*Lovely Readers, thank you for reading….please forgive any typos. I was trying to hurriedly finish my story within 2 hours before the airing of the episode. I hope I conveyed my story well in my haste to finish…lol

DimplesValntina

Tale of Two Confessions (Re-imagined) Conclusion

Charlie was furious. What was so special about Danny Desai that he received everything good in life? Charlie was just as good of a person as Danny. Didn't he deserve a second chance to succeed? Didn't he deserve a loving girl at his side, devoted to him? Danny has Jo now and he has Lacey…he has…wait, if Danny is confessing his love to Jo, then that means he doesn't love Lacey.

"Perfect." Charlie mutters. "Perfect. That means Lacey is free. I know I made it obvious that I was interested in her before. Maybe she will change her mind regarding her feelings for me – especially since Danny has moved on with Jo." However, once Charlie says those words aloud to himself, he knows those words are untrue. Lacey, too, is in love with Danny. He remembers how worried she was when Danny was missing a couple of weeks ago. He also remembers how her face glowed when she would see Danny in the hallways at Green Grove High. Then, at the Homecoming dance, she practically melted in Danny's arms as she danced with him. Her smile never left her face once – until Danny's outburst at his being elected Homecoming King.

No, Lacey wouldn't agree to be his girl. She, too, was a puppy like Jo. Danny had her wrapped around his finger, too. After all, she had worked hard to clear Danny's name in that mess involving Regina Crane. He had another thought…yeah, that would work. Lacey would be mad that Danny chose Jo over her. Maybe he could sway Lacey to be his helper in bringing down Danny if she were jealous about his love for Jo. Surely, she wouldn't want Jo to easily have her man? Surely, she would also want vengeance against Danny. That whole 'hate from a woman scorned' thing could work in his favor. Charlie began to feel a little comfort that he now could engineer a plan to bring down Danny by using someone he trusted…someone he once cared for. Yeah, Danny would never suspect anything.

Thank goodness, he had remembered to take a picture of Jo & Danny's shadowed embrace. He hadn't known exactly what he was going to do with that picture at the time…maybe use it to implicate Jo after all in the involvement of Vikram's murder. Now, Charlie was very grateful that he had acted in haste and snapped that photo. He could use that to his advantage. Yeah, that picture would prove very useful indeed.

Lacey had been sitting in her room thinking about all Whitney's mother had told her. Whitney had been manipulative in trying to destroy her stepfather's reputation. Whitney had gotten into trouble at boarding school. All the stories that Whitney's mother had told her made Lacey questioned how well she really knew the girl.

Lacey had bonded with her because she felt lonely with Danny acting moody continuously and Jo acting distracted at times. She now knew it was because of the mutual secret, mutual lie that they kept regarding Vikram Desai's death. Vikram's homicide had now involved Lacey since she knew the truth about his death. Kyle had commanded Lacey come to the station and tell her knowledge about the death and the cover-up, of which she did substantiate Danny's claims to Kyle that Charlie was the probable person who staged the car accident which held Vikram's already-dead body.

Although Lacey wondered how she would handle the news about Whitney true nature, she was more worried of her possible arrest regarding knowledge of Vikram's death. She had already been through a lot with Danny and his link to the murders in this town. Now, here was another drama linked to Danny, although it was an accidental murder. Her mother, Judy, had enough worry dealing with her divorce and raising two kids. Lacey felt she had already caused hardship to her family during the Tara murder investigation and then during the Regina murder investigation. Although she still loved Danny after their breakup, she didn't know how to balance her feelings for him, her desire to protect her family, and her desire to help Kyle solve the case.

If there was a way to help Kyle with the latest case, then maybe Danny would have a new start in life. Although they had broken up on extremely bad terms, she still wanted the best for Danny. He had experienced a lot of pitfalls during his life (juvenile detention, betrayal by his dad, loss of reputation, accusations of additional crimes). He had never received a proper chance to re-establish himself in society. He would always have that stigma of 'child murderer'. He would never have a real chance to succeed at life – on his own terms without any cloud hanging over his name. Lacey didn't know what was the best way to help him.

Her phone received a text from a number she didn't recognized, but she opened it anyway. It was a shadowed image of a couple embracing and it looked like a kiss. Wait, she recognized that home. It was the Masterson's. That was Jo's room. Those forms in the pic was Jo…and Danny. Lacey's heart dropped and she felt sickened. Her worst fear had been physically confirmed. Her heart had to accept what her mind had made her utter to Danny in frustration and anger weeks ago: "Jo was the one all along." While the picture confirmation was good to finally know how things stood with Danny, she died inside as she thought of their happy times and of all she had lost thanks to her involvement with Danny Desai.

Another ping of her phone signaled that she had another text. She opened it. "Come to the stables to meet someone who understands how you feel."

Lacey now knew the text was from Charlie. She knew that Charlie could be dangerous, according to Danny. Well, Danny had lied before, hadn't he? Lacey was hurting and Charlie, who seemed to genuinely like Jo, was hurting, too. He knew exactly how Lacey felt. Lacey hesitated, but then she felt she had nothing to lose by meeting Charlie. It might would help to talk through their mutual hurt together. After all, he was sweet to her during Danny's time on the run. She knew Charlie could be compassionate. She could use some compassion right now.

When Lacey arrived at the stables, Charlie was understanding. They each talked through their feelings of betrayal and how hurt they felt. At first Lacey felt that she and Charlie were truly on one accord until Charlie started mentioning about 'fixing that Danny Desai for good'. Although she did feel like hurting Danny as much as he hurt her, she didn't want him to be physically at harm. She felt frightened that Charlie was indeed as dangerous as Danny had suggested.

What could she do? He was right here and talking very animatedly about getting revenge on Danny. Lacey knew she couldn't pretend exhaustion or another appointment and hurriedly escape from here without making Charlie suspicious that Lacey didn't reciprocate his feeling for revenge. Lacey knew she had to play along and pretend to agree with his assertions for revenge. She didn't feel vengeful. She felt scared…scared for herself, for Danny and yeah, scared for Jo, too. She nodded and said all the right words to ensure that Charlie believed she wanted Danny destroyed for all the wrong he caused them. The opposite was true but for now, she had to pretend to believe.

Charlie had a plan for luring Jo to the stables for talking to her. He would apologize over the phone and ask her to meet him there one last time before he was leaving town. He promised her that it was safe. After all, Lacey, her friend was there and he had invited Lacey to the stables to say an official goodbye to him, too. Lacey even complied and got on the phone to Jo to say that everything was indeed okay and that she believed Charlie was very remorseful…he deserved a chance to make things right before he left town. After all, they gave Danny several second chances. Couldn't they extend the same olive branch to Charlie – just this once.

Lacey really convinced Jo when she asked Jo to not tell Danny that she was coming to the stables to meet them. Danny could very judgmental as far as Charlie was concerned. He would think Charlie wasn't being genuine. If both girls determined that Charlie was being true in his apology and remorse, then they could both convince Danny together to come tonight to bid Charlie goodbye as well. Danny would forgive them for meeting Charlie alone once he saw they had good judgment in meeting Charlie and witnessing in person his good intentions.

Jo met Charlie at the stable. When she got there, Lacey did not know how to stop this madness with Charlie from happening. She only went along with his plans because she had no other option. She was scared. Wait, Jo is…wait, is that a signal they used to use when they were asking if something could be believed….could be trusted as truth. Yeah, that was one of their numerous secret signals. So, Jo didn't really believe Lacey on the phone. Hey, maybe she feared that Lacey was in danger and needed her help. So, that is why she came. She came to rescue…a friend. Although Lacey was still disheartened over the text picture, she felt a little for Jo – that she would choose to come to the stables even though it was dangerous…she came for her.

Lacey did the appropriate signal back to Jo that no, the situation was not to be trusted. This was not true. Luckily Charlie was pretending to apologize so he was unaware of this secret signal that Lacey and Jo were sending discreetly. She could see by Jo's subtle movements that she interpreted Lacey's signal correctly.

As Lacey wondered how they could escape from here, the door flew open. It was Danny and Chief Masterson. Jo must have called them and told them of the stable meetup. They were safe.

Oh, no, Charlie had used the commotion to his advantage and grabbed Jo. He now held a knife to her throat. He was threatening Jo's life. He yelled at Danny and the Chief to stay back, that everyone should hold their hands up. Lacey held her hands up, too. Even though Charlie seemed to believe that Lacey was his partner in revenge, she didn't want to take any chances. Charlie was panicking. He was unstable and unpredictable.

Lacey discreetly looked around with just the slightest movement of her head. She spotted a horse syringe. She remembered that sometimes the stable manager would use a syringe to inject medicine into the horse or else use to gently subdue the animal. Someone must have hurriedly left it out by accident. She didn't know if anything was in the syringe, but she knew she could at least damage something with the sharp point of a horse syringe. It had a tip used to penetrate the harder flesh of a strong animal. It may be enough to damage a human. She just had to plan her attack at the right moment. She didn't want Jo getting hurt.

She tried a secret signal with Danny. After all, Jo remembered some of their signals. Maybe he would, too. Kyle was trying to soothingly talk to Charlie so maybe Charlie wouldn't notice the signals between Danny and Lacey. Sure enough, Danny remembered. She had signaled that she was going to do something and that Danny should be prepared. They did that signal whenever they had wanted to scare Jo. So, he knew this signal would mean some action would occur.

Danny interrupted the Chief so that he could goad Charlie into anger. If he was angry enough, maybe Charlie would lower his guard so that Lacey could do whatever it was that she had planned. It worked, Charlie was so angered by Danny's words that he lowered his knifed hand just slightly away from Jo. Lacey took her chance and grabbed the syringe to quickly jab it into Charlie's arm that held the knife.

Since Charlie had been distracted by Danny, he didn't have enough time to react to the sudden movement behind him. He fell to the floor. Chief arrested him and called for backup. Danny hugged Jo. Lacey averted her gaze. She knew Danny had chosen Jo. She didn't need to witness it.

As she distracted herself by watching Kyle read the Miranda rights to Charlie, she felt herself being embraced. She felt a shudder through Danny's body. She heard his muffled words "Thank God you're safe. When Jo called me, I was so worried about you. I don't know what I would have done if Charlie had harmed the girl I love."

"What? No, you love Jo. It's okay. I was glad that I could help bring Charlie down….glad that Jo called you and the Chief came with you to save us. Thank you."

Danny grabbed Lacey's face with both hands and gazed into her eyes: "I do love Jo but as a friend. My heart belongs to you, Lacey. I love you." Danny declared his love right there.

Lacey felt another hug but from behind. She heard Jo's words: "Yeah, Lacey, he loves you. We both love you. We both are glad that you are safe."

Who would have thought that tragedy would have re-united three friends once again and produced a love as a result as well. The three didn't know what the future held, but they knew that strong bond that they once held had not disappeared. It had changed, but it had never totally disappeared.

DimplesValntina

(4/1/14 - Just finished it AT WORK after hours no less…lol. I must really love my Twisted fan fiction…lol. Well, I didn't feel complete without writing my own spin on the episode. I don't know how the season finale really ended. The time is 9PM CST so Twisted has just concluded "live" on tv. I am sure the Twitter-verse, Tumblr-verse, Social Media recaps will fill me in on what I missed, but I am sure it wasn't Dacey-inspired nor trio-inspired as my fan fic has been. Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed my re-imagining). Please forgive any typos…literally, it was a race to finish now within 3 hours.