Previously on A STRANGER IN TOWN...AAB foolishly agreed to write Part Sixteen and TRVMB, slowly descending into madness, and then not so slowly, made a series of bizarre, threatening voice mails of portents to come if Part Sixteen was not delivered soon. And now, the wet-noodle conclusion of Part Fifteen...
----
"Rebecca?" Pretty Wife called out, struggling through a fog-like haze of unconsciousness.
"Darling, Honeybear, Love," she heard Consolation Husband respond, and a deep frown line creased her brow.
"Who's Rebecca?" he asked, as she opened her eyes.
"Where am I?"
"You're at Our Lady of Mercy, someone called and told me you'd been involved in an accident, My Heart."
"Yes," she remembered that. "Dan was--oh, gosh, how long has it been?" When C.H. looked at her so tenderly it was almost hard to remember that she was supposed to be suspicious of him.
"All night. I've been here all night." Seeing her concern he added, "I had to leave Junior with Old Neighbor, but he's fine." She was not immediately concerned about Baby Heir, but was glad to hear that he was taken care of and off her mind for the moment.
"And we can postpone resurfacing the floor in the study, Darling--it'll keep."
He always had her best interest in mind. She wondered if it had all been a dream--ever since that dinner with Guest so few days ago--a long nightmare, ended now.
"Who's Dan," C.H. asked, and there was a hard edge to his voice.
"Dan, the Dry--Dry Cleaner, he was coming over and then--"
The hard edge to his voice became sharp, and there were no tender nicknames for her any longer, "You were meeting with the Dry Cleaner--do they offer door-to-door service now? What's going on?"
"Nothing," she said. "I don't--I don't think I'm remembering things rightly." She lied and touched her fingers delicately to the bandage on her head.
C.H. reverted to cooing mode, assuring her that it would all come back in time and they would talk about it then, and she let him collect her into his arms. In the embrace, his back was to the door into the room, but she could see out. She dreaded when the moment came when they would have to talk about Dan, innocent, generous Dan--she let out a little sob and squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them again she saw a figure in the doorway. Blinking back the tears, her vision improved and the figure coalesced into Deadboy Stranger. He held a giant bouquet of flowers in one hand, a box of chocolates in the other, as though he were headed out on a first date in the year 1952..
She stared at him from her place in C.H.'s embrace and he stared back, frozen in the doorway.
In the background a doctor was paged on the overhead, breaking the moment, and Stranger cleared his throat and apologized in a deep voice, "sorry--wrong room."
He was gone before Consolation Husband had a chance to turn around and see who was there.
.
...to be continued...
.
Disclaimer: This fiction is intended as parody only; the characters, plot, etc., are the intellectual property of its authors. This story is not in any way affiliated with the Lifetime Channel, Lifetime Television, or the Lifetime Original Movie franchise.
by: Neftzer and friends (AAB, TRVMB, JMG, KLS) (c)2003
Feedback Appreciated!
Check out royaltoby.com / shack for Neftzer's OutBack Fiction Shack
