TITLE: Behind This Façade – Chapter 21
AUTHOR: Kerry
RATING: PG-17
CONTENT: Attempted rape in later chapters
CATEGORY: Angst/Adult
SPOILERS: None
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing, no one.
DISTRIBUTION: yahoo groups. Please ask

CHARACTERS: Vince, Linda, Shane, Stephanie, Paul, Marissa, Declan. David is my own creation.

Chapter 21

An hour later Vince was sitting beside Linda on the couch with his arms still around her, Linda's head was resting on his chest, neither of them were asleep but Linda had calmed down a lot now. Her eyes were still red and her cheeks tear stained, now and again she still let out the occasionally sob and Vince's arms would tighten around her and he would whisper soothing words in her ear.

The living room door slowly opened and Shane and Stephanie slowly walked in, Linda looked up at them.

"You two should go home now, I'll be okay." Linda said softly.

Both of them looked at their father, and he nodded. "I'll take care of her."

"Alright then," Shane said. "Call us if you need anything."

Stephanie walked over to her mom and kissed her on the cheek, "bye mom, I'll see you again tomorrow," Stephanie looked at the clock, "or later on today." It was 7:00am and not one of them had a wink of sleep.

Shane also kissed his mother and said goodbye to her and they both walked out.

Linda and Vince heard the front door click shut and Linda looked up at Vince. "You must be pretty tired." Linda said quietly.

Vince nodded, "you must be too."

"I am, but I don't think I'd be able to sleep at the moment." Linda said.

"Maybe you should try; you've been through a lot. You'll need all the strength you can get."

Linda nodded.

"Come on," Vince said, getting up and taking her hand. "I bet that as soon as your head hits the pillow, you'll be out like a light."

Linda gave a small smile and got up with him; Vince led her up the stairs and took her into what was their old bedroom. "You sleep in here, I'll leave the door open and I'll be right across the hall. You call me if you need me."

Linda nodded and looked down.

"What is it?" Vince asked, sensing something was wrong.

Tears formed in her eyes again and she sat on the edge of the bed.

"Linda?"

"Can I have a bath first?" Linda whispered.

He sat down beside her and put his arm around her, "Of course you can, you know you don't have to ask."

"I feel… I feel so… so dirty after what he's done." Linda eventually got out.

Vince brought her into a hug, "You're beautiful Linda, you always have been and you always will be. It doesn't matter what he's done to you, nothing will ever change that in my eyes."

They sat there in silence, embraced in a hug for a while until Vince spoke. "I'll go and run your bath." He said, slowly getting up, he opened one of the suitcases he had brought back from Linda's apartment with Shane and got a robe out and laid it down on the bed. "You get ready yeah, and I'll run you a nice long hot bath with all the smelly stuff that you like."

The corners of Linda's mouth turned up in a small smile and she looked at Vince. "Thanks."

Vince nodded and walked into the en-suite bathroom. He began running the bath and five minutes later he was joined by Linda who had changed into her robe. Linda sat on the side of the tub and watched him, he could sense her eyes on him and he looked over at her.

"What is it?" He asked softly as he added some bath salts to the water.

Linda shook her head, "nothing." She replied and looked down, there was nothing but the sound of running water for a few seconds until Linda spoke again with a look of realisation on her face. "Hey, this is a pay per view weekend, don't you have to fly to California today and start getting ready for tomorrow night?"

"Now, I don't know if you know this or not, but as the Chairman of the company I can pretty much do whatever I want when it comes to attending televised events." He smiled at her, "I'm pretty sure the kids will be able to cope with just one pay per view," he shrugged, "and I'm only on the end of a phone if they need some advice."

"Vince, don't stay just because of me, please go."

Vince shook his head, "I've already made my mind up about this Linda, you need me more than they do at the moment. You're what's most important to me."

"Vince…" Linda swallowed a lump in her throat back down. "I really appreciate everything you're doing for me but at the moment I'm just not ready to…"

Vince looked horrified; the last thing he wanted her to think was that he was pressuring her. "No, Linda, I know that. I know that it's not the time right now and I'm not trying to put any pressure on you, please don't think that. But you can't deny that you need a friend right now?" Vince asked switching off the tap.

Linda looked at him and slowly shook her head, "No, I can't deny that. I'm sorry." She said quietly.

"There's nothing to apologise for," Vince said. "Well, I'll leave you to it and I think I'll go and take a shower. If you need anything, you know to call; I'll just be in the en-suite bathroom of the spare room."

Linda nodded and watched him walk out and close the door. She sighed, removed her robe and slid into the bath, wishing that she could wash away the feeling of David's hands all over her body and forget his lingering smell.