The next morning, I woke up pretty late. I sat up and looked around groggily. Flynn and Merida were already up and tending to the girls. Flynn glanced over at me as he was carrying Hallie in one arm and an apparently clingy Jase in the other. I smiled at the sight and stood up. He gave me that grin and walked over to me. I reached up to kiss his cheek and he winked at me.
"Did you tell Jase already?" I asked him, trying to sound mysterious for Jase.
"Tell me what?" she asked, looking back and forth between us with wide eyes.
"Nope, I wanted to wait till you were up. You tell her," he said.
"What?" Jase asked that about three times before I gave in with a laugh and told her that she was going to ride Maximus today.
She loosed an ear-piercing squeal, which made Allie whimper and jump all over in Merida's arms.
"Sorry, Aunt Merida!" she twisted around to look at Merida.
"It's fine," she laughed.
"When? When can we go? Can we go now? Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" She flung her arms out at me and I took her from Flynn and hugged her.
"Thank your Daddy, he was the one who found him."
"If it was up to me, she wouldn't go on him - he's bad!"
"Says you," I giggled as he used his free hand to tickle my side, and then he pulled me close to give me a one-armed hug.
"So....Merida, you want me to take Hallie with me, right?" I asked her, looking in her direction.
"No, I'll watch her. I'm sure you want to ride Maximus as well. You can watch Allie for me one day when I want to ride Angus, in return," she grinned as Flynn walked over to hand Hallie over to her.
"Okay, well thank you," I smiled and waved, heaving Jase up on my hip to carry her.
We started walking across the room to get Maximus. About halfway there, Flynn held his hands out to Jase. "Let me take her. Your arms are probably getting tired."
Were they ever! But we were halfway there, so I could probably make it the rest of the way. "That's fine."
He walked over and took her out of my arms anyway, and slung her up onto his shoulders to give her a piggyback ride. She squealed with delight when he glanced over at me and grinned. "Wanna race?"
I started laughing, and he started to bound off. "Hey, wait up!" I yelled between my giggles, but I doubt he heard over Jase's shrieks of laughter. So I took off after him, watching my feet instead of where I was going.
THUD.
"Oof!" I exclaimed, falling onto my back.
I looked up and saw a Ken doll.
"Wow, are you okay? You totally just ran right into me. Literally RAN." He had pale blue eyes and dark, almost black hair. He wore a long sleeve, blue shirt with tan..shorts..which quite frankly looked terrible together. Ray?
He offered a hand to me to help me stand, but I didn't accept it. I stood, keeping my eyes locked on his face.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I was..." I trailed off and gestured towards my hubby and daughter, and he glanced over his shoulder at them. Flynn was watching from a short distance, and I gave him a 'help me' look, so he started to come over with Jase.
"No, that's..fine. So you're married?"
I nodded and gave Flynn another frantic glance.
As soon as Jase saw the mystery doll, she clung frantically to Flynn's neck and hid her face. "No...Daddy, don't! Don't take me over there..but you have to save Momma! He's awful!" Yep...it was Ray.
"Hey, you were...Flynn, right? HB stopped to talk to you yesterday." he held a hand out to Flynn, as if to shake hands. Flynn just stared at him as he put a very tense and protective arm around my shoulders.
"What'd you do to her?"
Did he think he'd knocked me down? Wow - would this guy seriously do that? I continued to stare at him.
"She ran into me." He laughed and smiled at me. I chuckled, too, but I faked it.
"Heh, heh, yeah, Flynn, you know how clumsy I am!" Good grief; even *I* could hear how fake that was!
"Okay."
"So..Oh! Hi, Jasmine!"
"I hate you." She glared reproachfully at him. I almost choked with surprise that such a thing could come out of her sweet little self.
"Oh, come on." he reached as if he was going to take her from Flynn's shoulders, and she kicked at his hand. She missed, and came back on Flynn's chest with a hard thump.
"She doesn't want held, I guess. She's pretty clingy to us." I said, but I knew that wasn't the problem.
"I used to foster her. HB and I were engaged, but she broke it off because she didn't want the kids anymore, and I want kids."
Well, there's your problem. HB said it was because the babies weren't there anymore. He told Blondie it was because she was so mean to him. And now, he's telling us it was because HB didn't want the kids! Woops. Small hole in your plan, there, buddy.
"Ah." I nodded and clasped my hands together. "Well, um, we should get going, right, Jase?"
"Yes." she kept her glare locked in on his face.
"Well, it was nice meeting you! And nice meeting you again, Flynn." He held a hand out for me to shake, but I acted like I didn't notice.
As soon as we were out of earshot of mister Ray, I turned to Flynn, who still held me tightly to his side. "Did you think he did something to me?"
"I didn't know,"
"And how did he know you?"
"I had kind of a run in with HB yesterday." I looked up at him, wide eyed. "I had to walk past her - and Ray - and she stopped me and asked about the babies. I didn't answer her, and she made a comment, that's all."
"What kind of a comment? Tell me!"
"She said that she hoped I took care of the kids, because she said you were an airhead and Merida had a bad temper. I told her that you weren't an airhead, and Merida didn't have a bad temper. Well...Merida doesn't have a BAD temper, she just tends to be eager to, ah, name call if someone's a little short. Anyway, I told HB that she was an airhead AND had a temper."
I gasped at his boldness as to call her that, and then chuckled. "I bet she was really happy with you."
"Yup," he laughed and pulled me a bit closer, if at all possible.
"Wait. If he was with HB..." I stopped in my tracks. Flynn kept walking, but when he realized I wasn't beside him anymore, he turned and came hurrying back. "If he was with HB...then my theory is correct!"
Flynn grew wide-eyed. "Should we go back and tell Merida?"
I nodded, glancing back towards the bookshelf. Ray was making his way for the shelf. Quickly.
I took off running.
"Rapunzel, no! No! Get back here! Take Jase - get back here! You can't fend him off yourself! You and Merida can't! You'll..." I heard Flynn screaming after me. Jase yelled, too.
I ignored them and kept running as fast as I could go. I was panting, and my legs felt like Jell-o, but I kept going. I arced around Ray to take a shortcut.
My shortcut, however, was blocked with a pile of stuff that was coming from Tangled Fan's closet. I jumped, tumbled, and rolled through the obstacles, and as I heard heavy footsteps behind me, I panicked. I didn't know if it was Ray or if it was Flynn. I started to run fast again, and soon made it to the bookshelf. I dove into the bottom shelf.
"Merida! Get...the...girls..and..."
"Take a minute, Rapunzel. Breathe. What's got ye all up in a lather about?"
I pointed vaguely and she looked out to see Ray.
"He's...Ray?" She gasped and grabbed the babies up to her chest tightly.
"YES. He's...my theory...it was right..."
"Where's Flynn? Jase? Is he after YOU?"
"No! He's after...the babies...and you...you need to hide with them!" I panted.
"Where d'ya suppose I do that at?" her voice became high and squeaky, which only happened when she was scared.
"I don't...know! He's..." I trailed off as Ray stomped close to the bottom shelf. "Merida...take the babies. Run. I'll take care of him." I grabbed her arm and whispered in her ear.
"I'm not leavin' ye with him!" Merida hissed.
"GO!" I yelled, pushing her out of the shelf. "Go, now!"
Ray made a grab for Merida as she ran past, but I reached out and grabbed his arm and pulled him away from her, screaming at him. "Get away from her! Leave her alone! Leave the babies alone!"
He tried to yank away from me, but I twisted his arm around and made him shout in pain. I shoved him into a corner and held him there, watching Merida run with the babies. It was all I could do to keep him cornered, and by the time she disappeared from my sight, my arms were shaking. He finally managed to rip himself away from me, and wheeled on me.
"You little rat, you-" His blue eyes turned ice cold and horrid. My heart thundered and I started backing away from him, not trusting to turn my back on him long enough to get a head start on running.
I wanted to ream him out, but no words came from my open mouth. I unknowingly reached the edge of the shelf, stumbled, and fell down when I hit the floor. With a gasp, I started to try to crab-walk backwards, stand up, and run all at the same time, squealing in fear. He took that to his advantage, and pinned me up against the shelf, crouching beside me and leaning over to hold my other arm down. He grabbed both of my arms and wouldn't let me go or even stand up. I kicked and screamed and even tried to bite him.
"I'll let you go if you promise to butt out."
"No! They're our kids. YOU need to leave US alone! And like fun I'm gonna let you get away with all THIS!" I screamed, pausing my kicking.
"Then-"
I renewed my efforts with kicking, and squirming, and thrashing around.
I didn't want to call my husband into this for fear that he'd get hurt, and he had Jase. It was all I could do to keep from automatically screaming his name.
"Let me go! Let me go, you worthless..." I continued yelling and calling him several kinds of stupid, jerk, and awful.
He wouldn't let go, even after I did manage to connect my foot with his body on several kicking attempts.
"I told you, I'd let you go if you hand over those babies."
I managed to ease my legs up to my chest without him noticing, acting as if I was actually considering it. Then I squeezed my eyes shut and thrust them forward with all the strength I had left, loosing a scream and praying that I could get away.
I did that, and I heard a grunt. My arms were released. I was so scared, I could hardly breathe or move, but as soon as I felt my arms being released, I jumped up to run.
I saw Flynn was coming towards me quickly, minus Jase, and I kicked it up a gear, screaming for him. Right after I loosed my first yell for him, I felt an arm snake out and grab me around my waist, dragging me backwards.
I screamed as Ray lifted me from my feet and clapped his one hand over my mouth. I started kicking again, and drummed my feet against his shins violently. I planted my hands on his arm and started to try squeezing away, but he only tightened his grip on me until I thought he would split me in half. I thrashed around and wrenched my face away from his hand for long enough to scream "No, Flynn!" If he'd do this to me, I didn't want to know what he'd do to Flynn. I saw the horror on Flynn's face as he stopped and stared wide-eyed at me, and my heart almost broke. With renewed energy and urgency, I bit his hand, kicked him, and then tossed my head backwards and headbutted him, all at once. With a grunt, he hit the ground, but he still didn't let me go. He rolled, but then managed to get back up again and kept dragging me away from Flynn. I started crying and screaming despite his hand being over my mouth. I continued kicking and wrenching around. He managed to haul me over to a pile of boxes and junk, heading for the shelving unit. I managed to headbutt him again, kicking and screaming. He lost his balance on top of the pile of stuff, and dropped me in his attempt to regain balance. I felt victorious as I dropped to my feet, crouched down to catch myself, and then realized I was free. I stood, and then turned to meet eyes with my husband. But I lost my balance, being on a corner of a box, and I realized how far up the box was from the floor - at least three feet. And then I was falling.
I heard Flynn shout my name, horror filling his voice as it cracked. I thought maybe I could catch myself, but I couldn't. I hit the floor; but I kept falling, plummeting into darkness.
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