Guarded heart

Chapter 18. Laughing again

LISA'S POV

We spent the car ride to the fire station just chatting away while even laughing at moments. I was surpised I wasn't feeling nervous and before I knew it we were pulling up to the fire station.

Chris quickly got out and rushed round to my side of the car to help me out.

"Okay, let me find where today's gift is then we can leave" Chris says as I get steady on the crutches.

"Okay then" I say

"Chris, Lisa. How nice to see you." Steve says.

"Morning dad how are you?" Chris says.

"Good morning" I say

"So you two are dating, and you couldn't bring Emma by. In my books of your dating I'm now a grandad and will want to step up to that" Steve says. Well now I feel nervous. I didn't think of this aspect when I did that post last night.

"Dad" Chris says.

"Sorry, Emma had the choice and it was a hard decision but she missed Jade to much and already made plans with jade" I say.

"Very well there's always other times. And of Chris here gives you any issues you just tell me" Steve says.

"Bobby, you got it the wrong way round. Your meant to warn Lisa not to hurt our Chris" Bobby says from behind us.

"Well, um" I start to say.

"Don't worry, you don't have to say anything. Ignore Bobby" Chris says.

"We haven't even been on a date yet. So you can both just hush for now" Chris says to his dad and Bobby. And I wish the ground would swallow me up right now. I should of had Jade join me she could of faked something up. She is good at that when I'm lost for words I think to myself. So I just stand there and smile while also praying I won't be stood so long because I haven't mastered mother meetings stood on crutches yet.

"Well how come you popped by anyway?" Bobby asks.

"Today's daily gift, where is it?" Chris asks.

"I will go get it" Bobby says.

"So Lisa, when are you and Emma going to come for dinner again?" Steve asks.

"I'm not sure. But soon" I say smiling.

"Okay, well I hate to leave so soon. But we have training about to start. I have to go. But please don't be a stranger" Steve says.

"I won't. It was nice to see you again Steve" I say.

"Dad, I will pop by over the next few days for a better catch up. I will also bring Nathan now he is doing better" Chris says.

"Good see you later and take care" Steve says walking off.

"Sorry about that" Chris says.

"It's okay, honestly my friends and family did worse to you already anyway" I say looking around to see where I could lean on or sit down. I clock the desk near me and decided that was my best option so I started to hobble towards it.

"Where are you going?" Chris asks.

"No where" I say as I near the desk.

"Here you go" Bobby says coming back in. As I just about reach the desk, I use it to support me better by leaning against it so my back is resting there to keep me up. And I feel relieve knowing I've got something sturdy to keep me up.

"Cheers Bobby, dad went off to start the training" Chris says.

"I better be off then. You coming by again soon?" Bobby says

"you know it. See you soon" Chris says

"Great, see you soon then. Bye Lisa take it easy with that leg as well" Bobby near enough shouts as he rushes out again

"Bye" I says loudly hoping he hears me as he disappears.

"You ready to go?" Chris says looking at me with his cheeky smile.

"Yeah" I say and I pray the few moments I used the desk to support me was enough to keep me falling down until I reach the car where I can sit down now.

"You don't sound so confident with that yeah" Chris says.

"I'm good, let's go" I say smiling as I start to hobble and try to hurry up a little.

"You seem in a hurry my dad and Bobby didn't scare you that much did they?" Chris says trying not to laugh.

"No, they were fine I will just be glad to sit down" I say.

"Oh, we were talking for a while and waiting around for abit as well. I should of guessed you needed to sit down" Chris says suddenly hoovering a little closer to me.

"Its okay, I will be fine was I sit down" I say but before I've finished saying the sentence I feel Chris wrap his arm around my waist and lift me up as he takes the crutch closest to Jon from my hand to carry as well. "This will be easier and faster" Chris says at the same time smiling at me.

"This could work as well" is all I manage to say. And before I know it we have reached the car again and Chris is helping me get in the passenger seat.

"Here you go" Chris says passing me a card.

"Thanks" I say taking it. "It's today's daily gift" Chris says then he closes the passenger door before heading for the drivers seat.

I open the card and it says have a speedy recovery on the front. I open it to look inside as Chris gets into the car.

To Lisa, we heard great things about you. We also heard you have been in the wars due to no fault of your own. So we wanted to help cheer you up with a £20 gift voucher. You deserve a little treat or two. Keep being you and keep rocking. From everyone at Shakeaway.

"What's your plans for the rest of the day?" I ask Chris.

"I've not really planned anything today in honesty" Chris says

"How about one more put stop before you take me home then?" I ask.

"Where do you want to go?" Chris asks.

"Let's get a milkshake on Shakeaway. After all you where involved in the car accident as well. Your also running around everyday with these daily gifts you could do with a treat just as much as me" I say waving the gift card in my hand smiling.

"Then let's go" Chris says strapping in his seatbelt.

As we drive to shake away I notice how Chris always taps away to the steering wheel when he likes a song but he doesn't sing it. Just like now he looks cute tapping away to the song train-drive by.

CHRIS POV

As we drive to the shake away I notice a car I see following us briefly earlier. I also remembered it was behind us yesterday morning as well. I took note of the driving licence and decided to lose it just incase it was someone following us. I know with my job you sometimes upset people who want revenge and I didn't need this kind of thing with Lisa with me. I didn't say anything to Lisa as I didn't want to worry her. I quickly did a turn at the last moment then did enougher turn.

"You going the wrong way" Lisa says.

"I know I accidentally took the wrong turn. It's okay we shall get back on track in a moment" I say playing it down.

"Well you can always ask me for directions if you get lost" Lisa says and I can't help smiling.

I keep my eyes peeled and notice we managed to lose whoever was following us to my relief my last minute turns worked. I kept to the back roads for a few streets to make sure they wouldn't pick us up again. As we get back on track Lisas phone rings.

"Hello" Lisa says answering the phone.

"Sorry Sean I'm out still so I can't make lunch with you" Lisa says.

I couldn't hear what Sean was saying but I knew it was Lisas brother.

"Why do you want lunch so badly? Haven't you got some important meeting today?" Lisa asks.

"I'm fine, I'm out with Chris at the moment and my leg is fine" Lisa says.

We arrive to the car park in the shopping centre and I park the car. Lisa is still on the phone talking with Sean. I decided to go get out the car when Lisa says "What do you mean you want to talk with Chris?" I look at Lisa briefly with the car door slightly open.

"Fine, but your acting strange today" Lisa says. "Chris my brother wants to say hi to you apperently" Lisa says passing me the phone. I take the phone and continue to get out the car to help Lisa get out.

"Hello" I say.

"Can Lisa hear me?" Sean says.

"No" I say glancing at Lisa as I slow my stride to the other side of the car.

"Good, I will make this quick. You lost the security team Lisa is unaware of. You have no idea how much the family have gone to hide them from Lisa. Yet you come along and figure it out so quickly and lose them. Makes you a good police officer. But tell me where are you?" Sean says.

"I didn't know that. I thought it was someone who had a issue with police. However we are at the shopping centre not far from where we lost them about to get shake away" I say.

"Great, I own that place. Don't lose them again. Trust me I will explain at a later time but don't tell Lisa" Sean says as I open Lisas car door.

"Okay, then a drink one night sounds good to me. I shall pass you back to Lisa" I say.

"Thankyou" Sean says then I pass the phone over.

"Sean, I don't have time to talk. I can't use my phone to talk on while using crutches. I have to go" Lisa says.

"Okay, I will see you tonight for dinner" Lisa says before she hangs up the phone.

"What did he say to you?" Lisa asks as I hold my hand out to help Lisa out the car.

"He just wanted to know if I fancied a drink one night to get to know each other better. That's all" I say. I feel bad for lieing to Lisa. But I wanted to hear what Sean had to say first before I say anything. After all the security must be for a good reason. Lisa takes my hand as I help her out the car until she is steady on the crutches.

"Your lieing" Lisa says

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"You lost the security team Sean doesn't think I know about. But I'm not stupid ever since I was kidnapped and nearly killed I've been more aware of the people around me. I have 4 bodyguards that hang back or get closer if I let the ones I know have abit of distance from me. My whole family don't think I know. But I know. I saw you lose one. Then Sean rang second he was informed. I've seen them strike in keeping people away from me. I just choose to not let them know I know because we'll they don't get under feet. However you just ruined my fun in letting them know where I am didn't you? " Lisa says smiling.

" Lord give me mercy! Now I feel stupid not saving anything. But it's only because Sean asked me to keep it quiet with a promise of explain it all to me. I figured I'd be quiet for now until I knew more but I hadn't fully decided to keep it a secret forever" I say looking a little sheepish.

"Well I reckon we have five minutes until they find us. But since my brother owns this place he will have mall security already tracking me and making there way to towards my direction" Lisa says as he make it into the lift.

"Why are they so protective still?" I ask.

"Because they fear I'd crumble into bad depression again if I knew the truth. They fear I'd try to take my own life again. They fear someone else from that family will try to snatch Emma. I fear that to so I never let up on Emma's security. But they also fear someone will try to kill me again from that family. I know they have tried making contact but failed due to the security team. But that's why my family keep it from me that I have security bodyguards" Lisa says as we ride the one floor in the lift.

"And your no longer scared?" I ask as we get out the lift.

"I use to be. But now even stood right here I know I'm not in top form but I'd be able to defend myself if I had to" Lisa says.

"Which reminds me did you say you took down so many men in order to reduce bodyguards" I say.

"Yes, but they still doubled them secretly. However taking my brothers and friends partners to prove I could defend myself was fun. And they made sure it was men since they knew I struggle with men touching me even for a hand shake. But it made me more determined to kick ass to get what I wanted" Lisa says as we enter shake away.

"So you can kick ass but not handle a handshake?" I ask.

"I went through hell at the hands of a ex boyfriend. Who took away my innocence. Then I went through so much hell from his family that I don't have photos of me holding Emma the first few days she was born because I was still covered in bruises on face along with cuts on my arms. I was black and blue on the milbs that couldn't 'hurt the baby'. After all that would you like to be touched without warning?" Lisa says as we take seats.

" No, your right. Sorry I should of thought" I say feeling bad.

"Don't be. You didn't do anything wrong. Now take this and surprise me with a milkshake as well as your own" Lisa says smiling at me as she hands me over the gift card.

"Why don't you tell me what you want?" I ask.

"Because I don't know what I want. So just surprise me" Lisa says still smiling.

"But what if I choose something you don't like?" I try to reason.

"I doubt that. I like 99% of the treats. I love ice cream I love milkshake therefore I don't think you could go wrong" Lisa says grinning widely at me.

"Why are you smiling like that. It makes me nervous" I say

"Because I'm curious what your think up for me" Lisa says.

LISA'S POV

When Chris came back, he came back empty handed smiling away at me. "Here you can keep this for you and Emma to share, I had a way more better idea" Chris says.

"What's you idea?" I ask with raised eyebrows as I take the gift card back.

"Well since you couldn't tell me what you wanted. And since I couldn't figure out what to get you. I thought we could play a little game. I asked them to make up 20 different shakes for us each small samples of them. And on the bottom of the cup will be written what flavour they are. Now we have to guess what it is. Whoever gets it wrong will have to answer a fact about themselfs" Chris says.

"Okay, I am for this game. But I feel like it's also a cheating way to find out my favourite shakes for future reference as well" I say.

"Ah, darn it. You worked my game out. There's no fooling you is there" Chris says with that huge smile of his.

"Nope, there isn't" I say smiling back.

"Here are the first five" a young women says coming across with a tray. Five my side and five Chris's side there lined up in two straight lines. Okay from this end to this end they match each side. By the time your finished with these we will have the next tray ready" the woken says.

"Thank" Chris says.

"Thankyou" I say before looking at Chris and saying "Game on".

We both picked the first one up and tried it. To me it tasted like banana, strawberry, white chocolate.

"you ready to guess?" Chris asks.

"I think we should write our answers down" I say.

"but we don't have paper and pens" Chris says.

"Don't worry I've got this" I say getting my phone out to ring Sean.

RING RING RING RING RI

"Hey Lisa, is everything okay?" Sean asks.

"No! I need a massive favour and it's urgent need it like right this second" I say.

"Okay, what's going on?" Sean asks.

"have someone from the mall bring me two little white boards and white board pens from the stantory shop on the bottom floor. I'm in shake away. And they need to hurry I have a game to win" I say.

"Your playing a game in shake away? And this is urgent?" Sean asks laughing at me.

"Yes, plus you know I broke my leg. If I hadn't I'd go myself. It's urgent because the ice cream in the shakes will melt and there's loads made already. I need to guess the flavours of the milkshakes correctly. And I'm aiming to the best at this" I say.

"You know you got this. After all the ice cream treats and milkshakes you had pregnant with Emma. Your winning this" Sean says.

"Yes, now please do your thing for me and have me the white boards please" I say.

"Okay. It will be there in five minutes max" Sean says.

"Thankyou. See you tonight. Bye" I say hanging up.

"Did you actually just ring your brother to get you white boards?" Chris says laughing.

"Yeah, it has perks being part of the family business. I may not be hands on but it doesn't mean I can't get what I need when I can't walk to get it quick enough myself. Plus I know I just disturbed Seans meeting. And now he will ring the mall manager who will have some sent directly up" I say shrugging my shoulders like its no big deal.

"I could of gone and got it" Chris says laughing

"No no i won't be accused of cheating at this game" I say smiling.

"I wouldn't of thought of such a thing. Your to kind and honest" Chris says looking me directly in the eyes and I can tell he means them words.

SEAN'S POV

I had finally finished the meeting after being disturbed with Lisas morning more than once. I swear if I got disturbed again a few people may have throttled me since the looks I got were of those not impressed. But I didn't care because Lisa comes first. I sit down at my desk to my phone ringing again. Once again it's Rodger. Don't tell me Chris was stupid enough to lose them again. Like seriously I think to myself as I lose my tie getting annoyed upon answering the phone.

"What's happened now?" I say

"Nothing, I just wanted to let you know that I've had Shake away send me a copy of the footage of Lisa and Chris together. I thought you would like to see it. In the whole time I've followed Lisa and guarded her, I've never seen her smile and laugh so much around anyone outside of her relatives. It was refreshing and nice to see so I figured you might like to see as well" Rodger says.

"Okay thanks. Send it across" I say.

"I just did. You should have it already" Rodger says

"Okay, where is Lisa now?" I ask

"not far from your parents. It looks like there going there next" Rodger says

"Okay, thanks Rodger. Speak with you later" I say then hang up. I check my phone and Rodger was right there was a copy of the video footage in lush. You couldn't hear anything but you could clearly see Lisa looked so happy. She laughed alot, even Chris laughed alot. At one point I could tell Lisa was holding her stomach trying to contain herself from her laughter. I couldn't keep this to myself. I had to share it with everyone. So I popped it into the 'Our Lisa' group. Was just all my family and Hahley in there. Lisa has no idea about it. But it's been going since she was pregnant. We were all so worried that we got together and created a group. Anything concerning us about Lisa would go in there. It's one of the factors that made us realise Lisa was kidnapped so quicky. And it's also how we have managed to stop Lisa getting unwanted attention from a few men who was interested in Lisa. However Chris came in like a lightening bolt and we all agree he is good for Lisa. This video just proves it I think to myself.

The replys quickly came in and everyone was just as happy as I was to see Lisa looking carefree and happy again. She had to grow up so fast being a young mum. Having to over come trauma. Yet she has done us proud. She gives to others so selflessly and never wants anything. She closed her heart off to most people. Her family excluded. It worried us all but finally we have hope that Lisa can get her very own happy ever after.

LISA'S POV

It was a close call. Me and Chris where both pretty good at this game. However I won, I'm not sure if I won on my own or if Chris allowed me to win though. Either way I was happy. I was happy I won if I did on my own. If I didn't I was still happy that Chris was so kind enough to allow me to win in such a gentleman way. I don't think I will ever find out for sure and Im not even going to lose sleep over it. After shake away and learning loads of fun facts about each we headed back to the car. The fun fact about Chris I liked the most was the fact we liked the game kind of films and music. So I learned we had that In common. The whole game felt like something you would do on a date yet it wasn't a date. So now that we have planned for Friday evening to be our first official date I'm curious what we will end up doing. I hope its as fun as this morning has been that's for sure. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much that my stomach actually hurt from laughing. I still had a smile plastered on my face now. Now we have just pulled up into my parents drive way. Chris turns the engine off as he looks at me smiling. "And your home" Chris says.

"So I see. Thankyou for a fun morning. I really enjoyed it. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much" I say smiling.

"Your welcome. Thanks fit breakfast, I can't remember the last time I had ice cream for breakfast let alone a Disney princess quiz but its was good fun also" Chris say.

"trust me when children are around you eat ice cream at random times while discovering your inner child still exist. I find myself forgetting ladybug is on the TV some night long after Emma is in bed while I'm sat there watching it forgetting Emma is no longer watching it" I say.

"The joys of being a parent I'd assume however random ice cream times and cartoon times sounds good to me" Chris says.

"It sure is" I say smiling as I I clip my seat belt.

"Wait a second, I will come help you out the car" Chris says unclipping his own.

"Thanks" I say

"It's fine, no need to thank me" Chris says opening his door and getting out to come help me.

Once I'm out of the car and steady on my feet I look at Chris once again.

"Last night I arranged a huge bouncy castle ready for Emma arrived back. I also arranged loads of huge body beans bags and some garden toys for the children. It should all be set up now so I'm going to head around the back today" I say

"I will walk with you. This sounds interesting" Chris says.

"You can stay and join in on the fun if you like" I say

"No, I won't impose. I will just make sure you arrive to the backgarden without falling down" Chris says

"It's not imposing when I offered" I say

"Still it's time with your family so you should enjoy the family day" Chris says.