/and THIS is what happens when I listen to Phantom too much ;; this is merely inspired by the song. much as it might be fun to do a POTO rip off, I'm not gonna do one right now. maybe in the future. with Ingrid as Christine, and Fillmore as a more detectivish Raoul, and Check Matey as the Phantom. Just for laughs. and set in the modern day...yeah, this is gonna be a future project.../
Ingrid sat. "Why did you bring me here, Joseph?"
Anza sighed. "Just look, Ingrid. And tell me what you think."
She looked at him, then the scenery. It was dusk, and Anza had selected the perfect spot for viewing it-the top of a large hill overlooking the city below. She smiled at him. "Karen will love it."
He smiled. "Thanks, Ingrid. You're the only one I trust to help me...I mean...It's not every day you tell one of your friends that you love her, is it? I want it to be perfect..."
She beamed. "You're an old romantic, Anza." Her face fell. "It's just a pity that..."
"He'll come around."
"I don't think he will. I know him, and I also know that telling him exactly how I felt was a real mistake."
"Maybe you misinterpereted his meaning..."
"He walked away from me. Not without staring at me like something that he'd found on the bottom of his shoe." She sighed. "I guess this means you're the last decent guy on the force, and you're spoken for."
"He's a decent guy really..."
"I thought that. And look where it got me." She sighed deeply. "I'm gonna go...want me to tell Karen to wait outside her house at 8?"
"Yeah...that'd be great. Thanks Ingrid."
She smiled and raised a hand in goodbye. Anza watched her car zoom away, and felt a pang of sadness. As Karen's best friend, he had used her as a consultant for this evening, and over that time he'd become rather close to her.
Fillmore's reaction to her had surprised him a lot. He hadn't seemed to be the kind of guy who would let her down like that-in fact, Anza had thought that Fillmore felt the same. Obviously not.
---
"Thanks, Ingrid." Tehama hugged her. "I...if this is what I think it is, I'll never be able to repay you..."
Ingrid smiled widely. "I'll find a way. Just call me later and tell me everything."
"...don't you already know everything?"
"Not all of it. Enjoy yourself." She got into her car.
"Bye, Ingrid! Oh...and he'll call."
"No...No, I don't think he will."
The car sped off again, and Karen sighed. It was so sad-she'd always thought that Fillmore and Ingrid were perfect for eachother. His reaction had surprised her a lot, and, if she was honest, it angered her. Ingrid very rarely put herself out like that, and now Karen feared she never would again. Despite that she didn't show it, Ingrid was actually rather delicate, sensitive. She feared that Ingrid would return to herself, and become self-involved.
Karen had spoken at length about this kind of thing with Ariella, to the point that Karen and Ariella were also close, and that Karen was the person who knew Ingrid best of all. In the past it had been Fillmore, but he had dropped Ingrid like a stone the minute she made her confession, and no contact had passed between them since, to the point of Fillmore putting in for a change of partner.
---
"Fillmore household, Cornelius speaking."
"We have the girl."
"...what?"
"We have the girl. And if you don't do everything exactly as we ask, she'll never see the light of day again."
"Let me speak to her."
"H-hello?"
"Ingrid?! Where are you? What's happening? Are you OK?"
"Just do what they ask. Your instructions will arrive tomorrow. Oh, and Fillmore? It's nice to know you're still speaking to me."
The phone went dead.
Immidiately a number of possibilities raced through Fillmore's mind. The most attractive one was that this was all just a joke, set up to make him talk to her again. It was also the least likely-Ingrid would never go that far. He considered others, and hit upon the most logical one-revenge in conjunction with money. It was obviously someone who had been watching them, but not recently. Someone who had been unable to recently...
It also had to be someone who had one hell of a lot of issues with the two of them, if they were going to this length.
The guilt began to set in more than ever before. He'd been unable to comprehend the intensity of her feelings, unable to understand how much he had hurt her-he had completely failed her. He kept replaying it in his head, thinking of what he should've done. The top one so far was that he should've stroked her cheek, whispered "thank you" and then gone on to make out with her.
He had tried to console himself that it could've been a lot worse, but so far the worst he could come up with was him outright insulting her, which he would never do (it was a health risk for a start.)
If he had just understood, if he had just held her, if he had just accepted her feelings... He may not have the same intensity for her as she did for him, but he still cared... The guilt rose through him. He had let her down to say the very least.
And yet...still he was the one they called. Had she protested, told them it was pointless? Or had she just hoped that he cared? He cursed his aloof behaviour. He should've accepted what she was feeling, let her know that they were still friends. Or even told her how he felt, that he held her in high affection. He wrinkled his nose-that was, in fact, worse that what he had already done.
He dialled the number to see who it was that had called him, but there was no joy there-the caller had withheld their number. He began to dial Anza's cellphone, before it clicked that tonight was Anza and Tehama's night-the night that he was finally going to tell her. He felt a stab of jealousy go through him-whilst Anza got to spend a romantic evening telling the girl he loved how he felt, he had to suffer the pain of trying to find the girl who loved him.
Immidiately he began doing what he did best-compiling a list of suspects.
---
"Vallejo."
"It's Fillmore. I got a problem."
"Damn right you do, even O Farrell is refusing to work with you over the Ingrid thing."
"I have another Ingrid thing."
"What now? She forgave you and now you want to quit cause it's 'too hard' being anywhere near her?"
"She's been kidnapped."
"WHAT?"
"I got a phone call twenty minutes ago telling me that I had to do whatever was asked of me if I wanted her to be safe."
"What did they call you for"
"I guess they were in detention for the last 2 weeks and didn't know about the incident."
"Incident? Incident?!"
"Fine, they didn't know what I did to her!"
"So, what are we gonna do?"
"Get the list of everyone in detention, then kick some ass and take some names."
"All of them?"
"There can't that many that were in there for two weeks."
"You'd be surprised."
"Vallejo, please. Ingrid is relying on me."
"I'll meet you outside your house in ten. Call Anza, Tehama and O'Farrell."
"I can't call Anza and Tehama...they're on a date."
"Our first Safety Patrol couple."
"...are you ever gonna let up with that?"
"No, I don't think so. You deserve it."
He put the phone down.
Fillmore rubbed his eyes. "I can't believe this... One mistake... One point..."
Suddenly in his head he could hear Ingrid's voice. "One point dictates a lot of things for the rest of your life. You should know that. When you refused me, you passed that point. The point of no return. There are no undos, Fillmore. Now I have to live with your choice. That is, if I live at all."
A shivver danced down his spine. There was no turning back now, no backward glances. The doorbell rang, although Fillmore felt like it was the bell tolling for him-or worse, for Ingrid.
"Let's do this."
---
/that was fun! This is, obviously, the first in the series. I'm not doing very well through so updates will proabably be few and far between. I just like this fic, and hope that all you crazy kids will too.
I don't own any of them, la la la.
Review please
--Sylvi Storm/