Behold! Chapter 9 of 'Tooth and Nail'! I'm so excited!

"So, how do you want to do this?" Sinead asked, rubbing her hands together. Sinead, Dan, and Ian were all at Dan's apartment, plotting how Ian was going to tell Amy how he felt. Dan felt that Evan wasn't right for his sister, and Sinead had a particular disliking for him. Especially since he had accidentally destroyed her laptop with a cup of coffee...

"What do you mean?" Ian asked, confused. He just wanted to go up to her, tell her, wait for her response, and then either kiss her or run away and get on the next plane to England ASAP.

"Well, you can't just call her up or go up to her randomly, no, it needs to be planned," Sinead explained patiently. He supposed she was their voice into the women perspective, what and what not to do.

"Then when, O' Great One? The day of the wedding?" Dan remarked sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Actually, that's exactly what I was thinking," she replied, dead serious. Ian spat out his soda, shocked. His eyes bulged out of his head. "The day of the wedding would be perfect."

"How would that be perfect, Sinead? It's the day of her wedding, they would have gone through all of the trouble of planning the damned thing only for me to ruin it? And if she says no, it will be incredibly awkward when I'm the best man," Ian spat, venom in his words.

"Because she will be searching her heart and mind for any reason not to marry him. You know Amy, always over-thinking things. She wants to make sure she's doing the right thing, that she's not making a mistake. If you tell her you love her, she'll realize that she's loved you all along." At Ian's shocked face, Sinead rolled her eyes. "Trust me, she loves you. I know it, the way she talks about you... Problem is she hasn't realized it yet."

"You lie," Ian shot back, gripping the table with white knuckles. "She doesn't love me, she's getting married to Evan. According to you, she wouldn't go into something without thinking it over. I know that she waited at least a week before giving Evan an answer to his proposal. Amy has already thought it over, Sinead. She's not going to suddenly stop the wedding and return her love for me like that." He felt his temper rising, and barely bit down some unfriendly words.

"If any seed of doubt is planted in her mind, something like you professing your love, she'll realize she loves you. When Evan proposed, she didn't realize her feelings for you. I saw it plain that she really didn't love Evan, but someone else. I'm practically positive she loves you. And Amy will realize her feelings," she swore.

"Well, what if she doesn't? What if she just hates me? Sinead, this isn't a simple school game, no, either I become her boyfriend or that guy who professed his love and disappeared, those are my only choices. Do you think I will be able to face her ever again if this doesn't work out?" Ian spat, unable to contain his temper. Dan, surprisingly, slammed his fist onto the table, silencing the two.

"Ian, man up. You have to take the risk that she returns those feelings. You will regret it for the rest of your life if you don't go after her now. Ian, I know my sister. She's confused, she's fooled herself into thinking she loves Evan, I swear. Ian, if you don't go after her and tell her, I will. You don't know how much it hurts, not being with the one you love. Don't think for a second I'm bluffing," Dan threatened, fire in his eyes. Fire that shielded so much hurt. And that's when Ian remembered.

4 years ago, when Dan was 24, he fell in love with a women named Roselle. She had dark red hair and brown eyes like firey embers, as Dan had described them. Ian had only met her once, for an hour. She was Dan's perfect match, quietly pranking and still outgoing. Even after only talking to her for an hour, Ian knew. They were perfect.

They had been dating for two years, and Ian had just moved to Boston at the beginning of the three year marker. Ian recalled the day like it had just happened the minute before.

Dan was going to propose. He already had permission from her parents, he was that serious about it. He told Roselle to meet him at the park. He had everything set up, from the bouquet of peach blossoms (her favorite flower) to the ring. He was sitting on the swings, which had the perfect view of flowers, kids playing, and the cars whizzing by, something they both loved. He saw her, driving up in her Vespa. Dan had recounted it to him so many times, with dead eyes and a drink in his hand.

"The wind was blowing everything around, and she smiled. She smiled as she saw me. It was so beautiful, Ian. She looked perfect," Dan had said as he described what happened to him at a bar.

And then she walked over towards him, crossing the street to get to Dan. Roselle started running towards him, but she fell in the middle of the street. She had still been smiling, though.

"And then some careless bastard ran her over," Dan had gritted out, the tears spilling out as he took a large swig of his beer. "He didn't even stop, but they caught him. He didn't expect my memory. Oh god, Ian, she looked so broken in the street. Like, like a rag doll. Or a dead body."

She hadn't died. Dan had ran towards her, the flowers forgotten but the ring still in hand. He had cradled her head and watched as she winced in pain. "I called 911 instantly, and explained everything. They said they would be there as soon as possible. But they didn't get there soon enough," he recalled bitterly. "It wouldn't have made a difference."

Even injured, Roselle still smiled. It was a broken smile, but a smile nonetheless. "I love you, I had said. And she just smiled and said, 'I know, Dan. I love you too.' And then I proposed, tears in my eyes and blood covering her body. 'Yes', she had said. And I had smiled so bright. 'I love you so much,' I had whimpered, gently stroking her hair. But she didn't respond."

Roselle had fallen into a coma. She was still in a coma, to the day. Dan visited her every Thursday, the day they had met and the day he had proposed. He brought her fresh peach blossoms with every visit. He said the no one except her immediate family and him visited her anymore. It had been 4 years, there was almost no hope for her. It was still possible, the doctors said. Unlikely, but possible. "But at least she was alive," Dan whimpered to him one night. "At least she's alive."

Ian felt awful for complaining to him about his love life when his love was wasting away in a hospital bed. But he sometimes forgot how Dan felt, because he always acted so happy. Ian knew he was covering his pain, and had confronted him about it on more then one occasion. Dan always grew quiet and said, "People fear death even more than pain. It's strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. Jim Morrison said that. So just be happy with who I am know Ian. I'm still here, aren't I? I'm just as I always am."

"Okay, Dan," Ian replied softly. "I'll tell her exactly how I feel on the day of the wedding."

I wanted to go into the past with this chapter and I haven't had a lot of Dan interaction except him being crazy. As Lovely- Queen of Toast pointed out, Dan was a bit too crazy. But here's the thing (skip until you see the words 'RANT OVER' if you don't want to read the rant):

I think that acting crazy when you're feeling pain is a way to mask it, pretend it isn't there. I do that myself, and I relate to Dan well. So, I decided to make him like me. Plus, I want Dan to have a special part in the feeling-reveal. So that's why I included this chapter.

RANT OVER! God, that wasn't much of a rant.

Bye, guys! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!