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“ Mommy” Gracie cried. Meranda opened the door and heard her daughter crying, rushing to her side.
“ Baby, mommy is here.”
“ I was scared did you leave me?”
“ Nope, Uncle Nick, Uncle Brian, Uncle Kevin, Uncle Howie and daddy.”
“ Daddy’s here?” Gracie said her eyes lighting up. Meranda could never replace the look on her daughter’s face.
“ Yep, daddy’s here.” Meranda said looking towards the door to see AJ standing in the doorway.
“ Gracie sweetie this is your daddy. Alex this is your daughter.” Meranda said backing up so AJ could walk to the bed. Nick put his hands on Meranda’s shoulders as she backed away from the bed, and started from the room. The others followed her from the room leaving AJ alone with his daughter.

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“ Mommy told me all about you daddy.” Gracie giggled.
“ Really, how much did mommy tell you?”
“ Mommy would tell me how much she loved you, how much she missed you. She gave me pictures of you that Uncle Nick would take for her.” Gracie said. AJ smiled, he now understood Nick’s urge to take loads of pictures of him.
“ Yeah really. I think Uncle Nick has a picture of you.”
“ How come you don’t?” She asked looking at him. AJ looked at her, could he tell her that he didn’t know about her.
“ Mommy hasn’t given me a recent one.” AJ said looking at her. She looked so tiny in the huge bed. A tear rolled down his cheek as he watched her play with the small bear she had.
“ Sweetie, I am going to go get something. Wait right here don’t be scared ok?” AJ asked looking into her eyes.
“ Ok Daddy.” Gracie said. AJ noticed her grabbing a coloring book so she could color. AJ left the room, leaving the door ajar as he stepped into the hallway. He found the others waiting in the hall, Kevin standing behind Meranda as Nick held her close. He could hear her sobs from where he stood.
“ He hates me. I never wanted that. I didn’t tell him about her because I feared he’d be mad.” Meranda sobbed.
“ He doesn’t hate you honey.” Kevin said.
“ He does, he does because I kept his daughter from him. I was only protecting him. He wasn’t ready for a family. He told me he didn’t want kids.” She said. AJ lowered his eyes, this really was his own doing, was he really so selfish that he thought that he didn’t want a child. He remembered when she had left, all of her cloths where gone and her car was still parked in the driveway. He didn’t understand why she had left him, but now he did.
“ All that drinking and drugs he did was my fault. My leaving and not telling him why.”
“ No, that was my fault. I was missing you but I wanted to know what I did wrong to cause you leave me.” AJ said stepping up to her.
“ I left because you told me you didn’t want kids.” Meranda said whipping the tears away.
“ I was young and stupid. I wish you would have given me a chance to know my daughter.”
“ I saw you in her eyes everyday. Her dark brown eyes and dark curls always reminded me what would come from both of us. She asked about you everyday. I would read her articles about your success. She’s got all your albums, books and pictures. Even got those cute toys from Burger King.” She said looking at him.
“ Oh crap that reminds me I want to get Gracie a big teddy bear.” AJ said.
“ Gift shop is on the main floor. They are open for about another hour.” Meranda said looking at him. AJ took her hand and led her to the elevator. Nick smiled and watched them leave the floor.
“ Come on let’s check on Gracie.” Nick said leading them into Gracie’s room.


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AJ looked at Meranda, it had been 6 long years since he had seen her. He knew that Nick was still talking to her. And even once that Nick had rushed off to be with her when he said she was sick. Maybe that was when little Gracie had been born it had been the right time. He wished that he didn’t push her away like he did. His career was just taking off and he couldn’t be saddled with a kid, but was he so selfish that he made the one woman he loved leave him, taking a child he didn’t know he had away from him. He had been a fool all this time. He had assumed that she had left because of the fame but it wasn’t that at all.
“ I thought you left because of the fact that I would be touring so much.” AJ said looking at her. Meranda looked up from the large teddy bear she had been looking at.
“ If it had been hat I would have left a note. Alex I was so upset when you said you didn’t want a child, because you where a kid yourself. I didn’t know what else to do.” She said to him. AJ took her small hand in his own and looked into her dark eyes.
“ These six years have been torture for me. I admit that, yes I did start drinking because you where gone, finding refuge in the bottom of a bottle was easier than facing that I had lost my angel.” AJ said, he wasn’t even sure why but he wasn’t angry with her at all, but angry with himself because he had pushed her away. He had actually wondered at one point if she had left him for Nick or one of the others, and he had even done so much as tell the guys during a drunken stupor that they where the reason she had left him and that Nick had her hidden from him.
“ You hadn’t totally lost me Alex. I left figuring it was safer for you if I had just left. I figured if I had told you about the child you would stop what you had been doing thinking that you would have to help me raise Gracie.”
“ But how did you raise Gracie.”
“ Jobs working two or three at a time till finally Nick offered to help.”
“ That was where he was sending the money. He got into a huge fight with his mom and she wanted to know where he was sending that much money.”
“ It was for Gracie. I didn’t really want it but I couldn’t keep working like I was I wasn’t seeing our little girl.”
“ How about we talk to Gracie together. I want this bear to give to her. She’s such a special little girl.”
“ Yes she is.” Meranda said. She’s special just like her daddy. She thought. Meranda hated keeping her from him but she thought it was for the best.