entered the 'way too much' zone.

Lexi raised her eyes from the cell. She knew it should have been thrown into the trash as well, but a part of her just kept holding on to it, so she simply shut it off and stashed it back inside her purse, securely hidden under the compact power.

Her next problem was getting something to wear. She entered a random woman's clothing shop and literally picked up the first items on her way.

"Could you please cut off the tags?" Lexi asked the girl who couldn't hide her pity, or maybe it was simply horror.

"Of course," she said, trying not to stare. It somehow made the situation even more awkward.

"Thanks," Lexi mumbled, picking up the clothes after she paid and hurried to the dressing room.

She had managed to choose almost normal clothes with her blind-shopping. Nothing really fit all that well, but at least she didn't also look like Bozo the Clown, which was good. The blue jeans she'd bought were slightly too long, but looked good besides that. Her black T-shirt was tight around the chest area, but not so much that she couldn't breathe. Her pumps were changed for a pair of boots. Finally she had also decided for a black leather jacket with a furry collar, it was going to be cold in Budapest this time of the year.

Now thinking about where she was planning on going, maybe she should have checked her mailbox one last time before shutting of her phone? Maybe there weren't even anybody there to go to?

It was a thought that made her head hurt. The idea of flying there was her only option. She needed to get away… and she needed the protection only her get-away destination offered.

Letting out a heavy breath, she now looked at herself from the mirror, "They will be there."

She looked awful. Her eyes were swollen and red from all that crying, and even if she tried, she couldn't conjure a smile. It was as if that specific ability had left her facial expressions arsenal. Not that she was planning on smiling any time soon anyways.

Her gaze shifted away from her face and down to the marble floor. There was this white ball of fabric lying around her.

Throwing the golden chain of her purse over her shoulder, Lexi bent down to gather the dress into her hands. It made her heart ache and her mind numb yet again.

"Can you please throw this away?" she asked a different girl who seemed to work there on her way through the aisle.

"Um… you sure?" she raised her eyebrows looking at the dress Lexi was trying to force into her arms.

"Yes."

That was like the only thing at the moment she was sure about. No doubts about it, she was never-ever going to need another white wedding dress again… especially not this one. It was just as ruined as she was. One could even say cursed.

The girl nodded, visibly uncomfortable.

"Thank you," Lexi said, as she finally got rid of the burden and walked out the shop's doors. Though, getting rid of it didn't really change the way she felt. But on the other hand, it did keep the wondering eyes more or less away from her.

Her next stop was getting the plane ticket. It wasn't as easy as she had hoped. There were no straight flights anytime soon, so she chose for a way through England.

"I'll take the first one," she had insisted.

…

Once on the plane the heaviness in her heart stared to take over yet again. As much as she tried, she couldn't hold the traitorous tears from falling down on her lap.

To make things even worse, she suddenly got a glimpse of what had totally been wiped from her thoughts before.

That damn tattoo on her wrist. The way it smiled at her. The way it reminded of him.

It was there, crystal clear and coming closer to her eyes as she raised her hand to wipe her cheek.

"Perfect," she snorted out loud, followed by a short chuckle, followed by a long sniffle.

Apparently sometimes you're so messed up you don't even have a clue.

The person next to her suddenly moved in his seat.

"Rough day?" he asked in a strangely melodic voice.

"Rough life," Lexi muttered, not paying any attention to what the man besides her looked like.

"I get that. Care for a drink?" he then asked, the English accent heavy in his speech.

With an audible snort, Lexi finally turned her face to attach the marvelous voice to an actual person. "I don't care about or for anything, anymore, so no."

"Harsh," he smirked, something dark and twisted forming in his eyes. Something she could relate to. "Although I've come to think that people who say they don't care usually care the most."

"Well then you can continue pondering over it and in the meanwhile leave me alone," she turned her head back into staring the backside of the seat in front of her and by that ending their short and agitating conversation.

He laughed a bit, but fortunately remained quiet till the end of their flight.

It wasn't until they were off the plane that he simply without a single word caught up with Lexi and grabbed her hand in his. "Whenever in need," he placed a business card into her palm.

Lexi eyed the paper in her hands, as the dark and handsome man disappeared back to the crowd. She couldn't pin-point how exactly, but it managed to reek of arrogance and power.

She stopped by the trashcan to throw it away, as it had become the theme of the day, but somehow in the very last minute bent down to pick it up again.

Just in case.

…

After the second flight, she had run out of time to not check her e-mail. It could have been described as incredibly stupid to take such a long trip without any insurance on the fact that she actually had someone there to meet, but threading the idea of this option blowing up in her face as well made her elongate the inevitable.

However, the time had run up just about now. And the inevitable moment of truth was here.

She took out her cell and while ignoring the missed calls and messages, connected her phone to the free wifi and logged in.

With a short sigh of relief, Lexi noticed there actually was one new e-mail.

Then again, what if it was from someone from Charming? Had they not thought about this idea after she'd so obviously ignored their calls and messages?

One way or another, she was forced to at least see who the letter was from.

She closed her eyes, klicking on the inbox. Please.

Inbox (1)

From:

Polly Zobelle

Guess who Gemma didn't kill? Guess who managed to get away to Budapest with her father?

I bet you're dying to read about Happy, but we'll get there real soon. I just need a bit more time for that and thought I'd in the meanwhile give you this filler-chapter.

I also wanted to thank you all for leaving me those wonderful comments. I so glad and relieved most of you were actually intrigued by the change of events and didn't simply hate it. :D

So again THANK YOU for reading!

You're all very much awesome!