VI

"You don't think I'll let you go that quickly, do ya?"

Mort pulled Amy closer to him. She could feel the heat radiating off his body and glanced up at him. His eyes were heavy looking, exhausted. She wanted to ask him how long it had been since he had a real night's sleep. Eight months?

"What good is this going to do you, Shooter?" Mort called out, his voice sounding raspy.

"We need to get out. Now," Amy said quietly in his hear.

"I'm not sure we can," Mort answered in the same tone. They moved slowly towards the stairs, almost afraid to see what would be at the end. "Down!"

Amy didn't stop to ask why, but ducked with him. An axe slammed into the wall next to where they had been. Shooter grabbed Mort as Amy started to run down the stairs. He let out a startled yelp, eyes wide. He gave a sharp tug and he fell free of the taller man's grasp, tumbling down the stairs after his ex wife. He stuck the bottom with a sickening thud and rolled to a stop.

"Mort?" Amy shrieked, running to him. She shook him – harder than she really meant to – trying to rouse him before Shooter made his way down the stairs. The man came menacingly towards them. "Mort, please wake up."

The man in question stirred slightly, his eyes fluttering open. He reached up to find his glasses gone and cursed angrily. Amy reached over and picked them up from where they'd fallen. "Now come on!"

Mort stumbled clumsily to his feet, find his way back down to the floor as quickly as he had before. He lay there for a moment. He forced back a coughing fit – hadn't he all ready been through the phase of a typical cold a day or two ago? – and struggled to his feet. Amy was at the door, eyes turned frantically on him. Why couldn't he make himself move? Why were his knees buckling again? You're not going to be able to get up.

I've noticed, thanks.

"Get out Amy!" he managed before falling the rest of the way to the floor. He felt as if it were two months before. But no one was there to help them now. No Ted with a cell phone. No cops being called on the cell phone. Just them and their stupidity with coming back to the lake house. How foolish can two people be?

He vaguely saw Shooter grab Amy by her wrist and toss her back into the house. Mort looked up as best he could from his place where he'd fallen. Shooter squatted down next to him. "See, Mr. Rainey, we've got a problem. You've ruined the ending to my story and won't fix it, so that means I've got to change it around, you see?"

Mort glared as best he could.

Shooter took him by the roots of his hair and jerked upwards. The author let out a small moan and felt himself stumbling up and was tossed onto the couch next to Amy. She reached a shaky hand to his face and pulled away. "My word, Mort... Don't you know how to take care of yourself when you're sick? If you'd gone to bed three days ago when I'm sure all this started then we wouldn't be in this mess."

Mort glared. "Sorry, all my fault, per the usual," he answered sarcastically.

"That's not what I was saying."

"That's exactly what you were saying."

"What I was saying was-"

"That you'd like to tell me everything I've done wrong for the past ten years, right?"

Shooter watched the two yell back and forth for a moment before he cleared his throat. "If you're gonna save me the trouble, Mr. Rainey...."

"Shut it!" Mort growled. He stopped suddenly, his head spinning like it had a moment before. This wasn't good. It had only been a cold. Why was it turning out so horrible now? And why was she back to her normal "it's all Mort's fault" ways? He thought maybe, just maybe they had come back to the way it had been before. Or was she always like that and he'd just overlooked it?

"How are you going to change your ending around?" Amy asked quietly, eyes fixated on Shooter's.

"Not only does the man kill his wife, but he lives with such guilt over it he might just commit suicide, Mrs. Rainey. I think that might be a right nice ending as well, don't you?"

Amy shook where she sat. "You're going to kill the both of us?"

"I'd rather just kill you," he answered, "but Mr. Rainey seems intent on sticking his plagiarizing nose into all this mess."

"I didn't steal your damn story! It was mine!"

"But you took someone's," Shooter pointed out.

Mort's eyes narrowed. "Go to hell."

"You and your missus first, Mr. Rainey," John Shooter growled as he produced a pair of scissors from behind his back and lunged at them.

Mort shoved Amy off the couch and followed as quickly as his sleep deprived, illness diluted reflexes would let him.

Amy felt herself fall backwards, head striking a table, jostling a draw open in it. She felt upward in and her hand clenched a gun as she heard Mort cry out. She turned her eyes back to where Shooter was over him, Mort struggling to stay away from the psychotic man. The scissors he held were bloodied and Amy saw Mort favoring his left arm. I know it wasn't loaded then, Mort, but you damn well better have it loaded now, she thought as she fired the weapon.

John shooter stumbled back, eyes wide. "You got a might protective over somethin' not yours, missy," he mumbled before falling against the wall.

Mort crawled to where Amy sat shaking. He took the gun in his own hands with wide eyes. "It wasn't loaded..." he mumbled. "This gun wasn't loaded. I haven't touched it in eight months...."

"Was too loaded, and you know it," Shooter said from his place. "You always knew that I lurked beneath it all, didn't ya, pilgrim? Now what when I die? You think you'll be rid of me? CAN you be rid of me?"

Mort turned angry eyes on John Shooter and fired the weapon again. "I'll be rid of you," he mumbled. "If it's between you and me, I'll win."

So you did it, hmm? The voice chuckled. Have to give you credit, Mort, I didn't really think you'd finish it all.

"Mort?"

He turned to see Amy sitting next to him, her eyes teary and a look of terror across her face. "You haven't touched it since the motel?"

"No, but it wasn't loaded then, so I don't know... Maybe I loaded it when Shooter first showed up and forgot about it."

She shrugged, focusing on the floor before her. Suddenly she launched herself towards him, half tackling him as she hugged him. "I thought he'd killed you for a minute."

Mort smiled slightly. "So do even we get a happy ending after all this?" he mumbled, not even realizing he'd spoken the words out loud.

"You're the author, you tell me," Amy answered as she sat up a bit, now just leaning over him as he lay on the floor.

He gave her a quick smile. "I say... I get up, stop my shoulder from bleeding all over the floor, and then we'll see where the ending goes from there. We're taking this slow, remember?"

"I know." She looked down around to his shoulder as he sat up. "That looks terrible, Mort."

He couldn't help but smile now as he pulled her around and kissed her lightly on the lips. "Thanks for worrying, babe."

She gave him a smile of her own. "Let's get you patched up and close this chapter."

-----------------------

A.N: That's it. My alternate ending. I'll go back to my Pirates of the Caribbean nitch now. I'll wonder out from time to time to write a new movie when I see it. Like the idea that's pestering me about Sleepy Hollow... Hmm... Anyway, I'm glad my story ended happy. That makes me happy. With all the crap in the world, something's got to go right, right? At least in fiction anyway. That's why I like it so much. So very very little like reality. It's soothing.

TrappedandAnnoyed: Thanks so much for all your nice comments! I really do appreciate them. Makes my days go better, it really does. I hope the ending was as good as the rest of it. Thanks for keeping Rick in prayers

Dawnie-7: Hope the end wasn't too much to your disliking, since I know you weren't exactly rooting for the Amy/Mort pairing, but I thank you that you stuck around! And thanks for keeping Rick in mind

Sour Pickle: I just finished the novella. I got soooooo mad at the end. I nearly cried when he looked up at her right there at the end. ::sniffles as she thinks about it:: I despised Ted in the movie and I disliked Amy, but she redeemed herself in my story by getting back together with Mort. ::grins:: Ted redeemed himself... by dying. Lol. That's twisted, I know, but I'm only sadistic in writing, I swear! And it's okay, I understand what you're saying about kinda not having a problem with them dying in the movie. I didn't like it that Amy died. I thought right before he killed her hat he'd win out over Shooter and he'd get Amy in the end! But no... never. So I wrote! That's one of my few talents, so I do it often. I'm glad to hear that I keep the characters in character. That's always a goal for me that I'm not always sure that I do well, but apparently I do in movie fanfics, b/c the people over in the PotC fanfics say I keep Jack Sparrow very in character, so hey, I'm getting better at it! Yay! Hope you liked the story's end! OMG!! I just read your profile and you really live on a lake with Stephen King?! No way! That's cool! Have you actually met him? ::is getting far too excited for her own good::

Hollow-ambitions: Okay, I got your review just as I was about to upload this chapter, so yay! I can respond! Yes, I did love your ideas! I'm a bit of a sadistic writer myself... (go read my Pirates of the Carabbean fics and see what I did to poor Jack lol) I'm glad I could make you happy by updating . Maybe you'll be happy again for this update! hopefully it was worth it

Thanks very much to everyone who read.