Christine's Pov

I raised my hand to the back of my head where the pain was as my vision finally started to clear, and I could hear the person behind me opening a bag up behind me as my phone kept ringing. I slowly turned around and saw Coach Jackman standing there, my phone in his hand with the screen alight. He placed it down on his desk when he saw that I was looking at him and looked at me, his eyes hard and irritated.

"Well, I didn't think it would turn out like this, you annoying brat." He said and I glared at him.

"You mean you didn't think you'd get caught. That no one would find out what you did." I said and I saw him clenching his fists, before he rubbed his head and continued fidgeting. "You have one of the leading forensic teams looking into Darius' death and you thought you could get away with it."

"It's not like that, I didn't mean to kill him! I just had to make sure he kept his mouth shut. I couldn't let him ruin everything I've worked so hard to achieve!" He shouted in anger and I looked at him better now.

He didn't only sound different, he looked different. There was definite weight gain, even though he had barely been eating according to Darius and Michael, and there was clear muscle increase to his biceps. He also had greasy hair and oily skin, and those were only his physical changes. He had personality changes too: mood swings, irritability, he had been acting disrespectful and a little abusive before what he did. There was also the secretively and the fact that he was obviously suffering paranoia. That all led me to one conclusion, the only one I could come to, and looking at him now, I knew I was right. I also knew that I was in a very dangerous situation right now.

"Steroid abuse, that's what this is all about." I said in disbelief, even though it really shouldn't surprise me, and I saw him twitch, meaning I had gotten it right. I was beginning to understand what happened, even though that didn't make it right. "Darius came to the field to train like he often did, then I'm guessing he saw you here and came in to see you, only to see you dosing yourself up with steroids. You freaked, thinking he was going to report you and have you fired, and you killed him so he couldn't say a word to anyone." I said angrily as I got up with tears in my eyes, and he didn't stop me.

"You know, you're a lot smarter than people give you credit for, but also stupid." He said and I saw him reach for a bat he must have placed on his desk after he hit me with it. What was with him and bat's?! "I killed him so he couldn't damage all I've worked for, even though he was my star player, and now I have to do the same to you. I'll feel a lot less regret this time."

Before he had the chance to hit me I grabbed the edge of the bookshelf I was near and pushed it as hard as I could, causing it to tip forward and Jackman to barely have enough time to brace himself before it hit him and knocked him down. I took the time that I had, which I doubt I had much of, and awkwardly climbed over the fallen bookshelf, before I ran for it as fast as I could. I got out of his office and ran through the gym, trying the door that led outside when I reached it, but I couldn't get it open no matter how hard I tugged. I ran over to the door that led to the hallway then and thankfully, the door opened for me. I ran into the school hall and did the first thing I could think of to get help – I ran over to the button that set off the fire alarm, opened the lid and hit the big red button a little harder than probably needed.

I had no idea if my parents knew that coach Jackman was the killer yet, though I was sure they probably did or were close to working it out. To be honest though, even if they did know, how would they know that I had accidently figured it out myself and now he was trying to kill me because of it? I knew my parents were smart, and so were Hodgins, Angela, Cam, Sweets and Arastoo so I just had to hope that they worked out what the fire alarm meant and that it had been one of them who tried to call me. Them, or Michael, because if he couldn't get a hold of me after all that's happened, he'd call them. Plus, he knew where I was, my parents didn't because I never told them I was going to school.

I heard footsteps coming up from behind me then and I ran as fast as I could through the school, heading towards the front doors of the school and away from the man chasing me. Why did everyone have to be away from school right now? Why was it only the two of us here when he was trying to kill me? I ran to the first set of doors that led outside and tugged on the handles, but the doors wouldn't open for me. Really, the whole school was locked up!

"Why are all the doors locked?!" I demanded, wishing the lock would just break so I could get away from the person trying to kill me.

I suddenly heard someone behind me and I barely dodged the baseball bat that was aiming for my head. It smashed the glass part of the door and I did my best to run away, but he grabbed my arm at the last second and threw me harshly against the floor. I hit it hard, a sharp pain shooting through my left shoulder because it hit the ground first. I barely had time to roll out of the way as he tried to hit me with the bat. I had to work something out and soon, or I was in a lot of danger in a few seconds.

That's when I remembered what I'd been told. Mom was able to tell from Darius' bones that he struck his attacker, hard enough to do some serious damage, and she was certain he must have struck him in the ribs. So, as he came at me again I took a calculated risk and kicked him in his right side with the heel of my foot. He let out a sharp cough as he staggered back and I got to my feet as quickly as I could, before I took off running.

I may have learnt how to fight, and I wasn't usually scared of people who were bigger than me, because there was a lot of bigger people at this school who were also thick headed morons, but I was not going to fight someone who was basically being fueled by rage and steroids right now. Roid rage wasn't really classified as a medical illness or symptom, because it was just a name for people who raged when they were on steroids, which is exactly what Jackman was doing right now.

Despite that, I needed to find something or I was screwed. I couldn't keep running from him, so I either had to crawl out a window – if I could actually get one to open, unlike the doors in this school – or find some way to knock him out. My head was causing me quite a bit of pain right now, so I wanted to work something out before something worse happened.

That's when I saw a fire extinguisher and I ran over to it, grabbing it off the wall and then going to the corner of the wall, waiting for Jackman. Right now, I owed everything to Darius, because if he hadn't hurt Jackman, I might not have had enough time to get away. With how Jackman was now, I doubted he was feeling much pain, so I must have broken his ribs to delay him this much.

"When I find you, you're dead." I heard Jackman say as he came down the hallway and I could hear the pain in his voice, though it was overpowered by rage. He was definitely pissed now.

I waited for the footsteps to get closer, though it was hard to hear because of the fire alarm, and the moment he stepped into view I stepped out and swung the extinguisher up, hitting him right in the left side of his head as he turned to look at me. I watched as he fell to the side and hit the floor hard, out cold.

The fire alarm finally shut off then, which kinda surprised me, and I leant against the wall, dropping the fire extinguisher to the ground with a thump. Well, I guess my plan had worked; I'd gotten the authorities here. I slumped slowly to the floor, my back resting against the wall. I was tired and my head hurt, so I was not moving unless Jackman woke up.

I heard footsteps coming towards me, the footsteps that I think only came from one person, and I looked to the right to see my father come into view. He had his gun in his hands, though it was directed towards the ground, and he had a guarded expression. He finally saw me and after a moment, I'm sure he was taking in the situation, he put his gun away and ran down the hall to me. His face was filled with relief as he came to kneel in front of me and he pulled me to him.

"Thank god you're okay." He said as one of his hands travelled to my head and I winced when he touched the part of my head that had been hit. "Are you alright?"

"Well, my head hurts, but other than that I'm alright." I said, even though I didn't really believe that.

He helped me up to my feet, before looking at Jackman. "I'm going to make sure he roots in prison for this, the moment I work out why he did it."

"I know why he did it." I said and dad looked down at me. "I'll tell you soon, but you should probably be taken to the hospital so you can throw him in prison." I added.

"What did you do to him?" Dad asked.

"I hit him in the head with a fire extinguisher." I said.

"Good." Dad said as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders, starting to lead him away from the unconscious coach. "I'll get the officers and paramedics outside to grab him once the paramedics check your head out."

"Dad, how did you know I was here? Was it just because of the alarm?" I asked and he shook his head.

"No, you have your boyfriend to thank for that. He worked out who did it from the clues and knew you were at the school. We worked out you were still here when your phone was shut off." Dad explained and I smiled a little, even though I knew I was still shaking a little. So now I owed Michael and Darius. "Do I want to know how this happened?"

"By accident. I went to drop something off in his office for my coach and saw the bat. Unfortunately, he came up behind me." I said and he nodded.

"Explain the rest later. Let's just get your head checked out for now." He said and I nodded, because I didn't want to protest.

X

I sat in the conference room with my father, Michael and Sweets, waiting for Darius' parents and Kate to get here. I had been told to go home by the doctor, who hadn't been forced to give me stitches, but had told me to take it easy for a while and not go to sleep until tonight, but I decided not to. I wanted to be here to tell them what I had learnt myself. Dad had tried to get me to go home, but relented when I refused to tell him what I knew. I still hadn't told him, because I knew he'd send me home the moment I did. I had managed to get my phone and bag back thanks to the cops though, which I was glad about.

Michael was sitting right beside me, his hand holding mine. My head was resting against his shoulder, one of the reasons being that my head was still hurting, despite the painkillers I'd taken at the hospital.

"Simon, Amanda, Kate, thank you for coming." I heard Dad say and I moved my head away from Michael's shoulder, shaking my head to clear away the drowsiness. I had been becoming sort of out of it.

"Christine, are you alright?!" Kate demanded as she came to my side and I nodded.

"Yeah, I'll be alright." I said, but I could still see the concern on her face. She looked panicked.

"Why don't the three of you sit down and Christine can tell you what you need to know?" Sweets said and I watched as Simon, Amanda and Kate sat on the other side of the table. I was glad that Kate's parents weren't here, because they would just piss me off in ways I didn't want to be pissed off right now.

"Christine, shouldn't you be at home? Your head must hurt." Amanda said, but I shook my head. I had to be here.

"I tried to get her to go home, but considering she knows what really happened and refused to tell me, I had to let her stay." Dad said and I shrugged. I wasn't going to apologize, because I wanted to be the one to say what needed saying.

"What do you know?" Kate asked and I sighed.

"I know why coach Jackman killed Darius, I worked it out when he cornered me." I said and then I looked down at my hand intertwined with Michael's, before looking back at them. He didn't even know what I knew. "Darius went to the school to train, like he often did, when he saw Jackman. That's when he found out Jackman using steroids. Jackman killed him to keep him quiet." I explained.

"Oh god!" Amanda explained and Simon pulled her too him.

"We all know Darius, meaning we all know he would have done the right thing in the end." I said and I saw Kate smile lightly. Jackman had unfortunately also known that Darius would report him. "Darius saved my life in the end too. If he hadn't fought back, I might not have gotten away today." I said, because I knew they needed to know.

"Thank you for telling us that Christine." Amanda said as she wiped her and I nodded. I felt Michael's hand tighten around mine and I looked at him.

Amanda and Simon decided to leave after that, as they wanted to get home to Nathan and Faith. I hadn't known that Darius' sister Faith had planned to come from Hawaii, but I guess I could understand why she did. Dad and Sweets had gone off to Dad's office, leaving the three of us in the conference room. Kate was less than willing to go home. She was currently hugging me tightly.

"Next time, try not to scare me like that. I already lost Darius, I don't want to lose either of you." Kate said and I nodded, hugging her back.

"I'll do my best." I promised, since I didn't want to get into a dangerous situation again for a long time, not after the three bad things that had happened to me this year. "Be careful going home, alright. You didn't seem steady on your feet right now. Even earlier today, you seemed unwell."

"Don't worry about me so much. It's just the stress from everything that's happened today. I'll be okay." She said and I could tell that that wasn't entirely the truth, but I wasn't going to bring that up right now. "I better get going."

"Be careful." Michael said, hugging her and I heard her let out a small laugh.

"How about you worry about your girlfriend right now. If it wasn't for her, I might not have learnt what happened to Darius." Kate said and Michael wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close to his side. "But, just so you know Michael, you better be good to her. I've lost Darius, but our view on the two of you will never change, even if he's gone. We always wanted to see the two of you together because you're perfect together." She said.

"Don't worry Kate. I lost my best friend, I don't intend to lose the person I love more than anything." Michael said and I blushed.

"Good. I'm glad to hear something like that after something so horrible happened." Kate said, before she went over to the door. "I'll see you two tomorrow."

I watched as Kate walked away, but as she did I could tell that she was crying. I didn't tell my parents this, but I believed in soul-mates. Well, maybe not entirely, but I did believe that there was someone in everyone's lives that they are meant to be with. Mom and Dad were meant to be together, and I wasn't just saying that because they were my parents. Cam and Arastoo, Angela and Hodgins, Sweets and Daisy – they were all supposed to be together. Kate and Darius were meant to be together too, which is why it must be so hard on Kate, because she believed they were meant to be together and now she had lost him. I couldn't imagine how that felt, because I hadn't lost the person I love. He was still standing beside me.

"Come on, I'll drive you home. Your dad has your bike, so I don't have to worry about that – I just have to worry about you." Michael said, snapping me out of my thoughts, and I turned to look at him. He was already holding my bag in his hand.

"Thank you." I said with a small smile and he smiled back, before leaning forward and kissing my forehead. He took my hand in his free one and led me from the room.