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toxic_cornSeries: Your Boyfriend Snorts Cocaine, Mary Anne
Title: Chapter Eleven (11/12)
Authors: toxic_corn and nutmeg610
Disclaimer: Chad and Mary Anne belong to ABC, Ann M. Martin, and Scholastic Books repsectively. We humbly apologize for this.
Summary: Mary Anne has left Stoneybrook behind to attend UCLA. She loves living with Dawn and Tigger, working at a local day care, and spending time with Logan. But lately Logan's been changing and not for the better. What will happen when Logan's erratic behavior gets to be too much and the older LAPD officer starts getting closer?!
Notes: Sorry for the dreadful summary; I was going for a style. This is a Day Break/Baby-Sitter's Club crossover fic we dreamed up one night because we're insane. If you're brave enough to give this a try, good on you. And if you avoid it, well, we understand. :)
Please... continue not to hate?
Catch up on earlier chapters at the organizational post.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I’m sorry for everything that happened between us. Can you at least talk to me? You can pick the time and place. I’ll be waiting.
- a (destroyed) letter from Logan Bruno to Mary Anne Spier
Logan stood outside Mary Anne’s apartment, waiting for her to get off of work. He tried knocking on the door earlier but for some reason, Dawn wasn’t letting him in. Nervously, he checked his watch. He had to leave soon, but not without seeing Mary Anne first. Just to have a talk, get their feelings out and then maybe she’d run with him.
After what felt like years, Mary Anne’s car pulled into the parking lot. His heart lifted at the sight of her. Even tired and in her work clothes, she was beautiful. But she looked so sad… maybe that cop of hers wasn’t taking good care of her. Bastard. She didn’t see him until she was a few doors down from her apartment and she stopped in her tracks.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. She actually looked frightened. Of him!
“I needed to see you,” Logan said, stepping forwards. She shied back a few steps and he stopped. “Mary Anne…”
“You’re not supposed to come near me,” she said, shakily.
“Look, I know you didn’t mean it so-”
“Yes, I did! Logan, you need to leave now!”
This wasn’t going the way it was supposed to. “I just wanna talk!”
“Well, we can’t. Go away, Logan.” She started to open the door but he grabbed her arm to stop her.
“Don’t do this,” he begged.
“Let go of me!” she cried.
“Not until you listen to me!”
“Stop it!” She yanked hard and managed to loose herself from his grasp, only to overbalance and fall over. Her head hit the clay pot next to the door, making the sunflower inside it jiggle.
“Mary Anne?” Frantic, Logan rolled her over and gasped at the huge gash just above her left eyebrow. “Oh… oh, baby girl, I gotta get ya to a doctah…” He scooped her up in his arms just as the door opened.
“What’s going-” Dawn’s eyes widened when she saw him. “What did you do to her?!”
“Nothing!” Logan yelped and started to jog with Mary Anne to his car.
“Hey!” Dawn screamed. “Come back here! You-! I’m calling the police!”
Hands trembling, Logan got Mary Anne into the passenger seat. Her head lolled and she moaned pitifully.
“Hold on, baby girl,” he whispered and shut the door, running to the driver’s side. “Hold on, hold on, hold on…”
He tore out of the parking lot and drove crazily all over the place, taking out a few trash cans on the sidewalk. The little trip along the curb made Mary Anne’s head jounce against the car window and she cried out in pain.
“I’m sorry!” Logan yelped and tried to right the car. “Sorry!”
In only a few moments, three cop cars were behind him, sirens blaring. Oh, shit. He glanced in panic over at Mary Anne. He couldn’t stop. They thought he’d abducted her, he had a metric shitload of cocaine in the trunk, one really pissed off dealer looking for him, and a gun under his seat.
This wasn’t going the way it was supposed to.
~*~
Chad had been trying to read the file for the last ten minutes but his mind kept wandering to Mary Anne. Last night had been the first night he’d spent without her in weeks; it’d taken him hours to fall asleep. A mean part of him hoped she hadn’t been able to sleep at all either.
A polite knock at the door jerked him out of his musings. “What?”
The door opened, revealing Nathan the desk sergeant. Chad frowned at him; he’d never come to his office before. “What is it?”
“You haven’t heard the news, I take it,” Nathan said quietly.
“What news?”
“That girl of yours was just taken hostage by her ex-boyfriend.”
Chad’s heart stopped. “She…”
“The step-sister called the cops and now they’re chasing him; doesn’t look like he’s gonna slow down any time soon, driving all crazy. The girl might be injured already, we don’t know for sure. They’re calling him right now to figure out what to do.”
Before Chad could respond, his phone rang. He took a moment to collect himself before picking up. “Shelten.”
“We got a hostage situation and for some reason, the guy only wants to talk to you. Name of Logan Bruno, you know him?”
“Yeah, I know him.” God damn it, Huck if you hurt her… “Put him on.”
There were some clicks as he was connected and then someone was taking a sobbing breath right in his ear. “Is this Shelten?”
“Yeah, Logan?”
He sounded scared and panicked, two very bad emotions that could get Mary Anne killed. “Get these guys off of me or I- I’ll hurt her!”
“Okay, okay!” Don’t think of Mary Anne hurt… don’t think it… “We’ll get them to hang back, just don’t hurt her okay? You know you don’t want to do that.”
Cops had gathered around his office, including the usual hostage negotiators, one of whom nodded at Chad to let him know he was saying the right thing.
In the background, he could hear Mary Anne moaning and crying softly. The sound went to his gut and he wished like hell he was there to protect her.
“Mary Anne, shut up! Get these guys the hell off of me, Shelten!”
“Okay, I’m trying!” He put his hand over the receiver. “Get those guys back or he’ll hurt her! I’ll try to get him to stop somewhere and you can bring in the snipers.” He got back on the line. “Okay, I’ve passed on the message, but you’ve got to stop somewhere, okay? You’ve got to let her go or you’ll be in worse trouble.”
“Where the hell am I supposed to stop? At… how about that park you guys went to? Stop crying, Mary Anne!”
How did he know about the park; had he been following them? “The park, okay. You stop there and let her go, okay?”
“Yeah, and a sniper takes me out,” the kid snapped. He must’ve seen too many cop shows. “No. I- We’ll both get out at the park and everyone stays off of us. You- you come down here and make sure!”
“Alright, I will. I’ll come down there.”
“Good. No, you can’t talk to him, shut-” Click.
Shakily, Chad hung up the phone and got up to address the gathering of cops outside his office. “Okay, people. We’ve got to play this delicately or he’ll hurt the hostage.” His voice broke a little and he cleared his throat. “He wants to see me only. Get snipers hidden away on nearby rooftops. Let’s go.”
~*~
The cops following Logan had fallen back and the park had been cleared for his arrival. They’d set up a barricade to keep people out and of course, about fifty lookie-loos had showed up to gawk at the scene. Chad pulled up next to the ambulance that hopefully they wouldn’t need and dialed Logan’s cellphone number.
“Alright, Logan, I’m here. And everyone’s gone. No cops, just us. I’m going to come over to you guys now, okay?”
“F-fine. Do you have a gun? Don’t come over here with a gun!”
Chad swallowed but kept his voice calm. “I’ll come without my gun.”
“I swear to God if you bring a gun I’ll…” From the background came the sound of Mary Anne’s crying.
Fear clutched at Chad’s insides. “Logan, Logan listen. I’ll do everything you say if you let her go, okay? She’s not a part of this.”
“She’s everything.” His voice broke. “We’re where you guys had that picnic.” And he broke the connection.
Chad got out of his car and nodded at the other cops, crossing the barricade and walking across the park. Right under the tree he and Mary Anne had sat under and ate cherry pie, gently teasing each other, Logan now held her tightly, a gun pressed to her temple.
“Shelten?” Logan called, trying to make out his features in the fading light.
“Yeah.” Chad held his hands up. “I’m going to show you that I don’t have my gun, okay? I’m going to pull back my jacket slowly.”
“O-Okay.” Logan looked scared but he seemed determined to see this thing through. He knew there was no turning back.
Chad gingerly pulled his jacket back to reveal the empty holster.
Logan swallowed. “Good.”
Mary Anne had been trembling all this time and almost slumped to her feet.
“Get up!” Logan jerked her up, making her groan.
“”Hey, now, just relax!” Chad had to really work to keep his voice calm. “Can’t you see how upset she is and-” He looked into her face and saw something dark dribbling down steadily from her forehead. “Is she bleeding?! Mary Anne, are you alright?” Without thinking, he took a step toward her.
Panicked, Logan swung the gun on him. “You stay back!”
Mary Anne whimpered. “Chad?”
Chad held his hands up, keeping a wary eye on Logan. “Mary Anne. What happened to your head?”
“My head?” She looked confused, like all of this was too much to follow.
“She fell down,” Logan said. “It wouldn’t have happened if… if she’d just listened to me!”
“You’re bleeding. You need to go to the hospital.” Chad looked to Logan. “C’mon, man. If you care about her at all, you’ll let her go so she can get medical treatment.”
“That’s what I was trying to do when the cops showed up! It’s your fault she got hurt, you son of a bitch!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. I wasn’t even there. Calm down and think about what’s best for her.”
But Logan wasn’t listening. “She always takes me back. Every time I mess up. But she wouldn’t this time because of you. You had to come in and ruin everything. Now she won’t be my Mary Anne.” He buried his face in her hair and started crying heartbrokenly.
Holy shit. “Okay, okay I get that. I’ll… take the blame for that if you want, but there’s no reason to punish her for it. Look at how you’re hurting her.”
Mary Anne seemed to be trying to catch up on all of these words and looked at Chad in confusion. “What?”
Chad regarded her sadly. “You’re bleeding and you’re crying and… well, look at yourself! You can barely stand upright. You need to go to a hospital; you have a concussion or something.”
“Bleeding…” Mary Anne’s brow furrowed. “Logan, am I bleeding?”
Logan lifted his head, sniffling. “A- a little bit.”
“Did you hurt me?” Her voice sounded so little and betrayed, like a girl who’d been promised ice cream and been given a steaming plate of broccoli instead.
“I didn’t mean to.” Logan’s voice cracked. “I really didn’t mean to, baby girl.”
Quietly, Chad said, “C’mon man, let her go. She needs to get help.”
Logan made a small choked sound. “Do you love her?”
“Wh-what? I…”
“Do. You. Love her?”
How was he supposed to answer that? If he said yes, was his answer going to get him or Mary Anne shot? But Logan would know if he was lying, so he swallowed hard and said, “Yes, I do.”
Logan’s face crumbled. “Mary Anne? Baby girl…”
“Hmmm?”
“Do you love Chad?”
Mary Anne smiled dreamily. “He makes me so happy…”
Chad tried hard to hold his shit together. “Logan, she’s gonna pass out. Let her go.”
“Do you love me?!” Logan gave her a shake.
“Ugh. Owwie.” Mary Anne winced.
“Mary Anne…!”
“No,” she answered simply. “Not anymore.” She sighed softly.
Logan looked like he was going to barf. “I- I guess I got no choice but…” He let her go, pushing her gently in Chad’s direction. She stumbled along the way and Chad held his arms out and moved forward quickly to catch her.
She collapsed against him and then gazed up into his face. “It’s you.”
“It’s me,” he agreed, holding her tight. “You’ll be okay, sweetheart. I’ve got you, hang on.”
“I’m still your sweetheart?” Her eyes shone brightly with unshed tears. “Promise?”
Chad nodded, holding back tears of his own. “I promise. You’re my sweetheart forever.”
Her eyelashes fluttered as she smiled softly. “I lo-”
“Mary Anne,” Logan called. She turned to face him, squinting.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything.” He held the gun up to his head.
“What are you-?!”
“Whoa! Hold on, Logan! Let’s talk about--!”
But the boy pulled the trigger and Mary Anne screamed, passing out cold.
Chad’s eyes were wide, taking in the scene. “Holy shit…” He focused on Mary Anne, lifting her up into his arms as the police came rushing around, drawn by the sound of the gunshot.
Dawn was with them, must’ve stormed the barricade. She took one look at Mary Anne’s limp form and drew the worst possible conclusion ever, starting to sob. “Oh my god, Mary Anne!”
“She’s okay, she just passed out,” Chad reassured her.
She looked up at him trustingly and nodded. “Okay. There’s- there’s an ambulance, get her there fast!” She started leading the way, running as fast as she could.
The EMT’s quickly loaded Mary Anne into the back and Dawn went to sit up front with the driver, as if she were used to this kind of thing. The jostling woke Mary Anne up.
“Chad?” Panicked. “Chad?!”
“Right here.” He rushed to grab her hand.
“Are you riding with us, sergeant?” one of the EMT’s asked.
Chad had been thinking about following in his car but changed his mind. “Yeah, I’m coming.” He climbed aboard and they shut the doors, speeding off to the hospital.
~*~
The nurse assisting the doctor in giving Mary Anne’s stitches turned out to be none other than Rita. It was incredibly awkward for the two women at first but then they started to relax around one another, though both were still a little wary. Dawn watched the interaction with interest and mouthed “Rita Rita?” at Mary Anne and widened her eyes in shock at Mary Anne’s tiny nod. She left reluctantly to go fill out paperwork, worried about leaving Mary Anne in an uncomfortable situation, but Mary Anne assured her she’d be fine.
“There. Looks like you’ll live to see another day, Ms. Spier,” the doctor said with a wan smile.
“Thank you,” Mary Anne said politely.
A nurse popped her head into the room. “Doctor, they need you in trauma,” she said tersely.
The doctor stood up. “Nurse, could you get her a bandage and an icepack please? I think I’m done here.”
“Of course,” Rita said, softly.
He ran out the door and Rita reached into a nearby drawer. “We only got blue, I hope that’s okay.”
Chad’s eyes were blue. Mary Anne nodded that it would be fine and Rita was smoothing the band-aid in place when someone pulled the curtain aside.
“Rita?” Chad’s voice said, quietly. “How is she?”
Rita looked up from the band-aid and smiled. “She’ll be okay. You can see her if you want.”
Mary Anne looked around hopefully but Chad was carefully not looking at her. “No, that’s okay, I’ll just be sitting out in the waiting room.”
Her face fell, making Rita frown. “It’s really okay, you can-”
The curtain fell back into place as he left.
“What was…?” Rita looked at Mary Anne in surprise.
Mary Anne was staring at the place he’d been seconds before. “I’m supposed to be his sweetheart forever…”
~*~
Chad came back later and found her still sitting in the examining room, swinging her legs. She looked so young and lonely, a big blue bandage just above her left eye and holding an icepack to an ugly bruise on her cheek.
“Mary Anne?”
Her face lit up, practically glowing. “Chad.”
He stepped into the room. “Hey… how are you feeling?”
“Like I had my head cracked open and needed stitches.” She giggled weakly and then her face crumbled. “I can’t believe he…”
“I know.” He paused. “Dawn’s gone back to the park to get her car, so I’m going to take you home, okay?”
“Home.” She nodded, liking the sound of that. “Okay.” She slid off the examining table slowly.
“Can you walk okay?” Chad asked, looking to her head injury with concern.
“I think so. I’m not as woozy as I was.” She flashed him her brave little toaster smile.
“Okay,” he said, sounding relieved. “Good. Well, someone brought my car so it’s in the parking lot.” He held his arm out behind her back to usher her forward. She walked in front of him a few steps then fell back to his side to take his hand. He didn’t say anything, but wouldn’t meet her eyes. She didn’t seem to notice as she linked their fingers together and leaned her head against his arm.
They walked silently out to his car and he made sure she got in okay before settling behind the wheel and getting them out of there.
Mary Anne looked out the window for a while before sitting up in alarm. “This isn’t the way to your apartment!”
“I know. It’s the way to yours.”
“But… when you said ‘home,’ I thought you meant…” So he wanted to spend the night at her place? Well, okay. She still had some of his stuff there that he could use, whereas everything of hers wasn’t at his place anymore. It made sense.
Finally, they pulled up in front of her apartment and she undid her seatbelt, opening the door. She paused when she realized he hadn’t moved. His hands clenched the wheel tightly as he stared sightlessly forward.
“Chad?” she asked, confused. “Aren’t you coming with me?”
“No, you need time to recover from all this without me confusing you.”
But she thought… he’d called her his sweetheart! “Please. Please, I can’t be alone tonight. Stay with me?”
“You have Dawn; you don’t need me.”
How could he even think that? “But I do need you!” She started crying though it made her head ache.
He looked like he was trying not to crack. “No, you don’t. You need… you need… I don’t even know what you need right now, but it isn’t me. I can’t pick up the pieces for you. You gotta be strong and after you find a way through this, you let me know what you wanna do about us.”
He was letting her go. Again. After all they’d… She could’ve lost him tonight! Crying, she slid across the seat and threw herself into his arms. “I wish I could keep you…” she whispered longingly.
His arms closed around her, wrapping her up warm and tight. “You can. I’ll be right here waiting whenever you’re really ready to give this another try. It just can’t be now. It’s too—too soon, you know?”
“Can’t I be strong tomorrow?” she begged. “Just… tonight… you’ll keep the bad dreams away, I know you will.”
“I wish I could but I just… I can’t Mary Anne. Dawn will be there with you. You’ll get through this.”
She held fast to him, drawing comfort from him even though he was the one breaking her heart. A part of her knew he was right but the more immature, selfish part of her didn’t care and wanted him with her while she slept. He could be, right now, if she hadn’t bungled it so badly with him yesterday afternoon. She drew back to look at him sorrowfully. “I’m sorry I messed this up for us.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” he said softly. “We both did things we wish we could take back.”
Mary Anne took a moment to memorize his every feature, tracing the small scar on his cheek. Then she leaned in for a goodbye kiss, glad when he didn’t push her away. The kiss was chaste and tasted salty from all the crying she’d been doing. This hurt too much. She broke their embrace and scrambled out of his car, running up to her apartment. The last time she’d done this flitted across her mind and she laughed a little through her tears.
Chad watched her go and let out a long, pained sigh. He started the engine and got out of there before the hollow ache in his gut killed him.
< Chapter Ten : Chapter Twelve >
Title: Chapter Eleven (11/12)
Authors: toxic_corn and nutmeg610
Disclaimer: Chad and Mary Anne belong to ABC, Ann M. Martin, and Scholastic Books repsectively. We humbly apologize for this.
Summary: Mary Anne has left Stoneybrook behind to attend UCLA. She loves living with Dawn and Tigger, working at a local day care, and spending time with Logan. But lately Logan's been changing and not for the better. What will happen when Logan's erratic behavior gets to be too much and the older LAPD officer starts getting closer?!
Notes: Sorry for the dreadful summary; I was going for a style. This is a Day Break/Baby-Sitter's Club crossover fic we dreamed up one night because we're insane. If you're brave enough to give this a try, good on you. And if you avoid it, well, we understand. :)
Please... continue not to hate?
Catch up on earlier chapters at the organizational post.
I’m sorry for everything that happened between us. Can you at least talk to me? You can pick the time and place. I’ll be waiting.
- a (destroyed) letter from Logan Bruno to Mary Anne Spier
Logan stood outside Mary Anne’s apartment, waiting for her to get off of work. He tried knocking on the door earlier but for some reason, Dawn wasn’t letting him in. Nervously, he checked his watch. He had to leave soon, but not without seeing Mary Anne first. Just to have a talk, get their feelings out and then maybe she’d run with him.
After what felt like years, Mary Anne’s car pulled into the parking lot. His heart lifted at the sight of her. Even tired and in her work clothes, she was beautiful. But she looked so sad… maybe that cop of hers wasn’t taking good care of her. Bastard. She didn’t see him until she was a few doors down from her apartment and she stopped in her tracks.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. She actually looked frightened. Of him!
“I needed to see you,” Logan said, stepping forwards. She shied back a few steps and he stopped. “Mary Anne…”
“You’re not supposed to come near me,” she said, shakily.
“Look, I know you didn’t mean it so-”
“Yes, I did! Logan, you need to leave now!”
This wasn’t going the way it was supposed to. “I just wanna talk!”
“Well, we can’t. Go away, Logan.” She started to open the door but he grabbed her arm to stop her.
“Don’t do this,” he begged.
“Let go of me!” she cried.
“Not until you listen to me!”
“Stop it!” She yanked hard and managed to loose herself from his grasp, only to overbalance and fall over. Her head hit the clay pot next to the door, making the sunflower inside it jiggle.
“Mary Anne?” Frantic, Logan rolled her over and gasped at the huge gash just above her left eyebrow. “Oh… oh, baby girl, I gotta get ya to a doctah…” He scooped her up in his arms just as the door opened.
“What’s going-” Dawn’s eyes widened when she saw him. “What did you do to her?!”
“Nothing!” Logan yelped and started to jog with Mary Anne to his car.
“Hey!” Dawn screamed. “Come back here! You-! I’m calling the police!”
Hands trembling, Logan got Mary Anne into the passenger seat. Her head lolled and she moaned pitifully.
“Hold on, baby girl,” he whispered and shut the door, running to the driver’s side. “Hold on, hold on, hold on…”
He tore out of the parking lot and drove crazily all over the place, taking out a few trash cans on the sidewalk. The little trip along the curb made Mary Anne’s head jounce against the car window and she cried out in pain.
“I’m sorry!” Logan yelped and tried to right the car. “Sorry!”
In only a few moments, three cop cars were behind him, sirens blaring. Oh, shit. He glanced in panic over at Mary Anne. He couldn’t stop. They thought he’d abducted her, he had a metric shitload of cocaine in the trunk, one really pissed off dealer looking for him, and a gun under his seat.
This wasn’t going the way it was supposed to.
Chad had been trying to read the file for the last ten minutes but his mind kept wandering to Mary Anne. Last night had been the first night he’d spent without her in weeks; it’d taken him hours to fall asleep. A mean part of him hoped she hadn’t been able to sleep at all either.
A polite knock at the door jerked him out of his musings. “What?”
The door opened, revealing Nathan the desk sergeant. Chad frowned at him; he’d never come to his office before. “What is it?”
“You haven’t heard the news, I take it,” Nathan said quietly.
“What news?”
“That girl of yours was just taken hostage by her ex-boyfriend.”
Chad’s heart stopped. “She…”
“The step-sister called the cops and now they’re chasing him; doesn’t look like he’s gonna slow down any time soon, driving all crazy. The girl might be injured already, we don’t know for sure. They’re calling him right now to figure out what to do.”
Before Chad could respond, his phone rang. He took a moment to collect himself before picking up. “Shelten.”
“We got a hostage situation and for some reason, the guy only wants to talk to you. Name of Logan Bruno, you know him?”
“Yeah, I know him.” God damn it, Huck if you hurt her… “Put him on.”
There were some clicks as he was connected and then someone was taking a sobbing breath right in his ear. “Is this Shelten?”
“Yeah, Logan?”
He sounded scared and panicked, two very bad emotions that could get Mary Anne killed. “Get these guys off of me or I- I’ll hurt her!”
“Okay, okay!” Don’t think of Mary Anne hurt… don’t think it… “We’ll get them to hang back, just don’t hurt her okay? You know you don’t want to do that.”
Cops had gathered around his office, including the usual hostage negotiators, one of whom nodded at Chad to let him know he was saying the right thing.
In the background, he could hear Mary Anne moaning and crying softly. The sound went to his gut and he wished like hell he was there to protect her.
“Mary Anne, shut up! Get these guys the hell off of me, Shelten!”
“Okay, I’m trying!” He put his hand over the receiver. “Get those guys back or he’ll hurt her! I’ll try to get him to stop somewhere and you can bring in the snipers.” He got back on the line. “Okay, I’ve passed on the message, but you’ve got to stop somewhere, okay? You’ve got to let her go or you’ll be in worse trouble.”
“Where the hell am I supposed to stop? At… how about that park you guys went to? Stop crying, Mary Anne!”
How did he know about the park; had he been following them? “The park, okay. You stop there and let her go, okay?”
“Yeah, and a sniper takes me out,” the kid snapped. He must’ve seen too many cop shows. “No. I- We’ll both get out at the park and everyone stays off of us. You- you come down here and make sure!”
“Alright, I will. I’ll come down there.”
“Good. No, you can’t talk to him, shut-” Click.
Shakily, Chad hung up the phone and got up to address the gathering of cops outside his office. “Okay, people. We’ve got to play this delicately or he’ll hurt the hostage.” His voice broke a little and he cleared his throat. “He wants to see me only. Get snipers hidden away on nearby rooftops. Let’s go.”
The cops following Logan had fallen back and the park had been cleared for his arrival. They’d set up a barricade to keep people out and of course, about fifty lookie-loos had showed up to gawk at the scene. Chad pulled up next to the ambulance that hopefully they wouldn’t need and dialed Logan’s cellphone number.
“Alright, Logan, I’m here. And everyone’s gone. No cops, just us. I’m going to come over to you guys now, okay?”
“F-fine. Do you have a gun? Don’t come over here with a gun!”
Chad swallowed but kept his voice calm. “I’ll come without my gun.”
“I swear to God if you bring a gun I’ll…” From the background came the sound of Mary Anne’s crying.
Fear clutched at Chad’s insides. “Logan, Logan listen. I’ll do everything you say if you let her go, okay? She’s not a part of this.”
“She’s everything.” His voice broke. “We’re where you guys had that picnic.” And he broke the connection.
Chad got out of his car and nodded at the other cops, crossing the barricade and walking across the park. Right under the tree he and Mary Anne had sat under and ate cherry pie, gently teasing each other, Logan now held her tightly, a gun pressed to her temple.
“Shelten?” Logan called, trying to make out his features in the fading light.
“Yeah.” Chad held his hands up. “I’m going to show you that I don’t have my gun, okay? I’m going to pull back my jacket slowly.”
“O-Okay.” Logan looked scared but he seemed determined to see this thing through. He knew there was no turning back.
Chad gingerly pulled his jacket back to reveal the empty holster.
Logan swallowed. “Good.”
Mary Anne had been trembling all this time and almost slumped to her feet.
“Get up!” Logan jerked her up, making her groan.
“”Hey, now, just relax!” Chad had to really work to keep his voice calm. “Can’t you see how upset she is and-” He looked into her face and saw something dark dribbling down steadily from her forehead. “Is she bleeding?! Mary Anne, are you alright?” Without thinking, he took a step toward her.
Panicked, Logan swung the gun on him. “You stay back!”
Mary Anne whimpered. “Chad?”
Chad held his hands up, keeping a wary eye on Logan. “Mary Anne. What happened to your head?”
“My head?” She looked confused, like all of this was too much to follow.
“She fell down,” Logan said. “It wouldn’t have happened if… if she’d just listened to me!”
“You’re bleeding. You need to go to the hospital.” Chad looked to Logan. “C’mon, man. If you care about her at all, you’ll let her go so she can get medical treatment.”
“That’s what I was trying to do when the cops showed up! It’s your fault she got hurt, you son of a bitch!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. I wasn’t even there. Calm down and think about what’s best for her.”
But Logan wasn’t listening. “She always takes me back. Every time I mess up. But she wouldn’t this time because of you. You had to come in and ruin everything. Now she won’t be my Mary Anne.” He buried his face in her hair and started crying heartbrokenly.
Holy shit. “Okay, okay I get that. I’ll… take the blame for that if you want, but there’s no reason to punish her for it. Look at how you’re hurting her.”
Mary Anne seemed to be trying to catch up on all of these words and looked at Chad in confusion. “What?”
Chad regarded her sadly. “You’re bleeding and you’re crying and… well, look at yourself! You can barely stand upright. You need to go to a hospital; you have a concussion or something.”
“Bleeding…” Mary Anne’s brow furrowed. “Logan, am I bleeding?”
Logan lifted his head, sniffling. “A- a little bit.”
“Did you hurt me?” Her voice sounded so little and betrayed, like a girl who’d been promised ice cream and been given a steaming plate of broccoli instead.
“I didn’t mean to.” Logan’s voice cracked. “I really didn’t mean to, baby girl.”
Quietly, Chad said, “C’mon man, let her go. She needs to get help.”
Logan made a small choked sound. “Do you love her?”
“Wh-what? I…”
“Do. You. Love her?”
How was he supposed to answer that? If he said yes, was his answer going to get him or Mary Anne shot? But Logan would know if he was lying, so he swallowed hard and said, “Yes, I do.”
Logan’s face crumbled. “Mary Anne? Baby girl…”
“Hmmm?”
“Do you love Chad?”
Mary Anne smiled dreamily. “He makes me so happy…”
Chad tried hard to hold his shit together. “Logan, she’s gonna pass out. Let her go.”
“Do you love me?!” Logan gave her a shake.
“Ugh. Owwie.” Mary Anne winced.
“Mary Anne…!”
“No,” she answered simply. “Not anymore.” She sighed softly.
Logan looked like he was going to barf. “I- I guess I got no choice but…” He let her go, pushing her gently in Chad’s direction. She stumbled along the way and Chad held his arms out and moved forward quickly to catch her.
She collapsed against him and then gazed up into his face. “It’s you.”
“It’s me,” he agreed, holding her tight. “You’ll be okay, sweetheart. I’ve got you, hang on.”
“I’m still your sweetheart?” Her eyes shone brightly with unshed tears. “Promise?”
Chad nodded, holding back tears of his own. “I promise. You’re my sweetheart forever.”
Her eyelashes fluttered as she smiled softly. “I lo-”
“Mary Anne,” Logan called. She turned to face him, squinting.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything.” He held the gun up to his head.
“What are you-?!”
“Whoa! Hold on, Logan! Let’s talk about--!”
But the boy pulled the trigger and Mary Anne screamed, passing out cold.
Chad’s eyes were wide, taking in the scene. “Holy shit…” He focused on Mary Anne, lifting her up into his arms as the police came rushing around, drawn by the sound of the gunshot.
Dawn was with them, must’ve stormed the barricade. She took one look at Mary Anne’s limp form and drew the worst possible conclusion ever, starting to sob. “Oh my god, Mary Anne!”
“She’s okay, she just passed out,” Chad reassured her.
She looked up at him trustingly and nodded. “Okay. There’s- there’s an ambulance, get her there fast!” She started leading the way, running as fast as she could.
The EMT’s quickly loaded Mary Anne into the back and Dawn went to sit up front with the driver, as if she were used to this kind of thing. The jostling woke Mary Anne up.
“Chad?” Panicked. “Chad?!”
“Right here.” He rushed to grab her hand.
“Are you riding with us, sergeant?” one of the EMT’s asked.
Chad had been thinking about following in his car but changed his mind. “Yeah, I’m coming.” He climbed aboard and they shut the doors, speeding off to the hospital.
The nurse assisting the doctor in giving Mary Anne’s stitches turned out to be none other than Rita. It was incredibly awkward for the two women at first but then they started to relax around one another, though both were still a little wary. Dawn watched the interaction with interest and mouthed “Rita Rita?” at Mary Anne and widened her eyes in shock at Mary Anne’s tiny nod. She left reluctantly to go fill out paperwork, worried about leaving Mary Anne in an uncomfortable situation, but Mary Anne assured her she’d be fine.
“There. Looks like you’ll live to see another day, Ms. Spier,” the doctor said with a wan smile.
“Thank you,” Mary Anne said politely.
A nurse popped her head into the room. “Doctor, they need you in trauma,” she said tersely.
The doctor stood up. “Nurse, could you get her a bandage and an icepack please? I think I’m done here.”
“Of course,” Rita said, softly.
He ran out the door and Rita reached into a nearby drawer. “We only got blue, I hope that’s okay.”
Chad’s eyes were blue. Mary Anne nodded that it would be fine and Rita was smoothing the band-aid in place when someone pulled the curtain aside.
“Rita?” Chad’s voice said, quietly. “How is she?”
Rita looked up from the band-aid and smiled. “She’ll be okay. You can see her if you want.”
Mary Anne looked around hopefully but Chad was carefully not looking at her. “No, that’s okay, I’ll just be sitting out in the waiting room.”
Her face fell, making Rita frown. “It’s really okay, you can-”
The curtain fell back into place as he left.
“What was…?” Rita looked at Mary Anne in surprise.
Mary Anne was staring at the place he’d been seconds before. “I’m supposed to be his sweetheart forever…”
Chad came back later and found her still sitting in the examining room, swinging her legs. She looked so young and lonely, a big blue bandage just above her left eye and holding an icepack to an ugly bruise on her cheek.
“Mary Anne?”
Her face lit up, practically glowing. “Chad.”
He stepped into the room. “Hey… how are you feeling?”
“Like I had my head cracked open and needed stitches.” She giggled weakly and then her face crumbled. “I can’t believe he…”
“I know.” He paused. “Dawn’s gone back to the park to get her car, so I’m going to take you home, okay?”
“Home.” She nodded, liking the sound of that. “Okay.” She slid off the examining table slowly.
“Can you walk okay?” Chad asked, looking to her head injury with concern.
“I think so. I’m not as woozy as I was.” She flashed him her brave little toaster smile.
“Okay,” he said, sounding relieved. “Good. Well, someone brought my car so it’s in the parking lot.” He held his arm out behind her back to usher her forward. She walked in front of him a few steps then fell back to his side to take his hand. He didn’t say anything, but wouldn’t meet her eyes. She didn’t seem to notice as she linked their fingers together and leaned her head against his arm.
They walked silently out to his car and he made sure she got in okay before settling behind the wheel and getting them out of there.
Mary Anne looked out the window for a while before sitting up in alarm. “This isn’t the way to your apartment!”
“I know. It’s the way to yours.”
“But… when you said ‘home,’ I thought you meant…” So he wanted to spend the night at her place? Well, okay. She still had some of his stuff there that he could use, whereas everything of hers wasn’t at his place anymore. It made sense.
Finally, they pulled up in front of her apartment and she undid her seatbelt, opening the door. She paused when she realized he hadn’t moved. His hands clenched the wheel tightly as he stared sightlessly forward.
“Chad?” she asked, confused. “Aren’t you coming with me?”
“No, you need time to recover from all this without me confusing you.”
But she thought… he’d called her his sweetheart! “Please. Please, I can’t be alone tonight. Stay with me?”
“You have Dawn; you don’t need me.”
How could he even think that? “But I do need you!” She started crying though it made her head ache.
He looked like he was trying not to crack. “No, you don’t. You need… you need… I don’t even know what you need right now, but it isn’t me. I can’t pick up the pieces for you. You gotta be strong and after you find a way through this, you let me know what you wanna do about us.”
He was letting her go. Again. After all they’d… She could’ve lost him tonight! Crying, she slid across the seat and threw herself into his arms. “I wish I could keep you…” she whispered longingly.
His arms closed around her, wrapping her up warm and tight. “You can. I’ll be right here waiting whenever you’re really ready to give this another try. It just can’t be now. It’s too—too soon, you know?”
“Can’t I be strong tomorrow?” she begged. “Just… tonight… you’ll keep the bad dreams away, I know you will.”
“I wish I could but I just… I can’t Mary Anne. Dawn will be there with you. You’ll get through this.”
She held fast to him, drawing comfort from him even though he was the one breaking her heart. A part of her knew he was right but the more immature, selfish part of her didn’t care and wanted him with her while she slept. He could be, right now, if she hadn’t bungled it so badly with him yesterday afternoon. She drew back to look at him sorrowfully. “I’m sorry I messed this up for us.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” he said softly. “We both did things we wish we could take back.”
Mary Anne took a moment to memorize his every feature, tracing the small scar on his cheek. Then she leaned in for a goodbye kiss, glad when he didn’t push her away. The kiss was chaste and tasted salty from all the crying she’d been doing. This hurt too much. She broke their embrace and scrambled out of his car, running up to her apartment. The last time she’d done this flitted across her mind and she laughed a little through her tears.
Chad watched her go and let out a long, pained sigh. He started the engine and got out of there before the hollow ache in his gut killed him.
< Chapter Ten : Chapter Twelve >
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Date: 2007-01-06 07:23 pm (UTC)