Gabby woke up early the next morning with Elliot’s arms wrapped tightly around her. She smiled as she rolled and laid her head on his chest. "Morning."
"Oh hey, I didn’t realize you were awake." She looked up at him. "You sleep well?"
"Better than you." He said sitting up slightly.
"Yeah, I don’t know, it just everything seems to be back. I thought I had forgotten it."
Elliot heard the fear in her voice. He pulled her up to him so they were face to face. "I will never let him or anyone ever hurt you again." He paused smoothing her hair down. "Also, Gabby, I, well I hope you know how much I care about you. I will wait as long as necessary for you to feel comfortable and ready to move on. I will never pressure you to do anything, just stop running away from me."
"I don’t know how long that will be. No one has ever made me feel the way you do, I’ve never given them the chance to. I don’t know how to react to these feelings and last night I thought I did, boy was I wrong." She said burying her face in his arm.
"No, you weren’t. Gabby what Kurt did was," he paused trying to calm himself getting upset again thinking about what Kurt had done. "What he did was inexcusable and I promise not all men are like that. What happened to you was horrible and for all these years you have hidden it away and tried to deal with it all on your own. You’re not on your own anymore, you’ve got me and I will do whatever I have to do to help get you through this. You will get past this." He hugged her tighter as her grip on him increased. She started crying again and held on to Elliot as if she was holding on for her own life. "Shh, everything’s going to be ok, Gabby, I promise."
The next day Elliot and Dale sat next to each other waiting for Helton to start the drivers meeting. Kurt sat in the back of the room quietly not making eye contact with anyone. "So you didn’t do anything?"
Dale could hear the edge in Elliot’s voice. "No, it isn’t going to help matters."
"Like hell."
"Elliot look, I am just as upset about this as you are but I, we can’t do anything, especially here. We take this to the track, we could seriously hurt someone who is completely innocent and it will bring everything to the surface. You know as well as I do, that Gabby doesn’t want the world to know what happened. Everyone is still looking at her like she has this big bubble over her head that is flashing ‘hey look I’m Dale Sr’s illegitimate daughter.’ she doesn’t need to think people are staring at her for this too. She’s an Earnhardt now, well, she always has been, but now everyone wants a piece of her. You want to be the one to bring this to the media’s attention? I know you’re pissed I am to but you have to forget this, at least for now."
"And how in the hell am I suppose to do that?"
"I know this is hard and trust me I want nothing more than to walk to the back of this room and kick his skinny white ass right now."
Elliot turned finding Kurt slumped in his chair. "How did you know he was back there?"
"Trust me I know where he is, ALWAYS." Dale said not turning but staring straight ahead. "Let this go Elliot, you will only end up hurting her more. You need to take care of her, I will deal with him, later." Dale turned only his head looking straight at Elliot. "Understood."
Elliot felt a chill, he had never seen Dale this intense and all he could do was nod as he snuck one more glance at Kurt before Helton took the stage.
Gabby held her breath as Dale’s car slammed into the wall on the final lap. He had been having a run of bad luck all day and luckily it was now over. "I’m ok." They heard on the radio but there wasn’t any movement from the car until the safety workers got there to help him.
She watched as he limped to the ambulance then she climbed from the pit box helping Robby down. By the time she got to the care center Dale had been taken inside and she heard a doctor say something about setting it.
"What’s going on?" She asked as she sat a slightly upset Robby next to Dale.
"They said it’s broken." He pointed to his ankle. "Good thing it’s the end of the season. They need to set it. You ok?" He put his arm around Robby who just laid against his uncle and nodded. Robby was still a little apprehensive when he saw a wreck. "I’m ok buddy."
Gabby moved to the end of the table Dale was sitting on and looked at his ankle. He winced as she lifted it and gently applied pressure. "Sorry." She placed his leg back on the table. "Dale don’t let them set it. I don’t think it’s broken and if they do set it, it will be."
"But they said…"
"I know but look, this is going to hurt." She lifted his ankle again and gently turned it. "You wouldn’t be able to move it at all if it was broke. It’s probably twisted maybe fractured but I don’t think it’s broke."
"You ready Dale?" The doctor asked as he came back into the room.
He looked at Gabby. "No."
"What?"
"Did you do an xray?" Gabby asked.
"No, we don’t have a machine here."
"Exactly." Gabby replied as Tony Sr. and JR Rhodes walked into the care center.
"What’s up?"
"Well…"
"He’s going to the hopital." Gabby said as she picked up Robby and Dale tried to hop off the table.
JR jumped to help Dale walk and they followed Gabby and Pops out to the helicopter leaving the track doctor there to wonder what was going on.
Elliot, Gabby, and JR all waited for the doctors to get done with Dale. "This is ridiculous. First the scene at Dega with you, now this."
"It’s cause these guys just work the tracks and hell the care centers have new people every time we come to a track. They are just there for the paycheck."
"Well, that’s not acceptable." Elliot and JR looked at her like she was crazy. "And I know just what to do." She turned to Elliot. "Can you take Robby home, I should be home tomorrow night."
"Yeah but what are you doing?"
"Don’t worry, I’ll be ok." She saw the concern on his face after the events of the weekend. "I love you. Be good for Elliot." She kissed Robby and then turned to Elliot. "Thanks, I will talk to you tomorrow." She kissed him and was out the door.
The next day.
"Mrs. Gabriella Keyes to see you sir."
"Who?"
"Gabriella"
"Tell him Earnhardt. Gabby Earnhardt." She smiled.
The receptionist looked at her before repeating it over the intercom. "Send her in."
"Mrs. Earnhardt, it’s nice to finally meet you face to face, you are quite the talk of the community right now. What can I do for you?"
"Yes I know, call me Gabby, please. Mr. France, I believe we need to talk."
He smiled. "Well by all means, have a seat and please call me Brian."