Hi all! Not much time 2 write… I'm going away for 3 weeks and I just wanted 2 post this chappy 1st… so, reviews!

LlamaDuck: thanx:grins: I'm waiting (impatiently) for your next review! Did I mention I luv ur name?

Mrs. Nikki Slater: lol funny that you want him to both die and marry you… actually, not that strange… I feel the same way. (lol.)

Koizak: one way to find out… REVIEW! Oh, and read the story, too… but reviewing's better. Well, not relaly, BUT STILL!

Alenor: well, if u want to know how a cliffy ends up, JUST REVIEW, PEOPLES! Lolz u seem 2 have that lesson down… but sum don't.

katiekat19: lol, YEAH that's som'n to me! It's like, the whole point of writing, practically! Except for the writing bit, which is fun too! I heart reviews. Tyvm!

znadias24: u wuz thinkin' bout m'story:beams: I feelz s'speshul! Keep on reviewing, and I keep on postin'!

pidgy: lol. And I count by reviews. The voices in your head are welcome. With, or without, ego-emily.

Thanx loads to all my author alerts, story alerts, reviewers, favorite authors, and favorite stories! YOU PEOPLE ROX M'SOX OFF!

OK the thing is… I get so off topic, I'll start out and end up 2 billion thingies l8er. Like, poor suze gets kidnapped 2ce in like 2 chappies. And now it goes from running away 2 a tour, and I'm not done yet… OMG, I wuz thinking about stuff 2 do, and I relaly like where it's going. Fun stuff! Wow… I keep being shocked when I go 2 work on this and c how far back it starts! O, and at some point I decided 2 try 2 put in all my ficcy friends, more on that l8er. Got 1 in this chappy. Grl originally named robin, but I changed it. U shall c wut it iz.

I ran to Gina's. She had an apartment in Long Island. OK, so I didn't actually "run" there, but I'd brought my wallet. Point is I got there. I buzzed. "Gina," I whispered into the speaker. "It's me! Let me in!" She did.

Her hair was currently semi-normal since she'd had to get a job. It was platinum blonde and came to her waist. For work, she wore it up, but outside of work she found fun things to do with it. Like pipe cleaners. But today she clearly hadn't expected anyone, so she had it down. "You are telling me everything, girl, and now."

"Umm… well… two, no, three ghosts I exorcized came back and Paul promised one of them he'd kill me so she could have my body and Jesse can't come get me because he has to stay with Claire."

Gina closed her eyes. "Why can't you have been hiding drugs or something like my other friends? I mean, not that they are, but still, how can I help you with that? And wait, I know Jesse, but do I know Claire?"

"No, she was one of my patients and now we're friends but she's in the hospital and Diego's in there threatening her and I don't know if she's even OK." Gina opened her eyes. "So whatcha gonna do? Don't tell me you're gonna sit here and wait it out. I know you better than that. What's your plan?"

"Gina? Do you have… hair dye?" Gina grinned.

"You know I do. So what'll it be? Blonde? Red? Black? Pink?"

"Got any your color?"

She went to a drawer in her bathroom and pulled it out. Gina dyed like an expert. A little foundation, some bright red lipstick and sunglasses, and I was hardly recognizable. I borrowed some of Gina's clothes, and I might have been her if she cut her hair. "Off to the hospital, then." We stopped at an ATM and found our way back to the hospital. Gina signed us in under her name. We went into Claire's room. The boys were sitting, trying to think but not daring to do anything. Diego was standing by Claire with a knife at her neck. No one recognized me. Jesse gave me a second glance, but then stopped looking. It might've been that he didn't want to recognize me because he knew he wasn't supposed to. Dunno. "Claire!" shouted Gina, who no one recognized either. Jesse should have, but he hadn't seen her with her new hair. And he'd never seen it down. She walked over to the side of Claire's bed where Diego happened to be. I went around to the other side where he wasn't. I talked very slowly so no one would recognize my voice. "Wow… Claire… What… happened…?"

She obviously racking through her brain for a name to my new look. I reached towards her and knocked the knife away from him. I grabbed Diego's knife and reached toward him with it. "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." While he puzzled over this, I sliced his head off. Yeah, sliced it clean off. Well, not clean, but there it was. Then I threw the head out the window. Never done that before. But why not? Couldn't kill him, and even if I could, they couldn't arrest me. Then I jabbed the knife into the gut that was still there. Why not? Claire threw up. "Sorry, Claire." Tim, jaded by decades of movies, only cared about Claire, and he thanked me. Jesse looked shocked. Gina had seen me jabbing an empty hand through the air then walking and putting nothing threw the window while randomly quoting a book, or movie depending which you're familiar with, so she just looked confused. Then I realized no one knew who I was. I took the sunglasses off to reveal my emeralds. "Did you guys really think I'd leave you?"

"Querida!" exclaimed Tim. Kidding. Jesse. I ran to him. He kissed me! In front of three people, one of whom couldn't even see him, he finally kissed me! That was beyond pleasant.

"Feel like telling me what just happened?" Gina whispered to Claire. I was only vaguely aware that people were talking in the room. I was mainly focusing on Jesse.

"Who are you?" Claire whispered back.

"Suze's friend Gina. Any idea what just happened?"

"Suze took Diego's knife and cut his… she cut his head off… and threw it out the…" she paused to vomit again and Gina let her stop.

Jesse finally remembered where we were and pulled away, much to my chagrin. Gina covered her mouth and went, in this really low voice, "Where's… my… head?"

And I responded "Down… in the welllll." And we started laughing uncontrollably. "Oh, right. Introductions." I sat on the headless ghost. "People, Gina. Gina, Claire," I gestured toward the bed, "Jesse," I gestured toward his chair, "and Tim." I gestured toward an empty chair. She made introductions and couldn't understand why everyone laughed when she greeted Air Tim.

Then Jesse said what everyone was clearly thinking. "Susannah, what have you done to your hair?"

"Dyed it to match Gina's. Couldn't have anyone recognizing me, could I? How do I look?"

Everyone was silent, which spoke volumes.

"Yeah, thanks, I'm thinking of making it permanent." I was lying, of course, I had no such intention. I was gonna wash it out as soon as Paul wasn't a problem. But the looks on their faces were priceless. Including Gina's, which was a little unfair. But then the moment came we'd been waiting for. The backup crew. It had taken them a while since the ghost women couldn't leave Paul, but they'd gotten into the hospital. I shoved my glasses back on and put an urban, above it all look on my face (well, I hoped that was what it looked like, anyway), and stood quickly away from Diego's body. "Wow… who's… he…?" I asked Claire, ignoring the rest of the room.

"Some guy. Never seen him before in my life. Pretty bad look, though." This was the first time Claire had seen him since the unfortunate accidents which… ah hell, since Jesse and I beat him up. I thought she handled it quite well. "Who let you into this room?"

Heather spoke for him and I pretended not to hear her. "Suze got out." Paul jabbed her with the elbow she'd been supporting and promptly fell to the floor. Gina and I moved to help him up like we didn't see the women, which Gina actually didn't. "I mean, we lost… I mean, Suze isn't, I mean, what the hell is that?"

"That was Diego," Jesse explained, "after I got his knife." Paul's face attested that Jesse could commit violent crimes, even though in general he didn't.

"Can it talk?" Gina asked, gesturing toward Paul.

"Not at the moment," Claire explained. "I think he got into a nasty accident with an organ grinder and a disgruntled monkey." Paul couldn't protest, and presumably Gina and I couldn't see the other two, so he had to accept this. Tim guffawed, Jesse tried not to laugh, and Gina nodded sagely.

"Seriously though, if you don't know him, should he be in here?"

"No, probably not. Nurse!" She hit a little call button. "There's a weird man in my room! At least, I think it's a man! Could be a tragically injured yeti." I laughed and moved to the other side of the room. If I touched any of the ghosts, my cover'd be blown for sure. Soon, a nurse escorted yeti-boy out of the room, Heather glaring behind, Maria dragging her husband's body, ostensibly off to look for the matching head. That was done, but I couldn't go back home.

"So… Claire… I'm in… town… but I got… nowhere… to stay…"

"Oh… that's right… you're welcome at my place! But it'll be under construction once I'm out of the hospital. 'Cause of the baby!"

"Oh, thanks! Where is it?"

She wrote an address on hospital paper and a thought occurred. "Oh, hey, could you babysit my little Monica? She's been staying at a friend's but I don't want to impose any more. You can always send her off if she's too much."

"Oh no problem! Maybe I can help her a little on her… ya know… thing."

Claire beamed like the girl on the cover of the first Fruits Basket. "Oh, would you? Buy whatever you want to eat and stuff, and consider it all paid back!"

I looked at the address. "Hey… you live uptown, huh? Nice."

"Tim can give you the tour! Hey, umm… Ginny, was it?"

"Gina."

"Oh, sorry. You're welcome to stay there too!"

"No thanks, I got a place in Long Island."

"What?" I acted offended. "You think I just drag people up from California or something just because I got kidnapped?" My cell phone rang. "CeeCee, not a good time! Call back later! Yes, I know long distance bills and… oh, fine! Whaddaya want?"

"What happened?"

"Why do you think something happened?"

"Because Adam told me!" The three of us had drifted out of touch after graduation, but after we met up at the 5 year reunion, we all got together again, and CeeCee and Adam really got together. They'd been together for the past 5 years, and they'd married a year ago. CeeCee was, get ready for a shock, a REPORTER, and Adam was a photographer. But not for a newspaper, for a magazine.

"And how did Adam know?"

"Because apparently Brad, of all people, told him!"

"And who told Brad?"

"He wouldn't say."

Oh. Of course. Someone dead. I'd found out Brad had mediator powers in our junior year, when he walked in on Jesse and me. No, not doing that, he wouldn't do that until I was 18, but kissing, and he'd acted with all brotherly disgust instead of thinking I was kissing air.

"So what happened?"

"Oh… nothing… Paul kidnapped me twice and tried to kill me and Jesse tragically disfigured him."

"WHAT?"

"Yeah. I'll fill you in later, I'm not alone right now. I'm actually in a hospital. Oh, and Gina's here. Wanna say hi?"

"Umm… what? Oh, sure."

I handed the phone to Gina and reviewed my conversation from the point of view of everyone else there. Interesting as usual. Gina went into some detail about what she knew, which wasn't much, but it seemed to satiate CeeCee's curiosity for a while because Gina eventually got to hang up. "Wow. OK. So… what now?"

"I guess… uh… you want me to go get Monica?"

"That'd be great!" She wrote down another address and handed me a key from her purse. "Tim can take you. I need Jesse here. I love you, Timmy, but… well… you against them in a fight… well, I don't want you to get hurt." Tim said he understood and we left.

After Gina had split, I brought up what I'd been thinking. "Hey Tim, you don't find it… suspicious about Jesse and Claire, do you?"

"Naah… if Claire were gonna cheat, she'd go with someone a little less… dead."

"Yeah. I guess. So where's Monica?"

"She's at her little friend Lolly's house. We go left here." It was a long walk, but I'm not made of money. And I'd worn tennies today, so I could deal. We finally walked up to a gated community with a man in the guardhouse. Shoot.

"Hi! I'm a friend of Claire and T—of Claire Steinback. I'm here to pick up Monica?"

"Name?"

"Suze Simon."

"You're not on the list."

"List?"

"No one approved your entrance."

"Oh, hold on a sec, Suze, I'll be back," Tim assured me. I had been going to climb the fence or something, but whatever. His way was better. He dematerialized for a minute or so. The phone rang inside the guardhouse, and I heard my name. The guard, seeing that I was still there, shouted that I could go in and opened the door. I went in and waited by the inside with no idea where to go. Finally, Tim came back and brought me to Lolly's house. I rang the doorbell.

"Hi. I'm a friend of Claire's. I'm gonna be house-sitting and baby-sitting for Monica."

Monica ran into the room. "Dr. Simon!"

"Hey Monica! I'm gonna be staying at your house with you for a while while your mom's in the hospital, OK?"

"OK!" She skipped out and led the way for me and her beaming father. Once she was a bit in front of us, she stopped skipping and said, in a low voice, "Tonight." Then she ran back toward me looking scared.

"What happened?"

"He's planning something."

"What's he planning?"

Monica just shook her head. I subtly exchanged glances with her father and thought of something.

"So your mother said she was afraid you'd gotten the idea for ghosts from her?"

"He's not an idea."

"I know he's not, but is it true that she mentioned ghosts?"

"She said my father was watching me."

"Yes, and I wanted to clear that up. She meant from heaven. He's watching over you from heaven, and protecting you." I didn't believe a word of this, especially concerning Tim as he was strolling along next to me, but she pondered it for a while and stuck close to me for the rest of the walk, which turned out to be short because she lived in the same neighborhood. I let us in. "So, can I have a tour of the house?" She proved to have gotten her grin from her mother.

"This is the foyer." Wow. A foyer. Classy. It wasn't historical-ish like my high-school house or modern like Paul's. It was just… nice. Chandelier nice. Marble floors nice. Nice nice. She showed me around the house. No pets. Just general niceness. It'd be hard to be a kid around here…

"Hey Mon, you got anything fun to do around here? Games? Anything?"

"Umm… we could play chess…"

"Chess?"

"Yes." She got out a little glass chess set and carefully set up the pieces. My knowledge of the game consisted mostly of "the horsey moves like an L" so to challenge herself, she apparently decided to capture every single one of my pieces before winning, which meant she had to avoid checkmate multiple times. Tim was lying on a crisp and clean white couch, laughing so hard he was crying. Monica was containing a grin. "I liked playing against my father better." Tim looked up. "He was so good at the game. I wish you were somehow playing as well as he did."

Couldn't say no to that. Just couldn't. "'Kay." We played another game with Tim telling me how to move.

At first he was saying things like "Queen's rook to D7" or something like that, but he ended up pointing and saying "Move that horse two spaces forward and one to the left." It was a much better game. Monica looked a bit puzzled for a minute, but then evidently decided to let it go. It was a pretty fair game, actually, but "I" eventually won.

"Well, it's 9:00. I'd better get to bed." Wow. Weird kid. Heh. Like that was new information or something. "Goodnight, Doctor Simon."

"Hey Mon?"

"Yeah?"

"Call me Suze." She emulated her mother's big smile again. She showed me to the guest bedroom, and I saw her into her own room, where her father informed me that he intended to stay with her until she fell asleep, then go back to his wife. I fell asleep, as content as I could be without Jesse, and slept soundly for a few hours, until waking up with, for the umpteenth time in about 24 hours, a knife to my throat. Shit.

I don't think u guys'll b xpecting wutzunna happn! Cuz I wuznt till I decided 2 write it! Yay 4 me! W00tw00t1!1!1!1111!11!1 omg!11!1!1 HAHAHAAHAHAHAQHAHAH whoah… srry… heh…