Never Assume

~part 3~

So, I was reading the first two series that I wrote (the first two on ff.net, they're not posted anywhere else)…and, um, they weren't as good as I thought they were then, lol. Like…they weren't good at all…I don't know what you people saw in me…Especially those of you who have stuck with me the year and a half I've been writing here…I don't get it. Thank you…but I don't know why you have.

~Two years earlier (1998)~

Monica ducked into the alley, walking out the back door of Allesandro's. She grinned. Half an hour and then she'd get to spend the rest of the day alone with Chandler. She'd even managed to leave a little earlier than she thought she'd be able to. Normally that would have thrown her entire day off, but she didn't care. It meant more time with Chandler. Funny how much he'd managed to change her in the couple of months they'd been together.

Looking up, Monica saw two cars parked at the end of the alley, thinking that was strange because no one ever came down there. But what she saw next was what shocked her the most. The tall thin man closest to her, his back to where she as standing, took out a gun, shooting the other man, hitting him in the head, directly between the eyes. Monica gasped, her hand rushing up to cover her mouth a second too late.

The man's head snapped around. Monica stood, rooted to her spot, eyes wide in horror.

"Don't just stand there, get her," he yelled to the other two men standing on either side of him.

The next thing Monica knew, she was running. And then pain. Intense pain. And as she fell to the cement, she couldn't be sure if the noise she was hearing were really sirens in the distance or just the ringing inside her head.

~*~

Lights.

Bright lights.

'Oh my god, I'm dead,' was Monica's first coherent thought. But as the room came into view, she realized that she was, in fact, dead.

"Ah, Ms. Gellar," a man she had never seen before in her life said, taking a seat next to her bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I guess," she said slowly, not sure if she should trust the slightly creepy-looking man. "Who the hell are you?"

"Jeff Hinges, FBI," he took out his badge, showing it to her. "Apparently you witnessed something that someone really didn't want to leave any witnesses from," he started. "Fortunately, he didn't have a very good aim with a gun. He got you in the shoulder," he paused again. "When the police arrived, you were unconscious, but it was probably more from shock than from the injury itself."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I'm following…"

"The man who you saw get shot was Tony Perrone. The man we believe shot him was Tommy Gambino," he paused, watching for her reaction, and seeing none decided that she must have had nothing to do with it. "And you are the one person who would be able to identify him. And they don't want that."

"And your point," Monica said, slightly annoyed with his blunt, yet roundabout way of putting everything.

Jeff laughed, shaking his head, "You're a very wanted woman right now."

~*~

Andrea Hansen. That was the name they had given her, the name that was now hers. Monica Gellar was dead. That's what her friends and family would be told, that's what the newspapers would say. She had witnessed something that no one had wanted her to witness, so in an attempt to cover up what had happened, they killed her as well, trying to burn the body to get rid of any possible evidence. But they had found her anyway. Because of the extent of the burns, the body had to be identified by dental impressions, and the family had agreed to let them cremate what was left of her body. That explained the lack of a body at the funeral.

Monica sighed; her life was, quite literally, over. If she contacted anyone from her past life, she ran the risk of being found.

So a new identity, a new home. A new life. One that wasn't really hers and that she didn't really want. She wanted her life, her job, her friends…her Chandler.

They said that she'd move on, adjust. But at that moment, Monica seriously didn't see that happening.

To

Be

Continued…

Yep, I even found a way to get rid of the body for all those who questioned me, hehe :) Well now ya know what happened…please review and I'll continue as soon as I get the chance…