Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Insomnia it's a bitch, Grace thought as she turned around on her bed, wide awake. She always had trouble falling asleep and there was something about being alone in a room in her future in-laws manor that wasn't helping her.

2 a.m. already? Fuck.

She considered for a second to go and bother his future husband, but then she thought about how he woke up early to do "family shit" with his parents. Instead, she stared at the room for a while, because if she touched her phone she would never fall asleep. It was a nice room, a nice house in general. Maybe it would be prettier without all the dead animals.

The idea of marrying the man she loved, and become a part of his (definitely dysfunctional) family. She looked around, thinking about how this was the house where Alex grow up, and she wished he were a little more open about his childhood stories. Well, maybe she didn't needed her phone to still awake.

Giving up, she decided to get out of bed and wander through the halls like a ghost, maybe she should get some chains for the whole ghost vibe.

The whole place was like a maze, which was worse with most of the lights off. After a few minutes of wandering and bumping things in the dark, she found her way to the study. There was a little more light there, and she stopped in front of the chimney, to look up to the portrait of Tony. Rich people.

"What are you doing in my room?" A hoarse voice said from behind her

"The fuck" she turned around, scared but mostly confused, just to see Daniel, covered with a blanket and a pillow laying on the floor, looking up at her "Why are you here?"

"Why are you here?" He got on his elbows to see her better, and she saw from his clumsy movements that he was still drunk from the dinner "Charity kick me out of the room because she says I stink"

"I don't want to play the devil's advocate but you smell like as if you had rolled on the floor of the bathroom of a bar" She said, sitting next to him on the floor. A laugh escaped from his throat.

"That's oddly specific" Now that she was next to him, he lay down in his improvised bed "And what are you doing? You can't live without me and you came to see me?"

"You caught me" At this point, she was used to his brother in-law drunk flirtings, it was almost a part of his personality and just for the laughs she played along with him sometimes. "I couldn't sleep, so I thought I could wander around your house...maybe steal something to sell on e-bay, who knows"

"If you do that we could gather enough money to run away before the wedding" A smirk appeared on his face, and his eyes were closed. From time to time she wasn't sure if he was awake or if he had fallen asleep.

Daniel was quite a character. A drunk, cynical, the black sheep of the Le Domas family but yet quite charming. Alex told her some things about him, how when he was younger he got into trouble just to piss off his parents (Very successfully). His face had always a hint of darkness, but now he looked relaxed, with his eyes closed, a smile on his face, his hair messy. He was his second ally in this whole adventure into the Le Domas world, but of course she never said that to him. She was glad that Alex had someone like him to protect him when he was a kid, and she kind of wished he had someone like that in his childhood too, someone constant.

"Oh yeah? And where are we going?" She played along.

"Uhm. I don't know. I like cold places. Where do you want to go?" He muttered without opening his eyes.

"We could go across the country, and then another country. You could choose" A smile crossed her face because of the absurdity of that thought.

"We'll do it, I promise. But you drive, I hate driving that long" His voice sounded more and more sleepy every time "I wish you actually run away with me"

"Oh, yeah, why?" She said chuckling softly, trying not to startle him.

"You're too good for this family" He confessed with his lasts energies, before cuddling up and falling asleep.

Grace stared at him, in silence, thinking about what he just said. When he started snoring softly, she remembered it was just a drunk mumbling, and she dismiss all the thoughts. She smiled at him, and tuck him with his cover before leaving the study to try to sleep again. The last thing she needed were bags under her eyes in the wedding photos.

Chapter Text

It was a long way to get here in the first place. Most of the time they were drugged in a hospital bed. Daniel was the first to recover, the wound on his neck was just superficial, one time the doctor told him that if Charity would have shoot him a few inches to the right, the story would be very different. He was glad that his wife had shitty aim. He also had some second-degree burns, but he didn't cared a lot about them.

Even if he was discharged, he didn't left the hospital, but now he was in a chair next to Grace's bed, keeping her company while she was out.

For Grace, the recovering process was a lot more difficult, after all you don't usually go through jumping out of a window, getting shot, a car crash, and a stab wound and finish in one piece.

She doesn't really remember what happened after she smoked that cigarrette, just darkness falling over her, and distant voices saying things like "She lost a lot of blood", "A stab wound", "The bullet went through", and "We have another survivor".
When she first woke up, kind of dizzy, she thought she died when she saw Daniel next to her. It took a lot of explaining to make her understand that they both were fine.

"My mouth it's dry as fuck" She said with difficulty, opening her eyes for the first time that day

"On it" Daniel said leaving his laptop aside, jumping out of his chair, and grabbing the glass of water from the bedside table, carefully giving her water until she made a movement with her hand for him to stop "How are you feeling today, sleeping beauty? Any numbness, any pain? If you need something I could get it or call the nurse, just---"

"When you became a mother?" She interrupted him chuckling, making him laugh as well. It was good to laugh after all "I'm fine, don't worry. I think it might be from the drugs but I'm feeling well"

"Yeah, well, you had kind of a rough yesterday, so I think they give you just a little more morphine"

"Do you ever leave the hospital?"

"When I got discharged I went to grab some things, and returned as soon as possible to watch you sleep. Creepy, right?" He grabbed his chair to put it closer to the bed and sat again.

"You fucking weirdo" He looked tired, but also something of the darkness in his eyes fade away, only to be replaced by some sadness "How are you?"

"Great, I think. Everything it's clean, healing well" He instinctively touched the bandage of his neck, hissing a little because of the pain "Not healing precisely fast, but well"

The human brain it's also a bitch sometimes. Knowing the exact moment to hit you with the wrong memories. She thought about that moment when she had Daniel's blood all over her hands, putting pressure to try to stop the bleeding. But there was blood, a lot of blood, and then Daniel told her to run, and her heart broke, but she ran away, not without thanking him for saving her. And then everything else, killing Becky, Alex turning away from her, Alex trying to kill her, being covered of even more blood, that cocky look on Le Bail face.
She felt a knot forming in his throat, she wanted to say a lot of things but she didn't knew how. Daniel was now telling her the story about how two interns puked when they both arrived, especially because of Grace's death goat scent, and he looked amused about it, so she just waited for him to stop.

"Daniel, thank you...for everything" Her eyes were getting watery already, but she smiled anyway, which made her throat ache "and I...I'm sorry..."

"It's okay" He smiled softly back at her, with a mix of melancholy, sadness and something else. He carresed her hair softly, his hand was warm, and he had another bandage in his arm, probably from the burns "Now rest, you need it"

•

After a few of weeks later, Grace was discharged as well. Daniel was next to him in the whole process, helping her with her hand exercises and making jokes to make everything less dark. But the mental healing process was so much worse than squeezing a rubber ball in her hand. They both went to a therapist, trying to tell as much as possible respecting the version that they gave to the police (Which was basically telling how most of the Le Domas family went psycho-killer with Grace and also Daniel for protecting her but without the satanic pact part). They also spend a lot of time with lawyers because of the large Le Domas inheritance, but Grace wanted to keep as far as possible.

She was glad to have him, because with him the whole process was less exhausting. They moved to a small apartament together (Because they couldn't bear to stay in their own houses) and Daniel ran the company through the computer, while eating take out food with Grace in the sofa.

In bad days, the memory of everything, Le Bail, hide and seek, Alex, became unbearable to the point they both got drunk until pass out just to forget it. In good days they went to the supermarket, and then relaxed at home, eating and watching movies.
Which sounds boring, but for them living a normal life was something they really enjoyed.

It took them one year and 6 months to re-gain some normality in their lives. Daniel went to work in the company, and Grace got a job as a designer, then they returned home, cook something healthy (Because they wanted a change, they even left alcohol) and then they watched something on the TV until they were too tired to continue.

"Hey, Daniel, you remember that time Charity quick you out of your room?" Grace said with a mouthful of pizza on her mouth.

"You have to be a little more specific" He answer looking away from the TV to gave her a look.

"When you were sleeping in the study and you promise me we would run away together"

"That actually happened? I always thought it was a dream, product of a mind with a really twisted sense of humor" He said with a smile on his face.

"Did you actually meant it? Like, the wanting to run away together part" She put her pizza aside, to look at him, and he did the same.

"Well, yeah. By that time I just wanted you to run away, you running away with me would have been a double win" He joked.

"Would you like to travel with me now?"

"Like, now now?" He asked confused, looking at the pizza on the table.

"Now as if in near future. Just think about it, we work a lot these years, and we can work through our computers. A change of air could be good for us" She reached for his hand, caressing it with her thumb "Besides, there's no one else I wanted to travel with but you"

He stared back at her, eyes fixing in her eyes. In other circumstances she would have felt intimidated, but he was Daniel. Daniel who was with her everytime along these two years, Daniel that sometimes woke up crying in the middle of the night because of nightmares, Daniel who caressed her hair until she felt asleep in her arms after a nightmare, Daniel who went with her to her friends parties and keep her together in wedding parties.
They were like a duo now, there was almost nothing they didn't knew about the other. The bad things, the good things, silly high school stories, almost everything. Well, almost everything, she didn't actually told him how much she yearn for his hugs, how much she loved his soft caresses, the sound of his laugh, and his "dear", "babe", "sunshine" he only saved for her now.

After a few seconds where Grace could hear her heart drumming in her ears, Daniel grabbed the sides of her face and his lips met hers. It felt good, it felt right, but when she was enjoying herself, he broke the kiss and she couldn't avoid but chase his lips, to which he smiled.

"I would love to travel with you, Grace"

•

They left the hotel early in the morning. It was cold outside, but the firsts golden rays of sunshine offered certain warmth to their skins. Grace got into the driver car, grabbing the steering wheel was a good exercise for her hand. Daniel was in the passenger side, checking his phone.

"Well, this says that if you stop driving like an old lady, we're going to arrive to Las Vegas in two hours" Las Vegas second stop from their journey, of course Daniel choose it.

"Excuse me? We survive a lot to die in the middle of a lonely road" She said while turning on the car.

"I'm not saying you should floor it, but you can go just a little bit more faster"

"Shut up. I drive, I choose the speed, this is my game and I'm on top of it, thank you very much" She say turning his eyes at him.

"Well, that can change, you seem to enjoy not being on top last night" Grace glared at him, but couldn't avoid a smile from appearing in the corner of her lips "I'm joking. Well, it actually happened, but I can take it back if you feel called out"

"Don't make me leave you in the side of the road" She said punching him playfully on his arm, leaving the parking lot of the Hotel.

"You'll miss me too much to do that"

"Maybe" She accepted, entering the road once again.

It's been two years from that nightmare. What scared her most was being too hurt to be happy again. But there she was, listening to Daniel talking about how he woke up in the bathroom of a Casino in Las Vegas one time, and she felt happy, she felt love, she felt like this was a second chance for them both. She was happy to have someone that understood and accepted her, that was on her side since the beginning.

For the first time in a long time, she felt like home