Disclaimer: I do not own Another Cinderella Story, but if I did I would probably take over the world.

A/N: Okay people, let's try to step up the reviews a little. Can we get to fifteen? I'm giving you a very exciting chapter, like I promised, and this is probably going to be the last one. So here you go.

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Mary laughed "Come on, Joey! Tell me! Where are we going?" she asked for what seemed like the hundredth time.

Joey smiled. "I'll tell you when we get there!" Their car pulled up to a large brick building. Walking in, Mary recognized an auditorium that Joey had once performed in. There was no one there besides them. Joey helped Mary up onto the huge stage, and pointed a remote at a stereo that had already been set up nearby. Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley began to play, making Mary smile. This was their song. Mary wrapped her arms around Joey's neck as he pulled her closer. They began to sway to the music, just looking in each other's eyes. Joey spoke first.

"Mary, no matter what happens, I consider this baby ours and I'll do anything to protect it. You know that, right?" Mary smiled, feeling tears pricking her eyes. She nodded.

"Yeah, I know. I love you, Joey."

"I love you too." He let go of her and fished something out of his pocket. He got down on one knee and opened the small box in his hands. It was a silver ring, with three small diamonds. Mary's eyes bugged out of her head.

"Joey..." she whispered.

"Mary Santiago, I love you more than I have ever loved anyone. I want to stick by you in the good and in the bad. I want to be there, by your side." Now Joey's eyes had tears in them. "Will you marry me?" he choked.

Mary could not say anything, so she just nodded. Joey rose and slipped the ring on her finger. "The three diamonds represent our family, all of us." Joey bent down and planted a kiss right where their young son or daughter was growing, before pulling Mary in and giving her a lingering kiss. He began to pull away, but Mary held on tight to him and returned it. The music ended, but their kiss did not. Mary was lost in herself, forgetting her cares for the moment.

Before she knew what was happening, Mary heard a sickening thud and Joey jerked away from her. An anguished look crossed his face before his eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground.

"Joey!" She bent over him, looking for any way to get immediate help. Before she had time to react, someone had grabbed her from behind and threw her down. Mary stared, terrified, into the bloodthirsty eyes of Dennis. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't think.

Mary instinctively put her hand on her swollen stomach, as if to protect her unborn baby from harm. Dennis's eyes followed and he growled. "W-what do you want?"

He smiled wickedly and produced a large knife from behind his back. "Hello, sweetheart, how nice to see you again."

Mary would have run, but she had to protect her child and her fiancee as well as herself. She positioned herself between Dennis and Joey, but didn't risk standing up. Terror was consuming her. She had been here before, and she didn't want to go back again. Again she spoke, "Why are you here?" she was surprised at how brave she sounded.

"You mean you don't know?" Dennis lunged at her, and she closed her eyes, expecting the blade to plunge into her body. But the blow did not come. Instead, Dennis roughly grabbed the front of her shirt to force her to look at him. Mary could definitely smell alcohol on him. "I'm here because of what you did to me!" Mary was shocked. What she did to him? What about what he did to her?

"I've gotta secret for you." Dennis leaned in closer to whisper, "Me and Dominique'r married." Mary couldn't honestly say she cared, but then again she didn't know how this affected her, so she paid attention. "Got 'er wasted on wine coolers," he slurred. "Y'know what? When y'found us in th' bleeding an the knife, I w's gonna kill'er myself, but got so drunk I had an' chopped my nearly hand off." Dennis laughed.

"I did it for th' money, o' course. Married 'er and was gunna kill 'er for th' money," he sighed.

Mary was pretty sure he hadn't a clue what he was saying. He must have had some grasp on reality, however, because he continued, "An' then you done me arr'sted, and holed me up in thare, so I jus' knew I had ta do somthin' abot that." He laughed his gargling, demented laugh. Mary cringed, afraid of what he was gonna do. Dennis leaned down as if to touch her, and she screamed, lashing out at him. This got him going. He growled and pulled the knife out again, sticking it up by her throat, but somehow not breaking skin, even in his uncoordinated state.

"Im'a gut you and yer precious baby too. Get ready to feel pain, precious." Tears were rolling by this time and they just came harder as she thought of the movie Precious. Now she knew exactly what that girl had felt like. Abused and dirty.

Mary was beginning to give up hope, beginning to give in and die, when all of a sudden the pain stopped. She opened her eyes. She felt the tightness in her chest loosen slightly as a pinprick of light penetrated the darkness surrounding her. There was Joey, standing above Dennis with knife in hand, holding his own head and scowling, hatred and fury evident in his every feature. What surprised her the most was not that Dennis was afraid, however; what was most surprising was the gash in his side, streaming blood.

Joey leaned down next to his victim. "Don't ever touch Mary again. If you do, I promise you'll get much worse than this from me." Dennis didn't respond, which seemed to satisfy Joey. He threw the knife across the floor, and looked over at his sobbing fiancee. He rushed to her side.

Mary buried her face in Joey's shirt. He wrapped his arms around her and held her. "The police are on their way, Mary, the police are on their way."

Then something halted Mary's tears. Her heart stopped. She looked down at herself and saw that she was sitting in a small pool of liquid. A sudden sharp pain in her abdomen made her cry out. Joey seemed to catch on immediately. "Oh, my God," he whispered. Mary could tell from the way he said it that it was a plea for help, not an oath.

The next thing Mary remembered was the police rushing in, taking Dennis away on a gurney, then lifting her onto one herself. She remembered pleading for Joey to stay with her, and him roughly refusing an EMT who tried to tend to his wounds. He did not leave her side.

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Joey wasn't allowed in. He screamed and thrashed, but in the end he was dragged out of the maternity ward by two strong men; and now they were watching him carefully, trying in vain to console him.

A hurried looking nurse bustled into the waiting room and gave the strong men a nod. They departed. The woman looked at Joey. "Son, Miss Santiago wants to see you. She's even threatening to 'hold in' her baby until you come, which could be potentially fatal for her and the child, so-" She didn't need to tell him twice. He shoved past her and burst into Mary's room.

She was a mess. She was drenched in sweat, face beet-red, crying out with every contraction. She looked desperately at Joey and grasped his hand, practically crushing it. "I'm here, Mary. Don't worry, everything's going to be fine." Joey did not think everything was going to be fine. Mary was giving birth at seven months. He was no expert, but he knew that that was not right.

Joey looked at the doctors rapidly firing stats and instructions at each other. He heard only snatches of dialogue. "stress-induced labor," "respiratory assistance," "C-section." Another woman gently put her hand on Joey's arm.

"Excuse me, can I ask you to come with me, sir? This girl's going to be fine, the doctors are doing everything they can." Joey looked at Mary, who they had sedated. She still looked a mess, but at least right now she was not in as much pain.

He got up and followed the doctor out. She sat him down outside and looked at him sympathetically. "Miss Santiago is in labor at almost thirty weeks, which is much too short a time. This does mean that the baby can survive, but he will have some health complications and will have to remain at the hospital for a while so we can keep an eye on him. They are having difficulties with delivering the baby naturally, so we are going to perform a C-section. This is the safest way for both the baby and Miss Santiago."

She saw the worried look that Joey still wore. "And don't worry about the cuts on her face, a couple of stitches and they'll heal right up. They're not too deep." Dennis had tried to maul Mary but failed epically.

Two hours later, another doctor found Joey in the hospital's meager cafeteria downing a cup of coffee. "Mr. Parker?" he addressed Joey formally.

Joey perked right up. "Yes?"

"You can visit Miss Santiago now. The C-section was successful, and she just woke up, so she'll be a little groggy." Joey thanked the doctor and made a bee-line for Mary's room.

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Mary glanced up at her fiancee, who looked very concerned for her. She felt small in the hospital bed, she had IV's hooked up to one of her arms, and her lower abdomen was wrapped up. She didn't wonder why he was worried. "Hey," Mary smiled.

"How you feeling?" Joey went to her side.

"Oh, you know, just woke up from surgery, haven't seen my own baby yet, nothing much." Mary smiled. "They told me Dennis is in a prison hospital. His trial is in a month, and he's going to need a good lawyer."

Before he could respond, a nervous-looking doctor stepped into the room. He was holding a clipboard and seemed to be clinging to it for dear life. He introduced himself and told Joey to take a seat. His glasses slid down his nose and he pushed them back up with sweaty hands. "Miss Santiago, there's something you should know about your baby. She was born before she could fully develop, and that caused complications." He ran a hand through his sandy hair. "We don't think she'll ever have use of her legs." Mary didn't respond. "Another thing is, she's blind." Mary gaped.

"What?" her voice cracked slightly.

"Are you sure?" Joey seemed to be silently begging for him to say that it was all just a misunderstanding.

The doctor nodded his head sadly. "We think that the stress Miss Santiago went through caused her to go into labor early. The important thing though, is that she can still live a pretty normal life. A lot of people like her have. We have programs we can hook you guys up with that many of our patients find very informative. Just let us know if you need anything else. A nurse will bring the baby in shortly."

The doctor left and Mary and Joey were alone. Mary scooted over and made room for him on the bed. He sat next to her and wrapped his arms around her. Joey quietly hummed a lullaby, which soothed her nerves.

She closed her eyes and clung to him, who had been her lifeline for the past nine months. Whenever she had needed him, he had been there. Even before all this started he was there for her. When she had wanted to kill herself after learning she was pregnant, she didn't, because she knew someone loved her and would miss her. Joey was her hero, and she knew she would not be here without him.

Then a young nurse walked in, carrying a pink bundle. She handed her over with a smile and departed. Mary took a deep breath and looked into her child's eyes for the first time. She choked down a sob. What she was looking at was one of the smallest people she had ever laid eyes on. This baby had big brown eyes that were focused on someplace far off, wrinkly pink skin that seemed way too big for her tiny body, and rose colored lips. Mary stroked her dark wispy locks with a smile, then buried her face in the pink blanket and sobbed.

"Would you look at that. It's a girl, Mary. She looks just like you."

"She looks like my mother," Mary added. "I think my child should be named after her, don't you?" Joey nodded. "Erica Parker..." Mary tested the name, letting it roll off her tongue. "Middle name?" she wondered.

"How about Madeline? After my mother," Joey suggested. Mary nodded in happy agreement.

Just then, a teary-eyed Tami came in. "Oh goodness..." she whispered.

"Tami, meet your goddaughter, Erica Madeline."

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Mary looked at her reflection in the mirror. After one final nod of approval, she took Tami's hand. "Erica's okay? Are you sure the babysitter knows to play her music for her, and to turn her over before putting her to sleep?" Tami laughed.

"Mary, stop worrying! Everything's fine. Lighten up, this is your day. Now, come on, the music's starting."

Mary took a deep breath. Well, it's now or never... Tami opened the church doors and walked down the aisle in her golden knee-length dress. Mary waited a moment, then followed. As Mary stepped lightly on the petal-strewn aisle, she feasted her eyes on the handsome man standing at the end of it. Joey's face lit up at the sight of her, and he took her hand when she reached him.

There comes a time in every girl's life when she needs to depend on someone else instead of herself. Sometimes that person lets her down. But there is a rare occasion when that person stays beside her, even when she's lost everything; when the only thing they have to gain from her is simply being in her presence. That person is her best friend. That person is her true love. That person is her lifeline.

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A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who stayed with my fic til the end. It means a lot to me, and your reviews made my day! So here's the last question: How would you rate my story, on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best and 1 being the worst)?