Bah, don't know how I feel about this chapter, but hopefully you guys like it!

And I've lost who I am

And I can't understand

Why my heart is so broken

Rejecting your love

~ Trading Yesterday – Shattered

Well, it had been a near perfect night's sleep… She had a dream about a time with Rich that she didn't particularly like. He was telling her he didn't know who she was and ultimately telling her she was fake. She remembered it so clearly, but had no idea when it had happened.

She opened her eyes, blinking several times to adjust to the morning light, and felt the pressure of someone resting their arm over her waist. She couldn't turn around completely, so just turned her head slightly and could see Rich sleeping with his mouth wide open. She half-smiled at this sight and considered staying there wrapped up in his arms where it was welcoming and warm. However her dream was more confusing her…

Was her Dad correct all along in saying they weren't good for each other and it was a bad relationship? No, he couldn't be. Grace only doubted that her and Rich had a great relationship slightly, but one thing Grace knew for certain was that she needed to get her memories in order and she needed to remember everything.

Shit, she thought as she tried to wriggle out from under Rich's arm, I shouldn't have come here in the first place… This is just making things even more complicated.

Once she was free from his embrace, she stood hovering over him. He was lightly snoring; did he always snore when he slept or was it just Grace's imagination? She shook her head, hating herself for the hundredth time that morning; she should have only come when she was sure she knew exactly who he was and what they were.

With a guilty heart she put her shoes on as quietly as she could and approached the door. She turned back once more and wondered whether she should give him a kiss or not, but thought against it because he might wake up.

When she got out into the hallway she ran down the stairs and was about to leave out the front door before she heard someone excitedly call her name.

"Grace!" She yelped in shock and threw her hand over her mouth to muffle the shriek she had let out. She swiveled around and saw Alo standing in the doorway to the kitchen in just a pair of pants and holding a frying pan.

"Oh… hello." She said once she had gotten her breath back. Alo took in her slightly disheveled appearance and smirked.

"I had to sleep on the couch last night because of you two." Grace reddened at the memory of last night, but didn't say anything.

"Fry-up?" He asked, while gesturing to his frying pan. "You can call the lazy git down too."

Grace shook her head before replying.

"No… Thank you, but I really can't stay." Alo was still smiling for a moment, but then he seemed to realize what was going on.

"Does Rich know you're leaving?" Alo said it with such intense eye contact that Grace knew it wasn't just a casual question.

"Look Alo, this is very complicated and -"

"What are you doing to him? You're messing him about." Grace tried to look anywhere but at Alo's face and closed her eyes in an attempt to stop tears coming.

"I don't mean to…" She said quietly that it came out in almost a whisper. "Please just tell him that."

Alo just stared at her and Grace took it as a sign that she could leave. When she shut the front door behind her, she inhaled the fresh air, wiped a tear from her face and began her long walk to the nearest bus stop.

Rich squinted his eyes in the bright light and saw Alo hunched over him, trying to shake him awake.

"What?" He groaned, while rolling over in bed and throwing his arm over Grace… Rich shot up into a sitting position as he realized that Grace wasn't even there. He frowned and looked around him, as if he thought she could be hiding somewhere. He didn't want to accept the fact that she had just gone, so he looked at Alo with a confused expression.
"Where is she?" Alo went to his closet to put on a shirt, so when he replied he didn't have to face Rich and the disappointment that was bound to come.

"Uh… she just left." Rich was now standing up, walking closer to Alo.

"What?" He asked, trying to pull Alo round to face him.

"She's gone!" Alo slightly raised his voice, but felt bad immediately afterwards so placed a hand on Rich's shoulder in a kind of comforting way. "Sorry mate."

Rich just stood there, looking from left to right; trying to process the fact that she had gone and didn't tell him. He took out his phone from his back pocket and looked up her number on his contacts.

Alo sighed as he did so, because he knew this wasn't going to end well. Rich ignored him and after two long rings, Grace picked up.

"Grace?" Rich asked, and Grace seemed to sigh on the other end of the line.

"Yes… I'm sorry, I had to go." She sounded like she was close to crying and Rich wish he was with her right now so he could just be next to her.

"Yeah, why? Look where are you? I can come -" He couldn't hide the near desperation and determination out of his voice.

"No, Rich. I shouldn't have come last night. I don't remember -"

"Yes, you do! I know you do and you love me." Alo was staring at Rich with a worried expression and didn't know whether he should just hang up the phone himself to stop Rich going through this shit or just let it run its' course.

"Please, Rich. Please stop. I remember some things, but I want to remember you completely or this won't be fair to you… You know it won't be." She was pleading with him and Rich finally gave up.

"Fine… I don't fucking care if you don't remember though, so if that's what you're thinking…"

"I don't think that." She exhaled, not knowing whether she should tell him about the dream she had of him last night or to just end it like it like that.

"Well, I love you… so much. Just know that, okay?" Rich said softly and Grace closed her eyes and nodded, forgetting for a second that he couldn't hear her. He hung up the phone before Grace could reply.

"I think I love you too." Grace mumbled before putting her phone back into her bag. She glanced around her and saw some people sitting near her on the bus giving her weird looks. She shook her head and checked through her missed calls - seven in total. There was one from Mini, one from Franky, two from Liam and three from her father. Back to reality, she thought sullenly.

When she got to her front door, she contemplated turning back around and running away from everything. But she knew she was going to have to face her father sometime. Now was as good a time as any.

She opened the door slowly, removed her shoes and padded softly towards the stairs.

"And where exactly have you been, Grace?" Her heart sunk when she heard her father's raised voice coming from the dining room. She turned her head slightly in that direction and saw him staring at her in the most disapproving way possible. She trudged over to him sulkily with her head down.

"Well, I'm waiting for an answer." He said once Grace was standing before him. She began to examine her hands and drew little circles in them to try and escape the reality she was faced with.

"I was… " Grace began, but stopped and a long, awkward silence remained.

"Liam rang the house number yesterday night asking if you were feeling better. Now where were you?" He stood up so he was now towering over her in a slightly menacing way. Grace stared at her feet so she didn't have to look up at her father.

"Well," Grace started slowly. "I was with Rich."

Her father turned to look at the ceiling and muttered some inaudible words under his breath. Grace knew it wasn't probably the best idea to tell him the truth, but she felt it was the right thing to do.

"Ah, yes… So he has worked his way back into your head with his malicious, vindictive and mutinous ways?" Grace pulled a face to express bewilderment.

"Honestly dad, he's not that bad…" It was too late though; her father was pacing the room.

"I thought you wouldn't want to see him anymore after what I told you."

Her recently remembered memory popped up into her head and she slumped her shoulders.

I don't know who you are…. So, you're saying I'm fake?

"Yes, you were right Dad." She turned and left her father standing there, completely perplexed by what she had just said.

Grace trudged up the stairs and tried to work out whether she truly believed her father was right or not. There was only one way she could really answer that….

When she entered her room, she pulled out a box from under her bed. This box was filled with stuff she hadn't wanted to look at. She heaved the box up onto her bed and sat in front of it in a cross-legged position. With a deep breath she took off the lid and emptied the contents. The box was filled with photos; some of her and Rich, with friends and some with her parents.

She was now ready to remember. She had figured that if she knew some events then she could remember things that were linked to the events she remembered. For example she could remember her first kiss with Rich. This memory was linked to the memory of walking in the fashion show with Alo and the fact that she wasn't entirely happy with Mini at the time.

She now focused on certain photos and was slightly pleased when she recognized them and she began to stick the photos in a scrapbook where she could take notes of what was happening in the photos. Her memory was like a jigsaw and she had to just find the missing pieces.

She was remembering and she felt like she was falling in love with Rich all over again. However she didn't remember all the events and some were jumbled up in the wrong order; she still didn't know the story from start to finish.

The ending sucks for this chapter, but hopefully you like the stuff that comes before that.

Anyway I received some really great reviews for last chapter and even had a compliment about it on tumblr :D So thanks again for that if you're reading!

Two chapters left, let's get to 50 reviews! No G/R interaction in the next chapter, but hopefully ch.10 will make up for that ;)

Oh, and there's a hardlet fanfic challenge on tumblr, so I will probably be writing a one-shot for that over the weekend as well. :P Just to let you know!

Thanks,

TheCheeryCherry x