You Didn't Have to be so Nice – The Lovin' Spoonful

June 7, 2019

Winslow, AZ

12:00 PM

"Ok Gabriella. Will you please do what I tell you so I don't have to hurt you? You know perfectly well that if you escape that I will find you right? I know you can't just up and move your family if you escape back to them." Edward said as he turned off the car in a rundown motel's parking lot and turned to look at her.

Gabriella sighed and nodded her head. She couldn't afford for any of her friends or family to get hurt because of her.

"Where's mom?" Casey asked, irritated.

Gabriella watched closely as Edward closed his eyes in what looked like pain. Did that mean that the gunshot she had heard was Libby dying?

"She's gone on a trip too Casey." Edward replied, eyes still closed, he opened them a few seconds later to stare at Gabriella. "We're going to pretend we're married now, and that you're my wife." He said as he reached over to take the duct tape off her hands and mouth.

He then helped her and Casey out of the car and led them in to get a key for a room. Gabriella flinched as he took her hand in his, but bit her lip to keep her from doing anything that may anger her seemingly emotional kidnapper.

"My wife, child and I need a room." Edward said to the shady looking man at the front desk.

Gabriella bit the inside of her lip harder, tasting a small amount of blood as she did so.

The man said nothing, just took the cash from Edward and slid a key into his hand.

Edward looked at the key's room number and led his "family" out of the office and to the run-down room that smelled strongly of wet dog. When Edward opened the door and held it open for Gabriella and Casey.

"Stay here wile I run across the street to get us a few things."

He locked the door behind him and a half hour later returned with cheep tooth brushes, combs, toothpaste, and a few more outfits for himself, and Gabriella, since Casey had grabbed a few pants and a shirt along with his electronics.

Gabi had taken advantage of the time away from Edward to get a quick shower, after finding that the motel's phone wouldn't work.

June 8, 2019

7:15 PM

"Where did mom go?" Casey asked for what seemed like the hundredth time that day as the three of them sat in their pathetic motel room. At least Edward had been nice enough to get a cot and two beds. He had even made Casey sleep on the cot and let her have a bed.

"On a trip, she won't be back for a long time Casey." Edward responded quietly as he sat at the end of his bed with his head in his hands. He hardly had been talking at all. It was very strange to Gabriella even if Libby had died... Libby had been with Bryce. "Casey, go take a bath."

"Why?" He asked, sticking his tongue out.

"Because I said so." Edward growled and stood up, successfully scaring Casey into the bathroom. He sat back down as the door slammed shut. Gabriella had been sitting in her bed, watching the whole time. She actually felt sorry for Edward at this point, which she was rather annoyed about.

"Um, Edward?" She asked hesitantly. He didn't move a muscle. "Um, if you ever need to talk about anything, you can always talk to me... you know if you want." She finished rather half heartedly.

"You're just trying to get me to let you go." He said quietly as they heard the water in the bathroom turn on.

"At the moment, no, not so much." She replied quietly, "It's probably my whole issue with being too nice that I know you pointed out at least once to me."

Edward snorted. "True." He replied, finally taking his head out of his hands and moving back to the other end of the bed where he could lean against the pillows. He grabbed the TV remote and turned the TV on.

"Crappy TV. only gets five channels." He said flipping through them quickly in hopes to find a good channel. He stopped on the news, it was just finishing up a story and starting on a new one.

"Last night in Albuquerque two people were killed in a kidnapping case-"

Gabriella's jaw dropped as Edward turned off the TV quickly. She jumped off her bed and turned it back on.

"Bryce Kubin was shot down by one of the fathers of the children he had kidnapped.-"

"Troy?" Gabriella breathed. She barely noticed that Edward was standing up now and approaching her quickly.

"Ryan Evans had grabbed the gun of a fallen police officer and shot Kubin. His two children were saved, but Gabriella Bolton-"

Gabriella didn't get to see anymore. Edward had shoved her out of the way, turned off the TV, then proceeded to unplug the TV.

"No more TV." He said before going to sit on the end of the bed, with his head in his hands again.

"Why not?" Gabriella shot at him, "Apparently your brother's dead."

"Serves him right." Edward snapped back, "Now shut up!" he jumped onto his feet and pushed her with more force that was needed onto her bed, "I don't want to hear you talk for the rest of the night!" he then sat on his bed with his back to her and buried his face in his hands once again.

Gabriella stared at him, afraid to even move. She didn't move until a damp Casey walked out of the bathroom in his P.J's.

9:03 PM

"Well who called in the sounds of gunshots?" Troy interrogated the officers as he and Ryan stood in the police station.

"The call was anonymous, but it was made from Liberty's cell phone from just outside her own home. The caller sounded to be male, but that's all we know on that, Mr. Bolton."

"Your children are safe and we are doing everything we can to find your wife." Another officer assured Troy.

"Then why don't you know where she is?"

"Mr. Bolton! May I remind you that your wife would not be in this position if she and Mrs. Evans had followed our orders and told us about they had been contacted by the kidnappers and left it to the professionals rather than trying to do it themselves?" the chief almost yelled back at him.

SO sorry it took this long to get this chapter out! Star got sick… then was behind on homework, then both of us just didn't really feel like doing much writing/had writers block… However… Star was going through her favorites on myspace and for some reason she had put Edward's girlfriend on there… She found this on there (and then figured out why she put her on her favorites…. For amusement)

I love Edward (we changed his name, even though we didn't really want to lol). He's the ONLY one that I really trust since you can never really have true friends. I have a couple though that I can tell some to. It's been a year since we've started dating. we've had our rough patches, but now we're good. When I think about us not being together it really hurts and I start to cry. We believe someday we will get married. If you think about it we already are lol. We both have a ring on our ring finger on our left hand, and we tell people we're married lol. =] He's amazing and I never want anything to happen to him. I love him.

Now….we both find that hysterical. Made our day basically.

Ok, last note… Today, a year ago, I posted the first chapter of Last Christmas! I can't believe it was a year ago that I started writing it in the middle of my history class - I mean when I didn't have any homework of course ha. Thanks for sticking through the year!