Chapter 21

3 months later

After that horrible night, everything seemed to start to calm down. I went and got my tattoos. Aaron and Zak went with me to the parlor. I got one over my heart and the other was on my upper right arm. I was actually really proud of them.

As time went on, I got better. Nick went through a list of nicknames for me. There were a couple that were off limits and the others seemed to be weird for me. He was determined to get the name. He wanted to gine me a name. Finally he came up with "bird". I kept telling him that it was a british term, but he continued to use it.

Billy and I seemed to get closer as time went on. He didn't pry or ask too much. He just wanted to make sure that I was okay. That was all that mattered with him.

We had arrived in Boston for another investigation. There was something weird going on among the guys. It was getting really annoying to me. Leonard wasn't even able figure it out. It was just really strange for them.

"Hey, do you have those papers done yet?" Billy asked me as we sat in a coffee shop. We were researching about the witch trials.

"Um, yeah, here they are." I told him as I handed them to him. Then all of the bustling of the shop died down. I looked at Billy and he was smiling at me.

"Lea, I have something to ask you." I heard Zak say. I turned and looked at him. I saw that he was on the ground, on one knee. There was a ring in his hand. There was an emerald that was surrounded by diamonds. I grabbed my face as I started to tear up. I couldn't have thought of him actually doing this for me.

"Will you do me the honor in being my wife?" He asked me with a smile on his face. I looked around the coffee shop and I saw that Nick and Aaron had their cameras.

"Yes, yes I will marry you." I said as I felt a tear come down my cheek. He smiled at me and I got on the floor as I hugged him. He laughed as he wrapped his arms around me. Everyone started clapping for us.

"Let me put it on you." He told me. I let go of him and he had me sit in the chair again. He then placed it on my finger. It fit perfectly. I looked at it then at him.

"I know that you like emeralds a lot, so I thought that this would be a nice ring for you." He told me. I did tell him that once. I couldn't veleive that he actually listened to that. It was late at night and we both were delirious.

"Congrats." Aaron said as he came over to us. I looked up at him and smiled. Then I remembered that Billy was there. 

"Billy! Look!" I said as I got up ans went over to him. He stood up and grabbed my hand. He looked at it. I couldn't stop smiling as he looked at it. 

"He did good with the ring!" Billy said in an impressed tone. I then hugged him. He laughed as he hugged me back. 

I found out that they were putting that in the episode the day that the episode premired, when all the guys appeared at our door. As we watched it, I saw that they had to turn the audio up for my response. They tried to make it out as something else the first time. They had then had it cut to Billy and I gawking at the ring. I figured that it was Aaron that had messed with the tones and made it really girly. 

At the end of the episode, there were pictures of me with all of the guys individually. There were some that I didn't even know exsisted. there were audio clips form Billy, Aaron, and Nick wishing us many years together. I was tearing up at the sight of it. 

"You guys are the best." I said as I looked at all of them. Zak and I were sitting on the couch with Nick. Aaron was on the floor and Billy had the chair.

"You deserrve it." Aaron told me. I smiled at him with a big smile. He knew how much that meant to me.

"Why are you crying?" Zak asked me.

"I am not sad. I am just really happy. I didn't think that I could have this. I have always thought that I would never get a family. But here I am with my family." I said to them. Billy tilted his head away from us and he wiped his eye. I was really the only one that noticed that.

Our wedding day was amazing. Zak and I decided to get married by Elvis. It was supposed to be a joke, but it was also the best idea that we had. We were going to get married under Eiffel Tower that was there in Las Vegas. We had made it an event for their fans could come to the place. I didn't have many friends and I knew that their fans were important to them.

"Are you ready to go?" Nick asked me. I was in my room and Zak had gotten ready at Aaron's place.

"Yeah, let's get going." I told him. I looked at my dress one more time and I knew that it was the one that I liked the most. It had sleeves that went to my wrists. I had decided that I didn't want anyone to see the scars. Nick then came in and stood next to me.

"We look pretty good, bird." He said to me. I smiled at him and he put the veil on me.

"Let's get going." I told him with a smile. We then walked to the car. Billy was going to meet us there. He was going to be my best man and Nick and Aaron were going to be Zak's. Nick was the one that was walking me down, though.

When we got to the venue, I was told that I couldn't see Zak yet. I was getting really tired of not seeing him. I just wanted to get it over with. I stayed in the car with Nick.

"You ready for this?" He asked me. I smiled at him and nodded my head.

"Yeah, I am. I don't think that I have ever been this ready for anything." I told him.

"I know what you mean. You two work well together. We all figured that he would ask you by the time we went to Georgia the first time." He told me. That was one of the first locations that we went to. I didn't know what to say about that. I simply smiled at him. 

When it was finally time, I was ready to just run down the aisle. I then understood why someone had to walk with the bride. She would just run down, if someone wasn't there to stop her. I saw Zak at the end of this huge aisle. There were a lot of people there. I saw them all and I knew that they were here to support us. I heard people say how I was beautiful. When I heard that, I would start blushing. 

When Nick gave me to Zak, I couldn't stop smiling at him. He seemed to have the same reaction. The service was quick. We had decided against writing our own vows. We both realized that we were better at showing each other how much we loved each other. Plus there were things that we wanted to mention in them that not many people knew. 

When Zak kissed me, he tried to make it a sweet peck. I was not having that. He was mine. I wanted to make sure that everyone knew. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. While everyone was clapping, he moaned into it. 

"That was something else." He told me. 

"I warned you against doing that." I told him. He rolled his eyes and we looked out to everyone. 

We walked down to where everyone was. There were about 150 people there. They were all so happy for us. I kept looking for one person, in particular. I had sent an invitation to my father, when I learned that he was alive. I was hoping that he would have been here for me. 

As the evening continued and people left, I was more comfortable with all of the people. I had exchanged numbers with a couple of psychics. They pointed me out and found me. I didn't think that there would be any at my wedding, but I was glad that they were there. 

"Lea, there is someone that wants to talk to you." Billy said to me. I looked at him with a strange expression. I then walked woth him to one side of the party. There was an old man in a cowboy hat and a blue jean jacket. I recognized the smell of liquor and cigar smoke immediately. Billy then left us there.

"Dad? Is that really you?" I asked him as I walked closer to the man. He had a tear in his eye as he looked at me. 

"Lea, darlin'. You're beautiful. Congratulations." He told me. He didn't bother to wipe the tear away. His face was older and beaten by the sun. He still had the same blue eyes though. This time, they weren't so broken.

"Thanks, dad." I told him. He then walked to me and gave me a hug. This was the fist hug that I ever remembered getting from him. I was shocked at first, but I wrapped my arms around him quickly.

"I am sorry for not being there for you. I know that I was a horrible father. I am sorry about that. You didn't deserve me ignoring you." He told me. I let got of him and I looked in his face.

"Daddy, don't say that. You did your best. I turned out okay. Look at me. I have a wonderful new husband, a job that helps me out with what I am, and I have friends that care about me." I told him. I knew that there were tears that were trying to escape my eyes. He grabbed my hands and held them tight.

"I should've been there for you more. I should've been a better father to you." He told me. I bit my lip and he smiled at me.

"That's what your momma did when she was trying to not cry." He told me. I then laughed.

"Lea, I just wanted to make sure that you were happy and safe. I saw that he really does love you and that was all that I have wanted for you. I just couldn't get out of my horrible pit and for that, I am truly sorry." He told me. I smiled at him and gave him a hug again.

"Um.. Am I disturbing something here?" I heard Zak say. I looked at him as I let go of my father. He came over and put his hand around my waist.

"Zak, this is my father, Daniel. Dad, this is my husband, Zak." I said as I introduced the two of them. I looked up to look at Zak's face. He seemed to be very aggressive towards him.

"I don't mean to be rude, but where have you been?" Zak asked him. I looked back at my dad and he seemed to be confused a little.

"Zak, no. He didn't know. Please don't blame him." I told Zak. He looked at me and I saw that there were too many emotions for him. He was just trying to sort things out.

"I am sorry, son, but what are you talking about? What happened?" He asked us. Zak walked away from me to breathe.

"Dad, I know that you and I weren't close. It's okay, though. I am fine now." I told him. He just looked at me. He knew that I was hiding something from him.

"Darlin', what happened to you?" He then asked me in a very serious tone. I remembered him using the same tone when he figured out that I saw things.

"It's really nothing. It's all over. It doesn't matter anymore." I told him. It sounded more like I was trying to convince myself. I looked at Zak and he was looking at me with his hand over his mouth.

"Zak, I know that you will tell me. Just lay it out for me." He said as he sat down in a chair. Zak came over to the table, but he didn't sit down. He looked at me one more time. I walked over to my dad and I sat next to him. He and I held hands. I didn't want him to feel like any of it was his fault. 

"Your little girl was hurt by a monster. He was in control of her and the mere mention of him makes her scared for her life. He hurt her physically and has damaged her emotionally. She ran from him for years." Zak started to tell him. My ded looked at me and I saw that he had regret in his eyes. 

"The reason why she is wearing that dress is because he hurt her so bad that she won't wear anything that shows her shoulders. He marked her and kept her as a prisoner. And you never once tried to make sure that she was okay. You never went to see if she was okay." Zak told him. I could hear so much anger in his voice as he told him this. I knew that he was also trying to be really quite with all of this too. 

"What happened, exactly? Was it Gage?" My dad asked me. I looked in his eyes and nodded my head. I couldn't tell him. It would hurt him to much if I told him. 

"He carved horrible words into her skin. Things that aren't true about her at all." Zak said for me. My dad just sat there and rubbed my hands. 

"I should have done something. I thought that I could have trusted him. I thought that the two of you were happy. The two of you were engaged." He told me. He knew Gage. He knew the Gage that was nice and beautiful.

"It happened after I told him about  what I can see. He got scared and locked me in the basement. That was when it started." I told him. There were tears that were running down my face. He shook his head and grabbed my face. 

"Lea, darlin', I should have known. I should've warned you better about things like this. I should've been a better father to you." He said. His voice was shaking. 

"None of that is going to change what happened." Zak told him from across the table. He then got up and went to Zak.

"I know. I am just glad that she has you. You will take care of her. You know her more than anyone else. I am trusting you with her. I know that I haven't been a good daddy to her, but I will be sure to do better. If I ever hear or see that you have hurt her, I will make you a ghost." He told Zak. Zak smiled at him and shook his hand.

"I won't ever hurt her. You have my word." Zak told him. I could see that the two of them weren't going to be friends, but they would make something work for me. I then got up and walked to them.

"May I do the honors of dancing with you?" My dad asked me. I smiled at him and nodded my head. I was feeling like a little girl again. He then walked me to the little dancefloor. The dj started up a slow song and we started to dance.

I was so happy just to see him. He and I danced around for the first half of the song, then Nick came up to him and asked if he could take me. He smiled and passed me off to Nick. I smiled at him as we danced around. Then Aaron came and took me away from Nick. Aaron wasn't too graceful, but we figured something out. When Billy came to me, he was laughing at the two of us.

Finally, Zak came up to me and we danced our first dance. It wasn't really a dance like the others were. It was just a slow shuffle. I saw my dad standing in the back of the room with his hat on. I knew that he was about to leave. I smiled at him before he left. Nick and Aaron were standing and watching us. Nick was holding his daughter in his arms. Billy was with his family. Everything was right where it should be.