~ oOo ~
As always, thank you to you awesome lot for loving
these characters as much as I do! And for reviewing
and recc'ing, it means so very much that you've all
been so lovely and supportive of this, my first fic!
And thank you to the best beta in the world,
SunflowerFran. She takes my rough and ready
chapters and makes them pretty for me.
Many of you have been waiting for this chapter, so
I'll just let you get to it!
Happy Mothers Day, to all of you mums out there
- to human babies or otherwise! My spotty
Dalmatian furbaby got me flowers and a lovely
card! :)
~ oOo ~
Summary: When two little girls were allowed to walk
home from school one bright spring day nobody could've
predicted the events that followed. The way two families
were torn apart by the vendetta of a deranged man.
Nearly twelve years on, we'll watch as the two girls stolen
away from their homes at eight years old fight to take
back their lives. If only it were as simple as escaping. AU
Pinky Promises
Chapter Fourteen
Two weeks and four days after the girls' rescue saw them preparing for their return to England.
Both of them had been cleared by the doctor for travel, including Scarlett, now that her nutritional needs were in hand and she had gained a few pounds. The sachets of protein and carb rich food the doctors prescribed didn't go down well, but Scarlett knew it was for the benefit of the baby growing within her. She did as she was told, and along with Rosalie she forced them down and tried not to think about the next one until it was time.
For Rosalie, the thick drinks weren't such an issue. She was still desperate to get to that elusive 'normal' she longed for.
Late in the afternoon, Riley left for New York to finalize the travel preparations. Before he tore away from the hospital amidst a cloud of dust, he shook Charlie and Peter's hands, promising that when he returned it would be to oversee their journey home. Left outside the hospital watching Riley's black car speed away, Charlie and Peter felt themselves loosen with the relief his promise brought them.
"You feeling okay?" Peter turned his head, facing his best friend.
"I don't know," Charlie shrugged, looking bewildered. "I'm just…I'm overwhelmed, I think."
Peter nodded, empathetic and understanding his tornado-like emotional mood-swings.
"All this time our goal has been to get the girls back. Now we have them, and it's just so different to how I pictured, you know? We never wanted to think the worst, but maybe we should've. Just to be prepared, you know? This whole situation, it's not what I imagined at all…" Charlie trailed off.
Neither man needed him to finish his explanation. In all their searching, they hadn't thought to imagine Scarlett and Rosalie in this state, with a five-year-old in tow and an unborn baby cooking in Scarlett's belly. Sometimes, when he looked at his daughter he was still shocked to see how poor a state she was in, her bones still visible in places, face still a little too gaunt. It stressed him out to be so unsure of how to act around her, around Rosalie too. He hated feeling awkward when he desperately wanted to just be. In his and Peter's minds, there would have been a tearful, smiling reunion with a million hugs. In their naivety and hope they now realized were foolish, they'd assumed the girls would be healthy and returned to them in the same state in which they'd been taken. It hurt for them to admit, even just to themselves, that they weren't all the girls needed right now. Scarlett and Rosalie needed more than they could give, despite their best intentions.
"You're right, it's not what we imagined," Peter began quietly, reaching over to clap his friend's shoulder. "It's not what we imagined at all, but in a lot of ways, it's so much more. We have our girls, and they're getting better. Day by day they're getting healthier. And we have Marley; you have another grandbaby to love on."
Charlie smiled instinctively at the mention of Marley, his thoughts moving to her baby brother or sister.
"Two grandbabies, soon." Peter took the thought from his head, voicing it. He grinned. "We wanted our girls back and we have them, Chuck. They're coming home with us so soon, you heard what Riley said. We get to take Scarlett and Rosalie, and Marley, home. Two weeks ago we didn't know if we'd ever get to say that."
Charlie dashed a rogue tear from his eye, coughing and facing Peter with a half-smile. "You're right, Pete. We're the lucky ones."
Peter and Charlie grinned at each other, passers-by probably thinking they were crazy. They didn't care. Because, like Peter had pointed out, they got to take their girls home after twelve long years.
~ oOo ~
"She only did that 'cause she knows Tony likes playing jumping jacks better with you, Rosie."
"She's so mean. And did you see her socks? She wore them on Friday, and they still had the paint on 'em."
Scarlett screwed her face up, adjusting the purple bag over her shoulders. "Ew! Doesn't she know you're s'posed to change them every day?"
Rosalie snickered. "Guess not." Her face fell slightly. "D'you think Tony likes her?"
The two eight-year-olds considered each other thoughtfully as they strolled home from school arm-in-arm. Their dads had only just started letting them walk home on their own a few weeks ago. They decided that because their primary school was only a few minutes from home and they'd be with friends, it would be okay. Usually, they walked with two boys from just down their street, but they'd had dentist appointments that day, so their mum had picked them up right from school.
Chattering away about Tony, the boy Rosalie had crushed on forever, as they so often did, neither girl noticed the shiny red van crawling along the road behind them. The beady-eyed man at the wheel gestured for his passenger to get ready, scanning the road in his mirrors before pulling up and hopping from the van.
He and his companion, a tall guy with lank black hair and a sinister grin, crept up behind the girls, shared a quick glance, then pounced.
Within seconds, Scarlett and Rosalie were caged in the arms of the men while being carried, squirming and emitting muffled screams into hands clasped tightly over their mouths. In the struggle, Scarlett dropped her bag, the contents spilling out onto the pavement as she was shoved into the back of the vehicle with her friend. The man who'd been driving before slammed the doors, climbed into the cab and peeled away from the scene of the crime at break-neck speed, which made the unwilling passengers shriek, tumbling into each other against the mesh divider. In the darkness, Scarlett huddled Rosalie close, shaking with fear. Just as she sucked in a breath to scream, tears sprang to her eyes, their attacker sliding towards her. His teeth glinted white in the limited light peeking through from the front.
"Don't scream, or you'll really regre—"
Whilst speaking he'd moved closer. He knelt so the chloroform soaked rags he held in each hand would be level with the girls' mouths. However, his plan didn't go exactly how he'd thought, because as he leaned in to press them to the girls' faces a foot clad in a black, heeled shoe shot out. A string of profanities flew from his mouth upon impact, the surprising strength behind the kick splitting the skin on the right side of his jaw. Blood sprayed in an arc over the girls, staining their white uniform blouses.
Not that Garrett Smith could've known, but the scar Rosalie left on his face that day would eventually be his undoing.
"Scarlett! Scarlett, it's okay, it's okay. It's just me. It's just me, Edward."
Scarlett woke with a start from her nightmare, panting and shaking with a tear-stained face. Blurred blue-green eyes slowly focused on emerald green.
Edward, she sighed internally, reaching for his hand.
He pulled her gently up to a sitting position, gazing at her with kind, worried eyes. "Nightmare?"
Scarlett managed a weary nod, glancing around the room. It was dark, so she'd obviously slept right through after falling asleep earlier in the afternoon. Everything had caught up with her, and she'd been exhausted, drifting off to the sounds of Charlie and Peter teaching Marley how to play Go Fish.,
Rosalie was fast asleep in her bed a few feet away, Charlie and Peter most likely down the hall in the waiting room where the nurses had set up a bedroom of sorts for the three men. Frowning, Scarlett realized she couldn't see Marley.
"Where's Marley?"
"She came to wake me when she realized you were dreaming," Edward admitted with a grimace, knowing it would upset Scarlett to hear that Marley had realized what was happening.
He was right. Scarlett's face crumbled, tears wetting her cheeks.
"It's okay, Bella Bean, she doesn't know it was a nightmare. She woke up, and I guess she didn't think you were comfy or something, so she came and got me."
Scarlett sighed, leaning back and accepting the tissue Edward snagged from the rolling cabinet beside the bed. "Thanks."
A few minutes passed, the pair sitting in silence lit only by the moonlight filtering through the slits in the blinds.
Then, a thought struck Scarlett.
"You're the only one who calls me 'Bella,' did you know that? Everyone else calls me 'Scarlett.'
Edward grinned sheepishly. "I always thought it suited you better, I don't know why. Especially when you went through your Beauty And The Beast phase, and always wore the Belle costume."
Scarlett's cheeks flamed at the memory. Charlie had bought her the yellow dress synonymous with the date scene in the movie, and she'd worn it pretty much non-stop for weeks.
"I can call you 'Scarlett' if you want me to, it's just habit, I guess."
It surprised Scarlett when she thought about it for a moment, realizing she liked the distinction being called 'Bella' gave her. With Edward, when she was Bella, she was just a normal girl talking to a friend. She wasn't Scarlett, the girl who'd been kidnapped, beaten, and raped.
She was just Bella.
"No, I like it," she admitted.
Edward smiled, nodding. "Alrighty then. Bella it is."
As he made to stand, likely leaving her to rest now she was okay, and again, Scarlett felt her heart speed up a notch. She didn't want to be alone. Not yet.
"It was the van!" She blurted out, cringing as soon as the words fell into the space between them.
Turning, Edward cocked his head in confusion. "What was the van?"
Scarlett sighed, "my nightmare. I was dreaming about the van we…the van he…the day we were taken." The words felt like lead on her tongue. They didn't want to come out, and she didn't want them to taint the ordinary conversation she'd been having with Edward just moments before. But there they were, out there. She couldn't take them back.
"Thank you, for trusting me." Edward perched back on the bed, pulling Scarlett into his arms gently. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No, I don't think so. I just wanted you to know. I'm so sick of keeping it to myself.
Edward nodded although he didn't know. He had no idea what she was going through, but if it made her feel better he'd say 'yes' to anything; he'd do anything.
"Will you stay with me a little while? I don't have nightmares when you're around and I, well, I'm actually really damn tired."
Pulling back to give her a soft smile, Edward brushed her hair away from her face and simply nodded, adjusting them so they were lying beside one another, Scarlett under the covers while he stayed atop them – that was a boundary he wasn't willing to cross. Their breathing evened out and synchronized until, as the first rays of sunlight peeked over the horizon, the pair fell asleep curled around each other.
~ oOo ~
The twenty-fifth of May dawned bright and sunny with wispy clouds that floated like cotton candy across a clear blue sky. As the sun bounded over the horizon the hospital room the girls had taken over, turned into a hive of activity.
Today was the day.
Riley arrived in the night with the all-clear to get Charlie, Peter, Edward, and the girls on their first leg of their road to recovery. He also bore the news that there had been a potential sighting of Garrett. His team was following up on it.
A month after the ranch house exploded with Garrett, there had been as few conversations regarding him as possible, especially when the girls were around. Needless to say, there wasn't a single person in the house who relished the thought of the girls' statements, which would need to be given sooner rather than later. The ordeal hung over the heads of their dads, their minds like dark clouds.
For Scarlett and Rosalie, the thought of leaving the hospital carried mixed emotions. They felt safe there, for the first time in years, and had no idea what to expect of the world they were about to be thrust back into. It had been twelve, long years, and lots of things had changed exponentially in that time. Technology was the first thing they'd noticed. And cars, too. They were totally different to the older models they recalled from their childhood.
"Baby girl, do you want something to eat before we…?"
Turning away from the window facing over the hospital parking lot, Scarlett winced at her dad's hopeful expression. He used his whole face to express his emotions, something he'd always done, and looking at him looking at her with such pleading written across his features there was little that Scarlett wouldn't at least try to do. That included forcing down one of the god-awful tasting sachets of food. She'd skipped breakfast, her nervousness killing her appetite.
Scarlett's hesitant nod put a big grin on Charlie's face. She was immediately pleased with her decision not to fight him.
"Here you go. You don't have to finish it, just as much as you can manage, as you didn't have any breakfast. Thank you, for humoring me."
Unable to form words through the lump in her throat, Scarlett nodded, pulling a breath through her nose before breaking the seal on the sachet he thrust into her weary hands. With eyes squeezed shut and the expression on Charlie's face locked into her minds-eye, Scarlett clamped her lips around the small straw and thought of her baby as she forced herself to eat.
With a full stomach, Scarlett made her way over to the rest of the group. They were gathered on chairs near the window, Marley leaving Edward's lap to ask to be picked up. Ignoring the several glowers she earned herself by stooping to pick up Marley herself, Scarlett gave her daughter an Eskimo kiss before steeling herself and looking to Riley. He smiled at the eye contact, knowing it was an incredible feat for her to manage without prompting.
He was proud of how far she'd come, how far she and Rosalie both had come.
"All right, a car will be arriving shortly to take us all to the airport. The plane is fueled and waiting to take us to New York, where we've got an overnight stay before we fly back to England tomorrow morning," Riley explained briskly.
Scarlett tuned out the rest of his explanation, trying to wrap her head around the fact that in twenty-four hours she'd be back in Eastbourne.
Instead of focusing on that particular stressor, she contemplated the quiet argument she'd heard earlier in the morning between her dad, Peter, and Riley.
Riley needed their statements, which neither Charlie nor Peter were happy about.
Charlie and Peter were harnessing every protective instinct they had to prevent their girls from having to recount their ordeal any time soon. They were very aware it would need to happen at some point, but if they had their way, it would be a long time before that day came.
Scarlett herself was torn. On the one hand she wanted to get it over with so she could focus all her energy on getting better. However, she knew the agents were going to ask in-depth questions and want detailed answers. They'd want to know if Garrett had committed any other crimes, and if he had, what they were. She'd have to talk about things like how he kidnapped them, how he got them out of England and into the States undetected.
Worst of all, Scarlett knew they'd ask about the scars marring her skin, and about Marley's biological father.
A frisson of fear skittered over her when she realized something that was obvious, but hadn't crossed her mind before.
The FBI was going to want to know the name of the father of the baby she currently carried.
There were six scars she kept hidden by clothes, but Scarlett was sure the agents would want to know about them, about how they got there in the first place. Nothing good would come of lying, but the thought of reliving how they came to be was terrifying.
Glancing at her dad from the corner of her eye, Scarlett fought a wince, hating that he'd have to find out how she'd lived for the past twelve years. He'd be gutted.
Fingers weaving themselves together with hers tugged Scarlett from her thoughts. Her eyes caught Rosalie's teary baby-blues. "Are you ready?"
They were the exact same words Scarlett had spoken the day they escaped the ranch.
Scarlett nodded, squeezing Rosalie's hand and pushing herself up. She and Rosalie were matching, both sporting bleached skinny jeans and black, asymmetric zip hoodies. Their shoes – Rosalie's black sneakers, Scarlett's beige – made no sound as they stepped away from the bed, awaiting direction. Duffle bags were shouldered, Marley's portable DVD player and toys were packed into a drawstring bag, and the girls were ushered out of the room with the men in a square around them. Marley chose to hold Edward's hand and skip beside him, so they stuck close to Scarlett and Rosalie. Edward had seen the way Scarlett's eyes routinely checked on her as they moved through the corridors. If keeping her daughter as close as possible helped keep Scarlett calm, he was happy to do it.
With angry, eagle-like butterflies swooping in her stomach, Scarlett followed Riley, Charlie, and Peter towards the side entrance of the hospital where their ride was waiting. When she reached the doors, Scarlett stopped dead. Since arriving at the safe house, she'd been outside exactly three times. Now, with the loading bays looming in front of her through the sliding glass doors, Scarlett couldn't get her feet to move.
"You've got this, Barley. You've got this," Rosalie urged in a whisper, the small smile on her face meant to be reassuring.
Edward and Marley had gone ahead with Riley, Charlie, and Peter, and Scarlett watched as Marley swung from Edward's arms and beckoned her outside to join them.
"There's nothing to be afraid of out here, Bella," Edward murmured, his voice barely loud enough to carry to her. "Look around you, no one here will let anything happen to you."
Nervous aqua eyes took in her surroundings, sweeping over each face peering at her with gentle eyes and encouraging smiles. Riley had agents stationed around the loading bays, nobody else around apart from their little group. Riley himself was standing around six feet away, his stance protective but reassuringly firm. Charlie and Peter's presence was a beam of light in her mind, their warmth soothing the chill in her bones. The balmy air making the flag atop the hospital dance was gentle on her skin as she managed a step towards the outside.
Edward was right, Scarlett acknowledged, inhaling fresh air deep into her lungs. None of those people would hurt her any more than they'd let Garrett hurt her. As difficult as it was to find some, Scarlett mustered up enough trust and courage to step out into the direct sunlight on the concrete path leading to the SUV. Charlie's resulting relieved grin was brilliant, eyes following her slow but steady progress towards him. Rays of sunlight bounced from her hair braided over one shoulder, giving it the healthy sheen it had been lacking in the artificial light within the hospital.
Each step was a mission Scarlett was determined to conquer, and when she finally made it to within touching distance of the SUV, nobody could squash the grin that spread across her face.
~ oOo ~
Six hours later, the group touched down in New York after two flights and a layover in Minneapolis. With the two-hour time difference, they arrived at their hotel just after five-thirty, travel-weary and ready to rest. For Scarlett, Rosalie, and Marley the journey was a completely foreign experience. The last time they'd traveled that distance in the air they'd been knocked out by a cocktail of sedatives. The pair spent both flights tucked into each other's side, their eyes trained on the window as they soared across the United States towards an unknown future. Charlie and Peter were watchful as ever, unable to take their eyes off their daughters. Even after witnessing their strong bond be tested over the past month, they found it awe inspiring to see it in action. As often as they'd wondered, hoped, and prayed their girls would keep each other strong, they could never have foreseen the way they'd cling to the presence of the other, the way when one moved the other seemed to automatically compensate.
Their senses were unparalleled, their movements undetectable to those around them unless they meant them to be. Having spent years perfecting undercover techniques, Riley often found himself fascinated by the girls, wondering if their way of moving was something they'd always done or whether it was developed on the ranch. He chose not to ask, preferring to think it was the former.
After checking into the hotel the group was show to the penthouse suite. It boasted three bedrooms, a large living area, dining room and kitchen, and two bathrooms and a wet room attached to the master bedroom. A unanimous decision granted Rosalie, Scarlett, and Marley, the master with Charlie and Peter taking the twin room next door, leaving Edward the third.
It didn't surprise anybody when the girls retreated to their room almost as soon as they arrived, curling together on the double bed while the rest of the group settled themselves in for a night at the luxurious hotel. Tomorrow morning they'd board the third and final plane. It would take them to Gatwick Airport where they'd then get into a car, which would deliver them to the homes they hadn't seen since they left for school over twelve years ago. It was a daunting prospect but one they'd been dreaming of since the day they woke up in a strange house with a sadistic man as.
~ oOo ~
Sock-clad feet padded quietly across the carpet, carrying their owner into the pitch-black kitchen where they opened up the fridge, pulled out a bottle of water, and gulped the cold liquid eagerly.
As they turned to head back to their room, a silhouette on the sofa became visible. A large hand reached to flick on the light, illuminating the kitchen and living area in a soft glow. Charlie and Rosalie blinked at each other.
"Rosalie? What are you doing up?"
She shrugged meekly and picked invisible lint from her cropped gray joggers. "I couldn't sleep."
Charlie's eyes flicked towards the door to the room she shared with Scarlett and Marley.
"She's asleep. She had a nightmare, but she fell asleep again." Their eyes met. "She's getting better, Uncle Chuck."
"I know," he breathed, tugging at his hair. "I know she is." Wary of upsetting Rosalie, Charlie moved to sit on the sofa next to her, giving her plenty of time to object if she wanted to. Rosalie didn't, so he plopped himself down on the other end of the seat. "Thank you," he suddenly blurted.
Rosalie frowned. "For what?"
"Looking after her when you're hurting, yourself. For being there for her when I can't…for being her sister when she desperately needs one." A shuddering exhale made the sofa tremble as Charlie twisted to face Rosalie, reaching out to clasp her hands in his. "Christ, I don't know what we'd do without you, Rosalie, I really don't. I hate to think…"
"I owe it to her. I owe her everything, Uncle Chuck, everything."
Horrified, Charlie scrambled for tissues as tears started to tumble over Rosalie's cheeks like chalk off a click.
"All the things she's done for me…I'll never be able to make it up to her. There isn't anything I can do—" Choked up, she trailed off with a muffled sob, and a hand rose to her mouth.
"Hey, hey, it's all right." Before he could decide if hugging her was something she'd be okay with, Rosalie dove into his arms, face buried in his chest, legs tucked beneath her as her hands clutched at Charlie's black ribbed vest. "It's okay Rosalie; it's all going to be okay."
Though Rosalie wasn't his daughter or related to him in any way biologically, Charlie had always cared about her in the same way he adored his brother's five children. For the first eight years of her life, she'd spent as much time in his house as she did at her own. The girls would use a broken fence panel between the two gardens to play with Archie, Heidi, and Pippa. Scarlett and Rosalie had doted upon the younger twins, dressing them in their clothes and making them ride in their toy baby strollers. And then there was Archie…he'd loved taking the girls to the park, the swimming pool, the soft-play center in town. For Rosalie's entire life she and Scarlett had been more sisters than friends, so it didn't come as a shock to Charlie that he felt his heart swelling with love for her exactly the same as he did for Scarlett when she got upset.
"You'd hate me if you knew," Rosalie sniffled.
"No, Rosalie, no. I'd never hate you, never."
The pair sat in silence broken only by her shallow sobs and his quiet murmurs of comfort. After ten minutes, Rosalie finally got ahold of herself and pulled back to wipe her wet eyes, regarding Charlie warily.
"The scar above her right eye…not the newest one, the other one. The older scar?"
Charlie ignored the thinly veiled insinuation that there was more than one scar on Scarlett's body and nodded, cautious.
"That's there because of me." Before he could ask, Rosalie rushed on. "I knocked over a table with a vase on it a couple of years ago. We cleaned it up, and I didn't think he knew, but the next day she had a cut on her head. Scarlett told me she hit it on the bathroom cupboard but I was only gone a minute and it wasn't bleeding like it was fresh. I found out later that she went and told him it was her so I wouldn't get in trouble."
For ten, long, heart-in-mouth seconds Rosalie watched Charlie's brows knit together, his mouth tightening into a thin line as his heart began to race beneath her fist on his chest.
"I'm so, so, sorr—"
"Don't you date apologize for him. Don't."
Fresh tears flooded baby-blue eyes. It was my fault, though, Uncle Chuck. If I'd just been more careful, or admitted it was me, she wouldn't have that scar! She wouldn't have most of them if it weren't for me. I got her in trouble so many times, and she just took it, she took it all. She never blamed me, and I hate that she didn't. I've never felt so useless."
"Oh, Rose…" Hearing the nickname Charlie bestowed upon her when she was just a toddler, the same one Scarlett used every now and then, made Rosalie's heart beat a frantic tattoo. The surreal situation seemed, at this moment, incomprehensible. "It's not your fault. None of it ever was. Do you hear me? None of it. That's why Scarlett doesn't blame you. You're not to blame."
Rosalie inhaled a deep, wobbly breath, letting it out with a quick glance at Charlie's sincere, five 'o clock-shadowed face. "I think I'll go back to bed, try and get some sleep for tomorrow."
"All right," Charlie sighed, bone-weary despite having not been able to sleep just twenty minutes ago. "I'll see you in the morning, okay?"
She nodded her agreement and murmured her 'goodnight' before hurrying away from the sofa towards her room. Just as Rosalie's fingers reached the door handle her uncle's voice stilled her.
"Just…remember what I said, okay?"
Though it was difficult for her to hear and even harder to accept, Rosalie nodded again. She'd try. That was all she could promise.