Holds Me Together
Rating: T-M Just in case
Disclaimer: You know the drill.
A/N: I love you people! You make my day! Sorry for the proofreading as
always. FYI: My responses to reviews are at the bottom of each chapter
instead of the top. Read on wit yo bad self, now!
Chapter 14 – Are You Ready For What's To Come?
On the morning of January 5th, Grace awoke to the numbing frostiness of her lone body strewn about Luke's bed. Underneath the covers her pajamas, which consisted of thin, well-worn flannel pants and a t-shirt were insufficient in the dead, thick wintry January weather in Arcadia. Her bare feet stuck out almost up to her knees, hanging off the side of the mattress. Every time her legs touched in her sleep they shot apart; the skin on her calves were too cold to touch together without sending icy daggers of pain shooting through them. Her arms were curled up and tucked under her chest as she lay stomach down from her waist up. The covers slid down, revealing her shoulders and upper arms, sending a tremor throughout her. Despite the cold, numbness, Grace fought to stay asleep as she now rested just on the verge of waking. She hadn't slept more than two hours since New Year's Eve, until the previous night, having finally succumbed to exhaustion.
She felt movement and smelled the scent of shampoo, soap and aftershave as the mattress shifted and Grace felt the warm softness of Luke's lips against her own. Her eyes remained closed but she did offer a small smile when he pulled himself away from her moments later. She knew he was smiling as she rolled fully to her right side, drawing in a deep breath of air and reaching up to rub the sleep out of her eyes. Luke wasted no time, reaching his own hand out and running it through her hair.
"Howdgeunhere," She murmured incoherently as a yawn garbled her speech. Luke laughed at her.
"I thought we agreed on English early in the morning?" He questioned, amused as Grace propped herself up on her elbows now.
"How did I get up here?" Grace restated, reaching up to finishing rubbing her right eye free of the nasty crustiness hanging around her eyelashes.
"I brought you up here after you fell asleep," Luke explained.
"What time is it?" She asked him.
"Just about ten," Luke replied.
Grace eyed him. "How long have you been up?"
"Seven," He stated shortly. "Couldn't sleep," Luke shrugged when Grace looked at him questioningly. "Besides, I had a few things to take care of. I didn't want to wake you up though, since you haven't been sleeping."
Grace nodded gratefully, yawning again.
"But now, since we're out of pop tarts, however, I figured I'd make you get your lazy ass out of bed and we can go get some food," Luke suggested, sitting down on the bed next to her and leaning against the headboard.
Grace nodded. "I need a shower first," She told him, making no move to get out of the bed.
"Joan was in there not too long ago, but I think it's free," Luke said, giving her shoulder a little shove. Grace reluctantly crawled out from the slight warmth of the blanket to the open coldness of the room. She stretched quickly and then crossed her arms over herself, grabbing some clothes before heading out of the room with the promise of hot water on the horizon.
As Grace reached the bathroom, Joan was just coming out of it, fresh from styling her hair and brushing her teeth.
"Good timing, it's all yours," Joan said. Grace looked at her strangely.
"You're strangely chipper this morning," Grace noted. It was true too; Joan hadn't been very receptive since she'd informed Grace about the possible pregnancy. Joan simply shrugged, now, at Grace as Grace walked by her, into the bathroom. Grace stopped before shutting the bathroom door. "Luke and I are going to go for some food, do you want to come with us?"
"No thanks, I'm supposed to meet Adam," Joan replied breezily. "There's gallery owner from New York in town visiting her family. Anyway, she wants to look at some of his pieces. Adam wants to ask her to look at some of mom's stuff too, if she likes his."
"Oh…that's good. Tell Rove I said congrats," Grace replied, still looking at Joan strangely. Joan nodded and turned around to leave. "Hey Girardi," Grace called. Joan turned around. "I'll meet you back here at 1:30, for, you know, the appointment," She said. Joan shook her head slowly, seeming to have the wind knocked out of her. She quickly recovered and put on a half fake-half relieved smile.
"Oh, that, I'll call and cancel that before I leave," She said to Grace with a dismissive wave of her hand. Grace looked on at Joan, shocked.
"Just like that?" Grace asked.
Joan nodded. "As fate would have it," She said, sounding more solemn and thoughtful now. Grace watched as Joan rested a hand at her stomach, leaning on the buckle of her belt. It was clear to Grace that Joan had spent time thinking about the fact that she indeed wasn't pregnant for at least all of the morning if not some of the previous night. Grace couldn't imagine the feeling, of thinking you were pregnant and having to go over all the possibilities in your head and then simply heading to the bathroom to pee almost two weeks later, and just like that, life is supposed to be back to normal.
"It seems, the oven is not cooking," Joan said with a deep breath, "I guess it was just teasing the promise of a bun."
"That's a really creepy metaphor to throw at someone when they've just woken up," Grace stated, seeing the dark and saddened look in Joan's eyes now and feeling nervous. "Is that like some kind of allusion to becoming the old woman who tries to cook Hansel and Gretel?"
Joan gave a slight smile to this. "Regardless…the appointment's not necessary," She cleared her throat, "At least not anymore. I'm, uhm, going to be late, I have to get going," She said.
Grace nodded. "We'll talk later?" She suggested.
"Yeah," Joan nodded back and then turned and headed for the steps.
Grace shut the door and put her clothes down on the closed hamper. She turned the water on and waited for it to heat up. It didn't take long since Joan had used it not too long before her. Grace rid herself of her pajamas and stepped into the steaming water, pulling the curtain shut as she did. For a long while, though not longer than five or six minutes, Grace stood, letting the water beat against her back. Her hair hung down into her eyes as she watched the water drip off the ends of her matted strands of hair, disappearing into the rising steam. Her mind ran rampant with memories as she stood there in the mist.
Grace jumped when she heard the door of the bathroom open and nearly let out a yelp.
"Sorry!" Helen called apologetically. "I'm sorry, Grace!" She called over the shower. "Luke told me you were in here. I guess you didn't hear me knock. I just need to grab something and I'll be on my way out," She assured.
"Uh…It's okay Mrs. Girardi," Grace called back. "I-I was just stuck in a thought."
"Okay," Helen called back, shutting the cabinet under the sink. "Just don't stay under the hot water too long, you'll burn your skin!" She called to Grace protectively. Grace chuckled.
"Okay," Grace called back, waiting for the door to click shut to finish her shower.
When Grace found Luke in the living room on the couch, Luke stretched and faked a stomach growl.
"What's that stomach?" Luke said, leaning down towards his stomach. "If you knew that 'take a shower' meant an hour, you'd have had me order take out?" Luke continued. He smiled and nodded. "Me too."
"Aw, how cute, you're talking to the baby in there huh?" Grace flopped next to him, patting his stomach playfully. "I bet you stay up at night when I'm asleep and put headphones on there and let the little tyke listen to music, don't you?" She questioned, fighting to keep her face serious. Luke smiled.
"You're darn tootin' I do!" He said proudly. Grace sputtered slightly when she couldn't hold it in anymore and started laughing at Luke.
"Come on, all this making fun of you is making me hungry," She stood up and went to find her jacket.
"You don't have to tell me twice," Luke followed her to get his own jacket.
"Hey baby," Joan greeted Adam with a smile. She was just heading for his shed when he came walking out, wiping his hands on a dirty rag.
"Hi," Adam replied happily, using his left arm to pull her to him and kiss her. He looked at her strangely when he pulled away. There was a distant look in her eyes. "What's up?" Adam asked her.
Joan shook her head. She focused in on Adam. He was standing there in front of her, his happiness was clear in his eyes though it was masked at the moment by his concern. Joan felt pangs of guilt for not telling Adam, even when he'd come over at two or three in the morning on a couple of instances in the past week or so. Joan simply put a smile on her face.
"Nothing's up. Is your dad's truck all packed?" She asked Adam.
"Nope," Adam shook his head. "Turns out Sadie's brother and sister-in-law only live five blocks away. She's going to come to the shed to look at everything," He smiled proudly then took a hold of Joan's hand and started pulling her. "Come on, you have to tell me if my set up looks all right."
After nearly an hour Adam and Joan had finalized their setup and were waiting on the front steps for Sadie Malone. Sadie owned an art gallery in Manhattan. It was relatively new, having opened in 2003, but was renowned for furnishing art pieces (paintings and sculptures alike) to wealthy debutantes and famous buyers. She had heard about Adam through her brother who had been walking his wife's Chihuahua, a yappy little five pound runt of a dog named El Salvador, when he happened past the Rove yard, and took an interest in the sculptures decorating the yard. Sadie's brother, Jensen, had been looking at the sculptures for about fifteen minutes before Carl spotted him and walked out onto the porch to ask what the man was doing staring at his yard with a Chihuahua.
By Thanksgiving, Jensen had sent digital photos of the sculptures from the Rove yard to his sister along with contact information for Adam. Over the phone, Adam and Sadie had designated a meeting during the Christmas holidays. January 5th was the one day during her winter vacation that she could meet with Adam.
"So what happens if she likes your stuff?" Joan asked. Adam had his elbows on his knees and Joan had her arm hooked around his right arm and her head leaning on his shoulder. "Would she just give you money for the stuff she likes?"
"Well, no," Adam spoke up. "She'll make arrangements to have what she thinks are the best pieces shipped to her gallery. They'll be put on display and when, or rather, if anything sells, they get a percentage of the money and then give me the rest," He said. "At least…I think that's how it works," He smiled at her. "I'm not positive."
"I know she'll love them all!" Joan said confidently. Adam smiled at Joan.
"Thanks Jane," He kissed the top of her head.
"Hi," A woman interrupted them standing at the gate. "I'm here to meet with Adam Rove," Sadie smiled, "I assume that's you. Can I come in?"
"Oh, yeah! Uhm, yes, of course!" Adam said as he and Joan jumped to their feet. Adam raced down and held the gate open for her. Sadie looked at the sculptures on the lawn as she passed them.
"I saw all of these in the pictures my brother sent," She smiled, still looking around as she shook Adam's hand. "Their pictures do them no justice," Sadie reached out and touched one of the metal bars of a nearby sculpture.
"I have more in the back, in my shed," Adam pointed over his shoulder. He realized Joan was standing next to him and he almost coughed. "Oh, uh, this is my girlfriend slash muse, Jane." He introduced. Sadie smiled warmly and stuck her hand out. Joan shook Sadie's hand, smiling back as well.
"Shall we head on to your shed then?" Sadie asked.
"Oh! Yeah! Of course, follow me!" Adam said, leading the way back.
Grace and Luke had decided to walk to get their lunch. Five minutes into the walk they regretted it immensely. There was snow on the ground in plowed and shoveled piles from the day before. It had gotten warm enough later in the day to melt and then refreeze into
Hazardous see through ice patches. Despite the freezing temperatures, Grace and Luke were laughing at themselves every time one would hit an unseen patch of ice, start to flail and fall and then grab onto the other for support.
It took them twenty minutes to get to a pizza place. As soon as they walked in, the smell of garlic hit them. Grace heard Luke's stomach lurch and she smiled, stifling a laugh. The heat felt sticky on her face as she took her leather jacket off and hung it on the hook hanging next to the booth they found in the corner.
Luke put his jacket on a hook and went to the counter. He ordered an extra large pizza well done with extra sauce and double extra garlic, mozzarella fries and some sodas.
"So," Luke said halfway into their pizza. Grace finished chewing the bite she had just taken. This 'so' was definitely going to lead to a deep conversation, she could tell just by his voice.
"So, what?" She asked halfheartedly.
"So," Luke studied Grace for a moment. "Is there anything you want to talk about?"
Grace snorted, "You now for a scientist you ask very vague questions, brain," She replied. She couldn't figure out why but she just couldn't make this easy on him. If he wanted information he was going to have to work for it. Luke picked up on this fairly quickly.
"I just mean…if you want to talk," Luke shrugged, "About your mom or Ryan, or your dad even," He watched as she cringed at this.
"There's not much to talk about, really," Grace stated.
"When are you going to get that I can tell when you need to talk?" Luke asked. Grace looked at him, knowing he was right. He reached for his soda after finishing a fry smothered in mozzarella cheese, and started to take a big gulp.
"What would you do if I was pregnant?" Grace asked him. Luke sputtered; half of his gulp of soda cascaded back into the cup and down its side to his hand and the other half got inhaled into his lungs. He began to cough and hit his chest as if that would aid in expelling the carbonated liquid now bubbling in his lungs. Grace grabbed a handful of napkins and started to pat Luke's hand, chin and mouth dry as his coughing slowed and he stared wide eyed at Grace.
"Sorry whiz kid, didn't mean to drown you in your Dr. Pepper," She smirked at him.
"Why would you ask that?" Luke's voice was low and serious. Grace shrugged.
"I don't know," She said. "Just a thought, really."
Luke stared at Grace, still clearly shocked. "Are you…?" He moved his head closer speaking quieter now.
Grace's head shot up from looking at her half eaten piece of pizza. She shook her head. "No…no, oh God, no, I'm not," She assured. Luke seemed to breathe for the first time in almost three minutes. Grace almost laughed at him, but then she thought about it. She looked at him curiously. "Although, if I was…what would you do?" She asked.
"What do you mean what would I do?" He asked, as if the question were absurd. Grace looked at him questioningly. "First of all it would be what would we do. Second of all," He waited for her to look at him, "we already talked about this, a long time ago." He shrugged. "The same thing applies now as I said then, we know the consequences of our actions and if we're ready for the actions we're ready for the consequences."
Grace nodded slowly. "I know…but saying it is one thing. It'd be different if we were in the situation, wouldn't it?" She asked.
"No," Luke said without hesitation. Grace looked at him.
"Okay…yeah see I made this a little too intense…" She slid out of her side of the booth, "I'm going to the restroom," she excused herself with a lazy point of her index finger. Luke nodded, watching her go.
"Your art is so…" Sadie paused, spinning in circles to look around repeatedly at all of the pieces of Adam's art that she could see, reaching carefully to run a hand excitedly over a piece of a sculpture every now and then. Adam almost bounced on his toes he was so excited by this. "It's so…existential," Sadie confirmed. She nodded. "Oh yes, I know quite a few clients who would like this," Sadie whipped out a cell phone that looked more like a mini computer, "May I?" She asked.
"Oh, uh, yeah, of course, be my guest," Adam nodded.
"Is this good?" Joan asked quietly, close to Adam's ear. Adam nodded vigorously, his eyes blazing with excitement. Joan smiled, excited for him.
"I'll just take a picture of these two right now," Sadie snapped the pictures and then hit some buttons, "There we go," She said, looking at Adam. "Now those pictures have been sent to my top five clients. We should know within a few minutes if they're interested."
Adam looked at Sadie, nervously. "Just like that?" He asked.
Sadie nodded, "Yep, just like-oh, here we go!" She looked down at the screen of her beeping phone. Adam watched intently. He felt Joan's grip tighten in anticipation on his arm. After hitting a few buttons, Sadie smiled. She looked at Adam and Joan's anticipating faces and smiled wider.
"Well, Mr. Rove, I have the highest bidder at 3,000 for that one right there, and 4,000 for the other," Sadie held her hand out, "Welcome to the Malone Gallery collection…that is, if you're interested," She smiled.
Adam stared at Sadie, his mouth hanging open. Joan gave his arm a little shake. "Are you serious? Of course I'm interested!" He eagerly shook her hand. "Thank you so much, thank you, thank you," He gushed. Sadie tried not to laugh too hard at him as he hugged her tightly and then hugged Joan tightly, who was also laughing slightly.
"Oh, please, don't thank me! This is my job!" Sadie replied. "It's always nice to find wonderful new artists, especially in my own hometown," She said. "Now, how much longer is your school vacation, I'd like to have you up to my offices to draw up some paper work, possibly to transport some of your work so we can avoid shipping." Sadie got right to business, pulling out a palm pilot and clicking away at it with the tiny pen. Adam looked at Joan who smiled encouragingly at him.
"We're flying back to California on the 11th," Joan supplied for Sadie.
"Excellent," Sadie marked some things down, "Would it be possible for you to drive up on the 9th then? Say 10 am so that my crew can set some of your pieces up while we're running the paperwork through? Do you have access to a truck to transport your artwork with you?" She asked quickly.
Adam glanced at Joan and then looked at Sadie. "Yeah, the 9th is fine. I'll rent a truck for the transport," He nodded. Sadie smiled.
"Wonderful," She looked around, "Are you willing to part with everything here you have set up today?" She asked. Adam nodded. "Don't be afraid to say no and keep a couple of them. An artist should never give up something sentimental to his or herself," Sadie said firmly. Adam nodded understandingly.
"I can part with these," He assured. "A-Are there any on the lawn that you want?" Adam asked nervously.
"Let's go take another look," Sadie suggested. "And then we'll go and grab a bite to eat to talk about how the selling and the billing works, my treat," She said. The left the shed and Sadie found three sculptures from the lawn that she wanted to sell. She would have taken them all, but Adam wanted some of them left behind because his dad liked them.
"Okay kids, who's up for pizza?" Sadie asked, "We can talk about the other artist you wanted to tell me about over a few slices, what do you say?"
"Definitely," Adam grinned.
"Oh, I'll drive," Joan dug in her pocket for her keys, and Adam climbed into the backset of Squiggy, letting Sadie into the passenger seat.
Grace was alone in the restroom, not that this was surprising, since she and Luke had so far been the only customers in the pizza place. She was washing her hands at one of the small sinks when she heard something from one of the stalls. She looked over and saw no feet under the stalls. She felt a chilly wind and looked up to see that the window above the middle of the five stalls was open, with no screen in it. She was looking at it strangely when the door of the stall it was over swung open.
"Hey Sis," Ryan said. Before Grace could even react, Ryan had rushed forward and pinned Grace against the restroom door, thus making it impossible for anyone to open the door even if they tried because it was on a swinging hinge.
Grace found herself staring back at Ryan. His right arm from elbow to fist was shoved across her neck, jammed hard into her collarbone, to pin her against the door.
"What's your-," Grace had begun to yell so Ryan clamped his left hand firmly over her mouth.
"We don't want to alert anyone that I'm here now would we?" He asked with a wicked grin. Grace stared at him coldly. Ryan felt her jaw open, and he pulled his fist away only long enough to jam it into Grace's gut, knocking the wind out of her. Grace would have crumpled down the door to the floor had Ryan not still been pinning her as she coughed and gasped for a breath now.
"Why are you…doing this?" She asked between breaths. "What…do you want?"
Ryan snickered, shaking his head, as Grace put her head back against the door. Ryan flung his hand towards her head, making he flinch as he hit the wood of the door next to her head. "Your perfect little good deed doer friend, Joan…" He began, Grace looked at him. "Yeah, you see, she doesn't know it yet but she's just like me," He grinned. "She's going to tire of being a gopher soon and then where are you going to be?"
"She's nothing like you," Grace sneered at the thought that her best friend was anything like this monster. It was then that Grace noticed that Ryan had Sarah's eyes, just like Grace had. Grace squirmed, feeling her stomach churn in disgust. Joan wasn't the just like Ryan, Grace was…at least physically. Ryan laughed that sinister laugh and Grace felt every muscle in her tense as he pressed against her, his arm pinching her throat closed tighter.
"I'm balancing out all those 'good ripples' she unfairly caused…" Ryan said through gritted teeth, "You don't want to tip the scales and make the world perfect do you? I mean, even if it is a shame that I have to take down your perfect new family in the process."
Grace couldn't respond, she was too busy trying to inhale as much air as possible. Ryan noticed the color changing in her face and loosened his grip only enough to allow some air in.
"Come on now, Grace…calm yourself," He smiled at her. "I don't want to have to hurt my baby sister," He said to her. Grace felt the familiar boil of anger rising within her. The anger and hatred was intensified by all that Ryan had done. It was one thing for Ryan to come after Grace and hurt her like he had over the summer; it was another to go after the Girardi family just because Grace was associating with them. She felt herself sneer at him.
"What's that?" Ryan relinquished enough pressure to allow Grace speech.
"I'm not…your sister," Grace forced out, breathing hard. Ryan laughed.
"Oh, well, well now, genetics outweigh fantasies now don't that?" He asked her. "Otherwise, I would feel inclined to agree with you. You are pretty sad and pathetic. But then, that's why you've ditched your family for Luke's, isn't it?" He laughed as Grace struggled to swing at Ryan unsuccessfully.
"I guess this is our years of missed sibling rivalry playing out isn't it?" He pressed closer to her, choking her again. Grace stared at him as she gasped for air. "I know what you're thinking," He smiled, "You think I'm doing this because of what mom did to me don't you? You want to know why I don't just kill her and satisfy myself right?" He didn't wait for an answer as Grace's face turned red. Ryan's face was inches from hers. "I don't need to kill her…she's already taken care of that for me," He continued his monologue.
Grace's eyes were glazing over. Ryan's face was coming in and out of focus as she struggled against him. "But since she's got some time left, I'm going to give her a run for her money. I'm going to get to her through you," He laughed at the reaction on Grace's strangling face. "That's right! And when I'm through with you, you'll be as crazy as that Bonnie girl. Yeah, you remember her, don't you? She's locked up in a padded room thanks to me," He laughed maniacally. "I was gonna start with that new family of yours…pick them off one by one…" He smiled. "But, I underestimated that little Angel of yours and He-man, master of the universe too. I won't next time though. They can't always save you. Remember that." He grinned, laughing again.
"Now…I can't stick around here as long as I wanted. I've gotten what I've come back for, though. You'll be happy to know I'm leaving the country. Sort of like a vacation, if you will," His smile widened and then faded. "Don't you fret though…I'll be back…you just won't know when," Ryan let Grace go. Her body slid down to the floor, panting for breath as he backed away towards the window again. "I'll be sure to keep in touch, Sis," He winked at her. "Your days are numbered, Grace…just like your mother's. Remember that," He sneered before climbing out the window.
Grace pulled herself into the corner of the wall, her head bobbing as she sucked in air, shaking and trying to wrap her head around what just occurred. She pulled her knees up to her and put her forehead down on them breathing hard.
"Hey dogboy!" Joan slid across from Luke in his booth.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Luke asked her.
"Sadie's treating us to lunch while we talk about Adam and Mom's art," Joan said, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb to Adam and Sadie at a table nearby.
"Oh…and who's Sadie?" Luke asked.
"Art Gallery owner from New York," Joan said quickly, grabbing a cheese fry and delving into it. "Where's Grace?"
"Oh, uh, she went to the restroom a while ago," He said, glancing in the direction of the restroom. "I don't know what's taking her so long, though," He said. Joan stood.
"No problem, I'll find out, I need to head there anyhow," She assured before heading off towards the restroom.
Grace jumped slightly when the door swung open towards her.
"Hey, Grace you in here?" Joan asked as she leaned over to look under the stalls. She turned around when she didn't see any feet under the stalls and stopped in her tracks upon seeing Grace sitting on the floor staring off. "Grace? What's going on?" Joan crouched in front of Grace.
Grace's eyes wandered up to Joan's blankly for a second before she blinked and then seemed to recognize Joan's face.
"Grace?" Joan asked again, putting her hand on Grace's shoulder. Grace's face turned a strange shade of green and before Joan could ask what was wrong again, Grace shoved past Joan and made it to a stall just in time to drop in front of the toilet before her stomach emptied itself.
Joan grabbed some paper towels and wet them, squeezing into the stall with Grace and pulling Grace's hair out of her face. "Hey, whoa, easy there, Grace," Joan used her free hand to rub circles on Grace's back in a feeble attempt to calm Grace. "We've already had a morning sickness scare, it's not your turn for a while," Joan tried to make a joke, unsure what was going on.
"Hunter," Grace said, sinking back against the wall and accepting the wet paper towels to wipe her forehead and then her mouth off.
"What?" Joan asked, confused.
Grace looked up at the window and then at Joan. "Call your dad…" She said to Joan. "Hunter's in the area. He's gonna flee town. He came in through the window," Grace said quickly. Joan reached for her phone and dialed.
"Did he attack you?" Joan asked, noticing bruises forming at Grace's neck. Grace nodded, swallowing hard. "Daddy," Joan said into the phone. "No, daddy…yes, they've been following us since New Years since your ordered them too," Joan said, speaking about the undercover tails that had been sent to watch Will's family. "Daddy I'm at Pizza Palace, Ryan attacked Grace in the restroom. She said he's going to leave town," Joan began. She held the phone out to Grace. "He wants to talk to you," She said.
Grace took the phone and Joan listened as Grace recounted the story to Will Girardi. Will told them he would send cars out o the restaurant right away and for them to stay put. He was going to send out APB's and photos and would meet them at home.
"How is it that bad things keeps happening on great days?" Joan asked in the Girardi kitchen. Luke sat to Grace's left, his arm protectively around her shoulders, and a worried and angry look on his face. Helen came over and sat to Grace's right, holding up a towel covered bag of ice for Grace to put on her collarbone. Grace flinched as Helen held it to the swollen and stiff part of Grace's right shoulder.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Grace," Helen frowned. They had been home for two hours and had recounted what happened to Helen already. Now they were waiting for Will to return home.
"It's fine," Grace lied. She wanted the focus to be off her. "What happened with the Art lady?" She asked Adam. Adam seemed to frown and reluctant to be happy when such bad things kept happening to people he cared about. Grace picked up on this easily. "Come on, I know she had to like it, Rove, don't hold back on me now," Grace said, almost angry that he wouldn't tell her.
Adam smiled slightly. "She wants 16 of my pieces for now. That's not counting the two she sold just by picture while she was talking to us," He said, his excitement winning over him. The others smiled as he told them the story.
"Tell them how much your sculptures sold for!" Joan gave him a light elbow. "Oh! And she wants to look at your stuff too, Mom! She's coming back over Easter and she's going to call to set up a meeting with you," Joan continued to a shocked looking Helen.
"How much did they sell for?" Luke asked after a few minutes of silence all around.
"7,000 altogether," Adam said, not truly believing the words that were leaving his mouth. Helen, Luke and Grace stared at him, clearly shocked.
"For two sculptures?" Grace asked. Adam nodded proudly. Grace smiled and almost laughed. "That's awesome!" She said, not wanting them to feel bad when such a great thing had happened for Adam.
A half an hour later Will walked through the door with three detectives in two intent on taking statements from everyone after Will made sure they were all safe and unharmed, despite Grace's bruises.
"What have we got?" The emergency room doctor asked, running alongside the hospital bed as the paramedics raced in.
"Male, 18, suspected overdose," The paramedic said shortly as the transferred the boy from the stretcher to a bed.
The doctor began barking orders as the nurses hooked machines up.
"Any identification? Any idea what he OD'd on?" The doctor asked as he signed for the patient. The paramedic read off the clipboard.
"Friedman F. Friedman…" He stopped, shaking his head, "his parents were mean. Uh, parents have been contacted and are on their way. We found no evidence of what he took."
"Great. Okay I want a tox screen now, I want his stomach pumped," The doctor began to bark off more orders as nurses hung IV bags and went about fulfilling the orders.
"Let me get this straight…we plaster Ryan Hunter's ugly mug all over televisions, to every law enforcement officer up and down the eastern coast of this entire country," Will said, heaving deep breaths and trying to remain calm as he spoke to a room full of airport security officers, two of Will's own detectives and the man who was supposed to be in charge of all operations inside the airport. "As well as holds on all of his accounts, and even on his passport…" Will looked at the men in front of him. "Any of you want to explain to me how a known, wanted fugitive managed to get through every checkpoint in this airport without being stopped once, and is now safely enjoying the New Year in Bali?"
A couple of the men swallowed hard, averting their eyes. Will watched them all, waiting for an answer. It was clear to all that Will Girardi was rhetorically asking this question and would take no excuses from them anyhow. In fact, Will was about to go on tearing into them further when his cell phone began to buzz to life.
Will reached down and snatched the device out of its holder, flipping it open and placing it to his ear with out looking at who it was.
"What?" He barked into the mouthpiece.
"Whoa, dad, relax," Kevin, replied back. Will sighed.
"I'm sorry," He apologized to Kevin, rubbing his forehead as he left the room to talk privately to his son. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, mom told me what happened and I wanted to see if there was anything I could do," Kevin replied.
"I don't think there is, but thank you," Will stated. "I'll call you with details in the morning. You should get some sleep it's late."
"Okay. Oh, I just thought you should know we found evidence that there's a Cayman account with Ryan Hunter's stench all over it," Kevin said. "I mean, because I know you froze all of his known accounts. Anyway…good luck. Goodnight dad."
"Thanks," Will said. "Goodnight, son." Will replied before hanging up. He rubbed his temples again, wishing for nothing more then to be face to face with Ryan Hunter in a locked room with a baseball bat for an hour.
Will sighed and turned around, heading back into the room full of frightened men and began barking at them angrily again.
"Can't sleep?" Helen asked, sitting next to Grace on the couch. Grace was watching a 24-hour news channel for periodic updates on the search for Ryan Hunter, knowing full well that Ryan was out of the country and somewhere else by now. She still had ice on her shoulder. Helen held out the container of ice cream she was eating from and an extra spoon.
"No thanks," Grace shook her head. She wasn't hungry at all. She sighed. "I just can't get tired," She said.
Helen nodded. "I understand," She said. "Do you mind if I keep you company?"
Grace shrugged. "If you want," She replied. Grace didn't want to be alone, but she also felt awkward. Luke had gone up to get a shower and changed.
Helen and Grace, though, sat in a comfortably numb silence, watching the news reports intently in the dark.
A/N: Don't kill me! Well, I guess you could if you want. Okay, my reasoning for the negative pregnancy: although technically the voting won out for a negative, I didn't think it was the right time for another baby since Caleb was there. Also, I figured a scare would be more intense for Joan, having to deal with the possibility and then the complete taking away of that possibility without Joan being in control seemed intense to me. Anyway, moving on!
Chapter title from "Are You Ready" By Creed.
Responses: Shout out to Laura!
MDM79 – I hope you didn't fall off the edge of your seat! I've done that before…it's not fun. Lol, thanks for the kudos on the lyrics! Luke does deserve nice things, which is why he got nice things. ) I hope this chapter didn't disappoint after the last one left you on the edge of your seat!
Jane and Adam – I hurried back…despite the fact that it wasn't positive, what did you think?
Carol – I'm sorry your computer crashed! I've been there, it sucks doesn't it? Lol, I'm glad this story was on your mind the whole time! That's a compliment I don't deserve!
Coveredinrain16 – I reply in the order that people leave reviews for a chapter ) So feel special because the first one is always special! What'd you think of the resolve of the preg. issue? P.S. I totally watch the commentaries, and Jason is hilarious! Lol and yeah…I felt dirty too…but come on you could totally picture it couldn't you?
Butterfly Dancing – Yeah…I didn't think Friedman would be evil enough to go through with seriously injuring someone. Thanks for the kudos on the song lyrics, I laughed the whole time I wrote them. I'm glad you had fun on your camping trip! What was the most fun part of it? I eagerly await your update!
Audrey – Come onnnn you can so picture it! You just don't want to accept Luke's hotness as a rock star! Lol. Hey Friedman needed to shave that afro okay, there I said it! P.S. – upppppdddaaaattteeeee! Lol, I'm kidding, I understand on the busy front, yo.
Kool-Wolf – Dude! Sorry it wouldn't let you review, I guess it hates you as much as I do? Oh! Didn't see that one coming did you? Thanks for the kudos foe, are you happy with the negative? Glad your sister's house was fun. Hey, having just one sibling isn't all the great. My mom and my dad were both the youngest of 4. You have a brother you haven't met? How come…er, if I can ask? Everyone's family is screwed up in some way, some people just act like theirs isn't. Loathe you back, yo.
Kerrigan – Hey, thanks for the vote and the kudos, glad you like! How was this chapter?
Sam – Phew, not cliché yet, good deal. Lol, I've seen my dad walk around with his glasses on…it's disastrous. Lol, Luke was pretty hot rocking the rock star gear huh? I think I mentioned the band name in the chapter where they perform for the first time, I'll have to go back and check. Heh, I couldn't think of a good name…I was watching the X-files…get it? Sad, I know…but a good name! I want that for Christmas too dude! It was written to a tune, but not like another song's tune. A tune in my head…I wrote it on my guitar, and I laughed the whole time. ) Thanks for the kudos!
Unconventional – Thanks for the kudos! I loved writing Luke's song. It was way more fun than it probably should've been! I know the decision wasn't positive, but what did you think of this chapter?
Tiffany – Another update, does this make you happy? I admit your last two were fairly quick (but you should still update soon!) I'm anxiously awaiting an update….!
Much love to everyone, much loathe to my foe!