(These parts were written by Sharon, Daphne and angelsinstead!)

For the purposes of this story, Destiny is not pregnant. Her and Matthew have not slept together but have just started dating. Nora is about eight months pregnant.

How did one rationalize with a man who was not rational? How did you stand before a crazed killer who had a gun pointed at you and tell him to shoot…especially when you were eight months pregnant? When your child was only inches from the gun and you had no time to think…Literally no time.

She had been banking on the fact that the man who was trying to kill them wouldn't actually shoot…because at one point he loved her… Or at least that's what she told herself. She told herself that when he stood before God and made promises to her, it wasn't all for show…she had to believe there was a shred of common decency in him or she and Matthew and her unborn child would all die in the same bloody way his other victims had. She would never see Bo's face again. Please God let this work.

She closed her eyes and pictured him calling to her… pictured the softness of his lips on hers and the sweetness of his smile…pictured the warm comfort of his arms and the deep blue pools of his eyes…eyes that she could get lost in forever…and then she opened them, a renewed sense of hope, and stepped in front of the man she had now become terrified of…The man who was in every way imaginable, the polar opposite of her husband.

"Go Ahead Daniel. If this is what it's going to take for my family to be safe…If you must shoot me …Do it…Just please…Please don't hurt my babies…Let Matthew go…wait till my child is born…don't make my children suffer for my mistakes..."

She would have knelt before him and begged but at eight months pregnant she was barely able to move at all…her back ached, her feet felt like they were going to buckle at any second…her child must have been doing back-flips in her belly because she could feel her kicking her and kicking hard…she was going to have a soccer player for a daughter, she could just feel it…and she had to choke back tears as she bit down on her bottom lip to keep the nausea from being a top focus. She needed to stay alert now. She needed to stay focused just long enough to find a way out of here.

Matthew hid behind the boxes that she had practically shoved him into when she pushed him out of the way. He knew better then to argue with his mother when she had a plan but this one had the possibility of ending badly… for all of them. He hated how Daniel had hurt his mom so bad in the past…so bad that he had almost lost her to a coma and now he had kidnapped both of them… he had held them at gunpoint and very nearly slaughtered them right where they stood…except his mom had somehow managed to make him angry enough to miss…angry enough to get him out of harms way…and now both their lives were in grave danger… Was he supposed to protect her now? Dear God please let his father get here soon. He didn't know what he was supposed to do.

He wished he had been smart enough to catch something sooner… back when it had just been harmless harassment…unwanted flowers, breathing on the phone, the feeling of being watched, photographs they couldn't explain…when he thought back now they had been given warnings they never saw…been stalked in every corner of their life…and if they hadn't been oblivious to what was now crystal clear, maybe they could have changed what happened next…what happened almost 48 hours ago.

XoXoXo

48 Hours Earlier ...

"Sorry the movie was sold out," Matthew said as he stopped the car in front of his house.

Destiny smiled. "You already said sorry way too many times. It's not your fault. I guess 'Alien Slashers From Mars' was just more popular than we thought."

Matthew nodded and smiled at his girlfriend as he reached behind his seat and pulled out a bag full of movies they had rented from Blockbuster. "At least we've got these."

"Are you sure Mrs. B won't mind me coming over unannounced like this?"

"Mind? No way. She loves you." So do I, Matthew thought and he was grateful for the darkness in the car that concealed the little flush on his face. He wanted to tell Des how he really felt about her but they had only been dating a short time. He didn't want to scare her off with the intensity of his feelings.

"Come on, let's go in," Matthew said instead. He climbed out of the car and Destiny followed suit. In no time they were standing on the lit front porch. Matthew cleared his throat and thought very sincerely of sneaking another kiss with Destiny before his mother saw but just then he heard a loud thumping noise came from inside the house. "What the –"

He quickly shoved his keys into the lock and walked inside. The first thing he saw was that the room was in tatters like there had been a big struggle. His eyes then moved across the room where he saw his mother lying at the bottom of the staircase, unmoving and unnaturally still. Even unconscious she was clutching her exploding belly protectively. He hoped to god she was alive …

"Ohmigod, Mom!" Matthew cried and started over to his mom. "Des, call my dad!" He dropped to his knees on the floor, reaching for Nora's hand and feeling for a pulse on her wrist the way he had learned in third period, health class. It felt very weak to him and she looked so pale...

Destiny had just started dialing when a decidedly unfamiliar masculine voice spoke up. Destiny looked up as a man with the coldest eyes she had ever seen came down the staircase. He was aiming a gun at her. "That won't be necessary," the man said.

"Daniel?" Matthew screamed out. "You did this to my mom!" He gently nudged Nora's body behind him as Daniel came the rest of the way down the stair case. He went to lunge at Daniel but the man just trained his gun on him, centering it right between Matthew's eyes.

"I wouldn't try anything if I were you," Daniel said in an eerily calm voice. "I have the gun and you don't have the guts to take me on."

Matthew thought, the hell I don't! But he didn't make a move because he knew Daniel was insane enough to shoot to kill. He was a serial killer already though Matthew would have never guessed even he could be this evil. "What did you do to my mom?" Matthew demanded.

Daniel moved across the room, towards Destiny. More fear stirred in Matthew's heart. "You know your Mom. Always such a firecracker. She didn't want to come easily with me so I had to take matters into my own hands."

"What did you do?" Matthew demanded again. "Did you push her?" Maybe if he kept talking, he could distract Daniel. Then maybe Destiny could get away and alert his father.

"Let's just say she took a tumble … Hey, don't look at me like that. It's not my fault she was fighting so much…"

Matthew shook his head. "She's pregnant!"

"So I noticed. It seems she got the man she really wanted all along – Bo. She never loved me at all," Daniel shook his head. "Sad, sad."

Matthew could take this no longer and started to spring forward and attack Daniel but before he could, Daniel had grabbed Destiny by her hair and wrenched her up against his chest, the gun in his hand, pressed against her right temple.

Matthew stopped in his tracks. "Daniel, don't. Please," Matthew asked. "She's not a part of any of this." He watched tears build in Destiny's beautiful coal eyes.

"No, you are right about that, Matthew. She is just an innocent bystander in our little game. But she's seen too much and now she's collateral damage. The question is, what shall I do with her?"

"Please don't hurt Destiny," Matthew pleaded as he watched the crazy man holding his girlfriend in a tight grip by her long ebony hair. Destiny trembled as she felt the cold barrel of the gun pressed tightly against her temple.

"You can beg for her all you want, but I am not going to stop. If I let her go, she's going to run straight to the cops. She's involved in this now," Daniel uttered. "Because of you, she's going to suffer."

"Don't shoot her. Please don't."

"Ohhh I am not gonna shoot her. I am going to take her upstairs, tie her up, and throw her in the closet. That way she can't talk," stated Daniel.

"Move!" he yelled as he forced Destiny over toward the stairs. Destiny had to step over Nora as Daniel pushed her up the staircase.

Before they were out of sight, Daniel turned to look over toward Matthew with an evil gleam in his eyes. "Don't even think of running for help or calling the police, because if you try anything, you're little girlfriend here dies! And believe me, I can make sure she dies a slow, gruesome death."

Matthew could hear the sound of the madman's laugher as he disappeared out of sight with Destiny. Looking at his mother, Matthew felt powerless to do anything. If he got on the phone or tried to run outside for help, Daniel would hurt or possibly kill Destiny. Then he might possibly come downstairs and open fire on Matthew and his injured mother. "Mom," Matthew said in a voice saturated with pain as he ran to his mother's side. He pressed a tender kiss to her forehead, willing both her and the baby to be alright. His mom and dad had wanted another baby so very much, and he couldn't fathom the torment they'd go through if anything should happen to his unborn baby sister.

"Matthew," Nora moaned as she began to regain consciousness.

Nora gazed up at Matthew's face as she struggled to focus on her son. Her body hurt from the fall she had sustained, and she was disoriented from having hit her head. "Mom, are you alright?" Matthew asked with tears in his eyes.

"What happened?" Nora asked as she tried to remember.

XoXoXo

Meanwhile, at the Llanview Police Department, Commissioner Bo Buchanan had just received a disturbing phone call. According to his informant, there had been a prison break at Statesville and Daniel Colson was on the loose. He was considered armed and dangerous and thought to be headed towards Llanview. "John, I need all available men on this case. This guy is a psycho serial killer and who knows what he might do if he makes it here to Llanview. We have to stop him before he hurts anyone else," Bo informed John.

"I'm right on it," John stated as he started leaving Bo's office.

After John walked out, Bo got on the phone and tried calling Nora. The phone rang and rang, but no one answered. *That's strange,* Bo thought to himself when Nora didn't pick up the phone. *Why isn't she answering?*

TBC