Abby

My knees bounce, sobs wrecking my body. I rock back and forth, worry borrowing its way deep down inside my mind. The doctors words as they rushed my father into surgery repeat in my head over and over again.

"We think one of the bullets is lodged in his lungs."

I woke on the way to the hospital, my head on Chance's lap as Shane drove us behind the ambulance. I was worried for my father, but my following questions were about everyone else. Chance explained that the FBI of all people helped us, and that the Alberts brothers were the only causalities. I was so worried about everyone, but it looks like Austin saw them coming from the back of the clubhouse on one of the monitors Torque had set up.

They were desperate. That's the only way this all made sense. We were close to getting to them, and with Domingo after them as well, they took their last opportunity.

I spot Chance walking towards me; his long strides quicken when he sees my state. I have not stopped to calm down since they took my father in the back for surgery. Nothing has been able to penetrate my mind but that fact that I might lose yet another parent in almost the same spot.

I was checked out in a separate room, some small bruising on my ribs and a few cuts and scrapes but other than that I was fine. Puck was her as well, but he would be released tomorrow, bullet tore right through him. Mindy was in the same boat, as she needed a few stitches and would be going home in a few short hours. I was shocked when the doctors asked what happened and the FBI agents told the staff we were with them.

"Hey, it's alright babe. C'mere." I lean my head on his shoulder as he cradles me. My body instantly relaxes within his hold, but my mind is still in its own whirlwind.

"What did they say Chance?" I ask hiccupping through my shakes. I feel cold but only internally as if my inside can't get warm enough.

"Same. He's still in surgery and they don't have any further information. Said they'll come out and speak with us as soon as they know.

"I can't lose him. I can't lose another parent Chance." He looks down at me with love and compassion. His lips find mine and I melt into his touch.

"You won't babe. Bone is just as stubborn as you are. He won't let those fucker win. Not when he just got you back." He says, breaking the kiss. I nod my head reluctantly, not certain if I believe it. I have been on the staff side of this visit and I've seen how many times people pray and cry for their loved one, only to be told they were gone.

From the corner of my eye I spot Austin standing next to the twenty-four hour coffee shop speaking quietly to the same man I saw back at the clubhouse. Both men have small splatters of blood on them from the gun fight we had just hours before.

"Chance? Who is that man?"

"His name is Agent Roswell. He's with the FBI. National Security."

"And why was he there at the clubhouse? How did the FBI even know when to come in?"

Chance looks up and watches Austin's interacting with said agent. "Think it was all planned babe."

"What?"

"Not sure what's going on. It might explain why the FBI brought us in a few weeks back. Austin made it seem like they didn't have anything on us but apparently he was lying about that. None of the brothers knew. Everyone's a little pissed. Rightly so."

"But why would" I'm cut off by the waiting room door opening and the surgeon in charge of my father's surgery walking out. I jump up quickly running over to him. He's holding a clip board and when I reach him, blesses me with a small smile.

"Miss Prince?"

"Y-yes, is my father alright?"

"Yes, he will be okay." The breath I was holding gets releases slowly and I almost fall over with the weight that has bene lifted. "We were able to find the bullet, it has just missed his left lung. The other two went straight through, missing vital organs as well. The next twenty- four house are still critical, and he will need to stay here a few more days, but I think he will have a safe recovery."

Tears flow down my face as I nod my head enthusiastically. Chance thanks the doctor, noticing I cannot speak and leads me back to our spots. Before I sit, I turn to him and look up, suddenly needing to get everything off my chest.

"Chance, do you think we could go somewhere and talk?" He looks down at me with caution but eventually slowly nods his head.

"Yeah babe, whatever you need. Let me call Shane and tell him about Bone. He can spread the word."

A nod from me and I walk outside to the back patio where those waiting on their loved ones can get some fresh air. I sit for a few minutes alone, wondering the whole time how I will begin this conversation. I love Chance, that much is clear, and I know he loves me, but we have too many secrets, too much we still have to work through in order to fully be together. He's hurt me each and every time I have gotten close and I can't go through that anymore.

He walks outside moments later, the automatic sliding glass closing quietly behind him. We are alone in the night, only the lights of the cars from the nearby parking lot occasionally illuminating the patio.

"Before we talk, I need you to know something." I stare into his deep brown depths catching a small amount of hesitation. "I won't let you go Abigail. Whatever I tell you, whatever thoughts you have in your head about me, you're mine and that's not changing."

A small smile claims my lips as I take in his eagerness for me. It's strange that I wanted this for so long that he's right, I don't care what he tells me about his past, I'm his.

"Need you to say it babe. That sexy fuckin' smirk isn't enough." He jokes, sitting right beside me.

A light giggle falls out of me, something that feels strange to do since just hours ago I was ready to give up my life to save Chance and my father.

"I'm yours Chance." He blows out a deep breath and I lean in closer to him. "The last we spoke, you had said you killed your own daughter, what did you mean?"

His eyes glaze over as he looks at everything but me. I knew going straight in would be painful for him, but I have faith in him. I know he will find his way back to me.

"I was responsible for her death." I remain quiet, not wanting to interrupt. "I was a high school teacher before I came into the Nightmare Warriors. I had a wife and a daughter." I notice he says had and not have.

"What happened to them?"

"Alberts." He states, shocking me further. "Me and my wife, Laurie, had a program called Second Chance. It helped high school students, mainly seniors that were on the right track to graduating but because of their financial hardships at home, could barely hang on. Most of them came from broken families, so they chipped in with working after school, sometimes before school. It would help them with school supplies, work shoes, things like that. Then once a year we would pick one student at random and give them a scholarship."

"That sounds amazing." His prideful smile lights up his face and I catch a glimpse of who Ryan Malone used to be.

"It was, I was proud of it, and so was Laurie. But with the program came some bumps along the road. Some of my students we came across had the unfortunate circumstances of joining gangs. They still came to school and participated in the program after school where they would all come and study, so I knew they wanted out, but it wasn't that easy. It never was."

He quickly sobers, going back to the hard man I have known since he took a step into the Nightmare Warriors compound. "One of them was too far gone?"

"Yes. His name was Sean Calvinson. He was bright as hell but made stupid decisions. The gang offered him more, so he took it."

Sadness overwhelms me when I think of the poor teenager that felt he wasn't worth more than being a faceless member of a gang.

"What happened next?"

"Sean's gang was at the school one day, causing trouble with a few of my students, I kicked them out, embarrassed them. They were angry, retaliated a few days later by shooting up the building we used for the Second Chance Program. They all died that day Abby. All of them but Sean, he was held up somewhere being beaten until he agreed to never tell anyone about what he knew."

Tears align my eyes and slowly pour over. I watch as Chance pulls up part of his shirt, showing off the scar I have noticed several times but haven't asked how he got it.

"I was shot in the abdomen. Was in surgery for hours. When I woke, they told me that none of my students made it. I was angry, hurt, felt betrayed. Guilt hit me the hardest. I felt all alone, felt like I was the only one working on making sure the men who killed my students were held accountable. I pushed my wife and daughter away, pushed my parents away, pushed anyone that wanted to love me far away and locked myself in pity."

"Alberts was a detective back then." It's not a question but he answers it anyways.

"Yes. Parents of the dead teens wanted some kind of verdict to what happened to their children. People of our town wanted someone to blame. Someone started a rumor about how one of my students went crazy and killed the rest, then turned the gun on themselves. I couldn't have that, couldn't live with the consciousness of them blaming someone innocent. I went down to the precinct and raised hell, Alberts was on the receiving end of that."

"Chance"

"He killed them Abby. I came home and my wife and daughter were brutally murdered. I can still remember every detail of what I saw that night, still feel the horror and fear. I knew it was Alberts but couldn't prove it. They chucked it up to a random robbery, even though nothing was missing from the home, and Alberts got away."

"I'm so sorry." Ugly sobs wreck my body as I think of Chance running into a home that was once full of love and life but turned into something dark.

Chance holds me tightly and I welcome his love and infatuation. I now understand why he pushed me away. He felt like he didn't deserve happiness. The same way I felt after my mother died. I hated knowing it was partly my fault, hated knowing I could have prevented the whole thing if I were just braver.

"What are we going to do now Chance? How are we going to get past this?"

"We don't Abby. We don't get past this because that means we simply forget about them. Forget what we went through, what they went through for us."He's not just speaking from his experience, but from my own. "I have to live for Laurie and Ava, love so their death wasn't for nothing. I have to hold them to my heart, just like you do for your mom."

"I think I can do that." I nod my head and hold the man I love. We may not have had a gentle ride to get here but I wouldn't have traded it for anything.