"Lacey's not a snitch, genius. You're the one who just laid out all the details." Phoebe spat out, helping Lacey down from the washer.
Jo hopped down then too, with a lot more aggression.
"So this is fun, right?" Jo said just above a whisper crowding in toward Lacey.
"You don't scare me, Jo." Lacey said confidently, standing her ground.
At that moment it was true. How dare anyone take some else's life like that for such a stupid reason? Jo was sick, evil. Phoebe was still poised right by her side, two teenage vigilantes versus one crazy bitch.
"Most people think you killed Regina and now you're going to look even more crazy, blaming someone that could be seen as an easy target, the daughter of a cop." Jo smiled.
"Maybe," Lacey shrugged, "but I'm not the one who actually killed someone."
Phoebe caught sight of the undercover officers outside. The ones who were supposed to be tracking Lacey and Jo's every move. One of them was feeding the birds on the sidewalk. What the fuck was he doing?
The second detective walked through the front door with a basket of dirty clothes, dropped them and then slammed Jo face-first against the washer she had just been sitting on.
"MHPH! FUCK! SOMEBODY HELP!" Jo screamed, sending the other patrons running around, trying to figure out who this man was that just body slammed a college student. Many of them called 9-1-1.
"You two get out of here." The officer said to Lacey and Phoebe as he twisted Jo's arms behind her and handcuffed them.
"It's about time!" Lacey shouted. She had never been more angry and more relieved in her whole life.
"I said OUT!" The officer shouted back.
Phoebe walked up in front of a now handcuffed Jo and pulled her own shirt up to reveal her wire. Jo's face was priceless.
"Aww, poor Jo." Phoebe pointed to her mic, "Who's the smart one now?"
The officer pushed Jo toward the door, nudging Phoebe out of the way with his free hand.
"I'm not scared of a psychopath like you! You ever get out of prison, you come find me!" Phoebe invited, "You hear me?!"
Jo's face remained flat, emotionless as a female detective patted her down just outside the laundromat before they stuffed her in back of an undercover cruiser.
Danny had his eyes closed as he zoned out to music at the back of the bus. He had slid himself against the window, anticipating taking a nap for most of the three hour ride back to campus.
Archie was snuggled in next to him, refusing to be away from Danny at any moment before he imagined he'd lose this intimacy forever. He was scrolling through campus updates when the breaking news dropped about an arrest in Regina's case. At the same time, everyone's phones began blowing up with notifications.
"Danny, Danny—" Archie shook him until Danny opened one grouchy eye and glared back at him.
"Yates, haven't you had enough of me yet?" Danny grumbled sexily, just loud enough for only the two of them to hear.
"Never, but look—" Archie stuck his phone in Danny's face.
Once Danny connected the dots he bolted upright, eyes wide as he read through what was reported as a student being arrested without incident for the murder of Regina Crane. There was no footage of the arrest and no names were mentioned.
"Oh my god—" Danny checked his own phone, no calls or texts, "Without incident, that's probably good, right? I mean, it would be a different headline if there were like, hostages or casualties, right? Right?!" Danny rubbed the back of his neck.
"Right, you're right. I'm sure she's fine, D." Archie tried to soothe him.
Danny called Lacey and left a message, continuing on to call Phoebe and leaving a message. They were probably giving statements, he reasoned and prayed. Danny called the detectives and had to leave messages for them too.
"Damnit." He grunted in frustration just as his phone lit up with an unknown number, "Hello?!" He asked frantically.
"Danny, Deputy Garrett."
"Are the girls okay?!" He couldn't wait anymore.
"Lacey and Phoebe are fine. Jo too."
Danny's sigh was huge, "Thank you."
"I can't tell you the details, but everything went as hoped."
"Thank you. Thanks—" Danny hung up absently and melted into the back seat, "Lacey's okay." Danny panted out to Archie and a few of the guys who had crowded over the back of the seat, "Jo killed Regina."
Danny's revelation sent a wave of shock through some of the more skeptical players on the bus. The news was heavy for everyone. They missed Regina, they felt betrayed by Jo and now they felt like assholes for assuming the worst of Lacey. A few of the guys even apologized to Danny.
"You okay?" Archie asked after they settled back into their seat.
"It's finally over." Danny said to himself, the release from over a year of being some pawn between Regina and Jo and the Syracuse Police Department was visceral.
Danny: I'm back
Danny: Please call me?
"The team's back." Phoebe sang as she plopped down next to Lacey on her bed and handed her the bagel she had toasted for her.
"I know." Lacey took a huge bite so she wouldn't have to say anything else right away.
"He's called me five times in the last five hours, Lace. He knows you need to fall apart, he wants to be there."
Lacey tore off pieces of the dry bagel until she basically had a storage-container-lid-plate of breadcrumbs.
"What's different?" Phoebe tried again.
"Him."
Phoebe cocked her head to the side, "Danny's different?"
"He will be. I don't even know who he really is. He's been trying to resolve this situation forever and now it's over. Can you imagine? Even after all that stress and effort, Regina's dead."
Lacey fully expected that Danny would want to run and finally start his real college life. She knew he had been unable to fully invest himself here, not when he had other motives all day every day for such a long time. Who knows who he really wanted to be.
"Okay, regardless, you were part of this part of his life. He wants that check in. No one is saying anything needs to come from it, it's about closure—"
Lacey let Phoebe's words marinate. She did want to fall apart and she did want Danny there when it happened.
"You're right."
Lacey: I'm sorry
Danny: I'm coming over
Lacey: Okay
"He's coming."
"I'm sure he will." Phoebe giggled sarcastically.
Danny: Stay at my place tonight so I can stay there?
Phoebe: You mean sleep in a real bed in a clean apartment with real food?
Danny: I even have ice cream
Phoebe: I'm packing right now
Danny: I don't know what you said to her, but thank you
Phoebe: Don't fuck this up
Danny: Promise
An hour later Phoebe pulled the door open revealing Danny with lots of bags. Take out food bags, an overnight bag, a gift bag, a laptop bag.
"Jesus, let me grab some of this—" Phoebe took the food bags from him and stepped aside so Danny could enter.
Lacey was in bed with her earbuds in, reading some poetry book and trying to zone out. She looked over as Danny made his way further into the room, both of them locked in the most intense staring contest that Phoebe had ever seen.
"Okay—I'm gonna go." Phoebe decided quickly and grabbed her bag.
Danny reached blindly to his side and held out his entire keychain for her. Phoebe plucked it from his grasp and bolted.
"Hi." Danny said sweetly.
His hair was pulled up in a top knot, his body draped in SU soccer sweats. He was still the same Danny.
"Hi." Lacey said as she pulled herself up so he would have room to sit beside her.
Danny took the offer and sat, turning to see the wear on her face, her hair was out and wild. She was wearing a black tank and SU shorts that were still fully disguised by Lacey's comforter.
"I brought some real food, I haven't eaten anything but pizza for the last two weeks. I feel disgusting."
Lacey was starving. Danny leaned down and fished out two brilliant steak tip salads from the brown paper bags Phoebe had set on the floor for him. He set them both up with plastic cutlery and held up a few dressing selections.
"Honey mustard." Lacey pointed and ripped open the little packet.
Danny didn't even bother with dressing and just dove in, "So good." He managed to say in between bites.
"Is this from Johnny Cakes?" Lacey asked as she inspected the gold sticker on the bag.
"Yep."
It was there, pinned to the ceiling, heavy and waiting. Everything they needed to talk about, everything that was waiting for them to feel. Lacey looked up, offering a silent hello to the elephant as she finished her last few bites.
"Thank you for dinner." She said politely with just a little too much formality.
"No sweat." He ignored her icy tone.
Danny cleaned up their trash and set his stuff up on Phoebe's bed.
"You staying here?" Lacey surmised.
"I'd really like that, but only if that's okay with you? I sent Phoebe to my place. Your RA knows—" Danny shrugged, cashing in on a year's worth of favors to get the dorm monitor to say yes.
"Sure." Lacey said and unfolded herself from the blanket, letting her overheated feet rest on the cold floor.
Danny mirrored her, sitting on the edge of Phoebe's bed, their toes touching. He reached for the gift bag and handed it over to Lacey.
"What's this?" Lacey took the bag and looked over at Danny curiously.
"Just something I thought you might like. I found it when I was in the city."
"You didn't have to do that—" Lacey smiled and pulled out the heavy, tissue wrapped rectangle from the bag.
She tore open the tissue paper, mouth hanging as a full set of Sennelier extra fine oil paints were revealed. Lacey knew this set well.
"Danny—what in the world? This is a three hundred dollar set—"
"Well, the lady at the store said they were the best ones she had. Oh! I almost forgot, she also recommended these—" Danny took out several tubes of Old Holland oil paints from his overnight bag, "She told me these colors were ones that Sennelier doesn't carry. I just wanted you to have them all so—" He handed Lacey the other paints.
Lacey was floored by Danny's thoughtful gift. She needed new supplies so badly, but this was next level. The paints he selected for her were top of the line professional paints. The set itself was hundreds of dollars and each tube of Old Holland were about fifty dollars each.
"I can't accept these Danny—" Lacey tried to refuse the exorbitant gift.
Danny didn't move to take the bag back, opting to open his kombucha and take a long drink instead.
"Yeah, well, you've seen my painting abilities. I have no use for those." He smiled.
Lacey's tears crested her bottom lids as she thought about her night on the rooftop with Danny. Jo had set the paint supplies up, Regina had torn it all down. If only she had known how reversed those roles really were.
At any time Jo could have easily decided it was Danny that needed to die and not Regina. Lacey was thankful it didn't happen that way, but mourned that connection for Danny at the same time. Her mind whipped to finding out that Jo had a knife on her when the detectives searched her after she was busted at the laundromat. What if she had been next? Or Phoebe?
She fell apart then. Danny scooting forward and taking her up in his arms. They both slid down onto the floor and cried together for all of the same and also many very different reasons. It didn't matter what they had been through or for how long, the trauma was the trauma and they were both part of it.
"Thank you for ending this. For me and for everybody else." Danny said as he wiped his own tears away.
"I'm sorry it wasn't before Regina had to die." Lacey admitted, "I didn't know—"
"It wasn't your fault."
"It wasn't your fault either." Lacey said firmly.
Danny stared at her after that and nodded, "Yeah. Yeah I guess not." He sniffled.
Lacey stood and pulled Danny up to lay with her on the bed, wrapping them up in her oversized comforter and snuggling in tight. They both needed this moment so badly.
"I'm so happy you're okay." Danny held on tight.
"I'm happy you're okay too." Lacey admitted, squeezing him tighter.
Danny reached up and moved her hair back and out of her face, his hand framing the side of her head. He stroked her cheek lovingly with his thumb and ran it quickly over her bottom lip before leaning his face in and kissing her. She kissed him back, keeping it chaste and brief.
Danny could feel her hesitation but wasn't going to prod further, not now. He pulled away when she did, letting their connection lay there together with them.
"How were the away games?" Lacey asked softly, directly onto his lips.
"We won them both." Danny said just as softly, pecking her lips again, "Lacey?"
"Hmm?"
"I slept with Archie while we were on the road." Danny knew adding anything to what they were dealing with was unfair, but he had to tell her.
"We were on a break." Lacey shrugged, not missing a beat. It stung though, it really did.
"I had you as my girlfriend for a minute before I left. Hooking up with Archie wasn't on my radar then, I swear."
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"I believe you." Lacey watched him struggle inside for a few moments, "I believe you." She repeated.
Danny stared back at her fondly, "My time with him, with Regina, everyone really, made me realize that I'm falling in love with you."
"Me too." Lacey answered honestly. It had been three months since they met. She had loved him since day one.
"Be with me again?" Danny asked quietly, wholesome and bare, "Please."
"Yes."
Lacey closed her eyes and rested her face against his, both of them letting their stress and worry pour out of them and all over the floor. They both passed out.