Freddie

He wakes with a start, the disturbing dreams fleeing from conscious thought. Looking over at the clock, he sighs and says to himself, "2:17..." He gets up from his bed and walks over to his bathroom. Splashing cold water on his face wakes him up fully. He sits in front of his laptop for over an hour, contemplating the information that he finds.

The quiet apartment is then disturbed with several soft clicks, and a creak as a door opens. The stench of cigarette smoke and alcohol wafts throughout the apartment, and he hears soft footsteps finally stop outside his door. He swivels in his computer chair, and stares contemplatively at his door. Moments seem to stretch into eternity, and he comes to a decision. "It's unlocked, Sam..."

The door swings open, revealing the blonde demon. His eyes take her in, the oh so carefully ripped nylons, the short denim skirt, the layered shirts, and her black Converses. "Hi," she says. "How'd you know I was here, nub?"

He smiles at her pet name for him. "I heard the door unlock, and then I smelled the cigarette smoke. I'm pretty sure my mom doesn't smoke, and I knew Sam's Special Ham were playing tonight. So it had to be you."

"Oh," she exclaims. "So you've been stalking me, Fredweird?" She walks over to where he was sitting and glares down at him. He shakes his head and gets up from his seat, and motions for her to take it. Smiling, he takes a seat on his bed and watches as she sits in the seat he so recently vacated.

"Maybe," he replies with a grin. "Just trying to catch up with all my old friends. I'm glad that your band is doing well. I've missed a lot it seems."

"Yeah, you have," she scowls back. "Where the hell have you been, jackass? You up and leave without telling anybody, and then stay out of touch until just a few weeks ago. You hurt a lot of your friends when you left like that. Carly and …. " She frowns as she seems to be fighting an internal battle. " … Spencer especially. Carly was so distraught after you left. And that pissed me off." She glares daggers at him.

He sighs sadly and shakes his head. "I'm truly sorry. I will be apologizing to everybody soon." He sighs again and looks into her soft blue, blue eyes. "But I'm sorry Sam. I didn't mean to hurt anybody, especially you and Carly. I was so confused and I didn't know what to do. I just had to leave, before... before..." He looks down at his feet. "Before I did something I might regret..."

He looks back up and she's suddenly standing in front of him. Her fingers softly comb through his brown hair. "Are we good?" he whispers as he looks up into her stormy eyes, and has to close his eyes as he sees the hurt behind them.

"No, not yet," she answers softly, and just like that, she was gone from his room.

Freddie tries to go back to sleep, but he tosses and turns. Sighing heavily, he tries to envision some of the meditation techniques that his teachers had taught him, but his mind does not succumb to any of them. Well, hell, he thinks to himself. Might as well do something productive. Slipping on his running shoes and a long sleeve t-shirt, he decides to go for a really early morning run around the park. Soon, his mind slips into a nothing state, the sounds of his footfalls and breaths driving out any form of conscious thought.

His senses take in his surroundings. The sounds of the Seattle morning are music to his ears after so long away. The cool, crisp morning air feels good. The scent of dew-covered, fresh cut grass waft up all around him. His eyes focus on nothing in particularly, his body automatically following the run path. Run. Breathe. Run. Breathe. Run. Breathe. After the first mile, he totally loses himself in the run.

Which makes it particularly jarring when a fist comes out of nowhere and hits him square in the jaw.

He stumbles away from the blow a bit and then all his training comes back. It's instinctive for him roll, and with the grace of a cat, he's back on one knee, eyes and ears alert for an assailant. The crunch of a footstep treading on gravel gives away the assailant's location, and Freddie tucks and rolls quickly away. He smiles fiercely as he spots a tall lanky form. A mop of unruly dirty blonde hair graces a face made to break the hearts of young girls. "Hello Jake, long time no see..." Freddie ducks underneath a slow roundhouse kick and steps towards Jake, negating Jake's reach advantage. He sends two quick jabs and a knee into Jake's abdomen, then gracefully dances away from his opponent.

"Fredward," Jake grunts as he stands up straight. "Why don't you just scurry back to whatever rock you've crawled out from and leave Carly alone?" and with that, he strikes out with right jab. Freddie weaves to the side, but catches a powerful kick to his hip. Freddie stumbles back, but Jake is right there, following up the kick with jab after jab. Only half of the punches manage to land solidly, but it's still enough to keep Freddie off balance. Freddie feints to the left, then suddenly rolls to the right. "Can't run away forever Fredward..." Jake says mockingly. "Or can you?"

Freddie winces as he wipes away a trail of blood from his lips. It's not the physical jabs that hurt, it's that last painful verbal spar. He offers up heartfelt prayers of forgiveness to his laoshi (Mandarin Chinese for old teacher), and steels himself for what he must do. He lightly moves in towards Jake, keeping his center of balance over the balls of his feet. Jake grins as he sees this and beckons Freddie towards him with a wave of his hand. A flurry of punches and kicks are launched by Jake, but Freddie manages to block a majority of them. Freddie is finally in close to Jake, and does the unexpected. He is ready when Jake tries a knee to the abdomen. Freddie catches the knee, then looks straight into Jake's face. He sees the pain in Jake's face when he brings the heel of his foot directly onto the top of Jake's foot. He hears the sickening crunch as he breaks several of the bones located there. Freddie drops Jake's other leg as he watches Jake fall to the ground, unable to support his total weight on his broken foot. He then kneels over Jake's prone form, and sends a quick right punch into Jake's face, knocking Jake unconscious. Freddie whispers quietly to Jake, "any other time, I wouldn't have done that, but," he sighs to himself, "needs must..."

A light laughter breaks the morning silence. Freddie looks around the park and finds the source of the melodic laughter. Carly is standing there in an impeccable red jogging suit that closely hugs her curves. She smiles a brilliant smile at me while the radiant morning light seem to stream from the sky and envelop her in it's warm embrace. "Perfect, my dear Freddie, perfect. I knew my other best friend wouldn't let me down... Lunch tomorrow Freddie. I'll have a car pick you up in front of Bushwell's tomorrow at noon. Ta ta for now." One of her bodyguards opens up the closest limo door and she waves good-bye as she gracefully leaves into the limo. He watches quietly as the limo drives off down the street, unsure of himself and the reason why he's even back in Seattle.

"I'd leave if I were you," a voice whispers from behind him. "The EMTs and cops should be here in a couple of minutes..." He turns and catches a glimpse of long, golden hair retreating away from him.

And he remembers.

He stands smiling and watches the blonde figure disappear into the park, before the sounds of sirens so rudely interrupt his thoughts. He exclaims quietly to himself, "oh boy..."