A shot through her heart

'What am I doing here?'

This question repeated itself, like a broken record in his head. Even though Kudo Shinichi had a very good idea how it happened and couldn´t deny that a small part of him even enjoyed it.

He was walking with Ran by his side through the more remote parts of Tokyo, while Heiji was stuck between Sonoko and Kazuha. Honestly, he should have seen it coming when they invited him for a walk, after all Sonoko was part of it. It was her scheming all over again.

Shinichi had to admit that he'd been surprised to see Ran waiting for him, along with Sonoko, Kazuha and Hattori in front of the police department. Heiji's face showed that he didn´t quite understand what was going on either, while Ran introduced Bell to Sonoko. Shinichi's gaze wandered over the still fake-blond Japanese woman; her heritage was rather obvious – she was a Suzuki.

Yet, her affectation hadn´t decreased, he could see it in the way she dealt with him, as well as with everyone else. As far as it was possible for Sonoko she was still down to earth, even though she was used to have things going her way.

So, after Ran suggested to replace their promised dinner with a nice walk through the city, Sonoko just declared it done and had marched ahead.

His gaze met Hattori's, searching for help, before he had agreed and was walking along them for a while now. In the beginning, it had been Sonoko and Kazuha that were fixed on him, asking him a few "casual" questions here and there, while he knew that they had a greater plan behind their actions.

'Women.' Shinichi though with a sigh.

As Conan he'd spend enough time with Sonoko and Ran to recognize their "questions" as one of Sonoko's strategies, so that he knew that they served only one purpose:

To figure out what kind of guy William Bell was.

Or, in other words, whether he was good enough for Ran.

Shinichi swallowed; he'd passed this round.

But just when he'd thought to be safe, chatting a little with Heiji while the girls walked behind him, they started phase two. Out of the blue, Kazuha suddenly joined them to talk with her husband about visiting their parents and as decent as Bell was, he gained some distance in order to give the couple more room for their discussion.

Why hadn't he seen it coming?

He sighed again, shaking his head.

'Woman.'

He should have known, recognized and prevented the evil plan of the females. Instead, he'd stepped right into the trap Sonoko and Kazuha had set up for him. The two intriguers had calculated the situation, because when he let himself fall back a little to give the Osakans some privacy, Sonoko seemed rather interested in just this conversation. With a good advice she joined Kazuha, while he stayed behind.

With Ran.

He should have known.

But instead, he felt himself enjoying spending more time with Ran.

He couldn't have known that there was another trap, set and ready for him.

XXX

"Here they come."

His partner acknowledged his words with a short not. It hadn´t been difficult to find a place from where they could keep an eye on the group.

A cold grin crept over Gin's lips, while he set up his rifle with a last heavy click. When he walked to the edge of the building, his eyes wandered to Vodka, who cast a nervous glance though his binoculars. He knew Vodka was tense- This boy- this detective – had gained a certain reputation in the organization after the FBI had been able to manage a few coups against them with his help. The black shadows, which had felt so welcome in the darkness, so untouchable, suddenly had grown insecure.

It was time to turn the tables again.

They had waited long enough and worked long enough to finally have him where they wanted him to be.

It was their turn now.

That's why Vodka was more than annoying by now.

"Stop it already." He mounted his weapon on the ledge and positioned himself on the cold concrete. He didn´t care that his clothes got dirty, after all, that dirt made him earn his money. Gin adjusted the telescope; his cool voice revealed the sinister smile on his lips.

"They won`t be able to locate us and before they will start searching we'll be long gone. You better get the camera ready." Vodka nodded, even though Gin wasn´t looking at him any longer. He swallowed while he put the lens on the camera to zoom in and focus it on their target.

Gin didn´t notice any of this while he watched the small group with growing satisfaction. This was the last thing their boss demanded from them before their next act. Gin slid his tongue over his thin lips. The organization had grown cautions since the FBI repeatedly had set their nest on fire. The boss wanted to make sure that this "Bell" figure wasn´t only another trap for them. This time they had to make sure.

Gin's fingers searched their way over the cold weapon in his hand. This very moment, just before he pulled the trigger, has always been one of his favorites. His victim had no idea of the danger waiting for it, life ran its course obliviously and he alone decided when to stop it. The minute, the second when everything would stop, with only a twitch of his finger.

Bell's smile was focused on the middle of the notch of the riffle, while Gin put his finger around the trigger. It was one of the moments when he didn´t regret that they lost Chianti and Korn, so he had to do the job himself.

He wouldn´t have it any other way.

"Well, let's get the proof for the boss."

The cold metal of the weapon brushed his cheek, while his lips twisted into a smile.

"Show yourself… Kudo Shinichi."

XXX

Bell swallowed and stared at the back of Hattori's head, pleading for help via telepathy, but as usual his supernatural abilities failed since Hattori still was was trapped between the two women.

It was thanks to Ran that their time didn´t continue as silent as it started. He didn´t know, how she did it, but they were talking to each other. Ran, who had been strangely quiet during their conference, chatted with him and the smile on her lips made his heart flutter, while he was answering her questions about his live in America.

For the first time, they were actually talking to each other.

At least that's what it looked like for him.

The more he told her the more silent she became. It was difficult for Ran to keep her smile on her lips, even though she tried not to look disappointed or sad – because she longed to hear something else.

In the beginning it seemed that her act seemed to work, he obviously enjoyed talking to her, but he didn´t notice that with each new sentence that didn´t contain what she was waiting for, he hammered the dagger deeper into her heart.

He didn´t see that it was all an act, that she was wearing the same mask she had put on each time she suspected him to be Conan.

It seemed that she wore it a little too well.

The teacher didn´t notice that Shinichi in fact saw through the game she was playing. After her last "oh, that's interesting," Shinichi allowed her to keep on talking, while his eyes where fixed on her. His chest grew tight, he knew what she was thinking, he knew what she wanted to hear.

Shinichi sighed; Kogoro had been right. He wanted nothing more than to tell her the truth, to free her from this charade they both had to play, but he couldn´t.

He couldn´t endanger her even more or allow her to get dragged deeper into the bad joke he was calling his live.

'You deserve something better, Ran.'

Shinichi swallowed, only now noticed that she wasn´t talking to him any longer, but looked at him, maybe even observing his silent battle.

Shinichi could do nothing but play along and endure the fake smile on her lips, while he put one on his own as well.

"That sounds really amusing, I guess it was hard to get used to suddenly having these "detectives" in your class?" He could hear how she exhaled briefly, knew that she'd been expecting something else after his long silence, yet, Ran played along and continued to talk about the Detective Boys. The "kids" where their theme now, and since Bell knew them as well it was easy to talk about something else than the case.

"That's for sure, it was also kind of difficult to teach them that school is more important than a case." A smile wavered over his lips.

"I guess I understand. I assume it wasn´t easy to get them away from a crime scene?"

Ran sighed and looked up into the sky, before she continued.

"Unfortunately, yes. However, I suppose there would have been a solution for this. But the quarrel was not because they had skipped class, but for the fact that they didn´t want to admit it. Each of them had offered a different excuse where he or she had been."

Bell laughed, shaking his head over the missing agreement during the interrogation.

"Not very clever, considering your own connections with the local police."

"Yeah, that's true. But I guess… I just don´t like being lied to, that's all."

She had turned her gaze away from him, her last words barely a whisper, since she knew that she was crossing a line. Shinichi swallowed, he had stopped, and she slowly paused beside him, looking at him while his eyes where fixed on the ground.

'Ran…'

He should say something, anything.

The lump in this throat grew, Shinichi felt her eyes on his skin, she looked at him, waiting for him to tell her - to finally tell her the truth.

Shinichi took a deep breath, noticed that Bell's voice trembled as he started to speak.

"Mori-san, I-"

But it didn´t matter that he didn´t know how to continue his sentence, because he wasn´t allowed to.

One gunshot – pain and panic.

Shinichi reacted quickly, pulling Ran aside, pushing her into a little ally and placed himself in front of her to save her from further bullets, while Heiji urged the two other women into safety.

They waited in tense silence.

There was no second shot, nor a third or fourth.

Nothing.

Only one shot, but that had been enough to tear her heart apart.

He didn´t notice that she was staring at him, because only now while the throbbing of adrenalin faded, he felt a stinging pain on his cheek. The bullet had only grazed him with a hissing noise, before it penetrated the concrete wall behind them with a loud blow.

Pain seemed to be the signal for his body that the danger was over, so that he suddenly felt how something warm was running down his cheek, when he finally realized what had happened.

'No.'

Hattori's gaze wandered from the bullet hole in the wall back to Bell and wondered why Kudo wasn´t dead. After all, this clearly looked like the work of a sniper. The Osakan grit his teeth.

"What was that?!"

The detective heard how Kazuha took in a sharp breath, while Sonoko whispered Ran's name.

But Ran was looking only at him.

She'd been looking at him all along and now observed how his trembling hand searched its way to his cheek, how his fingertips suddenly turned red.

But Ran knew that it wasn´t the blood that made his fingers tremble.

The dark red liquid wasn´t responsible for his blue eyes to grow wide behind his glasses, but the fact that he felt his own skin beneath his fingers, warm skin that was able to bleed.

It was his own face he felt, not Bell's.

'No.'

He gasped for breaths avoiding her eyes, because he simply couldn't stand it any longer. His pupils darted back and forth, trying to find something to hold onto on the grey concrete.

But the only thing that mattered, the only thing that still seemed to be real in his twisted world was her.

So, his eyes wandered back to her, even though he was afraid of what he might see.

Ran however hadn´t moved.

She could see how the surprise and fear in his eyes faded into something else, something bigger - loss.

He had lost.

They defeated him.

His eyes rested on her, but Ran seemed to be frozen in time, while no word went past his lips, while thousands of voices were screaming at him, telling him what to do, asking him why she was so silent and what he should tell her.

But before he was able to focus on one of those voices, she made a step towards him, coming closer.

Her face however, still held no emotion at all.

'Ran…'

Her hand searched his face, but just before her fingers finally met his skin he flinched, trying to take a step back, but was frozen to the spot.

She stopped, staring at him, while her fingertips hovered over his skin, so that he could feel the warmth of her body, before she touched his cheek.

'No.'

He took her hand into his own, trying to catch her eyes, while Bell's voice was barely more than a whisper, while he pleaded her to stop.

"Ran, P-please…don´t."

She looked him in the eyes, only for a brief moment, before her gaze wandered back to the wound on his cheek, loosening her hand from his weak grip.

Her touches were tender and careful. Shinichi wanted to close his eyes, in order to avoid the torment, but he couldn´t let go of Ran's empty gaze.

She gently touched Bell's fake skin, but only when her fingertips glided over his skin, leaving a blood-red path from his cheek, over his chin, before it ended on his lips, he felt how the muscles of his jaw tensed beneath her touch.

The bullet had ripped one half of Bell's face from his skin and left nothing but the truth.

"Shinichi."

She formed his name, but he didn´t feel like she addressed him, but only named him, like some everyday object.

There wasn´t a single hint of emotion hidden in this word.

Shinichi felt how the weight left his nose when she took off his glasses. Ran allowed the frame to slip from her hand, none of them cared for the small accessor of William Bell any longer, which fell to the dark concrete.

Ran could only observe what her fingers were doing, without her giving them any instructions. It felt similar to how when your legs have gone dead, only that the feeling consumed her whole body. It tingled at first until everything became numb and you were no longer able to move, feeling stuck in your own skin.

And then live suddenly returned.

But the only feeling, the only thing that came along with it was pain.

It hurt.

So much.

The hoarse scream of two women resounded in the background when she called him by his name, but Ran was numb to everything but the pain.

She took a step back and looked at him again.

A shot could not have hit his heart more than her eyes.

They were empty.

She looked at him, yet, it felt like she was seeing right through him, like he wasn´t even there.

His throat was dry, he noticed how his mind tried to command his lips to say something, but all he came up with was her name.

"Ran."

But she didn´t hear him, nor was she able to burst into tears, or kick him to kingdom come, or to wonder why she was surprised in the first place. Cold hummed in her veins, carrying the bitter realization right into her heart.

He never intended to tell her.

Never.

She gasped for air, the grief tore deeper and deeper with every breath she took.

Ran looked at him, one last time.

Then she turned around and walked away, she didn´t respond to the calls of Sonoko, Kazuha or Heiji. She didn´t notice that the two women followed her.

Ran didn´t look back.

She left.

Ah Alright,

I know, I know, I am evil- but don´t worry there will be more interaction between them soon. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Thanks to everyone who reviewd, or placed the story on their favorites or reblogged the chapter on tumblr!

And of course a big thank's to Tobina who did an amazing job as my beta again.

To be honest I don´t knwo if I'll be able to update next month (please don't heat me!) There won´t be a longer break, but with opening my own business (thank you for all your nice wished by the way!) and the secret Santa project I'll have to finish on tumblr, the next chapter isn´t done yet- I'll try but for once I can`t promise an update for next month.

I wish all of you marry Christmas and a healthy and happy new year! Of course I would love to get a review for christmas ^.~

I Love all of you!

~Shelling