A/N: I have mixed feelings about the story in general, but this chapter was a lot of fun to write.
To Jude's chagrin, though not exactly her surprise, Alex was sitting in the lobby of her building when she got home. She groaned and tried to get to the elevator without him noticing her. No such luck.
He saw her and stood, following her to the lift. "Jude, wait. Let me explain."
"Alex, when I said later, I didn't mean tonight." She was too damn tired to deal with this right now.
"Please."
"Go home, Alexander. I'll talk to you when I've had more than an hour of sleep." She pressed the button to call the elevator.
"This will only take a minute. I just want to apologize."
Cullen, the evening security guard, who must have just come in for his shift, came up behind them and asked, "Ms. Harrison, would you like me to escort this gentleman out? As I understand, he made a bit of a scene earlier."
Jude looked at him with surprise. "He did?"
Cullen nodded. "According to the doorman, ma'am. Would you like me to escort him out?"
Alex gave her a pleading look, and she sighed. "No, thank you. It's alright. He's my guest." Cullen nodded again and stepped back. Jude got in the elevator, allowing Alex to follow her. "You made a scene?" She asked, pressing the button for her floor.
He looked embarrassed. "He did say a bit. I wouldn't call it a scene, really. I yelled at Fred because he wouldn't let me in."
"You yelled?"
"I raised my voice slightly. But I practically lived here for a year, and he acted like I was some random stalker off the street. I just wanted to talk to you."
Jude sighed. "Then talk."
"I'm not in love with you."
She looked skeptical. "You fought your way past my doorman and waited in my lobby for who knows how long to tell me that you aren't in love with me?"
Alex winced. "Okay, that does look a bit odd, I'll admit." The elevator door opened and Jude stepped out. "I just wanted to apologize. I know kissing you was out of line, but I just want you to know that I felt nothing."
"Stop." She said as she reached her door, pulling out her key.
"Jude, please. I meant it when I said I was over you. My feelings for you are entirely platonic, I swear."
"No, Alex, they aren't. I'm sorry if I lead you on. That is all my fault. I never meant to hurt you." She opened the door and they both stepped inside. "But we can't keep doing this, or I'll just keep hurting you."
"You won't! I promise. That's what I'm trying to say! Jude, I felt nothing."
"I wish I could believe that." She sighed. "But I don't. I'm sorry, Alex. You have to go." She took off her jacket and laid it and her keys on a table, walking down the hallway away from him. To her frustration, he followed her.
"Let me prove it to you!"
She headed for her bedroom. "Go home Alex." She just wished none of this was happening. She just wanted to sleep.
"Jude, your friendship means so much to me. I realize that I crossed a line today, but it won't happen again, I... Wait, Kat? What're you–" He cut off abruptly with a muffled cry. There was a thump.
Jude stepped back into the hallway, turned to see what was going on, and froze. But it couldn't be. Not her. Not here.
"Scream and I slit his throat." Megan said calmly. She had Alexander knelt on the floor in front of her. One hand was covering his mouth, and the other held a knife to his throat.
"Megan?" Jude whispered. "B-but you're..."
"Locked up in the loony bin in Toronto?" She smiled. "Doctor Murray says I've made amazing progress."
"They let you out?" Jude asked in horror.
"I didn't plan for this. I didn't want to have to come here!" She snapped, and she must have pressed the blade more tightly into Alex's throat, because he let out a muffled cry and squeezed his eyes shut in fear. Megan regained her composure. "I had moved on, Jude. But then you had to go and say those things."
"H-how did you get in here, Megan? How did you get into my home?"
"You still leave a key under the mat, even after what happened last time. You know, Jude, that's not very safe."
"How did you find me?" Jude whispered.
"I got creative. And I had a lot of help from your little toy here." She took her hand off Alex's mouth for a second.
"I didn't know who she was, Jude, I swear, she–" Megan covered his mouth again.
"He thought I was some girl called Kat." She explained. "Who is that, by the way, Jude? Another girl you cut loose when she didn't worship you? Did she not kiss up enough? Do all of your friends need to be in love with you? That's why you're dragging around poor Alex here, isn't it? You just love the lovesick puppy dogs."
"What do you want?"
"Anyway, I followed him here, and he conveniently distracted the doorman." Alex made noises of protest through her hand, and she pressed the knife a little closer to shut him up. "Of course he didn't know that's what he was doing. He just couldn't wait for an opportunity to kiss your ass some more. It's pathetic."
"What do you want, Megan?" Jude asked again, her voice shaking. "Do you want to write a song? We can write a song. My music room is right through that door. We can go in there and we can write a song. We can write a whole album together. Is that what you want?"
"We are so far past that, Jude." Megan spat. "You're going to pay for those hurtful things you said."
"Hurtful things? I never said..."
"You said I was some crazy fan!" Megan shrieked. "We were friends, Jude! Sure, sure, I may have crossed the line trying to protect you, I understand. If you want to call me crazy, you can do that. I would understand if you said you got held hostage in the basement by a crazy friend, or even a crazy former friend, an ex-friend, but I WAS MORE THAN A FAN TO YOU, JUDE HARRISON." She screamed, pointing at Jude with the knife. Alex took the opportunity to get free of her grip, shoving her against the wall, trying to take the knife. But her reflexes were quick, and Alex, kneeling, was at a disadvantage. In the time it took him to stand up, Megan had wrestled free of his grip and plunged the knife into his stomach.
"Alex!" Jude cried.
He made a sort of choked groaning sound and staggered back, clutching his abdomen, the blood already soaking through his shirt under his fingers. Megan actually looked sick. "I didn't want to hurt you!" She protested. "You weren't even supposed to be here!" She was staring at Alex as he sank down the wall to the floor, and Jude took advantage of this, lunging forward and grabbing the bloody knife from Megan's hand, but before Jude could stab her, Megan launched herself toward Jude and grabbed at her arm. Jude threw the knife far out of their reach just as Megan knocked her to the ground and pinned her there. Megan looked in the direction of the knife, then wrapped her fingers around Jude's throat. "You think I need a knife, Jude?" Alex cried her name weakly, and there was another noise in the background, too...
Jude scratched frantically at Megan's hands and face, feeling skin peeling off under her nails, trying desperately to reach her eyes as she saw stars and the world slowly started to go dark. She tried to pry the hands off her throat, and almost succeeded, but Megan slammed Jude's head hard against the wall, and it stunned her for a small fraction of a second, long enough for Megan to get her grip back and continue crushing her windpipe. She felt her strength slowly slipping away, her vision turning into a dark tunnel.
And suddenly there was a sickening thud, and Megan's hands were off her throat. Jude coughed, desperately gasping for air. She felt hands moving her away form the wall, and heard a voice crying her name. As oxygen returned to her brain, her vision returned. Through the sparkling haze, she saw Tommy's panicked face above hers. He had hit Megan in the back of the head with a frying pan, of all things, and practically thrown her off of Jude.
"To–" she tried to choke out his name, but just dissolved into another fit of painful coughing. She tilted her head back slightly, opening her airway, and the air came a little easier. "Tommy."
"You're alright!"
"Alex." She coughed. "stabbed. You need to–" more coughing. "I'm fine. Go help him."
"You're sure?"
"Help Alex." She took a gulp of air. "Call an ambulance. Help him please."
"Okay, Jude, okay. Ambulance is on its way. You're alright." He pressed a frantic kiss to her forehead, then another, and another to her hand. Finally he stepped over her to go to Alexander, who was trying as best he could to keep pressure on the wound in his stomach.
"Jude" Alex whispered weakly. "She's okay?"
Tommy pressed his hands to the bleeding. "You think I'd be over here helping you if she wasn't?" He joked feebly. "Jude is fine."
"and that... that bitch... Megan"
Tommy choked out a laugh. "That bitch isn't waking up any time soon."
"Jude is okay." He murmured, his eyes closing.
"She's fine, man. And you're going to be fine too, okay? Just stay with me, alright? Jude, you too."
"I'm here." She choked out softly as she slipped slowly into unconsciousness.