A/N: I want to apologize for not updating this story for such a long time. A lot of stuff happened in the past year that kept me from writing, but I finally found the time to finish. I really appreciate the reviews, and I hope the last chapter doesn't disappoint. Please review and tell me what you think of it.

10

"You heard," Harry stated in a hushed tone.

"Kind of hard not to. I've been to the cabin before. It isn't too far. I'm going to call Mildred to watch Luke for me so we can go. He doesn't need to see this," she said easily.

"Laura, are you okay?"

"Fine. I mean, my eleven-year-old is missing and it turns out that my husband is partly behind her disappearance, although I'm not exactly sure why, so why wouldn't I be fine? It's probably because...well," Laura bit her lip. She'd come very close to telling him that at best, she figured the reason Michael had hauled off and done something completely crazy and out of character was that Michael knew she would always be more in love with Harry than she had ever been with him. "Never mind. Let's just...let's just go."

Turning, Laura went barefoot to the cordless phone and dialed Mildred's number. After she'd arranged to drop Luke off at Mildred's house within the next half hour, she pulled on a pair of tennis shoes and ran upstairs to both check on Luke and run a comb through her nearly dry hair. "Luke, buddy, my friend and I are going to drop you off at Mildred's house in a few minutes. So put your shoes back on again, okay?"

"Are you and him going to go get Gracie?" he asked as he stared up at Laura, his eyes framed by bits and pieces of hair.

"Yes. We're going to go get your sister. Be good for Mildred, will you?"

"Is daddy going to get in trouble because he took Gracie away?"

"I don't know what's going to happen. I just know that everything is going to be fine, alright?"

Meanwhile, downstairs, Harry finished the pancakes and stowed them on a plate in the microwave. He left the dishes in a heap in the sink and proceeded to dry his hands, then called up the stairs after Laura and Luke. Fishing the keys from the pocket of his jacket, he opened the front door to radiant sunlight over the horizon and stepped out onto the porch to wait for the pair. "Let's go," Laura said as she gently pushed Luke out the door in front of her. "I'll drive."

Instead of arguing, he slipped the keys back into his pocket and said, "Fine."

A short time later, Luke was handed safely into Mildred's custody with the promise from Harry that he would be back to visit after Gracie was safe. "So how far is the cabin from here?" he asked after the two were alone in the car.

The highway was bare but for a few cars out as early as eight a.m. "About twenty more minutes," she said as she flipped the radio knob to the 'on' position. The car was filled with the hum of light music and advertisings underneath the uncomfortable silence.

"So I suppose now is as good a time as any," he said casually, glancing over at her to gauge her reaction.

"For what?"

"For a talk."

"I don't really feel like talking right now," she answered uneasily as she glanced at him through her peripheral.

"Well, you have to speak with me at some point, and you seem to be free for the next twenty minutes. I want to know why you left and why you never bothered to tell me I had a daughter."

Her body tensed up, but her hands held steady as they guided the car along the stretch of highway. "That was a decision I was forced to make. I don't want to talk about it."

"You don't want to talk about it? Well that's too bloody bad. You owe it to me to tell me. I mean, after all, I have missed out on eleven years of my daughter's life, years that I got to spend wondering why the hell you just up and left me with no explanations. Did you hate being married to me that much? Were you still in love with someone else? Or did you just decide that you didn't want to share our child with me?"

Suddenly spitfire, she yelled back. "How do you not know?"

"That's just it; I don't know because you won't tell me!"

"How do you not know? You kissed and did God knows what else with another woman while we were married, for starters. I would have understood had you asked for a divorce when the two years were up, but you had to drag it out and then humiliate me by sleeping with a client! Instead, you just slept with that client." Finished, fuming, queasy, and near to tears, Laura pushed the gas pedal down further and drove.

Harry was silent after her outburst. Then, "I didn't sleep with that client, Laura. I never even knew that you had seen her kiss me." Suddenly, it dawned on him. "You left because you thought I was cheating on you? Laura, I swear I didn't sleep with Ellie Graves. The second after she kissed me, I pushed her away and told her that I was happily married. I don't know why you would have thought differently."

Stunned, Laura wasn't quite ready to admit fault about her decisions. "Because you married me only to get a green card. Our marriage wasn't built on trust and love, it was built on lies."

"Is that what you think? Laura, the only reason I didn't want to marry you was because I was afraid that it would ruin whatever we had going for us. But once we were married, I knew that it was the best thing I'd ever done. I might not have been able to tell you then, but I can tell you now that I loved you and probably am still in love with you now. I spent all those years believing that you had left because you didn't love me the same way. I didn't know that you were pregnant when you left, or I most definitely would have come after you. The only reason I didn't was because I didn't think it was fair of me to come after you if you didn't want to be with me," he finished softly.

Laura, still reeling, took a steadying breath and put the turn signal on before she turned onto a gravel road. Had she been able to, she probably would have placed her hands over her face and sat down to think things out while having a good, long cry to ease the guilty feeling in the pit of her stomach. "That was exactly what I didn't want; I knew that if you knew, we would have to stay together for our child's sake, and that would have been wrong. I made my decision, and it might not have been right, but it was what I thought was right at the time."

"But you had no right to keep her from me for that long. Can't you see that? It was my right to decide whether I wanted a part in her life!" he said angrily.

"At that time, she was inside me, and I just wanted to protect her. Can't you see that? I know now that it wasn't right, but I still thought that you wanted out, and if you wanted away from a marriage between us, then you most certainly wouldn't want a baby. I just didn't want to hurt her!"

After her last remark, Laura was left wondering whether or not she had been so correct in doing as she did. He had loved her, and more shocking, had said he was probably still in love with her. She avoided looking over at the man and continued down the road until she came to the entrance of the logging road. She pulled the car to a stop and pushed the hair back from her face, over the top of her head. "I think we should finish this later," she finally spoke, her eyes downcast as she opened the door of the vehicle and stepped down onto rocks and twigs.

"You're probably right. Let's just get Gracie and call the police," Harry said, his voice restrained now. "I'll call. Which way to the cabin?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Once she finished the light breakfast of buttered toast and juice that Sean had brought her, Gracie sat quietly on the bed, trying to gather enough courage to enter the hole in the wall. After all, she reasoned with herself, the worst that could happen would be that it went nowhere and she was left to sit in the dark. At least that way, the man couldn't find her and she would be safe until Harry arrived. Unclasping her hands from the handcuffs, she tried to calm herself. She could do it.

A sudden sound from the upstairs made Gracie whip her head towards the ceiling. She heard a muffled explosion, quite like that of a door slamming, and then she heard voices. "Where is she, Sean?" she heard, and to her amazement, realized it was her stepfather's voice. "I told you that if you didn't get out, I would come up to get her. We agreed, and you can't back out now!"

Gracie sniffled and was frightened. Michael was helping that man keep her here? She wasn't sure what to believe, but she was sure that when she again heard Michael yell for her, she ought to stay quiet. Dashing from the bed, she ran over to the carpeted wall and yanked the covering off. Gracie was sure that it was light out now, and that she had no time to waste. Pulling off the boarding, she stepped onto a box and then carefully slipped her legs into the crawl space. Her feet hit the ground at the same height the floor had been, and quickly, she reached for the carpet so that she could slide it back into place. When the board was as close to the spot as she could push it, Gracie groped around, hoping to feel a switch on the walls.

Finding nothing in the darkness but a smell that assaulted her nostrils, Gracie slid her foot along the floor for about a foot. "I'm okay," she reassured herself aloud. The crawl space was silent as she placed her hands on the walls opposite each other and found them to be dry. She carefully slid her other foot about the same distance, and when she didn't hit anything, she decided it was safe to keep going.

After travelling a few more feet, she could no longer hear the voices of her stepfather and the man. Unsure as to whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, Gracie simply made it her mission to keep moving in hope of finding safety. Steadily moving, it was a few minutes before Gracie hit a bump and almost tripped, placing her hands in front of her to break the fall. But instead of falling, her hands hit a solid, preventing her fall and adding to her curiosity and fear. Taking a deep breath, the child felt around, only to discover that it was entirely solid no matter where she placed her hands. Then, as she moved her right hand downwards, sweeping the matter with cautious hands, she found what she perceived to be a turn in the walls. Smiling despite her fear, Gracie felt along the wall with her hands and felt her body do a ninety-degree turn into more of the same.

As her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, Gracie felt the space curve around again with her hands until she came face to face with another solid. This time, however, there was no turn to make. Instead, as her hands groped in desperate fear, she found a knob and began breathing rapidly with the hope that she had found a door to somewhere other than the basement. As she turned the knob, her eyes suddenly gazed upon luminous rays of sun hitting the trees and other shrubbery, and to her delight, she found herself breathing in fresh, morning air.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The dirt-trodden path was covered with chalky pebbles that crunched underneath Laura's feet. She listened intently, both apprehensive and hopeful that she would hear something, some indication that Gracie was near, but nothing came. Instead, she only heard the rocks underfoot, the sound of her own clipped breathing, and the thoughts echoing in her head, bouncing around in confusion. Harry's words kept coming back to her, plaguing her conscience, whispering that if she'd only spoken up, Gracie wouldn't be suffering. But would everyone have been better off? Would everything have worked itself out? There was no way to know. Frustrated with her own lack of answers, she revisited the thoughts she'd had immediately after learning of Michael's role in Gracie's kidnapping. No matter what, there would never be any understanding for that. She would never be able to give Michael complete forgiveness for doing such a thing, or look at him again without a contempt deep down inside her.

The trail wasn't rough, or hard to follow, but it was long, nonetheless, and Laura had nothing to keep her company except her thoughts. Harry was close behind her, so close that she could nearly feel his hand on hers as they strode down the path together. That in itself was making her jumpy in a way she had never felt with Michael. Stop it, she told herself. She would sort everything out later, after Gracie was safe and in her arms again. Until then, she would just have to forget how badly she'd screwed everything up and focus on getting her daughter back.

Meanwhile, Harry was observing the scenery. It was certainly a private area, which meant that Gracie could scream all night and day without being heard by another soul. That made sense to him. What didn't make any sense, however, was why Michael would be an accomplice in his own stepdaughter's kidnapping. Thinking back to his and Luke's rushed conversation just a few hours earlier, he recalled Luke saying that Michael had wanted to be the hero. Whose hero? Laura's? Why would Michael need to save his own stepdaughter to be seen as a hero? But the more Harry considered it, the more it seemed plausible. The two were separated, and Laura wanted a divorce. Maybe Michael thought that if he could rescue Gracie, Laura would be grateful, grateful enough to let him move back in and forget the marital problems they'd had, whatever they were. It was ridiculous, but Michael must have been desperate and obsessive if he'd gone to such great lengths to get Laura's love. Of course, Harry thought, it wasn't ridiculous to want Laura's love, it was only ridiculous to go about it the way Michael had.

Then, as Laura continued at her own fast pace, a sudden sound from off to the side stopped her abruptly. Laura whipped her head around and put a finger to her lips to keep Harry from asking her what she was doing. "Mom?" Gracie spoke in a feeble voice.

Laura looked, and in an instant, Gracie popped up from behind a bush and stood, only for a moment, before she leapt into Laura's embrace. She clutched the pre-teen to her, relief, gratefulness, and wonder pouring from her as Gracie began sob, quiet sobs that pulled at Laura's heart. "Gracie girl, are you okay? Do you hurt? Is anything wrong?"

Pulling back far enough to see her mother's face, Gracie shook her head. Laura's hands found their way to Gracie's cheeks, and she smoothed her fingers over the wet skin on those cheeks. "What happened?"

The girl's gentle face peered into her mother's as she uttered without taking a breath, "I found a crawl space in the wall and he didn't know it was there, but it was, and it was so dark and smelly, but I tried to be brave and I thought about that song, mom, that one song? I heard Michael's voice, and they were arguing, and they didn't know I got out, but I turned all around until I found this door, and when I opened it, I was outside, and I just started running." Pausing for a breath, Gracie finally looked past her mother's face to see Harry staring intently at her, and she hiccuped in surprise.

Taken back at the similarities, Harry couldn't help but stare at the girl. He didn't move as Gracie freed herself from her mother's grasp and gazed upon him, taking in everything. "Are you him? Harry?" she asked, observing him intently.

He nodded, slowly at first, then vigorously. "I am."

She smiled through her tears, then, and was at a loss. She wanted to thank him, and say that she had always wanted to meet him, but the words were stuck in her throat, and they just wouldn't come. Laura hugged her from behind, and Gracie turned suddenly, saying, "Mom. Mom, we have to go back. I heard them, that man and Michael, and they were arguing, and Michael was really steamed. Mom, why was Michael there?"

"We'll talk about it later. Right now, we need to get to the cabin and wait for the police to get there."

"I think you two should wait here," Harry interjected.

Laura got the same look she'd always worn before when she was irritated, and said, "No. It's safer if the both of us are there."

"And what about Gracie? Do you want to risk her getting hurt?"

"No, of course not. Gracie can wait outside. Now, let's stop wasting time."

Taking her daughter's hand, Laura grinned at Harry despite wet eyes, took a breath, and charged down the path with her daughter and Harry close.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The two men faced off, each living what he perceived to be an injustice, one, a daughter's murder, the other, a wife's love for another man. Michael still stood in the front hall of his cabin, staring at the older man's wrinkled skin and blue eyes with hatred. "Where is she, Sean? I told you that if you didn't get out, I would come up to get her. We agreed, and you can't back out now! Don't you get it? It's my turn. You had your revenge. You got to make the man suffer. Good God, you got to tell him he even had a daughter. You're finished. I want my stepdaughter. Where's Gracie?"

"You think that 'olding 'is daughter for this little bit is revenge for my little lass? Sadly mistaken, you are. I'm not letting this chance slip past me. I'll get my revenge yet." Sean shot him a menacing glare as he blocked off the rest of the cabin.

"You know what's funny, old man?" Michael taunted him viciously. "I talked to a few buddies of yours from the old days. I guess I got curious as to what really happened. You want the truth? The truth is that Harry wasn't the one who murdered your daughter or took your things. It was those card-playing buddies of yours. They raped your daughter and stabbed her to death, and I have it on good authority that Harry was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So you were mistaken all these years. Now, where's Gracie?" he ordered.

Sean's breathing became unsteady as he leaned on his cane for support. "No, it couldn't 'ave been them...they wouldn't...they loved her." Thinking back to the horrible night in question, Sean began to put the pieces in place as his stomach clenched and his throat became constricted. He hunched over for a moment, in which Michael shoved the stunned and feeble man and lurched past him towards the other rooms in the cabin.

"Gracie? Gracie, it's Michael," he yelled. When he reached the basement door, he opened it and peered down the stairs. Spotting the cot, he hurried down the stairs, but found the room empty. The emptiness swirled around him as he discovered her missing, and he skipped a few stairs on the way back up. In a fit of rage, he grabbed a cutting knife that he normally used when he fished, and he went toward the doubled over old man on the floor. Sean looked up to see Michael, and crawled to a chest, which he used to help his aching body up onto his feet.

"Michael, give it up," he said. "It's done. We're wrong," he said finally.

"She isn't downstairs. Where did you put her?" Michael asked, seething.

Sean's surprise showed upon his face. "She's got to be. She was 'andcuffed to the bed."

"She isn't! Did you do something with her? Did you hurt her?"

"No, I swear the lass was there just a few minutes ago!"

Michael shook his head. Then, he rushed forward with the knife, aiming it straight for Sean's chest, intent on ramming it into him to unleash all his anger. Sean saw it coming, and despite his dependency on his cane, he let it drop and steadied himself. Grabbing onto Michael's wrist, he held the knife away from his own chest and pushed it towards the wall. The movement caught both men off balance, and they toppled to the floor, with the knife still in Michael's hand.

Laura and Harry burst through the door, followed by Gracie behind the two of them. They caught sight of Michael trying to attack Sean, and quickly, Harry was able to pull Sean from the pile the two men were in on the floor. He spied the blood almost immediately and asked, "Where are you hurt?"

"It isn't me, 'arry," Sean answered gravely after he touched the stain on his shirt.

Looking back on the floor, all three adults saw that the blood was coming from the knife wound on Michael's chest. Sean turned away and limped toward the kitchen table, in need of something to hang onto. Laura pushed Gracie away so that she would be spared the scene, and Harry took hold of her shoulders and led her out into the fresh air before returning to Sean, leaving Laura to lean over Michael's side.

It was plain to see that Michael's wound was fatal. Motioning for Laura to lean closer to him, Michael spoke haltingly and painfully. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm...so sorry, Laura." Groaning, he tried to move, but Laura held him still and applied pressure to the wound, in hopes of stopping the profuse bleeding.

"Shh," she said. "I know you are."

"No, you...you don't understand. I only did it..."

"Michael, the police are on their way. They'll get you to a hospital," she said, though they could both tell help wouldn't arrive in time. In that moment, Laura looked upon him gently, forgetting both her sins and his.

Michael slid his finger to her lips. "I only did it because I wanted you to love me...like you love him," he said as he nodded towards Harry. Michael moaned as Laura pressed harder upon the wound. The knife lay near her, where Michael had set it down after he removed it from his own chest. Michael was quiet then, as he stared at Laura, and a brief moment later, his eyes became vacant, and he stopped breathing. Laura felt for a pulse and watched for another breath, but she saw and felt none. She tried CPR half-heartedly, but knew he had lost too much blood, and she let go.

Meanwhile, Gracie stood on the gravel outside, watching the scene unfold inside the cabin. As Michael stopped moving, she dashed inside the cabin, alarmed at what she was seeing, barely aware of the tears falling from her eyes in rapid succession. "Mommy?" she cried. Laura stood and went towards Gracie, opening her arms to the girl, who wrapped her arms around her mother's midsection and proceeded to sob into her sweatshirt.

Holding her all the tighter, Laura leaned down to press a salty kiss to her daughter's head, and said, "I'm here, Gracie girl."

Harry smiled lightly, despite everything, as he looked at Laura and Gracie. Moving forward from where he stood, next to a stunned and silent Sean, Harry found a blanket, which he covered Michael with so that his body was no longer visible. As he did so, he heard the distant hum of a siren, and knew the police had arrived. He was in shock from the events, as he imagined they all were, but he stepped shakily around Michael's body and Laura and Gracie so that he could meet the police on the front stoop.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Police swarmed all over the cabin as they taped things off for the investigation. Laura never strayed far from her daughter, and for the moment, Harry was pleased to see that the both of them were in the company of the police, safe from any further harm. He guessed that it would take a long time for all of them to recover from the events that had just taken place. Looking around, Harry spotted Sean, still sitting at the kitchen table, being handcuffed by an officer. His face looked drawn and gaunt, but he managed to emit a tiny smile as he gazed upon Harry. "Well, 'arry my boy, I...I owe you an apology. Michael told me the truth, and I know that it wasn't your fault my Maryn died." Sean bit his lip. It was hard to swallow, and he was just an old man again, not the vengeful spirit he had hoped to be. Now, he simply needed to make his peace.

Nodding slowly, Harry said, "Now you can move on, Sean. Just remember her the way she was." The old man wept openly then, as the police officer escorted him into the backseat of the cruiser waiting outside.

Nearby, Harry could see Laura holding Gracie as the paramedic looked her over for any sign of injury. He stood for a moment, content to watch the two together amid the confusion. Another officer taking down notes for a report came over to question him on the events of the night. When he was finished and had taken Harry's statement, he paused an extra moment, then asked in an unsure voice, "Don't…don't I know you from somewhere?"

Smiling, he said, "I don't think so."

"You look so familiar," the officer said, doubtfully.

Harry shook his head. "I don't know how you could. I'm just...her father," he smiled broadly, indicating Gracie. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think my daughter might need me."

Looking puzzled, the officer walked away as Harry approached Laura and Gracie, the girl snuggled on Laura's lap all the while talking animatedly. Both looked up at him, Laura with a gentle smile upon her face, Gracie with a look of genuine solemnity upon hers. Laura stood and helped Gracie to her feet. "Why don't we go give the police our statements, Gracie?" she asked.

Gracie nodded, and sensing that the two needed to be alone for a moment, she scampered off with a girlishness that Laura was glad she hadn't lost during the ordeal. "I don't think there's much that I can say right now that could really tell you...I mean, I know there's still a lot that we have to discuss, but..."

Harry put a finger across her lips. "We can do that later. She's safe, and that's what's important. Did you call Mildred?"

"Yeah. I told her the good news, and I talked to Luke for a few minutes. We're going to have a major talk later about his father, though. He won't understand," she said, sighing as a few tears came, unwanted, to her eyes. Sensing the need for it, Harry opened his arms and welcomed her into them. For a moment, she let herself be weak, and held on tightly to a man that up until the day's events, she had seen as undependable and untrustworthy. But at that moment, she saw him only as steady and unfailing, and she knew that everything would be okay. "No, wait. I need to do this now, because I can't stand the thought of not telling you. I was stupid, and I left because I thought I was doing the right thing, not because I didn't love you more than I've ever loved a man. I know that I've made a lot of mistakes, and I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?" she asked as she drew back from him.

Hesitantly, he said, "I will be able to, eventually. Just give me time."

She nodded. "I know. I didn't expect it right away. I just want to make it up to both of you."

"You can do that right now," he said impishly. "You can tell me how you feel about me now. After all, it's only fair that you tell me since I've told you."

Laura laughed. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she asked as she grinned up at him. The grin faded when he leaned down and pressed a tentative kiss to her lips, asking permission. She agreed.

She steadied herself when it was done, and asked, "Can we take it slow? We're different people now, and I don't want to mess things up. It's too important."

"I think I can live with that," he said.

When she saw Gracie from the corner of her eye, she drew back and said, "I'm going to go give my statement now. Talk to her," she whispered, giving him a confident smile as she walked away.

Laura patted Gracie's backside, urging her towards Harry, and then left the two in confidence. She hadn't messed things up permanently. Their relationship could still be fixed. Gracie stumbled over the first two steps, but she kept up her slow pace until she reached the man.

"You look like your picture, you know," she blurted out as she came to a stand still in front of him. "I mean, I know it was mom with you in that picture, and that had to be a long time ago, but you look the same still."

He nodded, lacking words. A gust of wind blew a few strands of hair across her face, and the look made her seem all the more endearing than her little speech had. It was quiet between them, but for the trees groaning in the background.

"Why did that man do this?" she asked suddenly, filled with curiosity.

"Sean believed that I did something a long time ago, when I was about your age, and he tried to get back at me."

"Did you do it?"

"No. He didn't know until just now that he was mistaken."

"Like mom?"

Harry was caught off-guard. "What do you mean?"

"I heard you guys talking. I heard her say that she was sorry about some mistakes she made, but she didn't know they were mistakes until now."

"You know, you are absolutely right."

Gracie beamed. Then things were silent again. As she stood, putting her weight only on one grungy tennis shoe, Gracie thought of her mother's and stepfather's mistakes, and she felt a familiar ache behind her eyes when Michael crossed her mind. Her nose twitched, and she tried to hold out, but it was to no avail. She reached for him, and her small, freckled arms were suddenly wrapped around him, and her tiny body embraced him. Overwhelmed and quite unsure, Harry enveloped her, holding her closely so that she felt as though she was the only one in his entire world, and safe. Harry breathed in steadily, catching Gracie's scent as he closed his eyes, not noticing Laura's eyes upon them. And as for Gracie, nothing else mattered, because she was finally home.