Disclamier: No, I do not own them. I humbly bow towards those who do...please do consider this as a complement as it was intended. If you didn't create such convining characters, you wouldn't leave us all wanting more, now would you? Lastly...I will state again, it's less than pointless to sue me.

Authors note: Thank you all sooooo much for the reviews. We did have one correct guess. MiraxTHorn, I'll be e-mailing you soon. Congradulations. I want you all to know, that I got some wonderful ideas from reading your comments. A special shout out to Kimmy (iluvaqt) for all of her help and encouragement on this story. Without her this story would never EVER have been updated this quickly. So everyone go read her totally awesome stories, and give her some kickin reviews ok. And keep your eyes peeled for our special collaboration, hitting your screens soon. Lastly, a welcome to my best real life buddy, Acire Fox, who has recently joined the family. Go check her out if ya like Final Fantasy, cause she's a great writer :).

Fractured Fairy Tale

Chapter One

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He knew that he had several hours to wait before she woke. They'd kept her heavily drugged at his request, to the point that even after they stopped the medications it would take several hours for them to leave her system enough to for her to regain consciousness. He planned on making good use of those hours, to come up with a strategy for what he was going to say when she looked at him. What he would do when faced again with those beautiful blue eyes that had looked in him in passion, love, disbelief, anger, and pain. He was going to utilize those hours to figure out what he felt for her, and why after all these years the sight of her still affected him so deeply.

But then he rationalized, I have hours. What can one more minute of watching hurt? He reached over and stroked the softness of her cheek, as he'd done so many times before. He allowed himself a moment of regret. A few seconds to wonder where things had gone wrong, and why things had to be the way they were now. Slowly the moments ticked away from him, as he searched for questions that he couldn't answer alone.

Finally as she stirred, he decided that he would play it by ear. The ball's in your court Adiranna, lets see how you deal with it. As she woke he watched her face carefully, seeing first a flicker of joy cross her eyes upon the sight of him by her bedside. Then the remembrance of the recent past brought something to her eyes that he'd hoped never to see directed towards him. A flash of fear, quickly hidden, but still it had been there. Part of him wanted to hold off on reassuring her, to let her feel the anxiety and stress that he'd suffered while he waited to find out if she would live. But the gasp his eyes elicited from her burned him to the core, and despite his desire to stay strong he couldn't stand that feeling another minute.

"Relax Adrianna, if I wanted you dead you would be, and if I wanted to hurt you I wouldn't have brought you to a hospital."

She looked around confused for a moment before meeting his eyes. "Why?"

"You had a deal with me remember? You proved your loyalty to me, not Manticore, when you provided information on my kids." He saw a growing understanding in her eyes. "They weren't the ones that promised you a lot more birthdays, they didn't give a damn that you proved information, and they didn't give a damn about your loyalty. I did."

"So Manticore still wanted me dead, and you shot me to make them think I was?" He acknowledged the truth of her statement with a slight inclination of his head and she continued. "Well, I've been shot at for worse reasons."

He nodded, inwardly pleased with the fact that she seemed to accept his actions as necessary. "The nurse will be in with your clothes in a few minutes." As if on cue the nurse appeared, carrying a bundle of clothes. She bustled around tidying things for Adrianna's departure, blissfully unaware that her presence kept them from having to make small talk. The silence between them was painful and tense as they waited to tear into the real issue that lay between them. It wasn't as if they could simply say 'how have you been since we betrayed each other'.

"Sir, if you don't mind stepping out for a moment. I'd like to help your wife get ready." Adrianna said nothing, but arched an eyebrow at the word wife. Lydecker merely nodded once, and left the room. "Now lets see if we can get you dressed and ready to get out of here shall we? I'm sure you're anxious to get home, and with a husband as fine as that one I can't say that I blame you."

The nurse helped her sit, grimacing in sympathy as the motion pulled on the still healing muscles of her stomach. "I know it smarts a bit still, but the worst of it is over now. Just watch yourself if you have to sneeze or cough, and try not to laugh too much all right?"

"May I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"Did my husband…did he visit often?"

"Every time he was able, though I'll wager that it wasn't nearly as often as he would have liked. People aren't much for giving compassionate leave these days. He convinced the doctor to keep you sedated until you were ready to be released…" The nurse trailed off as she saw the look of suprise on Adrianna's face as her words registered.

"You mean he came to see me, even though he knew I was going to be sedated?"

"You seem suprised?"

"I wouldn't have thought…Things have been bad between us lately. I wouldn't have expected that from him."

"Well I know you're not asking for my advice, but I'm going to give it to you anyway. I've seen the way that man looked at you when he knew you weren't going to be looking back. He was like a lost man looking for salvation, honey. Whatever you two had, he wants it back, badly. But it takes two. If you want things to work out between you, then they will. If you don't then no matter how hard he tries to make things right, they won't work. The question is, do you want things to work out?"

She thought about it, and the more she tried to deny it the more she knew that she did want what they'd had back. In the beginning, things had been very, very good. Before committees and commitments got in the way, back when they were just two people wandering through their lives journey together. It had amazed her, but even when he was hunting her, there were still moments when she almost wished that he would catch her. The scent of his after shave on a man passing by her on the street was enough to stop her in her tracks. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't deny that even though she'd been running from him her heart had leapt at the thought of seeing him again.

I know what I want, but will my wanting it really be enough? Could he really forgive me that easily?

The nurse helped her into the soft over sized sweat pants, and she slid into a very familiar looking bra and panties. Then she reluctantly allowed the nurse to help her button the worn flannel shirt that completed the outfit. The shirt and pants were undeniably his, she could smell him on them despite the fact that they were freshly laundered. But to acquire her lingerie he had to have gone through her things. Deck going through my underwear drawer, now I'll bet that was a sight. Then a blush started to spread over her cheeks as she imagined his reactions to several pieces of clothing in her wardrobe. This is going to be interesting.

Lydecker paced in the hall as he waited for the nurse to finish with Adrianna. She wasn't the only one who hated hospitals, although his reasons were far different from her's. He'd been able to push the images of his wife's pale and broken body from his mind at Manticore. It had been different there, his kids were strong. They were tough enough to take anything that he could dish out. Not that he didn't still worry, of course he did, but Adrianna was far more frail than his kids. She always had been, not that she could help being only human, but it hadn't made it any easier on him when he had to pull that trigger.

So many things could have gone wrong. A few millimeters either way and he would have failed. He'd counted on her disbelief paralyzing her when she saw him as her executioner. He'd been right, she'd stood there frozen as the bullet tore it's path. Then she'd fallen, passed out from the pain as he'd planned. He'd considered a shot near her heart, as it would have been less difficult to recover from, and less painful. But in the end, he'd decided that there was too great a margin for error there. A single gasp between the time he pulled the trigger and the time the bullet impacted could have caused enough difference to make the shot unintentionally fatal.

The path he'd taken was not with out risks, any gunshot wound to the stomach ran a deep risk of perodontisis. If she'd moved at the wrong moment, the bullet could have hit her spine. The wound could have become infected, or she could have hemorrhaged between the time he'd had the body dumped and the time that she had been picked up and brought here. But his plan had worked. Manticore had assumed her dead. The committee had taken no small pleasure in the fact that he'd punished her for her betrayal with a lingering, painful death. And they were delighted when he explained the lack of a body by saying that he'd off set the costs by selling it to an organ theft ring.

No one had even questioned the plausibility of his story, and there were no inquires into hospital records to make sure she had indeed died. Part of him was glad that he didn't have to try to hide her from them this early in the game, but part of him wondered how they saw him. Did no one doubt that I would kill her, given what we shared? True they didn't know the true extent of our relationship, but they at least had suspicions that we were intimate? Have I really become that cold hearted of a bastard?

He was startled from his reverie as he heard raised voices from inside her room. "I am NOT AN INVALID damn it…" A moment later a very flustered nurse fled the room, her look of frustration turning into relief as her eyes lit on him. She rushed up to him, breathless and slightly disheveled.

"Thank God you're still here, could you please talk to your wife?"

"I take it she's having a problem with the fact that she can't be completely self sufficent?"

"Yes, the wheelchair seems to be a specifically sore point."

"I'm sure after that display you understand why I had you keep her sedated?" At the nurses nod, he made a show of sighing deeply and making God give me strength gesture. "I'll handle it…If I can't convince her, then I'll carry her out of here."

"Well that'd be highly unusual, but seeing as it's you I think we can make an exception or two." He nodded and gestured for her to follow him.

She sat up a little straighter when he entered the room, then glared as she saw the nurse behind him. "What's the matter? You couldn't handle me yourself so you had to call in the cavalry?" That remark earned her a glare from him, and she chose to book a tactical retreat for the moment.

"Now what's this I here about you giving the nurse a hard time Dri?"

"The same thing you always give me hell about in these situations. I'm not an invalid. I do not need one of those…" She trailed off gesturing in desgust at the wheelchair.

"And your objection is duely noted, but the doctor and nurses say that you need one. So you can either get into it willingly…or I'll pick you up and put you in it. Your choice."

She scowled and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling at the sight she presented. It just wasn't fair how cute she looked sitting there in his old clothes, scowling like a petulant child that couldn't have her way. "Well…I suppose, that if you object to it that strongly, I could just carry you out of here."

"You wouldn't…" A raised eyebrow and a smirk made her think differently, assuring her that he would indeed carry her out of there kicking and screaming bloody murder if necessary. "Ok, so maybe you would." She paused considering her options, then with a deep sigh she waved the nurse forward. "Fine…I'll use the damn thing, but only because I don't feel like arguing with you right now."

"Does that mean that you're planning on arguing with me later?"

"Don't I always?"

"Just remember how we tend to end up when we argue Dri. Don't start anything that you're not willing to finish."

"Well ready and willing aren't really the problem at this point Deck, and I'm sure if we put our heads together we can figure out how to fit the able in there too. Don't you?"

"Don't make promises that you're not planning on keeping Dri…"

"Have I ever?" The twinkle in his eyes, and the faint hint of a smile that had been emerging during their banter disappeared. She cursed herself for her ill chosen words as she watched his eyes grow cold and his face harden again.

"We'll have plenty of time to talk about that later, when we don't have an audience. For now…" He motioned the nurse away and lifted her gently into his arms. She opened her mouth to protest, but the look in his eyes warned her against it, and the words died in her throat. A part of her acknowledged that she'd brought this upon herself with her ill timed reminder of her betrayal. So instead of protesting as she had planned, she quietly accepted the comfort that his arms offered. She allowed herself to be lulled to sleep by his warmth, the steady sound of his heartbeat, the spicy scent of his after shave, and the cool crisp cotton of his shirt where it rested against her cheek.

He felt her nuzzle his chest and give a soft little sigh of contentment. He was thankful for the calming effect that the feeling of her slight body pressed against him incited upon his temper. Even at the worst part of their time together, all it took was a single look at her to arouse his protective instincts. He could be cold or abrupt towards her, could even allow cruel psychological manipulations…but never had he been able to use his strength against her.

He'd always been thankful for that. She had always inspired extremes of emotion that few before her had. With them it was love or hate, but never indifference. He was either perfectly content to have her cuddled in his arms, or he was angry enough to consider following through on the committees orders. But even in the midst of his rage, his feelings for her invariably won out. All it took was a comment, a look, or a smile, and he remembered why he'd fallen for her in the first place. And that remembrance soothed his anger, leaving him with feelings that he'd never voiced, and seldom acknowledged even to himself.

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