I hope you like this,I know there are some different charcters but good ole George and Bess are back

Chapter 5

None of it made sense. I fell asleep and woke only briefly for dinner then drifted off again. I didn't wake until the morning. When I finally woke it was to find George and Bess sitting on chairs by my bedside. They seemed to be in deep conversation and hadn't noticed that I was conscious until I sat upright.

"Nancy!" they exclaimed in unison. "Your up! We didn't wake you did we?" Bess added worried. "We brought you some clothes. Your neighbor Trisha let us in and told us what to bring."

"No, you didn't wake me and thanks, I don't really have fresh clothes," I said giving a nervous laugh.

"Yeah, we uh figured. So how have you been," George asked brightly, a little to brightly.

"I'm doing well. I have a good job and good friends I'm pretty happy. What about you two?" I said lying through my teeth. I don't know why I didn't tell them the truth or why I kept remembering my father's words.

"Ohh. That's cool Nan. We're good too, been keeping busy as well," Bess said while George gave me the evil look.

"Yeah," I said at a lost for words. In the first time since I could remember I was at a loss for words with my two closest and bestest friends. I hated it! "Hey, look do you want to grab a bite to eat? I know the cutest café near where I work," I asked taking a stab and hoping not to get my head bitten off.

"I would love to Nan," Bess exclaimed happily while punching George in the stomach with her elbow who also replied less then jubilant.

While they waited I took a shower and gathered my belongings up. After I had checked out all three of us climbed into George's car while I gave directions to the café. I deliberately left out the fact that it was the one I was going to when somebody decided to take me out. We parked and went into the tiny restaurant. We ordered and then sat down.

After a moments silence I asked how Burt and Dave their significant others were.

"Oh, they are incredible," gushed Bess. "The other night there was a dance at the college. George and Burt went Ned and Natalie and Dave and I all went and had a blast."

I nodded, I had heard about the dance but had opted to spend the evening with Michael. So I guess Ned was seeing someone. That was interesting I thought.

Bess who looked slightly upset at mentioning Ned and Natalie tried to brush it off, "it wasn't the same without you Nancy. We didn't even see you at the dance Nancy."

"It's okay Bess. I have moved on from Ned. I didn't go to the dance I spent the evening with a friend and look there he is." Indeed, Michael had just walked into the café after grabbing lunch he walked toward as. George for the first time since I saw her looked dumbfounded and more sympathetic. Bess kept making googoo eyes at me.

"Hello, you must be George and Bess. Nancy has told me so much about the two of you," He said. "Well I have to be going but it was nice meeting you two. Bye Nancy see you at the office," without he turned around but not before he saw me mouthing thank you to him.

"Oh my gosh Nancy he is gorgeous! You work with him?" Bess asked.

I laughed, "yes Bess I do work with him and we are friends," I said putting a heavy emphasize on friends.

"Well he sure seems mighty fine for just a friend," George said wryly.

After that we finished eating our lunch in quiet and then headed out. As I went out I looked around. It was the same type of day as it had been yesterday when I had been shot. People were walking to and fro checking the shops and restaurants on either side of the street. A cluster of office buildings including FBI headquarters lay at the end of the street spilling out onto the main traffic. The shooter could have climbed onto any of the roof office buildings and shot me. The only thing was, was that you needed ID's to access many of those buildings. I made a mental note to tell Michael to check all buildings to see which ones do and don't have ID's if he hadn't done so all ready. The one thing that made it so puzzling beside the fact of why Joe Hardy would shoot me was why the killer missed? It was a clear beautiful sunny day, unless he hadn't meant to shoot me I thought excitedly.

"Uh Nan, are you coming?" Bess called.

I nodded and followed her back to the car. They dropped me off at my dorm and I attended my last two classes of the day. When I got back to my room I checked my messages. Nobody had called, not even my Father. I hit the books and after a half hour of restless studying I called Michael.

"How was lunch," I asked him when he answered.

"It was good. Dinner would be better if you joined me though?" he replied.

"That was what I was hoping to hear. There are a couple things that I wanted to ask your opinion on," I said.

Agree to meet at seven I cracked down on the books and studied. At quarter to seven I arrived at Michaels apartment. He rang me up and I arrived to the sweet smells of spices and herbs. Besides being a good FBI agent Michael is also one hell of a cook. I always try to leech of one meal a week from him. Michael's apartment is tiny with one bedroom, a bathroom, living room and kitchen. It is also cozy. I hopped up on one of his stools at the island in the middle of the kitchen and he set me to chopping onions while we started trading theories like we usually do. All through dinner as we talked I couldn't help but get the feeling that something was wrong. I was missing something.

As we settled on the couch each with a glass of white whine I bolted straight up.

"Wines that good huh?" he said with a chuckle.

"Michael it's my Dad the shooter was aiming at not me."

"What? Why would they shoot your Dad? That makes no sense,"

"I know but you have to trust me on this we have to go to my Dad's place now!"

He nodded. We grabbed our jackets and ran to his car. As he started driving I tried my house phone twice then my Dad's cell phone but to no avail. Hannah didn't have a cell phone. The half hour drive seemed like an eternity. I tried Frank and Ned but either they weren't interested or just working picking up. When Michael pulled up I got out of the door careful not to slam the door. None of the outside lights were on. We pulled out guns and aimed them carefully in front of us. I went up to the front door only to find it unlocked though it was sticking slightly. I tugged at it that's when I noticed the note, the note that was signed Joe Hardy and was covered in blood.

love kat