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Stay -*- Copyright 2005 by Ellen Hayes.

Any resemblance between the writings in this work, and any actual
persons or places, living or dead, are purely coincidental, except when
used for satirical purposes.

This work contains adult situations, adult language, adult concepts, and
possibly sex.  If you are legally not allowed to read materials
containing such things, then you will be breaking the law by reading
this.  I am not responsible.
Continuing to read this document, or storing it or reproducing it
in any format means that you explicitly affirm that you are legally
allowed to possess and read such materials in your city, county/parish,
state, and country.

All rights reserved.  See the bottom for distribution rights.


Stay


***

     Debbie sighed and looked down at the clothes Mike had provided,
apparently from Tuck's 'Valerie closet' or whatever.  They fit well
enough, but-
     "Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Lisa asked as she drove. 
     "I'm sure," Debbie said firmly.  She needed to get her mind off
the earlier events, NOW.  "How are you going to get back to your car?"
     Lisa looked at her watch, and sighed a bit.  "I think," she said,
"I'll just wait until you get done.  You can take me back after this,
right?  You've got some time before the next one?" 
     "Yeah," Debbie agreed.  "And then I can make some phone calls too,
while you're driving, if that's okay?"  Lisa nodded without looking at
her, which was fine while she was driving.  "Okay, that'll help."
     Debbie looked at her dashboard, vaguely annoyed again not to be
driving, and thought about makeup, and sales, and Dianna Ikenberry-
*What a weird name,* she thought, smiling.  *Better get it all out of my
system now, so I don't do it when I'm talking to her...  Who did I need
to call tonight?*  A few moments' thought reminded her that she needed
to get Dan some help for his government project tonight or Friday...
*No, wait, this one's due Monday; plenty of time over the weekend, if I
can find someone.  Who's in his class...  Martelle is...*  She dug into
her work bag for the school phone list.

***

     Kelly didn't understand why they had to wait, or why Sabrina and
Pam were acting so weird, or why they had the other guys in there
watching the girls, almost like they were guards.  She sat around,
feeling uncomfortable for a few minutes as no one really talked or did
anything, then shrugged mentally to herself and reached into her pack
and pulled out the book she'd been reading.
     After a while, someone said, "Kelly?"  She looked up, and it was
George.  "C'mon, if you want to see him," he said as he beckoned with
his arm.  She put her book away, then uncertainly left the pack by the
couch she'd been sitting on and got up.
     Kim and Jill went up the stairs like they knew Tucker was up there,
so Kelly followed them; the boys stayed downstairs, and so she decided
she'd been imagining things when she thought they were acting like
guards.
     "Tuck?" Sabrina called as she rounded the door.  "We-"  She stopped
suddenly as Pam gasped, and Kelly pushed her way forward to see what was
going on.
     Nothing was, really, except Tuck.
     He was hanging in something, like a cargo sling, suspended from the
ceiling, and he looked like maybe they'd gotten him out of the hospital
too soon, because he looked really bad.  His face was bruised up, what
she could see of it around the oxygen mask over his mouth and nose, and
she couldn't see any more of him because he was wrapped in a blanket,
but there was something beeping - not normal in his room; it was usually
quiet, with just the constant subtle fan noise from his computers - and
it sounded like it was beeping with his pulse.  His eyes were closed,
and after watching him for several seconds, she realized just how active
he normally was... because he looked so still, and so unusual BEING
still, that she wondered for an instant if he was dead.
     She noticed Mike when he shifted on Tuck's bed, and for a moment
she thought he was okay, because he just looked tired like he had the
last couple of days except he was wearing hospital clothes and a
surgical mask over his face.  But he bent over and strangled for a
moment before coughing something up, and it sounded disgusting and
terrifying at the same time. 
     She looked over at Tuck again, and Pam was touching his head, then
stroking his hair.  "Anything?" she asked him, and after a few seconds
he shook his head jerkily.
     "Need to sleep, most," Mike said, and Kelly winced at the sound of
his voice, raw and nasty.  *He's in a lot of pain,* she thought,
remembering times she or her dad had sounded like that.  "'Safternoon
tired us both out." 
     "Well why di-"
     "Pam, shut up," Sabrina ordered sharply, and Kelly looked over at
her.  "Now is NOT the time," she said as she pointed at Tucker then
swept her hand over Mike.  "Okay?" she demanded.  Pam looked irritated,
but nodded and didn't continue whatever she'd been saying, instead just
stroking Tucker's head gently.  Kelly wanted to ask what they were
talking about, but realized as her mouth opened that she wasn't going to
get anything, probably, and everyone was already upset about whatever it
was, so she'd probably get yelled at.
     Instead, she hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Is Tuck going to
be okay?  Is he going to recover, I mean?"
     "Yeah, ought to," Mike said.  "If he takes his fucking meds."
Tuck twitched a little but didn't even flick a finger back at Mike.
Kelly thought that was a bad sign; usually the two of them were tossing
insults back and forth at each other, and she couldn't remember Tuck
NOT responding somehow. 
     "Don't be mean to him," Pam told Mike in a soft voice.  Mike
looked up at her, but didn't say anything, and that bothered her too.
"Tuck, I got you a card," she said, her voice bright, and reached into a
jacket pocket and pulled it out; the brightly colored cardboard was
eye-catching, though she couldn't see what it said from this angle.
     *Was I supposed to get him one?* Kelly wondered, uncertain and
feeling embarrassed.  Again.
     Tucker looked up, then several seconds later reached out, and she
carefully placed it into his hand.  He sat there for a while, unmoving,
then retracted his hand and the card back into the blankets, without
reading it.
     "Sabrina got you some flowers too," Pam said, still cheerful-
sounding.  "Have you seen 'em?" she asked hopefully.  Tucker shook his
head slowly, then slumped for a few moments - just long enough to make
her worry - before pushing himself back in the hammock.
     "Been sleepin'," Mike translated from the bed.  "I don't think
he's looked at any of the cards yet."  Tucker shook his head again,
very slowly. 

***

     "Damn..."  Lisa wasn't too happy about being stuck out in Debbie's
car, but she was more worried about Debbie.  She KNEW Debbie was
holding it all in... and what happened sometimes when it all came out.
*And she SO hates looking frightened or anything, crying, in front of
other people...*  A breakdown in front of someone, or even just in
traffic, would make her feel far worse.  Lisa swallowed and looked at
the house again, and then her watch, but it had only been twenty
minutes.  *Damnit.  I wish she'd come back out...  Hell,* she thought,
*I wish she'd just give UP for the day and go HOME.  Hers or mine,* she
couldn't help thinking.  *No,* she argued with herself, *I'm better for
her than if she's just alone... she can cry with me, when she needs to.*
     *I wish she'd never even MET that little bitch!* she snarled to
herself.  It was obvious to Lisa that Valerie was the real cause of most
of the problems Debbie'd had in the last year.  Even though she was
using the attack on Valerie to start playing politics with the school,
today had shown that it wasn't safe to be involved with Valerie AT ALL.
     She wished she could think of a way to convince Debbie of that,
but they'd had plenty of arguments about it already, and those hadn't
done anything except get both of them upset.

***

     Jody finally felt good enough, or cried out enough, to consider
putting Abby down and coming back out of her closet.
     She just wasn't sure if she should.  *Everything sucks so bad out
there,* she thought.  *Why should I even bother?*

***

     "He looks BAD," Pam mentioned quietly, which seemed so obvious to
Sabrina that she didn't think anyone needed to say it.  "Do you think
he's coming back to school next week?"
     "I dunno if he's coming back at all," Kelly contributed before
Sabrina could answer.  "I think they said that he doesn't- I mean, that
he hasn't wanted to go to school for a while.  He might..."  She stopped
and shrugged, her face down, as Sabrina and Pam both stopped and looked
at her.
     "He might what?" Pam asked when Kelly didn't say anything more. 
     "He might, I mean, he might not go to school, like stay home,
homeschooling," she elaborated.    
     "What?" Sabrina asked.  "I thought you had to be religious to do
th- I mean, like you had to have a religious objection to public
schools to do that."  Pam nodded as she glanced at Sabrina. 
     Kelly shrugged again.  "Not where I was... but maybe it's not the
same thing.  Alaska's kind of different."
     "Lots of ways," Pam agreed, which curiously made Kelly quickly look
up.  "What?" she asked, puzzled.
     Kelly looked for a few seconds, then looked back down again.
"Nothin'.  Some people make fun of me 'cause of it, coming from Alaska."
And shrugged again.
     "No, I wasn't making fun of you..."
     Sabrina looked into the living room, and was going to say
something when she noticed that George was asleep, or at least he had
his eyes closed and was starting to snore.  Allen looked up at them and
shrugged too, but got up - trying to be quiet, she noticed - and came
over to them.  "Been a helluva day, and they're all sick," he announced
quietly as he motioned back at George and Dan.

***

     "Did you hear about Shabina?" Dianna mentioned as Debbie was
picking out lipsticks that would go with her colors.
     "Hear what?" she asked, sounding idle but concentrating on the
girl's words.
     "She was out of school today, and Jean Tice said her mom came to
school and got her; she was looking out of class at the right time, and
it looked like Shabina was crying!"
     "Wow," Debbie encouraged as she looked up.  "Do you know why?"
     "I dunno, I think it was something about the cheerleaders, I mean
the team," Dianna said, but Debbie sensed she was just speculating, that
she didn't have any real information about it.  "Anyway, did you see the
poster today?"
     "There was more than one," Debbie corrected, and got a shocked
gasp.  "You didn't know?"

***

     Tucker sighed, and started searching visually for the cards.  
*First thing, check the mail... why couldn't these people send email
like rational beings?*
     *Email... wait-*  He grabbed the desk and rotated, the swivel
hanging from the ceiling allowing him to spin in place easily; the only
movement he could make easily when he was incapacitated like this.

     regina$ lanring -a btuck

     Three of his computers started beeping in Morse, and Mike
complained from the bed.  Tucker stared at the screen until Dad showed
up on the house IRC server. 

     <jestyr> wheres my laptop?
     <btuck> its with the police; they said it'll come back 'soon'
     <jestyr> like when? have you called?
     <btuck> not yet; think they said a week, on monday
     <jestyr> call em. want my laptop
     <btuck> aren't you supposed to be sleeping?

     Tucker started to curse but it hurt too much so he hit the desk,
which woke Mike up judging by the noise coming over his shoulder.

     <jestyr> i sleep better without my stuff being fuckd with my cops
     <jestyr> s/my/by/
     <btuck> I'll call later.  
     <btuck> exec nice -n -15 sleep 2h

     *Alright alright,* Tucker sighed, and quit IRC.  He was tired, and
he did hurt, when he checked... he just felt like he'd spent enough time
unconscious in the last week to last him a while.
     
[lanring is yet another Tucker-specific program - ellen]

***

     Jody sighed, unable to look away from the envelope on her little
desk.
     "Jody?  Supper!" Mom insisted from somewhere in the house.
     *I am so not hungry...*  But it wasn't worth it to argue; Mom would
just ask why she wasn't, and if she told the truth it would all start up
again, and if she lied...  *I can't even think up a good lie,* Jody
realized dully after several seconds of nothing.
     "Jody!"
     "Coming," she sighed, and pushed herself up.

***

     "Debbie?" Lisa called from the car, and Debbie waved at her, not
smiling any more than anyone would at one of their friends.  They always
had to be so careful...  "How'd it go?"
     "Pretty well," Debbie answered, smiling more.  She'd sold Dianna
over a hundred dollars' worth of assorted stock, which confirmed that
low-price makeovers before a dance were definitely an effective form of
advertising; Dianna hadn't gotten one, but one of her friends Elise had,
and apparently Elise had been happy with hers, and Debbie had gotten the
call for today's consult from Dianna on Sunday.  She put her cases in
the trunk and started for the driver's side, then changed her mind and
walked around to the other side and got in.
     "Where next?" Lisa asked as she started the Subaru.
     "Well, back to your car, I guess.  I have some calls to make,
though," Debbie said as she pulled her cellphone out of her purse.
"That okay?" she confirmed.
     "Sure."
     Debbie started dialing, but she'd put her left hand close to Lisa,
and Lisa grabbed it for a moment and squeezed it.

***

     "I don't know, it gets boring," Kim told Sabrina over the phone.
"I mean, the kids are okay- if you can stand toddlers," she added, which
Sabrina couldn't really.  "Did you talk to Mike or anyone?"
     "Uh... kind of."
     "Oh?"
     "REALLY long story, Kim.  Ask me about it when you're not there.
Mike's staying over there, but I... I mean, if you and him are going to
have a fight, this is the wrong time and-"
     Kim interrupted, very curious, "What makes you think we were going
to have a fight?"
     "Nothing, really, I mean nothing at all," Sabrina replied rapidly,
"but this REALLY isn't the day for it, and Tuck's house is not the
place."
     "Things are still tense over there?"
     Eventually, Sabrina agreed, "Yeah, you could say that."  Kim
wondered what the pause was about, but Sabrina had already mentioned
that she'd tell Kim some details later.

***

     "So anyway, I heard that Shabina was crying and left early today,
after she was in the office," Debbie said into her cellphone.  These
conversations were going to cost her a bundle, but she thought it would
be worth it.
     "Man!" Cynthia Hubbard exclaimed.  "F'real?"
     "That's what I heard," Debbie confirmed.  "So anyway, I can't think
why she'd have been so upset-  I mean, what I heard was, that her mom
was there and everything."  She let that sink in for a short moment,
then continued, "So I can't even imagine what would've gotten her that
upset, can you?"
     "I dunno... I have Jody in my Spanish class though?"
     Debbie made a mental note of that and uttered a quick "Uhuh?"
     "So like, she's been looking worse and worse like all week!  I
thought she was sick today, I mean, I didn't know why she even came to
school looking like that!"
     "Yeah," Debbie fished, "she might have caught that new cold that's
going around, like-"
     "No!  I mean, like, she wasn't SICK or anything, like her nose
wasn't running and she didn't sound stuffy; she just looked, like, ILL,
you know what I'm saying?"
     "Huh.  Maybe she was upset too?"  Debbie tried to sound like she
was speculating.
     "Yeah maybe, that's what I was thinking when you said that about
Shabina and everything, you know?  Like..."
     Debbie ignored Cynthia's own bait and said, "You think it might be
the same thing?  If they're both upset?  What about, I mean, have you
seen anyone else on the- I mean in the cheerleaders?  I saw Naomi Levitz
like comPLETEly lose it this morning, too," she threw in to sweeten
things. "And I don't know what THAT was about either," she lied.
     "I dunno, but you know what I heard?  You know how some of 'em were
out Monday, not in school?  I heard they were in JAIL!" Cynthia
emphasized in a shocked and breathless tone of voice, though Debbie
thought she could hear a bit of satisfaction in it too.
     She made sure to keep the same thing out of her own voice as she
replied, "Oh my God!  You're kidding, right?!"

***

     "Who's still here?" Sarah asked as she poked her head around the
corner of the 'office' door.
     "You're early," Bill mentioned.
     "I wanted to get home to cook," she explained.  "Who's here?
There's a lot of cars out front."
     "George, Dan, Allen, and Mike," Bill replied.  "And Eugene, and
Brian.  We threw everyone else out."
     She looked puzzled.  "Everyone-"
     "You need to read an after-action report," he said as he got up.
     "What?" she asked, not pleased.
     "No immediate effects," he said, answering a question she hadn't
quite asked but he was sure she meant.  "Read it."
     "I'll do it upstairs while I change; is that okay?"  He nodded, and
she left, so he sat back down.
     He'd just started typing when Sarah said, "Bill?  George and Dan
look like they passed out sitting on the couch, and-"
     "I'm not asleep!" Dan protested from the living room.  He sounded
like he was just barely starting to get the crud, though; Bill had had
long experience with listening to Eugene develop respiratory illnesses.
Bill gave him twenty-four hours.
     "-maybe they ought to go home?" Sarah continued.  He nodded and
stood up to indicate he'd deal with them, and she left again.
     "We're not throwing you out," he said as he entered the living
room, "we're just throwing you out.  You really ought to go home and let
your folks take care of you; George, you look almost as bad as Mike,"
Bill commented.
     "No I don't," he argued, sounding much worse than Dan.
     "Let ME get home so I can sleep," Dan told George, as Allen started
gathering his homework up.
     *Did I-*  "Did you get the preventative antibiotics yet?" Bill
asked.
     "The what?"  "No?"  "Huh?"
     "Right.  Pack up your stuff; Tuck's doctor prescribed some
preventative antibiotics for you guys, since you've been associating
with Mike and she is sure he's got strep throat.  Every twelve hours, I
think," he mentioned.  "I'll go get 'em."

***

     An alarm started beeping, but Tuck successfully ignored it until
Mike started colluding with the evil Berserker collective.  "C'mon, man,
time for a cough and some meds."
     Tuck pulled his hands out of the blankets - it was cold inside the
room, which was no doubt part of the plot, and petty too - and felt
something furry on him.  He spazzed in place and Brian's cat ejected out
of the covers.
     *Fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck,* Tucker cursed in his mind, as he tried
to calm down; the monitor's beeping was almost more spastic than he was
at the moment.

***

     Sarah hadn't gotten to the after-action report yet when the phone
rang.  She let someone else pick it up, but after several seconds the
intercom razzed, "Sarah, line one, it's the mother of Mike's little
brother..."
     *The hell?  Mike's an-  Oh, that school thing, like that girl with
the hair over her eye,* she remembered.
     Bill continued, "... she said Dobson, Tuck's principal, suggested
she talk to you, about what to do about the violence at school."
     *Oh.  Ohhhhh...*  She dropped her skirt on the floor, making sure
the door was shut - she'd finally trained her children not to come
bursting in, she thought - and sat on the bed before picking up the
phone and taking the line that was flashing on their phone.  "This is
Sarah Tucker," she announced.

***

     "You can do it," Mike encouraged, though it hurt.
     <Fuck you.>
     Mike clapped twice, getting Tuck's eyes on him, and then signed
back, <No, fuck YOU,> before getting behind him - Tuck was very slow
today - and starting to slap his back, alternating hands.
     Tuck choked, yanked the mask off, and started hacking things into
the sink, where the running water mercifully took them away before Mike
had to look at them.  Tuck's knuckles were white where his hands gripped
the edge of the sink, holding him up.  After Tuck seemed to be getting
into it, Mike stopped 'encouraging' things and locked his arms around
Tuck's waist, to help hold him up.

***

     "Hey Ginger, this is Debbie," Debbie said.
     "Oh hey!  How's it going?"
     "I wanted to ask YOU that," Debbie smiled so Ginger might hear it,
though she wasn't the most clueful of girls and so she'd probably miss
it altogether.  "How's the makeup going?"  She'd sold her a very light
and easy daily routine before the dance, plus some more evening makeup
specifically to go with her gown that night.
     "Oh it's great!  Oh, uh, hey, while I've got you on the phone..."
She paused, and Debbie waited patiently through the light scrabbling
noises.  "Can I get Kim's phone number?"
     "What for?"  This wasn't quite normal.
     "I heard something the other day, like last week, and she, I mean,
she's friends-  Oh God, I'm sorry."
     "Huh?"  *This is why I don't like talking to her, she keeps-*
     "I mean," Ginger rushed, "I know you and Tuck broke up and all
that, but I heard something about him, like last week, and I thought
maybe I should tell Kim about it.  I've got 'A' lunch but Angelina
Carolina said that Kim hangs out with 'em still?  So that's why I wanted
her phone number, so I could tell her."
     "Uh yeah, hold on, let me get it," Debbie said to buy some time to
think.  *Kim's at the Parkers, taking Valerie's place, so she won't be
home; I'll give her Kim's home number and call Kim right after this and
tell her to take notes.  This sounds like it might be good.  Last week?*
"How come you didn't talk to her before this?"
     "She's like hiding or something, and I can't find her.  I mean, I
tried to catch her at her locker twice after school, and she's been gone
already when I got there.  I don't have any classes with her..."
     "Oh, okay."  It wasn't okay, but Debbie was ignoring that, while
FIRMLY resolving to call Kim immediately.  "Ready?"

***

     "Oh, this is just fucking great," Sarah complained out loud to
herself.  She'd just spent fifteen minutes finessing Mrs. Cooper, and
only then did she read what had happened to Deborah today.
     *How is this going to screw things up?  How is this going to screw
HER up?  Damnit...  She could press assault charges, and with a firearm
too... that'd be a bitch to get out of, and expensive, though I think we
could do it, since it was in my- his house.  Our house.  And he didn't
ACTUALLY harm her, he said,* though she went back in Eugene's report to
confirm this.  *Okay, so we can get out of it if she tries that.
Damnit!*  She couldn't entirely fault Eugene about what he'd done - she
knew his nightmares as well as anyone, and some of them had stuck in her
mind for days  - but it HAD to have had an effect on Deborah, and she
knew more than enough to hurt all the family.  And now, she had a
possible reason to do so.
     She paged down to the 'Post Incident Expectations' part of both,
and was surprised to see both Michael and Eugene agreed that she
probably wouldn't retaliate.  *Why...*  Eugene had written that Deborah
ought to know better, and she was about to let something out of her
mouth when she realized that he wasn't just being flip; he HAD dated her
for quite a while, and he'd probably told her a lot.  So maybe she DID
know.
     Michael had written that, once she calmed down - *That Valium is a
good idea, but we might want to get some more soon; we're down a
little,* she noted - she'd seemed more like she wanted to get out of the
house than blame or retaliate.  *Yeah sure, like she couldn't hide it
and get revenge later,* she thought as she read essentially the same
speculation in Michael's report.  He'd added, though, that after their
breakup - which he'd written was entirely Eugene's fault, from reports
of DEBORAH's point of view at the time - she hadn't done anything at all
to him, just directed Kim to deal with his pay and his job issues.  He
added that he was going to ask Kim, his current girlfriend - *Oh her.
Huh,* she thought, *I never know what's going on with them unless I know
enough to ask...* - to keep an eye open in case she had second thoughts
about letting the incident drop later.  He also mentioned that it was
possible Deborah would keep information from Kim and others, if she WAS
planning to do anything...  *This is what I was afraid of,* Sarah nodded
as she kept reading.  *She's smart enough to figure things like that
out, and not be stupid.*  When dealing with threats to her family, Sarah
much preferred stupid threats.
     But Michael had reiterated that he didn't think she would do
anything; she knew, he'd claimed, about Eugene's nightmares, and Michael
had told Sabrina that Eugene had had one then, at exactly the wrong
time.  And Deborah's mother was a deputy sheriff, so the mere
involvement of a gun shouldn't cause a 'holplophobic reaction'.  *I
wonder where he picked that word up,* she mused.  *He certainly spelled
it incorrectly.*
     He'd also written that he had apologized to her, for Eugene- *He
didn't mention that, did he?*   She went back and rechecked, and Eugene
hadn't.  *Hmm.  He's probably still all self-righteous about his
response to the threat he perceived.  And his restraint.  I'll have to
talk to him about that, why it would be smart to pretend at least like
the apology had been both his idea and sincerely meant.*  She knew where
Eugene had gotten his stubbornness, from both parents in full measure,
but he was still young and Sarah was far more practiced in dealing with
other peoples' stubbornness than he was.  *Give it a day or so, talk to
him Friday or Saturday.*
     Michael had mentioned that Sabrina also seemed to be on their -
Tuckers' - side, and that she would probably tell one of them if Deborah
hadn't accepted his forged apology.
     *Well, I hope so...  I want to- need to,* she corrected herself,
*talk to her again.*  She'd done some research and some thinking, and
she and Bill had come up with a few new ideas.  *Here is probably out...
Maybe a restaurant.*  Sarah worked out of her car a lot; Deborah likely
did the same, from what she'd said about her makeup-selling business.
*That'll probably work.  Restaurant to start with, then the parking lot
to handle anything we don't want overheard.  I need to call her, though;
probably tomorrow.  No, tonight; she's got appointments just like I do.
Earlier the better.*
     She then opened a window to remind herself and Bill that they
needed a half-dozen Valiums at the least, to replace expenditures, both
for today and for when Michael had his bad trip.  Then she looked up
Deborah's number in the directory and went back to the bedside phone.

***

     "Shit."
     "What?" Lisa asked.  Debbie had wondered if she was planning to
drive the entire evening, like she was driving now.
     "Tuck's mom, Sarah, j-"
     "That's who it was?"
     "Yeah.  She says she needs to talk to me tomorrow, around six,"
which she'd planned to keep clear tomorrow for dinner.  "At a
restaurant, she said."
     "About what?" Lisa asked skeptically.
     Debbie took a breath.  "She SAID it was about the school thing."
     "And you don't believe her?"
     "I don't know."  Debbie replayed the short conversation in her mind
and said, "She said that Eu-  Tuck was sorry for this afternoon-"
     "Sorry?!"
     "LISA!" Debbie shrieked.  "Leave it alone!"
     They drove in silence for a minute or two before Lisa offered a
humble, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
     "Okay," Debbie said.  "Anyway, she said she needed to talk to me
about what we were planning, as a goal.  She said she had some thoughts
on the eventual structure of things, and some ideas on how to set it
up."
     "You want me to be there?"
     "Yeah...  She said a restaurant, like she had one in mind, but then
she let me pick one."
     "What did you pick?"
     "That Chinese-Vietnamese place near you; it's got a lot of exits
from the parking lot."  Lisa glanced at her, and Debbie knew what she
was thinking. "Look, it's safer than their house, or my house, and this
way there's plenty of people around, JUST in case..."
     "Alright," Lisa sighed resignedly.  "Speaking of eating, where
would you like to go eat tonight?"

***

     It was unusual having Eugene in the house but not sitting in the
kitchen as Sarah prepared supper; she was discovering that she missed
him even if he was ill enough to worry her every time she looked at him.
*That's probably why I miss him,* she realized.  *The only time he's
home and not in here at this time of the day is when he's too sick to
come down easily.*  She was fixing some of his favorites, the ones she
could manage before seven o'clock and which were soft enough for his and
Michael's throats.  They could eat upstairs and she, or Brian
preferably, could collect the dishes in an hour or so.  She knew that
Michael was fairly adept at cajoling Eugene into eating enough; she was
happy enough with the result that she preferred not to be forced to
notice what Michael actually said and did.

***

     Sabrina had just pulled her fork out of her mouth when her father
asked, "So how's Valerie doing?"
     She didn't quite choke, but it was a near thing.  "Sorry, Valerie?"
she asked when she could talk.
     "You're going over to her house for math tutoring, right?"  She
nodded cautiously.  "So, we haven't seen her in a while..."  Mom nodded
at this like she agreed.
     "Oh!  Uh, she's fine as far as I know.  She's just been busy, I
guess.  She works and she's got a boyfriend..."
     *I wonder if anyone's told Travis yet what happened to her?*
     "Sabrina?"
     "Oh, sorry Daddy, I just thought of something," she said, stalling
for a few moments of time.  "Um, whether she knows anything about this
chemistry test tomorrow."
     "Is she in your class?" Mom asked.

***

     "Hey guys, supper," Sarah said as she pushed the door open.
     "Trough's here," Brian remarked sourly as he followed her in.
     "You should talk.  And get," she ordered, and Brian didn't waste
any time, shoving a keyboard back and shedding Eugene's plate and
tableware on the clear spot revealed before zipping away.  *Wants to
fill his own trough,* Sarah smirked.
     Michael was awake and pawing at the food almost before she could
give him the plate.
     A knocking on the desk caught her attention, and she glanced at the
oximeter - 95% - before looking at him directly.  <I need to start
getting my homework,> Eugene signed at her.  <Catch up.>
     "What?  I thought the last thing in the world you'd want is to do
homework..."  She sighed deeply.  "In fact, we were thinking about
homeschooling you from now on, like you've been saying..."  They had
encouraged him to solve his own problems; that had NOT meant that he
was supposed to hide the sort of abuse he'd apparently been absorbing.
     He knocked on the desk again.  "Hmm?"

***

     "Hey Pam?  Debbie."
     "Oh hey-  How are you?"
     "Fine," she said quickly.  "Anyway, I was wondering, who are you
friendly with in your English class?  It's honors lit, right?"  Debbie
could have gotten into it again this year, but it took a lot more
homework than she was willing to put up with; AP History and Government
were more than enough to deal with.
     "Yeah?  Um, I dunno...  Why?"
     Debbie sighed, reluctant to tell anyone anything, but reminded
herself, *You need to involve other people in this part; it's time.*
"What I was thinking, was that it DOES seem like the honors kids are
getting hit a lot more than usual-  I mean, a lot more than the average
kids, right?  Does it seem that way to you?"
     "Um, I dunno... maybe," Pam allowed.
     "I need to start the rest of the honors kids thinking," Debbie
said.  "It's not right, what's happening to us."

***

     "Bill?"  He looked up, and Sarah was standing in the doorway of his
office, looking and sounding upset, and he tensed up.  "Eugene's talking
about going BACK to that SCHOOL!" she gasped out.
     He began relaxing, then caught what she'd said.  "He what?"
     "He wants to- no, he's DEMANDING to go back when he's better.  I
don't know what he's thinking!" she complained.
     "What's he saying?"
     "He's saying he can't leave the rest of them as targets?!"  She
shuddered.  "He said, 'They came for me.  I need to be there when they
come for my friends.'"
     "What the...  Let's go talk to him," he sighed as he got up.
     "No," Sarah said as she put her hand up.  "Let's have dinner first,
and then talk about it.  He NEEDS to eat something tonight, and you know
how he gets."
     Bill agreed, "We don't want to put him off his feed," as he sat
back down.
     "And you have Sabrina for math right after dinner," she reminded
him.
     "Yes dear."
     "And take the trash out and mow the lawn and-"  He'd stuck his
fingers in his ears by then, and he waited until she kissed his head
before he pulled them out.
     Quietly into his ear, she finished, "And then we'll have sex."
     "Ahhh!" he yelped and jumped and clutched his chest.  She laughed
and left.
     *She really does feel a lot better with Eugene in the house... even
after today,* he smiled with relief.

***

     *Damnit!* Sarah cursed to herself as she walked back to the
kitchen.  *Why the hell does he want to go BACK there?  He's been
talking about nothing else but STAYING HOME since the school year
started!  Why does he have to be so contradictory?*
     *'They came for me.'  Just like the damned Niemoller quote.*
Eugene couldn't have come up with a more evocative quote if he'd
researched it for a year.

***

     "Hello?" Bill answered, as he began logging in to his son's LAN to
feed it the Caller ID number.
     "Mister Tucker?  This is Kim Chassell, one of, uh, Tucker's
friends?  Sabrina said that she, uh, she got to see him today?"
     "Yes?" Bill encouraged as he rechecked the hanging paper copy of
the Shit List, and didn't find her name on it.

     <REVERSE LOOKUP - MATCH - KIM, PACK *WARN POSSIBLE MULTICALL*>
     <REVERSE LOOKUP - MATCH - KIMBERLY CHASSELL/CLASS 99, SCHOOL
DIRECTORY>
     <CALL DATES IN REVERSE ORDER:>

     There were a lot of dates.
     "Um, well, I was wondering if, uh, if I could- I mean, me an'
another friend, Jill?  We wanted to see Tuck and Mike tonight," she
gushed out at him.  "She gets off work at eight so it'd be a little
after that?"
     Jill wasn't on the List either.  "I can ask them, if they aren't
sleeping.  Hold on," he said, and put her on hold before grabbing the
intercom handset.

***

     The phone rang again, and Jody stared at it for a while, dreading
whoever it was.  Finally she picked it up.  "Hello?"
     "Hey, baby," Shane said.
     "Oh hey," she replied, smiling as she realized it wasn't anyone
she'd been scared of.  She'd already had another fight with Jordan
today.

***

     <H-O-M-E-W-O-R-K,> Tuck signed.
     "What?" Mike asked.
     <Need it, need to catch up,> he explained.
     "I thought you were going to stay home, do the homeschool thing or
something, I mean you keep talking about it...  You mean you are REALLY
thinking about going BACK there?" Mike babbled.
     <Can't leave you alone there,> he signed, or that's what Mike
thought he'd signed.  It wasn't making any sense, was the problem.
     "What?  Wait, type it," Mike suggested, pointing him at the nearest
computer.

***

     "Damnit!" Jody snapped.  "You don't fucking understand!  I could go
to fucking PRISON for this!"
     Shane said, "But you didn't do anything, right?"
     It wasn't the words, it was the tone of his voice, the one that
said, 'But maybe you DID do something... didn't you?'
     "Y-  Y-"  She hung up the phone, churned for a few seconds, then
ripped the phone out of the wall.  *HOW DARE YOU!* she screamed at him
inside her head.  *NOBODY fucking believes me!*
     The tears started again, and she stumbled to the closet and hid,
muffling herself in the folds of the quilt.

***

     "So anyway," Debbie continued, "I don't know, I mean, this is
getting seriously unsafe.  You know they kicked some freshman kid down
in the hallway, and broke his glasses, and nobody even SAW anything?"
she said sarcastically.  "Come on!  Between classes?  And like nobody
even asked who was there?"
     "Yeah, but, like, what are you supposed to do?" Jessie Cummings
(the unfortunate name of her stepfather had led to her being deposed
from the social nobility back in junior high; she'd been bitter and
vengeful ever since) asked back, looking almost as agitated as Debbie
sounded.  "I mean, like, throw yourself in the middle of something like
that?"
     "I'm not saying be stupid about it," Debbie said, "but, you know,
if you're in a place and people can do stuff like beat you up and
nobody- I mean, everybody pretends not to notice, I mean, why should you
even go there, you know?  I can think of better places to get mugged.  I
mean, at least in Times Square you don't have to do homework!"  That
made Jessie laugh a bit, which made Debbie smile too.  "I'm just saying,
you know, that, I mean, there ought to be SOMETHING we can do- because
if the school board or someone like that tries to do something, they'll
just fuck it up, you know?  They always do.  But there has to be
SOMEthing WE can do."

***

     "Dude, he is NOT going to make it," Brian said quietly.  He was
willing to talk to Dan, because Tuck would pay him three bucks for
taking the message, delivering it, and then forgetting about it; a
long-standing commercial agreement when Tucker 'wasn't available'.  Even
if the message was for Mike.  "He looks like shit." The intercom buzzed
at him, and he said rapidly, "Look dude, I gotta go down for dinner.
I'll ask Mike to call you back, at home right?"
     "Yeah-"
     "Okay bye," Brian said and hung up.

***

     "Hello?"
     "Hey Kim, it's Ginger Bilsborough."
     One of the geek girls, Kim remembered.  *And didn't she date one of
Tuck's crowd, like Dan or someone?*  "Oh hey.  I don't have a lot of
time, I have to pick someone up, okay?  But what's up?"  Kim knew what
was up, thanks to Debbie's phone call, and she was concentrating hard on
remembering everything Ginger said.
     "Well, if you're busy, I-"
     "No no, I was just saying I can't spend like an hour on the phone
right now," Kim elaborated hurriedly.  *Hope I'm not late to pick Jill
up,* she worried for an instant.  Jill got bitchy sometimes.

***

     "No, it has to be tonight."
     "Why?"
     "Because, listen..."  The other reason, was that there was no way
she could sleep after today.

***

     "Hi Mister Tucker," Sabrina said, and smiled hesitantly.
     "Come on in," he said, looking the same as he always did.
     Sabrina came in, feeling nervous, and tried to shake it off as she
shut the front door behind her.  "How's Mike and Tuck doing?"  She
hadn't screwed it up that time either, thankfully.

***

     "Sorry I'm late," Kim said through her rolled-down window, "I HAD
to talk to someone-"
     "About what?"
     "About something someone heard the cheerleaders talking about be-
BEFORE," she emphasized, "Tuck got beaten up!"
     "The hell?  Who?" Jill demanded.
     "In the car," Kim said, pointing, before she lurched sideways to
unlock the passenger door.

***

     "Dude," Brian said quietly into the phone, "he said for you to do
whatever you need to do, but to be careful; he said Debbie said, that
they're doing police patrols now."  Mike had begged off talking, and he
looked and sounded so bad that Brian hadn't even tried to bargain the
price up.  He felt vaguely suckered, but it was too late now.
     "Yeah we know, we were there when she said that," Dan said back.
"Man!  I've got some good posters and stuff, and Debbie said-  Hey, did
you know your mom was with us the other night, me and Debbie?"
     Brian shook a particularly horrible vision out of his head and
demanded, "What the hell are you talking about?"
     "I had some- uh, some stuff, an-"
     "Posters?" Brian said, a bit relieved.
     "Wh-  Oh yeah, you were there," Dan admitted, and Brian smirked.
*Finally!*  He hated not knowing what was going on, and usually Tuck's
friends were too well-trained and too close-mouthed to tell him
ANYTHING.  And he couldn't effectively listen in on anything because
Tuck had something on his door that would buzz and block sounds whenever
he turned it on.

***

     "Hi?"
     "Hi Mister Tucker," Jill said more confidently.  "Can we come in
and see him?"
     "Mike too," Kim contributed.
     "Sure, they're upstairs, in Tucker's room," he answered as backed
away from the door.
     "Hey girl!" Sabrina called from somewhere else in the house.
     "Oh hey!" Kim called back loudly; Jill could hardly believe the two
of them were being that rude.  "Me 'n Jill," she added, just as loudly
the second time.
     Sabrina came around from the dining room, Jill guessed, and waved
at them.  "They look bad," she warned.
     "They'll be okay," Mr. Tucker said confidently.

***

     "He's the only one that drinks these in the house."
     "Are you sure?"
     "Yeah, I'm sure," she said confidently, sounding almost as certain
as she felt, though she was pretty sure.  Sure enough to go grab
somebody's garbage to do it, anyway.

***

     Jill came in and turned, and there they were.
     "What?" Kim asked.
     "Huh?"
     "You said 'shit'," Kim said.
     "I did?"  The two of them looked like it, though.  Tucker looked
almost dead, he was so pale and wasted.  But his eyes were open, and
apparently he saw her, because he raised a hand and waved just a little
bit.
     "Hurarrrrrrgh-ghr," Mike said, and Jill winced at the noise.

***

     "I'm FINE, Lisa!" Debbie insisted, her temper obviously rising, and
so Lisa let it drop; Debbie could be so antagonistic when she was upset
and trying to hide it, it wasn't worth pushing too hard.  She wanted to
help Debbie... but as usual, Debbie would only let THAT happen when she
was ready.
     If then.
     Lisa hoped like hell she wouldn't wait too long.

***

     "So, I mean, could we see you tomorrow?" Kim asked.  It was obvious
that the two of them were exhausted, and she didn't want to stay very
long...  But she DID want to be nice to them.
     Tucker's hands flipped and twitched, and Mike looked over and
translated, "Sure.  Could you bring homework for us?  Both of us, I
mean?"
     "Uh, I have to work- at the Parkers," Kim reminded them, "and
Jill's working-"
     "Let me ask Sabrina," Jill said quickly and dodged out the door.

***

     "Man, it is just not FAIR," Brian sighed to himself.  "Fucker's
half DEAD and he's got chicks coming over to polish his coffin for him.
He's GOT to be-"
     Brian shut up as he realized, *He SAID he WAS gay, or near enough.
Oh shit.*  He resisted the urge to look in on him, to see if he'd
changed or mutated or something, something visible.  *Oh shit...*  It
wasn't funny any more.

***

     "Sure, I guess I can," Sabrina agreed, wondering at the same time
if she SHOULD agree to it; Mike and Val-  *TUCK, damnit!* she corrected.
But both of them had a lot of homework in a lot of classes she didn't
have; it'd be hard to get it all.
     "We'd appreciate it," Mr. Tucker said, frowning.
     "Huh?"  His frown didn't match what he'd said.
     "Oh, um..."  He pushed his glasses back up.  "We're going to speak
to him tonight about why he wants to go back there," he explained. "He's
been trying t-  He's been SAYING he doesn't want to go to school for
months, but... not seriously, we thought.  He never said anything about
this level of problem.  Did he say anything to either of you about it?"
he asked, managing somehow to stare at her and Jill at the same time.
     "Um..."  *What do I tell him?*
     "I don't know, I mean," Jill said, "he never seemed to really worry
about it-"
     "But he did," Sabrina mentioned.
     "Yeah but he never SAID anything, I mean like significant," Jill
countered.  "Did he?  To you I mean?"
     "I...  I don't think so," she answered.  "I mean, he said stuff
like he'd had problems, like someone had tried to hit him in the halls
or something, but, I mean, he never said anything like it was THIS bad.
That I heard," she added.  "I mean, we never really talked about it,"
she said to Mr. Tucker.  "I think he just wanted to forget about it,
not, um, not make a big deal out of it, you know?"
     "He had the nightmares too," Jill said, "about being beaten up or
things."
     "He did?" Sabrina asked before Mr. Tucker could.  "He never told me
about them."  *I don't think he did...  Did he?* she worried.
     "How often?" Mr. Tucker asked.
     Jill shrugged, looking tortured.  "Um, a lot."
     No one said anything for several very long seconds.  Mr. Tucker
could stare VERY hard, and he was doing it at Jill.
     "Um," she finally gave in, "I think like every night.  But he said
he was dealing with it," she put in hurriedly.  "I asked, and that's
what he said."
     "How often did he get hit?" he asked, and Jill looked at Sabrina,
and then so did Mr. Tucker.  *Oh, DAMN...*

***

     "Yeah, I can," Brian agreed, after gauging his tiredness; he could
deal tonight with some caffeine pills, if he could sleep Friday night.
"We need more people.  George looks fucked, though."
     "I know; I can't do much either," Dan said, and he didn't sound
well.  *Lots better than George or Mike, though that's not saying much.*
     "We don't have enough people," Brian said.
     "Oh...  Hey, do you-  Ask Tuck something, wouldja?"
     "Ask him what?" Brian asked as he shifted over to his computer.

***

     "That was before it happened question," Tuck's computer spoke, and
it took Kim a few moments to realize it - he - was asking a question.
     "Uh, yeah, that's what Ginger said..."
     Mike and Tuck 'talked' in sign language for quite a while, long
enough for Kim to get impatient about it.  And grossed out, because Mike
kept clearing his throat with awful noises.
     "Because you stupid round-eyed freak of nature!" Mike burst out,
shocking Jill into making a noise.  "Hearsay is not admissible!"  He
turned to Kim and Jill, ignoring Tuck and his flashing hands, and said
tiredly, "She has to tell the police.  Talk to Mister Tucker about it.
Give him names."
     "What?" Kim asked.  "You want me-"
     "Tell Mister Tucker," Mike groaned.  "Give him the girl's name,
he'll tell you what to do with it."
     "Kim," Jill said.
     "No!  What-  I mean, she told me in confidence!" Kim protested.
"I, if I go talking to the cops, then-"
     Tuck hit Mike with a stick, gaining Mike's attention, and then the
two of them were signing away at each other again.
     Kim looked at Jill, hoping for support.  "Hey, I don't know," Jill
said as she threw up her hands.  "I mean, they have a point-"
     "WHAT point?!"
     "If they knew about it ahead of time?" Jill asked.  "Then it's like
a conspiracy or something."
     "Oh... shit.  But then what's the deal about 'hearsay'?" she asked.
Motion caught her eye and she saw Mike nodding his head.  And Tuck
shaking his.  "What?"
     Tuck began typing again, as Mike said, "That's it exactly.  If-"
     "IF CONFIDENTIAL THEN YOU CANT TELL," the computer intoned, VERY
loudly through some speakers Kim hadn't even seen.
     "Hey!" Brian protested from down the hall.  "No speakers!"
     Tuck tapped rapidly, and the speakers shot forth, "FUCK YOU OSS
HOL," which took Kim quite a while to recognize as Arnold
Schwarzenegger's voice.
     Something else buzzed, a strobe light flashed, and Mike signed at
Tuck, Brian yelled something from his room...
     "It's like having all three of the step-assholes doing something at
the same time," Jill complained, her fingers plugging her ears.

***

     "Can I speak to Kelly, please?  This is Tucker's brother."
     "Oh, Valerie?"
     "Uh, no, this is Brian," he said automatically as his mind tripped
over what she'd said.
     The woman chuckled and said, "No, I mean Valerie Tucker, Kelly's
big sister."
     "Uh, yeah," Brian lied, now not sure WHAT the hell was going on
now.
     "Just a minute," she said and put the phone down.  "Kelly!" he
could hear faintly.
     *Oh FUCK I hope this is the right person...  Who the fuck is Val-*

***

     "Oh, MAN," Sabrina sighed, AFTER the Tuckers' door had shut behind
her.  "What a night..."  She hadn't gotten that much math done - or
clothes-folding either - but she felt wrung out.
     "I guess I ought to go hang myself up to dry," she told herself,
and forced herself to walk out to her car.  "One more day..."  She hoped
that THIS weekend would be dull and boring; she needed the rest this
time.

***

     "Jill?  Tuck needs to talk to you for a minute," Brian said as Jill
and Kim were literally walking out the door.
     "Oh man," she sighed as she stopped.  "I wanna go HOME."
     "Life's hard," Brian said in a totally unsympathetic fashion.
"Just for a minute."
     Jill looked over at Kim, who shrugged, then all three started back
down the hall towards the stairs.  "This'd better be important," she
sighed to herself as she followed the other two.

***

     Mike looked over at Tuck, who was looking back at him, his blue
eyes unreadable.  *This is not going to go well, no matter WHAT I do,*
Mike realized, and closed his eyes, trying to think.

***

     "What the fuck do you mean 'it's sensitive!'"
     "Be quiet Kim!" Jill hissed.
     "FUCK you!" she shrieked back at Jill.
     Tuck sighed; this reminded him unpleasantly of Amy.

***

     "Dan?  It's Debbie.  I've got some help for you on that government
paper, if you want it.  Do you have any more of those posters done?"
     He groaned at her over the phone, which irritated her; she'd spent
twenty minutes dealing with Martelle Fields to get him the half of a
paper she'd written so far.

***

     "DAMNIT!  I fucking HATE him sometimes!" Kim fumed as she walked
down the sidewalk, far too angry to sit still in the car, and unwilling
to spend another moment in that house.

***

     "So anyway, that's what I was thinking," Debbie said.
     "Really?  You think it's getting that bad?" Lorri Edgington
questioned.
     "Yes!  I mean, shit, have you seen those posters?  Those are
definitely the product of a deranged mind!"
     "I don't think they're done by the same person," Lorri said
confidently.
     "Oh?  Why not?" Debbie asked, hoping-
     "Well, I mean, the first one, Monday?  THAT was SICK.  The ones
since then, they've been like imitations, you know?"
     "I dunno, though; I mean, some of them- I mean, I can see what
you're saying," Debbie agreed, "but I think most of 'em were done by the
same person or group or whatever."
     "No way," Lorri stated, like she knew.  "It's more than one."
     "You mean like more people are doing it?"
     "Hell yeah!  I mean, I think some of the people that are, y'know,
starting to get violent, THEY think it's funny.  Have you heard what
happened to Donna Sadler in the bathroom today?"
     "No?"  She hadn't heard a thing yet.
     "A couple of girls she didn't know, they tried to 'borrow'," the
ironic emphasis on that word almost dripped out of the phone, "like
fifty dollars or something, and when she wouldn't give it to them, they
said that she'd end up like that poster if she didn't."
     "Holy shit!" Debbie gasped.  *This'll work,* she realized, though
she hadn't planned it.  "Wh-"
     "She freaked out and started screaming and thrashing and ran outta
there, but she LEFT HER PURSE," Lorri drawled in disapproval.  "When she
got a couple of her friends to go in with her, all her money and stuff
was gone.  And of course, nobody saw ANYthing."
     "Oh my God!" Debbie wailed, hopefully not too theatrically.

***

     "So why can't you tell me what's going on?!" Kim snarled.
     Jill tried to be nice and calming as she answered, "Kim, the less
you know, the less you can-"
     "FUCK you!  YOU know all this shit!  They TRUST YOU!" she spat
back.  "Why the hell doesn't he trust ME?"
     "Kim, it's not-"
     "The fuck it isn't!" Kim shrieked, which made Jill cringe from the
noise.  This was just the kind of thing that made neighbors call the
cops.

***

     "Eugene?"  Mike looked up, and it was Tuck's parents at the door.
"I think we need to talk to you now, about going back to school."
     <What to talk about?> Tuck signed at her.
     "Lots," she said, and Mike sighed (which hurt) because this looked
like it was going to be a long conversation.

***

     Jill sighed and watched the ground for a while, until the noise of
Kim's car had died away.  *That sucked.  Me not having a ride home also
sucks.  Stupid bitch,* she thought as she sighed again.  She wasn't even
sure why Mike and Tuck hadn't let Kim know about the various things
going on; she'd asked, and Tuck's computer had said, "As few people as
possible," which did not explain WHY at all.  Or why they felt they
could trust her, but not Kim.  Or what to do now.
     She shivered in the night air, and put the hood up on her
sweatshirt and pulled the drawstrings to close it somewhat, and it
helped; she wasn't at all sure what to do next, though.
     As she was standing around, trying to determine whether she should
walk all the way home (hard, and she'd be way late) or walk to a pay
phone and call a cab (possible long wait, and expensive) or take a
chance on the buses (never fun when you weren't sure where you were to
start with) or just what, the front door of Tucker's house opened, and
Mr. Tucker came out.  "Mmm," he said as he looked around.
     "Uh, sorry, Mister Tucker," Jill said, feeling bad.  "I, uh, she-"
     "She left with the car, and you'd like to go home?" Mr. Tucker
guessed.
     "Uh, yeah..."  She was hesitant to ask for a favor from anyone's
parents, especially after a scene like Kim had made; she was always
afraid they would blame her, like her step-assholes would.
     He nodded absently like this was exactly what he'd expected, and
said calmly, "Stay here for a minute, and I'll see if I can give you a
ride home."
     "Thanks Mister Tucker," she found herself gushing as he walked back
into the house, leaving the door open after him.  "I really appreciate
it."

***

     "Eugene, what good do you think you can do?  Even when you get
cleared by Dana, you're going to be in BAD shape," Sarah continued.  She
wasn't sure how to deal with him at the moment, and Bill had gone
outside to deal with whoever was yellling OUTSIDE.  Which reminded her
to keep her voice calm and low; if they got into a yelling match, it
wouldn't do either of them any good.  "What are you going to do if
someone else tries to hurt you?"
     <Hit them,> he signed.  <Harder.  Tried to escape last time.  Wrong
idea.  Must hit harder next time, not run.>
     "But why do you have to go?!"
     <They need me.>
     "Who needs you?  Eugene, you're half crippled at the moment, and
you're not going to get better in a week!"
     "It's gonna take a long time, mano," Michael rasped.
     <You need me there A-S-A-P,> Eugene signed in reply.
     "You can barely MOVE!" Sarah challenged.  "And why do you want to
go back at ALL?"  *Calm, Sarah,* she told herself.  "Look, Eugene, I
know you care about your friends, but it's-  I mean, look at yourself!
You were in ICU for almost a WEEK!  And we're OFFERING you the chance to
stay HOME!  Like you've been asking!"  She stopped and took a breath,
because she was starting to sound whiny even to herself.
     <I can't leave them,> he signed, looking amazingly calm; even his
pulse wasn't up when she glanced at the monitor.
     "Man, don't be stupid, okay?" Michael growled.  "You're no good to
us like that."
     <Am.  Better than anyone else.  And you partner,> he signed at
Michael.
     "Better than-  at what?" Sarah argued.  "It didn't help you a week
ago!"
     His pulse picked up at that, which made Sarah feel bad.  <Made a
mistake,> he signed, glaring angrily at her now.  <Won't make it again.
Not be alone, simple.>
     "It is NOT simple!  Your friends say you've been having nightmares
for MONTHS about this EXACT thing!  You-"
     He was signing over her, <No.  Nightmares about friends dying.>
     "Tuck," Mike said as Sarah grappled with THIS little gem, "we're
not gonna-"
     <K-E-L-L-Y thing,> Eugene signed at Michael.
     "What?"
     They both ignored her.  <J-I-L-L-X-X-K-I-M-X-X, even B-O-B,> he
spelled out.  <They good enough?  P-A-R-A-N-O-I-D enough?  Good as me?
What about you?  Who watches your back?>
     "I can get one of da boys to watch it, and hell, man, you said
Kelly could handle herself, back when-"
     <In a fight yes, not maybe in an ambush,> Eugene argued at the same
time.
     Sarah sat back, hoping to regain her own balance and calm while
Michael argued with him.  *I know he cares about his friends, but this
is suicidal!*
     "Sarah," Bill said from the doorway.  "Break.  Jill got left here;
apparently she and Kim had an argument."
     "Damnit," she sighed.  "And she doesn't live nearby, does she?"  He
shrugged as Michael and Eugene shook their heads in unison.  "Alright...
Why don't you try here, and I'll take her home," she suggested.  Maybe
she could think up some way to change Eugene's mind on the way there and
back.

***

     "Hey Bridgette," Sean said casually as he tapped on the doorframe
of her room at the same time he opened the door.
     "What?" she snarled as she put her flute into her lap and glared at
him.  "I'm trying to practice!"
     "As always," he remarked, unruffled.  "Did you hear anything about
Carl today?"
     "Carl who?"
     "Carl Dodge, Assistant Section sax in marching band.  His mom's
talking to Mom about him getting beaten up or something to-"
     "What?  Beaten UP?"
     "I wondered if you heard anything," he concluded.
     "No?"  She looked around, as her brother stared at her, and then
put her flute sideways on top of the case and got up.  "Pam might know
something about it...  She was talking today about the stuff that's been
happening in school."  She hadn't gone to the meeting Pam had talked
about, about finding people to be safe with, like grade school and 'line
partners' on field trips; now she vaguely wished she had.  *High school
was looking so cool before last week...*

***

     Jill was almost glad to see her house appear, as she pointed at it
for Mrs. Tucker.  "That one," she said.  It hadn't been nearly as bad as
Kim would have been, because Kim would have been yelling the entire time
and her driving got erratic when she was yelling.  But Mrs. Tucker had
been very quiet after a few casual remarks at the beginning, and Jill
was hesitant about saying anything.
     "Thanks Miz Tucker, I really appreciate it," she said as she got
out.
     "You're welcome, Jill," she said back, but she sounded like she
wasn't really thinking about it.  Jill shut the door, and she didn't
drive off, so Jill took a deep breath and turned towards the front door.
*I hope nobody's drunk tonight...*

***

     "Well?"  Sarah asked when she found Bill.  He wasn't talking to the
boys, which was either pretty good or quite bad. 
     Bill just shook his head.  "It's not gonna work, Sarah; not this
time."
     "What do you mean it's not going to work?!"
     "He's..."  She curbed her impatience, or tried to, as he thought
about what he was going to say.  "Unless we can get the parents of his
friends to agree to homeschooling them too, he's going."
     "WHY?!"
     He took his glasses off and started cleaning them with the bottom
of his shirt.  "He is convinced that his friends aren't safe there
either, and that if he's not there with them, they're in significantly
more danger.  I couldn't talk him out of it... and there's no way we can
keep him from going, not practically."
     "Well damn it!  He's still grounded-  He's still a CHILD, damnit!
He can't-"
     "What'll we do if he sneaks out in the morning, Sarah?" Bill asked
calmly.  "Call the police and tell them he's sneaking INTO school?"
     "Don't be ridiculous!" she snapped.
     "We can't stop him, Sarah," he reiterated.  "I tried for over half
an hour, while you were gone, and Mike was arguing against him too.  No
dice; he'd just look stubborn and repeat himself.  I did think of
something, to keep him safer, and he agreed to it."
     "What?"

***

     Brian slipped into his brother's room.  "S'me, Brian," he said as
he shut the door.  Neither of them said anything, but Mike moved and
waved, and started getting off the top bed.
     Brian tied the long rope around one post of the bunk bed by feel,
yanked it a couple of times to make sure it was holding, then opened the
window and lowered the other end of the rope outside.  He wrapped it
around him, took a breath - he'd been doing rappelling for years, but it
still bothered him, or at least a lot more than it did his brother - and
started climbing out the window.
     "Vaya con dios, mano," Mike said faintly from inside the house.
     *Why does he always do Spanish when he's trying to say something
serious?* Brian wondered in mock-irritation as he loosened his grip on
the rope and started to slide down.

***

     *Shit I hate doing this,* Mike told himself as he breathed in
'steam' from the vaporizer he was hooked into, just like Tuck, and
waited for Tuck to start coughing.  It helped his throat a little bit,
but he was afraid he was going to cough too; that HURT.

***

     Kelly was pretty sure she could sneak out of the house, but her
heart was still in her mouth as she moved slowly and quietly, like the
books she'd read had said to do, out of her room, closing the door, and
towards the front door.  Audrey sounded like she was asleep, as Kelly
listened; she didn't snore, exactly, but she did breathe pretty loudly
when she was asleep.  Dad was on layover in Miami, which he hated; not
that either Kelly or Audrey liked it either, but it did make it easier
to get out of the house, and Kelly had less to worry about, too, while
she was out illicitly.
     It took nearly ten minutes, when she checked her watch, for her to
get safely outside the house.  Luckily, she'd allowed for that, though
it had seemed like forever when she was doing it.  As she tried to look
casual, she made her way out to the parking lot, where Dan's van was
waiting.  *Oh no, am I late?* she worried as she hurried.

***

     Dan announced, "Okay, I got some stimulants if anyone-"
     "Where'd you get those?" Book interrupted, sounding astonished.
     "Debbie had some.  They're like diet pills or som-"
     Jill interrupted, "Kim's, I thi-"
     "Can I finish?" Dan snapped.  *We don't interrupt Mike all the
damned time!*
     *Yeah we do,* he told himself.
     *Not-*
     *Yes.*
     *Well they should shut up anyway!* he decided.  "ANYway, if anyone
needs one, take one.  They should give you a quick boost.  And I've got
three for each of you for tomorrow.  Don't get caught with 'em," he
reminded everyone.  "Take every four hours."
     "I need 'em," Jill announced as she held out her hand.

***

     "It'll be okay.  We can do this."  There hadn't been anyone around,
and they'd waited until the previous cop had left, with Lisa napping in
the driver's seat as Debbie watched and waited.  She couldn't sleep yet.
     Lisa nodded jerkily, but turned into the parking lot and shut off
her lights.

***

     Jill had just finished the second floor when a voice announced over
their radios, "Warning!  Car lights in the parking lot!  They just went
out.  Wait."
     Jill stopped moving and knelt on the floor, like - she hoped - all
of them were doing.  They'd been instructed on what to do by Dan, who'd
read from a checklist, like someone had every other time she'd done
something like this with them.  And they'd had to do it once already
when a cop came through.
     "Civilian car," said the voice, that Jill finally recognized as
Brian's.  "Turned into the parking lot and went dark immediately.  It's
now moving without lights, from the entrance.  No light bar on top."
     *What the hell...*  She carefully shielded her watch before
pressing the light button.  *1:17.  This is too fuckin' early for ANYone
to be here...*
     Brian continued, "It's pulling up towards the other end of the
parking lot.  What's over there, over?"
     It was Jill that answered, "Field house or gym, I think.  Over."
     "Two people getting out... they're wearing darks, can't see much of
'em.  They're moving... away from us."
     *That's why we hide the car,* Jill thought in relief.  It was a
pain in the ass to move it back and forth, and coordinate their
'ingress' and 'egress', but at least there wasn't a single car standing
alone in the parking lot looking conspicuous.  And suspicious.

***

     "Are you sure there's nobody here?"
     "Deb, I fucking looked!  Didn't you?  Look, there's NO ONE HERE,"
Lisa snarled.  She wasn't happy about being up at this hour anyway, much
less doing something that could get them seriously arrested.  "Let's
just get it done and get it over with, okay?"
     "Alright alright alright!  Shit," Debbie breathed.  "C'mon."

***

     Dan waited, wondering what the hell he should do: abort, continue,
or freeze?
     "It looks kind of like Debbie," Brian announced.  "And one of the
other girls I've seen with Tuck."
     "-The fuck?" Jill complained.
     The radio spasmed with open chatter, which Mike hated.  Mike wasn't
here, but Dan could suddenly understand why he hated it so much.  He
pressed the Morse switch and the squeal shut everyone up.  "Any idea who
it is, Brian?  Over."
     "No idea," came the prompt reply.  "It's a girl, maybe a little
taller'n Debbie.  Just two of them, over."
     Dan asked, "Can you tell what they're doing over?"
     "They're bring- getting bags out of the trunk of the car," Brian
replied.  "Like plastic grocery bags... one's a trash bag.  Looks full.
Over."
     "What kind of car?" Jill asked as Dan was thinking the same
question.  "Over," she added hurriedly.
     There was silence for several seconds, as Dan churned, until
finally Brian said, "I think it's a BMW.  Some kind of expensive looking
sedan, kinda light colored," he said.  "Over."
     "That sounds like Lisa's car," Jill said, sounding worried.
     "Whafuck?" Dan snapped, but not over the radio.
     After fifteen seconds of silence, Dan transmitted, "Brian, keep a
watch on them, and alert us if anything happens with them.  Do a sweep,
uh, every so often to see about cops.  The rest of you, get back to
work, I guess.  Over."
     "Wait, I've got a better idea," Brian challenged.

***

     Debbie looked at the can in her hand, and felt a resurgence of the
sickness, the WRONGNESS of what she was doing.
     *It's got to be done,* she told herself, over and over, until she
could get it under control and get back to the business.

***

     Lisa sighed and shivered, and whispered, "Come ON!  Let's GO!" as
loudly as she dared to Debbie.
     "Hold ON!" Debbie shot back.
     Lisa held in the anger, but it hurt.  She wanted to get the hell
out of there, and even though she'd been watching the parking lot for
five minutes and she couldn't see anything

***

     *Shit, it IS Debbie,* Brian wondered, watching the two girls come
out of the building from his new spot twenty meters away from the door.
It almost wasn't worth using the monocular on them, but he did anyway,
checking their faces.  Apparently she'd dyed her hair since he'd seen
her last; it was reddish now, instead of almost-black.  *I know I've
seen that black-haired one before... but... I think it's been a while.
Did he date her?  Nah,* he answered himself. *Has to be one of the
crowd.*
     Debbie looked towards him and stood still, apparently staring or
watching, and Brian made sure not to move.  *S'why you get comfy when
you stop moving,* he agreed with himself.

***

     Debbie couldn't sense anything at all, even though she was
listening hard, and watching the entire area as she stood still.  She
kept feeling like-
     "Ssst!  Come on!" Lisa hissed, and Debbie gave up and left.  *A cop
wouldn't be waiting or hiding in the dark or anything,* she told herself
as she scanned the parking lot for anything, especially patrol cars.
*And nobody is that subtle.*
     *Except Tuck and them.*
     *Yeah,* she argued, *but they're out for the night; George said
they were stopping because too many of them were sick.  Dan was starting
to look bad today too.*  That almost reminded her of some
unpleasantness, so she thrust that away and concentrated fiercely on
what she had to do tomorrow, and how tonight would work itself out
tomorrow.
     They left without a problem, Lisa turning on her headlights as she
got squared with the road, and a few seconds after that a patrol car
turned the corner and pointed at them.
     "Fuck!" Lisa gasped.
     "Just be cool," Debbie ordered as she put her hand over Lisa's and
squeezed it, though her own heart had jolted before it started racing.
     They drove past, and the patrol didn't stop or flash lights at them
or anything at all.
     "Oh God," Lisa gasped when they'd turned the corner and lost sight
of the cop.
     "Just act normal," Debbie reminded both of them, "and they'll walk
right past you."

***

     "Aw hell," Brian complained as he dropped to the ground near the
gym and froze.  *I hate this part...*  The cop was using his spotlight
too, which meant he had to stay completely down and hope the splotched
gray would work.  It USUALLY did... but he reviewed where the van was,
what to call if he had to run, and where to RV if the cop chased him,
either in the car or on foot.

***

     "They were there for at least half an hour," Brian told the group
of them as they all crouched in one of the hallways, waiting for Dan to
come pick them up.  Book was watching out the door so Brian could talk.
Jill was more than ready to go home; she couldn't stop thinking about
what it would be like if SHE was the one arrested, stuck in the county
jail, her mom trying to arrange bail...  *If they'd even bother,* she
snarled.
     "What were they doing in there, uh, over?" Kelly asked.
     "I couldn't tell; it was dark, and they didn't have the lights on.
I don't think they were doing anything that was visible from the
doorway, anyway."  He never stopped looking out the window as he
reported what he'd seen.  "But they were wearing darks, pants and stuff,
and I know they took some plastic bags with stuff in 'em-"
     "What kind of stuff?" Dan interrupted over the radio.
     After a second of silence, Brian smirked, "Bad procedure."  His
voice changed back to 'normal' as he continued, "I don't know what was
in the bags; I couldn't see it very clearly even through the scope.  But
it wasn't very heavy, and one of 'em was pretty, um, irregular.  Not
like a box or a cylinder or several cylinders or anything regular."
Silence for a few beats, then Brian said, "Over."
     "Could you even give a hint what was in any of the other bags?" Dan
asked immediately.  "Over."
     "Not a clue, ov-  Just that none of them were very heavy, maybe a
few pounds.  One looked like a trash bag of some kind, the others looked
like plastic grocery bags.  Over."

***

     Book shut the door and Dan started the van moving before Kelly
could get well seated, and she bounced uncomfortably a couple of times
before she wedged herself into her seat.  "Rear is clear," Book
announced as he stared out the back windows.
     "We didn't see shit tonight, including any other vehicles," Dan
said over the engine's noise as he pulled out casually.
     "That's 'cause we were at home sleeping," Brian contributed with a
tired grin.
     Kelly started to grin back but stopped when Dan snapped, "No!  We
didn't see ANYTHING tonight.  Don't talk about this to anyone but Mike,
Tuck, or George.  Don't talk about it where someone might hear it.  Got
that?"
     "Okay, Dan," Jill snapped back, "we got it, okay?  We're not
stupid."
     "You're-"
     "You and Kelly are not," Brian interrupted loudly, "as well trained
as we are.  And it's usually worth saying anyway, as a reminder.  Do not
talk about this to anyone outside this vehicle, besides Mike, Tuck, and
George.  Right?" he confirmed with Dan.
     "Right."  Dan sounded tired and sad, like he was sorry he'd blown
up at them.  But he didn't say anything else, he just kept driving.
     The ride was very quiet after that, and Kelly didn't enjoy it.

***


"I have looked into the darkness, Na'Toth.  You can not do that and
ever be quite the same again."
 -- G'Kar to Na'Toth in "Revelations" Babylon 5


Distribution:
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person or group.
Permission is given to redistribute this by electronic means, as long as
the entirety of the work (from the BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE header to
the END PGP SIGNATURE footer) is distributed, and credit is given to the
original author, me.  And no fee may be charged.
Archiving is permitted provided no fee is charged for access.

All rights reserved.


+ @>--,--'-----   Ellen Hayes   o===[--------      __      vicki .sig  +
                  -=[1990]=-                       \/      virus 12.2
+      http://www.barkingduck.net/ehayes     PGP key: EFC9 5D55 (1996) +



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