Tye: Since you are not a member of this site, I am unable to reply to you, so just wanted to say thanks for the review. Your question will be answered in the first sentence regarding Stephanie's safety. :-)

I love how people have 'Too Close' on their 'Favourite Stories' list – awesome!

~Lisa.

Chapter Nine - The Best Friend

"Maybe I didn't attach the lead securely enough to Cougar," Dean said. It was Saturday evening, and Stephanie and Dean were sitting on the Tanner couch, Stephanie catching Dean up on the day's event's. When Dean had arrived to pick up Amelia, Danny had invited them both to dinner. Nicky, Amelia, and Alex were up in the attic playing, leaving the two of them alone. Cougar, after his neighborhood adventure was asleep at Dean's feet. "I was kind of in a hurry!"

Unable to relax, Stephanie jumped to her feet, "It was Regina for sure. Mr. Gibbler saw her." Cougar briefly opened one eye at the commotion, on guard, but quickly flopped back down.

"He saw someone," Dean corrected. "There's a multitude of people going through your house daily, what with Jesse running his music business from home, and your dad's high profile, and the Smash Club employees, neighbors, Michelle's friends, Joey's comedy contacts … Should I go on? That could have been anyone Kimmy's father saw!"

"It was Regina … I know it," Stephanie insisted. She began pacing in front of the couch, almost tripping over Dean's outstretched legs at one point.

"Can you give it a rest? Must we talk about Regina Powell endlessly?" Dean said in exasperation.

Stephanie's mouth gaped open in shock. "Excuse me!"

"Nearly all our conversations lately are about Regina, and I'm sick of it. Last night at the Smash Club Regina was all you could talk about. You keep pointing out how obsessed with you, Regina is, but the same logic could be applied the other way as well – you also seem obsessed with her."

Stephanie was incredulous, "I can't believe you are saying these things to me. So you think I should just ignore the things she's doing?"

"Maybe – it could be that she craves attention, and without it she might give up."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Stephanie raged.

Dean angrily grabbed his car keys, and Cougar's lead off the coffee table, "Oh so now I'm stupid am I. Fine! I think it's time I left."

Stephanie swallowed the lump forming in the back of her throat. "I think that would be best," she choked out, fighting back the tears.

Cougar let out a bark of annoyance as Dean awakened him by reattaching his lead. "Amelia!" he shouted up the stairs. "Amelia, we're going!'

"What!" He heard his sister's muffled shout. Three sets of feet could be heard running overhead. "I thought we were staying for dinner," Amelia called from the top of the stairs slowly making her way down. The twins were hot on her heels, their confusion obvious.

"Sorry, there's been a change of plans. We have to go." Dean looked over at Nicky, "Apologize to your uncle for me?"

Nicky nodded, his expression solemn, as he watched Amelia pick up her backpack next to the front door, struggling in to it.

"Bye … Nicky! Alex! See you at school on Monday," Amelia gave a small wave.

Stephanie was watching Dean, her arms crossed across her chest, her expression defiant.

Dean held open the door for Amelia to go ahead, and with one final look in Stephanie's direction; he shut the door after him.

As soon as the door closed behind Dean, Stephanie ran upstairs, and Nicky and Alex heard her bedroom door slam.

Jesse entered from the kitchen, "What's all the shouting and slamming doors," he demanded.

"Amelia and Dean left," Nicky gave a sigh, staring at the closed front door.

"I think Steph and Dean had a fight," Alex added.

"Oh right, maybe I should go and speak to her," Reaching the foot of the stairs Jesse spun around. "On second thoughts I have no idea what I would say to her, so maybe I'd better give her some space first." He headed back toward the kitchen, "Come on boys, dinner is almost ready!"


Her eyes still red rimmed, Stephanie sat at the family computer, located in the alcove of the Tanner living room. She was trying to track down Danielle Harris, Regina best friend from Pasadena. After spending the past couple of hours crying over Dean, she had suddenly recalled Regina's violent reaction to the photo on Thursday, and she wondered if maybe Danielle had had similar problems with Regina.

Unfortunately Harris was a very common name; in fact there were over thirty residential listings for Pasadena alone. Being the search engine expert that she was, Stephanie had managed to narrow the list down to ten living in the vicinity of Everwood High, and she hoped Danielle's family was one of them. Grabbing the printout, Stephanie headed upstairs, closing the door firmly behind her.

There were no Danielle's at the first four she tried, and no answer at the fifth, however she struck gold on number six.

"Hello," a young girl picked up the call.

"May I speak to Danielle Harris please," Stephanie asked politely.

"Hold on!" The phone receiver was put down with a clunk. Through the line Stephanie heard the girl calling for 'Dani'.

Almost 30 seconds passed before Stephanie heard footsteps approaching. She heard a girl who sounded around her own age saying, "You could have brought the phone upstairs to me?"

Next thing a voice came down the line to Stephanie, "Hi this is Danielle."

"Is this the Danielle that attends Everwood High?" Stephanie asked.

"Yes it is. Who is this?"

Stephanie rushed on, "Hi Danielle. My name is Stephanie Tanner, and I'm phoning from San Francisco. You don't know me, but I believe we have a person in common – Regina Powell. I wondered if I could talk to you about her."

"Leave me alone!" Danielle cried, "Tell Regina I don't want anything to do with her."

Stephanie rushed to reassure her, "Regina doesn't know I'm calling you – we are not friends anymore – never really were actually. The reason I wanted to speak to you, is because for the past couple of weeks Regina has become obsessed with me. She dresses like me, turns up wherever I am, spies on me, and even vandalized my neighbor's car – and that's only the stuff I know about."

There was a long silence before Danielle spoke again, "I'm sorry, I can't help you. I have to go now."

"Oh please don't hang up!" Stephanie pleaded. "I'm so worried that she might be dangerous – and no one believes me."

Stephanie heard a sigh on the other end, "Okay, I'll talk. What do you want to know?"

"Well for starters … how long have you known Regina?"

"We met, and became friends in third grade. I was pretty shy back in those days, and I really loved having a best friend. She wanted to do everything with me, and it made me feel special. Sometimes she could be bossy, but I was just so grateful to have a friend. She did have some odd qualities though – for example she had this weird thing where she hated my name being shortened. Most people called me Dani, but Regina only ever referred to me as Danielle."

"She always calls me Stephanie – never Steph! She doesn't like her name being shortened either."

"I remember," Danielle said quietly. "A girl at school once playfully called her Reg – it was no big deal, just an innocent comment – but Regina lost it. She punched the girl hard on the arm; it left a massive bruise. Anyway, as I was saying, it took me a long time to realize that Regina was only nice, if I did exactly what she wanted."

"What happened once you realized that?"

"Nothing at first, I was too pathetic to do anything about it – but then in my first year of High School I made several new friends, and joined some extra curricular activities outside of Regina. Once Regina saw that I was pulling away, and that her hold on me was weakening, her behavior turned very malicious."

Stephanie gripped the phone tighter, her knuckles white, "Malicious how?"

"Just little things at first … like not long into my freshman year I had my hair cut and styled into a cute chin length bob. I thought it looked great, but when Regina saw it, she went ballistic … said she hated short hair, and demanded to know why I hadn't asked her permission before changing it."

"Then, the year before last my parents gave me permission to throw a Halloween party in our garage. I was so excited over inviting my new High School friends. I spent the week prior planning activities, choosing food, and making decorations. When Regina found out about the party she said that it was a stupid idea, and that no one liked me, and she told me to cancel it. When I refused she stormed out saying that I would be sorry. The next day when I arrived home from school the garage had been broken into, and all the decorations had been pulled down and destroyed. My parents blamed it on vandals, but I knew it was Regina."

"I also had incidents similar to yours, she would spread rumors around school about me, tell my friends I hated them, write threatening notes and put them in my locker – she always knew the combination, even when I kept changing it! Once she even followed my little sister home, shouting the vilest things at her. Alexia was only ten at the time, and pretty upset, as she had known Regina most of her life."

Stephanie sucked in a breath, "How awful!"

"I have plenty of other examples, but you get the picture!"

"Unfortunately I do. What about your parents? What did they think of it all?"

Regina laughed bitterly, "They said that it was normal for friends to argue, and that they weren't getting involved in what they regarded as typical teenage girl behavior."

"Sounds familiar!" Stephanie muttered. "My family reacted the same way."

"If it were two adults, they wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it," Danielle said. Stephanie tended to agree.

"How – how did you finally get rid of her?" Stephanie hoped the answer was a solution she could use.

Danielle was quiet for a moment, "I didn't. My Dad announced we were moving to Hong Kong for a year – as his company was opening a branch over there, and he was chosen to get it up and running."

Stephanie let out a sigh of disappointment, "I don't see our family moving anytime soon – not that I would want to."

"When it drew closer for us to return from Hong Kong, I was so frightened at seeing Regina again that I had nightmares every night. You can't imagine the relief I felt when I discovered Regina had moved away."

Stephanie could actually, "This is going to sound strange, but when Regina started at our school last year she seemed relatively normal. She fit in well with my group of friends, and we even offered her a place in our band. And then suddenly almost a week ago she started behaving stranger and stranger. Any idea what might have set her off?"

"We arrived back in the country mid August," Danielle confirmed, "Regina phoned, wanting to renew our friendship. I don't know how she knew I was back, but my guess is she had probably been phoning the house intermittently on the off chance. I was very firm, and told her I never wanted to hear from her again, and slammed down the phone."

"I waited anxiously for days fully expecting that not to be the end of it, and worrying that the whole thing was going to start up again. I had no idea how close, or far away, her family had moved. But after a couple of weeks, with no incidents I began to relax again. That is until you phoned. I was sure you were phoning on behalf of Regina to plead her case."

"I'm sorry … I never meant to scare you!"

"That's okay. Now I have a question for you – why did Regina choose you? You don't sound particularly submissive, and that seems to be a quality Regina looks for in people!"

Stephanie had an answer for that, "I saw a photo of you – and physically – you could pass for my twin sister."

Danielle gasped, "So that's it. Your hair is long though I bet?"

"If I thought that's all it would take to get rid of Regina I would shave my head."

For the first time during the entire conversation Danielle laughed, and Stephanie soon joined her.

Stephanie hesitated, "Would you be willing to back me up if I went to the police?"

"I'm sorry, I just can't. I know it's really cowardly of me, but if Regina ever found out …" she let the sentence hang unfinished.

Stephanie tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice, "It's okay, I understand."

"In all honesty, I don't think the cops would believe us anyway. My own parents didn't and they know me – to the police we are strangers."

Stephanie hated to admit it, but what Danielle said made sense.

"Hang on a sec," she heard Danielle say. "My moms here."

A moment later Danielle was back on the line, "I have to go. We're heading out for dessert. Promise me, if you do go to the cops, that you won't involve me! I … I just want to get on with my life."

"Danielle I promise! Thanks for speaking to me. Do you think you will ever get over what Regina did to you?"

"I think there will always be a part of me that's looking over my shoulder – waiting for Regina to reappear. Good luck Steph!" Danielle purposely used the short form of Stephanie's name. "I hope everything works out for you … I really do." And with that final word Danielle Harris disconnected the call.