There Are Days Like This Too

by The Lady Ley

Ryo is struggling to keep his sanity while he starts picking up bad habits he developed when his parents died. Mix in a psychopathic murderer, a traumatized Bikky, and Dee who's patience is about to wear thin, you too would have a hard time keeping sane!

15. Killing an Innocent

There Are Days Like These Too

Author: Irish Kaoru

Disclaimer: You know the drill

Warnings: very sad and someone will want to kill me I am sure!

A/N: not too much to say. Just I am sorry for the delays in posting I am working uber hard on my manuscript and been really busy with work so I hope that you can all forgive me!

Chapter 15

Killing the Innocent

Karina's POV

We walked to the hospital in silence. It wasn't the kind of silence that was uncomfortable but it was far from companionable silence as well. It was obvious that she was worried about Ryo and I didn't really blame her at all. If I was in her shoes I would be too, but I didn't want her to be like this the whole time. It would really be a shame if these were the last emotions that she ever felt.

There was little that I could do though and I knew this. I felt bad for her and couldn't help but think about the way that Danny was going about this was all wrong. Why was he so dead set on killing the people that surrounded the person that he considered his 'most precious'? I also couldn't help but wonder what Justin was to him.

Justin loved my father with all his heart. It was obvious to anyone who saw him that he would gladly give his life if it meant my father's happiness. I couldn't understand why he allowed himself to be used like he was. If that was love then you could count me out, I didn't need love if all it would bring me in the end was heartache.

I threw Carol a sideways glance. Perhaps love in and of it's self was not all that bad. It was obvious to me that she loved Ryo. Not in the way that Justin loved Danny but still it was love all the same. She loved him in a platonic sense, the kind that binds a family together. It had something to do with him and his lover, Dee, saving her life a few years back. I could see how she would be drawn to them, not having a true family of her own.

I didn't bother walking up to the reception desk once we entered the building. I knew where Ryo was because Danny had already told me, although I did have a task that needed to be completed before we went to go and see the man.

"My father said that he would like to meet you if you wouldn't mind taking a small detour. I promise that it will take no more than a minute." She looked startled at the sound of my voice but slowly nodded. I took her up to the fourth floor knowing that Danny would be staying somewhere close to Ryo. The most logical place for him to be would be the break room.

As we pushed open the swinging double doors to the break room I caught site of him. He was sitting at one of the far tables looking over some paperwork. I was thinking to myself that he looked professional and sane, something that I knew he was not.

"Dad!" I called out. He looked up for a brief moment and nodded his head.

"Just a second Karina, I just have to finish this." With that he was looking back down at his papers and began scribbling away. I sighed and pointed to an empty table. Carol and I sat down and waited as we were told to. He said it would only take a second but seconds turned into minutes. When it had been almost half an hour I grew impatient.

Walking over to the table I looked at the report that Danny was working on. It of course was Ryo's. No wonder he had told us to wait. It should have clicked in my mind a little earlier. In a quick movement I grabbed the papers off of the table and looked at him with false anger. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't really be mad at him.

"Dad!" I cried out in exasperation, would you meet Carol over there so that we can be on our way, she has been worried about Ryo since yesterday and I am sure you keeping her here rather than letting her go and see him is upsetting her more."

He looked at me with a bit of surprise, perhaps it was because I was showing some kind of emotion towards the person that he had told me that I would kill. He shook his head after giving me a glare and before putting on a happy façade. He turned to face Carol with a big smile.

"Sorry about that, when I get wrapped up in my work I sometimes forget how long it has been. Please forgive me." He reached out a hand and took Carol's introducing himself in as few words as possible.

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Handson." She said. I tried to hold back a laugh as Danny bristled a little.

"Just call me Danny, Handson is my ex-wife's last name, Karina said that she would rather keep it then changing her name to match mine." Although his smile held I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was beyond pissed. My mother and my father never were on very good terms.

Danny had done what was expected of him and married a woman so that he could raise a family, however, he never really felt right about it. At least that is what he had told me, he said that it felt unnatural and strained.

My mother was a lesbian and my father was gay, an odd combination. However for their entire marriage Danny never once went out looking for another man to love. My mother on the other hand had a handful of women that she would call upon when she was in the mood. It angered Danny to no end. In the end they split up and I chose to live with my father for the majority of the year and visit my mother in the summer.

"I'm sorry." Carol quickly apologized even though Danny had waved it off with a dismissive hand.

"I am the one who should say that I am sorry. I have kept you from seeing Ryo long enough, I just wanted to meet the charming girl that I had heard so much about from both Ryo and my darling Karina." He turned his head slightly in my direction and I smiled back although I am sure that if either of them caught it they would see the pure annoyance that was hiding behind my not so carefully placed mask.

"Can we go now?" I asked still smiling. He shot me a warning look but waved us off.

Ryo's POV

I sighed in content for what had to be the hundredth time that afternoon. Dee was perched on the side of my bed, one arm wrapped protectively around me while I leaned against his chest. Things were… almost normal, minus the sterile smell and over kill of white.

The door creped open and I jumped a little, the sound cut through the silence like nothing I had ever heard before, Dee just laughed. I glanced at the door and watched a girl that I had never seen before peep her head in.

"Can I help you?" Dee asked, I knew that deep down he meant it to be said in a nicer tone but he came across aggravated.

"I was just making sure that I got the right room." She replied brightly and walked in. Much to my surprise Carol was close behind. She smiled at me before hugging me tightly. "So you must be Ryo." the other girl spoke up, "making you Dee." Both Dee and I looked at her causing her to break out into a nervous laugh. "There is no need to worry, I am one of Carol's friends and my father is your doctor."

"D-Danny has a daughter?" I was dumbfounded. Last I had known he was together with some guy. Last I checked Justin was not a name for a woman.

"He and my mother split when I was a little younger, but yes he had a daughter and you are looking at her!" she was so cheerful when she said this that it almost seemed like she was covering up an insult. All I could do was nod and turn my attention back to Carol.

"And what are you doing here?"

Time passed and we talked of better times. Carol seemed to be doing well and was more at ease knowing that I was ok. Of course I neglected to let her know that I was in the mental ward. To her knowledge I was only staying over for some tests.

Karina had stayed the whole time off in a corner where minding her own business and not getting involved in the conversations unless a question was directed towards her. I felt bad and could relate to the girl who obviously felt out of place. I know that if I was her I would be feeling the same way, sitting here in a room with two odd men who were obviously not fazed to show affection towards one another. Then again I suppose that she couldn't be all that closed minded about it if she lived with Danny and Justin. I don't know why I was so worried about it but there was something about the girl that was just not sitting right with me.

I couldn't place the feelings that I had about her. It wasn't like I was worried over the idea that she wasn't fitting in but more like there was a reason that she was forcing herself to stay when it was obvious that she didn't want to be there. It was odd to me, like she was trying to put some kind of distance between us and herself, like she didn't want to get to know us at all. It was almost unnerving.

Before long the two girls left the room, Carol said that she had homework that needed to be done while Karina said that she had to meet up with her father. I bid them both a farewell and watched them leave before voicing any of my opinions about Karina to Dee.

"Perhaps it is still something that she is not used to seeing amongst men that she doesn't know?" Dee said thoughtfully, "I mean when you first saw the way that JJ hung on me you can't say that you felt right about it even though you were fine with the idea of homosexuality and you saw your friends Thom and David hang all over one another all the time." He had a point. It wasn't like I was against homosexuality, after all I couldn't find myself in a situation like I was with Dee if I was opposed to the idea. Nor had I ever freaked out when two of my best friends in high school got together and they were not all that shy about hanging over one another in front of me. But shortly after JJ was moved to our precinct and started to hang all over Dee I did have problems with it. I cannot say at that point that I was feeling anything beyond friendship with Dee so I know that it wasn't jealousy, even if that is what it turned into later.

"Yeah I guess that that is what it is." I said thoughtfully, still not feeling at ease.

Carol's POV

It was somewhat of a relief to see that Ryo was doing ok with my own eyes, after all he was like a father to me and it would kill me to see him hurt. But as it was he seemed to be doing fine and even if he wasn't Dee was there and that mans presence was better than any medicine that the doctors would give Ryo.

Karina had stayed with me the whole time although she was shy and quiet, something that was against her nature, at least from what I knew of her which was very little. We had met all of a week ago at the arcade when Bikky and I went there after school. She had amazed Bikky to no end with her skills in the game "House of the Living Dead" and I had to admit that I was a bit jealous of her at first, after all it did kind of look like she was making a move on my boyfriend, something that I wouldn't allow. But after hanging out with her a little more I found that she was more likely to go after me than him and I felt more at ease.

The more I learned about her the close we got and even though it had only been a week it felt like I had known her forever. She had managed to get close to me and Bikky very quickly and it wasn't all that odd for us to be hanging out with one another on a daily bases.

At this point in time though I couldn't help but feel a little worried about her. It looked to me as if her and her biological father didn't get along all that well. Even since the time that we had left Danny she had been very quiet. Before we left she went to let him know that she would see him at home but he had just waved her off with a flick of the wrist. I felt bad for her because I could tell that she would do anything if it meant gaining the affections of her father.

"Are you ok?" I couldn't help but ask her, she smiled back like everything was fine but I could read the truth in her dark green eyes. She was far from ok and was holding back her tears. I wrapped my arms around her telling her that it would be ok, I would be there for her no matter what.

"I'm sorry Carol, I am so sorry!" she whispered. I felt something prick me in the back of my neck as the tears fell free from her eyes. What was going on? My body grew heavy and I couldn't force it to move at all!

Karina's POV

I had a love hate relationship with Carol. She was a really good friend and I am sure that she would listen to anything that I had to say to her without question, but at the same time I wanted everything that she had. She had a family unit that would accept her for who she was, she had friends that never once questioned her background or held her accountable for the things that her father had done before he ended up in jail. She was the model child in some ways and the rebel that I wished I could be.

If she thought that there was something that was wrong she would stand up for what she believed was write. She loved deeply and hated no one, she was trustful, a fault as it would now seem as she slunk to the ground at my feet.

Even though I knew the reason that I was doing this it still didn't seem right to me. I knew that it wasn't right but there was no way that I would be able to stop it now. If I did then she would have to know everything, she would have to know that it was Danny that had sent me to kill her and eventually I would be sent to kill Bikky as well. She would have to know that the deaths of the family that worked at the DA as well as Bikky's teacher were done by Justin. She would also have to know that this was all being done so that Danny could get just that much closer to Dee and Ryo before he killed them both.

This was a risk that I couldn't take. Both Justin and I were at the whim of a mad man who had threatened to kill both of us if either one of us failed him. To let Carol live would mean that Justin would die as well as me. None of this was Justin's fault he was an innocent. Either way it was a lose, lose situation, I would either have to kill Carol here and now like Danny wanted to or watch as Danny killed Justin in front of me and then killed me as well. No matter what option I chose someone would die today. I could feel the tears as they began to run down may face and taste the saltiness as they reached my lips. I really didn't want to kill her, but I had my orders.

"I'm sorry Carol, I really am sorry," was all I could say as I pulled out the knife that my dad had slipped me before I left. I started with her heels just as Danny said to and cringed as the steal cut deep into the flesh and got stuck in the tendons. I had to pull it out and start again; I almost gave up when I saw just how much blood was being lost and how quickly it was spilling from her body.

'She did nothing wrong, she is innocent, why am I doing this?' was all that I found myself thinking as I finished up with one heel and set to work on the other. I knew that she couldn't feel anything; the drug was a powerful anesthetic that was used in surgery when they needed to keep the patient awake but had to numb the whole body. Even though she was awake she would find it to hard to actually say anything or move, therefore she was silent but I could see the tears that were falling down her face as she realized what I was doing.

Once I had finished both heels I moved to her wrists and split them open twice in each arm making sure to sever the artery that ran through the wrist. This was all done just as Danny had told me to do it. When I was done she was still alive, breathing, and looking at me with questions in her eyes.

"I really am sorry Carol. I never wanted to do this, not to you or to Bikky or anyone else. Please forgive me. He'll kill me if I don't do it though, he said that he would kill me and Justin and I cannot let the one person who saved me be killed by a mad man." I sobbed harder once I saw that she was no longer looking at me with eyes that held life. I stood up and walked away numbly unable to look back at the body that was laying along one of the forgotten paths in central park.

A/N: (hides) I am sorry please do not kill me it is all for the advancement of the story!

And thank you to all who helped me reach my 100 reviews I am beyond flattered.