Chapter 29: The End - The Bond of Friendship
A strange copper smell filled Lacey's nostrils when Danny walked into the old fort. Lacey swallowed nervously at the sight before her. Danny's shirt was drenched in blood. His hands stained the same crimson color as his shirt. He looked at her. His eyes pleading for her help.
Lacey pulled Danny to sit on an old stump in the fort. She pressed him down lightly by the shoulders. Words weren't spoken causing the silence to choke both of them. Lacey helped pull at Danny's blood drench shirt removing it from his body. It stuck to his toned chest causing streaks of red to leave trails behind on his caramel colored skin.
His eyes searched hers knowing he'd find confusion behind her dark orbs. Instead, what he saw in his girlfriend's eyes was unexpected. It was understanding and love.
"Lace." His voice was barely audible as he spoke. His hands shook unsteadily.
"Shhhh." Lacey wet a rag from a jug of water she had brought to the fort at Karen's request. Strange how his mother knew something was going to happen. It was instinctual. Lacey ran the rag over his face removing the splatters and droplets of blood. "Shhhhh."
"Please." Danny begged but he wasn't sure what he was begging for. A tear played on his long black lashes before it spilled to his cheek. The wetness washed a curved pattern down his cheek due to the dirt and blood capturing the grime as it went. "Please." He sounded so young and so afraid.
Lacey's mind went back to that time on the swing set. Danny's child voice echoed in her head of his words then because they pertained to now. I had to. I had no choice.
Lacey's body shook as she stared at the boy she loved with every thing in her. She bit her lip trying to stop the quivering. Her hands caressed Danny's face despite Archie's blood mingling with Danny's tears.
"Hey." Jo's voice seemed to echo ominously in the shaded woods. "Ummmm. His mom said to bring this."
Jo's panicked look caused Lacey to react. She grabbed the book bag from Jo pulling it to her. Jo held out a phone towards Lacey. "Mrs. Desai said to call her on this."
Lacey took the phone squeezing it with her shaking fingers. Karen Desai had definitely thought of everything to cover Danny's tracks when it came to him killing Archie. Lacey called her praying that Mrs. Desai would answer on the first ring. She did.
Orders were barked out by Karen like a sergeant in the army. She didn't hesitate with her words. After all, it was a mother protecting her child. Nothing else mattered. Lacey touched her stomach that had once held Danny's unborn child. A strange sense of understanding hit her.
"Does his hair need washed?" Karen's words caught Lacey off guard momentarily. However to Karen Desai it was such an important question. Danny's hair was all that he allowed his mother to touch at one time. When she wanted to tell him how much she loved him, she'd push back a strand of hair from his face.
Lacey answered yes in a low whisper. She hung up the phone after Karen told her every detail to do. Karen said not to reveal where they were to her. It wasn't needed.
"Please." Danny begged. Yet, he wasn't exactly sure what he was begging for.
Lacey smiled at him wanting to reassure him. She glanced at Jo. "I have to take off all his clothes."
Jo nodded as she turned around to give Lacey and Danny privacy. Danny was stripped from everything even his boots. Lacey threw a towel over him before alerting Jo she could turn back around. It wasn't even questioned when Jo took all of Danny's things and bundled them to burn in the fire pit that they had built in their youth. Jo's small hands shook nervously as she poured the lighter fluid over Danny's things. She lit a match and threw it causing a loud burst of flames. She turned to stare at her friends.
Lacey's fingers raked through Danny's sticky tresses of hair as she cleaned the evidence of blood away. She then began to clean his body with a delicate care that only a lover can show.
"His DNA will be on Archie." Jo sat down placing her head in her hands. "What are we going to do? His DNA will be on Archie."
Danny seemed numb as the girls spoke around him. He felt lost to reality unless Lacey's eyes connected with his.
"Archie and Danny got in a fight this morning." Lacey sighed out. "Remember outside the diner. That can explain that."
"Gaawd, there's so much blood." Jo bit her quivering lip trying not to cry.
Lacey shot her a look to alert her to be quiet on the subject. She glanced back at Danny. His shoulders shook with sobbing. Jo broke down at seeing Danny break down.
"Help him." She begged of Lacey.
Lacey shook her head as she turned back to Danny. She cupped Danny's cheeks pulling him to look at her. "You had to."
Jo added softly. "You had no choice."
For once in over five years, the girls understood Danny's words from that day. They knew that he'd do anything to protect them even give up his own life if necessary. Tara Desai had to die or Danny's dad would've went to prison or even been killed. Perhaps, Viktram Desai was threatening through an alcoholic's ranting. But to an eleven year old boy, the threat was real. He had been at the receiving end of too many of his father's drunken rages. His mother tried desperately to have the hands that hit her son stop by throwing her own self in the mix. The bruises that both mother and son hid from the world would remain hid but the emotional scars would not.
"I love you so much, Lace." He paused trying to stop the shaking in his voice. He touched Lacey's stomach. "And I loved the baby."
"I love you too." Lacey leaned until her lips captured Danny's lips in a soft but meaningful kiss.
Jo circled her arms around herself trying to remain calm. "I really like our song choices."
Lacey and Danny both jerked their heads to stare strangely at Jo. Jo's head tilted sideways. "You know the list of songs for prom that we three have been working on all evening."
A strange chuckle came from Danny as he stared at Jo. But they all knew it was a release of frightened energy. He knew that the girls were going to protect him this time. The girls had no doubts that they would both do anything for Danny Desai. He was strangely their lifeline for different reasons. To Jo, he was a friend that brought out the best in her. To Lacey, he was her lover that caused her to feel an exhilaration for life.
Fireflies lit the night as the three teens watched the fire extinguish any evidence that Danny had on him of Archie's death. They never left until all items including those items used to clean Danny were changed into ash.
Then Lacey threw the phone in the fire as well. Karen said she had to.
The teens all three walked back towards Danny's home. The girls arms flanked around Danny protectively as if he were in his own personal cocoon.
Walking into the front door, they were met by Karen. Danny let loose of the girls long enough to step up to his mother. "Mom, I can explain..."
Karen touched her son's lip pressing her finger tightly to quiet him. "You don't understand, Danny. You never had to."
Danny's eyes glistened with moisture as he realized that his mother was never his enemy. She was his protector. His arms went around Karen in a tight embrace. Mother and son holding each other while a pain only they knew became their understanding.
Danny whispered. "I love you, Mom."
Karen rubbed her hand up and down Danny's back. But the time to be sentimental wasn't now. She had to get the kids up to Danny's bedroom and stage it for an all day hanging out session. The kids followed Karen's lead and headed to Danny's bedroom. Lacey insisted that she help Danny shower in case evidence still remained. There was nothing sexual about it. Danny's skin was rubbed raw by Lacey's scrubbing. After the shower, Lacey and Danny crawled on the bed while Jo sat at the bottom of Danny's bed on the floor. She hooked up her I-pod and began taking notes on songs.
Danny settled on the bed as Lacey settled against his chest. Soon his eyes closed as Lacey relaxed in his arms. Karen breathed out as she shut the door and headed down stairs.
A knock sounded on the door as Karen erased all incoming calls from her phone. Then she dropped her phone in dishwater to ruin it. Smiling with uncertainty, Karen answered the door. "Chief Masterson, are you hunting for Jo? She's upstairs."
Kyle rubbed his chin as he glanced back at his officer to assist him. "No, Karen. Is Danny home?"
"Sure." Karen frowned. "Lacey, Jo and he are upstairs. Is there something wrong?" She glanced at Eddie, the police officer with Kyle. He was younger then her but the look told of their attraction to each other.
"Can I speak to Danny?" Kyle interrupted the stare.
"I guess." Karen folded her arms defensively. "Whatever new evidence you have on Danny that pertains to Regina Crane's murder, he didn't do it."
"It's not about that, Karen." Eddie stated but was given an angry look by Kyle.
"He's upstairs." Karen scowled. "Be my guest considering your daughter is up there."
Soon, Kyle knocked on the door to Danny's bedroom. The door was partially opened so it opened completely at Kyle's knock. Kyle noticed that Lacey and Danny were entangled together as they slept. He glanced at his daughter, who seemed to be in her own world listening to her I-pod. They seemed so young to have lived through so much.
Karen was behind Kyle. "Do you really have to wake them?"
Kyle shook his head no. "I guess you can tell them the news."
The adults headed down stairs. Kyle rubbed his chin as he addressed Karen. "Archie Yates was found dead this evening."
"What?" Karen gasped feigning shock. "How?"
"Car wreck." Eddie answered. "He had been drinking by the looks of the bottles of alcohol in his car."
"That's terrible." Karen sat down on her sofa. "Not being uncaring but what does this have to do with Danny."
"I felt Danny should know." Kyle smiled at Karen. "There was a suicide note in the car. It seems Archie drove over the cliff on purpose."
Karen furrowed her eyebrows questioningly. Eddie smiled at Karen knowing the news would make her happy. It was about time that Karen Desai and Danny Desai saw happiness. "He admitted to killing Regina as well as planting the necklace in Danny's locker. His friend Scott said that Regina and Archie were going out behind Lacey's back. He figured she threatened to tell and Archie snapped. With his violence towards Lacey, I can see him being overly obsessed with her."
"It's over." Karen allowed tears to fall. Her son was finally safe. She had no clue that Danny's father had finally protected his son. "It's the end."
Kyle and Eddie left. Karen said that Jo was spending the night. Kyle had no problem with that considering that Danny was with Lacey. Karen walked up to Danny's room. She smiled in at the teens, who had all fallen asleep. Jo was curled up on the floor. Danny and Lacey were still in each other's arms. She turned off the lights before closing the door.
Three friends had a bond that no one could understand nor explain. However, the three knew that no matter what life would bring, they'd remain inseparable. They would protect each other. They would love each other. They would forever be bonded by a past that haunted them yet bonded them as friends for life.
The three friends didn't know if it was a mistake with Danny killing Archie or Tara. But he felt he had to do what he did to protect the two girls in his life. He killed Tara for Jo and he killed Archie for Lacey. Mistake or not. It was a mistake they had to live with. As long as they were together, they would get through whatever life brought them.
Author's NOTE: This is the end. I hope you enjoyed. I will be writing a prologue to wrap up all questions. Thanks for all the wonderful responses to this story. I hope I didn't disappoint too many. I had the last chapter written way before the others. I write strangely. I do have a one shot I will post after this is complete. It deals with DarkDanny and it will be rated M due to the graphic nature of it. Hope to have readers give me feedback on that one. Anyway, prologue to follow in a few days. Thanks again. I appreciate all the great reviews.
