A very belated Christmas gift for SACarter- enjoy!

Chapter Quote:
"No matter how far or fast your run, the world isn't big enough to hide from a soldier."

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Chapter 19: Reconciliationis

Abigail

"Happy birthday!" We all shouted as Grey came down the stairs. He looked around in bewilderment as he took in the sight before him: me, Hannah Lee, James, Liam, Jax, mom, and Grandma Edna standing in front of a two-tiered birthday cake, a massive 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' banner behind us, and more than a few presents.

A smile broke out onto my boyfriend's face as he hopped over to us on his crutches. He seemed to be at a loss for words while we all hugged him.

"Happy birthday, brother!" James exclaimed, clapping Grey on the back. "We have a three course lunch being prepared for you and-"

"And by 'we', he means mom and Grandma Edna are making it," Liam interrupted, earning him a punch on the arm from his younger brother.

"Anyway! After the three course meal, we have cake and presents!"

"Why's the table set for ten people?" Grey queried.

"We have some company coming. Trust me, I know you'll love it!" I told him, leading him over to the table. The rest of the group followed while mom and Grandma Edna went to the kitchen to finish cooking the meal. My boyfriend collapsed in his chair, seemingly glad to get off his feet. I took a seat next to him. My family made sure that the two empty spaces remained on the other side of him. I could tell that Grey was trying to figure out who was supposed to be coming, and why no one was sitting next to him, but he didn't prod about it.

About ten minutes before the first part of the meal was to be served, there was a knock at the door. I jumped up to go get it. Upon opening the door, I smiled at the sight before me. The last two guests had arrived. I called for my boyfriend to come over, that the door was for him. It only took a few moments for him to round the corner into the foyer.

Grey stopped dead in his tracks as he stared open-mouthed at the two guests. For the second time today, he was speechless, but four-year old Ella McAllister wasn't, shouting his name and running up to him. My boyfriend unceremoniously dropped his crutches so he could pick her up. Giselle McAllister and I both rushed to his side to make sure he didn't fall over without the support of his crutches, but he seemed fine. His sole focus was hugging Ella back who was squeezing the living daylights out of him.

"I missed you!" Ella said, finally pulling back to look at Grey and putting her hands on his cheeks.

"I missed you too, sweetie. I'm sorry I haven't been able to talk to you much. I've been trying to get better so I could come see you and make up for it all," Grey told her with a smile. "Do you want to go meet my family?"

"Yeah!"

"Honey, let's let Grey get his crutches back so he can walk," Giselle said, taking her daughter back from my boyfriend. She gave him a hug too, a few tears falling down her face. When she pulled away, she added, "I'm so happy to see you. You have no idea how much we missed you."

"I didn't think I'd be able to see y'all in a long time. This is the best gift I could've asked for. Why don't you two go into the kitchen? We'll meet you there."

"Let's go meet the others!" Giselle exclaimed to Ella, walking into the kitchen, leaving me and Grey alone. I picked up his crutches for him, and he took them from me while asking, "Did you do this?"

"Yeah. I remembered you telling me all about them, especially Ella. I know you missed them so I did some digging through Chris's stuff and found Duke's old home number and gave them a call."

Grey pulled me into a kiss, cupping my face. When he pulled away, we were both slightly breathless. He whispered, "I love you so much. I hope you know that."

"I love you too," I replied back. "Now let's get back in there or else Ella might get mad that you're taking so long."

Grey chuckled. "That girl has me wrapped around her little finger. Come on."

The two of us walked back into the kitchen. Grey sat down and immediately, Ella ran over to him, wanting to sit in his lap. Everything else seemed to disappear when he was with her. They had a lengthy conversation about horses. They also discussed some cartoon shows. I had a feeling Grey had no idea what she was talking about half the time, but he went along with it flawlessly.

"What's on your mind, sis?" Liam sidled up to me, keeping his tone low.

"Just thinking," I answered.

"About?"

"About how good Grey is with Ella."

"You're really smitten with him, aren't you?"

I didn't hesitate in my answer. "I love him."

"Would you marry him?"

"I know we haven't known each other long, but yeah, I would. He's not going to ask me though. Not any time soon at least. He's not one to rush headlong into anything."

"Are you okay with that?"

"Yeah. I'm the same way, so it kind of works out nicely. I'm going to go over and talk to Ella. I'd like to get to know his goddaughter. I'll talk to you later." I left my brother's side to join my boyfriend.

"Hi!" Ella said, a massive grin on her face.

"Hi!" I replied, sitting down next to them. "How are you?"

"Great! I love Grey!" She hugged my boyfriend for about the millionth time, and it was one of the sweetest sights I'd ever seen. "How do you know him?"

"Abigail is my girlfriend," Grey told her. "She's the one that made this possible."

Ella's mouth dropped open in surprise. "Thank you!"

"You're very welcome! It's an honor to meet you finally. Grey's told me all about you."

"He's told me and mommy about you too."

"All good things, I hope," I laughed.

"Oh yeah! He says he loves you and that you're beautiful, and you're sweet! He's right too!" Ella gasped. "Are you two gonna get married? He said somethin' about that."

I nearly choked on the sip of Dr. Pepper I was drinking. Grey flushed a deep crimson. Before either one of us could sputter out an answer, mom announced that lunch was ready. I was grateful we'd both been saved by that. I knew what I wanted his answer to be, but I wasn't going to say that. Not in front of the kid. Besides, I didn't know what he wanted. For all I knew, maybe he did want to marry me...
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Grey

God bless Diana's timing with the lunch announcement, because while I wanted to tell Ella I wanted to marry Abigail, I also didn't know how Abigail felt towards that idea, and I didn't want to scare her.

The meal was delicious. We had salad to start, soup to follow, and an incredible prime rib roast to follow with a bunch of sides. We waited about an hour before cutting the cake and opening presents. I'd been silently freaking out that I hadn't gotten Ella anything for her birthday because I'd already sent it off.

Or so I thought.

Abigail had been the one to 'send it off' last week, but knowing that Giselle and Ella were going to be coming here, she kept it instead. Everyone else in the family got Ella presents too. She and I opened the gifts at the same time. I let her help me with mine since ripping wrapping paper was one of her favorite things to do.

After that, we made our way into the living room where we all sat and chatted. At some point, everyone either had to go do something else or they fell asleep. By seven o'clock, only Abigail, Ella, and I remained awake. Even Giselle had given into her exhaustion.

"Grey, what happened to your leg?" Ella asked, her tiny fingers feeling the hard exterior of my cast. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Abigail's eyes flit over to look at my face. I knew my expression had fallen as I tried to come up with an answer.

"On my last deployment, I got shot in the arm and some debris fell down and crushed my leg. The arm is almost healed, but I still have a bit for my leg."

"Was daddy around when it happened?"

"No... he went to go help some other team members."

"Is that from the same accident that killed daddy?"

I felt my heart drop into my stomach. "Yeah, kiddo, it was."

"I'm glad you made it out alive." Ella hugged me tightly.

"Me too..." My eyes locked with Abigail's; she was blurry, and that made me realize there were tears in my eyes. My girlfriend gently placed her hand on my arm to silently comfort me. We didn't want to let Ella know I was upset...

"What happened to the bad people?" Ella inquired, pulling away to look at me.

"I don't know. But there's some people out there trying to get justice for what was done to your dad and the rest of our brothers."

"Are you part of that team?"

"Not yet. But once I'm better, I'm going back out there to help. I'm not going to let them hurt anyone else," I promised. Abigail's head hung low almost instantly after the words came out of my mouth, and I realized in that moment that if she had any suspicions of me going wanting to go back out in the field, that I'd just confirmed those suspicions.

"They don't stand a chance with you going after them!" Ella declared. "And you'll come back?"

"I certainly can't leave the two leading ladies in my life, now can I?" I said, lacing my fingers through Abigail's. She smiled at me, but I could see the hurt in her eyes. We were going to be having a discussion later, and it wasn't going to be a pleasant one.

"I miss daddy..." Ella whispered.

"I miss him too. But he's still here you know," I remarked.

"He is?"

"He is," I confirmed. Pointing to her heart, I said, "He's in your heart. He's in my heart. He's in mommy's heart. And he's in so many people's memories. As long as there are people who remember him and loved him, he can never truly die. So while he's not here with us physically, he's here with us spiritually. And I know he's looking out for you right now."

"I haven't felt him though..."

"What do you mean?" Abigail queried.

"Like... when grandma died, I still saw her. I could feel her. I can't feel daddy anywhere."

"Maybe he's a little more covert about it," I suggested.

"Covert?"

"Stealthy. Quiet."

"Like a spy!"

"Yeah, like a spy."

"Ella, it's time for your bath," Giselle said sleepily, waking up from her nap.

"But I wanna spend more time with Grey," Ella protested.

"We're here for a week. You'll have plenty of time. And you can say goodnight to him after. But for now, you need to take a bath. Let's go."

Reluctantly, Ella went with her mother upstairs to the guest room. Abigail got up too, saying she was going to go shower. She'd only taken a few steps before I called out her name, making her stop and turn around.

"Abigail, we need to talk about what I said earlier."

"I don't want to talk about it now. It's your birthday, and birthdays shouldn't have any unpleasant conversations. Beside, Ella is extremely intuitive and if we were fighting or at a disagreement with each other, I know she'd pick up on it."

I wasn't going to let this go though. I just had the courage to talk to her about this. If I didn't now, I don't know when I'd have it again. I hated seeing her hurting like this. "Did you know?"

Abigail bit her lip. "I had my suspicions. I figured you'd want revenge on the people who did this to your brothers."

"I promised them I'd get justice."

"It nearly killed you last time you went, and that was with your brothers. A team you worked well with and had a system down with. You go out next, and you're with a new team that you haven't worked with as long and-"

"I've been kept informed of the proceedings of that mission and they've made a lot of headway in it. When I go back out there, it's going to be a lot better. It's going to be a really cut-and-dried mission. And I'm not leaving until I'm back to the way I was before."

"Things happen! The last mission was supposed to be cut-and-dried according to Chris and look what happened there!" Abigail burst out, tears filling her eyes. "I almost lost you. I did for a while. I love you, Grey. More than I can ever put into words. And I want justice for my brother just as much as you do. But surely you can let others handle it for you?"

"I started this. I need to finish it. For me and for them. I made a promise."

Abigail nodded. Taking a deep breath, she said, "I'm going to go shower. I'll see you later."

Despite wanting to tell her to stay, to tell her to stay and talk, I knew deep down she needed space. Chris had told this to me. Whenever she had an argument based more on emotions than logic, she needed time to collect herself and space from the person she'd had the argument with. Apparently he'd had a few of those with her after their dad died...

I stayed on the couch, watching the TV but not really paying attention to it. It was only when Giselle came down that I was brought out of my thoughts.

"What's on your mind?" she asked, sitting down next to me.

"Abigail found out that I'm going back once I'm better. She... didn't take the news well..." I admitted.

"Grey, she nearly lost you and her brother that day. She's scared that it could happen again. I don't blame her. The thought of you going back terrifies me too. But I know it's something you need to do for yourself, otherwise you'll never forgive yourself. You made a promise to them, and you're going to fulfill it. You're a Marine through and through. You're married to that job. So do this for you. But make sure when you get back, that the job isn't the only thing you're married to."

"What are you talking about?" I looked at her questioningly.

"I've seen the way you look at Abigail. I've seen the way she looks at you. And I remember those looks. Duke and I used give each other those same ones. You want to marry her, don't you?"

"I do," I confessed. "But after tonight, I might've just ruined that chance."

"You didn't. Abigail is smart, and she'll come around to the idea. She'll never like it, don't get me wrong, but if she respects you like I think she does, she'll let you do what you need to do for you. And I'm also pretty damn sure that if you asked her to marry you right now, she'd still say yes." Giselle smiled at me. "On that note, I'm going to see if Ella is done pestering your girlfriend so she can come say goodnight to you."

"I don't think Abigail minds her pestering."

"Just in case." Giselle kissed me on the top of my head. "It's great to see you Grey."

"You too."
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Hope you enjoyed! :)