Chapter Six - Obsessed Fans

F.B.I. Headquarters - Missing Persons Division

Danny was just searching for a little peace and quiet. A place where he could work and not have to hear about Kassia James or the stories about their relationship. Why did everyone have such a hard time leaving the past in the past? Everywhere he went, people were whispering or casting sideways looks at him. He knew they were just dying to ask him what it was like to have been in love with Kassia James.

And none were worse than his so-called friends Sam and Vivian. Even Martin liked to have a few laughs at his expense. But he knew that whatever he was going through, it was nothing compared to what Kassia was having to endure.

"Which picture do you think we should send them?" Sam asked, a little too loud, as Danny came back into the bullpen and sat down at his computer. "The one from last years Christmas party or the one used on his ID badge?"

"Would you give it a rest already?" Danny muttered, shaking his head.

Vivian smiled and said, "The press wants a picture of the mysterious Danny Taylor, personal photographer to Kassia James. We're only trying to give the people what they want."

"Here it is! Hot off the presses." Martin came into the bullpen holding up the latest copy of People magazine with a picture of Kassia on the cover. The headline read Kassia's Secret Life.

"Oooh! Give it here!" Sam said, practically jumping out of her chair and swiping the magazine from Martin's hands.

"Don't you three have some sort of work you should be doing?" Danny mumbled, never taking his eyes off of his computer screen. He knew that ignoring them would not help, but he certainly wasn't going to encourage them by taking part in their ridiculous conversation.

Martin looked around at Viv and Sam, then smirked and said, "Nope."

"Here it is." Sam said, flipping through the pages of the magazine until she found the article that went along with the cover story. She cleared her throat and began to read, "From where Kassia James is sitting life has always been good. She is an award winning, multi million dollar earning Hollywood actress, sought after by the most accomplished directors in town. She is the head of her own production company, Greenlight Productions, and her name is known all over the world. What more could she want? Well, these days, it seems she only wants a little bit of privacy. But she is a celebrity in the twenty first century. Thanks to the media there isn't a single thing a celebrity can hide. Their dirty laundry dries in public. Skeletons don't hide in closets for very long and the past never stays forgotten. But that doesn't quite fit for our girl. For even the world's most famous actress, who takes great pains to insure that her private life stays private, is not immune to the media's intrusion into a past that she couldn't keep hidden."

"I'm not going to listen to anymore of this. I'm getting some coffee." Danny said suddenly, pushing back his chair and standing up. The look on his face told his trio of co-workers that he had finally had enough.

"Aw, come on Danny. We're just having some fun." Vivian said smiling.

"Isn't it bad enough that the pictures were published in the first place? We can't just let it rest at that? Now we have to buy into this media attack on her every waking move?" The fire burning in Danny's eyes was unlike anything they had ever witnessed before. "I thought you were supposed to be fans of hers." He finished sharply before walking into the lounge.

Knowingly, Vivian looked over at Sam. "I think he still loves her." she whispered.

Sam nodded and said, "Yeah. I've never seen him act that way." She looked at the door to the staff lounge and continued, "It's kind of sweet actually."

Danny poured himself a cup of coffee that he didn't really want and then walked back to his desk. Sam, Vivian, and Martin were still surrounding his desk, but he managed not to look at them. "Sorry for snapping at you guys." He mumbled, setting his coffee down and turning back to face his computer. "I've just had to put up with a lot of crap this week and I don't really need it from you guys too, OK?"

"Well, you know they're only torturing you as payback for not telling them that you know Kassia James..." Martin began, but Sam cut him off.

"Know her?" She said, grinning. "You used to date her! You sat right there the other day and let us go on and on about her pictures and never once volunteered the information that you had taken them!"

"It was none of your business." Danny said, pulling up some files on his computer. "It's still none of your business."

"We know you like being a man of mystery, Danny, but come on! Being Kassia James' boyfriend is huge!" Samantha continued. "Any other guy would have been shouting it from the roof tops!"

"Danny's not just any other guy." Vivian said slyly.

Danny smirked and finally turned his face away from his computer screen. "Don't try to sweet talk me, Vivi-matic." He swivelled around in his chair and turned to face them. Taking a deep breath, Danny held his hands up in mock surrender. "OK," he finally said, "what do you want to know?"

Sam leaned forward like an eager child. "What's she like?"

"Now? That I'm not so sure about." Danny shrugged. "But back when I first met her, she was not anyone's idea of a Hollywood starlet. She was a third year acting student at NYU and bit player off Broadway. She had big dreams and the drive it took to make all of her dreams come true. She worked hard and played hard." Danny grinned. "That girl can dance. She loved to go dancing. She used to drag me out to the clubs with her girlfriends and they would dance for hours. She was always the center of attention, even when she wasn't famous. People just gravitated to her because she was always having such a good time. We were complete opposites...I was studious, always with my nose in a book and trying to get through law school and she was the life of every party. But something just clicked between us. We brought out the best in each other."

"How did you meet her?" Vivian asked, "I mean it sounds like you ran in completely different circles."

"We did, but we both liked to study on the lawn in Washington Square Park. It was the summer before my last year at law school when she came right up to me one day, sat down, and started talking. About an hour later, I had no idea how I had ever lived without her." Danny shook his head and said, "She was just as beautiful then as she is now. But it was a different kind of beautiful. I have seen her on billboards, magazines, newspapers, anywhere you can think of. She's everywhere. Always perfect hair, perfect make-up...flawless. Back when I knew her, she was a bit more natural. She lived in her old, faded jeans and my t-shirts, not the designer labels you see her in now."

"She's a celebrity now." Samantha said. "And a fashion icon. She's gotta look the part."

"I guess." Danny shrugged. "But I still picture her like she was, the way she looked in those photographs."

"She looked very much in love in those photos." Vivian said softly. "What happened between you two?"

"Hollywood." Danny said simply. "Hollywood figured out that she could act and began sending scripts her way. She flew out there and never once looked back."

"That seems harsh." Samantha said, studying Danny's face.

Danny shrugged. "Not really. I always knew that acting was her first love. I never doubted her talent or her drive, so when Spielberg called I knew that it was over for us. I mean, we tried to keep up the long distance thing for awhile. But I have a jealous streak and Kassia has a fiery temper. I got jealous of her co-stars and the time she was spending in L.A. and she got tired of it. So we walked away."

"But you've been following her career, haven't you?" Martin asked.

"Who hasn't?" Danny smirked. "I was really proud of her when she was nominated for an Academy Award. Hollywood can be ruthless and I knew she wanted to be seen as more than just the pretty face they were marketing her as. But I knew Kassia would damn well show up all her critics. And she did, don't you think? Winning an Oscar was the best 'middle finger' insult to all those people who doubted her."

"And now she's back in New York." Vivian said with a smile. "When all this dies down..."

Danny shook his head. "Nope. That was the past. Besides, she's seeing some cameraman now..."

"Peter Larson." Samantha supplied for him. "He was the cinematographer on "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. That's where they met."

"She seems to have a thing for men with cameras." Martin joked. "I wonder how he feels about Danny's pictures."

"Who cares." Sam said, looking from Martin back to Danny. "The more important question is when are you going to introduce us to her?"