Disclaimer- Same as previous.

A/n- Okay so the last chapter was a bit boring so I decided to update an actual chapter with substance, hope you like it. Also a continuation of the warning from back a few chapters, things aren't so nice form here on in. Thanks to those who reviewed, feel free to flame me if it's needed :)

Chapter 14

"You should have done it the other way around." Cindy whispered, loud enough for the whole room to hear and to turn their attention on her, Carl Macalister looked up from his swivel chair behind a desk and peered at her, "What do you mean?" he grunted, shifting off of his sore hip.

Cindy's own injuries seemed to be the reason she was tempting fate, she was really starting to lack the will to care, he was dead, oh god, he was dead. "The other way around, you should have held a school hostage to get at the reporters; people would be more inclined to hand adults over for kids then the other way around."

Taylah Jordan, still alive, not so much kicking anymore, managed a bloody smile and groggily clasped Cindy's bloody and grimy hand, "Good thinking Cind, if I ever go crazy and want to do either of those two things, I'll come to you first." She mumbled sleepily, making those who heard her smile.

Carl rolled his eyes slowly from Taylah back to Cindy, "Those aren't kids." He murmured, "Those are monsters in disguise, only monsters could do that to my son." there were tears in his eyes again, "My beautiful son."

Cindy looked down, adjusting her damaged leg, pain roaring up her leg and plunging into her lungs, stealing her breath, she couldn't take it much longer, "You think their monsters, what do you think you are?" she asked bluntly, making the others look up in fear.

He looked at her and a sad smile crossed his face. "I'm evil. But I know that. Soon they will know what they are to." He tapped the face of his watch, "25 minutes, and counting."

"Its late, you should get home."

Jill glanced up from her computer and spied Denise in the doorway, "Since when do you care?" she snapped, not caring about disrespecting her boss.

Denise smirked, "Since your work started sucking, as a kinda domino effect, that means my work starts sucking." she chided.

There was a silence as the two women engaged in a staring competition. You could practically hear the crickets.

Jill looked away first; Denise took her chance to stride forward, to lean on the desk.

"I've seen you with that kid; I can understand why this affects you." She said matter-o-factly.

Jill's face turned to stone. "Cindy's not a kid and she's certainly not my kid."

Denise conceded the point but took another tact, gesturing with her head to the precautionary document stuck to Jill's wall, most people hid there's away in a file, tried to pretend like it hadn't happened, most didn't parade it like a Grammy, "Just like Alexis wasn't your kid."

Jill glared, "I knew that." She hissed.

"But you didn't act like it. You treated her like a daughter and when she left it was like loosing a daughter, all of which, you should know quite a lot about."

Jill stood up. Her chair scraping from the force of being pushed back, her fists were shaking and Denise seemed to realise her mistake, she stepped back and nodded to Jill. "If you're going to keep working so late you best apply for overtime,"

Jill relaxed a bit.

"I'd hate for you to sue us later."

Jill laughed coldly

Lindsey felt like her watch was betraying her. God damn it, she swore that hand was moving faster then usual. 'She had yelled something' the though was stuck in her head.

"So how 'bout you explain why everyone thought you were enemies."

The blonde shook her head vigorously, Nicole, she had a sad smile on her face, "Not everyone thought that. Just the teachers. Because teachers haven't been teens for so long they've forgotten what we look like."

Jacobi raised an eyebrow, "And what you mean when you say things?" he replied, a hint of sarcasm in his gravely tone.

She rolled her eyes and glanced at the three boys standing with her, who gave small signs of support, "We were different, ran in different circles so they just assumed when he was around us we were picking on him."

Lindsey stepped in, this was going around in circles, "So you were best friends?" she asked bluntly, she was cut off before she could continue.

"We were more then best friends…he was my boyfriend." Nicole said, her eyes dropping to the ground at the last.

Lindsey took that in her stride, "So why'd he kill himself?"

Again the girl glanced at her friends who looked supportive, Lindsey had to admit she didn't sense any malice in any of them, "He-he got another girl pregnant."

Lindsey scoffed, "He just assumed I'd hate him, he didn't know the things I did. His dad never taught him a thing; he thought it was all his fault. Not a set up. Didn't know he had been manipulated." Nicole continued, her voice filling with hurt.

"Set up?" Lindsey asked quickly, crossing her arms as more precious time ticked away.

"It was one of those senior parties, one of the initiation ones they do just before college, right? It was dare, you had to get some freshmen nerds into—"

Lindsey held up her hand and for the first time her expression softened, "I get it." She shook her head, "He was one of the unlucky victims chosen, but how come his own dad didn't know about his best friends? Not to mention girlfriend."

Nicole scoffed, with a rye smile she answered, "Are you kidding, Stuart's dad was away so often I'm surprised he knew what his son looked like, let alone his friends or hobbies, he wouldn't even know that Stuart wanted to be a psychologist when he grew up." There were tears in her eyes and the pitch of her voice had dropped, one of the boy's, Aden, squeezed her shoulder, "Is there anything else we can do to help?" he asked softly.

"If we could convince Carl…" Tom trailed off.

Lindsey shook her head, "No matter how much about his son these guys can give him, he's military, he's not about to buy it, and he'll just see it as a scam, might start shooting earlier."

"Don't think it matters much now." Tom grunted, shaking his head.

Lindsey looked down at her watch, yeah he was right, it didn't, time was up.

Carl stood, "Who want's to go first?" he asked in a determined tone.

Cindy scoffed, Taylah had long ago passed out again and her hand had slipped from Cindy's, leaving the redhead reporter free to raise it in the air.

It wasn't that she couldn't care. I wasn't that she didn't care.

It was the fact she couldn't sit there one more time and watch someone die, not again, Tye Silvani's face was burned into her brain, his expression the moment Carl had pushed the detonator, and she couldn't have another one along side it.

Her leg throbbed; she was half-way there already.

Carl smiled at her, amused and she didn't have the energy to do anything in reply, she closed her eyes and Carl shook his head, he raised the gun.

BANG!

End chapter.

A/n—Ahh…don't you just love these cliff-hangers? We're on the end here people. Not long left, gotta have Lindsey run the show from here on in. Also...I have absolutly no idea what a freshmen, junior or senior is, well in the school hirachy sense, so, umm...apologies if it sounds seriously messed up.