Disclaimer: The characters belong to Guy Ritchie and the setting is an imitation of the one in "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". I might borrow an idea or two from "Snatch." And a little scene from fastfood junkie's "Lock, Stock and two Drowned Rats". Thanks for the inspiration.

This is getting to seem like a trip on the Fantasy Island for me.

Part Four

"How was Ireland?" asked Tom, picking up her luggage.

Addie gave him a haunted look. She hadn't slept in about a week. She shook her head and tried to focus.

"Fine. Except the weather. How are you?"

She was making car talk. Short, unimportant questions.

"Oh, we're fine"

"We?"

"I thought you asked about all of us"

"All in due time. How're businesses? Still clean?"

"Yeah. Sure. Why?"

"Just wondering. I heard stories about your past. They say you were a bunch of wise guys"

"Dead and buried. We're cool now"

"Are you meeting them soon?"

"They're supposed to come at JD's in an hour"

"Can you wait for me to shower and change? I can't wait to see you guys"

"OK"

Tom had some errands to run, but he couldn't refuse her. He started browsing through her magazines. All girl stuff. He was in the middle of a Cosmo quiz when she emerged from the bathroom. There was something different about her, but he couldn't put his finger on it. She looked… more mature. Or something.

"Are we going already?"

She had some cheek! As if he kept her waiting!

JD's was packed. The bar had become increasingly popular since the bunch had straightened their behaviour.

"Hi, guys!"

"Hei, doll! How was the holiday?"

"All work and no fun!" she kissed Bacon on the cheek and took her place by his side at the bar. "Can I have a Martini, Alan?"

The grumpy old man served her promptly. He was used to seeing them together. She thanked him, took a sip of the drink and looked in Ed's eyes:

"So you're up to your old dirty tricks again"

"Jesus, Tom, you couldn't keep your big mouth shut for half an hour?"

At Tom's panicked look, Ed guessed he had rushed in. Addie was smiling like a mischievous little devil.

"I didn't tell her anything"

"For someone who's supposed to live out of reading people, you've never read her right"

Bacon's remark sounded a bit indiscreet, but Ed remained oblivious to what was common knowledge for the others. Soap intervened:

"What do you mean all work? What'd you do?"

"Nothing much. Helped my parents around the house"

That had passed. She talked to him and her voice didn't crumble into a sigh.

*God, he's sexier than I remembered!*

She fought the need to stare at him. The girl had forgot how she used to behave around him… before.

"What's the shit you're in?"

"Don't think about it! It's not important"

"I bet" she sneered, but dropped the argument.

She was never one to tell them to act properly. After all, they were the ones who had changed her.

Soap's thoughts:

*She's not even looking at me. Maybe it all passed. Maybe she doesn't even remember*

Addie's thoughts:

*He doesn't remember. He couldn't be as cool as that if he was still disgusted by me. He was always cool. I'm going crazy, staying here, two steps from him, not… not… well, not touching him… I thought I was over that!*

~~~~~

Addie left the bar, alone. This was probably the last time she ever saw them like that. Her friends, no matter how much they cared about her, could be no part of this. What she did in Ireland… what she had to do here… they were better off out it.

~~~~~

Her loyalty to the cause had always been under suspicion. Kevin's death was the only thing connecting her to them. She belonged in that war, but she'd been to busy making a new life for her in London to stop and question her allegiance.

Where could she go for help?

*Bacon? Tom? No. I won't have them dragged back in the mud*

Night had fallen thick on the city. Her feet took her inadvertently back to JD's. It was 1 a.m. Saturday morning. The night the guys usually spent in a club that was in for the moment, "The Grotto". She was in front of her third consecutive Martini, when J.D. came to her.

"Everything all right?"

She nodded and gave him a childish smile, much like Soap's when he was hiding something.

"You sure?"

"Boys trouble"

J.D. thought immediately at Ed. Her crush had lasted long enough. But something in her air tonight, made him keep his opinions to himself. She had grown up.

Eventually, Addie left. The alcohol did not have the soothing effect she hoped for. She had to do her deal with the devil.

~~~~~

In spite of their attention, Addie knew more about the shady world than they thought. Probably more than they knew themselves. That was a presumptuous assumption, but she believed in their metamorphoses.

The morning after her made was made up, she went to Max. The Russian was not well known for his honesty in business, but Addie didn't have that much choice. The components had to be delivered in a week. These were hard times.

Did she believe in the greater good? Did she believe that her actions would change the outcome? Did she care about the cause enough to risk her freedom? Maybe her life?

She answered yes to all these questions and proceeded.

~~~~

"What were you doing in this part of the neighbourhood?" Ed sprung out of nowhere behind her.

"It's not important" she served him back his line.

It was odd how little she felt. It could have been the numbing effect of her first step into the dark. Or just the exhaustion. She was all out of the walking-on-clouds-feeling she had when she was around him.

"Don't do anything stupid, kid!" he warned her calmly.

"I won't do anything you wouldn't do"

"That's not the assurance I wanted"

"So what was the deal you got in?"

"This isn't about us. You committed the sin this time"

That hit was too close to home. Her sin… Where to begin? The last sin was just a beginning. Leaving the old country, the last thing Mark asked her was "will you do it?". She gave him no answer. She didn't have one at the time.

Ed was talking to her now, but his words didn't go beyond the shallow wall of her outer mind. She lied to him, with an ease beyond her understanding. Ed couldn't be her knight in shining armour anymore. This was not part of the package. When they adopted her, they did it as easily as one gives shelter to a puppy. She had no right to drag them in her mess.

~~~~~ Max, the Russian weapons dealer, was caught by the police. To get out if his jam, he ratted on most of his unimportant deals. Addie's was one of them ~~~~~

When she reached the place where Max told her to meet him, her street instincts warned her something was fishy. Looking about the place, she noticed the undercover policemen. Unfortunately, they noticed her as well. She started running in the dark alleys. The rain made her skid several times. She could outrun the men, but the dogs were not as easily fooled by her evasive manoeuvres. After fighting against the guerrilla tactics of the IRA, she was skilled in the art of camouflage. But the dogs were relentless.

She was running through the think mud on Thames's bank, hoping she didn't need to swim across it. When the first Rotweiler jumped on her. She caught its massive head and fought to keep the long fangs away from her flesh. The dog was almost as big as her, so it was quite a challenge. She pushed its head in the miry water. The huge fury body was squirming in her desperate grip. Her hands were freezing in the cool water. The rain had drawn the last degrees of warmth from the water and air. That and her weariness.

As its convulsions weakened, Addie felt the bite of a second dog. Its fangs sunk into her arm, but she didn't give in. She left the inert drowned body in the water and reached in her pocket. The blade pierced deep into the flesh. The second cut was more precise. She kept its muzzle closed, teeth jammed in her left arm and slid its throat. The warm blood poured over her own. She heard the cousins, who managed to get over the fence she had leaped over.

She slid in the water, swimming fast to the other side. She heard a bullet pass closely beside her in the water. The self-preservation instinct turned her into a superwoman. When she reached the other side, she started running with an unnatural speed.

The police cars were making a lot of noise, but she felt safe now. This side was her neighbourhood. She knew every dark corner, every dent in the street, every hole in the ground. She was as safe here as a chameleon in the forest. The art of invisibility, carried to perfection.

Addie crawled to Tom's place. It was closer. And he was most likely to be alone. Tom dragged her inside and summoned the others.

~~~~~

"She's freezing! Doesn't anything work in this blasted house?" Bacon kicked the broken radiator after he had cleaned and bandaged her wound. "We have to get her out of those wet clothes anyway!"

This announcement made them shudder.

"Who'll do that?" Tom's tone showed clearly that he wasn't volunteering.

Ed and Soap looked just as reluctant as Tom's voice sounded. The paternal instincts took over Bacon again.

"Look the other way" he ordered them.

He took her clothes off as quickly and blindly as he could. He wasn't comfortable doing that, but he couldn't let her catch pneumonia. He dressed her in his cotton T-shirt and put on her all the blankets he could find. The girl was still shivering, half-conscious.

"She needs to warm up. The only source we have is body heat"

"Soap, you should get in bed with her"

Ed's words felt like a slap on the face.

"No" he couldn't explain the reasons.

"We're all friends here. You're the safest one for her"

Now, how was he to explain them that his well-known problem turned into a different problem when he was close to her? He had tried to avoid being close to her ever since it happened. That didn't save him from getting up in the morning like any other guy, hard, able and willing, thinking of her.

Tom whispered in his ear:

"You don't want Ed to be the one doing this, do you?"

No he didn't. He was still ambivalent about what he felt for her and about her feelings for Ed. But he knew he wasn't the one to give Ed the opportunity to notice that their kid had become a woman.

"All right"

His acceptance relieved them.

"I'm going to the store in the morning to see the damage." Tom informed them.

"We're going by the bank to watch their routine" Ed had the plan sketched in his head.

They had their own problems to worry about. Addie's state was just another complication in an increasingly ugly situation.

"If she doesn't get any better, take her to the hospital"

Bacon's care was touching, but Soap had something else on his mind. Before all the morning's concerns, he had to go through the night. With her body pressed against his, holding her in his arms, inhaling her scent, the scent of the woman that roused him from the dead… He was not the safest one for her. Instead of speaking out, he lied to himself that he could restrain his reactions, that he was English, and after all, this was one thing an Englishman is known for. He lied so convincingly, that no more than ten minutes later he was next to her.

~~~~~ TO BE CONTINUED ~~~~~~