Saving Grace

Chapter 4

Paige's POV

The next morning Grace and I made our way down to work. Nothing huge was happening, which was nice. About three times a week we had some big magazine shoot in the studio, but today would just be a few relaxing sessions for Christmas cards.

"Lanie!" Grace called to Elaine from my arms when we walked into the studio. Howie and Elaine had become almost like grandparents to her.

"Hi Gracie," Elaine said, taking my baby from my arms. "Change of plans for today, Paige. They need you for an off-sight shoot for Vogue."

"Alright," I said to her. "You okay stying here with Howie and Elaine, Grace?" she nodded happily and started telling Elaine about how she met a new friend yesterday.

"Hold on a sec, Gracie. Here's the information on the shoot," Elaine said handing me a manila folder and returning to Grace's story.

I tightened my scarf around my neck and stepped outside, opening the envelope. On the top of the first page it had the address of a little diner just outside of the city. I hopped into a cab, told the address to the driver and pulled out the rest of the papers.

There wasn't any information about who I would be shooting, but there were pictures of the diner itself and some of the wardrobe choices so I could get an idea of what I should do.

When the cab stopped I paid the driver, grabbed my bag and got out of the cab. I pushed the door to the little diner open and was hit with the smell of fresh coffee and bacon.

People were bustling around setting up for the shoot. A short woman with blond hair came over to me and said "You must be Paige. I'm Cassidy. Thank God you're here! Our usual photographer called in sick today."

"Glad I can help," I said scanning the room. "Who exactly is the shoot for? The information that I got didn't say who."

"Really? It should have been part of what I faxed over. Oh well," behind us there was a a little tinkling of bells that told us someone was here. "Here they are!"

I spun around and found myself looking straight into the eyes of five boys. Shit. This just had to be a One Direction shoot didn't it? I thought to myself. What am I supposed to do now?

"Hi, you must be Cassidy," Harry said stepping forward and shaking her hand.

Liam looked like someone had just punched him in the stomach, the rest of the boys seemed completely oblivious and Eleanor, who stood next to Louis holding Nate, kept looking between the two of us with worry in her eyes.

This was going to be interesting.

Liam's POV

"Just go out with her," Harry urged me as we stepped out of the car and walked towards the diner where the shoot would be.

"No, Harry. For the last time I will not go out with her." He was trying to get me to go out with one of Maryn's friends. We had met her yesterday, and while she was a lovely girl I couldn't bring myself to go out with her.

"Leave him alone, Haz," Niall said.

"Thank you Niall."

Harry shrugged and pushed open the door. We all filed in after him and Looked around. A few feet away two women were talking. The blond ones eyes lit up and the woman that she was talking to turned around.

I instantly felt sick to my stomach. I was looking directly at Briar. I quickly shook off that idea. Briar was dead. I held her as she died. This woman just looked exactly like her.

"Hi, you must be Cassidy," Harry said, shaking the blond's hand.

I tried not to stare at the girl how looked like Briar. I wasn't sure what I would accidentally say to her. Eleanor was the only one who seemed to see the resemblance. Her eyes were darting between me and the dark haired girl.

"Paige!" Nate screamed. "Wheh's Gwace?"

She must be the mother of the little girl that Nate kept talking about last night. There was no way that she could be Briar. Briar wasn't a mother.

"She's with her grandparents, Nate," she said smiling at the little boy. That helped me to be sure that it wasn't Briar. This girl simply looked like her.

"Shall we get started then?" Cassidy asked us. We all nodded and looked towards Paige for instruction. She took off her coat and set down her things then started directing us on where to sit, stand, or look.

Paige's POV

Four hours later we broke for lunch. A huge buffet was set up for us at one side of the diner. Before I went over to get food I grabbed Eleanor's arm.

"Help me," I whispered to her.

"You're doing great," she assured me.

"He's going to know that it's me, I know it."

"He doesn't know that you were pregnant though. And he knows that your parent's are dead. Nate saved you."

"I know that he did," I looked over to where Louis was filling a plate for his son.

"Where is Grace really though?"

"With my bosses. They're practically her grandparents, so it's not like I lied."

The two of us made our way over to where the boys were standing and eating to make plates for ourselves. Louis had sat Nate down at the table nearest to where they all stood so that he didn't have to hold his plate and eat at the same time.

"How long have you been working as a photographer?" Liam asked me after I had made up a plate.

"A little under a year," I replied.

"How'd you get into it?"

"I took a ton of pictures of my daughter when she was born and when I would take her out I always had my camera with me. It's just something I love to do and my roommate told me that I needed to do it for a living. So the three of us went down to the studio where I work now and showed them some of my work."

"Do you have a picture of your daughter?" Louis asked me.

With out thinking I pulled out my phone, unlocked it and opened up my folder of pictures of Grace. The earliest were from when she was first born, and they went all the way up to yesterday.

"She looks like you," Louis told me.

I smiled and took my phone back. "Thank you, I think that she looks more like her father though."

Liam looked up at the mention of Grace's father. "Is her father still in the picture? I mean if you don't mind me asking. I just don't see a ring or anything."

"No," I sighed. "He and I went our separate ways a long time ago. He never even knew that I was pregnant."

"That's too bad," Liam said, although in his eyes I could tell that he didn't really mean it.

"Breaks over people!" Cassidy called. "Let's get going!"

We all threw out our plates and trudged back over to the set to get back to work. As I took the boys pictures, I felt my mind wandering to the look that Liam had had in his eyes when I said that Grace's father and I were no longer together.

It was one of joy mixed with sadness and confusion, and I had no idea what it meant.

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Sorry that sucks, but this chapter was really hard to write!

I'M ON CHRISTMAS VACATION! Thank God. I seriously don't think that I could've handled going to school on Monday, I'm much to exhausted.

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