Chapter One:
The clock struck one am. And the alarm went off.
Groaning, Danny rolled over and threw the clock against the far wall. Returning to her original position, Danny cuddled up against Glenn and attempted to go back to sleep. Glenn would have none of it, though. "Get out of bed and go to work, Danny," he grumbled, sleepily.
"No," she mumbled into their pillow.
Then it began. It always started with the quiet knocking. After a while, the knocking escalated into pounding that shook the trailer. Tired of listening to the pounding, Glenn climbed out of bed and picked Danny up. The trailer door opened as he approached it with her—kicking—slung over his shoulder. "Here you go, Robert," he said, passing the still struggling Danny to the stuntman. "Have fun at work, Danny." Yawning, he locked the door and went back to bed.
Robert carried Danny to the training room. She had given up on kicking and resolved herself to being slung over his shoulder. When they arrived at the training room, Robert put her down and said, "Suit up. Don't want any trouble. Go."
Danny, now much more awake, walked over to her locker and opened it. She quickly changed out of her pajamas and into her uniform—black Capri pants, black spaghetti strap shirt and her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She put her wrist brace on her right wrist, strapping it tightly to prevent carpel tunnel. After two seconds of searching, she found her fencing foil and walked, barefoot, onto the training floor and waited, looking over her reflection in the many mirrors that lined the walls with a critical eye.
Danny wasn't too hideous, she thought. She was about five foot nine with long, light brown hair and bright blue eyes. Hers was a slightly pointed nose with a few freckles—six, never more, never less. She had a lean, fit form due to the many hours she trained a day so she would be prepared for anything at work. The only thing that bugged her about herself was the osteoarthritis in her left knee, causing it to swell when it was aggravated. Robert came back then. He was a hulking creature, standing at a towering six foot eleven. His accent suggested he was from Utah, but he claimed to be from California. He was a good Mormon boy-type and Danny liked him well enough to trust him with her life. His sandy-blonde hair tended to fall into his green eyes when he trained her, causing her to want to snog him right then and there, but she always reminded herself of Glenn and how devastated he would be if she turned her back on him. "Ready?" he asked, spinning his foil once in his left hand. He was a lefty, which provided Danny with a perfect challenge—she was sick of winning so easily.
"Always ready, Robbie," she said, smiling and spinning her own foil. "Always ready to take you down."
He smiled and said, "En garde."
They moved into their respected ready positions. Another trainer called the mark and they began dueling ruthlessly. Though Robert was her better, Danny was getting very close to finally destroying him despite the fact her brace made it difficult for her to move her wrist for certain moves. Robert wasn't holding back; he never did. He knew that she would be offended if he ever held back when battling her. In truth, he was slightly afraid of what would happen if he ever did. She would probably slaughter him; she was that good.
As Danny was gaining the upper hand, after four hours of intense battle, an old friend entered the training room and caught her eyes unintentionally. He just wanted to see her and watch her train, hoping to find inspiration for his next book. His prescience distracted Danny and Robert was able to unarm her and knock her to the floor.
"I win," he said, but she wasn't paying attention to him. "What—"
Danny scrambled to her feet and ran over to her friend. Without hesitation, he pulled her into a hug and asked, "What's your story, Morning Glory?" He stepped back to examine her. During her battle with Robert, Danny had lost her ponytail elastic and her hair fell messily over her shoulders.
She smiled at her friend and gave him a quick cross-examination of her own. He was still taller than her and his hair was still on the longish side. But the color was a little lighter. His brown eyes seemed solemn, almost grave. And he wore—"When'd you get braces?" she asked him.
"Last month," he answered. "Had to get a few things straightened out."
"Gotcha..." She hoped it was more than just his teeth he was straightened out. At the beginning of the previous month, she had received a phone call from the sheriff of the small town in New York her lived outside of. The news he gave her of suspicions against him frightened her and she didn't want to believe it was true, but she had to know what had happened...
Robert approached them, wary of this nameless man that he had never met. "Danny, we have to get back to work or you'll never improve," he said.
"Robert, how often do I ever get to actually hang out with my friends and have fun?" Danny countered. "Once every blue moon, that's how often. We train everyday and we haven't even started shooting the film."
"Danny, we start next week," Robert said.
"I know that, but—"
"Danielle!" a voice rang through the training room, making Danny cringe at the sound of her full name.
"Yes, Mr. Wen?" she asked, turning to the person who spoke.
He was a middle aged man who smoked too much, took too many medications, and was, unfortunately, the casting agent for the movie and the one who could hire or fire you in a blink of an eye. "Danielle, I have good news and I have bad news."
"Good news first," she said promptly.
"You are just the sort of talent we're looking for in the villainess," Mr. Wen said.
"And the bad news?"
"You're not the villainess in this movie," he said, eyeing the foil in her hand cautiously. "I'm afraid you're fired as of right now."
Instead of flying into a fit of rage as he expected she would, Danny smiled happily and said, "Now I have all the time I want to talk to Mort. Thank you, Mr. Wen. Robert, I'm afraid with me being fired, I don't need to train with you anymore. Good bye."
She quickly emptied her locker and left the training room with Mort tailing her. "I hope I wasn't the one who got you fired, Danny. You know I don't want to be any inconvenience to you."
"I know, Mort," she said. "It's not your fault; it's mine. They wanted me to get up at one in the morning for training and you know I'm not a morning person..." They reached the trailer and she opened the door and they entered. "Glenn? Are you up yet? I have someone I want you to meet."
He entered the kitchen area, fully dressed and groomed, and looked at Mort. "Hello," he said uncertainly.
"Glenn, this is my best friend, Morton Reiny," Danny said, her voice cheerful. "Morton, this is Glenn Wood, my fiancé."
The two men shook hands, but with icy expressions on their faces. Danny pretended not to notice and began chattering happily about this and that as Glenn and Morton sized each other up. Glenn was six foot one, with short black hair and hazel eyes. He was well built and large in physique. Morton, on the other hand, was only five foot ten with the build of a nerdy bookworm—which he was; only he wrote the books the worms read.
"Oh, Glenn, dearest, I've been fired," Danny said casually.
"You were—what?" Glen couldn't believe what he was hearing. Morton took the opportunity to shrink back into a corner to watch, still looking for his inspiration. "How could you be fired? What'd you do?"
"Nothing," she said, busying herself with something. "Mr. Wen just walked up to me today and said they were letting me go."
"But—"
"Look, Glenn," she turned to face him, "I don't care that I've been fired. I hated working with them and you know it!"
Glenn didn't respond. Danny could see the gears in his head working, trying to think of something to say or do that could help her get her job back. Unable to say anything, he stormed out of the trailer and slammed the door behind him, rocking the RV. Danny turned to Morton and said, "Well, that went well."
"That went well?"
"Think about it: He's twice my size and three times my strength. He could crush me like a twig if he wanted to and he didn't," Danny began washing the dishes. "He did all he could to get me hired in the first place because he didn't think writing was any future for me. I kept telling him, 'look at what Morton's done. I could do the same.' But he never listened, though he's read all your books at least once. Don't give me that 'I-don't- believe-you Look. What's true is true and you know it, Mort."
"He doesn't seem to like me very much."
"He doesn't know you," she guessed. "That, and he's really over protective, so he's probably afraid you're going to steal me away from him."
Morton began helping her with the dishes. "I could..."
"Don't. I don't want to have to pick up the bits and pieces that used to be you," she said, smiling at the thought of going away with Mort. Danny did love Glenn, but at times he was far too overbearing and she wanted to be able to breathe every once and a while. Morton always gave her the space she needed and was always close when she needed him. Not matter how much she loved Glenn, she still loved Morton much more, but in a different sort of way since he had been her best friend for so long. "But I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice living in that cottage you've got down by the lake, though. Heaven knows I love that place." She sighed and stared into space, thinking about the cottage. "It'd be an awfully mean trick of you stole me for a week..."
"Do you want me to?" Morton asked, hoping she'd say yes.
She shook her head. "No, it'd be too mean. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve it every so often, but..." She hastily put all the clean dishes in the cupboard, trying to keep her mind off the subject.
Morton put the plates away and asked, "Danny, do you love him?"
Needless to say, she was on the side of shocked. Putting the dishtowel away, she said, "Of course I do, Mort!" She got out the basket of laundry and began folding it.
He leaned against the refrigerator and said, "No. I mean do you truly love him. Could you spend the rest of your life happily married to him? Seeing him everyday for the rest of your life?"
Danny stopped in the middle of hunting for the match of her grey kitten sock. "Morton, how could you say that?" she asked softly. "Why are you saying that?"
He shrugged. "I'm only looking out for you. Remember, my marriage didn't end well."
"Whatever happened to Amy, anyways, Mort? Do you know?" Danny asked, hoping to clarify the fog that was surrounding him at the moment. She realized that since they had been out of touch for so long, she didn't know much about his life at the moment. All she knew was what the sheriff had told her and it wasn't a comforting thought.
"I'm not sure... I guess she married Ted and moved away or something," he answered. "I haven't seen them for a while."
Then Glenn entered the trailer and the two fell quiet. "I tried getting your job back, but it wasn't any use. They're hell-bent on keeping you out of the film. I guess you can sleep in until whenever you want and you can write to your heart's delight now, huh?" he said a sour note in his voice.
"You know, Glenn, I was thinking," Danny said, ignoring the quiet "oh, no" from her fiancé. "Since I've been fired and you're still working on the movie, maybe I could go on a vacation until you're done and I could have a quiet place where I could write 'to my heart's delight.' What do you think?"
Glenn thought for a moment, said, "Go ahead," and walked out of the RV once more.
Excited, Danny hugged Morton tightly. As they embraced, Morton whispered, "Come hide away with me, Danny..."
The clock struck one am. And the alarm went off.
Groaning, Danny rolled over and threw the clock against the far wall. Returning to her original position, Danny cuddled up against Glenn and attempted to go back to sleep. Glenn would have none of it, though. "Get out of bed and go to work, Danny," he grumbled, sleepily.
"No," she mumbled into their pillow.
Then it began. It always started with the quiet knocking. After a while, the knocking escalated into pounding that shook the trailer. Tired of listening to the pounding, Glenn climbed out of bed and picked Danny up. The trailer door opened as he approached it with her—kicking—slung over his shoulder. "Here you go, Robert," he said, passing the still struggling Danny to the stuntman. "Have fun at work, Danny." Yawning, he locked the door and went back to bed.
Robert carried Danny to the training room. She had given up on kicking and resolved herself to being slung over his shoulder. When they arrived at the training room, Robert put her down and said, "Suit up. Don't want any trouble. Go."
Danny, now much more awake, walked over to her locker and opened it. She quickly changed out of her pajamas and into her uniform—black Capri pants, black spaghetti strap shirt and her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She put her wrist brace on her right wrist, strapping it tightly to prevent carpel tunnel. After two seconds of searching, she found her fencing foil and walked, barefoot, onto the training floor and waited, looking over her reflection in the many mirrors that lined the walls with a critical eye.
Danny wasn't too hideous, she thought. She was about five foot nine with long, light brown hair and bright blue eyes. Hers was a slightly pointed nose with a few freckles—six, never more, never less. She had a lean, fit form due to the many hours she trained a day so she would be prepared for anything at work. The only thing that bugged her about herself was the osteoarthritis in her left knee, causing it to swell when it was aggravated. Robert came back then. He was a hulking creature, standing at a towering six foot eleven. His accent suggested he was from Utah, but he claimed to be from California. He was a good Mormon boy-type and Danny liked him well enough to trust him with her life. His sandy-blonde hair tended to fall into his green eyes when he trained her, causing her to want to snog him right then and there, but she always reminded herself of Glenn and how devastated he would be if she turned her back on him. "Ready?" he asked, spinning his foil once in his left hand. He was a lefty, which provided Danny with a perfect challenge—she was sick of winning so easily.
"Always ready, Robbie," she said, smiling and spinning her own foil. "Always ready to take you down."
He smiled and said, "En garde."
They moved into their respected ready positions. Another trainer called the mark and they began dueling ruthlessly. Though Robert was her better, Danny was getting very close to finally destroying him despite the fact her brace made it difficult for her to move her wrist for certain moves. Robert wasn't holding back; he never did. He knew that she would be offended if he ever held back when battling her. In truth, he was slightly afraid of what would happen if he ever did. She would probably slaughter him; she was that good.
As Danny was gaining the upper hand, after four hours of intense battle, an old friend entered the training room and caught her eyes unintentionally. He just wanted to see her and watch her train, hoping to find inspiration for his next book. His prescience distracted Danny and Robert was able to unarm her and knock her to the floor.
"I win," he said, but she wasn't paying attention to him. "What—"
Danny scrambled to her feet and ran over to her friend. Without hesitation, he pulled her into a hug and asked, "What's your story, Morning Glory?" He stepped back to examine her. During her battle with Robert, Danny had lost her ponytail elastic and her hair fell messily over her shoulders.
She smiled at her friend and gave him a quick cross-examination of her own. He was still taller than her and his hair was still on the longish side. But the color was a little lighter. His brown eyes seemed solemn, almost grave. And he wore—"When'd you get braces?" she asked him.
"Last month," he answered. "Had to get a few things straightened out."
"Gotcha..." She hoped it was more than just his teeth he was straightened out. At the beginning of the previous month, she had received a phone call from the sheriff of the small town in New York her lived outside of. The news he gave her of suspicions against him frightened her and she didn't want to believe it was true, but she had to know what had happened...
Robert approached them, wary of this nameless man that he had never met. "Danny, we have to get back to work or you'll never improve," he said.
"Robert, how often do I ever get to actually hang out with my friends and have fun?" Danny countered. "Once every blue moon, that's how often. We train everyday and we haven't even started shooting the film."
"Danny, we start next week," Robert said.
"I know that, but—"
"Danielle!" a voice rang through the training room, making Danny cringe at the sound of her full name.
"Yes, Mr. Wen?" she asked, turning to the person who spoke.
He was a middle aged man who smoked too much, took too many medications, and was, unfortunately, the casting agent for the movie and the one who could hire or fire you in a blink of an eye. "Danielle, I have good news and I have bad news."
"Good news first," she said promptly.
"You are just the sort of talent we're looking for in the villainess," Mr. Wen said.
"And the bad news?"
"You're not the villainess in this movie," he said, eyeing the foil in her hand cautiously. "I'm afraid you're fired as of right now."
Instead of flying into a fit of rage as he expected she would, Danny smiled happily and said, "Now I have all the time I want to talk to Mort. Thank you, Mr. Wen. Robert, I'm afraid with me being fired, I don't need to train with you anymore. Good bye."
She quickly emptied her locker and left the training room with Mort tailing her. "I hope I wasn't the one who got you fired, Danny. You know I don't want to be any inconvenience to you."
"I know, Mort," she said. "It's not your fault; it's mine. They wanted me to get up at one in the morning for training and you know I'm not a morning person..." They reached the trailer and she opened the door and they entered. "Glenn? Are you up yet? I have someone I want you to meet."
He entered the kitchen area, fully dressed and groomed, and looked at Mort. "Hello," he said uncertainly.
"Glenn, this is my best friend, Morton Reiny," Danny said, her voice cheerful. "Morton, this is Glenn Wood, my fiancé."
The two men shook hands, but with icy expressions on their faces. Danny pretended not to notice and began chattering happily about this and that as Glenn and Morton sized each other up. Glenn was six foot one, with short black hair and hazel eyes. He was well built and large in physique. Morton, on the other hand, was only five foot ten with the build of a nerdy bookworm—which he was; only he wrote the books the worms read.
"Oh, Glenn, dearest, I've been fired," Danny said casually.
"You were—what?" Glen couldn't believe what he was hearing. Morton took the opportunity to shrink back into a corner to watch, still looking for his inspiration. "How could you be fired? What'd you do?"
"Nothing," she said, busying herself with something. "Mr. Wen just walked up to me today and said they were letting me go."
"But—"
"Look, Glenn," she turned to face him, "I don't care that I've been fired. I hated working with them and you know it!"
Glenn didn't respond. Danny could see the gears in his head working, trying to think of something to say or do that could help her get her job back. Unable to say anything, he stormed out of the trailer and slammed the door behind him, rocking the RV. Danny turned to Morton and said, "Well, that went well."
"That went well?"
"Think about it: He's twice my size and three times my strength. He could crush me like a twig if he wanted to and he didn't," Danny began washing the dishes. "He did all he could to get me hired in the first place because he didn't think writing was any future for me. I kept telling him, 'look at what Morton's done. I could do the same.' But he never listened, though he's read all your books at least once. Don't give me that 'I-don't- believe-you Look. What's true is true and you know it, Mort."
"He doesn't seem to like me very much."
"He doesn't know you," she guessed. "That, and he's really over protective, so he's probably afraid you're going to steal me away from him."
Morton began helping her with the dishes. "I could..."
"Don't. I don't want to have to pick up the bits and pieces that used to be you," she said, smiling at the thought of going away with Mort. Danny did love Glenn, but at times he was far too overbearing and she wanted to be able to breathe every once and a while. Morton always gave her the space she needed and was always close when she needed him. Not matter how much she loved Glenn, she still loved Morton much more, but in a different sort of way since he had been her best friend for so long. "But I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice living in that cottage you've got down by the lake, though. Heaven knows I love that place." She sighed and stared into space, thinking about the cottage. "It'd be an awfully mean trick of you stole me for a week..."
"Do you want me to?" Morton asked, hoping she'd say yes.
She shook her head. "No, it'd be too mean. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve it every so often, but..." She hastily put all the clean dishes in the cupboard, trying to keep her mind off the subject.
Morton put the plates away and asked, "Danny, do you love him?"
Needless to say, she was on the side of shocked. Putting the dishtowel away, she said, "Of course I do, Mort!" She got out the basket of laundry and began folding it.
He leaned against the refrigerator and said, "No. I mean do you truly love him. Could you spend the rest of your life happily married to him? Seeing him everyday for the rest of your life?"
Danny stopped in the middle of hunting for the match of her grey kitten sock. "Morton, how could you say that?" she asked softly. "Why are you saying that?"
He shrugged. "I'm only looking out for you. Remember, my marriage didn't end well."
"Whatever happened to Amy, anyways, Mort? Do you know?" Danny asked, hoping to clarify the fog that was surrounding him at the moment. She realized that since they had been out of touch for so long, she didn't know much about his life at the moment. All she knew was what the sheriff had told her and it wasn't a comforting thought.
"I'm not sure... I guess she married Ted and moved away or something," he answered. "I haven't seen them for a while."
Then Glenn entered the trailer and the two fell quiet. "I tried getting your job back, but it wasn't any use. They're hell-bent on keeping you out of the film. I guess you can sleep in until whenever you want and you can write to your heart's delight now, huh?" he said a sour note in his voice.
"You know, Glenn, I was thinking," Danny said, ignoring the quiet "oh, no" from her fiancé. "Since I've been fired and you're still working on the movie, maybe I could go on a vacation until you're done and I could have a quiet place where I could write 'to my heart's delight.' What do you think?"
Glenn thought for a moment, said, "Go ahead," and walked out of the RV once more.
Excited, Danny hugged Morton tightly. As they embraced, Morton whispered, "Come hide away with me, Danny..."
