I just want all of you AMAZING readers (who have given me the most AMAZING feedback! THANK YOU!) to know that I do not own anything, that the ages are a little jacked up because of the timeline I have started things at, and that I love you all for clicking the link that lead you to this crazy story. Thank all of you that reviewed and/or favorite-ed and/or followed my story.
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!
No, this is not totally with the timeline of the story. I am so sorry for jacking everything up on you guys, but Christian and Ana have been married for maybe two months in this story. Again, my apologies for screwing everything around on you guys. And Ryan (the security guard) doesn't have a first name in the book... so I made one up.
Chapter 4: A Slightly Illegal Night Out
It had been maybe fifteen minutes since Nicolette had peeled out of the parking lot of the Haven High School, and in that time frame Taylor had gotten all of the Greys loaded up again and had pulled out of the lot behind her. Christian looked out the window of the black SUV and was nervous as he spotted trailers parked off the road they were traveling on.
"She lives about five minutes down this road, sir." Taylor said over his shoulder.
"Thank you, Taylor." Ana responded, watching her husband with worried eyes.
"Ana I'm fine, stop looking at me like I am going to drop dead." Christian muttered, he could practically feel Ana's gaze burning into the back of his head. Ana huffed lightly, but shifted so she was lying against Christian's side.
Three minutes crawled by in a deadly silence, three minutes turn to four minutes and four minutes roll to five minutes. A small red brick house comes into view with a black jeep in the front beside a red pick up truck, with a tractor beside the house and fields that stretched on for acres behind the tractor. The SUVs pulled into the makeshift driveway and park.
Before Christian and the rest could even get to the door and knock the door opened revealing a tall man with reddish-brown hair and brown eyes, he wore blue jeans with a plain green polo shirt, brown cowboy boots and a brown cowboy hat. He waited until the group arrived at the door to say anything.
"You must be the man wanting to take my daughter away from me." The man glared.
"Mr. Johnson, if it would help you feel better, my son never signed any papers that would have waved his paternity rights. Nicolette will be in good hands." Carrick spoke, he wore black kaki work pants with black dress shoes and a blue work shirt that was tucked into his pants and held into place with a black belt, all of the security guys wore their work suits, Christian wore the exact same thing as his father only his shirt was a light green color, and Ana wore a pretty blue sundress with matching sandals.
"It doesn't, but thanks for the try." Mike Johnson glared at Carrick, but opened the door wider. "C'mon in, she is just getting changed."
The three Greys and the four security guards shuffle into the small house.
Christian scanned the walls, there were sixteen photos that lined all four of the walls, four photos for each of the four walls that surrounded them.
The pictures were of the small family of three over the last sixteen years, but by the eighth picture the woman disappeared and the man looked just a little more somber in the pictures after her disappearance.
Christian remembered something that Taylor told them on the plane. The woman that adopted Nicolette with Mike Johnson, her name was Cathryn Johnson- formally McKarthy- but she died nearly nine years ago, when Nicolette was eight.
Christian spotted a wrap around the woman's head in the last three photos she was in.
"She had cancer. She tried chemo for three years, but the lose of hair freaked five year old Nicolette out, even as it was thinning Nicolette would scream when her mother left clumps of hair on the pillow after a nap; Cathryn wanted to stop frightening her so she just shaved it off." Mike said as he noticed Christian looking at the woman in the pictures.
"I'm sorry for your loss." Christian offered, Mike snorted.
"I'm sure you are. Nicolette Anne! Get your ass out here!" Mike shouted, Christian's sad expression turned to shock.
"He talks to her like that?" Christian whispered to Taylor, who shrugged.
"I'd never do that to Sophie, but we probably have different ways of parenting." Taylor muttered back, knowing that Christian was actually asking if most parents would actually do that.
There were soft thuds from down the hall and the pretty redhead came into view, she had changed from her jean shorts and a Haven High t-shirt and into a pretty yellow dress with white flats, she had let her hair down, but had pinned her bangs back with a ponytail.
"Dad are they here-" Nicolette's question was cut short when she spotted the people in her relatively small living room, Carrick had taken a spot on the rough looking couch while Ana and Christian stood in the middle of the space with Mike Johnson, with Taylor behind them leaning against the wall, Sawyer and the other security guards had stayed outside after checking the house out for security risks.
The girl blinked, as if she were not surprised by who the people standing in her house were, she didn't even move to stand by her father.
"Darling this is Christian Grey and his wife Ana- Mr. Grey is your actual father." Mike spoke.
"I know who they are. The Tucker boys nearly filled them with lead after school today." Nicolette answered. Christian's brow wrinkled.
"You mean you knew who we were, but you just pretended that you didn't?"
Nicolette muttered something under her breath that sounded a little like, 'Look who's a genius.'
"Yes. I may live out here, but I am not a moron who can't put two and two together. I am probably the only girl in Haven who has a long lost father that suddenly feels the need to be apart of her life." Nicolette glared.
"Nicolette Anne Johnson, I raised you better than this." Mike hissed. Nicolette responded by shooting him a matching glare.
"You also taught me to be honest." Before turning grabbing a set of keys and marching out the door, all three security guards instantly shot up from their relaxed positions against the house and reached to grab her. All three of which missed, Sawyer quickly tried to reach the jeep, but was again too slow for the steaming mad sixteen year old girl on a mission, who peeled out of the drive.
"Do we go after her sir?" Taylor questioned.
"Yes!" Christian shouted.
"No, let her stew. She knows that what she did was wrong and will come home apologizing. I didn't tell her that she was adopted, after Cathryn died, she was so sad for a long time and I didn't want to see that look on her face again- not for a long while. Your whole let-me-move-my-daughter-across-the-country thing has been red-hot angry ever since she was told. I was just waitin' to see how long it would take for her to blow and well, you guys just helped her blow. Thanks for that, and don't worry 'bout her. She's probably going down the road to the Berry's- as in Stacy and Kayne Berry- they're pig farmers and their daughter Lee Anne happens to be Nicolette's best friend." Mike intervened.
"You are just going to let her get away with this?" Carrick asked incredulously.
"Hell no, but chasin after her is only going to make her angrier, and she ain't easy to talk to when she's angry. It's like a brick wall." Johnson laughed.
-...- With Nicolette...
Nicolette huffed as she hopped out of her little black, beaten down jeep and onto the dirty ground in front of her boyfriend's home. Sure he had parents that actually paid for it, but they moved out a year ago wanting to go to the big city leaving him alone with his brothers- they had evidently forgotten about their three sons.
The oldest, Max, was seventeen at the time and made sure that it was ok for him to take care of his brothers before telling the boys that their mom and dad had left them.
"Hi-uh Nicolette!" The smallest boy shouted, he was only eleven, but nearly to Nicolette's forehead in height and twice her size- the brothers being farm boys is what helped them pay taxes and pay for food at the shop, food that Nicolette would cook.
"Hello, Billy, Max home?" Nicolette called out.
"When isn't he!? He should be making dinner by now!" Bill called. Nicolette thanked him and headed on into the house that obviously was the home of two teenagers and one almost teenager.
Nicolette walked down the hall and walked into her boyfriend's room- after discovering that he was indeed not in the kitchen and putting together a pot of soup to heat up. Nicolette opened the door and slipped off her shoes before lying on his bed. She sighed and closed her eyes.
-...
She must have fallen asleep, because what felt like five minutes later her eyes flew open to a loud-ish chuckle.
"Not that you lying in my bed in that pretty lil dress isn't an amazing thing to come home to after a hard day of work in the fields, but why in the hell is your father callin' everyone in town to make sure that you are alright?" Max asked, Nicolette sat up and smiled at her boyfriend- he was only wearing his work jeans that held dirt on the knees and his boots, having shed his shirt and hat.
"I stormed out after my biological father and some of his family showed up." Nicolette shrugged lightly.
"Figures." Max snorted, his dirty brown hair shook with his head as Max's head shook at Nicolette. The teenager laid on the bed with his girlfriend.
"What am I going to do with you?" He asked lightly.
"Considering I'm leaving, probably nothing. You are never going to get to hear the band play again. The gang has already put their foot down at playing without me." Nicolette whispered.
"I don't want you to go." Max whispered.
"I don't wanna go either. I feel like I've been lied to my entire life. That my parents weren't really my parents. It just feels so... wrong..." Nicolette whispered.
"Your dad... well both of your dads don't know your here, but Mike called in a panic while I was comin in from the fields, Billy overheard and told me that you were inside. I didn't tell 'em, he sounded so scared Nikks. You can't keep blaming him."
"He lied to me. Isn't that enough to be mad at him, for a while... like nearly seventeen years?" Nicolette asked.
"Now, listen, I wasn't very happy that my parents abandoned me. Being the oldest out of three I knew it was my job to keep them safe and fed, but steppin up for those boys wasn't the hard part, the hard part was tellin' them that mom and dad didn't want them. Nicolette, the only reason I'm not mad at your dad, is because I know that he was trying to keep the look of hurt and pain off your face, take away the fact that your mom did not want you. He was keeping you safe." Max whispered to his small girlfriend.
Nicolette sighed.
"Maybe I'm being to hard on him. He has always been a little protective." Nicolette sighed.
"So you'll forgive him?" Max asked, leaning in to kiss his girl.
"Him... yes.." Nicolette started, closing the space between them. The two kissed for a while before Nicolette pulled back and sighed again.
"But, I'm not gonna be with him much longer, Max. What am I going to do?"
"Take it one day at a time, that's what he's gonna do. Your new dad is going to try his best to do everything right, because he knows that you can spot a mistake. He wants to do this right, Nikks, be patient and listen and follow directions. You may not like the new rules- god bless Billy and Elijah didn't like my rules- but he wants to keep you safe and sound in a new environment. Go back home, use your manners and apologize like crazy. They probably think that you are some spoiled brat by now." Max pointed out.
"I don't want them to think that." Nicolette sighed, she laid her head against Max's chest.
"Let me put a shirt on, you are emotional as hell and tired with it being dark out. That isn't a good combination. I'll pick you up tomorrow for lunch with your parents and you can drive the jeep back." Max said. Nicolette watched as Max threw on one of his Sunday plaid shirts and one of his many camo hats.
"C'mon little lady, lets get you home."
-...- Back at the Johnson Residence.
Christian watched a little helplessly out the window as Carrick talked to Johnson and Ana chatted away to a lady that had come over after Nicolette had been gone after two hours of no contact and Johnson started calling people.
The sound of gravel crunching underneath tires caught everyone's attention.
"That isn't a jeep." The woman, McKenzie, said matter-a-factually.
"Truck." Taylor nodded. Sawyer shrugged.
"More people checking in?" Ryan asked.
"Nope. Probably Maxwell, should've known she'd go to him." Mike grumbled, holding a beer.
"Maxwell?" Ana asked.
"Nicolette's boyfriend. You should be glad she went to Maxwell, he seems to be able to talk sense into that girl. Especially now of all times." McKenzie chuckled.
"Now?" Carrick asked.
"Maxwell's parents ran out on him and his two younger brothers. Max has been taking care of them by himself, though I do believe that Nicolette does cook most of their meals." Johnson answered, a truck door slammed, some crunching, and then another slam.
There was some more crunching before the front door opened.
"Hey, Mr. Johnson." The boy said, Johnson couldn't even get a word out before Nicolette had wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him.
"I'm sorry daddy. I was so angry... I'm so sorry..." She whispered.
"It's ok baby girl. I much rather you storm out angry and get cooled off then say things you don't mean. But I am taking you keys away." Johnson laughed as Max held up the keys.
"It was dark out and she couldn't think straight to save her life, sir. I wasn't about to let her drive home." Christian sat back at watched the man thank the younger man, who looked right at him and nodded.
It was clear.
She's gonna try. If you try to.