Disclaimer: not mine unless it is

Chapter 9:

As Rose drove away from the Mercer house, her thoughts on Jack and the road, it dawned on her. She had given her house keys to Jess so he could make a spare, just in case of emergencies. Rose swore at her stupidity and changed her course of direction to the bar. She prayed Jess had left the keys where he said he would and no one had taken them. The last thing she wanted to do was go to Jess with her head hanging, asking to use the spare keys only hours after he had them made.

It only took a few minutes for Rose to get to the bar. Once she was there, she parked her car in her regular spot and looked around in confusion. Sundays were slow, especially as the day turned into night, yet, for some reason, there were at least half a dozen cars in the lot that Rose didn't recognize. Rose shrugged her shoulders, figuring that someone was having a get together, before hurrying to the back door.

Once she was inside, Rose ducked into Jess's office to find it unlocked and empty. Rose frowned as she turned and grabbed her keychain off the key hanger. They were exactly where Jess said they would be, even if he wasn't. The last shipment of glasses never made it to the bar and Jess had said he was going to spend the afternoon trying to figure it out.

Rose walked out into the bar to see if she could find Jess to check in and thank him. However, when she did find him, she didn't see fit to interrupt him. For whatever reason, he was sitting around one of the big round tables in the back with Rachel, the blond man who was connected to Sam Nickels and some other vaguely familiar people. Rose quickly decided that talking to her cousin could wait until the morning and turned to leave without bothering to make her presence known.

The vaguely familiar faces haunted her as she walked to her car, but once she slid inside and turned on the ignition, a burst of heat from the vents chased the images away. Rose smiled at the restored warmth. Detroit was so much colder that Boston, if that was even possible, and Rose couldn't wait to go home.

Or at least she thought she couldn't wait to go home. As she turned on the radio and tuned it until classic rock was flowing out of the speakers instead of the local popular music station Collin had put on earlier, her thoughts zeroed in on Jack Mercer. He was this solemn, reclusive, adorable artist that Rose couldn't seem to get past. She reasoned that perhaps it was because he was like a landmark, someone she couldn't overlook even if she tried, due to his height. He was taller than anyone she had ever met, and that included Collin.

Rose shook off such a silly thought. His height wasn't the reason Rose couldn't get him out of her head. She really wasn't sure what it was, but it didn't matter. Rose knew that her attachment to him wasn't a good thing, even if he returned the feelings.

She sighed as she put the car into park and eased out of her spot, her right hand clutching the steering wheel as her left rested on the car door, her fingers idly playing with her house keys. On her way home, Rose pondered putting her house key and car key on the same chain, but dismissed the idea. The car was leaving Michigan with her and the house wasn't. No matter how much of an obstacle Jack Mercer presented, Rose was going.

With a determined look on her face, Rose pulled into her driveway, put the car in park and hopped out, planning on watching whatever crap was on television for a few hours before hitting the hay.

As she walked towards the small house she was renting, Rose made sure to click the button on her key chain that would lock her car and prayed that tonight wouldn't be the night when the vandals came running down the street. She didn't have time to take the car to the shop this week. Not that she had time last week, the first time it had happened, but she had no choice. Her brother would never forgive her if she had let his baby sit with the busted taillight and graffiti-covered side. Not to mention the cops would have probably stopped her and given her a ticket she probably couldn't afford to pay.

After turning the house key in the lock and jimmying the door as the landlord had told her to do due to the old rusted hinges and lousy locksmith work, Rose gained entrance into her small, rundown residence. She quickly locked the door behind her and tossed her things onto the coat rack and matching hall table.

On her way to the kitchen, Rose kicked off her boots and took off her jewelry. Once she reached the kitchen, she picked up the phone with her free hand and checked the messages. There were two from her landlord pestering her about when she was leaving and one from Jess, asking her the same thing. Rose frowned in response to the annoying, ever troublesome question. Why did everyone care so much if she stayed? Couldn't they just wait to see what she would do?

Rose hung up the phone after clearing the voicemail and pulled out some microwavable popcorn from the cupboard. She shoved the flattened popcorn kernels into the microwave, pressed the proper buttons and turned to make herself some hot tea.

It only took a few minutes for the microwave to let out an unceremonious beep, signifying it had finished its job. Rose popped open the door of the appliance, ripped open the popcorn bag and poured the fluffy popcorn into a bowl. After making sure she had a good grip on her tea mug as well as the bowl, Rose made her way into the next room.

Once her popcorn and tea were sitting on the rickety old coffee table, Rose took a few moments to flick on the television and flip through the channels. She continued the monotonous work until she found one of the many Lord of the Rings playing on some station that probably played it too often. With a mild sense of satisfaction, Rose fell back on the moth eaten sofa that resided in the pre-furnished rental.

When her bowl was empty and mug was drained, Rose curled up on the couch and watched as extras with pointed ears fought with extras that… well… Rose wasn't quite sure what was done to them to make them look like that.

Rose yawned widely, her eyes fluttering shut as a blond haired elf, one of the main characters whose name was escaping her, bounded on the screen. She knew it was a bad idea to sleep on the couch, but it would only be for a few minutes. Then she would get up, wash her face, brush her teeth and go to bed with the intentions of cleaning up the mess she had made that night in the morning.

When Rose did finally wake up, it was hours later. She could tell from the fact that instead of extras fighting each other on the television screen, there was a large ship was breaking in half and sinking into the Atlantic Ocean. She had slept through half of Lord of the Rings and most of Titanic.

But it wasn't the sound of the boat breaking into two that woke Rose up. It was a nightmare. A rather nasty nightmare involving her sister, cousin, the man with the blond hair and the other people she had seen sitting around the large, round back table earlier that night. Rose struggled to remember her nightmare, knowing that somehow it was important. Well, in whatever capacity a nightmare could be important.

Rose sighed, finally giving up on figuring out the finer points of her nightmare. She pushed herself off the couch and turned off the television, plunging her into the darkness of the living room. Rose frowned at the darkness, not remembering that she had turned the lights off for the movie. She shrugged as she squinted until she could see the outlines of the objects around her and grabbed the bowl and mug she had used that night. She walked into the kitchen, guided by the light that streamed in through the windows from the street.

Once they were in the sink, Rose walked to the bathroom, stumbling over her abandoned boots as she walked in the dark. She turned on the bathroom light, quickly cleaned up and turned the light off once more. After feeling her way to her room, she collapsed into bed. She hadn't realized just how tired she was. Of course, Jack had sent her home that weekend to get some sleep, but she hadn't caught quite as much shut-eye as she allowed Jack to think she had. She just couldn't seem to keep her eyes closed while her newest friend kept residence in the hospital.

She was about to drift off for the night when she shot up in her bed, suddenly remembering her nightmare. Facts, instinct, guesswork, faces and dates all flew through her head, her eyes narrowing as she put everything together. She now knew where she had seen those people at the bar before. She now knew why her cousin was meeting with them. She now knew why Rachel was with them.

With her heart filling with fear, anger and a desire for justice, Rose jumped out of bed with the last dregs of energy she could muster and ran back to the kitchen. It was only after she had finished dialing the Mercer number that she remembered Jack was sleeping, but it didn't matter. She would tell Jerry and they would make a new plan in the morning.

Rose swore out loud, breaking her silence for the first time since she had left the Mercer house, as her call went into voicemail. She didn't want to leave them a message. This was too important for a message, but Rose didn't know what else to do. She had to get her discovery off her chest before she got into the car, drove all the way back to the Mercers' in her pajamas and woke all of them up.

"Hi, Jerry, Jack, whoever else checks this," Rose began breathlessly. She hadn't run anywhere but it sounded like she had just won a hundred-meter dash. "It's Rose. I'm calling because I need to tell you guys that we need to revise the plan. I figured it out and it starts with Rachel. She's-"

But Rose never got to finish that sentence. Just as she was about to say what Rose was, someone forcefully yanked the receiver out of her hand, ripping it out of the wall and causing the Mercers' voicemail to only pick up half of Rose's fearful shriek.

"I don't think so, bitch," Rose's attacker said while swinging her around so Rose could see the face of the person who had broken into her house.

"Oh my God," Rose said with wide eyes as she saw her attacker's face, a sliver of light from the street lamps outside illuminating it.

"God can't help you now, Rosie," the intruder said sinisterly before raising the hand that still clung to the receiver and hitting Rose on the temple, successfully knocking her out before she had a chance to scream again.

A/N: Dun dun dun. That's it for this part, folks. Stay tuned for more.

Reviewer Replies:

Jacksgirl793, JainaZekk621 and hogo-chan - thanks you guys! It means a lot to me that you review!

Umi Pryde - well, I fixed the mistakes from last chapter, so thanks for pointing them out. I hope this one's better. I even asked my friend-turned-beta to look it over for me because I figure it's best to leave our the mistakes now than revise the whole story later, like I desperately need to do for my other story (I just don't have the time). As for the driving, I know she doesn't have to and I almost didn't put it in (I took it out), but I wanted to put another action in that sentence and I'm taking driver's ed, so that was the first thing that popped into my head. It sounds fine without it, I guess. But I'm glad you're liking the story!

Well, that's all for now! Please review, it really makes me happy to hear from you guys! -- Oh, speaking of which, there's a cute little nuance in this story and I've even prodded it in this chapter. It'd be really great to see if anyone can figure it out. I'll give you one more hint -- it has to do with the budding romance in the story (don't worry, it's not indicative of anything, I just thought it was cute). Brownie points to whoever spots it. And my beta's not allowed to play. She already knows the answer.

Love and Luck,

Gaby