Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot and the bad guys.

Hospital

"Ryan? Ryan, please wake up," Ryan opened his eyes.

"Sharpay?" He said groggily. "Where am I? What happened?"

"You were attacked by some creeps in black," Sharpay explained. "Right now you're in the hospital. Everyone's out in the waiting room, since only immediate family is allowed to see you."

"Where's mom and dad?" Ryan asked, sitting up.

"They're giving statements at the police station." Sharpay replied. "I gave mine a while back." She shook her head. "Really, I should be asking you what happened. I only saw the last part of it."

Ryan told her about sitting on the golf course, singing the song, going to the locker room, being grabbed, running into another person, then how Sharpay came along. He left out the part where the person said "Remember me?" He didn't want to scare her.

"So they might come back?" Sharpay said fearfully. Ryan nodded.

"They said that they couldn't risk something. That you saw his face." Sharpay frowned.

"I didn't, though, Ry." She replied.

"I know." Ryan replied grimly. "And he's going to kill you because he thinks you did." Sharpay gasped, terrified. Then she stood up and walked to the door.

"I'll tell everyone you're awake," She called over her shoulder.

Meanwhile, in the waiting room

"Is he going to be okay?" Gabriella asked for the 20th time.

"Don't worry, Miss Montez," A passing attendant said reassuringly. "I'm am sure your friend will be just fine." She gave Gabriella a smile. Gabriella didn't smile back. Instead, she sulked over to Troy Bolton, her boyfriend.

"I don't get it," Gabriella said, sinking into one of the waiting chairs.

"Get what?" Troy said.

"The fact that they won't let us in and talk to Ryan. "Only immediate family," is what they said." Gabriella mocked their voice. "Please. He wasn't that badly hurt!"

Suddenly the door burst open and Sharpay rushed into the waiting room.

"He's awake!" she shouted.

"He's awake?" Gabriella repeated.

"He's awake," Sharpay said. "Now come on, the doctor said Ryan can see you now." She pulled everyone into Ryan's hospital room, where he told them the story yet again.

"That's insane," Chad Danforth, a basketball player on Troy's team, spoke up when he was finished.

"I don't get it," Taylor McKenzie added. "Why did they want you, Ryan?" Ryan shook his head.

"I have no idea," he said ruefully.

At that very moment, the window to Ryan's right shattered into a billion pieces. Three bullets whizzed past Troy and buried themselves deep into a passing doctor's chest. He gasped and fell to the floor. Everyone was in shock as two masked figures leaped through the open window and rushed up to Ryan's bed.

"Okay, everybody out!" One of them yelled. "I want all five of you to back up out into the waiting room."

"Why?" Troy asked. "What's going on?"

"Move it!" The other one shouted fiercely. "Back up or your friend here gets a bullet in his chest!" she added, gesturing to Ryan with her gun. Hesitantly, Troy, Gabriella, Chad, Taylor, and Sharpay backed into they waiting room, where one of the masked figures shut the door behind her.

"Now, I'm going to make this easy on you," She growled. "No cops, and you'll get to see your friend again. Get it?"

"Got it," the group mumbled.

"Good." The person leaned against the door, keeping a watchful eye on the group as they sank heavily into the waiting chairs.

Meanwhile, back in the hospital room

"No," Ryan said flatly. The person who was with him was holding him by his shirt collar, and had Ryan pushed up against the wall.

"What did you just say, punk?" the man growled.

"I said no, "You're not going to get it from me."" And you know what the idiot did? He threw back his head and laughed. Actually had the nerve to kill a doctor, separate Ryan from his friends, push him up against the wall, demand that he give him what he wanted, and when Ryan said no, he laughed. Ryan felt anger bubbling up inside him.

"Well, isn't that cute." He said cruelly. "You know Ry, I always remembered you as stubborn. But I completely forgot how stubborn you can be."

"Stop calling me that!" Ryan shouted angrily. "Only Sharpay can call me that and you know it."

"Oh, and "Sharpay" is going to stop me from calling you 'Ry'?" The man asked with a raised eyebrow. "How can she, when she can't even stop me from doing this?" and with that, he pulled his fist back and hit Ryan squarely in the jaw. Ryan cried out in pain. "Or this?" the man dropped him and kicked him. Ryan whimpered as he started to fade into unconciousness for the second time in 24 hours. The man picked him up and climbed out of the window.

When Ryan was safely in the van, the man came went through the front door and called to his companion.

"We got the kid, we can go now." He said. Sharpay glared at him. He winked. "Hey, Shar, I'd love to chitchat, but me and Ry have some business to attend to." Sharpay's glare had turned into a look of horror as she recognized the voice.

"You…" she whispered lightly.

The man and woman ran to their van and sped off. Sharpay had crumpled, and curled into a ball, crying.

"He can't have Ryan," she said. "He's dead."

Ohhh, poor Ryan! Who's after him? Why? Why do the creepy bad guys keep calling them by their nicknames? Why are Sharpay and Ryan so afraid of them? Give me reviews and maybe I'll tell!