After Phoebe left, Lacey spent some time pondering over their conversation. Things had just gotten even weirder with Regina and her secret life. Apparently, Regina had been spending time with a woman whose car had Connecticut license plates, a woman who scratched Regina's arm hard enough to draw a stream of blood. And Regina was so desperate to hide this from her friends she made up a fake story about a fight with Phoebe to cover it up. It made Lacey feel terrible for the way they had all excised Phoebe from their group for daring to attack Regina. Poor Phoebe had always been on the fringes to begin with, and the fight story hadn't even been true.

Speaking of truth, Lacey was worried about Danny. He had left her probably believing she genuinely hated him. Lacey hadn't liked yelling those last two lines at him. "I wish you had never come back here. I wish I had never known you." But she had noted that Sarita, Jana and Phoebe didn't look too impressed with her speech up to that point. She knew she had to go further in order to convince them or the entire scheme would have been for naught.

Once she tricked Archie into spilling the beans on his plan to poison Cole, she had been an emotional wreck. Danny had helped her get her friends back but she had had to pretend to hate him at JohhnyCakes, even though it turned out that Danny had been telling the truth about being framed. And there she was sitting amongst the in-crowd again, slowly being re-integrated into the fold, and all she could think about was going to the school board, or to Chief Masterson, or just yelling into the crowd, that Archie and Scott had set Danny up. She felt like a fraud sharing Archie's onion rings and half listening to the inane chatter of the clique. Once Cole came back and accused Archie, she saw her opportunity and revealed the truth. She knew there might not be any more chances from the group after they had forgiven her one time already but she refused to not stand up for what was right once she had direct proof. Phoebe had thawed right away, so maybe Sarita would come around eventually too.

Lacey looked down at her phone but there was still no response to her text. She had written "Danny, please call me. We need to talk." She needed to tell him that she and Cole both knew he was innocent of the poisoning incident. She pulled on a black tank top and stripey pink pajama bottoms and climbed into bed. She'd talk to him in the morning she thought sleepily, and drifted off despite her mind whirling from the chaos of the last couple of hours.

At some point in the night, Lacy woke up to a hand covering her mouth and a body half on top of her's. Terrified, she tried to scream and move away but the arms holding her down were too strong. She heard a voice in her ear "Lacey its me; please don't scream". It was Danny. Lacey stared up at him wild-eyed as she made out his familiar features in the moonlit room. She saw her window was open, so he must have entered that way without her waking up. She nodded her head. Once he let go of her, she whispered fiercely "What the hell are you doing here like this?"

"Well" Danny said with a mild attempt at a grin "You texted me. And I wanted to make sure it wasn't a trap."

Lacey was perplexed. "What do you mean a trap? What would be a trap?"

"The police are searching for me, so I thought who knows they might have asked you to text me to get me to come here. But I didn't see anything suspicious around your house, so..." Danny broke off as he noticed Lacey was looking at him in puzzlement and slight alarm.

"The police are looking for you?" she squealed, sitting up and pushing her hair back from her face. "But why?"

Danny shook his head. "I can't tell you. You won't believe me and I'm sorry Lacey but I just can't take any more grief tonight. I just wanted to find out what your text was about because I didn't think you ever wanted to see me again after what you said at the diner. And I wanted to say goodbye."

Lacey noticed his face had a desperate cast to it, his eyes were filled with fear, and his body was shaking slightly. She had never seen him like this before. "Danny, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean what I said." She placed her hand in his, and closed her fist around his fingers as she apologized for going off-script to sell their argument more completely to Serita and Phoebe. She proceeded to tell him how she had gotten the truth out of Archie and how she and Cole had let the entire group know who was really responsible for the poisoning incident. Danny's body started to relax somewhat and he breathed out a sigh. Lacey kept going, explaining how Phoebe had told her a Regina story involving a car with Connecticut license plates, which pointed to Danny not being the guilty party. "So I know now you were telling the truth. And I also know that there are people in this town who might be trying to set you up in more ways than one."

Danny held Lacey's hand tighter and gazed deeply into her eyes. "Thank you for standing up for me Lacey. I... you didn't have to do that. I really just wanted you to have your friends back."

"I know..." Lacey breathed. "And... I'm sorry I didn't believe you before." As she looked back at him, she was drawn into Danny's gaze. He glanced at her full lips as he leaned in towards her.

Lacey was hypnotized as she looked into Danny's beautiful eyes, magnetized by his soft, sensual lips. Her own lips parted slightly as she moved towards him. But then she shook her head, snapping herself out of it. "Danny, I... we ... can't do this. We have to be over. Jo..." She let go of his hand. Danny nodded his head, and looked away; he knew exactly what she meant.

"Now can you tell me why the police are looking for you?" asked Lacey, her mind reeling.

Danny gazed up at her again, and took a deep breath. "Lacey, they found a pipe in the lake and said it was the weapon that killed Regina." He paused for a moment to see if Lacey was ok with him continuing. Lacey nodded yes, her hands clenched into fists, afraid of where this was going. "They claim my fingerprints are on it along with Regina's blood."

Lacey gasped "Oh my god."

Danny stood up immediately. "Lacey, I have no idea how my fingerprints got on that pipe. I swear I didn't kill Regina." Lacey was looking at him without blinking. She looked confused and scared. "I need you to believe me" Danny continued. Lacey still didn't respond, so Danny started backing away, towards the open window. If Lacey didn't believe him he needed to get out of there.

Lacey reached out her arm and grabbed the tail of his shirt to prevent him from going any further. "Danny, stop" she said, swallowing hard. "Thanks for telling me the truth." Danny stood still, his shoulders tense. "Based on everything else that's happened, I think its very possible that someone is trying to frame you. " Danny practically collapsed with relief, as he lowered himself back down on the bed. If Lacey was on his side, he could face anything.