Watch What Burns (26 page)

“I’ve found it.” The statement was filled with clarity, no bouts of feebleness or loss because it wasn’t a lie. The moment she thought Tyler had died
everything in her changed. She felt lost, on a downward spiral, but the moment he came to her, alive and well, she found herself looking at everything differently. Since Grace had disappeared she had felt a part of her lost, now she felt herself wanting to have it all back. She found the spark that had diminished, ignite brighter than ever.

“She’s not going to win,” Austin whispered, her gaze set on the family photo that sat by the big-screen TV. “Over my dead body will she
win.”

Tyler didn’t want to smile, but hearing those words meant his wife was back with a fighting spirit.

TYLER crept along the hallway towards his bedroom. He froze for a moment, lingering on the spot in the middle of the landing. He looked around at how normal everything was. Everything had been tidied up after Natasha’s attack. Nothing was broken, smashed, tarnished, or out of place. It was like she had never been there.

Austin had recounted her every step on this landing. How Grace had come out of the bedroom and caught her off guard which was how Natasha was able to give her one final shove to force her down the stairs. Closing his eyes, Tyler remembered helping wash Austin and he had traced every bruise that marred the entirety of her back. He knew the damage her body had suffered. He listened to her cry over Grace seeing her take a bullet and how she had told her to simply go to the cubby, which Tyler had built, between their rooms. He hated hearing how his wife fought, but he had never been more filled with pride over everything she told them.

Shaking himself from his haze, he pressed on and went over to the master bedroom. He was unknowingly thankful for Austin wanting to stay home and not at one of their parents’ houses. He opened the door, ready to climb onto the bed and wake Austin with kisses. “Oh,” he mastered as she stopped in the doorway. “I thought you were still asleep.”

Austin gave a small smile. “Sleeping doesn’t find our baby.”

With a sigh, Tyler went into the room, closing the door a little behind him. “I know I wanted you to find some fight, Aus, but I didn’t want you to go to the other end of the spectrum. You need to rest.”

“I can’t sit and relax,” Austin argued with him, her tone was soft, but she was exasperated nonetheless. “I can relax when Grace is home.”

Knowing he wouldn’t be able to tell her otherwise, he caved and allowed her this decision. He knew their families combined would force her to at least rest a little while they fought to get Gracie home and have Natasha forced back behind a cell. He walked over to her, kissed the crown of her head, and told her he would wait for her downstairs.

Appreciative to have some time alone, Austin took a moment to just breathe, before she attempted to get up and brush her teeth in the en suite. She had managed to get dressed alone; Tyler knew he couldn’t mollycoddle her and she loved how he didn’t push and make her feel like an invalid. He had made her feel loved and looked after without the suffocating heaviness.

Once she was done, she went to face the music. She was settled by the fact that the house didn’t cast her back to the night Grace was taken. The memories she had with Tyler and Grace were so much more vivid. The first time he came home to her being pregnant, their wedding night, the night she went into
labor. She remembered the day Grace was brought home from the hospital and every milestone after. Austin remembered running after Grace in a game of catch, every tear spilt with her temper tantrums, every giggle she omitted when they baked or when Tyler came in and kissed her lovingly.

That was something even Natasha couldn’t take away from them.

Walking out of the bedroom, Austin began to march across the landing, ready to find her daughter and fight for her all over again. However, she caught a glimpse of something out of place in Grace’s room. Walking towards the door, her heart cramped at the sight of Tyler sitting in the room, quiet as a mouse, contemplative.

“Hey you,” Austin murmured from Grace’s doorway. “What you up to?”

Tyler looked up as his wife crossed the small space between his position and the door. He then looked back at the cubbyhole that he sat beside. “Remember how when there was a thunderstorm she used to make us come and sleep in here with her?”

Austin smiled at the memory as she slid down the wall next to Tyler. “Yeah, it always was a tight squeeze.” She gave a small laugh. “I think when she comes home it will be the perfect excuse for a sleepover in there.
Just you, me, and Gracie.”

“I think so too,” Tyler agreed as he reached out and took her hand in his. “When I promise to bring her home, I mean it. I don’t care what it takes or what I have to say or do. Gracie will be back in our arms and away from that monster.”

“Remember,” Austin started, turning slightly onto her hip to face him, “You don’t need to make her a monster to me. You loved her; it’s a human feeling, Ty. I don’t hate you or blame you for loving her. It happened.”

“But look what it’s doing to us now,” Tyler began to fret. “She even told you she wanted
my
attention. She wanted
me
to see that she loves me. It’s all on
me
.”

“It’s all on us,” Austin fought a little harder for his rationality. “She’s doing it to get back at me as well. She’s doing it to ruin my life by getting you. Don’t think I’m going to allow you to just blame yourself. I won’t let you.”

Tyler looked down at their clasped hands. “This had made me value you more. I love you more than ever. I love Gracie more than I ever thought. I never thought it was possible to love you two more than life itself, but I really do.”

“I know,” Austin whispered, bringing their joined hands up so she could kiss his. “I wouldn’t be here without you and your fight.” She allowed their hands to drop, and then moved her body so she was crawling over his and going into the crawl space.

“What are you up to?” he asked her, his brow knitting together the more he watched her.

“You coming?” she asked him over her shoulder. She spun around and sat down. She knew he couldn’t
see her head now as she sat in the cubbyhole, so all she did was pat the cushioned flooring in front of her. “In you come, Mr. Armstrong.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. He climbed in on all fours, and as he made it inside, he watched as Austin
laid down. He copied her, settled beside her, and even pulled the door too, plunging them into total darkness. The only light was from the small crack around the doors on either side of the room. They knew the light in there worked, but neither moved to turn it on.

“I missed having you in my arms like this,” Tyler commented as he held onto her tightly. He felt like if he let her go then he’d lose her forever. “I hate seeing you in a hospital bed.”

“I hate being in them,” she replied with a small piece of sarcasm in her tone. She didn’t move; she just stared into the darkness. “I honestly thought she had left Grace at the station, Ty.”

“I know,” he admitted, having heard Tom’s account of what had happened. He knew how passionately Austin had believed their daughter was there. “Natasha will get bored soon. None of her plans have worked so far. She’s scared us,
that’s it, but she’s no closer to getting what she wants out of any of this right now. She’ll start to panic and she’ll mess up.”

“You’ve been spending way too much time with Michael,” Austin joked, laughing at the similarities between the two. “You’re starting to think like they do.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m becoming one. He’s just helped me opened my mind to what drives Natasha,” Tyler told her, channeling his inner cop alongside what he had picked up from Michael.

“You,” Austin told Tyler. Her voice quaked, and it wasn’t the admittance she wanted to say, but it was the honest truth. “You and Grace are what she wants. You’re the biggest piece of bait we have.”

“If it comes to it I will step up as bait.” Tyler resigned himself to the fact.

Austin took a deep breath, closed her eyes and spoke, “I know.”

There was a moment of silence; just careful breathing and contemplative minds working. Austin laid against her husband’s chest and just enjoyed the feel of his arms around her. Tyler, however, was working up war plans. He was thinking of ways to bring Natasha out of hiding. He wondered if he could call her, or draw her out when she next phoned - if she phoned.

“Can you stop thinking so loudly?” Austin suddenly broke the silence between, and she sat up as he chuckled. “I want you to make a pact with me.”

“What’s that?” Tyler asked, looking up at the blackened mass that he could make out.

“When our life is back together, we seriously look at better security and we never look back,” Austin asked mirthfully, needing this moment of playfulness between them. “Once Natasha is caught that is it, she’s gone. She’s out of our lives forever after this.”

“Deal,” Tyler caved easily, liking her idea of a compromise. “I would have asked you the exact same thing.” Tyler pulled her back down to him and kissed her. “I also want baby number two. Grace needs a partner in crime like I have you.”

“Let’s get Grace back and then ask me about that last part,” Austin quipped, not ruling the idea out entirely. “We don’t feel complete without her anymore.”

“We really don’t,” Tyler agreed quickly, his heart clenching at how the void in him seemed to ache at the thought of not having Grace near. “I remember when it was always you and I. We were the pair, the inseparable ones. Now it’s always the three of us. I don’t want to be a pair again.”

“We won’t be.” Austin tried to calm Tyler’s woes. They were both fluctuating between emotions, both volatile to any sudden change in motion, but they were in it together. When one was up, the other was down. When one was calm, the other was fretting. They balanced each other out. As the silence settled, Austin forgot about all of her problems, all of the pains. “I wish we could stay here.”

“We can for a little while,” Tyler told her, not willing to relent his hold on her for a moment. “Michael’s trying to pull some strings, so right now, we can just stay here until he has something for us.”

“Good,” she sighed heavenly, and just tried to forget the panic that resided in her.

“Stop hiding,” Tom said as he threw the door open. “Mom’s cooked breakfast.”

Tyler kissed his giggling wife before he crawled back out into the open of Grace’s room.

***

“He’s been outside a long time,” Austin worried as she looked out onto the back deck at Michael. She had watched his every step - back, forth, back, forth. It was incessant and concentrated. He was yet to put the phone down, and at times looked like he was in a heated conversation.

“He’s onto something,” Tyler suddenly added after a moment lapsed by. “He would have given up long ago if he wasn’t. He’s not a patient man unless it’s something important.”

Austin said nothing, but slid her hand across the table to take Tyler’s. It was a silent move of support, showing their togetherness and their willingness to share the pain and to not leave it alone. Austin did it more or less to help her new found state of strength. Without Tyler she wouldn’t have found her fight again. This time she wasn’t going to lose it.

“You’re too quiet,” Tom commented as he came into the room. He had noticed how after breakfast they were withdrawn towards everyone. He saw them both agree silently and set about what he needed to. “You sure you feeling okay?” Tom asked as he sat in front of Austin. He leaned in and began to peel the bandage from her shoulder, but he was also worried about her paleness. “You don’t look good.”

“I’m tired,” she admonished his worry quickly. “Tired, stressed, in pain, but I’m okay. I promise.”

“I worry,” Tom murmured as he set about cleaning her healing wound.

“I know you do and I love you for it, but really, Tom, I’m fine,” Austin appreciated her brother. In the years she had been back, she was always a number one priority. Even when Alice stepped onto the scene as something important to Tom, Austin remained a top priority to him. “I’ll just be happier when this is all over and we can move on.”

“Believe me, I cannot wait. I don’t think we’ll get time with our niece will we? I wouldn’t blame you for not letting her out of your sight ever again,” Tom joked, trying to liven the moment up. He hated how tense everyone was. As much as he understood it, he felt it was a constant reminder of the part of them all that was missing. He hated knowing how much they all needed Grace to survive. He never thought he could rely so much on a three year old.

Austin just laughed a little at that comment. She wasn’t going to let her daughter out of her sights once she had her back. She was going to keep her close, show her every day she loved her, and make up for the emotional scars this would cause Grace. She had
been with Natasha over two days now and her thoughts were evil. They made her wonder if she was keeping her fed and cared for. If she was kept clean, or if she was left in soiled clothes with no warmth or protection.

Distracting herself, she thought about her wounds. They were markings that hardened her fortified front. They fuelled her hate for Natasha more than anything. She then looked up to see her husband staring at her, a little aghast and washed from what his eyes were looking at.

“What?” she asked, trying to work out what had him looking how he did.

“I still can’t believe she shot you,” Tyler commented gently. He looked at the painfully red mark on her chest and he was cast back to seeing her at the bottom of the stairs. The way he felt when he saw her there, terrified, and he was filled with all of those wishes to tear her away from this world and never let any hurt come her way again.

“You can’t?” Austin scoffed and was thankful when Tom covered her newly cleaned injury. She twisted on the spot, plucking her cardigan from the back of her seat and quickly putting it on. “Thank you, Tommy.”