One Heart

Nathalie's POV

“I'm home!” I called as I stepped in through the door, leaving it open for Brian and the others to follow. Everyone else had clambered into the back of Matt's SUV and had followed Brian and I back to mine. “Rae! Alex! Where are you?”

I had just kicked off my flip-flops to the side when Alex appeared in the hallway, his hair dripping water on the wooden floor. “Where else do you expect?”

“Rae's in the pool again, isn't she?” I shook my head and laughed. “I swear that kid spends more time in water than land.” Alex was peering behind me, making me remember of everyone behind me. “You remember everyone, don't you Alex?”

“Of course,” he replied, walking forward and greeting Brian with a shake of his hand. “I just never expected you to invite them around at a time like this. Here I thought you were just saying it to keep me happy.”

“That was before Alex, things have changed,” I muttered, gesturing for the others to follow as I walked through the house. When I reached the kitchen I asked everyone to stay there as I walked out into the back garden, crouching down by the pool's edge and smiling at Rae, who currently floated on the back of a rubber dolphin. “Rae honey, can you come over here for a minute?”

With a swift nod she slid off the back and began to swim over to me, a large grin on her face as she moved fluidly through the water. Back in Phoenix she didn't know how to swim, but with your own swimming pool and Alex as her personal teacher, she picked it up quickly.

“Rae, do you remember Mummy telling you that there would be a surprise for you waiting here?”

She nodded enthusiastically. “Yep! And I've been waiting like a good girl, just like you told me to.”

“And a good girl you have been,” I agreed. “Your surprise is in the kitchen.”

Her eyes grew wide as she instantly moved to the steps and climbed out of the swimming pool, protesting from anticipation as I made a fuss about drying her off first before taking her hand and leading her to the kitchen. She didn't know what to make out of the people waiting there, looking between them in a state of confusion, turning to me and asking, “Mummy, what's the surprise? Who are they?”

I smiled, touching the locket around her neck that held a picture of me in one side, and Brian in the other. She had it since she was born, so she always knew who her parents were. While I may not have wanted her to live in his- well, our- old lifestyle I didn’t want her to grow up not knowing both her parents. “Are you sure you don't recognise one of them?”

“I know Uncle Alex and Uncle Jimmy but...” Rae looked over them again, her eyes soon widening as she settled on Brian. “Daddy?” She looked to me, unsure. When I nodded and confirmed her guess a huge grin grew and she ran over to him, jumping into his arms and fixing her own around his neck. “Rae's been a good girl so she could see you Daddy! Rae promised to be good and now you are here!”

At first Brian seemed shocked as something just ran into his arms, his reflexes almost causing him to drop her to the ground had he not realised who she was. His smile followed after as he hugged her close to his chest, marvelling at the girl in his embrace. “I'm sorry I took so long.”

“Rae forgives you,” she replied happily, soon peering over his shoulder at the rest of the guys who seemed to be all fixed into permanent 'awh' mode. My daughter’s response revealed she had not yet lost her immature bluntness. “Who are you?”

I walked over at this point, introducing the rest of the guys. “These are Uncle Jimmy's and Bri- I mean Daddy's friends,” I began, cursing myself mentally for my mind naturally not wanting to call Brian by his newly required title. “This is Uncle Matt, Uncle Johnny and Uncle Zacky.” At my mention of Zacky, she started laughing. “What's funny?”

“Zacky is a funny name!” She giggled, pushing gently on Brian's shoulder so that he put her down where she then skipped over to where the scowling Zacky stood. Jimmy did elbow him in his ribs to make him stop, but he merely crouched down and looked her directly in the eyes.

“Rae's a funny name too.”

She stuck out her bottom lip in a pout. “It's not my real name.”

“Neither is mine.”

Her head cocked to the side, just like a puppy would. “Why?”

“Rae honey,” I interjected, “you remember I told you Daddy was in a band with his friends? They all go by other names there.”

“Why?”

“Well…” I glanced back at them before returning my gaze to her, leaning in to whisper in her ear. “They’re all secret agents.”

She frowned, looking doubtful. “If they are secret people, then why don’t they have glasses?”

“Glasses?” Not knowing what to say to this I turned back to everyone, looking for inspiration. As if on cue, Matt broke away from the group and crouched down in front of Rae, pulling a pair of his signature aviator sunglasses from his back pocket and slipping them over his eyes.

Mimicking what I had done, he shuffled closer and whispered to her. “You’ve got to keep this secret, okay?” He edged the glasses down the bridge of his nose to glance at her, his eyes moving about in a shifty, untrustworthy manner, playing the part perfectly. “We can’t let them find out.”

Rae edged even closer to him. “Who are they?”

He brought a finger to his lips and shook his head. “It’s best if you don’t know. Just leave them to your Uncle Shadows.”

“Uncle Shadows?” Matt nodded, which led Rae to her next question as she gestured to the others. “So what are their names?”

“Well,” he began, shifting on the spot so that he could point to each of his friends in turn. “Uncle Johnny is Johnny Christ, Uncle Jimmy is The Rev and Uncle Zacky is Zacky Vengeance.”

Realising he had missed someone important out, she turned to me for the answer. “What about Daddy?”

I smiled. “Daddy is Synyster Gates.”

“So it's Uncle Shadows, Uncle Christ-”

“I'll just go by Johnny,” he quickly cut in, after realising that if Rae went around calling him 'Uncle Christ' it would mean nothing but harassment by the rest of the band for him. Hell, even I was starting to think up jokes for it.

She pursed her lips at the correction. “So it's Uncle Shadows, Uncle Johnny, Uncle Jimmy and...” She stopped to think when she got to Zacky, remembering how he acted after she laughed at his name the first time. “Uncle... Veng-eee-naan-cce?”

At first we all just exchanged raised eyebrows and bemused looks but this was followed by us all bursting out laughing. I adored Rae from the bottom of my heart, but some things she says are just too cute, especially when it is trying to spell out a long word.

Zacky however, seemed absolutely fine with his name, even if Rae had completely butchered it, making it sound more like 'Vengee-nancy' rather than just 'Vengeance'. “Close enough.”

She giggled as he smiled at her, grabbing onto his hand and beginning to drag him outside. I watched them as she pulled him to the pool, glancing to my side at Jimmy. “Does Zacky have swimming stuff on?”

“No he doesn't. Why?”

A large splash sounded, and all five bodies currently in my kitchen (including mine) turned to look outside, finding a cackling Rae at the edge of the pool looking triumphantly down at the man just breaking the surface of the water.

I shook my head and sighed, replying, “That's why.” After walking outside I grabbed the towel draped across the chair and handed it to Zacky as he stepped out the pool, his face contorted into a deeper scowl than when she had laughed at his name. “Sorry Zacky.” I turned back and called out, “Alex, could you get some shorts for Zacky from the upstairs costume room for me? Thanks.”

His eyes narrowed at me. “You better not be getting me a pair of striped pants from an old clown costume.”

“No,” I chuckled, calling out my thanks as Alex tossed out some black shorts from the upstairs window a few minutes later into the garden. Zacky inspected them intently after I gave them to him, almost as if he were expecting there was some sort of trick to them. “They are just plain, black shorts Zacky. We just call it the costume room because there are all sorts of clothes in there; all different types and sizes. So I guess if you did want some striped clown pants, I could probably find you some.”

“I think I'll manage with these,” he replied with a grin, quickly changing behind the towel I held up in front of him. “Hey! These are my size as well!”

As he was twisting in turning on them like some sort of fashion model, I couldn't help smirking. “I do have my uses. Now Rae-” Thinking she had gotten away with it she looked at me with a playful smile, only for it to disappear as she saw I wasn't joking. “That wasn't very nice, now was it?”

Her feet shuffled on the ground; her gaze cast upon them as she murmured, “No.”

“What was that?”

“It wasn't very nice, Mummy.”

“No, it wasn't,” I replied, frowning to keep up the act. “Now what do you say?”

“Sowwy Uncle Vengee-nancy.”

Zacky smiled, reaching out and ruffling her hair with his hand. “I'll forgive you kiddo. But in return, you've got to do something for me.”

Her eyes grew wide. “Like something secret?”

“Something secret,” he agreed. “But it’s your secret mission, so you can’t tell anyone, alright?” After receiving an enthusiastic nod from her after he crouched down beside her and began whispering in her ear, pulling back with a wink and adding, “You got all that?”

She confirmed with a nod and smile, keeping the mystery between the two of them as he picked her up and placed her on his shoulders, walking back to the house. “Come on then, let's go see what everyone else is doing.”