Mindful Beauty

21) His Predicament

"Donde esta?" Elizabeth came bursting through the front doors of Fransisco and Erica's home, the door smacking her husband in the face, but she didn't care. (Where is she?)

"Calm down. Ella is okay, and if you enter like this, you'll only scare her more." Fransisco whispered, pulling his mom to the side. Elizabeth breathed, squeezing her son's hands in appreciation before Fransisco took both of his parents to the living room where Ella was.

Ella was on the floor, petting Rufus who had half of his body draped across her, growling whenever someone approached her that wasn't Damien. It seemed as though the pup had recognized Damien that night and now, for saving his owner, had grown a soft spot for the man.

Damien was sitting right behind Ella, his leg being Ella's support as she leaned back on it while Stefanie sat beside Ella, distracting her with some beads for bracelets.

"Who is that?" Elizabeth frowned at the large and handsome man that sat behind Ella. She had never seen him before.

"Ella's boyfriend... he... he found Ella right before... just be nice to him." Fransisco still had difficulty explaining the painful incident.

Both adults nodded, taking cautious steps towards Ella until the young girl saw them. She spared them a tired and rueful smile before slowly getting up to go hug them, practically sinking into her mother's embrace.

"I missed you so much." Ella couldn't help but to cry. Having her life flash before her eyes really made her see how good she had it, not that she didn't appreciate it before, but she really felt like she was seeing things in a new light.

Elizabeth didn't speak, just nodded. If she spoke, she'd surely only cry, and that would just be hard to stop. After hugging her mom, Ella hugged her dad as Elizabeth went to go hug Stefanie. Everyone thought she would stop there, but she also hugged an unsuspecting Damien, causing Ella to smile fondly.

"Thank you. So much." Elizabeth wept quietly, wiping a stray tear before pulling away.

"I... you're welcome," Damien didn't really know what to say, and Timotheo laughed before also hugging the man.

"You look different, son. You're not American, are you?" Ella's dad light-heartedly added, causing a rumble of chuckles to go through the room from Stefanie and Fransisco as well as Kim who had arrived earlier after being briefed of the situation by Damien.

"Italian, sir." Damien shook Timotheo's hand firmly. "Nice to meet you."

"Timotheo Cortesa, and that's my wife. I assume you've meet the rest of the circus already." Timotheo motioned everyone else, and Erica laughed, shaking her head as she saw that she was included in the bunch.

"Beautiful family." Damien admitted, realizing that in reality, they were a beautiful family, and not just because of their looks but because they really seemed to be such a strong and united family from their roots.

Everyone settled down, chatting about mindless things that no one was really paying attention to since they were all so focused on ignoring the giant elephant in the room until the atmosphere was just suffocating.

"What happened, baby?" Timotheo asked first, watching as Ella's eyes instantly watered, her breathy becoming patchy as she smiled, trying to shake away the fear. She was safe. She was safe.

"Vanders wanted revenge. He thinks... he thinks I destroyed him." Ella wiped at the endless tears before Stef handed her a tissue. "Thank you, I... I'm just grateful for these two." Ella looked at both Damien and Rufus who were still by her side on the sofa.

Timotheo nodded, knowing that his daughter probably wasn't going to say more, at least not for the time being. To clear the tense atmosphere again, they all agreed to have a barbecue for dinner. Keeping everyone busy during these times was going to help them, at least while everyone gathered their thoughts and were comfortable enough, if they were ever going to be about it, to talk about the events. Truly, truly, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that only Ella and Damien knew what they had been through.