Danni glanced at John when he woke up, but then stood and turned to David. Her eyes were wide.
"Oh, David, I'm so sorry..." she whispered. "You told her... didn't you?"
"I did. "His eyes were full of tears now. "And I'm afraid the same thing may happen to her. Death's following me Danni."
"Oh, no, no," Danni insisted. Death isn't following you. Gary's following us. Kelli will be just fine. I looked. She was shot twice in the chest, but neither one is a critical shot. Lizza will be fine as soon as she knows her sister's going to be ok."
"And if you're thinking about moving again, you can stop it," she went on, tears coming to her eyes. "We're staying here. If those men were from Gary, he'll follow us wherever we go. And I'm not about to live on the run, do you understand David Stern?" A little out of breath and with teary eyes, Danielle Richardson waited for his answer.
Through his tears David smiled at Danni.
"You were always stubborn like this."
Suddenly he hugged her close and kissed her
"Anything to keep you from running," Danni whispered. She pulled out of the hug. "We can't run. We have to fight if we ever want our lives back. Ok?" Her arms were still resting on his sides, waiting.
"For you, I'll fight forever." Whispered David
Danni smiled softly and moved into the hug again...
Several hours later, Danni and David were sitting on the couch in front of the shattered window. The doctor had come and gone to take care of John and had returned to Kelli. Ryan was wandering aimlessly around the house. Lizza had not left her room. Milo and Lisa were talking quietly in the room she'd been resting in.
"It's so quiet," Danni whispered to David.
David put his arm around Danni.
"It is. We deserve some peace and quiet right now."
Danni leaned her head on David's shoulder and sighed. Ryan chose that moment to shuffle into the room. He stared at them for a couple of seconds. Finally, he shifted and muttered, "Get a room," and shuffled back out.
Meanwhile, Lizza's door opened cautiously and she slipped out. Finding her way to the room where her sister had been taken, she knocked lightly. Dr. Styles answered and let her in.
"How..."
"She's fine, Lizza," Styles assured her.
"Thanks, Kevin," she said. "You'll..."
"Yes, I'll be staying for a while," he answered. "So you'd better explain what's going on."
"That'll take a while," Lizza said. Kevin glanced at Kelli.
"I've got the time," he answered. They left the room and went to Lizza's room. She began telling the story...
David laughed and yelled after him.
"We did, you walked into it."
Then he turned and kissed Danni again.
"Maybe we should put a sign or something?"
Danni laughed. "And the sign will say 'We got a room... don't invade!'"
"Exactly! C'mon we got some peace and quiet, we should take advantage of it."
John woke up with an excusciating pain in his arm and shoulder. He managed to get up and stand. He walked out of the room and bumped inot Ryan.
"oh s-sorry about that..." John said then looked at him "I don't know if you're the one to talk t-to about this, b-but I need some answers on what the hell is g-going on here!"
"From what I can tell, I'm just as good a person as any to talk to," Ryan answered with a laugh. "And I'm about the only person you're going to get any answer from... Dave and Danni are occupied, that doctor's talking to Lizza and Kelli's unconscious."
"Anyway," he went on. "From what I heard, Dave and Danni ran into some things at NURV that Gary didn't want them to... he's stealing code again, or something. Danni got shot, Dave rescued her, and they met up with Milo. Later, they were joined by Lisa and then we all sort of collided here. Then, they went to get you."
"Now it sounds to me like I'm going to be acting out whatever writing you come up with," he finished. "I'm supposed to go to Gary's house, get his home computer, and get out... have I explained what you want to know?"
"well k-kinda i guess... b-but that still doesn't explain why i-i'm here, whats the p-point of me being here?" John said in a confused tone.
"You're here because you agreed to help us..." Ryan answered. "You're a good writer... or so Danni tells me. But I'm curious.... are you any good with a gun? After today, I think you might need to be."
"I guess I better go apologize to Lizza." Said David, he stood up walked out and towards Lizza's room. He saw that it was empty, then realized she had gone to Kelli's room. He headed there.
"I-I think i am, b-because I shot two of them when they c-came through the windows." John looked at his hands "oh my god.......I-I'm a murderer!" John grabbed Ryan at the collar and yelled in his face "I'm a killer!"
Ryan slowly pried John's hands off his collar and put them down at his sides.
"Listen to me," he said quietly. "You shot two men in self-defense. You are not a murderer. If you hadn't shot them, you would be dead. Do you hear me? Do you understand what I'm saying?"
______________________________________
David approached Kelli's door and found Lizza standing with her back to the wall just across from her sister's room. She glanced at him as he came, but quickly turned her gaze back to the door.
"Listen Lizza.....I'm sorry for the way I talked to you. It's.........not a good topic for me to talk about."
"I noticed," Lizza muttered. She turned to face him. "Look, I couldn't have possibly known something like that would set you off... I just... well, it's my little sister... I-I wasn't thinking clearly... after what you've been through, I think you can understand that."
Kelli's door opened and Dr. Styles came out. "Lizza, she's waking up."
Lizza turned to David. "Excuse me..." she hurried into the room.
"Lizza..." Kelli muttered. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was ragged. Lizza was at her side in seconds.
"I'm here, Kelli," she whispered. Kelli's eyes opened and she groaned.
"I feel like a 400 pound person is sitting on me," she gasped.
"You'll be ok," Lizza promised. Kelli grimaced.
"Kevin's said that about fifty times," she muttered. "Does that mean I'm dying?"
"I think you'd know if you were dying," Lizza answered quickly. The doctor interrupted.
"I'm going to the hospital to get my hands on some medicine that will help you recover," he said. "I'll be back in ten minutes."
"Be careful, Kevin," Kelli croaked.
"Look who's talkin'," he grinned. "Don't move."
"I can't," she retorted. He nodded and hurried out.
David finished.
"I know, and I'd have reacted the same way if it was me. I just wanted to apologize.
I'll leave you two alone now."
David walked out and headed back to Danni.
"How'd it go?" Danni asked when David returned to her.
"Pretty good, Kelli woke up so I decided to leave them alone." He sat down.
"It does, however look like I'm going to have to owe you that dinner. Seems like going out would be a little risky for us right now."
"I agree," Danni said. "But we can wait... we have plenty of time."
Milo came downstairs at that moment and Lisa was with him.
"I hear your writer friend got shot," he said. "Lisa's getting impatient... how long do you think it'll be before he can finish our little play?"
"I have no idea," Danni answered. "He got shot in the arm... I suppose he could dictate to one of us."
"Whatever we do, I want this to end soon," Lisa said. "I'm just too jittery with having to sit around here and do nothing... but I know we can't move."
"Yeah boo-hoo you're bored. Meanwhile we got a man who got shot in the arm who apparently must work harder because you're bored."
"Bored?" Lisa shot back. "You think I'm bored?"
She pointed to her arm... it was in a sling. "Need I remind you how I came to be with all of you?" She shook her head. "I'm far from bored... I'm more scared than bored, okay? You're not the only ones Gary wants dead..."
"You're right. I'm sorry. But the writer's a bit stressed right now, so we're all going to have to wait."
"Time..." Milo muttered. "The very thing we need most of... is the very thing we don't have."
"We'll survive," Danni said firmly. "We've done so to this point and I'm not about to give up now."
"Good," Milo said. He guided Lisa back up the stairs and to her room.
"Maybe we'd be better off without her." Muttered David.
"Well Milo seems rather intent on keeping her around..." Danni answered slowly. "For my part, I'm with you... we don't know how truthful her story is... she could be faking the injury... she may have called those guys and told them where to go."
She shook her head. "And Milo just up and welcomed her in! How do we know she's trustworthy?" Her voice began to sound a little panicked. "Are we gonna have to get out of here?"
"Hey, don't worry, this is the safest place we can be, anyway. We wouldn't be any better off in a motel." He said, putting his arms around her.
"Oh, I suppose you're right," Danni sighed. "I just..." she let her words trail off into silence, trying to think of what she wanted to say.
"I..." Danni said, trying to find the words. "I-I guess... I guess I just don't trust her..."
She frowned. "She got close to Milo once and betrayed him... I half wonder if he's letting it happen again."
"I guess it's our responsibility to make sure it isn't."
"I guess so..." Danni said uncertainly. "I... I just don't like second guessing him... I mean, he was smart enough to get himself out of the Synapse problem."
"Yeah, but he can still make mistakes. Never hurts from looking at something from two perspectives."
"I guess you're right," Danni said, sounding more certain this time. "So what do we do, then?"
"Well, we're stuck indoors, we've got some time to kill...."
"We need to monitor her at all times, we can't let her send out any kind of signal, phone call, online, or anything like it. Searching her belongings would also be a good idea."
"Sounds like spying to me," Danni said. She didn't sound too impressed, but she sighed. "I don't suppose we have much of a choice."
"Tell me what you want me to do," Danni said. "Let's get started. Should I distract her long enough for you to look through her stuff?"
"Great..." Danni muttered. "How'm I supposed to do that? Milo's with her... and they just went back to the room... I suppose..."
She stood and went to the room. Knocking softly, she entered.
"I was just wondering if either of you are hungry?" she said. Both of them nodded and looked at her as if they expected her to bring them some food. Danni turned to do just that when Lizza poked her head into the room. "No food on the carpet... down to the kitchen for it."
Milo and Lisa stood and followed Danni down to the kitchen. Danni mentally thanked Lizza. They passed David and Danni grinned at him as if to say, "It worked!"
David quickly headed up to her room and began rummaging in her purse.
Aside from the usual makeup, wallet, cell phone, and loose change, Lisa's purse had a single sheet of paper, folded up in half and then again in half. When unfolded, the sheet was revealed to be completely blank. The cell phone was locked by a numeric password... four digits.
David kept the blank sheet of paper, then went to looking inside drawers, closets, under the matress, etc.