“Christine!!” Howie yelled, running towards the cabin as soon as the shot was fired. Ellen and Trevor were hot on his heels. No one knew who fired the shot or who was hit. All of the sudden, a tall brunette appeared in the doorway of the cabin, looking tired and shaken. Howie grinned in relief when he saw her standing there. As soon as she recognized the three people running towards her, she ran down the stairs.
“Howie?!” She cried, running into his arms. Trevor and Ellen slowed down as they approached the couple. Christine turned towards Ellen. “Mom…”
“Thank God you’re alright, baby,” Ellen said, throwing her arms around her oldest daughter.
“Chris,” Trevor began. “Where’s Melissa?”
Her eyes shot towards him. “You haven’t found her yet?” All three shook her heads. “I thought for sure that’s how you knew where we were.”
“She called from a cell phone,” Howie explained. “But before we could find out where she was, we lost the connection.”
“Shit,” Christine mumbled, looking more scared than ever. She turned back towards the cabin and saw a police officer standing in the doorway calling 911. Without thinking, she marched, determined, towards that cabin, right past the police officer, inside the door, and straight over to where Paul lay, surrounded by police officers and bleeding from the gun shot wound to his stomach. “You son of a bitch!” She yelled, lunging for him. One of the officers grabbed her from behind, restraining her. “Where is my sister?” Paul just stared at her, looking pained and disoriented. “Where is my fucking sister?” She screamed.
Howie, Trevor, and Ellen ran into the cabin during Christine’s tirade and Howie grabbed her from the officer. “Where is she, Paul?” he asked, calmly.
“I don’t know,” Paul responded. Even broken and bleeding, he still managed to look like the smug asshole that he always was.
“Fuck you,” Christine spat. “I swear to God, if she’s hurt, I’ll make sure you rot in that jail cell that you’ll be spending the rest of your fucking life in.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
The Next Day
Krista rolled over and glanced at the clock. It was still pretty early but the sun shining in through the windows wasn’t going to let her go back to sleep. She sighed, content, and thought back to last night. It almost seemed surreal. Like it was three years ago and they were just starting to get to know each other. She supposed it was like that because they really were getting to know each other again. It was nice, in a way. They had this history. This long and complicated past that neither one of them had fully dealt with. It was something that they had to deal with together. And since Krista walked out that fateful day three years ago, they never had the chance to.
The door opening interrupted her thoughts and she saw AJ standing in the doorway. “Morning,” she smiled, sleepily.
“Hey,” AJ replied and Krista thought that he almost seemed nervous. “Sleep okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Kind of strange to be sleeping in your guest room.”
“I just thought…” He began before Krista cut him off.
“It’s fine, AJ,” she smiled. “And I had a great time last night.”
AJ finally walked in the room and sat down on the bed with her. “I did too,” he responded, quietly. He looked over at her, wearing an old t-shirt of his that she always used to wear. It all seemed so familiar. So comfortable. And he missed it. He didn’t realize how much he missed it until last night. But Sarah was right. He really was in love with Krista. It was something he never had fully gotten over. And now he knew that he wouldn’t have to get over it. That they could maybe get back to what they once had. “So…how about breakfast? You want to go out?”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“Hey,” Ang walked into Katelin’s bedroom at Nick’s house. “What are you doing?”
Katelin was busy throwing things into suitcases and boxes as fast and as unorganized as she can. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Leaving?” Ang questioned. “But Brian told me that Nick said he had custody.”
“He does,” Katelin replied, opening yet another drawer and pulling its contents out. “He has custody, Ang. I don’t.”
Ang reached out and grabbed Katelin’s arm, forcing the younger girl to look at her. The tears came on before Katelin could even attempt to stop them. “Aw, Kate. What’s wrong?”
“He kissed me,” Katelin began. “In the court room in front of a zillion people. As soon as the decision was announced he just grabbed me and kissed me. And then he played it off like nothing happened. So I dropped it and didn’t ask about it. Then we get back to the apartment and Jeff came over and we found out that Lanie was the one who talked to the social worker.”
“What?!” Ang exclaimed. “No way…”
“Yes way!” Katelin cried, exasperated. “Why is it so hard for everyone to believe that she’s evil?”
“That’s not what I meant, Kate,” Ang tried to explain.
“What did you mean then, Ang?” Katelin stood up and placed her hands on her hips. “I mean, you and Nick…hell, everyone…will do anything they can to defend her. She tried to get my son taken away from me, Ang. She tries her hardest to keep Nick away from me. Well you know what? She doesn’t have to worry anymore. I’m out of here. I’m going to stay with Adrienne and then I’m getting an apartment in Tampa and she won’t have to deal with me anymore. I’ll move away from my son.”
“I know you’re not letting Lanie force you to leave your son,” Ang stated, knowingly. “What the hell is really going on? Did something happen between the two of you?”
“He scared me, Ang,” she whispered, after a moment. “Scared the hell out of me. I mean, I’ve never seen him like that. That angry. I mean, not even when he found out about Aidan.”
Ang was thoroughly confused. When they left, Katelin and Nick were fine. What had happened in the last forty eight hours? “What’d he do?”
“We got in a fight,” Kate explained. “I told him that I didn’t want to be his whore. I mean, that’s what I feel like. That he just wants me when it’s convenient. I’m not going to live like that. I wanted to be with him more than anything and he knew that. He knew it and he used it to his advantage. To get what he wanted. It’s always the same. And then he just exploded on me. He just had this look in his eyes that I’ve never seen before. It scared the shit out of me.”
“Did he hurt you?” Ang asked. Katelin didn’t say anything. “Son of a bitch…”
“He didn’t hit me or anything, Ang,” Katelin tried to rationalize Nick’s behavior the previous day. “He just grabbed my wrists a little too tightly….It was nothing.”
Ang reached out and grabbed Katelin's wrists, the black and blue marks instantly jumping out at her. “That fucking asshole…Where the hell is he?” Before Kate could stop her, Ang was running out the door of the bedroom, in search of Nick. She found him sitting in the den, watching television.
Nick looked up from the t.v. when Ang came storming in, her face more red than he had ever seen it. This couldn’t be good. “Ang, what’s wrong?” he asked, standing up.
“You bastard…” she hissed. Katelin walked in behind her trying to get her to calm down. Ang reached over and grabbed her arms, pulling her towards Nick and thrusting her arms towards his face. “You see this? Look what you did, Nick. Look at her.”
Nick felt sick to his stomach as the bruises practically jumped out at him. How could he have done that? Hurt the one girl in his life that he would do anything for. He hadn’t even recognized himself last night. She was just making him so mad that he couldn’t help it. He completely lost control.
“What the hell were you thinking, Nick?” Ang screamed. “Is this how you treat the people that you claim to love? And don’t try and tell me that you’re not in love with her because I don’t buy it for a second. It’s written all over your fucking face. Well you know what? You don’t deserve her. And personally, the sooner she gets out of here, the better off she’ll be.”
“What?” Nick switched his gaze from Ang to Katelin. “What is she talking about?”
“You really thought I’d stay?” Katelin asked, incredulously. “After yesterday did you really think I’d stay in the same house as you?” She thrust her left wrist in his face again. “Look what you did to me, Nick! Look at this! What happened to you? What happened to the guy that I fell in love with?” She didn’t give him a chance to answer. Instead, she spun around and, with Ang hot on her heels, stalked out of the den and back up to her room. As soon as she closed the door behind Ang, Katelin leaned against it and let the tears slide down her cheeks.
“Don’t cry,” Ang commanded. “He’s not worth it.” She reached out to give Katelin a hug when Kate grabbed her left hand. “What the hell is that?”
Ang smiled, sheepishly. “Oh…that…I completely forgot to tell you.”
“You happened to just forget to tell me you’re engaged?!” Kate threw her arms around Ang’s neck. “Congratulations!”
“Thanks,” Ang replied, returning her best friend’s hug. “And I’m sorry about all of this. You deserve better, Kate. Much better than him.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Christine buckled her seatbelt and leaned back in the seat, sighing. “You okay?” Howie asked from his spot next to her. She nodded. “Fine. Just a little shaken up.”
He grabbed her hand in his. “It’s over, Chris. Melissa’s fine. You’re fine. Your mother’s fine. And Paul’s in jail. Where he will be for a long time.”
Christine smiled at him and reached out to cup his cheek in her hand. “You’re so good to me, Howie. Even after everything…everything that I’ve put you through, you’re still there.”
“I love you Christine,” he told her. “I never stopped.”
Christine didn’t know what to say. Everything in her life was so confusing. She had been through so much in the last few years that she didn’t know how to respond to Howie’s declaration. She knew that she wanted to get back to where they were three years ago. But she didn’t want to move too fast. “I…I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything,” he replied. “I’m not looking for you to say that you love me too. I know what Paul put you through. Just let me be there for you. And we’ll see where it goes from there. Can we do that?”
She grinned. “Yeah, Howie. We can do that.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Brooke walked back into the hotel room after a long day of rehearsal. Why on their days off did their management decide that the guys needed to work on choreography all freakin’ day? Brooke would never understand it. She threw her key on the dresser and turned around to look at the bed. Oh how she wanted to just crawl in bed and sleep for days. She walked over to it and sat down before her eye caught the black box sitting on the pillow. “What the hell?” she whispered, picking it up.
“Open it,” she heard from the doorway. She looked over and saw JC leaning against the wall, a smile forming on his face. He walked over and knelt down in front of her, taking the box out of her hands and opening it.
“Oh my god…” Brooke began. “JC, you didn’t…”
“Shh,” he told her, pulling the platinum and diamond princess cut ring out of the box. “I know we didn’t do things the conventional way but I wanted to get you this. Every girl deserves a beautiful engagement ring. And one day we will have a real wedding, Brooke. As soon as this tour is over and we can plan it.”
Brooke watched, tearfully, as JC slid the ring on her finger. She threw her arms around his neck, wondering what the hell she did to deserve him. “I love you, JC.” And she really did. Everything in these last few months had been such a mess. She realized that she needed to stop trying to make everyone else happy and just concentrate on making herself happy. She would always have a special place in her heart for Kevin. He was such a big part of her life for so long. But she realized that she had changed. That they had changed. She was in love with JC and she wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her life with him.