Falling Stars - Chapter 8
The weeks past and there was still no sign of the kidnappers. The only bright side to the situation that Troy could see was that no one else had been taken since the night of her date with Jason. Reese had been reluctant to let her go, but Troy pleaded with her friend and in the end won by telling Reese it might look suspicious if she decided not to go. That night had been one of the best nights of her life.
The two of them had gone to dinner and then back to his hotel room where they had talked until dawn. She was surprised to find out that they had a lot in common. They both loved hockey and the outdoors. They liked the same music, the same foods, and the same tv shows. It seemed like they were meant to be together, but Troy knew better. She knew there was no way she could fall for him. It was against everything that they believed in. It was against the rules they had set for themselves so long ago. Falling in love on the job was a no-no, so was making close friends.
'Keeping your objective hidden is the only way you can catch the bad guy,' Reese used to always say. They could never let anyone know what they were up to at the risk of losing their cover to the wrong person. Troy knew this was why Reese kept her ill-fated long distance relationship going with Mark.
Whenever the two of them were together they fought non-stop, but if Reese was single she was bound to break her own rules. Especially on this mission, Troy thought to herself.
Walking through the arena hallways, Troy thought of her boss/best friend. She knew that this situation was trying for Reese. Early on Reese made friends with Danielle Parker, a college student on vacation, who just happened to be Matt Hardy's long time sweetheart. As Danielle and Reese grew closer, Reese started spending more and more time with Matt and his brother Jeff. Troy knew there was something between Reese and Jeff. She saw the way that Reese looked at him, it was how Troy looked at Jason, as if all she wanted to do was reach out and hold him, but knew she couldn't because he was forbidden fruit.
"Troy, where have you been? We need to go call Av and see how things are at her end of things." The sound of her friends voice brought Troy back to reality.
"Sorry, the locker room was getting stuffy, so I decided to go for a walk. I hadn't planned on being gone long, I just got wrapped up in my thoughts," Troy told her friend. "This whole thing is getting to be really hard Reese.
We need to catch whoever is doing this soon so we can leave and I won't have to deal with these feelings anymore."
"I know it's hard Troy, but you know the rules. We all agreed on them. Stay as far detached as possible, without being obvious. We need to find out who is doing this and it has to be somebody on the inside. It is hard on all of us, Troy even me." Troy turned to look at her friend with a questioning look, but was met with a serious-faced Reese. "Come on we don't have much time."
Avalon sat in her locker room waiting impatiently by her cell phone. Reese and Troy were supposed to call her for updates before her show started and time was growing thin.
The time constraint wasn't the only thing that was making her nervous. She had something important to tell the girls, but wasn't sure if she should. The news was great if you were Avalon, but probably wouldn't make Reese very happy. Lost in thoughts of the impending conversation, Avalon was startled when her phone began to ring.
"Hello," Avalon said cheerfully, trying to mask her true feelings.
"Hey Av, how are things in your neck of the woods," Troy asked her.
"Um, they're great except for the no clues part. I'm stumped Troy. There hasn't been a single incident since I have been here. We are going nowhere fast and in the meantime I am losing myself."
"Me too Av, me too. I think Reese is too. I have never seen her so troubled, even on our really bad cases. She's got other things on her mind and I think it might be the youngest Hardy brother she has her eye on."
"Really? Shannon told me that Jeff had a girlfriend. He also told me a couple of days ago that Jeff had been talking non-stop about this new chick in the WWF. Anybody else new around there besides you two?"
"Nope, just us. That means that he has taken a liking to her as well despite the whole girlfriend thing. But you know she will use Mark as her excuse not to pursue it and to not break the rules. Which is becoming increasingly harder day by day for me. I am totally falling for Jason and I can't help myself. He is just so great and so perfect for me."
"I know what you mean. I am having a little bit of trouble with that myself. In fact I think I kinda, might have broken the rule a little."
"Avalon, what did you do?"
"I slept with Shannon Moore."