"Secrets"

"Stephen Miklaano."

"Miklaano? Dunno that name. Any of you?" Bobby said, turning back to the group.

"I don't think so." and "Not that I remember." and likewise statements were the mutual response of the entire room.

"What does he want with Alex?" Bobby asked the hostage.

"He wants her dead, I believe I mentioned that already."

Bobby put his gun to the John's head again. "Was that you, showing me lip?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't advise that." Angel chimed in.

"Listen to my brother, John, he's very good with these things."

"No lip. He wants her dead. And the one named Iciss, you, I believe," He said, referring to Iciss. "You turned on him, therefore you know too much. You were supposed to die, today. Both of you. He wanted you dead," Now directing his words toward Alexis, "because you have 'a past'. That is pretty much all I know. You did something, you caused him a great loss. A great...misfortune."

Alex was getting nervous now, but was doing an ok job of hiding it. Why couldn't she figure out who this guy was and why he wanted her dead? What did she ever do to him? "I'm assuming what I did was revenge, I'm never the instigator. He must have started it. But I don't know any Miklaano. I don't think I ever even knew a Ste-" She stopped. She DID remember. Her heart raced, but she was not only scared, and that was because her past was coming back to haunt her, but also anger would soon come, it always did. It wasn't rare when she got angry when she was sad, but especially because this was not without motivation. "I don't know any Miklaano. That wasn't always his name, was it?"

"No."

"Rennett."

"Yes."

"Stephen Rennett."

"Yes." He was smirking now, and Jerry was getting sorta creeped out, as well as agitated. He back-hand slapped the hostage across the face. The rest had no objective reaction. If anything, they thought it was cool, funny, Jeremiah bitch-slapping some guy.

"Who the hell is Rennett?" Jack had to ask.

"I killed his parents."

"What the shit! What in fuck?" Bobby was flustered now, and he couldn't even curse right. "Alex?"

Alex's breathing increased, and she collapsed on the couch. Jack went over to her quickly, sat down, and, with one hand, reached out, took Molly's face gently, and turned it towards him, to meet his eyes. She had a blank yet lost expression, looking down, then meeting Jack's eyes. He saw that same pain, the guilt of the innocent. The same trauma that scarred him as well. So many bad things we've done, yet we still are convinced by others, and we insist on ourselves, that we are innocent. Why? Because we are, somewhat. The guilt of our crimes may be justified if we maintain the innocence of our morals. She then pulled away, sadly, returning to her original position.

"I don't want to remember."

"I know."

"But I do. I remember Lionel and Leah Rennett. I remember, Leah, she fucked around with Daddy, Mom too, probably," The anger was kicking in now, if you hadn't noticed. "The bitch. Regardless of my parents being dicks, she made it worse. Dunno why I expected better from them. I stood up to her before, and got beat for it. A lot. Bitch threw me down the stairs. Fuckin' parents don't give a damn, they're all too wasted to even do anything but bitch about when they get their next hit. I couldn't take it anymore. I had to care for my own parents, I was the kid, I wasn't even supposed to care for myself yet. But I just didn't have the heart to let them go hungry, I guess. I got sick of it, then, yeah, the rape happened. But still, I pulled MYSELF together. No help. Not a damn person there. No shoulders to cry on. I had ONE release."

"What was that?" Jack was almost afraid to ask.

"A razor-blade, my fore-arm. I tried it only once, I just wanted..." She started to cry then, not sobbing, just silent tears streaming down her face. Jack pulled her toward him, and held her tightly, afraid he might lose her if his grip loosened. He kissed her forehead, eyes focused on nothing, an empty area across the room. he didn't think he could handle looking at someone without breaking, then asked, quietly, "What did you want?"

She pulled out of his embrace. "I just wanted to know that I could still feel. To know that I was still alive, and could feel, even if it was suffering. I was desperate. I had to bleed just to know that I was really alive."

"Alex.."

"Yeah, Iciss?"

"What happened? To this couple?"

She sighed. "I was 13. I went over to the Rennett house. It was ending today."

"What was?" Angel asked.

"Everything. All this twisted shit, it was gonna end. I couldn't take it anymore. Not that I ever could. But all the other times, I dealt. It seemed I had no other choice. I took my dad's gun, and I went over to that house. Their son, Steve, was a little older than me. But he was gone. School. I had almost always gone to school, days I looked at my parents and just thought, 'Screw it. They're vegetables now. Whybother? Fuckin' junkies.' But her husband, he was there. I never really got to know him, but I knew he hated his wife. She musta had something on him, something to keep him quiet. He was only there for his son. I never..meant..." She sighed, shaken, nervously, "I never meant for him to die. He was a bystander. And I killed him. I killed Leah, don't get me wrong, I had to shoot her, my life had nose-dove, crash-landed, and burned to ashes because of her. I attended their funeral, is because, I owed it to him, and hers, because, well, besides the fact that the service was for both of them, I wanted to see what everyone else thought of her, how humane she really seemed. No wonder their kid hates me. It's understandable."

"But," Bobby's turn now, "If he's trying to kill you, he's as good as an enemy of this house. Don't say he's not doing wrong here. That's two strikes. In this house, when you're against us, you don't get a third. In fact you rarely get past your first without an injury. That's how our system works."

"Ooh. I like having you guys as allies." Iciss chimed in. "Hey, I got past my first strike! And I'm not fatally injured. I must be good."

"Or just really hot." Angel mumbled.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Well, this is all very touching," John the Hostage spoke up, "But what ae you going to do with me?"

"Use you as a bargaining tool." Bobby said. "Where can we find this Miklaano guy?"

"Not too far from here." The man said, seeing as how Bobby's gun had tgone back to its original position, the barrel against his head. "Ferrier Hotel. His penthouse suite there.That's where I got my money before I came. I can almost guarantee you he won't be there. Not anymore, I should have returned by now."

"Well, we're not taking any chances. You're going back. Apparently, it was harder than you thought to kill those two, and it took a bit longer than you had expected. But you are going to be our little spy. You are going to find out where this guy is, where we can find him, when he's alone, when and how we can get to him without any suspicion. Obviously, you have discovered, we have mor allies than you think. Do not underestimate us, John. And if you turn on us, my brothers and I, we will be very angry. This, right now, this is me being rather chipper, can't you tell? I'm being patient. Watch your back, John, cuz you're playing both sides of the field now. That's not an easy task to accomplish without being shot. This is a threat, and a warning. Now go. And have a nice walk out to your car wih a bullet in your leg."

Bobby decided he needed a friend. He couldn't really be like that around his brothers, he knew that, they wouldn't let him hear the end of it. They could never share emotions, especially not Bobby. That could be taken as weakness. So he called the one person who made him feel, well, he couldn't even describe how she made him feel. But whatever this feeling was, he liked it. And hated it. He hated to love it. She knew everything about him, as far as what to do to make him crazy, how to make him smile. But he always felt the need to come back for more, and never regretted it. He went outside, pulled out his cell, dialed 555-1454, then hesitated, before he hit the talk button.

With every ring his heart rate increased. 'Maybe she won't be home.' Bobby thought. That didn't help at all. 'You idiot, this is her CELL number. Besides, she said she'd be waiting, expecting you.' Then, the moment of importance.

"Hey."

"Hi, Kerrie."

"Hey, Bobby."

"How do you do that?"

"What?"

"Answer, like you know it's me calling you."

"You ARE calling me."

"But you didn't know that."

"Not technically."

"Or did you?"

"You would love to know that, wouldn't you?"

"There are so many things about you I would love to understand."

"Really?" She said, rhetorically, flirtaciously.

"Mmhmmm. How 'bout now? We could go get a drink or something."

"Well--" There was an odd noise in the background, sounding slightly like somone or something crying out faintly. "Shit. Bobby I gotta go, alright? I'm sorry. I'll talk to you later, ok?"

"Um, sure, ok. See you later." Bobby hung up, and wondered just what that noise was. That was odd, and whatever it was was definitely the reason she had left so quickly. Something was up. She sounded like she didn't want him to hear what happened, like he wasn't supposed to. Oh well. It was probably nothing. Still, Bobby felt like taking a walk, getting some air. He started walking off, when Alex, Jack, and Jerry, and whoever else was behind them, probably everyone, were at the doorway.

"Hey Bobby! Where you goin'?" Alex asked.

"I'm taking a walk."

"Mind if we join ya? We're all bored. I think I could use some air too."

"Sure. C'mon."

Alex joined Bobby, followed by Jerry, then Jack. So did Kat, her shift at the bar was over.

"You guys comin' too?" Bobby asked Angel and Iciss.

"Nah, I'm not goin', Bobby." Angel answered.

"How bout you?"

"Nah, I'll stay here."

"Suit yourselves."

So the five left, leaving Iciss and Angel alone.

"I heard what you said, before."

"The 'hot' thing?"

Iciss nodded. "You're not bad-lookng yourself."

"No?"

"Mm-mmm. Actually, you're pretty hot."

Angel grinned, laughed a little.

"You have a girlfriend?"

"Not technically. Not anymore. Uh, it's complicated."

"Oh, I totally get that. Yeah."

"Good. Thanks."

"No problem. Been there, done that."

She looked at him, curiously, him just staring ahead. She turned his head to face her, and kissed him. She pulled back after the kiss, and smiled. He got past the initial shock, and grinned widely as well, looking away. Then he kissed her. He turned and kind of pinned her against the wall, her back to it, and kept on kissing her. They kept on making out, somehow making their way upstairs and into Angel's room, kicking the door shut, and, well, you can pretty much guess what happened next.

So the five were walking, going down Wrier Street. It was a pretty busy street today. But they were just talking, walking. Alex slipped her hand into Jack's and he looked at her, and smiled. But she just kept on looking ahead, talking with the rest of the group. Which was fine, he felt amazing just observing her. He held her hand, and they kept on walking. But Jeremiah, out of the corner of his eye, saw something A child's teddy bear had rolled out into the street. The owner, a small girl, not even four, if even three, walked obliviously out into the street to get it, unaware of the large truck headed her way, that couldn't possibly have seen her. Jeremiah said, under his breath, "Oh my God."

"What?" Katrina asked. Then she looked the way he was, and saw. "Shit." She ran, although Jerry had a headstart on her, and he snatched up the girl just in time, and pulled her out of the way, back toward them, and ended up on the ground, the child behind his arm, he was holding her protectively, and breathing heavily, the fear and the rescue taking a lot out of him.

"JANEANE!" A woman called from across the street, and sprinted across to Jerry and the girl.

"Oh my God! Thank you! Janeane!" She took the girl in her arms tightly. Bobby was shocked by what he saw.

"Kerrie?"