Part Two
Disclaimer: See Part One
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By the time Shane stepped off the bus, she was even more depressed and angry than when she had left Canada. The drugs hadn't helped any. 'F**k it.' She grabbed the bullet she still held and flung it into an alley near the bus station. Shane shook her head. 'I don't know why I even care.' She stuffed her hands in her pockets and kept walking. There were times when she traveled on autopilot, not knowing or caring where she ended up and after a couple of hours Shane looked up and peered through her hair. She chuckled bitterly when she saw the abandoned building. "Figures." She shuffled her feet and then walked towards the barrel of fire that everyone was standing around. The group of ragged and worn turned to look at the intruder. Shane gave a sideways smile and nodded, "Hey."
A tall man, who looked like the so-called leader of the group, nodded back. "Long time no see."
Shane set her backpack down. "Yeah."
The man's expression hadn't changed. "Hard to stay away, eh?"
Shane shrugged. "Tom… I"
Tom held up his hand. "Don't worry 'bout it."
The rest of the group nodded in response and Shane looked to her feet again. Everyone disbursed to give Shane some privacy. She bent down and grabbed her backpack. Pulling her wallet out of her bag, she closed her eyes. "I'm done being someone I'm not." She opened her wallet, then her eyes, and looked at the two pictures inside. The first picture was of Carmen and her lying on the couch at Jenny's. She didn't remember when the picture had been taken, but she did remember having Jenny give her a copy. Carmen's smile was so big and beautiful. It was one of their more blissful moments. The second picture was of the whole gang. She remembered that Chase had taken it at the opening of Wax. At the time, she had felt that she finally made it and she was so happy to have her family take part. Now she knew that she had just been lying to herself. She didn't deserve any of it.
Taking the money and leaving the pictures, Shane blinked the tears from her eyes. She sighed and threw the wallet into the fire. She watched the pictures burn, watched her family fade away. When the last of the pictures had turned to ash, Shane grabbed her backpack again and pulled out her cell phone, clothes, and cigarettes. She placed them on the ground, steeled her resolve, and dumped the rest of the contents of her bag into the fire. She kneeled on the ground and stuffed her clothes and cigarettes back inside her bag. Gripping her cell phone tight, Shane stood. She took a deep breath as she stared at her burning belongings and then pursed her lips. As each moment passed, she grew even angrier. She was angry at herself, at Gabriel, and at every person that had ever given her a chance. Shaking her head and gripping the cell phone even tighter, Shane stomped her foot and then pitched the phone into the fire.
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Mercedes knocked on her youngest daughter's door. "Carmen, mija... why don't you come down for lunch?"
Carmen grunted and shoved her head under her pillow. "I'll be down for dinner, Mama!"
Carmen had been cooped up in her room for the last week, refusing to be in contact with anyone. Mercedes was pleased to finally get her daughter to relent to at least one meal, so she let her be for now.
Carmen, on the other hand, was still fighting the internal battle that had begun in the middle of the night. She awoke at three in the morning and hadn't been able to sleep since. Carmen was struggling between the part of her that missed, loved, and needed Shane, and the part of her that wanted to move on with her life because she knew that it was over. Carmen knew that Shane didn't want to hurt her and that's why she didn't show up. As much as she didn't want to believe that it was over, she had known that night. Shane was too scared and too stubborn.
Carmen was startled out of her thoughts by her cell phone beeping. She grabbed it off her night stand. It was a text message from Bette letting her know that she was thinking of her. Carmen sighed. All of her friends were being so supportive. She had always thought if things were to go south with Shane, that she would lose the friends she had come to call family. Thankfully, that didn't turn out to be the case.
"That's it!" Carmen hopped out of bed and stood in front of her mirror. "No more of this feeling sorry for yourself. S**t, Carmen. You've got an amazing family and group of friends. You're going to get through this. Just focus on them and work and you'll be fine."
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Shane had stayed with Tom and the rest of his crew in the abandoned building for the past week. She spent those days sitting against a wall with her arms around her legs smoking. Tom would check in on her once a day, but she hadn't moved. She had retreated so far inside herself that she refused to acknowledge a soul.
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Carmen walked into The Planet and straight to Kit's office. She would start working again tonight and hopefully, she would be too tired when she got home to think of Shane.
Kit looked up from her desk. "Hey, baby girl!" She got up and gave Carmen a hug.
Carmen smiled. "I'm ready to start working again."
"Are you sure? Well of course you're sure. You wouldn't be here if you weren't. That's excellent news, girl!" Kit went back to her desk and picked up a book, "Let's take a look at the schedule."
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The gang was at their usual table hanging out. Bette and Tina were fussing over Angelica, Jenny was writing in her notebook, Helena was looking at classifieds, and Alice was reading a magazine. From an outsider's point of view, it would look like old times, but things aren't always as they seem.
Alice looked up from her magazine. "Okay, she's not coming over here. It looks like she's going into Kit's office."
Tina bounced Angelica on her knee. "I'm glad to see that she's out of her house."
Jenny stopped writing. "Yeah that is a good sign." She placed her hand to her lips, "Do you think she's heard from Shane?"
Alice shook her head. "Probably not."
Bette sighed. "Speaking of Shane, what are we going to do? She's been, well for the lack of a better word, missing for the past eight days."
Alice slammed her fist on the table. "This is ridiculous! She's got to come back home! Why hasn't she called? She knows that we're here for her."
Bette kissed Angelica on the forehead. "I'm afraid that may be what she is questioning."
Alice sighed. "Well, that's stupid. She should know that we are her family and will always be here for her."
Tina looked up from attending to Angelica. "You know Shane's got abandonment issues. Leave them before they leave you. As much as we are a family, it's very hard to get that way of thinking out of your system."
Alice shook her head, "I know, I know. Bette's right. We need to do something. This has gone on far too long. She's coming back, whether or not I have to drag her here myself."
Helena took a sip of her coffee. "We can start calling all of the hospitals and police stations between here and Canada."
Jenny covered her eyes with her hands, "That could take forever. She could be anywhere."
"Helena's right. We need to start somewhere. Tina and I will start with the police stations. Alice and Lara can start with the hospitals. Helena, you can start by trying to find Carla and seeing if she's seen Shane. Jenny, you can start by calling all of Shane's friends." Bette pinched the bridge of her nose. "I know Shane can take care of herself, but I'm really worried about her. She has never cut us off like this before."
Alice looked up from her coffee and slightly panicked as she saw Carmen walking toward their table, "Oh my God, Carmen!" She got up from her chair and engulfed Carmen in a long embrace. "It's so good to see you."
Carmen hugged her friend back. "It's good to see you too." She opened her arms to the rest of the gang as they rushed to her as well. "It's good to see all of you."
Jenny was the last to hug her. "So, how have you been? Wait, that's a stupid question." She waved the question off as she let go of Carmen.
"I'm doing okay." Everyone raised their eyebrows in disbelief. "Really." Everyone sat back down, but Carmen remained standing. "So, I'll be the DJ tonight."
Bette looked into Carmen's eyes and saw that some of her spark was gone. She could tell that she was only pretending to be okay. "That's great, Carmen." She replied.
"Thanks." Carmen sat down. "I'm looking forward to getting things back to normal." She looked down at her hands. "Well, you know what I mean."
The gang exchanged looks with each other. "Yeah."
Carmen looked back up and tried to be upbeat. "So, how are things? What have I missed?"
Alice cleared her throat. "Um, nothing really. Just the same ol'. Bette and Tina are going to be friends again. Me and Lara are together. Jenny broke up with Max." Alice looked pleadingly around the table for help. "Um, Helena is crashing with Jenny until she can find a place." At Carmen's confused look, Alice continued. "Peggy cut her off."
Carmen nodded.
"Other than that, nothing really exciting has been going on." Alice finished.
Carmen fidgeted with her bracelet. "So, how's Shane?"
Everyone at the table looked to Bette and she responded, "Actually, we haven't heard from her yet."
Carmen looked down at the table, saddened by the answer she received. 'I guess that's it then.' She snapped her head back up, "Wait a minute... none of you have heard from her?" The gang shook their heads. "That's not like her. She could be..."
Bette pulled Carmen into another embrace, "It'll be okay, Carmen. She takes off every once in a while. There's nothing to worry about." Everyone, including Bette, cringed at her last remark.
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"So, she's in here?"
"Yeah bud, when do I get my money?"
"As soon as we get her to the car."
Tom pointed to the far corner and Clive smiled as he pulled out a syringe from the bag he carried.
Shane's eyes burst open as the needle made contact with her skin. "Huh?" She looked at Clive with blurry vision and then passed out.
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"Well, I need to get going if I'm going to get my errands run before my mother's dinner," Carmen spoke as she got up from her chair. "It was really great seeing you guys."
"It was great to see you too!" The gang exclaimed overenthusiastically.
Carmen furrowed her brow slightly. "Um, okay, well I'll see you tonight?"
"Of course," Bette replied.
Once Carmen was out the door, Alice slammed her head on the table. "That was close."
Kit dropped a phone book on the table. "This one is for this area. Angus just picked up the other ones. He should be pulling up now."
Alice grabbed the book and ripped out her section of the phone book. "Well, I'm off. I'll catch Angus on my way out. See you guys tonight. And good luck."
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Shane awoke to the sounds of dripping. Her arms were bound at the top of her head and she couldn't move her legs either. She opened her eyes and tried to focus on her surroundings. She blinked quickly as she looked around the room to find that she was in a basement hanging from the ceiling. She saw Clive sitting about three feet from her. He was holding a bloody rock in his hands. Shane looked down at her feet and realized that the sound that had awakened her was coming from blood. But Shane was confused, where was she bleeding? And why was her mouth so dry? The last thing she remembered was… "What the hell?"
Clive stood and bounced the rock in his hand, "Sorry bout that, but Harry wanted you awake."
Shane furrowed her brows and winced. 'Okay, that's where the blood is coming from.' "What the hell is going on, Clive?"
Clive shrugged. "You should have married her, Shane."
'What does this have to do with Carmen?' Shane started to squirm against the pain. "You better not go near her!"
The door opened and Harry walked down the stairs. "Hush now, Shane. We're not going to touch a hair on her pretty Latin head. This has everything to do with you and your escapades."
"Huh? Who's we?"
Harry nodded to a man that was standing in the shadows. He towered over the back of Shane and kidney punched her. She wheezed a couple times. Harry stood in front of her and took off his jacket. "That's better… You know, my associates and I were happy to hear that you were in a committed relationship and headed to the altar. Finally, someone had gotten the elusive McCutcheon to settle down. We would stop having to deal with your messes." Harry spread his arms wide and took a deep breath. "The community was at peace again."
"What the f**k are you talking about?"
The man in the shadows picked up a sledge hammer and rolled his neck around until Shane could hear it pop. Shane's eyes grew wide and she tried to squirm as she saw him step in front of her and wind up for the pitch. Shane couldn't focus once the hammer hit her square in the chest. She tried to scream, but all that came out was a hacking sort of cough.
Harry shook his head. "Do you remember a crazy blonde chick that you f**ked a couple years ago?" Before Shane could answer, Harry continued. "Oh that's right, there were so many of them, how could you remember? This one stalked you… ring any bells?"
Shane's eyes registered acknowledgement. "Lacey?"
Harry nodded. "We were able to get her to calm down after that. She was actually doing really well until you ran away from your wedding. You know, she was pretty wrapped up into you and she didn't want anyone else to get hurt like she did. She was actually happy that you had found the one person that you wanted to torment for the rest of your life. You know, I hate getting involved in dyke drama, but Lacey was the daughter of one of my associates and I owe him a favor." Harry cracked his knuckles and then patted Shane's cheek. "We can't have you screwing up our harmony anymore. Please, for the sake of all of us, learn your f**kin' lesson this time." Harry turned and walked back up the stairs. "Or else." He nodded to Clive and then shut the door.
