Authors Note: The next chapter as promised. Please read the authors note at the end x

Chapter 26

"Are you sure about all this?"

"I wouldn't be here if we weren't," Don told the Principal of Heldon High School. He'd spent a lot of time with Principal Christopher Denton recently, since the drive by a couple of months ago the school had been at the centre of one incident after another. Denton had handled it all well, his staff and students had always been his top priority and he had kept the school functioning with a minimum of disruption. Don had come to respect him and that was why he had told Mac it was a good idea to explain some of what was happening to him.

"That's going to affect my sleep for a while," Denton stated and Don nodded, his own reaction had been the same.

"I know this is a lot to take in," Don told him. "But the school is in the unfortunate position of being in the centre of the territories of the main gangs involved. That, we believe, is the reason you've had an increase in incidents here. The drive by, the break ins, the attacks on teachers, we think it's all part of it."

"It certainly would explain a lot," Denton agreed with a nod. "What do you need from me?"

"We just need you to be vigilant, keep your eyes open, report any major incidents to us. Tensions will be running high, it's likely the students who are involved will bring it into school with them, there'll be a lot of friction between the rival gangs, more than usual," Don explained. Denton nodded slowly as Don spoke taking it all in and twenty minutes later Don left the office feeling as though things at the school were as under control as they could be given the situation.

He was heading for the exit when he saw Jessica Angell coming his way. He felt a strange feeling in his chest and in his stomach and wondered if continuing to ignore that it was there was really helping anything, it didn't seem to be going away. He knew he should walk passed her with a nod and a polite smile. The gang who had attacked her had been very clear about her involvement with the police and he didn't want her to come to harm because she'd stopped to talk to him in a corridor.

She seemed to have other ideas though as she came to a stop in front of him with a smile, "Detective."

"Miss Angell," he replied and she must have sensed his apprehension.

"I'm sure if they haven't figured out by now that I talked to you then they soon will, having a conversation with you isn't going to change that," she stated with a slight shrug of her shoulders. He had to stop himself from grinning like an idiot; this was the Jessica Angell he had first met. She had gotten her confidence back and he wanted nothing more that to kiss her smiling mouth.

"You're probably right," he replied.

"How is your investigation going?"

"It's... progressing slowly," he told her.

"Progress is good," she said with an amused smile, "although you don't seem to be very enthusiastic about it."

"It's not really progressing in a good direction, you should be careful, more careful than usual, you're still leaving with your friend right?" he asked her.

"We walk about halfway together. I should probably let you get back to it," she said and he found himself searching for something else to say, some way to prolong the conversation. He didn't think he had ever not wanted to get back to work so much in his life and he realised that whatever feelings he was developing for her were not going to go away if he just ignored them.

He really did need to get back to work though so he nodded and promised himself he would find an excuse to run into her again soon. He doubted he needed an excuse though; fate seemed to keep throwing them into each other's paths.

"I'm sure I'll see you again soon Miss Angell," he said and she smiled and shook her head.

"Jess," she said and he raised an eyebrow. "Call me Jess, I think we've run into each other a sufficient number of times for you to call me Jess."

He smiled, once again forcing himself not to grin like an idiot at her. "Jess," he said, testing the name and liking how it sounded much more than he should have. "First name basis it is then."

"I'll see you around Don," she said, seemingly testing the name out as well, she smiled again and shook her head as she walked passed him. He had to convince himself not to look back as he headed for the exit. He shouldn't be doing this, he shouldn't be getting this close to a witness but no matter how many times he told himself that, he couldn't seem to stick to it, as soon as he saw her again it all went out of the window.

"Focus Don," he said as he sat in his car, he had a long afternoon ahead of him and he needed a clear head.

She had no idea what had possessed her, the words had been out before she could do a thing to stop them, before she'd even known what it was she was going to say. She'd told him to call her Jess, he was the detective investigating the threats against her and for some reason she'd decided that they should be on a first name basis. She'd smacked herself in the head a few times since then and decided not to do it again now. He hadn't seemed to mind, in fact he'd seemed happy about it, or maybe she was just seeing what she wanted to see. It was clear she was attracted to him, maybe more than just attracted but it was hardly appropriate.

She shook her head at herself as she knocked on the door in front of her and an unfamiliar face answered. "Mr Monroe," she greeted the dark haired man in front of her. "I'm Jessica Angell, I'm a friend of your daughter."

"Come in," he said, stepping back and allowing her to pass by him into the house. It wasn't at all like she'd been expecting and Jess was certain Lindsay had nothing to do with the decorating; it didn't suit her at all. The living room was masculine, very masculine, from the deep leather furniture to the dark wood shelves, Jess doubted even Lindsay's mother had been given a say in what this room looked like.

"If you could just wait here for a moment, I'll get Lindsay," Mr Monroe said and Jess nodded as she watched the man leave. It was only a few seconds before he walked back in with Lindsay behind him. Her friend greeted her with a smile and told Jess to follow her. They went to her room, a space that was much more like Lindsay than the living room had been. It was brighter, the whole room had a soft, feminine feel to it, this room definitely suited Lindsay.

"How are you doing?" Jess questioned taking a closer look at her friend. She had a couple of bruises visible but she didn't seem too badly hurt.

"I'm fine," Lindsay replied. "I'll be back at work tomorrow."

"You don't have to come back so fast, if you want to take a couple of days to yourself I don't think anyone would mind," Jess told her. She had taken a couple of days herself when she had been attacked outside the school and she wasn't sure she had benefited from it much. It had given her time to heal physically but mentally it had just sunk her deeper.

"I'll mind," Lindsay replied and Jess nodded.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" she questioned as she sat down on the edge of Lindsay's bed.

Lindsay sighed and sat next to her. "It was because of Danny."

"Danny?" Jess questioned in surprise and concern, turning to her friend. "What does he have to do with it?"

"It wasn't his fault," Lindsay replied so adamantly Jess knew she meant it. "He used to be in a gang, he got out years ago but they never really let him go. I'm not sure why but for some reason his lack of loyalty to them became a problem and his brother Louie told them the only reason he wanted out of the gang so badly was because of me. They came after me to get me out of the way and to frame a rival gang so Danny would be motivated to do what they wanted."

"So they just came after you in the middle of the day?" Jess asked not surprised in the least, they had come for her in the middle of the day too, walked right up to the entrance of the school and attacked her.

"They surrounded me in the street and pointed a gun at me, I tried to get away but I only really succeeded in making them madder at me," Lindsay smiled slightly but there was no amusement in it. "Danny got there then, his brother had gone to him and told him what he'd done and they'd come looking for me. It was awful Jess, he told them he'd do whatever they wanted if they left me alone but they didn't care. Andre was about to pull the trigger but Danny made a move toward him so he pointed the gun at Danny. Then there was a gunshot and for a second I actually thought Danny had been shot but it was Andre, Louie had pulled out a gun and shot him."

Jess took a moment to process all of that. "Wow, and I thought my life was getting crazy."

Lindsay laughed "Oh no, you still get all the crazy, this was just a one off."

"So what did Danny say?" Jess asked her and Lindsay's face fell.

"I saw him in the hospital briefly, he was blaming himself but I told him it wasn't his fault, he couldn't have known this would happen and he saved my life, I don't think he was really convinced," she told him and then a small smile curved her lips. "He told me loved me."

"Seriously?" Jess asked not able to keep the smile off her own face. "That's great."

Lindsay nodded, the smile gone again. "It is, but I didn't get chance to reply, I kind of sent him away. I didn't want that to be the way he meets my parents, my father isn't going to like this as it is."

"You would have said it back though right?" Jess asked and Lindsay nodded. "Then you just have to find a moment to tell your father about it. You've known for a while this was coming and I don't think there's really going to be a right moment for it so you just have to find a moment that's not completely wrong for it."

"Easier said than done," Lindsay replied.

Jess looked at her friend for a moment before deciding to cheer her up. "Want to hear about the stupid thing that I did?"

"How stupid was it?" Lindsay asked.

"I told Detective Flack to call me Jess and then called him Don," Jess told her feeling embarrassed about it all over again.

"When did this happen?" Lindsay questioned in surprise. "And why couldn't you wait until I was around before doing it?"

"It was today, he was visiting Christopher and I ran into him on his way out," Jess told him thinking back to the meeting and the one before that. Something was going on, something big and the detective seemed really worried about it.

"So what exactly is going on there?" Lindsay asked her and Jess shrugged her shoulders, she really had no idea.

"I don't know," she said and then shook her head at herself. "It's ridiculous, he's a detective, he's investigating the attack on me and the rest of the stuff going on at the school. It's not going to go anywhere, it's inappropriate."

"Well that's just nonsense," Lindsay replied with a smile. "You like him, I think he likes you and he's not going to be investigating the school forever. There's no harm in seeing if there's something there and if there is then none of the other stuff should matter."

"I don't even know if he feels the same Lindsay, I'd like to think he does but I know next to nothing about him. I'm a victim in one of his cases, he has to be nice to me, I'm probably just reading too much into this whole thing and seeing what I want to see," Jess stated and Lindsay just stared at her for several moments. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I'm trying to decide how best to stop all this nonsense coming out of your mouth," Lindsay told her. "I'm considering hitting you over the head, knocking you out, maybe when you wake up some sense will have been knocked into you."

"It's not funny," Jess told her, hiding her amusement; at least she seemed to have succeeded in cheering her up.

"I never said I was being funny," Lindsay replied with a serious expression.

"There's something else going on too," Jess told her. "The last couple of times I've seen him he's warned me to be careful and I don't mean the general 'it's a tough world out there' kind of be careful. He seemed genuinely worried about something, he said there was something going on but he couldn't tell me what it was."

"Well that's a happy thought," Lindsay stated.

They were surrounded by paper, there was probably enough paper in the tiny office to crush a man to death if they piled it up on top of him. Mac was no stranger to paperwork; it had haunted his dreams once or twice over his years in the police force. He'd seen this much paper in one place before on other big cases that he'd worked. It had just never all been crammed into such a small space before. His office was covered in it, it stacked up in piles on the floor, it was pinned to the walls, the door and the windows, some of it was even pinned to the sides of his desk.

He and Don had given up sitting at the desk a couple of hours ago, the two of them were sitting on the floor now, there ties were long since gone, their top shirt buttons undone, jacket's discarded and sleeves rolled up, he imagined they looked a little ridiculous.

"He's another one we should look into," Don said holding up the file of a known gang member. "He's always been small time but he's been used as a liaison between the Dragons and the Snames once before, both trust him so there's a good chance they'll be using him to facilitate this alliance now."

"Make a note of it," Mac told him and Don started looking around him, eventually finding his note pad among the rest of the papers.

"I think I know what's been happening to the world's forests," Don said as he picked up another file. "The police force has been destroying them all."

Louie had been a wealth of information on the alliances being formed between the gangs. He was smart and Mac guessed he had known more than anyone had realised he'd known. He'd named a lot of gangs that were involved in the alliances being formed, he'd told them who the main gangs were, who were really invested in the upcoming war and who was just making alliances in order to protect themselves. It had led Mac and Don to where they were now, they'd decided to review everything they knew about the main gangs involved to try and find a way to stop this war before it really got started but so far they had no idea what they were going to do.

"I think that's enough for today," Mac stated, anymore and their brains were just going to give up.

"We need to rattle some cages," Don said.

"I agree," Mac replied. "We need to find out where the centre of this thing is, if we can find out who the key people are and why they're doing this maybe we can find a way to stop it."

"Let's hope so," Don stated.

"Go home Don, get some sleep, tomorrow's going to be a long day."

Danny had never seen Louie look so exhausted and defeated. As a kid his big brother had always seemed invincible and even when they'd been teenagers and Danny had realised he didn't want to follow in his brothers footsteps Louie had still seemed larger than life. As adults Danny knew his brother wasn't invincible, that the things he did weren't cool and that his brother had made mistakes, big ones. It had still been strange to see him that way though, wearing prison issue clothes and looking like someone had dumped the weight of the world on his shoulders.

He'd told Danny he was co-operating with the police, that he was telling them everything and they would keep him safe from the gangs. Louie hadn't looked like he believed that anymore than Danny did, if Tanglewood realised he was talking to the cops they'd find a way to shut him up. Danny had told him as much but Louie just shrugged and claimed 'it's the price I pay'.

He was doing it for Danny, he was doing it in the hope that it would somehow keep him safe. It just made him feel worse, his brother was putting himself at risk for him and he didn't like it one bit.

He'd told Danny he was sorry, that had thrown Danny more than anything else, Louie had never apologised, not for anything. He'd apologised at the police station though, he was apparently being kept there until they could arrange to move him somewhere secure, somewhere safe. He'd said he was sorry for getting him involved in the gang, for not being a better big brother, for not doing a better job of protecting him. It had almost gotten emotional until Louie had cracked a joke and told him to get out of there before they turned into a pair of weeping little girls.

Hewalked the streets in a daze, it seemed like everything had been turned upside down in the last couple of days. Louie was in jail, the cops were keeping an eye on Danny as though they didn't believe he hadn't been involved in everything, and he hadn't seen Lindsay since she'd sent him away in the hospital. He understood her reasons, he didn't want that to be the way he met her parents either but he couldn't deny it had hurt a little. He needed to see her; he needed to talk to her, to know that she was okay, that they were okay.

He'd told her he loved her, he hadn't given her time to say it back, had been afraid that after everything that had happened that anything she might have been feeling for him before would be gone, or maybe she hadn't felt anything like that for him in the first place. She was the best thing he had in his life, maybe the best thing he had ever had and he felt like at any moment something was going to take her away from him because things that good just didn't happen to him.

There was something soothing about the pizzeria, there always had been, maybe it was because it was what had gotten him out of trouble as a teenager, or maybe he just associated it so completely with his uncle but being here somehow calmed him, even if it was only a little.

"Hey Kyle, my uncle here?" Danny asked and Kyle gestured upstairs.

He found his uncle sitting in his office reading something and he looked up with a small smile as Danny entered. "You been to see your brother?"

"Just came from there," Danny replied as he took a seat on the opposite side of the desk from his uncle.

"What's going on Danny?" his uncle questioned. "I've known something was going on for a while, I know Louie is still involved with the Tanglewood boys but he's always been smart enough to stay out of this kind of trouble, or at least not to get caught when he gets into it."

"When you helped me get out of the gang when I was a kid, they never really let me go," Danny confessed and his uncle nodded, he didn't seem surprised or disappointed, he didn't seem like anything, he just sat there impassively and waited. "They've been trying to keep me involved but I didn't want anything to do with them. I think Louie was covering for me but he made it clear there was no out and sooner or later I was going to have to realise that. He's been really insistent lately though and I've turned him down, like I always have. I don't know what's going on, Louie says it's something big but they very suddenly decided that they could no longer afford to have anyone around with questionable loyalty. Louie tried to cover for me but he just made it worse, much worse."

Danny took a breath, thinking back to the way he had felt when Louie had knocked on his door and told him what he'd done. "He told them the reason I wanted out was because of a girl and they went after her. We got there in time to stop them, they were going to kill her and when I tried to stop them they turned o# me, Louie killed one of them first, to protect me."

David Messer sat and stared at his nephew silently and Danny couldn't read him. "I've always known that getting out of that gang wasn't simple Danny, I've always known it's been difficult for you but I'd always thought if it got too much you would come to me."

"I didn't want you to worry," Danny replied.

"You're my nephew, I always worry, about both you and Louie," his uncle stated. "The girl, is she alright?"

Danny nodded. "I think so, she just got a few bruises."

"Louie is a big boy now, he's made mistakes and now he's facing the consequences for them," David stated. "You let me worry about him, you worry about yourself because Andre might be dead but the rest of the gang isn't."

"I know," Danny replied.

David Messer smiled. "Now, tell me about this girl."

It had only been her father's insistence that had brought her here and if she was honest her father's insistence could convince her to do just about anything. She loved him, she respected him and when he told her to do something she almost always did it, almost. He'd told her to quit working at the school and she had adamantly refused. He was convinced that the attack on her had something to do with the school and with everything that had happened there recently she supposed she couldn't blame him for it, especially when she had done everything she could to keep him from finding out the real reason for the it.

It had been a few days now, she was back to work and she had quickly realised being back there was exactly what she'd needed. She hadn't seen Danny though, her father demanded that she go straight to work and then straight home, no detours , no staying late and no going anywhere else, it was already beginning to annoy her.

He'd told her he had a business dinner to go to and that she and her mother were to attend, after the argument they'd had over her job she had decided not to argue with him on this one. The bruises were already faiding, a little make up and they were now invisible, a little bit of magic her father had approved of.

They were greeted at the door by an older man, a little older than her father, who welcomed them into his home with a smile. Lindsay wasn't sure what she thought of him yet, her mother seemed to like him. He introduced his wife when she came out of the kitchen, the woman was younger than Lindsay had been expecting, somewhere between her own age and her mother's. She greeted them all warmly and then quickly disappeared back into the kitchen. Her mother followed her, the two of them striking up a conversation as they went.

"Perhaps you'd like to join them?" her father's business partner, Dominic, asked her and she looked at him for a moment before shaking her head.

"I'm sure they have everything under control," Lindsay replied and Dominic smiled.

"Then let me introduce you to my son," he said in a tone of voice that left Lindsay in no doubt as to why her father had insisted her presence was required. She sent a glare towards him as soon as Dominic's back was to her, he sent her a silent look as well, one that told her to behave. She and her father followed Dominic into the lounge where another man was standing in front of the fire place.

"Lindsay this is my son Mathew," he introduced. The man turned to look at her, his eyes going over her appraisingly and he must have liked what he saw because he smiled and held his hand out to her. She accepted because she knew it was the polite thing to do and he leaned down to kiss the back of her hand.

The next half an hour was spent listening to Dominic and Mathew talk about the business and then about Mathew, his education, his background, his plans for the future, plans that Lindsay was most likely expected to be a part of. She was relieved when dinner was ready and they were all seated at the table, her next to Mathew of course, and she engaged in polite conversation with them as they ate.

She realised he was everything she didn't want in a husband, he was old fashioned, women were meant to be at home. He knew she worked and, even though nothing much had been said about it yet, she could tell from their conversation that he was expecting she would give up her career once she got married, whether that was to him or not. He was older than she was by about ten years which she didn't mind, she didn't think that age mattered if you loved someone but she didn't love this man though, she didn't even know him. He was polite and almost charming, he had ambitions and she had no doubt that whoever his wife turned out to be she and their children would be well looked after. He was a decent man, but he wasn't the man for her, she'd already found the man for her, the opposite of the man sitting next to her.

"What did you think of Mathew?" her father asked when they arrived home a few hours later.

"He seemed very nice," Lindsay replied. "But you know I hate it when you do this."

"Lindsay," her father began and she sighed inwardly, she knew where this was going already and she knew better than to interrupt him before he said what he was planning to say. "Mathew is a good man, his family has money and a good reputation. You'll be well taken care of, you'll want for nothing, it's time you started thinking about your future, about settling down and starting a family of your own."

"Somehow I don't think having a working wife is in Mathew's plans," Lindsay stated.

"I wasn't happy about you working to begin with, I'm certainly not happy about it now, that school is no place for a young woman like you," her father stated. "I don't want to fight with you over this again Lindsay but I think it's time you left that school, time for you to start your future."

"And you think that future it with Mathew?" Lindsay questioned with a raised eyebrow, sometimes she had to wonder if her father knew her at all.

"He is a good man Lindsay, you'll be taken care of, you'll have everything you need. I know you have all these ideas in your head and while you've been young I've let you run with them but you're a grown up now Lindsay and you need to start acting like it. You need to leave that school, you need to settle down, get married, start a family of your own. You need to be what you're meant to be, you'll be a great wife Lindsay and Mathew will be a good husband, you'll be good together. It's time to grow up."

She wasn't given the chance to respond, her father turned and left the room before she could argue any further and she wasn't even sure what she could say. She thought of Danny, he was the opposite of what her father thought would be a 'good husband' and she knew, now more than ever, that her father wasn't going to accept him, she just didn't know what to do about it.

TBC

Important Authors Note: This fic obviously has violence in it and I want to mention this now, we're reaching the main event of the story which includes some violence, this event takes place at the school and will include brief mentions of gunshots. I started writing this story a while ago and have only just come back to it, this was what I had set everything up for and so changing the location of the main event didn't make any sense. I've minimised the violence and gunshots are only mentioned briefly a couple of times, I've put the focus on other things. I wanted to mention this now so people would have fair warning before it happened.

Thanks for reading.

Hannah x