After breakfast or what Burt considered breakfast he went outside to check on the graboid situation letting Heather and Gracie inside. He shook his head...Gracie...his daughter. It was almost impossible to believe at first but now it was impossible not too. She looked so much like Heather and he did the timing in his head figuring when her birthday would be and it was spot on. His and Heathers anniversary he wanted to take her out somewhere fancy but they only made it as far as the fur rug in front of the fireplace and that would be where they made Gracie.

He could demand a DNA test like most people would but he was positive she was his. Heather was never a liar and he could always read her like a book. If Heather had ran because she was afraid she wouldn't risk coming back unless the girl was his. He felt sick. He loved Heather so much he thought about killing himself when she left him and now he had to live with the fact he had scared her away. He had a gun obsession but he only ever used them to protect her. He supposed she wasn't afraid for her life though she was afraid he would want her to terminate the baby.

He stopped walking and took a deep breath. He wouldn't have of course. He didn't want kids and he never had time for them that much was true but not wanting one and killing it was two very different things. He supposed now that maybe Heather was lonely. He loved her he tried to show her everyday but he often put her second to his obsession of war, killing and guns.

Heather was cleaning up the kitchen almost out of habit and because she wanted to do something nice. Gracie was sitting on the counter swinging her feet watching Heather. She spoke up.

"Mama?" Heather glanced at her.

"What sweetie?"

"Were you and Mr. Burt really good friends?" She turned to look at Gracie.

"Yeah...sweetie we were...why?" Gracie pointed to a picture on the fridge and Heather pulled it down to look.

It was a cover of a hunting magazine there was a graboid on the cover and Burt was standing beside it his arms around her and his chin on her shoulder. They were smiling and happy the cover read: Million dollar Kill.

"May I see?" Gracie reached and Heather swallowed the lump in her throat and then handed it to her daughter.

That all seemed so long ago when they were happily married and crazy in love. Everyone had told her it would never work between them and he was a lunatic but she saw something else in him. He had loved her regardless he was the only man who accepted her for her slight gun obsession. He adored her for the one thing that intimidated other men and she loved him.

When she found out she was pregnant she had been thrilled and couldn't wait to tell him. Then she remembered he didn't want kids and after seeing him swearing at Melvin many times she decided she couldn't tell him. She had loved him so much it hurt and walking out that door had been like letting half of herself behind.

"Mama!" Gracie pulled her out of her thoughts.

"What sweetie?" Gracie tapped the picture.

"This...is the monster that ate my shoe" Heather smiled.

Gracie was not a mistake and Burt had to see that now. She was perfect and beautiful and everything that neither of them could ever be.

"Heather?" Burt called in the door and she smiled at Gracie before answering.

"Yeah?"

"Can you come out here a second please? Alone" She kissed Gracies head.

"Don't run in the house" She said helping her off the counter as Gracie fast walked back the hall she shook her head and laughed before stepping out into the hot desert air. She shut the door behind her.

"Is something wrong?" She was half afraid he was kicking them out and they really had nowhere else to go.

"Yeah...come with me" He walked off and almost reached for her hand on instinct but he held back.

He led her to the fence by the gate and motioned at it.

"Notice anything?" She looked the fence was moving not a lot just a little jump here or there.

"It's moving" He nodded.

"It's doing that at four different positions all around the house...they're trying to break through the cement I have underground" She backed up and right into him. He closed his arms almost instanly holding her against him. He felt her shaking.

"Can they get through?" She asked and he shrugged.

"I don't know...I had to redo the cement when the house blew up it hasn't exactly been tested yet...for now we'll just hold out here and see" She nodded.

"Oh uhm...here" He stepped back and for once in the fourteen years since they married she saw Burt looking a bit shy. He handed her the tiny toy gun Gracie had lost.

"How did...?" He shrugged.

"It was only a few inches outside the fence"

"Burt...you should give this to her" She handed it back and he shook his head.

"No...I...don't think"

"Too bad. I don't care" She pulled open a pocket on his cargo vest and stuck the gun inside.

"You know you're the most impossible woman I have ever met?" He sounded mad and she rolled her eyes.

"You've mentioned it" She turned and started for the house he waited a second before joining her.

When they went inside Gracie was sitting at the counter coloring like crazy in her G.I joe coloring book. Heather went to her side looking over her shoulder and Burt followed. She motioned with her head at Gracie and he shook his. She gave him a stern look and he cleared his throat.

"Gracie...I have something for you" She turned and he fumbled in his pockets before pulling out the cap gun and handing it to her. She smiled and threw her arms around his neck.

Heather winced and he went stock still. He never was good with showing emotions. He did with her and she always knew she was loved but with other people he wasn't so great. Gracie didn't seem to mind she squeezed him tight.

"Thank you, thank you,thank you" She smiled when she let him go and he smiled weakly patting her head. She handed the cap gun to Heather who smiled setting it on the counter.

"Mr. Burt?" Gracie stared at him and it made him uncomfortable.

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something?" He nodded and she smiled.

"Where's your wife?" His jaw dropped and he didn't know what to say.

"GRACIE!" Heather was mortified.

"What Mama? He has a wedding ring" Gracie pointed out and Heather looked at him too she hadn't noticed that yet. Suddenly nervous he began spinning the ring on his finger while he tried to think of something to say.

"My wife she..." He stopped and looked at Heather taking a deep breath.

"She decided she didn't love me anymore" He told Gracie and she gave him a sad smile.

"I'm sorry Mr. Burt" He looked at Gracie and smiled.

"Come here kid...I want to show you something" She turned to look at Heather who smiled and she hopped off the stool taking Burts hand. He froze a second before giving it a small squeeze and the two went towards the basement.

Heather took the seat that Gracie had just left. He still wore his wedding ring. She had taken hers off at her sisters insistance. Her sister never liked Burt and when she learned that Heather was pregnant she refused to let Heather tell him. In truth her sister is what made her so afraid. She wanted to call him so often and her sister would talk her out of it. She had taken off her ring two years after Gracie was born. She wore it on a chain around her neck now she just couldn't let it go completely.

She decided to go see where Burt had taken Gracie she froze on the top step. She hadn't been down here since the day she left him.

************** FLASH BACK **************************************

She had packed her bags not really knowing how long she would stay with her sister she just wanted a few days to decide what to do with the baby. Burt was downstairs cleaning a gun she came down the steps and he smiled when he saw her.

"Hey baby" He set the gun aside and she went over to him.

He pulled her onto his lap and gave her a kiss.

"I'm thinking about going to my sisters for awhile" He nodded.

"Alright sweetheart...Do you want me to come with or this an all girls weekend again?"

"I...I'm going alone" He sensed her mood change.

"ok...is something wrong?"

"No..." She never could lie to him.

"Hey, Just tell me" She smiled and gave him a kiss but kept it light.

"I love you" She told him and he looked confused.

"I love you too" She slid off his lap and he stood she went to the door.

"Goodbye" She turned one last time to look at him and he knew.

"Hey...you're coming back right?" He looked worried and she bit her lip.

"Of course I am" She lied and then she left him.

Heather sighed. She was so stupid she should have told him she was pregnant. She started down the basement steps. There were magazine covers all over the place all of them had her and Burt on them. The one wall still held on the guns. He was sitting on a couch Gracie was sitting on his knee looking at a photo album full of magazine pictures and articals.

"There's me and you mom...a long time ago shaking hands with the mayor" Gracie smiled and Heather knew Gracie didn't know what a mayor was she was just picking up on Burts excitement.

"Is my daddy in any of these?" Gracie asked and Burt winced. Heather quickly covered.

"Alright...that's enough questions for one day. Why don't you go upstairs and put your coloring things away? I'll be up in a second" Gracie gave a pouting face but did as she was asked. Burt closed the album.

"She's a good kid...a great girl you did good with her" He said softly and Heather smiled.

"I tried"

"I was a stupid man...I knew how bad you wanted a baby" He stood and she followed him to a small book case.

"It's not your fault I left remember?"

"I remember that one day you were asking me if maybe...we could just try and have a baby...I wouldn't hear any of it" He slid the album in it's proper place.

"I should have just told you" She offered and he shrugged keeping his back to her and spinning his wedding ring again.

"Can I ask you something?" She nodded.

"Why did you ask for your gun back?" She laughed a little.

"Well, by then I was six months along...I realized you weren't going to come get me so I thought maybe you'd bring it yourself and you'd ask me to come back with the baby" He winced.

"Where is it now?"

"I...I had to sell it to pay my doctor bills. Are you mad?"

"Yeah I'm mad you were ever in the position. poor and alone and having my baby and here i was rich as can be sitting at home mad at you for everything and you were out there struggling"

"It wasn't all bad Gracie came out alright...I wanted you to follow me...I thought after a few days maybe you'd come after me.."

"I'm sorry I wanted too really I did but pride just wouldn't let me. if I knew about Gracie I would have been there...I actually thought maybe you'd left me for someone else" She laughed now.

"No...I know we've been sort of seperated but...we were still married and I...stayed faithful to you all this time" He turned to face her she was so close.

"Thank God" He reached out and lifted the chain he had noticed around her neck praying he was right about what hung there. He was. Her wedding ring dangled at the end. It sparkled as bright now as the day he put it on her finger. His eyes met hers and she back up pulling the chain from his fingers the ring falling back against her chest.

"I have to go check on Gracie" She told him then she turned and left him alone in his basement again.

PLEASE REVIEW but be gentle.