I knew how it felt to be another one in need of someone to show me the way
Until you saw a part of me that nobody else could see and my life hasn't been the same…
You make me feel lucky as can be…
"Lucky" by Hoobastank
Divided We Stand
"Holy shit!" Sanchez exclaimed. "The crazy son of a bitch jumped!"
Agent McCarthy turned to one of the other agents after peering over the cliff. "Get a search team down there. There's no way he could have survived that fall. Find the body before it drifts out to sea."
The other agents dispersed as they went about their assigned tasks. Kim just stood at the cliff's edge and stared. She stared in horror at the waters below. Waters that were once a beautiful blue now being invaded by a sea of crimson.
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"Dr. Director!"
She cringed briefly as she heard her name over the intercom. Not that she didn't expect this. Grissim had been practically obsessive about the case she had just closed a couple of hours ago.
"My office! Now!"
She made her way up the catwalk to his office that resided above ops with a practiced look of calm indifference. As Dr. Director entered the office she sat in the seat across from him at his gesture.
"I want an explanation." He demanded.
"To what Sir?" She knew of course, but Grissim had been such a pain as late that she wasn't inclined to make anything easy for him.
"You know damn well I'm talking about the Stoppable case!"
"It's been six months, Sir." She explained. "If he survived Ireland we would have found some trace of him by now."
"We never found the body." Grissim pointed out.
"Most likely taken by the current. With all those rocks it would have been a million to one chance he survived the fall. And that's not an exaggeration, we ran the numbers."
Dr. Director met his eyes before continuing. "And even if he miraculously did survive the fall he wasn't swimming anywhere. Not with the bullet Agent Du put through his shoulder. He's dead, Sir."
Grissim stood and turned his back to her as he looked out his window overlooking ops. "You know as well as I do that ghosts have a habit of coming back to haunt you in this business, Betty. Until I see the body myself the case stays open."
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Kim and Monique sat in the quiet of the Upperton University library. The fact is they wouldn't exactly be chatting non-stop even if they weren't in a library. Not like they used to anyways. Sure they would put on the pretence that everything was normal, but it hadn't been normal for a long time now.
Ever since Ron's death six months ago to be more precise. It had impacted both of them a great deal. Though he had been more Kim's friend than Monique's she still missed him dearly. She even missed his stupid jokes. They always made her laugh. She didn't laugh nearly as much anymore.
Kim didn't laugh at all. She had been withdrawing more and more from the world around her. The guilt over her part in the mission eating away at her. The image of the hurt in his eyes when he realized she even considered that he might be guilty was burned into her mind forever. Bonnie was right when she told her he was always there for her. More importantly Bonnie was right when she said she was never there for him. He was her best friend and she wasn't even a good friend in return.
"Hey, have you heard anything from Bonnie?"
Kim glanced over to see Tara and a group of Upperton U cheerleaders a few tables away. Bonnie's name had caught her attention since she was a little worried about her. After hearing about Ron's death Bonnie had been shattered. She walked around dishevelled and in a daze, when she even bothered to leave her room at all. Despite what Kim had thought it seemed like she really did love him.
"Not a thing." Tara told the inquiring cheerleader.
"I still don't believe she just took off like that!" Another chimed in.
Tara shook her head at the girl. "I'm not. She was broken after what happened to Ron. I'm actually surprised she stuck it out here the four months that she did."
"Do you think he really did any of those things they say he did on the news?" Asked the first cheerleader.
Tara shook her head again. She waved her hand dismissively and gave a little chuckle. "Ron? No way! He was a sweetie. There's just no way."
Kim tuned out the rest of the conversation as another wave of guilt hit her.
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"Mr. and Mrs. Parker." The manager greeted as they made their way through the lobby. "I hope you enjoyed your stay at Caesar's Palace. You're welcome back anytime."
In truth he was glad to see them go and hoped they would never return. True they had rented one of the more expensive rooms for two months and were extremely generous tippers, but they did it with the casino's money. The first day they were there they won the jackpot on the slots, but that was just the beginning.
The brown haired man, Peter was his name, was pretty much a mainstay at the poker tables. He had started small at the low bet tables, but quickly moved up through to tables with a quarter million buy in. Worse thing was he rarely lost and as far as the casino could tell it was all on the up and up. He didn't cheat, he was just good.
The man was smart though and played at several casinos owned by different people. Moving on to another casino as soon as he began to really rack in the doe so as not to draw enough attention as to cause any of the casinos more seedy connections to try anything. He had won so much that he didn't even flinch when his wife, a beautiful red head named Mary Jane, threw away over a hundred grand on the roulette tables.
"I know you don't mean a word of the George." Peter told him as he walked out the door to where the valet brought out his cherry red mustang convertible. "And don't worry. If we're ever in Vegas again we'll avoid your place as a courtesy."
Without looking back at the manager Peter opened the car door for his wife to climb in. Closing the door behind her he jogged over to the driver's side and vaulted over the door and into the seat.
Once they were on the highway Mary Jane took off her red wig and shook her brown hair in the wind. "Only you would choose an alias from a comic book Ron!"
"Hey! Spiderman was the original misunderstood good guy. I can relate." Ron told her as he ran a hand through his dyed brown hair.
An uncomfortable silence reigned for a few minutes before she spoke. It was barely above a whisper but Ron was still able to catch it despite the wind. "Ron?"
"Yeah Bonnie?"
"Don't ever wait so long to let me know you're alive again." She told him through a wavering voice.
"I had to make sure it was safe before I contacted you. For both of us. I couldn't live with myself if anything ever happened to you."
Bonnie hugged herself as tears began to roll down her face. "It's just… I thought you were gone. It hurt so much! I didn't know what to do."
Ron took one hand off the wheel and put an arm around her. "I know. I never wanted to hurt you. I love you too much for that."
"I love you too."