Chapter 16

Grace's head snapped up when she heard banging on the dressing room door, slowly standing up, and immediately opened it upon hearing Glen's raspy voice. "Steve..." She whispered heartbrokenly, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and set him down on the couch, Glen closing the door behind him and locking it for good measure. "Steve." She repeated, seeing how glazed his eyes were, and kissed his lips softly before pressing her forehead to his. "You have a concussion." He just grunted, causing her to smile tearfully, and moved his head forward to examine the back, sighing with relief when she seen he wasn't bleeding.

"Tell me somethin' I don't know, Doc." He drawled teasingly, wincing when she touched his head, reaching back to feel the bump. "Damn...that son of a bitch didn't want to go down."

Glen wanted to reprimand Grace for provoking 'Taker, but had a feeling it wouldn't make a difference, knowing that she'd do it all over again without a second thought.

"Mark is out of control, Glen." She stated, blinking and immediately felt Steve's blue eyes on her, her gaze lowering to her jeans, knowing she would have to come clean.

Grace took a deep breath and pulled the picture out of her pocket, placing it in his hands, and proceeded to go into the full explanation, being quiet. About how her father had lied to her about them being dead. She explained how she knew them since childhood and how for the past two decades she'd been mourning over them.

"They are my boys." She whispered, feeling Glen's hand on her shoulder and closed her eyes painfully shut. "Mark lost his memory in the fire..." She went into that explanation that Glen told her, feeling him squeeze her shoulder, letting her know it was alright. Grace cried the entire time, the betrayal and pain hitting her all over again. "I knew they weren't dead when I started having dreams of our childhood together. And the facts were too coincidental. But Mark thinks I'm his sister and we're keeping it that way because he doesn't know who I am. He doesn't know I'm Gracie. He thinks I'm just a woman named Grace."

Steve had to take a minute to absorb all the information just laid on him. His first thought was 'thank god, she's not his sister because that was really, really FUCKED up'. His second thought was 'dear Christ, this is screwed'. "I agree with Red, he doesn't need to know who ya really are, Grace. If he does, chances are, he's gonna go right back to what he was pullin' before." He said finally.

Glen nodded, arms folded over his chest.

"I know, I agree with you both." Grace wasn't going back on that, smiling up at Glen in reassurance. "It's so hard not calling him Mark or Marcus though. God he hated that. He would chase me around every time I called him by his full name." She giggled at the memory, her dream coming back to her. "I know he's not Mark anymore, the southern boy who used to stick up for me in school when someone would mess with me. But I still love him, no matter what he's done." She slowly stood up, raking a hand through her hair. "He won't find out who I really am because he won't remember. His memories are gone and unless those come back..."

"Not likely. Grace, the man has been watching you since ya got here honey, if seeing you ain't jogged them memories, then I don't know what will. Want us to go hit him on the back of his head for ya?" Steve offered with a grin. "That might work."

Glen nodded again.

Grace actually laughed softly and shook her head, slowly sitting back down. "No, but something happened when I stayed with him last night." She couldn't believe all of this was in the span of twenty four hours and took a deep breath. "I called him Marcus after showing him the picture. He didn't have a clue, but as soon as I said that name, he was in A LOT of pain. He was holding his head and roaring, like he was dying or something." She frowned thoughtfully, shaking her head and couldn't sit down as she stood up again. "If he remembers, then he's going to know it's me. He'll know only one Grace in his life and that's going to be me. So we have to either roll the dice and hope for the best or distract him from trying to rekindle them. Because I know that's probably what he's trying to do considering I told him about the picture and pointed out I was the little girl in the photo."

"Maybe he'll be nice again if he knows who you are, as nice as he could be anyway." Glen said hopefully.

"Since when do you talk?" Steve asked incredulously, staring at Kane like he had grown another head.

Glen just shrugged. With each sentence, he was getting more confident, he credited that to his old friend though. "Since someone found what I had to say worth hearing." He said softly, looking at Grace.

She beamed up at him and stood up from the couch, wrapping her arms tightly around Glen's neck, sniffling as the emotions overtook her again. "God I can't believe you're really here, Glenie." She giggled when he squeezed her harder, burying her face in his neck and closed her eyes before slowly pulling back. "I'm always going to be here for you. I have a lot of time to make up." She tapped his nose, like she used to do, and smiled before turning to face Steve. "So what are you two saying? You WANT him to get his memories back of me?"

"I don't know, it's something to think about. Please, stop calling me Glenie."

"I kinda like it. Can I call ya Kanie?"

He growled, raising his hand and clenched his fingers together as if wrapping them around an invisible throat.

"Kanie is right, Grace, you need to think this through."

"I do want him to remember, more than anything." She quietly said, staring up at Glen before going back at Steve, tears in her amber eyes. "Steve, he's my best friend. I've been mourning over him for nearly twenty years because I thought he was dead. I thought I would never see him again. I thought he was gone and now he's here. It's not his fault that he doesn't remember his childhood." She sighed when Glen cleared his throat. "Okay so maybe it is to an extent, but still. I can't forget about him, I can't pretend I'm his sister. Sooner or later it's going to come out that I'm NOT and then what? Maybe Glen is right, maybe jogging his memories might be the trick..."

"Okay, maybe you're right. But even if it does, you got to remember Grace, he's lived as the 'Undertaker' for a long time now. Just because ya'll were childhood buds, doesn't mean he's going to forget everythin' and let ya alone." Steve said quietly. He hated bursting her bubble like this, but she had to look at things realistically. "Chances are, he'd play on it to somehow screw with you."

"That's a chance I'm willing to take. I just want him to remember, nobody should have to go through their life without their childhood memories, no matter how evil and manipulative they are." She sighed heavily, knowing it was a long shot, but she wanted Mark to remember. She wanted to hear that drawl again and see those emerald gems instead of the acid she was used too. The cold dead eyes he carried, that's not who Mark was. He was a fighter, he didn't use goons to do his bidding. "If this all doesn't go well then I have nobody to blame, but myself. I can't sit back though and pretend to be something I'm not. I have to try."

Glen and Steve exchanged looks, both men obviously not having expected her to say anything different and sighed at the same time, both of them scowling. Though Glen's was hidden under his mask.

"Okay, so how are ya gonna do this?"

"I don't have the slightest clue." Grace had no idea where to start considering the picture hadn't jogged anything. "Calling him Marcus must've struck something in his mind. Maybe if I keep calling him that..." She knew she'd probably be dead before the third time she shouted it, but it was worth a shot. "Glen, do you have any suggestions?" She looked up at him with hope in her eyes, her eyebrows drawn together before looking back at Steve. They're relationship was probably over and that was fine with her. She would rather have him as a friend than nothing at all and took his hand, squeezing it gently.

"Hmmm...How bout that time he took you down into the basement?"

Steve squeezed her hand back with a gentle smile, knowing this was something she had to do and would stand by her side throughout it all, prepared to catch her if 'Taker sent her crashing. "What basement?"

"Morgue."

"That's what I dreamed about..." Grace frowned, wondering how Glen knew that, and suddenly smiled. "God that was so freaky. Their parents were funeral directors and Mark dared me to touch a dead body." She shivered, shaking her head. "I will NEVER forget that. He called me a chicken and kept making you run away to your parents. He was so mean." She sighed. "I guess nothing really has changed, he still is a damn instigator." She looked at Glen. "How exactly do you want me to go about talking to Mark about that memory?"

Now THAT was a problem. To talk to 'Taker would mean she'd have to get close to him. That in turn meant he was very likely to try and kill her.

"I don't know." He muttered hanging his head, his hair falling over his face as his shoulders slumped in defeat.

Steve rubbed his bump, apparently wondering that as well. "As much as I hate to say this, you're going to have to appeal to his uh...well...He's attracted to ya, Grace." He said bluntly. "And that's your weapon against him."

She blinked and stared at Steve like he'd just lost his mind. "You actually want me too..." She shook her head, refusing to do that. "No, I will TALK to him, but there will be no hanky panky going on." She smacked Glen when he began chuckling at her, amber eyes narrowed. "He did ask me to travel with the Ministry earlier..." She said thoughtfully, seeing both men turn to face her. "Of course I turned it down, then he paralyzed me when he thought I was going to attack him." She actually snorted. "Even I'm not THAT stupid to attack him with his goons around."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa I'm not sayin' throw him on the bed and fuck him." Steve hastened to say, looking sickened at the very thought and began turning green. "I meant it's the way ya keep him from killin' you right off the bat so you can talk to him."

"Like seduce him without the actual sex part?"

"Yeah, that."

"I can't believe BOTH of you are suggesting I..." Grace couldn't say the word and swallowed hard. "I don't even know how to go about doing something like that. I'm not a knockout or anything." When both Glen AND Steve scoffed at her, Grace groaned and buried her head in her hands. "I have no experience in the seduction department, he'll see right through me." She sighed heavily, closing her eyes, wondering if this truly was the only way to get close enough to Mark to try to jog his memories. "What if it backfires?" She asked quietly.

"You think I'd leave you alone with him?" Glen demanded, sounding offended. "I'd be right outside the door."

"No shit, I would be too." Steve snorted. "Honey, the minute things start to get hairy-"

Glen groaned, shaking his head.

"All you'd need to do is holler and we'd come rushin' in to save yer little ass."

Grace liked the sound of that, feeling a little more confident and chewed on her thumbnail, needing to take a few deep breaths. "Alright, I'll do it." She had no choice. Paul had told his last lie and she refused to be played like a pawn in a chess game for the rest of her life. "I'll do it." She repeated as if to reassure herself, looking up at Glen, feeling Steve's hand squeeze hers, and smiled at both of them. "Thank you both for helping me with this."

"Afterwards, let's pretend this conversation never, ever happened." Steve pleaded, pulling her against him for a hug, burying his face in her neck and inhaled. "Cause I think it's gonna give me nightmares."

Glen chuckled softly, having never ever thought that Stone Cold Steve Austin would be helping in something like this, especially not encouraging the woman he obviously cared about to seduce his brother into gaining his memories back.

"I promise, it'll never be mentioned again." Grace giggled, running her hand over his bald head, and kissed the top of it before standing up. "I'm gonna head back to the hotel. Knowing him and what happened, he's going to follow me. If not, then I'll think of something else." She knew they would be following close behind and kissed both of their cheeks before unlocking the door and ran out. She ran until she was outside of the arena, pulling her rental keys out, having taken separate vehicles since Steve had a meeting that morning with the writers, and headed to her car.

"He's probably already following her." Glen said after ten minutes, knowing 'Taker wasn't one to forgive and forget. Ever.

"Yeah, I know, let's go Glenie."

"SHE can get away with calling me that, YOU cannot."