Note: This is based on the plot line of Saving Grace but is not an exact copy of the movie because I haven't seen it, just thought this would be a fun what if story.
Saving Grace Chapter 2
by Annabelle
There before her stood Ethan Winthrope Bennett looking a bit dejected and worried. "Look," he started to say as she was closing the door in his face. "I know you have every right to hate me. I would hate me if I were you, but please keep in mind I would have never done the things that Sam did to you. I think what he did was selfish and stupid. He just wanted to keep his 'good' name in the clear and he didn't care what happened to you. I want you to know that I don't like him any better than you do."
Grace looked at Ethan and she could tell that he was telling the truth, but his reasons for hating Sam were much different than her own. "Why should I hear you out? You are just as responsible as anyone for what has happened here. You could have said something but you didn't, you just ignored what was going on around you because you were too self-consumed to think about anyone else, just like your mother." Grace again closed tried to close the door on him but Ethan stuck out his hand to stop her.
"Grace, I really need your help. Please," Ethan's voice was strong but there was a touch of neediness to it.
Grace did not know why but she decided that she should at least listen to Ethan, after all he was the only that had not talked to like she was crazy in the last few months. She walked away from the door into the living room. "Close it behind you," she told him as she sat down.
"So tell me," Grace said eyeing Ethan as he walked into the living room. She did not bother to offer him a sit. "Why does the great Ethan Bennett need my help?"
Ethan was a little surprised at how Grace was acting. He had always thought that she was a good and kind person, but now she seemed cold and hardened. "Well it is really very simple," Ethan fidgeted a little but then he produced a brown bag that he had been keeping behind his back. "I have this plant and it is, well dying. I know you are really great with plants so I was wondering if you could help me."
Despite everything that had happened to her because of Ethan, Grace really did not feel like she could hold anything against the guy, after all he was just as much a victim in this as she was. After everyone found out that he was not a Bennett he had pretty much lost everything. He could no longer find work and he did not have any money to get out of Harmony. Theresa was still with him but she was hard press to find work now that Ivy was no longer a Crane. Besides Ethan did not strike her as the kind of man who wanted to life off his wife or future wife's money.
"What kind of plant do you have," Grace asked sitting up a bit. She did wonder why Ethan was so concerned for a plant when he was having such a hard time finding work.
Ethan fidgeted again, "Well it is not your average plant. It's very... umm, well it is very exotic. Yeah exotic."
"Ethan if you are not going to show me the plant there is no way I can help you!" Grace was starting to get fed up with him. Her temper had been very short lately and having the son of her ex-husband and his new wife in her house was not helping. That and the fact that it was time for her to have another cup of coffee.
"Yeah I know," Ethan paused. "Okay, okay here it is." Ethan removed the plant from the bag.
"Is that?" Grace shot up to stand near him when he took the plant out the bag. It was a tiny little plant with browning leaves. Some of the lower leaves were starting to shrivel up.
"Yeah it is a marijuana plant," Ethan said a little ashamed. He did not make eye contact with her but it did not really matter because Grace was inspecting the plant thoroughly.
She did not know why but she felt a certain kind of thrill when Ethan had shown her the plant. It probably had to do with the fact at for as long as she could remember she had never once down anything truly illegal or what one could consider to be bad. "Where did you get it?" Grace asked as she gently took the plant away from him. It really did not look that different from any other plant that she had cared for. It had the same basic properties and needs. Sunlight, water, and green leaves, well what were suppose to be green leaves.
Ethan was getting really nervous now. Was she going to use this to try to get back in Sam's good graces? That was the biggest question he had, and one the reasons he had hesitated to ask for her help. "This guy that I know," Ethan started to explain. He figured if he appealed to Grace's nurturing side that she might not tell Sam. Also if he let her know how desperate that he was. "He said that he was tired of trying to import the stuff so he wants to start a farm of sorts along the East Coast. He told me that if I grew the plants that I could make a lot of money off it by sealing to dealers in New York and Boston."
"I'll bet," Grace said as she poked the dirt that the plant was in. "Did he tell you how to care for the plant?"
"Well, he didn't know anything about it," Ethan shrugged a little. "He said that because I had a girlfriend and he didn't that I probably had a better chance of getting the thing to grow."
"So he gave you the plant and he expected to get what from it," Grace was starting to get a little suspicious of Ethan. No one in their right mind would give up a marijuana plant to someone like Ethan Bennett who had been pampered all of his life.
"Well um, he was a guy on the lam. I actually haven't heard from in a few days," Ethan started to try to recite the speech that he had memorized in case he was asked questions.
"Ethan?"
Ethan looked down at the ground and mumbled something.
"What did you say?" Grace looked at him trying to force him to make eye contact with her.
"I was visiting with a friend and while he was getting high I took a plant and came back here," Ethan explained. "But he did say to help myself to anything and it was just one plant. Besides he got busted the other day, so it was not like he was going to need it."
Grace laughed at his obvious nervousness. "Well come on I think I have figure out what is wrong with you plant." Grace led him through the kitchen and to the green house.
Ethan watched as she cleared a space in one of the beds of the green house. She carefully dug a small whole and then picked up his plant. "So what is wrong with it," he asked as she looked at the plant again.
"It is root bound," Grace said with a smile. "You have a small plant here but the roots are much bigger then the plant so they have started to out grow the pot." She gave a good tug at the plant and it and the dirt came loose from the pot that Ethan had it in. The roots had completely taken over everything that had surrounded them. They held the dirt that they had been tightly in the shape of the pot that it was once in.
"So how do I fix it?" Ethan asked her.
"We take it out of the pot and give it a new home where it will have room to grow," Grace emphasized the we as she loosened the roots of the plant and they let go of some of the dirt that once held it.
"We?"
"That's right, we. If I am going to help you Ethan Bennett, I want part of the cut that you get from selling," Grace told him with a little bit of force in her voice. She placed the plant into one of her green house beds and turned on a heating lamp above it as she went to go get a watering can. "I mean I don't see how you have much of course. You need someone who knows how to take care of plants and I need money. So?"
"Grace are you sure you want to get involved in something like this," he looked at her uncertainly.
"Look I am about to go broke here because of Sam and I need the money in order to actually be able to stay in my house. Right now this seems like the best option," Grace started to water the plant.
"But you have the bed and breakfast?"
"It costs more money to keep it open then I get from having people in it," Grace said pointed at him. "Besides no one comes to it anymore now that they think I am crazy."
"Okay, well if you are sure you want to get into this," Ethan was really taken aback by what was happening here.
"I am sure. 50/50?"
"Alright then. 50/50," Ethan agreed.
Grace smiled as at the completely dumbfounded Ethan and shook his hand. "I am going to hold you to it Ethan. No cheating on me or skimming off the top."
"Grace you sound like a professional," Ethan laughed.
"You never know," Grace replied and then chuckled at Ethan's fallen face. Things were starting to look up for Grace Standish. Perhaps life was not over just yet.
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So will Sam catch his son and ex-wife? Will this little green plant grow? How does Grace of all people know how to take care of a marijuana plant? These and more questions answered in the next chapter of Saving Grace.
Feedback, I am dying here. I love feedback, feedback will make me feel better!
Looking for the back chapter? Go here: http://members.fortunecity.com/harmonyafc/savinggrace.htm
-Annabelle