Deliver Me -- Chapter Two

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Chris woke slowly, realizing he was on the couch and that he had a very soft, very warm body at his side. Livvie. He knew before he even opened his eyes. It was the way she curled against him seeking protection. It was the way she felt so at ease in his arms. It was the way he enjoyed having her hold him this way.

He silently cursed himself. Knock it off, Ramsey, Chris lectured himself as he felt Livvie slightly adjust her position on the sofa, pushing her form even closer to his. He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath, saying a quick prayer for strength.

Livvie woke slowly and could hear the gentle sound of his heart beating beneath her cheek. She instantly worried that maybe she'd make him uneasy again. She lifted her head and looked up, feeling frozen as his newly awakened eyes focused on her.

Chris moved his hand and realized for the first time that his fingers had been quite comfortably resting on her waist. He smiled as he tucked her hair behind her ears gently, "Good morning."

"Good morning," She said not really knowing if it could be a truly good morning or not. She felt so awkward, and she didn't know how to fix it. Did she stay where she was and face him scurrying to get away from her? Or did she make the move to run this time? She began to lift herself up when his arm tightened around her, keeping her in her current position.

Chris didn't even realize he'd made the move to keep her there until he saw the unspoken question in her eyes. He was asking himself the same question at the moment. What was he doing? He looked over her face before meeting her eyes again, "Livvie.." He started.

"Chris wait," She replied, placing her forefinger over his lips, "Wait. I'm sorry about this. I shouldn't have cried like that all night and just lay on you like this."

"Not even a little. I'm actually glad you stayed here like this. I think it's the most peaceful sleep I've had in quite a while."

Livvie smiled, "Well, it's good to know that I didn't make a total fool of myself."

"You didn't make a fool of yourself at all," He explained as he smiled gently, "I think that dubious honor goes to Kevin," He said adjusting his jaw a bit.

"Chris," Livvie said lightly as she touched his jaw, "I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about all of this. You're life would have been a lot better if I hadn't ever showed up here and started asking you all those questions about your wife."

He shook his head, "That's where you're wrong, Livvie. You didn't ruin my life. You made things a lot easier for me in fact."

"No," He said lifting her chin so he could meet her eyes again, "You brought me a very special friendship, and I owe you for that. No one could have cared less if I jumped off the roof of GH. But you didn't look at me that way. You gave me a chance, and that's something no one in this town was willing to do."

"I've noticed that people in this town generally make up their minds in about two seconds," She frowned, "Why does everything have to be so complicated?"

Chris hugged her to him as she lay her head upon his chest once more and held him close in return, "Holding on to what you care about. That makes everything easier."

He smiled as he touched her hair gently and considered how he'd be able to tell her everything.

Kevin stood on the balcony staring out at the water. It had come down to this. He really did have a daughter and now he had to figure out a way to tell Eve. She was already upset about Livvie enough. Would this be the final straw for their marriage? Would she still be able to love him?

He exhaled slowly as he turned and found Eve standing at the doors. She had a disturbed look upon her features and he knew that he had to tell her now. There would be no way to move past it. He frowned.

"Kevin," Eve spoke lightly, "I know you keep telling me that you can't tell me. But I can't accept that anymore. Last night, when you came home, you were barely tolerating yourself," She said with tears in her eyes as she looked away, wiping a few stray ones as they slipped down her cheeks, "Please....please trust me enough to tell me."

"Eve," He frowned, reaching out to her and touching her arm gently. She covered his hand with hers and he winced a bit.

Eve took his hand gently in hers and looked over his discolored knuckles. She gasped as she looked back to his eyes, "Kevin, what happened?"

"You what?" She asked in confusion, "What happened? What did that jerk do this time?"

"Eve," Kevin began as there was a knock at the door, "Hold that thought," He frowned as he crossed the room. He already knew who would be on the other side. He opened the door, "Not right now Lucy."

Lucy frowned, shifted from one foot to the next before sighing and turning on her heel. As Lucy walked back down the path to her car and drove away, Eve joined Kevin at the door.

"Lucy," He frowned, "But I told her now wasn't a good time. Because I need to share this with you."

"Share what with me? This sounds serious," Eve frowned, "Come on. Let's sit down."

"Eve," Kevin sighed as he sat down on the couch beside her, "I've tried to protect you from my past with Grace."

Eve watched him and her fear increased by a factor of a hundred. She nodded silently.

"I wanted to keep that part of me away from you. It was such a dark time in my life. Full of things that were best forgotten," Kevin said as he frowned, "I didn't want to face them, and I definitely didn't want you to have to deal with them. But I can't protect you from any of it anymore. You have to know the truth....the truth about who and what Livvie is."

"Grace and I had a very turbulent relationship. It was full of passion and fury, never really making any sense. We tried to hurt each other. I mean seriously damage one another," He frowned, "And she would lash out at me in any way she could. She told me once that she'd be pregnant with our child, and that she'd had an abortion." He paused, "The truth is....the truth is, Eve, she didn't have an abortion. She had our baby and kept her away from me. I never knew
that Grace had been pregnant, nor did I know that she'd had our daughter."

"Kevin," Eve started as she held up her hand, "Are you saying....do you mean..."

"Livvie is my daughter." He said slowly, saying the words again yet still not fully believing them.

Eve blinked and shook her head, "I...I don't understand. I thought she was Rachel's daughter."

"That's what Rachel wanted everyone to believe. She didn't want me to ever find out about Livvie's true parentage."

"Lucy began to piece things together after.....well, after I'd put Livvie under hypnosis. Livvie remembered some things that pointed directly to Grace. Livvie shared those things with Lucy, and Lucy began to figure things out."

"And so did you," She said after a moment, "This is what you've been dealing with and you didn't tell me? Kevin, I could have helped you."

"Eve, I didn't even know how to help myself," He said shaking his head, "I didn't want to believe it."

"Because if it was true, then I'd spent her entire life believing she'd never existed. Livvie's been with them and they've been poisoning her mind for all these years. I should have been there for her."

"Kevin, you didn't even know about her. How could you have done anything?" She paused, "This is why you want to help her so much. This is why you've gone to such great lengths for her. Kevin, why didn't you tell me? Do you know how awful I feel? God, if only I'd known, I wouldn't have been so hard on you. I've just made this worse for you," She said as she placed her hand on his shoulder, "Does Livvie know?"

"She wasn't ready to listen. To be honest, I wasn't really in the right frame of mind to share either. I probably terrified her last night."

He sighed, "Livvie was at his apartment. I went to see her, to get her away from her. He ordered me out and I just let it go and hit him."

"Yeah, I'm fine," He replied as he looked back to Eve and he touched her cheek, "I'm sorry, Eve. I should have shared all of this with you. I should have made you aware of what was going on in my life."

"It's okay," She said hugging him to her, "I know now, and I think I understand. I didn't want to share everything about my son with you because I didn't want you to know what I was like back then. So I understand how that is, Kevin. But I want you to know that what happened with Grace could never change the way I feel about you. I love you, and I trust you."

He shook his head, "I don't know what I ever did to deserve you, Eve," Kevin said lightly as he kissed her softly and then hugged her again, "But I'm so grateful to have you in my life. I need you so much."

"I'm not going anywhere," Eve said holding onto him as the phone rang. She frowned as she met his eyes, "Let me get this." She picked up the phone and instantly recognized Ian's voice, "Now is not a good time, Ian.....No, I can't meet with you today. I don't care, Ian. It'll have to wait because right now," She said as she took Kevin's hand, "My husband needs me more than anything. I'll be at the hospital tomorrow. Goodbye," She said hanging up while Ian was in mid-sentence.

"You could go," Kevin started before Eve placed her fingertip over his lips.

"No, I can't. I have to stay here and help you," She said with a faint smile, "Because I love you and I want to see you through this."

"Yes you do," She responded as she touched his cheek, "We go talk to your daughter."

"Kevin, listen to me. She has to be as confused as you are. You two need to work this out together."

"How can I? She listens to Chris now and only god knows what he's been telling her."

"I'll take care of Chris. You talk to Livvie," Eve said as she took his hand, "Let's go talk to your daughter."

Livvie sat back and frowned. She glanced around and folded her hands in her lap.

"Not hungry?" Chris asked as he looked around the Recovery Room, "If you don't want to eat here, we could go somewhere else."

"No, that's okay. I don't think I'd be able to eat much no matter where I was."

"I know that you're upset," He said reaching out and taking her hand, "But you have to take care of yourself. Just eat a little something. If for no other reason that it would make me think you're doing okay," He requested as he gave her a little grin.

"You give me way too much credit here. You already want to do it. I just give you a little push."

Chris smiled, "I thought so." He looked up just as the door opened and he spotted Kevin and Eve, "Livvie, Kevin's here."

She closed her eyes and frowned as Kevin and Eve closed in on them. She held onto Chris' hand and looked back at him, "Don't leave me."

"I'm not going anywhere," He said firmly as Kevin and Eve stood beside their table.

"I have some things to say to you," Kevin said as he took a chair from nearby and sat down. Eve sat beside him and looked towards Livvie.

"And you never once questioned her?" Livvie asked looking back towards Kevin, "You said that you two had a bad relationship....you didn't once think that she had lied to you?"

"It never crossed my mind," Kevin said sadly, "I wish it had. I would have been there for you."

"It's a little too late now though, isn't it?" She replied, "You weren't there for me."

"But I'm here for you now, Livvie. I want to help you now that we know. Please?" He asked extending his hand, "Let's go over to GH. We can talk in my office."

"What do we really have to talk about?" Livvie asked as she stared at his hand.

"I want us to figure out where to go from here. This is a decision we need to make together."

Chris placed his finger under Livvie's chin and turned her to face him, "Go with him. You two need to do this together. You can always leave if you feel uncomfortable."

"You don't have to now. He should earn that with you. But you'll never know until you give him a chance. Remember what you told me about people in this town making up their minds so quickly. Don't be like them," He said giving her a smile, "You can find me if you need me."

She met his eyes and nodded. She turned back to Kevin and shrugged, "Let's go."

Kevin gave Chris a look somewhere between apology and thanks as he stood with Livvie and led her out of the Recovery Room. Eve watched the door close behind them before she turned to look to Chris, "Okay, Ramsey, explain."

"She deserves to have a good family, and a good relationship with her father after all the lies she's heard from Rachel. I want her to have that."

"Yeah, okay...now tell me the truth," Eve said ordering a breakfast of her own.

"That is the truth, Eve. I got close to Livvie for one reason and one reason only. I wanted to get back at Rachel. But that's not what this is about anymore."

"It's true. Livvie's very important to me now. So much so that it scares me a little."

Eve stopped in her place and leaned forward on the table, "You don't mean that you're in love with that girl??"

"I wish I wasn't," He frowned, "Because it makes it so much harder to stay away from her."

"Why do you want to do that? If you're serious about.... about feeling the way you feel, why would you stay away from her?"

"Eve, she's too young for me. Even you just called her a kid. What would I be doing if I crossed that line with her? I have to keep her away from me. Kevin's going to try to do that anyway, and it's more important that she has her relationship with him anyway."

"I'm not trying to do anything, Eve. Other than keeping Livvie safe. And she'll only be safe if she's away from me."

Eve paused for a moment as she watched him, trying to decide about him, "So you want me to tell you that it's okay for you to hold onto her? To tell you to fight to keep her? Is that what you want?"

"No, that's not what I want," He said firmly, "I want you to tell me that I'll be doing the right thing if I push her away."

She took a sip of coffee and frowned, "The right thing.....the right thing for you or the right thing for her?"

"Both," He groaned, "Don't you see? I don't want to hurt her because I am who I am. But I don't want to lose her either."