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

Chapter 8 - This Love Is Ours

[Nick]

Since everybody was there already, Jon had already fired up the grill in the back and we all cooked out. I was still kind of nervous with Ella being here with a bunch of strangers, but she came downstairs with Harley, Sadie, my Mom and Noah and seemed okay. She had picked out the room next to Sadie's as her room and Sadie had already given her one of her dolls.

There was a part of me that wanted to know what happened to her, what that man and woman did to her. Harley said that she was going to have to go to counseling regularly and that just burned in my head that they must have done something awful.

Ella was skittish, like a timid cat, around all of the guys, especially Jon and AJ for some reason. She seemed okay with Donnie and Brian, so maybe it was Jon and AJ's rough exterior that made her put her guard up. I wasn't sure, but she took to Daisy and Lisa quickly.

"Nick, she looks so much like you," my Mom said as I walked into the house. Everybody had mostly left and Ella was sitting in the living room with Harley, Daisy and Sadie. "She looks like BJ when she was that age."

"I always pictured her how Sadie looks," I said. "Harley and I would talk about it and how we thought she would look is how Sadie has turned out. When we saw her... I just knew."

"What happened with her..."

"I don't know. I left the room with Ella and the police chief when Harley talked to the social services lady and we haven't really talked about it," I said as I crossed my arms across my chest. "I think it was bad though. She's even a little skittish with me, but apparently she loves Harley."

"She's her mother, of course she will..."

"No, I mean, she's a fan," I said, looking at my Mom. "She knew who we were when we walked into the room. The lady told Harley that she had a Harley Harper poster up in her room at her foster home." My mom smiled, holding her hand up to her mouth. "It's weird. It's almost like she knew, too."

[/Nick]

[Harley]

I smiled, watching Sadie as she sat on Ella's bed, brushing Ella's long blonde hair that night before bed. Nick was busy getting Noah to bed who was being fussy and Jane was downstairs talking to her family members, letting them know the news before anything came out in the papers.

"You have pretty hair Ella, but it's not curly like mine," Sadie said as I smiled.

"Sweetie, you should go get in bed, it's late," I said as Sadie pouted. "Come on, I'll go tuck you in real quick," I said as Sadie hugged Ella's neck before bouncing off the bed. "I'll be right back, okay?" Ella nodded and I followed Sadie out of the room and into her room.

"I like Ella," Sadie said, climbing into her bed. "She looks like Daddy and I look like you."

"She does look like your Daddy," I smiled, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "We have to be nice to Ella, okay? She's been through a lot so you have to be nice to her, okay?" Sadie nodded and smiled.

"You happy she's not in heaven?" Sadie asked as I nodded, leaning over to kiss her on the forehead.

"So happy," I smiled. "Get some sleep. You can help Ella and I go shopping tomorrow, okay?"

"Night night," she said as I smiled, walking out of the room. I pulled the door too and walked back into Ella's room to see her hanging the crinkled and folded up old poster of me on the closet door. "What's that?"

"My poster," she said as I walked over and looked at it. I hadn't seen the picture in so long. It was a poster from my joint tour with the Backstreet Boys. It was a picture that originally was used in a magazine, but later used for some of my merchandise. It was the fairytale dress I had on when Nick proposed to me at the castle outside of London. "You look like a princess in it."

"Wanna hear something about the day that picture was taken?" I asked as she nodded. "That's the day Nick asked me to marry him. I was wearing that dress."

"So my poster is the day my real Dad asked my real Mom to marry him?" she asked as I nodded.

"If you want one that's in better shape, I can get you a non-folded one and we can put it in a frame for you," I said as he smiled and nodded. "That is if you want to keep one up."

"I do," she said. "I want to be like you when I grow up. That's why I always like to keep your poster up, but now you're my real Mom and so maybe that's weird..."

"No, that's not weird, Ella," I whispered as I pointed over to the bed and she ran up, climbing on it. "It's sweet because I thought if we found you, that you would hate me and to find out that you already knew who I was and knew my music..."

"I have all of your CDs," she said as she climbed under the cover. "My foster Mom liked you, too. She let me watch you on TV when you were on "Ellen" the other day."

"Well, when I do a show around there, we'll have to invite her for taking such good care of you after..." I said as my voice trailed off.

"What they did? What he did?" she asked as I nodded. "It still hurts sometimes."

"I bet," I said as I climbed up on the bed and sat up beside her, resting my back on the headboard. "We don't have to talk about that."

"Will you sing me a song before I go to sleep?" Ella asked as I looked at her. "One of yours? You said when you were pregnant you sung to me all the time. Maybe that's why I like your voice so much."

"Name any song and I'll sing it," I said as she pressed her lips together, thinking. I wanted to laugh at how much she looked like Nick with that expression. "What's your favorite song?"

"I like 'Enchanted' but I also like 'Ours'," she said as I smiled. "Will you sing 'Ours' to me?"

[/Harley]

[Nick]

I walked out of Noah's room, shutting the door softly when I could hear Harley singing faintly. The door to Sadie's room was closed and I eased my way down to the one that Ella had picked out and smiled, peaking in to see Harley singing to her.

You never know what people have up their sleeves
Ghosts from your past gonna jump out at me
Lurking in the shadows with their lip gloss smiles
But I don't care, 'cause right now you're mine

I smiled, hearing Ella join in with Harley on the chorus.

And you'll say
Don't you worry your pretty little mind
People throw rocks at things that shine
And life makes love look hard
The stakes are high, the water's rough
But this is love is ours.

I stood there, crossing my arms over my chest and trying my best not to cry myself. I could tell Harley was tearing up because her voice would crack.

'Cause I love the gap between your teeth
And I love the riddles that you speak
And any snide remarks from my father about your tattoos will be ignored
'Cause my heart is yours

That part always cracked me up. I knew Jon hated that part of the song because it was so the truth.

I watched as Ella and Harley finished the song and Ella reached up, hugging Harley tightly.

"Did you write that song?"

"Yep, about Nick. About your Dad."

"And he won't hurt me?"

"Never. He'd kill someone if anybody ever hurt you again," Harley said as Ella scooted down under the cover. "Get a good night sleep and we'll go shopping tomorrow and run by the fan club office and you can pick out all the stuff you want."

"I'm glad you and Nick are my real Mom and Dad."

"Me, too," Harley smiled, telling Ella goodnight as she walked up to the door and paused, seeing me. "Hey," she whispered, shutting the door behind her. "Noah out?"

"Yeah, she okay?" I asked as Harley nodded. She reached for my hand, leading me to our bedroom and shut the door. "I know we haven't really had any time to talk, but... I want to know. I know she's going to need counseling, but what else?"

"He raped her," Harley whispered as I stared at her. "It wasn't just touching, Nick. He did things to her and she has damage and... well, you're not going to have to worry about her getting knocked up at sixteen."

"She can't..." I said as Harley shook her head. I put my hands over my face and wanted to turn around and punch the wall, or punch something. I looked back at Harley to see tears falling down her face. "Don't cry..."

"If I had just trusted my instinct, I knew somewhere deep inside that she couldn't have been gone," Harley whispered. "None of this would have happened."

"Hey, it wasn't your fault," I said, walking up to her. "I blame myself. If I had been there, if I hadn't stressed you out... if..."

"You can't do that to yourself, Nick," Harley whispered.

"Neither can you."

[/Nick]