Author's Note: Hi guys! I'm back if you remember me from two years ago. I deleted my account before because school got so stressful but now with this whole virus situation I have free time. This is a repost of a one-shot a wrote 2 years ago with some slight grammatical edits. Be on the lookout for more stories I wrote before that are going to be reposted (but of course they will be better and less cringey). Have a good read and enjoy!

"How is she?" Rosie asked.

"She's getting worse. She puts on a happy face for the camera but I know it's all fake. She's getting more depressed and the meds aren't helping. Ann has maids with her all the time so she doesn't do anything stupid." Thomas said picking a blade of grass as they sat in the garden at night.

"Do you think you can get her to come talk to me?" Rosie asked. For over a year Grace has been living in the palace.

"Ann doesn't let her see anyone except her grandfather, her father and brother, and Ms. Chancellor. But,I'll try to get her to come here." Thomas got up and walked back inside. He and Grace had become good friends. They comforted each other. Both trapped in lives they never wanted. They understood each other, though neither of them could have hope. He soothed her as she had panic attacks, or when she had nightmares he held her. She listened to him when he needed to talk. He cared for her, more than a good friend should, he couldn't help himself. He knew she would never feel the same way. She barely talked to anyone, mostly only to her family, and himself.

He knocked on her door and heard, "Come in." He opened the door and saw her sitting on her bed reading one of her mother's paperbacks, one of the few things left that made her smile for real from time to time.

"Hey Thomas." She closed her book, "What's up."

"Let's go to the garden." He told her.

"At this time of night? Why?" She asked.

"Because there's this really pretty blooming that happens right now, so come on." She nodded and got out of her bed. She was wearing sweats and a tank and grabbed a jacket.

As they exited, two guards tried to follow but Thomas sent them away. They walked to where Rosie was hiding.

"So where's this blooming?" She asked.

"There is no blooming. Just me." Rosie came up from the shadows.

"Rosie." She said.

"You never talk to us anymore." Rosie said quietly.

"Not like she talks to anyone else really." Thomas muttered.

"How are you Grace?" Rosie approached her.

"I'm fine." Grace replied in a dead voice.

"You don't look fine." Rosie pointed out. She was right, Grace was thinner, her deathly pale and when she wasn't wearing makeup, she looked dead, because she felt dead.

"Meds." Was all that Grace replied.

"You don't need meds, Grace. It's okay to be sad, to miss your life. Because trust me, we all miss you." Thomas moved away so they could have some privacy but close enough so he could at least see them if something were to happen.

"I missed you guys too Rosie." Rosie couldn't take it anymore. She gave Grace a big hug which Grace returned.

"Come back. Come back to us. Please. It's not the same without you. We miss you. He misses you and I know you miss him too." She didn't have to say his name for Grace to know who he was.

"How are they?" Grace asked, but she mostly wanted to know what he was like.

"Megan and Noah are okay, they miss you. One time I saw Megan in your room crying over your stuff. Even Lila misses you. I miss you. Jamie sad and upset. He's back at West Point right now and Alexei.. well he's Alexei. He's seems fine, but he isn't. We don't see him as often, he'd colder, and we never talk about you around him, because he gets really mad. One time I saw him crying. He really misses you."

Grace was close to tears, "You guys need to move on and forget about me. I'm too far past saving." Grace turned away from the young German girl. Rosie put a hand on her shoulder,

"Do you really believe that? There must be a way to get you out of here." Grace had thought about this way too much. There was a way but she didn't know if it was possible.

"My mother found proof, that's the only way. To find what she found. But Ann wanted her dead, and she is. It's DNA, my mom found the bodies of them." Grace said.

"Okay so we find the bodies, just like your mom. Maybe Karina can help." Rosie said hopefully.

"No, Rosie! She'll kill you, she will hurt him, she'll kill you all if that's what it takes. She's already threatened him, that's why I can't talk to you guys anymore. I'm not risking him or any of you being hurt or killed. Tell them to move on. She's already decided everything and…"

"Alexei will be fine! He's Alexei! Ann can try to kill him, she won't succeed." Rosie said, but she didn't know that Grace wasn't talking about Alexei.

"I'm not talking about Alexei. She said she'd hurt Thomas." Grace said quietly and Rosie's eyes widened.

"Oh, Grace. What happened?"

"You need to tell Alexei to move on. She threatened all of you and I can't have you guys getting hurt. Goodbye Rosie." With that Grace turned and walked away. Away from probably the only chance she would get at freedom, but also away from Thomas.

Thomas followed Grace back inside after saying goodbye to Rosie. He found her already asleep on her bed. He knew she would start screaming from her nightmares soon so he just decided to sleep next to her until he had to wake her up.

He soon fell asleep but not for long when he heard her screams. He gently shook her until she woke up. He noticed she was crying, something he had never seen her do.

"What was it about?" Usually she told him what her dreams were about. Mostly her mom and her friends. He wished she could go see them, but Ann didn't want her near them, especially the black haired Russian, to be fair Thomas didn't want her near him either since he knew about them.

"They left, all of them, even you." She said as her sobbing slowed into his shoulder as he held the crying girl that he decided at that moment he really did love.

"I'll never leave you, Grace. I love you too much to do that." She stared into his eyes and he thought he'd said the wrong thing until she kissed him. They laid back down on her bed still kissing until then pulled away.

They held each other as they fell asleep and Thomas heard when she said,

"I love you. I really do."

Ann was happy, happier than she had ever been. Her son and the girl she had always considered her daughter fell in love. When Ann married her husband she thought she had to give up true love, but little did she expect she would really fall in love with her husband. She really didn't want to have Grace marry someone she didn't love, even if that meant she would end up with the young Russian, but she had to play the bad cop role if it meant her country would be alright. Now 10 years since Grace had moved in with them, she had 2 little grandchildren whom she adored.

"It's interesting how a seeming bad beginning can lead to a perfect ending, isn't it?" Grace asked her husband as they held each other in the garden watching the children play.

"It is. 10 years ago my mother forced you to come here and we both thought we were going to live loveless lives. Now look at us. I think what my mother did was probably the best thing for us." Thomas said to his wife.

"I love you."

"I love you too." He kissed her on the forehead.

"Mom! Caroline won't give me the baseball back!" Their 6 year old son, Adam shouted.

"Caroline give your twin back his baseball!" Grace called. Caroline threw the baseball at her brother and it hit him in the arm. Thomas and Grace chuckled a little.

"You know you really shouldn't teach your kid to throw baseballs at her twin." Noah said, his arm around Megan who was holding her 2 year old daughter, Rosie.

It pained Grace to think of Rosie, she'd died a few years back in a car accident.

"Don't think about it Grace." Lila said her arm in Alexei's.

"I miss her so much." Grace said.

"We all do. She was so happy." Alexei said.

"Dad! There's a bee after me!" A little 3 year old boy named Josh came running into Alexei's arms.

"Mom! Can we have pasta?" Josh asked Lila.

"Yeah, we can."

Grace really did love her life. She married the man she loved, gother friends back, and even Ann wasn't that bad.

"You know what guys?" Grace asked her husband and friends.

"What?" They all said.

"Life just has a way of playing out perfectly."

PS: heheh, I'm getting ready to repost Secrets, Lies, and Truths if anyone remembers that story. Also working on planning out two new stories.