What Goes Bump In the Night

Chapter 7- Friends and Lemon Danishes

It had been a week since Sydney had told Karen about the prank caller which was now determined to be a stalker, well at least by Karen. Sydney did not really want to consider it a stalker and tried to forget about it most of the time. As the nurse had said she had gone to the doctor and got her foot checked out. It turned out that she had sprained her big toe and bruised the others while kicking the desk. The doctor had decided to cut her toe nail back as far as possible causing a lot of pain and bandaged her foot up. She had been required to stay home for at least a few days until she could actually manage to walk on her foot. So she took a few days off avoiding Nigel saying she had the flu to prevent herself from being thurgholy embarrassed.

Things seemed to hold up at the university or a least that's what Karen had said in her hourly hone calls. Karen had called every hour since she had been home worrying about the creep.

Truthfully Sydney hadn't heard from him at all that week so she was starting to think it was just a prank again. So she relaxed at home enjoying her well deserved time off even if she couldn't walk without a crutch for the first few days. The bruising was now healing and her foot getting back to normal.

There was one problem though. Since she was off for a week and hadn't seen Nigel she hadn't yet told him about Hawaii. She spent had spent the last two days day dreaming up ways to tell him about it. As she got ready for her day of returning she got butterflies in her stomach.

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She pulled her jeep into the university parking lot just as Nigel had gotten out of his cab and started walking towards the courtyard. It was perfect she would sneak up behind him and surprise him.

She ran silently catching up to him quickly just before he rounded the corner into the courtyard. She covered his eyes from behind him.

Nigel stopped dead in his tracks when he felt someone's warm hands cover his eyes "guess who" he heard a familiar voice say from behind.

"SYDNEY!" He said as he turned around embracing her.

"Hey Nigel glad to see me?" she asked hugging him then pulling away so she could see his face.

"Oh Syd I 'm so glad you came back, the dean has been on my back about the exams" he said thinking it was a little odd she was still holding him pressing her body against his.

She held onto him despite the ending of their hug, she had missed him "Oh yea sorry those have to be done by Wednesday don't they"

"Yeah we have to get them done soon, or the students won't have an exam to write, not that they wouldn't be happy" he said stepping away putting some distance between them to not raise suspicion.

"I'm sorry Nigel, Why don't you come over to my house tonight and We will make the exams" she said ignoring the slight sting she felt as he pulled away from her.

"Ok I'll bring pizza" he said as they rounded the corner and walked towards their office.

"Extra Pineapple, Nige" syd said teasing him

"But, Syd fruit doesn't belong on pizza" He whined he really hated pineapple on pizza but it was Sydney's favorite besides extra cheese.

"Please Nigel?" she said batting her eyelashes

"We'll see" He said opening the door for her, letting her enter first as usual.

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"Sydney, we've missed you!" Karen said bolting over to her boss and giving her a big hug as she came in.

"I missed you to Karen" she said as she took off her coat and walked into her office. Karen followed her in like a puppy closing the door behind her.

"So had anymore run-ins with you know who" Karen said seriously as she fiddled with the globe on Sydney's desk.

Sydney thought about her answer, she had sworn she had heard noises at night while she was in bed, but she figured it was just the cat or the strong painkillers the doctor had given her. "None at all, see I told you it was just a prank Karen"

Karen studied her friend for a moment trying to detect any hints that she was lying. "Good but I want you to be careful I have a bad feeling about it"

Sydney knew what she meant; she couldn't help but feel like she was being watched at night. But she knew she was probaly just scaring herself for nothing. "I will don't worry Karen"

Besides you probaly scared him away when you called every hour in the daytime." Sydney said

"You should thank me then" Karen replied as the joke sent hem into a small case of he giggles

"Hey what's so funny" Nigel said letting himself into Sydney's office.

"Just a girl's joke Nigel" Karen said turning around as he entered.

It took a second for him to clue in on what she meant before he spoke "Oh well I don't want to no then" he paused as he walked over to them and revealed a paper bag from behind his back " A breakfast fit for kings right from our very own cafeteria" he said as he passed a Lemon Danish to each of them before he pulled out his own and took a bite of his.

"Thanks Nigel" Sydney managed through bites of the Danish. She had a weakness for lemon Danishes; he knew they were her favorite.

"Yea thanks Nigel" Karen said before devouring hers

"You're very welcome" he said as he finished his. He wiped his mouth clean with one of the napkins and threw it out before handing one to each of his friend who were now focused on the pastries.

He sat down in the chair in front of Sydney's desk; he missed her whole she was away. The office seemed so empty and his days were so boring without her. While she had been gone he felt like a part of him was missing. It had been hard but resisted the urge to check up on her, he knew she wouldn't have wanted him to see her with the flu but it didn't stop him from worrying.

"Did you have a nice time off... well I mean except for the flu thing" He said as she finished her Danish.

" Yeah it was ok I got to watch lots of movies and enough TV for a lifetime" she said standing up "we've got some classes to teach she said grabbing her lesson plan that Karen had already put on her desk.

"Bye guys" Karen said as she followed them out of Sydney's office and watched the as they headed for the class room. She could quite she the feeling that this alleged stalker was gone.

She pulled herself out of her thoughts as she sat back down at her desk. She had to recheck her calculations for the budget. Half an hour later she heard a small thump in Sydney's office. She glanced over just in time to catch a shadow disappear out the window of Sydney's office. She quietly got up grabbing a paperweight as she did. She quietly walked to the door and opened it quickly. No one was there, but the window was left open and there was a letter left on Sydney's desk. She ran over to the window, but no one was in sight. She slammed it closed and locked it in one fluid motion. She turned to Sydney's desk and grabbed the phone. She dialed Sydney's cell number and glanced down at the envelope the sat on Sydney's desk. He stomach tied in knots when she recognized the handwriting.

"Hello?" Sydney answered

"Hey Syd" Karen replied in little more then a raspy whisper, her voice choked up at thought of the stalker being there

"Karen what's wrong?" Sydney asked, she was concerned she never heard Karen so scared before, not even when she was kidnapped.

"Syd, I think you should get back here" Karen managed to say.

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Whoo had a little bit of writers block there for a second, if anyone else doesn't know bruising all your toes is EXTREMELY painful, I did when I was nine and couldn't walk at all for three days, trust me when I say this one - Never Underestimate a Bruise !

Anyways hope you like it um sorry if I'm not able to put anything up until after the weekend, I'm going to my dad's house and then school starts (joy :( ..) any who please Read and Review.

-Roxy