Disclaimer: See previous chapter.


Chapter 12 - in which the author uses "meanwhile" too much.

Chris, at one point, was a decent man. He held a good job with the government, and had a beautiful wife. However, all that changed when his wife left him for his boss. In a fit of rage, he left his job and then, needless to say, divorced his wife. He eventually began doing some "off record" work for the CIA, which was how he met Timmy Landau. Now, at first it didnt' seem like a morally wrong job. All he had to do was go undercover and get information, but now that he was being forced to kidnap a young woman and shoot civilians, he was having second thoughts.

Chris was explaining this to Renee to avoid silence on the long drive. Renee, meanwhile, looked ready to jump out of the car, injury or no injury. "Then why do this, if you know it's wrong?" She demanded.

"Tim will kill me if I fail. That's how off record work goes."

"So to save your own ass, you'll let four, or more, good people suffer and then die?"

Chris said nothing for a moment. "You have no idea what you're talking about. You've never been in a situation like this." Renee's eyes narrowed. She grabbed the wheel, forcing the jeep off the road; she put the emergency break on quickly, bringing them to a screeching halt. Chris's eyes got wide. "Are you crazy!"

Renee glared at him. "You know next to nothing about me. I've been in plenty of situations where I've had to choose either my life or that of others."

"You're still here, aren't you?" sneered Chris.

"Barely," muttered Renee. She tugged at the neck of her shirt. It dropped down to reveal a bullet sized scar near her heart. "Shooter missed. I can show you more, if you'd like."

Chris sat and looked at her. Without another word, he started driving again.


Meanwhile, the storm was still raging and power outages ravaged the city. Our Gunmen (and women) were trying to come up with a plan when Langly noticed the tracking device Renee had left. "It's blinking, she must have smuggled it into the car."

"We'll need a computer to track with," Frohike said, at which point the lights came back on. "Well damn."

Langly quickly went over and started to charge his laptop battery, taking the tracker with him. As he worked, he explained that everything was Timmy's doing.

"When I get my hands on that twirp," muttered Frohike. Byers murmured something in agreement. Susanne shook her head in disgust at the thought of Timmy.

"Wait, so where's my son?" asked Sam.

"Home. He never got your email," Langly replied.


Renee, meanwhile, was trying to figure out how to jump out of the car without dying or injuring her leg even more. "Running low on gas." She commented.

"I'll stop in a minute, at the next exit," Chris replied, not looking at Renee. On this long, and now silent, drive, Chris had been doing some thinking. Renee was right; he knew it, but what was he supposed to do about it? Timmy would kill him, unless by some miracle Renee and her crew would stop him. He smiled grimly as the idea formed in his head. Chris got off at the nearest exit and pulled into a vacant parking lot. "Renee, I think I know how we can fix this."


Four hours later, the Gunmen (and women) were astonished when the door burst open and in walked Chris half carrying Renee. "Oh, you punk!" yelled Frohike charging over. Chris almost dropped Renee in surprise.

"Frohike, it's ok," she tried to pacify him enough to explain.

"The hell it is!" bellowed Langly, running over and grabbing Renee from Chris. Renee grunted and hugged Langly, assuring him that she was in no danger of dying or anything of the like. After much confusion and yelling, Renee and Chris explained the plan to everyone.


Song fic, "Please Don't Leave" link can be found under my profile. .

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