Divided (The United Trilogy Book 2) (12 page)

“I still think you are a complete jerk, you know that, right?” I say, still trying to sound mad, but I’m pretty sure he isn’t fooled.

“I know, but you said you loved me,” Dex reasons out.

“No, I didn’t. I said you couldn’t tell me who to love. Besides, screaming while I’m completely pissed off is not how I tell someone I love them. You have to go and ruin everything, you not-so-jolly giant!” He laughs hard at me now, showing me that beautiful smile that I have also missed.

“I missed you so much, you know that? I’m cranky without you!” he exclaims.

“Ha! If this is you not cranky, no wonder Grace is so depressed.” I am joking, but I realize right after that it was the wrong thing to say. His face instantly falls.

“I’m losing her, Roz. It scares me to death that I don’t know what to do for her. She’s all I have left.”

I grab his hand and make him look me in the eye. “She’s not all you have, and you won’t lose her. Let me try to help, okay?” He nods and starts stroking my hand.

“But before we head back to see her, can we please start over?” I ask him, almost pleadingly.

He gives me his sweet smile again. ”You’re right, how about this?” He picks me up and begins spinning me around. He places a soft kiss on my lips, and then trails them up to my ear and whispers, “It’s so good to see you, Tink. I missed you so much it hurt. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw your sweet face, but nothing could do justice to your beauty. I’m so glad you came back.” He kisses me again, this time deeper and longer than the first one. I break the kiss and look up at him.

“Really, you couldn’t have just opened with that? You had to go with the 'What are you doing here?' stupidity when you could have just said those sweet words?” I make him put me down and I stomp off towards his house, muttering the whole way about how infuriating this particular man is. I can hear his chuckle behind me as we get to his house. He tells me to wait inside and that he will bring Grace over from the neighbors.

I walk inside and look around. It mostly looks the same, but right above the bed is a very familiar-looking picture of a very familiar-looking person in red that is taped to the wall. I am going to kill Masters!

It is then that I hear Dex telling Grace to close her eyes because he has a very special surprise for her. He slowly opens the door and I go to sit down on her bed. He walks in holding the beautiful little girl. My heart swells and aches all at once upon seeing her. She looks even more pale and thin than the last time I saw her. She has deep purple bags under her eyes that don’t belong on such a small, sweet girl.

Dex puts her down right in front of me and then bends down to her level. “Ok, little mouse, go ahead and open your eyes to see your surprise,” Dex tells her. She opens her eyes and when she sees me sitting there on her bed, her eyes get huge. She looks back at her brother and he says, “It’s Roz.” She looks at me again and I open my arms for her, and that is all the invitation she needs before she flings herself at me with a force that almost knocked me over. I fiercely hug her back and start rocking her and whispering how much I have missed her. I see Dex is smiling at us with tears in his eyes. I start to get choked up as well, but I swallow my tears back.

“Well now, let me get a look at you.” I hold her at arm length. “Hmm, just as pretty as ever I see, but it looks as though you aren’t eating, and that’s just too bad because I brought some special treats with me.”

Her eyes get huge and a hopeful little gleam comes into them. I motion for Dex to bring my bag over. “I just so happen to have a whole bag of cookies for one precious little girl and her brother, but you know the rule about cookies: you have to eat your food first.” Her shoulders slump and it breaks my heart. But still, I try to make my voice sound cheerful. “I’ll tell you what, how about we make a deal? I’ll let you try one now just to make sure they are as good as you remember, and if they are then you have to promise to eat three meals every day, and if you do that, your brother will give you one of these cookies each night. Does that sound like a deal?” Her eyes brighten and she shakes her head up and down in agreement. I give her a cookie and she immediately devours it.

Dex laughs. “Well, if they are that good, I’ve got to try one too.” He takes one from the bag and starts eating as well. This is what I have missed so much. Somehow, these two people have managed to worm their way right into my heart.

Once she finishes her cookie, I pick up my bag again. “I have something else for you, but you have to make me another promise, okay?” She smiles and nods her head. “This one is going to be a much harder promise to keep, but you need to try for me Okay, little mouse?” She looks up at me with those big brown eyes that instantly turn my heart to mush.

“I know you like to be by yourself; to be honest sometimes I like to be alone too, but as much fun as it is to be alone, it’s a lot more fun to play with the other kids. You don’t have to talk to them, but they have a favorite game called Princess. Do you know it?” She nods her head, looking nervous.

“I love to play princess, it’s so much fun, but the best part is dressing up and spinning in circles. Would you like to try it?” She nods again. I pull a pretty pink dress out of my bag and put it over her head. Her eyes sparkle as she gazes at me with awe. “Okay, now you have to spin around. If you put your hands out like this, it will help you keep your balance and you can feel the air go through your fingers,” I say as I show her how to spin. She gets up and starts spinning until she falls over in giggles. "Now that you have this princess dress do you think you'll maybe try to play with the others?"

She looks skeptical but then slowly nods yes.

Dex looks down at her in amazement, and then looks over to me and mouths “Thank you”.

“Now, Princess Grace, it’s time to come over here and have story time. Will you sit by me?” She runs over and sits down on my lap and waits for me to tell her a story.

“Once upon a time, in a land very far away, there was a very small little princess named Princess Grace. Princess Grace was a beautiful girl with big brown eyes and light blonde hair who loved to eat cookies.” Grace lets out a giggle.

“One very sad day, Princess Grace’s mommy had to go away.” I can see Dex tense up and he seems to want to stop me but I give him a firm shake of my head. He doesn’t say anything but I can tell by his expression that he isn’t happy with where this story is going.

“Princess Grace’s mommy didn’t want to leave her, but she had to go. All she wanted was for her to be very happy. Princess Grace didn’t understand why her mommy had to go and became very sad. She didn’t want to play, or eat, or talk to anyone; she just wanted her mommy back.”

Two little tears sliding down her cheeks almost make me come undone. Maybe this really isn’t a very good idea. “Do you want me to stop the story?” She shakes her head no.

“Prince Dexter, her brother, hated to see the princess so sad. He wanted her to laugh and play with other little girls so he brought her a friend named Princess Roz to come visit her.” She smiles up at me and rubs my cheek with her little hand.

“Princess Roz instantly fell in love with little Grace, and they became best friends. For a little while, Grace started to be happy again. She ate and slept and played with Roz, but then one day, Princess Roz had to go away too. Princess Grace became so sad because she didn’t want Roz to go away like her mommy did, because her mommy never came back.” At this, Grace starts nodding her head. I already had a feeling that has always been the problem. I hope this story will help her.

“But you see, what Princess Grace didn’t know was that Roz was a very busy Princess with a very important job. She had to help to make other people feel better too. Grace wasn’t the only sad one in the kingdom, there were so many other people who needed Roz’s help, but unlike Grace’s mommy, Roz could still come back and see Grace. She couldn’t wait to see her little friend again. No matter what happened, no matter how busy Roz got, or how many sad people she had to help, Roz always made time to come back and see her best friend. Sometimes when Grace is sad, she would forget that Roz would come back, but Roz would never forget. She always came for her friend, she would bring her treats and tell her stories, and one day, she would never have to leave again, they could always be together. But until that day comes, Roz would keep coming back to see her best friend, no matter what.” After that, Grace throws her little arms around my neck and hugs me tight. I rub her back with my hand.

“Little one, you know how much I love you, right? I miss you so much when I’m not here, but no matter how sad you get, you need to remember that I will always come back to see you. It might take a week like this last time, or even much longer like a month or two, but I will always come. However, you have to promise me that you will try really hard not to get too sad. I need someone to take care of Dex for me while I am gone. He gets sad too, so you have to try to cheer him up for me, okay?” She nods. “You look pretty sleepy. I don’t think you’ve gotten much sleep, so I’m going to lay down with you and give you a cuddle and sing my favorite song to you, is that okay?” she nods at me.

I start singing to her and before I even get to the second verse, she is already fast asleep. I tuck her in well and then I go over to Dex. He holds me in his arms while I silently sob. The last thing I want to do is leave this precious little angel who has only ever been left behind, but I don’t have a choice. If I am going to make it to where I can see her anytime I want, I have to at least give this a try. She is worth it.

Dex just holds me and strokes my back for a while before I stand and walk to the door. He follows me out to the porch.

“You have to leave already?” he asks.

“Yea, I’m not even here. I had to pull some strings to be able to come here, and I don’t want to get Green in any trouble.” He nods but he looks so sad.

“Don’t be sad, I’ll come back,” I try to console him. “My mom is going to go with me to all of the Zones; with her help, I’m pretty sure we will be able to find Ed Jones. If not, I’m still going to try to convince the Council. They are a lot easier to talk to than I thought. They just seem like a scared bunch who doesn’t know what to do. They all genuinely want to do the right thing, I think, so that should make it easier.

“I know, and I’m so proud of you, but I just hate not having you here. You are amazing with Grace. You gave her what she needed in only a few minutes, more than I’ve ever been able to give her in over a year,” he says, looking completely defeated.

“Hey, you stop that. That little girl loves you. The sun rises and sets with you and she is going to pull from your faith. You need to show her that everything will be fine. Keep reminding her how much I love her, okay? I’ll keep sending treats when I can’t be here through Green. You won’t hear from me for at least a month, maybe longer. As soon as I know the outcome, I’ll let you know,” I assure him.

He touches my face so softly with those huge hands of his. “I’ll be waiting. Go save the world, Tink.”

“I’ll do my best, my not-so-jolly giant.” He laughs again at his nickname. He gives me a soft kiss and then he turns and goes inside. I have been here for much too long so I go to find Green. I have to come up with a good excuse so as not raise the suspicions of the guards. I see Green pacing back and forth in front of the common area.

“Are you alright?” He looks worried. I give him a sheepish smile.

“I am now. I’m sorry I made you worry. I might have gotten into a bit of a fight with Dex, but everything is fine now, and I had to stay with Grace for a while to calm her down. You are right, she’s not doing good…but I think I was able to help her. I’m ready to leave now. I’m sorry again.” He looks down at me with both relief and frustration.

“The guys are going to wonder why on earth we are here for so long when we only told them that we are just dropping off supplies. Give me your ankle.” I sit down and give him my ankle. He takes his shirt off and uses it to wrap around my ankle. I look at him with a smirk on my face.

“You just couldn’t wait to show off the goods, huh? Sorry, I’m taken.” He laughs at that.

“You fell and injured yourself and you hit your head so I’m going to carry you out of here. You better make it look good.”

I give him a wink and then put my hand over my head and throw my head back and make myself lifeless in his arms.

“While you were away, I found Malik and filled him in on everything. He told me to tell you good luck and that he’s rooting for you.” I smile at that. It would have been nice to see Malik, but there’s no time now.

As soon as we make it through the gate, both men are on guard. They come running to us with panic on their faces.

“What happened? Is she alright? Do we need to go in or call for back up?” Davis asks, clearly worried about me. I feel so bad that I make him worry, but it can’t be helped.

“She’s fine, boys; calm down. She tripped over a root and twisted up her ankle pretty good and hit her head on something on the way down hard enough to knock her out for a few. I insisted that she rest for a while before we moved her. I would have let you know, but I didn’t want to leave her side. I hope you weren’t too worried.” Green would be an amazing actor with the way he delivers his “lines”.

Anderson speaks up, “We were starting to get concerned, I knew something had to have happened for you to be gone for so long, but Davis insisted that we wait for another few minutes before we would call Masters.”