Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! I have a renewed sense of excitement for this story now that I know people like it!
Chapter 10: An Unwelcome Guest
"Why don't you go back to bed," Peter suggested to Sarah. She'd eaten a little food and drank some orange juice.
"Peter's right," Micky agreed getting her a glass of water. "You need to rest. You shouldn't even be up right now."
"I'd actually rather try to take a shower," Sarah answered.
"I really don't think you have the energy for that right now," Micky said sitting back down next to her.
"Maybe, but I really need a shower," Sarah answered. "It's been so long since I've had one. A decent one anyway. The showers at the hospital sucked."
"Can you even stand long enough to take a shower?" Mike asked.
"I doubt that," Micky said. "But why don't I help you?"
"Micky..." she started.
"It's fine," Micky said. "I don't have anything else to do."
"I'm going to head out to the store then," Mike said. "Is there anything in particular you want me to pick up for you while I'm out?"
"No thank you," Sarah smiled allowing Micky to help her up from the table. Peter felt bad about the whole thing, hoping desperately that he could do something more to help. Mike was buying food, Davy had made her pancakes and Micky was helping to take care of her. Peter just sat on his backside doing nothing. But as Mike closed the front door, car keys in hand, and Micky closed the bathroom door behind him and Sarah, Peter suddenly had an idea. Sarah needed a change of clothes so Peter jumped up and dug through the closet in the hall where they kept all the costumes and disguises they'd somehow gathered over the years. Which also included a woman's outfit. He pulled the outfit off the hanger and folded it neatly in his arms before crossing to the bathroom door as he heard the shower turn on.
"Hey, Micky," Peter said knocking softly. "I have a change of clothes for Sarah."
"Hang on," Micky said and opened the door a crack and reaching a hand out. "Thanks, Pete."
"No problem," Peter answered handing the clothes to Micky. "Let me know if I can do anything to help more."
"Sure thing," Micky said closing the door again.
"You're not useless, you know," Davy chuckled clearing the table.
"What?" Peter asked walking back over to the table.
"I saw that," Davy said. "You felt like you weren't being of much help so you jumped at the first thing you could think of to make yourself seem useful. But you were probably the most helpful out of all of us. You calmed me down and I think you convinced Mike and Micky they aren't evil. You're keeping us stable. We really need that right now."
"Thanks, Davy," Peter said blushing a little. He helped Davy put the clean dishes away until someone knocked on the door a few minutes later. Peter crossed the room, but was hesitant to open it. Through the window in the door, he saw a brunette woman with very curly hair standing in front of it.
"Who is it?" Davy asked casting a worried glance toward the bathroom.
"No idea," Peter shrugged and opened the door slightly.
"Hi," the woman said sounding nervous. "I uh...I was told that Mike Nesmith lives here."
"Yes, but he's out," Peter answered. "I'm very sorry, but you'll have to come back later."
"Wait," she said as Peter started to close the door. "I really need to talk to him. It's very, very important."
"Well, he's very busy right now," Peter said as Davy walked up behind him. "I'm sorry. Maybe I could tell him you stopped by. What's your name?"
"When will he be back?" she asked.
"I don't really know," Peter answered really wanting to get rid of this woman before she asked too many questions and found out about Sarah. After everything he'd just heard, he really didn't know who to trust anymore. "He went to the store. But like I said, we're all kinda dealing with some stuff right now and we're not up for many visitors."
"I know," she said wringing her hands. She seemed very desperate. "It's just...I really need to talk to him. It's very important."
"You said that," Davy said. "Who are you?"
"Maybe I could just wait..." she prompted.
"No," Davy interrupted. "We're dealing with something. Just tell us who you are and we'll tell Mike you stopped by."
"My name is Heather," she finally said after a long pause.
"Ok, Heather," Davy said trying to shut the door again. "We'll tell him you stopped by."
"Wait," she said stopping the door from closing again. She quickly reached into her purse and pulled something out before handing it to Davy. "Give him this. It's my room key. Well, a spare anyway. Please tell him it's very important. He may not want to talk to me, but could you make sure I said it's important?"
"Of course," Peter said very confused. "Why wouldn't he want to talk to you?"
"It's been a very long time," she answered. "Please, just make sure he gets the key."
"Yeah," Davy said with a kind of forced smile. "We have to go now." Finally they shut the door and Davy inspected the key in his hand.
"Wonder what that was all about," Peter shrugged.
"Dunno, but I'm not sure I trust her," Davy said.
"Why not?"
"Well, for one, she said Mike might not want to talk to her. That tells me that something bad happened between them. Have you ever known Mike to not want to talk to someone? Plus, who gives someone a key to their hotel room that they haven't seen in a long time? Don't you think that's a little weird?
"Well, maybe. But maybe she just really trusts him."
"I don't know, Peter. It's weird. And then there's the timing of this whole thing."
"You mean with Sarah?"
"Yeah. It's just a little weird that she'd show up the day after we save Sarah."
"You think she's working some kind of angle? Maybe she's involved?"
"I don't know. But there's one way to find out. Maybe I should go to the hotel and see what I can find out about her before we talk to Mike."
"I don't know, Davy. I'm not sure I like the idea of sneaking behind Mike's back like that. Why don't we just talk to him and ask him who Heather is? He'll know if we can trust her or not."
"It wouldn't be going behind Mike's back. It would be watching it. He's got enough to deal with already."
"Micky can take care of Sarah while Mike goes and talks to her. If that's what he wants to do."
"Talks to who?" Micky asked coming out of the bathroom with Sarah.
"Some girl just stopped by and asked for Mike," Davy answered. "Said it was very important she talked to him. She gave us a copy of her room key for the hotel she's staying at and asked us to give it to him."
"How do you feel?" Peter asked as Micky helped Sarah sit down on the couch. "Did showering help at all?"
"Much better actually," Sarah smiled. "Thank you so much."
"Don't mention it," Peter answered.
"What was her name?" Micky asked frowning. He looked like he held the same suspicions as Davy.
"Heather," Davy answered. Peter got even more confused when all the color drained out of Micky's face.
"Do you know her?" Peter asked.
"Did she say what she needed to talk to him about?" Micky asked.
"No," Davy answered. "Who is she?"
"She's..." Micky paused as though he didn't really want to answer.
"Isn't that your..." Sarah started before Micky interrupted her.
"Yes," Micky answered. "She's a very old friend of ours. I'll go talk to her."
"But she asked for Mike," Peter said.
"I don't really care," Micky said holding his hand out for the key.
"What about Sarah?" Davy asked.
"She'll be fine with you guys here for an hour," Micky answered. "Now give me the key and don't say a word of this to Mike."
"Come on, Micky," Davy said backing away from Micky slightly so Micky couldn't just swipe the key from him. "No more secrets. I thought we said we trusted each other."
"I do," Micky answered. "But it's not really my place to talk about it. It's between the two of them."
"So if it's between Heather and Mike, why are you so insistent on going over there?" Peter asked.
"Because I'm going to tell her to leave Mike alone; if you must know," Micky answered. "Mike does not need to deal with her right now which is why I don't want either of you saying anything to him about it."
"What happened between them?" Davy asked.
"It's not important," Micky answered getting angry. "Will you please just give me the damn key!? You said you trusted me, didn't you?"
"Well, yeah, but..." Davy started.
"Then give me the damn key," Micky said angrily. Davy finally relented and handed the key to Micky with a worried glance at Peter. Micky turned to Sarah and knelt down in front of her. "I know I promised not to leave you, but I have to take care of this. I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Is she who I think she is?" Sarah asked.
"Yes, but there's more to this than you know," Micky answered.
"She'll know you're alive," Sarah said.
"She already does," Micky said. "She swore she wouldn't tell Mom or Dad. I trust her with that much at least. This is kind of complicated, but I have to deal with this. Are you going to be ok here with Peter and Davy?"
"Yes," Sarah answered. "I know you wouldn't leave me unless you absolutely had to."
"I'll be back as soon as I can," Micky said kissing her forehead before rushing out the door.
"That was weird," Davy said. "What do you know about her, Sarah?"
"I'm not getting in the middle of this," Sarah answered. "Please don't make me."
"We won't," Peter said before Davy could protest. He knew it wasn't right to drag her into this. But he also knew they'd probably have to talk to Mike about it. Something weird was going on, and Peter had a bad feeling about it. Peter offered to help Sarah go back to bed to rest, but she insisted on staying in the living room and waiting for Micky. She seemed just as worried as the rest of them. When Mike got home about half an hour later, Davy and Peter exchanged a look with each other, both trying to determine if they should tell him.
"Hey," Mike said setting the bag of groceries down on the counter and casting a glance at Sarah. "Where's Micky?"
"Umm..." Peter started. He wanted to tell Mike, heck he wanted to scream it, but he felt as though doing so would break Micky's trust.
"He went out," Davy started more bravely than Peter. "He told us not to tell you about it, but we think maybe he might do something bad."
"What did he do?" Mike demanded.
"Well, he said that he was going to talk to this girl who showed up looking for you," Davy started nervously. "But he seemed really angry when we told him who. I've never seen him like that. I'm worried about what he might do."
"Davy, spit it out," Mike said. "What girl? Where did he go?"
"She said her name was Heather," Davy said. Mike's face paled the same way Micky's had, but instead of getting angry, he looked desolate. "She said she wanted to talk to you about something and gave us her hotel room key. She said it was really important."
"Mike," Peter said walking over to his friend who had seemed to get really weak and started leaning on the counter. "What's going on? Who is this girl?"
"We need to stop Micky," Mike said pulling himself back together. "You're right. I doubt he's going to do very much talking. When did he leave?"
"About half an hour ago," Davy answered. "Since we have the car, we might be able to beat him there. I think he walked. Mike, what's going on?"
"She..." Mike started but changed his mind halfway through. "It's not important."
"Mike, knock that off!" Davy exclaimed. "Stop lying to us and stop hiding shit from us!"
"I'll explain when I get back," Mike said snatching the keys off the counter.
"We're going with you," Davy said.
"No, you have to stay with Sarah," Mike said. Peter looked at Sarah and felt torn. Mike said Micky wasn't going to do much talking; so Micky was probably going to do something stupid. Peter had never thought Micky would do anything like that to anyone and he held out hope that Mike was wrong. But so much about all of this was new for him, he wasn't sure he could believe that anymore. Because of that, he wanted to go with Mike to help stop Micky from doing something he'd later surely regret, but he couldn't leave Sarah.
"No, I'm going too," Sarah said standing up.
"You're too weak," Peter said rushing to her side to support her.
"I'm stronger than I was and I'm going with you," Sarah said. "You all need to stick this out together and I need to be there for him."
"Sarah," Davy started but she cut him off.
"We really don't have time to argue about this, do we?" Sarah said. "I'm going."
"Ok, fine," Mike sighed obviously agreeing they didn't have time to argue and rushed out to the car. Peter helped Sarah out to the car behind Davy.
"Mike, talk to us," Davy said as they all piled in. "What's going on? Who is this girl?"
"Davy..." Mike sighed as he started the car obviously not wanting to go into it.
"You promised, Mike," Davy said.
"Fine," Mike said pulling out of the driveway. "She was...a really long time ago...my fiance."