Ch.36

"Fox?" Ethan questioned, standing in the doorway. "What did you do?"

Luis scanned the room, looking down at a quivering Rebecca.

"I don't understand," he said to himself as he looked some more.

"Luis look," Ethan pointed.

Luis did as Ethan said, following his gaze.

He saw two bullet holes in the wall.

"Did you just do that?"

Fox took a step back, combing his fingers through his hands.

"Rebecca, get up," he said hatefully. " You're not shot."

She shook as she slowly sat up examining herself. She was fine.

"You-you didn't shoot me?" she stammered.

"I don't understand Fox," she said.

"Neither do I," Ethan said growing impatient. "What is going on here?"

Fox was silent.

"Fox!" Luis yelled. "Do you mind filling us in on what's going on?"

He smiled.

"I cant."

"Why not?"

"Because I told him that I wanted to tell you."

They all looked towards the kitchen where that voice had come from.

"Oh my god." Ethan said.

"TERESA?"

She smiled as she limped into the room towards them. Her face was badly bruised, but nothing seemed to be life threatening.

"Teresa?" Luis whispered. "It's really you?"

She smiled.

"I told you I would be ok," she said hugging him.

Luis laughed as he hugged back, careful to squeeze to tight.

"Look at your face," he said grimacing. "Does it hurt?"

"Eh, only when I breath," she joked. She walked towards Ethan.

"I'm glad you're ok," she said hugging him.

"You're glad I'M ok? God Teresa, I thought the worst had happened to you."

She pulled away.

"I'm a fighter Ethan…you should know that by now."

He laughed.

Luis looked at Fox.

"OK, now that she's here, would someone mind telling us the story?"

Teresa and Fox looked at each other.

"Well…." They began.

Fox filled them in on how he had discovered her body, thinking she was dead. He told them how he had tried CPR and nothing had worked. Then, he covered her up and went after Rebecca.

"Wait, so how did you know that she really wasn't dead then?" Ethan questioned.

"Well you see…when I had decided to go after Rebecca, I knew that I had a gun with me…Luis had given me one for protection."

"What I didn't realize is that it wasn't loaded. I forgot that I had put the bullets in my other coat pocket for safekeeping. And when I went to grab them, I discovered that they weren't there. So, I quickly ran back downstairs to look for them…and that's when I saw her."

Fox gave Teresa a warm smile, his voice quavering.

"She was just lying there, her eyes open…I thought I was imagining things…I mean, I had just seen her a few moments ago and she was dead…I thought for sure I was going crazy."

"When I saw him come down the stairs, I couldn't breathe," Teresa picked up. "I thought for sure that I was dreaming.

"I slowly walked over towards her and bent down next to her…I still thought I was crazy of course, but I wanted to touch her, just to make sure."

"And that's when I realized that I wasn't crazy," he beamed. "She was really there, she was really ok."

"Fox freaked out," Teresa said. "He was touching me and grabbing me, and I couldn't understand what he was doing."

"I was just so happy." He said. "I was just filled with such emotion."

"I asked her what happened." "If she remembered how she had gotten like that?"

"And I thought about it for a moment…and that's when I remembered her." She pointed at Rebecca. "I remember her attacking me earlier and injecting me with something."

"SO we came up with this plan, thinking that Rebecca would tell me the truth when I threatened her life."

"So all of this was just to scare me?" Rebecca asked jumping up. "You weren't really going to kill me?"

"Rebecca why would I kill you? I think it's a much better punishment for you to rot in jail the rest of your miserable life."

"Jail?"

Teresa smiled.

"The cops are already on their way…let's see, kidnapping, attempted murder, all sorts of conspiracies…you're going to Rebecca."

She glared back.

"You can't get rid of me this easily."

"Oh yea?" Luis walked over and slapped her across the face, knocking her to the ground unconscious.

"Seems pretty easy to me."

"Luis, you can't hit a lady." Ethan joked.

"I didn't. I just hit Rebecca! Now help me get her over here until the cops come."

Ethan and Luis carried her over to the door and waited.

Fox turned towards Teresa.

"I really thought I had lost you"

She smiled.

"Fox, you could never lose me. You know that."

He sighed.

"Let's go home Resa."

She hugged him.

"I thought you would never say that."