Last Shot at Love

Make her shut up: And she's back again. Whooooo. Firstly, I'd like to say that the flashback-dream that Rachael has in this chapter was made from a picture from the anime (I've seen it, I think o.o;) and the elaborations made by Nikoru in Photographic Memories. You all need to go read and review her fic, because it's AWESOME. -cuddles Nik for letting her use it-. Yeah. So I made up some of that stuff. But the outline was provided by Nikoru... Wellsies. I have mah chicken fried rice, mah soy sause, and mah diet coke. I'm all set -cracks her knuckles- 's writin' time. I got a really weird fortune cookie..."Happiness will bring you good luck." What. The. Crap? Anyways. And Yoh's Girl. You'll be REALLY pleased with this chapter. REALLY pleased XD

Lady Starlight2: Ha! She reviews AGAIN. I'm loved. -cuddles her black lab- And yes. The Village rocked my socks. -wiggles her fingers- shpookyyyyy.

The Liz: Well, if I divulged THAT I might just spoil mah fic. You'll know. Soon. I hope ..; This is already longer than I had planned on.

Ember Mage: I know. I feel so bad for Amy. But she's so cute to mess with. As for Joey's code name... I was thinking Whiskey... Pina Colada sounds too girly.

Claddeh Ring: Whee. Useless information is fun.

Wishfulthinker22: Dun rule out the cheese, dearheart. You never know. Cheese is awful sneaky like that.

Brandon Rice: Meh. Regular Pepsi scares me... I drink Diet Coke XD

Ember Mage: Well, I thought long and hard about that too. I thought that, because she was a bit stunned for that sole moment, that she wouldn't react as quickly. By the time she would have gotten her mind cleared enough to fight back, there was a knife pressed firmly to her throat, leaving her with very few movements that wouldn't slice her head off XD

Fire Inu: Dun wet your pants, lovvie.

Nittle Grasper Fan Joshie: Ah. I see now. My head normally isn't in the gutters like that, but cha know. 6 days left to highschool can kinda do that to you. Although my school is spiffy. My anthropology teacher is nice, I get to take a FIELD TRIP to Belize, we have a really neat little courtyard, and I'm going to get to switch from Business Principals to Forensic Science.... Spiffy, eh? XD Now i'm babbling. As for the picture, I don't watch/play Megaman, so I'm sort of up a creek without a paddle. My friend watches, however, so maybe I'll bother him. Or I could just replace the corpse with a passed-out-because-he-drank-too-much-Richard.

Kitsune55: Two words explain why I'm ticked for you reminding me of Love, Actually. You know the guy who plays Snape? Yeah. Here are the words: "Snape. Snogging". A lot. I'm traumatized for life. And as for Richard? He's looking with the police for his daughter, of course. They're looking in all the wrong places, though. I had that planned out very carefully, in fact. I was wondering when someone would notice!

XSasukeRebornX: Short and sweet.

Mackenzie Leigh: I'm killing you, huh? Mebbe I should wait a bit, then. I've always wanted my very own dead corpse that died of my own doing XD -note: No. Not even I want to really kill people. So mum, do you DARE call that quack. She was scary ..; -

OHHHHH!!! AWWWWW!!! It's ugly: That's right. Illustration numero UNO is here. It's the kawaii little picture that was SUGGESTED. See... I messed up on it badly. Deal with it XD It's still cute as heck. For the link, email or AIM TaylorE97. I'd put it up here, but the link wont show. If you have a photo host that this place supports, please let me know XD

I even made up a caption! Conan: This is SO degrading.

Yes. I do put thought into these things XD Suggestions for number 2 an' 3 will be greatly appreciated.

Disclaimer: Nope. I still don't own Dectective Conan/Case Closed. I don't even own the computer that I'm typing on. But I will. I WILL.

Last Shot at Love, File 4

Meanwhile...

Rachael felt her consciousness slip. The girl fell to the floor, leaving the thugs back to their devices. They went back to the table, going back to their -deep- conversation. Rachael, however, had something of a flashback...

10 years ago...

"RACHE! C'mere! I got you an ice cream!" a young Jimmy Kudou called in a boasting type voice, presenting her with the chocolate cone. The 8-year-old slid down the slide, running up to him and accepting it with a smile, giving it a quick lick. She paused, ruffling his hair in attempts to get the remaining sand from earlier that day out.

"Where's yours at?"

"I didn't have enough, so I just got you one." he hung his head like a war hero. Rachael smiled and offered it to him.

"I know. We'll share it. That way we both get some!"

"Yeah! And we'll be spit brother and sister!!" he added with new resolve, licking the cool treat as if to emphasize this fact. She too, took a lick, grinning at her best friend. If you were an onlooker, you would have thought the two had been together since infancy rather than just since the start of this school year. Best friends right from the start, they were. It was something like you'd see in a movie how they met. Only reversed. Jimmy was intelligent for his age and envied by his classmates for his skills on the soccer field. However, overall, he was a rather frail child. He was getting beaten up on the playground before teachers arrived one morning, when out of seemingly no where, a young girl by the name of Rachael Moore came over and whacked the bullies over the head with her lunch box, scolding them for being so stupid and mean. Instant friendship.

Jimmy grinned. "I now onounce us brother and sister." he declared. Rachael smiled back, giggling.

To be continued...

Back outside...

"I can climb good... why?" Amy asked, her cheeks regaining their normal state; they'd been flushed from all this cold and running.

"Can you climb onto the fence, then onto the roof? Really quietly?" She nodded in response, getting up. Conan held out an arm. "Not yet. See that door? I want you to sit right over it. When I give you a thumbs up, I want you to throw one rock at the door. When it opens, I want you to drop the rest of the rocks on top of the people who come out. Now wait for my signal. If something happens to me, hide, run home, and call the police." Amy smiled, nodding harder. Conan got up from his perch, rushing over silently to the house, looking around at all the rubbish lying in the un-trimmed grass. He picked up an old paint can that was handy, standing upon it and peering carefully into a window. His stomach clenched at what he saw. Rachael was knocked out in a corner. Scratches and bruises lined what was visible through her uniform. Two beefy men were sitting at a small table, discussing what appeared to be methods of strangulation. And then there was HIM. "Joey", sitting in a wooden chair playing a game of some sort. Conan crouched down back into the tall grass, pulling out one walkie talkie. He plucked a piece of grass, tying the "enter" button down. He needed to listen to them just as much as he needed them to listen to him. He stood up, carefully putting it through the window and behind a series of old boxes. He waved furiously at Amy, before running back to their previous hiding place. He removed his suspenders and got out his other walkie talkie and skateboard.

She preformed her task, yet again, without a hitch. She lay on her stomach, her rocks all laid out. Ready for action. Now was were this got tricky. And dangerous. The police could wait to be called. They undoubtadly had nearly ever squad car roaming about looking for Detective Moore's child. It would take them only a few minutes to get here. And he couldn't very well have them getting here too early. That almost certainly sealed Rachael's fate. He cleared his throat, pulling his bow tie out, setting it to Jimmy's voice. With one last nervous sigh, he spoke into it. "Hiya, guys."

The criminals glanced around furiously. The thugs put up their fists stupidly, getting to their feet, while Joey stood gracefully, glaring about. " Where are you, kid?!" he snapped.

"Nope. Answer a few of my questions first. What did you knock Rachael out with?"

"What the HELL!?! Search the place, boys!!" The sound of things being knocked over, doors and cabinets being thrown open, etc, flooded through the speaker of Conan's walkie-talkie. When they stopped, Conan could only assume their ripping their hiding place apart had proven fruitless.

"Having a hard time? You could always just say "Ollie-ollie-oxenfree" and turn yourself in to the cops."

"No way. Get out here and face me you little brat. Get out here and we'll let your little girlfriend go." There was a definite note of concern and worry lacing the ringleader's voice.

"I don't think so. I'm happy right where I am." Conan responded cooly. There was the unmistakable click of a gun being cocked. The child felt his lungs contract, his eyes getting wide. This was getting dangerous.

"Get out here right now or I'll blow her brains out."

"Fine, fine..." Conan gave a thumbs up to his waiting friend, who threw a rock at the door. To the people inside, it sounded like a knock. "Joey" grinned, his thugs getting on either side of the door. While this happened, Conan rigged his earring cell phone to his ear, placing a call to the police. Only a few minutes to work with now. The door flew open. The thugs landed on their stomachs from attempting to tackle the nonexistent Jimmy, "Joey" standing dumbly there, a pistol in his hands. Amy dropped her rocks swiftly. With three loud thuds, each crook was knocked out. As a safety measure, Conan shot three little needles to keep the group out like lights. He dashed into the shed, yelling a quick, "Get away from here!" to Amy. He kneeled by Rachael, checking her vitals. She'd be okay. Shaken and a bit sick, but alright. He smoothed the hair gingerly from her face before getting to work.

Back in dreamland...

"Alright, brother Jimmy. What should we do now?" she inquired, taking another lick, nibbling the cone thoughtfully. She handed him the cone, pushing a few stray bits of hair from her face. She had had her mother tie her dark locks into pigtails secured with ribbons. This wasn't just ANY play date, after all. For starters, they were basically alone (Their mothers were having a book club meeting just over the hill on a blanket) and she was with her very best friend. She'd worn her favorite shirt and skort, as well.

"I know sister Rachael! I'll push you on a swing and see how high I can make you go!" Rachael agreed, smiling broadly. Jimmy always had an idea. They finished their ice-cream before heading over to the empty swing set. The whole playground was empty...it was getting late, after all. And it was a Saturday. Parents had better things to do than take their children to the park on an evening like this. Jimmy pushed the girl for what seemed like hours to her, but only minutes for him. She giggled, talking to him and commenting on how she could see their mothers when he pushed them high enough. They stopped in time to sit down on the wooden separators which kept the mulch in the play area and watch the sunset. And what a sunset it WAS. Pinks, oranges, golds, and blues cascaded dramatically over the sky as the grapefruit pink sun set down over the horizon. Jimmy's hand found Rachael's as they watched in sheer awe. They glanced at each other, slowly leaning towards one another, falling into their first kiss... They broke apart shortly after, staring at each other with half opened eyes for a moment, before going wide-eyed and whipping their heads into the opposite direction of the other, yanking their hands away and crossing their arms tightly. With a unison of "BLECH!", their mothers came to take them home for supper and bed.

Back to real-life...

Conan finished strapping the girl to his skateboard with his stretchy suspenders, wheeling her quickly out. She stirred slightly, mumbling something, before saying it again, louder. "Jimmy..."

The boy felt his heart skip a beat as he carefully unstrapped her, laying her angelically out, running to join Amy in their hiding place. Within mere moments, the police arrived. The children couldn't see them, but when they heard a satisfying, "We have her!!", the smiled at each other.

"Who was it, anyway?" Amy asked, rubbing her hands together for warmth. Conan shrugged, a soft smirk tugging at his lips as he watched the ambulance and police cars speed away from the scene.

"An angel," he responded quietly.

"Ooohhh... We saved a ANGEL." Amy cooed happily.

"Yep. An angel." He said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a smile.

She's babbling again...: Hmn. I just can't decide. I have an idea for another chapter, but this could be called an ending. I'll just let the reviewers decide XD Review for another illustration AND another chapter. -wiggles her fingers- hee. I demand 45 reviews before I type any more. My arms and hands are getting sore from all this writing XD