Hey guys! This is my two-shot called Reactions and I hope you guys like it because this is my first crack at doing a two-shot. I also want to ask you to be very gentle in any criticism you may or may not give me for this - this piece is something very close to my heart, as I have been bullied and I have been called the name that Keri gets called. Anyway, I hope you guys like this. It's the first time I've done anything that's personal to me and I just hope I haven't failed epically. And I will post the second part to this, only if you guys want it. So let me know in your reviews if I should post part two!
Keri pressed her thumb against the biometric panel, fighting to keep her tears at bay as she heard a small beep that told her it had accepted her thumbprint. Blinking back tears, Keri slid the switch across and opened the door, slipping inside the caretaker's cupboard. She pulled on the broom handle that sent her heart up her throat, making her choke on her tears.
Keri was already sobbing when she stumbled out of the lift and into HQ. She didn't even bother with a chair, she just sank to the floor with her back against one of the pillars supporting the ceiling. Keri wrapped her arms around herself and buried her face in her arms as her body shook with the force of her grief.
Keri's sobs only ceased when she heard the unmistakable whoosh! of someone coming down the lift. She pressed herself back into the pillar, making herself seem as small as possible so that she'd see whoever it was before they saw her. But when they stepped out, Keri's efforts were almost in vain when she barely contained groan. There was at least five other people that had access to this lift. Why did it have to be him? Really, she would have preferred Mrs King over him. Why did he have to be the one to come and find her?
"Keri?" Dan asked, stepping out of the lift. "Keri, are you in here?"
Keri made the mistake of answering him. "Go away."
Dan's eyes followed the sound of her voice until he spotted her huddled against the pillar, her blue eyes clouded with tears and sadness, her mascara smudged around her eyes, making her look like a racoon.
"Keri?" Dan asked gently, moving towards her.
"I'm fine." Keri said as he towered over her, looking like the giant he very well may have been in another life. Dan simply sighed and knelt down, wincing as he heard his knees crack, but he was now eye level with her and it unnerved her.
"I know you're not okay, Ker." Dan said gently.
"How?" Keri asked. "How can you possibly know whether I'm okay or not? Can you, like, read minds or something?"
Dan shook his head, his expression now turning wistful. It was the same expression he always wore whenever he thought of Zoe and Keri instantly regretting saying something that brought up her sister as Dan said quietly, "No, I can't. But I was always really good at reading Zoe's emotions. The two of you aren't that different."
Keri got up, brushing tears from her eyes as she moved to lean on the table in the centre of the room. Dan watched her for a moment before he sighed and got up, moving to stand on the other side of the table. Keri avoided his intense blue gaze until he asked, "What's going on, Keri?"
"Nothing." Keri said, meeting his gaze with a defiant one of her own. "I'm just making a big deal over nothing."
"I don't believe you." Dan said.
"And why is that?"
"One, you've been coming down here at least twice a week so that no one will ever see you cry and two . . . When someone's making a big deal over nothing, they never admit it." Dan said. "And I know you're coming down here to cry because this is where Zoe used to come when she was upset."
"What did she get upset about?" Keri asked. "I mean, she had you."
Dan smiled. "Apparently I wasn't enough."
Keri sighed. "It's Preston. He just won't leave me alone."
Dan's brow creased. "What's he doing?" Instinctively, he reached for Keri's arm, thinking that maybe Preston had landed a hit on her. Keri shook her head, pushing auburn hair out of her eyes. "He hasn't tried to hit me. He just . . . He keeps calling me names."
Part of Dan wanted to laugh because this was Preston they were talking about. But the rest of him knew that this was serious. Keri may be come across as a total airhead, but she was a lot smarter than she acted. He knew she was being completely serious, so instead of grinning and going, "Seriously?" he looked at her sadly and asked, "What did he say?"
She did try to say it, but every time the word got past her lips, it was lost in her heavy breathing as she tried desperately to stop herself from breaking down in front of him. Finally, it occurred to Dan that if she couldn't say it, he was never going to know what Preston had called her, so he fished his phone out of his pocket and clicked on 'notes' before handing it to her. Keri wiped her tears and took the phone, typing quickly before handing it back to him.
Although she'd only typed it one word, it took Dan a moment to process what it actually said. When it sunk in, Dan locked him phone and dropped it onto the table, storming over to the lift. Keri scrambled after him and grabbed his arm, pulling him around to face her. She immediately saw the anger in his blue eyes, the tense way he held himself.
"Dan," Keri said, "it's not that big of a deal. Just let it go. I'm fine."
"It is not fine." Dan hissed. "Keri, he called you a slut and –"
"It's over." Keri finished, crossing her arms over her chest. "Don't worry about it."
Dan's expression softened and he said, "Keri, you're Zoe's sister. I'm supposed to –"
"No, you're not supposed to protect me, or look after me, or whatever you were about to say. You're a spy, Dan. Your job is to protect the country. Not me. If you did what you were supposed to do, you would have gone with Zoe."
Keri regretted her words almost as soon as she'd said them – whatever understanding Dan had allowed her to have was suddenly gone, closing off his emotions from her and possibly himself. Then, his voice so calm and level that it scared her, he said, "You don't know anything about her."
He started to walk off, but then Keri shouted after him, "Why? Why don't I know anything about my own sister? Why does everyone keep mentioning her, but no one will actually tell me anything?"
Dan whirled, his blue eyes so wild that Keri actually took a step back as he yelled, "You want to know about Zoe? Fine. She left to go find her sisters and specifically told me not to go after her. She told me she didn't want me with her. And do you know why? It's because of that stupid protocol that forbids agents from dating each other! That's why she left, that's why she doesn't want me around her!"
By the time he was done, Dan's breath was coming in quick gasps and his pain was written all over his face. Then quietly, he said, "That's why I need to protect you. If I can't be with her, then I can at least look after you."
Keri suddenly realised just heartbroken Zoe's departure had left him and just how hard he fought to keep that heartbreak in check, just how hard he fought to maintain that hard exterior, to make sure people didn't see that heartbreak.
Without even thinking about it, Keri stepped forward and hugged him. Dan hesitantly hugged her back as Keri said in his ear, "She'll come back to you, Dan. I know she will."
The next few days passed slowly, especially for Keri. They didn't have any missions, but Preston's abuse of her continued and she was offered no escape from it. After her heart-to-heart with Dan several days before, she was more determined than ever not to let it show that Preston was getting to her.
They all noticed the change in Dan after he found Keri crying in HQ. Keri had hoped that maybe he'd become more open, but telling her about Zoe had seemed to have the opposite effect – he'd become more withdrawn, too wound up in his own thoughts to worry about much else. He'd started to get irritated a lot easier – especially with Keri. He'd always had a short temper with her, but as of late it seemed like his temper was about two centimetres long.
About a week after Dan found Keri in HQ, Keri was being harassed yet again by Preston, except this time, he had Roly with him. Roly stood behind Keri and Preston stood in front of them, cruel amusement glittering in the eyes of both boys. As Keri tried to get them to leave her alone, Dan watched, every instinct in his body telling him to move, to shove Roly and Preston into the garden.
Finally, the sight of Keri being pushed backwards by Preston, a move which made her stumble and trip, spurred Dan into action. He marched across the yard and pulled on the back of Roly's jacket, pulling him away from her and dumping him on the pavement. Then Dan turned on Preston, his face a cold mask of barely contained fury. Gulping, Preston took a step back. He was nearly a whole head shorter than Dan was and he knew that Dan was so much stronger than he was – the taller blonde could probably throw him across a classroom if he wanted to.
And Preston could see it in Dan's eyes – he wanted to. He really wanted to.
Preston expected Dan to pick him up and throw him into the garden, but instead he said, his voice dangerously quiet, "What do you get out of it, Preston? What do you get out of making someone else feel smaller than you? Does it make you feel tough?"
When Preston didn't answer, Dan grabbed the front of his shirt, his blue eyes sparkling with anger. "If you ever go near her again, I will personally rip your vocal cords out and feed them to you. Understood?"
Preston nodded and Dan shoved the boy back, watching with an unamused expression as Preston stumbled and then fell over. In the crowd that had gathered around them, most started laughing. Dan, however, wasn't done. His eyes filled with fury once again, he turned on Roly and yanked him up by his shirt. "As for you, I would have expected better. You've been bullied before, you know exactly how it feels. I have no idea what would compel you to want to hurt her and I really don't want to know." He shoved Roly away from him. "Get out of my sight before I do something that gets me thrown in jail."
"Daniel Morgan!"
Dan whirled to face Mrs King, his blue eyes flashing with annoyance.
"Detention!" Mrs King yelled.
"What the hell for?" Dan yelled. "I was protecting my friends, because you won't do it!"
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"Well, for your information, Mrs King, Preston's been bullying Keri for weeks now and this school won't do anything about it!" Dan yelled. "And it's not like I hurt them."
"You threatened them." Mrs King said.
"And you still haven't addressed the fact that Preston and Roly were the ones doing the wrong thing." Dan said.
"I'll deal with them later." Mrs King promised. "But you still have detention."
Dan rolled his eyes and walked off, with only a quick glance at Keri, who was still huddled on the floors, her tears drying on her cheeks. Aneisha broke away from the crowd and walked over to her, helping her to her feet as Tom followed, pushing his phone into his pocket.
"Are you okay?" Aneisha asked her, her brown eyes concerned.
Keri nodded, her blue eyes focused on the point where Dan had disappeared. "He didn't even let me say thankyou."
"He won't want you to." Aneisha said quietly.
Keri, never one to let people tell her what to do, broke away from her friends and ran into the school after Dan, running down empty corridors until she skidded to a halt in front of the broom cupboard. She slid the light switch back and pressed her thumb to the biometric panel until it beeped and she slid the switch back into place. Making sure that no one was watching her, she walked inside and pulled on the level, sending the lift down and her heart up.
When the lift had stopped and Keri walked out, she saw Dan leaning against the table in the centre of the room, his phone in his hands. He looked up when he heard her footsteps, and then appeared to stifle a groan. "Are you here to tell me off too?"
Keri shook her head. "I just wanted to say thankyou."
Dan looked away and mumbled, "You're welcome, Keri."
"Why did you do it?" Keri asked.
Dan's attention snapped back to her. "What kind of question is that?"
Keri rolled her eyes. "I may act blonde, Dan, but I'm not stupid."
"Well, you must be, if you make a direct insult to blondes to a blonde." Dan retorted.
"Every time you rescue me, you get the same look you get when you're thinking about Zoe." Keri said. "You don't have to keep looking after me, just to prove some point to her, Dan."
"I'm not proving some point to her." Dan said hotly. "I'm just . . . I made myself a promise that I'd look after you, because . . . if I can't be with her, the least I can do is look after you, make sure you're okay."
"But you don't have to do that. I'm learning really fast." Keri said.
Dan shrugged. "It's my twisted, self-harming way of being with her, I suppose." Dan said, walking out. Keri stared after him, a plan forming underneath her thick auburn hair. Dan had restored her happiness, so now she owed him. She hated owing people, hating being in their debt. Even if it was the last thing she did, she was going to restore his happiness and pay back that debt.