Chapter 9 - To Be Loved

 Chapter Nine: To Be Loved

He''s going to hurt us. . .

Valerie heard the voice of a child amidst the darkness.

He''s going to hurt us. . .

Valerie turned and made a complete circle, but only saw what she saw before, which was nothing but the piercing darkness. “Who''s there?” she asked walking towards where she thought the voice was going from, but it was more difficult than it sounded as she stretched her arms out in front of her as she slide slowly across the smooth feeling floor.

Please, he''s going to hurt us. . .

“Who''s going to hurt us?” she asked.

You have to run. . .

“Who are you?” Valerie wanted to know. Putting caution aside she started moving faster towards the voice.

No! the voice yelled out. Valerie swiftly turned around as it now sounded like it was coming from behind her. Go back, you must go back! the voice demand.

“Who are you? Who''s going to hurt us!” Valerie asked loudly as she grew impatient with the situation.

Suddenly, it was like someone turned on a light switch as there came a blinding blue light that erased the darkness and forced Valerie to cover her eyes with both arms. A moment later, she steadily lowered her arms and began to open her eyes. They went wide as a full grown ghost hovered in front of her. She had time to say not one word before it rushed to her and pushed her back.

Valerie screamed as she found herself falling back into a hole of darkness.

“Ahhh!” she continued to scream as she bolted up.

“Valerie, Valerie, it''s alright,” Valerie ceased screaming as an all too familiar person came into her view.

She breathed heavily as she looked curiously at the man holding her arms. “Uncle Vlad?” she questioned softly before looking at her surroundings. She was in a private hospital room. She then spotted her father standing behind Vlad as he pulled away from her. “Daddy?” She then groaned as her hand with to her head, which was covered in bandages. She closed her eyes. “What- What happened?” she asked.

“Don''t you remember, sweetie,” Damon began. “You were in a car accident.”

“An accident?” she said a bit confused. Her face than began to scrunch up as she tired to remember. She then gasped as she looked back and front between Vlad and her father. “Where''s Nathan?” she demanded. “Is he alright?”

“The boy is fine.” Vlad took her hand and patted it gently. “Nothing more than a few scratches and bruises on him. He''s somewhere on the premises. I''m sure he''ll be here any minute to come back and check on you,” he reassured her.

Valerie watched as her father took a sit on the chair across from the bed. She looked to Vlad. “How did you know I was here?” she asked him. Knowing that either the hospital or Nathan called her father, but certain that either would have a reason to call Vlad.

“Dear child,” he smiled dangerously at her. “My company, Vlad Co., bought out this hospital several months ago, of course they are going to inform me when someone on my VIP list comes in the way you did,” he explained. Valerie nodded her head in understanding. Vlad then turned to Damon. “Don''t worry about a thing. From now on, when Valerie enters my hospital, everything will be taken care of of,” he told him.

“Mr. Masters-” Damon stood up to protest.

“Now, now Damon,” Vlad interrupted him. “How long have you worked for me? You are my Chief of Security at one of my most profitable companies and your daughter is a dear friend of my mind, please feel free to call me Vlad.”

“Thank you, Vlad, but you are being too generous. I couldn''t possible accept,” Damon tried to make clear.

“Nonsense,” Vlad said as he reached into his blazer pocket and pulled out his vibrating cellphone. He flipped in open. “Excuse me a moment, please.” He then turned around walked to the other side of the room as he spoke quietly to the person the other side of the line.

“Dad,” Valerie called her father to him. Valerie placed her hand on her stomach. “What did the doctors say about my baby?” She could hardly believe the concern that lined her words as she spoke. “It is alright?”

Damon smiled sweetly at her. “Yes, everything is fine.”

Valerie nodded her head. “Good,” she whispered to herself.

“Well, it looks like I have to run,” Vlad announced as he put away his cell phone and made his way back over to Valerie.

Damon frowned as he watched the other man lean in and whispered something into his daughter''s ear. “Of course, Uncle Vlad. Understood,” she said to him as he straighten back up.

Vlad then once again patted her hand. “Get well soon, child,” he told her before leaving the room.

“I don''t like how attached he is to you,” Damon announced. “It doesn''t seem right somehow.”

Valerie looked to her father at the statement, blinking a few time in surprise as she had never heard him say anything that remotely sounded negative about the man before. “Uh,” she began, not nothing how to the respond to it. “His attachment to me isn''t all that strange,” she tried to explain. “Uncle Vlad-”

“Please don''t call him that,” Damon told.

She nodded before she continued. “Mr. Masters is a very powerful man. You can see that in the way he conducts business, but with everything he has there''s something he can''t buy no matter how much success and money he has.” Damon looked asking of her. “Mr. Masters is lonely, Dad. He has no family and few friends. In fact, he told me when I turned eighteen, as a gift, that he had made me his sole benefactor in his will.” Valerie shook her head. “I don''t mind calling him Uncle Vlad, honestly I don''t. He''s been very good to me - to us - so I don''t see the harm in indulging him a little,” she clarified to her father.

“I see,” Damon said before he saw Valerie cringe in pain as she once again held her stomach and shifted uncomfortably. “Should I go find a doctor?” he said on the verge of heading towards the door.

Valerie''s hand shot out and took her father''s arm. “Not yet,” she replied. “I need to talk to you.”

“I really think I should go get-”

“Dad, please,” she begged tightening the grip on his arm. Damon looked at her for moment before nodding his head and taking a seat on her bed. Valerie took a deep breath as she let go of Damon and begin to tug nervously at the sheet cover her legs. “I think- I think I''ve been foolish,” she began softly. “When it comes to Danny.”

“I think you hit your head harder than realized,” Damon commented. “You have been anything but foolish,” he tried to reassure her. “You were in a bad relationship, you got of it and-”

“No,” Valerie shook her head. “I think I may have mislead you.” She had to make him understand. “Danny isn''t abusive the way you think he is.”

“So he was abusive?”

“No not really. I just wish I knew how to explain this. The reason Danny and I broke up, when I really look at it, was because of the lack of communication. . . and maybe fear.”

“You were afraid of him?” he asked.

Valerie looked straight into her father''s face as her eyes began to brim with tears. “No. . . he was afraid of me.” Damon only looked at her. “He was afraid of what I would do, how I would react,” she lowered her head, “and I did nothing to ease those fears. I just simply proved him right, when he wanted nothing more than to be wrong.”

“Valerie, what are you trying to tell me?” Damon offered another question.

“I still love him,” she confessed for the first time since the day the two of them broke up. “When I was in that car, thinking I was going to die, I could only think of one thing, and it was the people I loved.” She wiped away her tears. “I thought of you, Star, Uncle Vlad, and Danny.” She looked back up at him. “I thought of Danny.”

“I understand that you have them through something that makes you reevaluate your life, but I don''t want you to rush into anything. I know you care deeply for Danny, but I don''t wanting you getting into something that''ll you''ll regret later,” he advised.

“I want to drop the restraining order,” she told him, not paying much attention to Damon''s words. “And when the doctors say it''s okay, I''m going to go find him and pray to God he forgives me.”

“Praying isn''t required,” came a voice from the door. Both Damon and Valerie turned their heads to find Danny standing at the entrance of the door. “I know I shouldn''t be here,” he looked at Damon. “I''ve been trying to be good and keep my distance,” he then looked to Valerie, “but when I heard about the accident. . . I just had to see with my own two eyes that you were okay,” he told them. He looked as if he wanted to come closer, but dared not to.

“Valerie?” Damon turned back to his daughter.

“It''s okay,” she said softly. “I''ll be fine,” she told him before he got up and left the room to seek a doctor. “Don''t just stand there, Danny,” she said as Danny continued to stand in the door after Damon left.

Danny approached her cautiously as if not certain of the situation. “Are- are you and the baby alright?” was his first question.

“Yeah, I believe so,” she told him as she patted the spot where her father had been sitting wanted Danny to sit next to her. Once he was there Valerie found it hard to look him in the eye. “I''ve been really stupid, haven''t I?”

“Yeah,” he told her point blank in a tone that almost sounded angry. “Why did it have to take something like this to make you see that?”

“I''m sorry,” was all she had to offer. “I see now that you have done nothing but love me-”

“Damn right.”

“-and that I have been nothing less than-”

“A dog,” Danny supplied.

Valerie glared at him. “I was going to say difficult,” she explained.

Danny smiled goofy. “My bad, but you got to admit it fits too.”

Valerie rolled her eyes. “Fine. I''ve been a dog.”

“A royal dog,” he continued.

“Danny, I''m trying to apologize here, don''t push it,” she told him.

The smile then slipped from Danny''s features. “You''re right,” he agreed. “I''m just happy that you''re okay.” He placed his hand on her cheek as he shook his head from side to side. “I don''t know what I would have done if I lost you.”

“I don''t care what you are, Danny, be it ghost or human.” She slowly began to pull him closer. “I love you, dammit, and that''s the only thing that matters.”

Danny placed his hands on top of hers, which were still clinging to his shirt. He closed his eyes as he tilted his head down and whispered, “I was so afraid that I would never again hear those words leave your lips.”

“I''m sorry,” she said again.

“Me too,” he told her as he felt Valerie kiss his forehead. He took a breath of relief as he gently put his arms around her, minding the I.V. attached to her. “No more secrets. No more lies,” he promised as for the first time in months he took her lips with his own and kissed her in a way that surely made up for it.

Unknown to both Danny and Valerie as they reconciled, two angry green eyes shot daggers through them. Nathan had gone to get himself something to drink as he waited for Valerie to wake up only find Danny in her room when he returned. He crushed the paper cup he held as he let its contents spill all over his hand and onto the floor. He breathed heavily as he spoke, “I won''t allow you to take what''s mine, Fenton.”

To Be Continued. . .

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