Just Remember

chapter 5 graduation surprise

A/N well since somebody has been so kind as to vote for this story I've decided to post this chapter early I do hope that you enjoy it :-)

Chapter 5 Graduation Surprise

Grace was silent for the entire ride to Fort hood, despite the excited chatter of her little brothers who rode in the back seat of the truck that pulled her horse trailer, and sighed deeply as she watched the buildings in the small Texas Town slip by. One street light away from the place where she was going to board her horse, she saw a small tattoo parlor and placed her hand over Justin's body art, in thought over doing something daring and perhaps a bit insane. She would have to be very careful to ensure that her parents didn't find out about the mark that she now intended to ensure never faded, or it would mean an extreme grounding of the kind that she'd definitely hate.


The next day when her father left her at the barn to ride General, she quickly saddled him and rode down to the tattoo parlor knowing that her parents would be busy all day with unpacking and Military business, not to mention working on getting her brothers and she enrolled into school. She tied her horse under a tree and walked calmly into the building knowing exactly what she wanted and looked around at the two tattoo artists to decide who would be more likely to allow her to have her boyfriend's signature made more permanent.


"Can I help you, miss," asked a woman with tattoo's all over herself wearing leather pants, and a black leather vest and lots of body piercings?
"Yes, how much would it cost to get a tattoo of my own design," Grace asked as she handed over her I.D. to prove that she was of proper age to make her own choices?
"That depends on how big it is. Do you have the drawing so that I can see it, and do you know exactly where you want your Tat Inked," the woman asked as she handed Grace back her I.D.?
"Well it's not exactly on paper, and it's already drawn out exactly where I want it, is there somewhere a bit less crowded where I can show you," Grace asked?


The male tattoo artist arched a black eyebrow and chuckled as his partner led the girl into a private room. Once the door was closed Grace unzipped her jeans and shimmied out of them along with her boots so that she could place her foot on a rung of the stool and give the woman a view of what she wanted made permanent. "That's nice, who drew it for you," the tattoo artist asked with a smile of appreciation?
"My boyfriend who lives in Wisconsin drew it to commemorate our last night together. How much will it cost me to make it permanent," Grace asked?
"For a tat of this size we charge about thirty, but I've been starving for a good story, so I'll make you a deal, girlfriend. If you tell me the story of how you let your boyfriend draw on you, I'll take half off of the price," the woman smiled.
"Agreed," Grace said as she braced herself .


Thirty minutes and a lot of pain, and boisterous laughter later, Grace walked out with the memory of her first time with Justin made permanent. Now all that she had to do was to get back to the stables without putting too much pressure on her inner thigh close to her panty line. A task that was made easier with the fact that she had ridden in one of her English saddles today . She galloped General back to the stables with a large smile on her face and felt like she could float She couldn't wait to speak to Justin, again, so that she could tell him what she had done, but regrettably it was not to be.


A week had passed and her tattoo was almost completely healed, when she was taking a shower and her mother burst into her bathroom needing to use the toilet badly. Her mother noticed the tattoo and screamed angrily while Grace dressed with her face a brilliant shade of crimson. When her father got home it got worse from there, as he promptly took away her cell phone making it so that no calls could come in except for calls from her parents, and made it so that the only people that she could call was either themselves or Emergency services. Her Internet was disconnected , and she was grounded from riding her horse for pleasure and competitions were not going to happen for the next year, until she either brought in an excellent progress report, or graduated and went away for college, whichever came first.


After a month of communication silence she finally managed to barrow her father's phone without his notice and sent out a text to all of her friends, that only contained a single word. GROUNDED! She then deleted the message, leaving it as if nothing had ever went out and walked herself down to the stables to talk to the only one who would listen to her now, the General. As the month ended, the Administration of her new school decided that she was too smart to remain a student and she graduated early with the highest scores in that schools records. By this time her mother was driving her out of her mind, and she decided to go and speak to her father on the base that was only a block away from their home that she hated with a passion.


Lee looked up as there was a knock on the door and smiled at his brilliantly smart daughter . "What's on your mind Princess," he asked as she entered the office and took a seat?
"Daddy, are you still angry with me for getting the tattoo," she asked?
"Not really, Grace, you were of legal age to do it, I just wish that you had not let Justin give you the idea by letting him sign your leg in such close proximity to your girly bits. It makes me wonder how much further you allowed that boy to go with you," Lee asked giving her a look.
"Daddy, you and mom were younger than I am now when I was born. I waited like you told me, until I had sex for the first time, and Justin wore a condom. We only did it that once the night before we left Wisconsin," Grace admitted feeling as if a large weight had been lifted from her body the instant that it was out in the open.


"Well, I thought that it might have been something along those lines. That explains the date written inside of the heart. Grace, you're an adult now rather your mother accepts it or not. You can make your own choices and I'll stand beside them. That said, what do you want to do now that you've graduated so early," Lee asked as he sat back in his seat and gazed at his daughter in expectation?
"Dad, do you think that I could start college now instead of next year," Grace asked hopefully?
"I think that I could arrange that princess. However I've been waiting for you to show up here. I've been wanting to give you your graduation presents for a while now. How about you and I go for a little ride out to see our old friends in Groom Lake," Lee asked with a smile upon his face that lit up the room?


"We haven't visited the Geek Squad in a long time daddy, do you think that they'll remember me," Grace asked with a smile on her face as her father got up from his desk and grabbed the keys to his Humvee?
"Princess only an idiot would ever forget you. This is going to piss your mother off, when she finds out what I've done, but I want you to be happy, and you haven't been happy since Wisconsin. We need to change that. Oh, which reminds me, I've unlocked your phone so that your friends will stop texting me begging me to let them speak to you. I've gotten texts from everyone except for Justin. Frankly I think that he was the only one smart enough to realize that the number that you texted that you were grounded from wasn't yours," Lee smirked making his daughters jaw drop upon realizing that she had been caught.


"It's okay, they had the right to know that you were grounded from communicating, and no, I didn't tell them why I grounded you. You can tell them if that's something that you want them to know," he laughed as they climbed into his Humvee. They drove for the next twenty one hours and fifty one minutes, to Groom Lake , a secret or in some cases not so secret Military base hidden just outside of Las Vegas Nevada and Lee woke Grace with a hot cup of coffee and a chocolate donut when the sun rose and she stretched sleepily. "I thought that you'd want a bit of coffee before we go and see the Geek Squad," he said with a smile as he handed her over the hot beverage.


"Thanks daddy, so what's my Graduation Present," Grace asked as they approached the base and her father handed over his security clearance and the Guard smiled recognizing his daughter instantly?
"I'm afraid that information is classified, Princess. If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise now would it," Lee smiled as he drove onto the base and straight for the entrance for the underground science labs and testing facilities. He didn't want her to see her present that was sitting right inside of the large underground garage so he blind folded her as he led her inside and placed a finger to his lips as they passed one of his old friends who was just putting the finishing touches on the very large state of the art red and black truck with millions of dollars' worth of experimental technology installed into it, and moved into the medical lab where the Military surgeon and the scientist that was responsible for a major part of his gift to his little girl were waiting.


"Grace do you trust me, baby girl," her father asked as he guided her down into a chair?
"Always daddy, why do you ask?"
"This will pinch a bit, but I promise that when you wake up, you'll feel loads better," her dad said as the surgeon, injected her with a fast acting drug that knocked her out within seconds. Grace came to a few hours later, and blinked her eyes as the room came into sharper focus than ever before.


Her dad was at her side the instant that she moved, and smiled down at her "How do you feel Princess?"
"Daddy, I never knew that you had such pretty hazel eyes," Grace said in shock over the fact that she could see her dad's eyes even though he wasn't as close as it would normally take to see something like that.
"You can see my eyes? What else can you see Princess," he asked excitedly?
"Daddy you're crying," Grace frowned upon noticing his tears of joy.


"How is this possible? All of the doctors that I've ever been to said that there was no way that I'd ever see. What about my Retina's are they fixed or replaced or something," she asked curiously?
"No, Princess, They haven't done anything to your retinas., but they're working on another project that may one day give you perfect vision," her father said as he helped her sit up.
"My vision looks great to me. It's not perfect," she asked?
"Not quite young lady. You are still technically legally blind without those glasses that you're wearing," The Doctor said with a smile as he held up a mirror to show her that she was wearing a pair of specially designed glasses.


"They may look like normal glasses but they are a specially designed scratch proof, shatter proof , glasses in viewed with top secret technology that works in tandem with the special cornea lenses that we've implanted into both of your eyes that will enable you to see the world around you in perfect twenty /twenty vision or better. You could run over those glasses with a tank and they'd be fine," the Doctor smiled as he pulled out a vision chart and pointed to each letter with a wand for her vision to be tested. After reading the final line upon the vision chart with a beaming ear to ear smile upon her face she leapt out of the chair and hugged each man in the room for the amazing gift of sight that she had been lacking all of her life since her premature birth years ago.


She was about to hug her father when he put up his hands and smiled. "Don't hug me or thank me just yet princess. This is only half of my graduation present to you. Follow us," he said as he left the room with the doctor and the scientist on their heels. They walked into the large underground testing Garage and though it was dark she could see the outline of something large in front of them as they stopped in the entrance from the labs. "Light it up boys," Lee called! All of the lights in the garage lit up and Grace turned away for an instant in shock over the brightness around her, and then was turned back by her father's hands on her shoulders just as four men in uniform and lab coats ripped a black cover from a large shiny new horse rig complete with a matching duly pickup truck that was painted red with black silloets of a running horse on the sides with the name of a farm called Lone Star farms.


Grace gaped in shock that turned to overwhelming joy as her father handed her a set of keys with a pink camo keychain with a dog tag attached to it that said ," with all of my love from your daddy on your Graduation. Love Dad." Grace through herself into his arms and cried with joy unlike anything that she had ever experienced in her life since she had met J.J. and her other friends in Wisconsin.
"Daddy, this is amazing, but why does it say Lone Star Farms on the side of the Truck and Trailer," Grace asked as she moved to check out her new rig?
"Oh, I didn't tell you, did I? You're mother doesn't know about this, so you cannot tell her, that I know."


"Know about what dad," Grace asked puzzled as she entered the trailer living quarters and looked around to see that all of her clothes had been unpacked into the trailer along with her tack, laptop, flags, and other personal effects that she had sworn she had left in her room the day before?
"Grace, your mother has been unfaithful to me. I caught her in bed with another man while you and the boys were visiting your grandmother in Houston. I'm filing for a divorce, and because she broke the prenuptial agreement, she gets nothing accept for the house that we live in and the car that she drives. I've put aside accounts for each of you that will see all three of you well off and able to make whatever dreams that you have come true. There is a farm in Conroe Texas that I've purchased and placed in your name. I have also paid your tuition for all of the courses that you said that you wanted to take at Meredith Manor Equestrian College. General is waiting outside in his portable stall as we speak." he said as they exited the trailer and shut the doors that Grace had opened.


"Daddy," Grace said in tears again!
"No tears Princess, Maddington is waiting to teach you about the truck, and the technology installed. After that you are to take your driver's test and show them that you can handle this truck and trailer out on the test course. Once you pass, you'll be issued a Military grade driving license, that will never expire, and you'll load up the General and will tap the button that says school on your GPS and will drive yourself and General off to college to make me proud. Now get into that truck and get it done," Lee said as he wiped away a tear from his own eyes.


"Yes, Sir," Grace saluted before preforming an about face and leaping eagerly into the truck placing her seatbelt on the instant that her but hit the seat making Master Sargent Maddington laugh. An hour and fifteen minutes later found Grace and General on the road following the GPS directions on the fastest rout to her College and her new life and the freedom that she had never dreamt possible.