A/N Hey all did you know that SpashleyU "dot" Com is having a contest? you can win some awesome South of Nowhere related stuff. The contest will kick off on April 18th, but there's some details up on the site already. Also, we're going to be raising money for The Trevor Project, head on over to SpashleyU to find out more info. Thanks.

May 16, 2008 6:42pm Los Angeles – Stan's Swifty Mart.

Harold Michaels was not a brave man by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the only truly brave thing he had ever done in his life had been standing up to Bobby Swanson, the class bully in the 6th grade who had been picking on Suzy Marshal, the little girl he'd been crushing on. He pushed the bigger boy away from Suzy and then kicked him in the shin. He felt brave and proud for about 5 minutes until Bobby Swanson beat him up in front of Suzy and everyone else. Harold learned a very valuable lesson that day on the playground. He learned that it wasn't worth it to be brave.

It was a lesson Harold had carried with him throughout his whole life. Harold had never taken a chance in his life. He had gotten through high school being the object of everyone's ridicule and when that was over, he was just grateful to get out and went as far away as he could for college. While in college he met his wife, Peggy, a large, loud, pushy, overbearing woman who had controlled Harold's life since the moment she told him to pick her up for their first date. Harold didn't say no, even though he wasn't attracted to her and before he knew it, they were married with three ungrateful kids who treated him like a doormat with a wallet.

Despite the fact that his wife was constantly harping on him that he didn't earn enough, or love her enough, or provide for them enough, he still wished he was at home listening to her bitch at him then hiding in a dirty little bathroom from masked maniacs with guns in the convenience store a couple miles from his large, comfortable, relatively safe home.

It had all began when his wife had called him at work, reminding him that their daughter had a dance recital that night, so had had better be home early. He sighed and obediently left soon after. On the way home she called him again and told him he needed to pick up some milk and a candy bar for her. He was only a block away from his house at the time and with another sigh, he turned around and stopped at Stan's.

He had walked in when the chili he'd ate for lunch caught up with him. His wife never let him eat spicy foods so when he saw the Studio cafeteria was having Chili, he thought he was a grown man and if he wanted to eat chili, then dammit, he would eat chili.

Walking into to Stan's, with his stomach gurgling its displeasure, Harold sighed as he walked at a rapid pace to the bathroom. There was no way he could let Peggy know he'd had something she wouldn't approve of, he's never hear the end of it.

So holding his nose and making an effort not to touch anything, Harold slammed the door of the stall in the restroom. For the next 20 minutes, he prayed that if whoever was up there would just make the cramping in his stomach stop, he'd never go against what his wife told him again.

When the spasms had stopped he slowly left the stall, only to hear shouting from the other side of the door. Not wanting to get in the middle of what sounded like a fight of some kind, Harold took his time washing his hands, then when it had gone completely silent, he cracked the door to see if whatever was going on was finally over.

Harold quickly but silently closed the door again, backed up into the bathroom, and curled up into a little ball next to the dirty toilet. He didn't need to see anymore than he had already saw, a man in a white mask taking out a very nasty looking gun.

There Harold had sat not moving or making a sound for the last three hours, praying no one would need to use the bathroom before this was all over.

"These rag mags are all the same…Britney, Britney, Lohan, Britney, Olsen Twin, Jessica Simpson… Ok, really, just because she played Daisy Duke does not mean she's country and can make a country album." Ashley rolled her eyes and threw the magazine on top of the pile next to her. She grabbed the next one, Time Out LA, and leafed through it, trying to find something interesting to read. Noticing a large picture that accompanied an article about the newest club to open that month, her eyes went wide.

"Hey, Ash, that's…" Aiden exclaimed leaning over to look at the magazine in the brunette's hands.

"The new club you've been wanting to go to, I know." She quickly cut him off, giving him a hard look that dared him to say anything else.

Aiden glanced down at the picture of him and Ashley dancing at Cobalt and looked up at his friend, giving her a quizzical look. "Ah, yeah, we really should check it out. I heard it was the place to find hotties in LA."

Ashley glanced around, no one had really moved from the floor against the coolers. Spencer was now sitting next to her brother, her eyes closed, taking slow deep breaths. Ashley had seen her sister, Kyla, do the same thing numerous times when trying to fight off a panic attack. One of the men had a camera pointed right at her, capturing the blonde at her most vulnerable. Ashley tapped her foot against the bottom shelf across from her in boredom and frustration. As creepy as the men were, she doubted they were going to shoot them otherwise they would have already. As long as they followed the rules they had been given, they would be fine.

She couldn't be sure how long they had been sitting there, in relative quiet, everyone whispering among themselves, not wanting to draw the cameras, or even worse, the men with the guns attention. Aiden started humming, off key so bad she couldn't tell what song it was suppose to be. Spencer seemed to be losing her battle as her breathing picked up, Ashley noted.

'I'm sure the cameras aren't helping at all.', she thought bitterly, deciding she needed to do something draw attention away from Spencer. She didn't know why she felt the need to protect the girl but she seemed so gentle and innocent, Ashley hadn't met someone like her in LA in a very long time.

"Oh my God, Aiden!" She yelled startling the dark haired guy next to her. "Would you stop with the humming! It sounds like two chainsaws fucking."

Aiden's mouth fell open, shocked at his friend's outburst and more than a little offended at her words. Ashley silently told herself to apologize to the boxer later but for now she could only smirk as the camera that had been aimed at Spencer swung around to point at her. Unfortunately, one of the gunmen had also positioned his gun directly at her at the same time.

"Whoa, no need to point that thing at me, Casper." Ashley held her hands halfway up in the air, "I'm not the one who's humming could make a deaf man cringe. If you're gonna shoot anyone, it should be him, not me."

"Ashley…" Aiden hissed next to the brunette, slowly scooting away from her.

""Oh, relax, Aiden, no one is going to be shot," Ashley waved her hand dismissively, "if they were going to kill us they would have already."

"Yeah, so let's just taunt them into shooting your friend." Madison glared at Ashley, "great friend you have there, Aiden."

"You shouldn't joke around like that. We don't know these guys will do." Glen reprimanded Ashley. Next to him, Spencer seemed to have forgotten about her impending panic attack as she stare between Aiden and Ashley, the look on her face unreadable.

"Whatever, if they were going to shoot us they would have." Ashley huffed, standing up.

"You Americans, you're so impulsive." Darius spoke up from the corner he'd been leaning back in, sitting on a stack of Coke 24 packs. "In Russia we have a saying 'you needn't be afraid of a barking dog, but you should be afraid of a silent dog.'"

"What the hell is that suppose to mean?" Glen snapped, whipping his head around to look at the Russian.

"It means, that they," Darius nodded towards the men with the guns, "are silent dogs, my friend, and we would do well not to piss them off."

"Seeing as you haven't said anything really, does that mean we should be afraid of you as well?" Madison arched her eyebrow, staring at the Russian.

"I'm not holding any of the guns, am I? I would say that we are all in the same predicament, are we not?" Darius replied, a small smile on his face.

"That's not really an answer." Madison stated, an annoyed look on her face. She wasn't sure why but something about the older guy bothered her. Maybe it was the fact that besides stating his name, age and occupation for the camera he had yet to say anything else since the whole ordeal had begun. He had just sat quietly in the corner, watching everything going on.

"Forgive me, I meant that the only people that appear to be a danger here are the men dressed in white, pointing loaded AK47's at us." Darius held his hands in front of him, as if showing he meant no harm.

"Whatever." Madison huffed and turned away. She turned the page on her notebook and wrote something down, making sure to keep it close her to chest so no one could read what she was writing.

"Hey, Spence, how are you doing?" Glen softly asked his sister, who hadn't said a word in a while. He was getting worried about her, she wasn't crying anymore but just sitting there. She had barely blinked when Ashley had yelled at Aiden and then started arguing with Madison. He was grateful that her breathing had calmed down though, for a minute there he had thought he was going to have to grab her a paper bag to breathe into.

"Ok, considering the circumstances." Spencer lightly smiled, doing her best to ease her brother's worried look.

"I wouldn't worry, girl. As long as we play nice, we'll be fine." Madison said in a rare moment of concern.

"Yeah, I mean, the police have to know what's going on by now." Glen's eyes traveled towards the blacked out windows, "Even if we can't see them."

"I have faith that we will all safely get out of here." Rhonda smiled at the group, "Just as I have faith that Our Lord is watching out for us, we all have to have faith that the authorities are doing all they can do as well."

The conviction in which the older woman had conveyed in her words made Spencer feel a little better. For the first time since they had all been held captive, she felt like she and everyone else might make it out of there alive.

"Whatever works for you." Ashley mumbled, picking up another magazine. "But I wouldn't hold out hope for some invisible man in the sky."

"Why do you always do that?" Aiden questioned his friend. He ran his hand through his black hair, pushing the bangs out of his eyes.

Ashley sighed and put down the magazine with an exaggerated huff. "Do what, Aiden?"

"Dismiss other people's belief's. Just because you don't believe something doesn't mean it's not real."

"Says the guy who swears he's seen a UFO." Ashley laughed. Down the row, a snicker could be heard coming from Glen and Madison as well.

"I did!" Aiden raised his voice, tired of being teased about that from the person who was supposed to be his best friend. "It just hovered there, with all these different lights and it didn't make a sound."

"If you say you saw a UFO, I believe you, there are many things in this Universe we aren't made to know about." Rhonda offered, wanting to keep another argument from starting.

"Thanks, I really did." Aiden gave the grandmother a grateful smile, "I was sitting out on the beach one night and my Ipod stopped working. I felt this strange vibration around me and I looked up and there it was." A faraway look had come over Aiden as he recounted his story.

"Yeah, like I said, you've taken to many hits to the head." Ashley wasn't intentionally being mean to Aiden but she was bored and picking on him usually was a fun way to pass the time.

"Whatever, Ash, I don't know why I put up with you sometimes." Aiden, more pissed then he was concerned for his safety for the moment, got up and moved further down the row of coolers to sit on the other side of Madison.

"Oh, come on, Aiden, I was only playing." Ashley called out.

Aiden ignored her, making a point to smile at Madison and start up a quiet conversation with the store manager.

"Fine, whatever." Ashley picked up the magazine she had discarded before and started leafing through it, acting as if she could care less about what Aiden did.

"Oh, this floor is too hard for my old bones." Rhonda said as she stood up, keeping a careful eye on the men with the guns. She walked over to another stack of soda cases and sat down.

"That wasn't very nice." A voice softly said next to the brooding brunette. She looked up and into the bluest eyes she had ever seen, she quickly looked back down at the open magazine in her hands.

"Good thing I never claimed to be nice, than." Ashley replied, keeping her eyes down, staring at the glossy pages in front of her. She heard the blonde softly sigh next to her but made no move to say anything else. It wasn't that she was trying to be a bitch but her pride was stung by Aiden's actions.

Spencer wasn't sure what to make of Ashley. How was the sarcastic, argumentative girl the same one who had tried to protect her and comforted her just a few hours ago the same person? It didn't make sense because someone who acted as if they didn't care that they were being held hostage and filmed the entire time didn't try to protect a stranger. There was a lot more to Ashley Davies and Spencer was determined to figure it out, it was a nice way to distract her from obsessing about the men in white.

Spencer and everyone else were startled out of their individual thoughts by a loud buzzing noise. One of the gunmen quickly moved his gun towards the noise, along with one of the camera men but the other two kept their attention on the group in front of them. It took Glen a few beats to register what the noise was until Madison nudged him.

"Coffee…" She loudly whispered.

"Oh, yeah it must be quarter past 7, that's the coffee buzzer." Glen looked around not sure what to do, if he should get up to change the coffee or let the buzzer continue. Madison made the choice for him, much to his dismay.

"Get up and turn it off." She snapped, like it was any other day and Glen was just slacking on his duties, instead of forcing him to walk over to the other side f the store while men with guns followed his every move.

"Ahh, yeah, turn it off." Glen weakly smiled, badly hiding his unease with the demand. "Ok…"

The blonde guy shrugged and stood up. Keeping his eyes on the men, he carefully walked over to the other side of the store, staying out of the way of the men with the guns and cameras. Everyone held their breath with each step he took and his every move. A collective sigh of relief was heard as he made it safely over there and turned off each coffee pot, ending the buzzing noise.

For the briefest of moments, Glen thought about throwing the hot coffee in the face of the man closest to him but he knew that he would be mowed down by the other guy before he could even make another move and he couldn't protect Spencer and Madison if he was shot. With shaking hands he poured the coffee down the small sink next to the hot beverage area. He then washed out each pot, as was his nightly routine. He stacked them on top of the coffee machine and turned towards the hot rack that held the hot dogs and other various food items that sat out for hours on the rollers.

"Hey, are you going to toss those out because I'm starving." Aiden called out, his hunger over riding his brain telling him to not draw any attention to himself.

"If you want any, come and get them." Glen called back, not wanting to be the only one up and walking around the store.

Aiden gulped, not sure what to do but not wanting to appear afraid when Glen had just walked over there like it was nothing. Glancing at the men and seeing that they didn't seem agitated or anything by Glen being in another part of the store, Aiden slowly got up. "Sure, no problem, we can't let bad minimart food go to waste."

Everyone's eyes bounced between Aiden walking over towards Glen, the men dressed in the white jumpsuits to Glen and around again, waiting to see if anything happened. Spencer's heart was beating like she had just ran a marathon and her breathing was getting labored again. Before it got too bad, she felt a warm hand take hers and squeeze, she looked over and saw Ashley watching her, taking exaggerated slow breaths. Spencer matched Ashley's breathing and felt herself starting to calm down. She continued taking slow, deep breaths while turning back to watch Aiden and Glen, who were now both by the hot food area.

Aiden held up a wrinkled jumbo hot dog, staring at it like it was a science experiment. "Dude, how long have these things been out? They look sick."

"Only about 6 hours, the heat makes them shrivel up but they're safe to eat. Usually this homeless guy, Barney comes and takes them every night." Glen quickly snuck a peak at Madison to see if she had heard the last part. Glen told her he threw them away every night and since she rarely worked past 7, he was free to give them to Barney when he came in around 8. The disapproving glare on her face told him she had heard. He groaned internally hoping that the present circumstances would save him a lecture from the Latina.

Aiden sniffed the hot dog, then eyed it again, still undecided if he was that hungry or not.

"Oh, for God's sake, it's not toxic." Glen reached over and grabbed another hot dog off the rollers and took a bite. His nose wrinkled a bit as he chewed the hot dog, it was tougher than it looked and tasted a bit like old leather. "It just needs some ketchup."

He grabbed a bun tossed the hot dog on there, and then smothered it in ketchup. Aiden eyed the hot dog one more time before grabbing a bun as well and loading it up with ketchup, mustard and relish. Saying a silent prayer, he took a huge bite. After some serious chewing her decided it wasn't the worst thing he's ever ate, though it was close.

Next to Spencer, Ashley wrinkled her nose in disgust, "Ew, that is so gross. They've been sitting out for hours."

"When you're hungry you'll eat what you can, child." Rhonda said from her soda case perch. "Aiden, would you be a dear and bring me one of those hot dog with some mustard, please?"

"Sure." Aiden smiled and got another hot dog ready for the woman. "Anyone else want one?"

"No, thanks." Spencer answered. Darius shook his head and Madison started writing down the hot dogs in her tally.

"Don't cry to me if you get sick, Aiden." Ashley warned, shaking her head. She knew this wouldn't end well. As much as Aiden ate, he had a weak stomach, the result of being raised in a very well off family. He couldn't even handle cheap beer.

"Whatever, Ash, I can handle a hot dog or two." As if to prove his point he grabbed another one and shoved it in his mouth, ignoring Glen who attempted to stop him.

"Dude, that was a jalapeno one…" Glen grimaced, knowing those only got worse with time, not even Barney took those.

Aiden's face turned pale as his eyes got wide, he looked around and finding the bathroom door made a dash for it. One of the men with a camera following him, while another with a gun kept it trained in his direction.

Ashley snickered, knowing that no real harm would come to her friend, besides maybe a bruised ego.

Aiden quickly pulled the door open, "What the fu….."

Everyone gasped as a figure bolted out of the bathroom, screaming like a madman, tackling Aiden to the ground. Harold had decided that he would do one more brave thing in his life. He had decided that he wasn't going down without a fight and Harold Michaels had over 35 years of pent up rage and aggression to unleash in his final blaze of glory. His sudden appearance had even startled the mute men in white who hadn't made any moves beyond observing the group since the initial rounding them up.

Thing seemed to slow down as Ashley stood up, yelling, "STOP!" at full volume. There was a loud bang and then everything went dark for Aiden.