Safe and Sound (Book 4 of "The Story of Us" series) [Completed]

Chapter 10 - Tough

[Nick]

I couldn't take her crying anymore, thinking I was going to hurt her or Noah. I stood in the hallway for the longest time, listening to Harley try to sooth her. I was just glad that Sadie wasn't here to hear Ella. I couldn't hear her, I knew hearing her would upset Sadie, too.

After sitting on the bed in our bedroom for what seemed like forever, I finally went into the bathroom and started to strip my clothes off. I turned the water on in the shower and climbed in, trying not to think about everything but it was kind of hard not to.

The daughter that we thought had died, that I had so much guilt over to begin with, was alive and had been so abused that most men scared her. How was I going to deal with that? I'd never had to deal with anything like that. Hell, I was the guy that used to use girls for sex and everything else when I was younger. Was this payback for how I acted how I acted in my past? All the girls, all the drugs, how I lied to Harley while she was pregnant with Ella?

I heard the bathroom door open and peeked out, seeing it was Harley walking in, her eyes red and swollen from crying. I saw her through the stained shower door glass taking her clothes off and she slowly crawled into the shower and wrapped her arms around me from behind.

"I didn't..."

"I know, she knows," she whispered as she buried her face in my back and started crying. "I just..."

"I know..."

"She was afraid you were going to do something to Noah because he spilled his juice and she got scared when she saw your tattoos," Harley whispered. "I told her not everybody with tattoos were bad. I showed her the heart that I have on my ankle. Tomorrow we have that meeting with the family services people and maybe they can suggest a child psychologist for her to go see."

"But don't you have to do a few promo things soon?" I asked, turning around in the shower to look at her. She stared at my chest and nodded. "We could all go together. I'm sure she's never traveled and she would probably love to see you as the singer, you know?"

"I think I should cancel them..."

"Harley..."

"It's Ella, Nick," she said, finally looking up in my eyes. "She needs help. We have her back and she needs us. I think if I cancelled or postponed the trip over to Europe people would understand if we made a statement or something. They know we were involved. They know it was Ella. How, I don't know."

"My Mom..."

"Jane wouldn't do that, Nick and you know it."

"Are you sure you want to postpone things? You waited so long for this..."

"It's Ella, Nick," she said, staring at me. "It's our Ella. I would have given it all up if we had the chance to never have lost her. I'll give it up again if I have to," she said, wrapping her arms around me, resting her head on my shoulder.

She had a point. It was Ella. It is Ella.

[/Nick]

[Harley]

I sat downstairs in the kitchen later that night. After showering with Nick, we had a long talk and I emailed my management, letting them know that I was going to have to postpone my trip to Europe for promotion and that the entire baby scandal rumors were true and that I would write something up on the web site at some point tonight or tomorrow.

I couldn't get it out of my head, the look on Ella's face when I ran upstairs and into her room to see her holding Noah on the bed for dear life. She was petrified... of Nick, who wouldn't hurt a fly, much less her.

I always heard about girls who were sexually abused and raped and how they usually led some hellicious life of promiscuity or prostitution or drugs or suicide. I knew girls who were like that in school before I left to follow my dreams. Now my daughter was one of them. My Ella...

I still couldn't believe she was alive and in my house. I never thought I was going to get to hold her, ever, and tonight I did for almost an hour trying to calm her down. There was no way in hell I was going to let that doctor or that couple, especially that man, get away for what he did to her. If I have to spend every penny I have on lawyers, or a fucking hit man, he was going to pay.

I jumped, hearing a knock on the back door and I sighed, seeing my father standing outside. I stood up, walking over and unlocked the door and I could tell he instantly knew I had been crying. "Don't ask," I sighed.

"We heard yelling earlier. Sadie got scared, but Nadine got her to sleep," my father said as I sat back down at the table. He sat down next to me, taking a sip of coffee out of the cup he had brought over. "Ella?"

"Nick and Noah were in her room with her and Noah spilled his juice on Nick," I whispered, looking down at my hands. "He took his shirt off and she freaked out, thinking that... you know, and that he was going to hit Noah for spilling his juice. Apparently that man had a lot of tattoos and she got freaked out."

My father didn't say anything. I think for once Jon Harper was speechless.

"He has a mustache, too," I said as I looked up at him. "I think that's why you scare her."

"I can shave it," he said as I snorted. "What?"

"You, without a mustache?" I asked as he shrugged. "I tried to explain to her that tattoos doesn't mean he's going to hurt her because I showed her my heart on my ankle. It just, I guess, brings back memories."

He still didn't say anything. I think the whole thing made him uncomfortable.

"I'm postponing going to Europe," I said as he looked at me. "We need to get her into seeing a therapist, someone she can talk to, and get her settled before we go off on any trips or anything. I mean, if she freaked out with Nick tonight... with the media and guards and I'm going to be busy so she's going to be with Nick a lot, she's not ready."

"That's probably for the best," he said, nodding. "You know, your cousin Brandie, that man her Mom married did things to her." I looked at him. I didn't know it. Brandie had ended up killing herself not long before I released my first single. "I don't want Ella to turn out like that... depressed."

"She wants to be a singer, Daddy," I said as he chuckled, leaning back in his chair. "I sung to her last night and she sang along with me and she has a good voice. I could tell she was a little shy, but she wants to be like me when she grows up, she said."

"As long as she doesn't fall in love with a boy bander," he said as I rolled my eyes. "Maybe with everything she's been through, maybe helping her with music will bring her out of all those dark things. She obviously gets it from you and Nick. It's in her blood."

"Maybe," I smiled. "Maybe some piano or guitar lessons or vocal lessons. I doubt she's going to be able to go to a normal school, so we'll have to get a tutor. Maybe."

"Who knows," my father said as he smiled. "Ella Carter might end up being the next Harley Harper. Who would have thought that could have ever happened?"