Consequences

Chapter 17

Authors note: i have never been to New York and probably never will so some of this chapter may be factually incorrect.

By the following Monday, they had touched down in New York; Connie and Grace had discussed their plans at length and had decided to spend three weeks there and the rest of the holidays back home doing things across the country. Having arrived in New York late evening on the Monday, they had grabbed food at the hotel before crashing for the night; the next day was the start of their adventure. Grace had ready researched everything she wanted do whilst they were there and that started with breakfast in a traditional American diner followed by a trip Staten Island to go up the Statue of Liberty; as they ate their breakfast, Connie couldnt help but noticed her daughter's happy expression that hadnt left her face since they had landed.

"How you doing Gracie?" Connie asked.

"I'm happy" she beamed.

"I'm glad; is there anything not on your list that you want to do?"

"Dont think so; what do you want to do?"

"I'm happy with whatever you choose but i do have a surprise for you on our last night"

"What is it?"

"You'll have to wait and see; eat up and we can get going"

After breakfast, they headed to the port to catch the ferry over to Staten Island; as they stood at the top of the Statue of Liberty, Connie put an arm around her daughter and kissed her hair.

"Having fun?" She asked.

"The best" Grace answered, honestly as she took some photos of the scenery and a couple of selfies with Connie for their album.

They got back off the ferry mid afternoon so decided to visit the 911 memorial site; Grace had declared whilst planning that they should visit the site and pay their respects. Although she hadnt been born at the time, she'd learned all about it at school and had felt it was the right thing to do; that evening, they were sat back in the hotel - having dinner out - when Grace's Skype tone rang through the room.

"Hi Aunt Zoe. Hi Max" Grace smiled as she saw them on the screen.

"Hi guys; how was your first day?" Zoe asked.

"Awesome; we went up the Statue of Liberty and then we went to the 911 memorial site" Grace answered.

"Did you take loads of photos?"

"Yeah, cant wait to show you; tomorrow, we're going shopping and then on Wednesday we're just chilling but on Thursday, we're going to Coney Island"

"Sounds awesome Grace; is your mom there?"

"Yeah; i'm gonna go shower. Bye Zoe. Bye Max"

She handed the tablet over to Connie before heading for the bathroom, hearing the water running, she turned to the screen and noticed it was just Zoe now, although from the background, she could tell she was still at work.

"How's things there?" Connie asked.

"Oh, you know, nothing we cant handle; how are you and Grace doing?"

"Havent really talked properly yet about everything but we're enjoying ourselves"

"She'll open up when she's ready to; give her time. You told her what her surprise is yet?"

"No, only that there is one; i'm gonna leave telling her until the last minute. I want her to be unprepared; thanks for doing this Zoe"

"Anytime, i'd better get back to it"

"Okay, bye"

Throughout the following three weeks, Connie had spoilt Grace with shopping in Fifth Avenue, seeing the sights, a trip to Coney Island and now, on their last night, she was ready to reveal her final surprise on the trip; after they both got ready, Connie in a knee length purple dress and Grace in a similiar outifit, they had dinner at the hotel before they took a short walk to the Broadway Theatre.

"Ready for your final surprise here?" Connie asked as she took two tickets out of her bag and handed them to Grace.

"Oh my god! Seriously? We're seeing Wicked in New York?!" Grace shouted, her emotions in overdrive.

"Better than that; not only are we sat in the boxes, you also get to meet the cast afterwards" Connie grinned.

Grace hugged her mom so hard she nearly sent her flying backwards; kissing her hair, she put the tickets back into her bag and took Grace's hand so they could head inside. By the time they finally exited the Theatre later than night, Grace was bouncing with excitement; she was so excited and happy, she couldnt sleep that night and so by the time they boarded the plane, she was ready to crash.

"Mom...thank you for an awesome holiday" she murmured, sleepily.

"Anytime baby girl, go to sleep"

Grace slept the whole journey home; by the time they had landed, she was awake again. After getting their luggage and passing through customs, they got a taxi and finally got home at lunchtime that day; leaving their luggage by the front door, Connie switched the kettle on which Grace hovered by the door, her mood hving changed since she had woken up.

"You okay darling?"

"What will happen now we're home?" She asked, hesitantly.

"How do you mean?" She asked, glancing over to her daughter.

"With work?"

"Darling, i'm not back in work until you're back at school; we still have three and a half weeks to have fun"

"I feel sad" Grace declared that evening when Connie was tucking her in.

"Why sad?" She asked as she sat next to her and stroked her hair, her arm around her. "We had an amazing holiday, didnt we?"

"Yeah, it was awesome but...i didnt deserve it; i've been so horrible to you mom"

"Oh sweetheart, you havent been horrible to me; you were hurting and upset and bottling things up. You absolutely deserved to be spolit, more now than ever before; you had a hard couple of weeks before we went away. You had a couple of panic attacks and the nightmares..."

"What if they start again?" She asked.

"Hopefully, they wont; not if you keep talking to me or Aunt Zoe or Uncle Charlie"

Grace nodded and snuggled further down under her quilt as she quickly drifted off; satisfied her daughter was asleep for the night, Connie kissed her forehead and turned out the light as she left the room and headed to bed herself, her jetlag starting to catch up on her.