A/N: The gang finishes their round of testing – is anyone hurt? What has Denman been up to and is she planning on ruining the holiday? Who will she go after? Find out! Read and enjoy my lovely readers : ] Hope you enjoy it! 27 reviews for chapter 6, take care everybody!
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Rikki
"On three again, Zane." I heard Lewis say, but didn't break my concentration as I rested my hand on Zane's back between his shoulders again. I felt him breathe in deeply to brace himself and he nodded.
"One…"
I focused hard. I pushed everything else out of my head.
"Two…"
I squeezed my eyes shut so tightly that I was seeing spots. This had to work – the test was drastic but it had to be real in order to get real results. I felt my hand shake a little bit and bit my lip as I concentrated harder.
"THREE." Another shot rang out. I felt like this one echoed absolutely forever, and my heart thudded out of my chest. My eyes did close with the sound this time and I really didn't want to open them this time, but I had to. I would have had to eventually anyway even though I really, really didn't want to this time around. I peeled my eyes open one at a time and squinted a little, still not really wanting to get a full view of what was in front of me. Zane was in front of me and had dropped his arm back to his side. Other than that, he hadn't moved. I looked up at Lewis and Cora. Lewis was paler than usual and he hadn't moved from his spot a foot or so away from her. Then I looked at Cora who was still standing perfectly still. Once again I made a quick scan of her body – I didn't see any blood. Her eyes were closed but her face hadn't tensed up at all and her hands were still resting at her sides.
I came out from behind Zane and walked towards her and when I was only a few feet away I felt my heart thud hard again. The bullet had stopped less than an inch from the center of her chest. I let out a sigh of relief and waved Zane over and I saw her open her eyes, causing the bullet to drop into the dirt again. Lewis grabbed her hand and pulled her over to him and thankfully I saw some of the color come back into his face. The kid looked like a ghost for a second. I heard him start muttering something and squeezing her and I turned and went back to Zane and hugged him. He was pretty pale, too. This probably scared him a lot, considering how bad he felt in the first place. I bit my lip and slipped my hand into his. I considered asking Cora to help him calm down a little. I knew she wouldn't say no, but I know he makes her uneasy and I'm pretty sure that she's had her emotions yanked around enough for one day. I'm just hoping he doesn't feel guilty forever.
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Later That Day – Lewis
The hard part of the day was over, and holy hell was the first part of the day hard! I was glad that my idea had worked and that Cora had gone along with it like a trooper but it felt good to be able to just unwind with some lame family activities at my mom's house.
We've been here for a few hours now. The first hour or so was kinda hectic – taking Cora around to each member of my family and introducing them to each other was a little nerve-wracking but she handled it well. Then she and my older sister talked for about 30 minutes about God knew what – girl stuff I'm assuming, but I made sure she was settled and felt comfortable before taking a step back. After a while I'd sat down on the couch with my 17 year-old cousin Bradley and started playing Counterstrike with him, but every few minutes I paused and got up to look out the glass door to where Cora was playing with some of the "little McCartneys," in her words, outside. This time I went a little further and stood in the open sliding-glass doorway that led outside. Cora was outside in my mom's garden surrounded by my sister's 3 and 5 year-old sons David and Christopher, and my 8 year-old cousin Amanda. They were smiling and Cora had bent down to show them something that was in her hand. I felt myself smile and Christopher noticed that I was standing there watching them and ran over to me, immediately beginning to tug at the front of my shirt, dragging me over to where the rest of them stood.
"Look, Uncle Lewis! We found a snail!" He was practically squealing. I looked down at what they were looking at and sure enough, on a leaf in Cora's hand was a small snail. I smirked down at her and she looked up at me, beaming.
"Cantareus aspersus!" She said happily and I laughed a little. It certainly was, or in English – just your basic garden snail. I smirked and ruffled Christopher's hair and smiled down at her.
"Sure is." I said. I felt an embarrassingly goofy smile make its way onto my face as I watched her with them – she absolutely loves kids and they seemed to really be enjoying her. It was a pretty adorable sight, I couldn't lie. I know how badly she's always wanted a family but thought she'd never be able to have one, and to be honest I think she'll make an incredible mom. But this was another reason why it made me so uncontrollably angry that there was some psycho out for her blood who wouldn't bat an eye at taking that dream away from her. I felt my smile falter a little but didn't let it disappear. We'd be ready for Denman when she came. She might not be playing any games this time around, but neither were we.
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Christmas Day – Dr. Denman
I had grown pretty weary of Jerry giving me his slack about this project. I was sick of listening to him tell me that I was going too far – he was the one stepping out of line, trying to talk back to his boss. He tried to tell me to let it go – leave the mermaids alone. He had the nerve to try to tell me that they were "just kids." These girls are anything but just kids, and I don't plan on giving them the benefit of the doubt for otherwise. They are scientific miracles and horrible, sneaky brats. Ones that I don't plan on letting slip by me now. Well, if Jerry didn't want to help me then fine. I gave him his Christmas present a little early last night – I fired him. I didn't need anybody trying to hold me back. I didn't need anybody's negativity and attitude trying to keep me from getting what I deserved. I had caught these little bitches twice, and twice they've tricked me and gotten away. Well that wouldn't happen again. This time I don't want them alive; no tricks this time. I will take them all, and I want them all dead.
I stared down at the photo I had taken from my ex-intern's home the other day. It looked like this girl had lied to me in more ways than I thought. I knew she had been friends with the other mermaids, I knew it. But now I had proof that she was involved with their little friend, the McCartney boy. I flipped through the file I had stolen from the old man's house and felt a smile spread across my face as I started to piece some things together. Cleo, the sweet one. Rikki, the tough one. Emma, the smart one. Cora, the brave one. This was coming together quite well for me if I did say so myself, and I think I've come up with the perfect way to smoke these girls out of hiding. I ripped the picture in half and let the pieces drop back to my desk. I was going to make this a very, very happy new year for myself indeed. And I had the perfect spot reserved on the wall in my home office for my award.
I had taken to watching Cleo these days. Cleo, the sweet one. Very sweet, a little slow. Hell, after watching her for a few days I'd actually gotten bored and moved onto another one. I considered this little brat to be an airhead. Perfect for what I needed her for; to lure her out where I wanted her. Gilbert was too responsible to not help out her friends if they needed it, she'd be easy. I grinned and thought about the Chadwick girl. She was a smartass and probably not very easy to trick. I thought about Harrison Bennett's, son, Zane. That kid is a ticking time bomb with a temper, just like his father. I could certainly use this to my advantage and I intended to. All I need to do is mess with his little girlfriend a little and I'll break him. I'll get him on my side – just like he'd been on my side once before. As for Cora, well… she'd made this incredibly easy for me. I had something special planned for my scheming little ex-intern. I was going to rip this girl apart – or have her own friends rip her apart for me – I haven't quite decided yet. I've got so many options as it is - This would be a lot of fun! I slapped her file shut and started writing out some notes of my own. I was going to turn these kids against each other and it would be like taking candy from a baby.
Step one: rain a little on Rikki Chadwick's Christmas. I wouldn't take her just yet. I'd mess with her just - but just enough to start pushing that boyfriend of hers to his breaking point.
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A/N: Denman is going after Rikki – what will happen to Zane? Is he going to side with Denman and crack under the pressure, or will he stand strong and listen to reason? 27 reviews for chapter 6, I think! Love hearing what you all think, thanks for being so supportive! : D