Redemption

Chapter Eleven

After retching once again, she heard the apartment door open and close. Sue had an extra key just in case of an emergency and Danni was glad that she did. There would have been no way for her to have collected her bearings to answer the door. If she would have tried, she would have fallen on her face. Luckily, Levi had sniffed her out and led Sue to her.

The golden happily licked her face to greet the woman and to get her attention. "Hey, Buddy," she said as she flushed the toilet yet again. She turned away from the porcelain bowl to see her cousin staring down at her. "Hi," was all she said as she leaned her head against the wall. Levi rested his head on the girl's lap and she scratched him behind the ears.

"I can't believe you talked me into this," Sue said, a light tinge of pink forming on her cheeks. She would have at least expected one of her cousin's other friends to be selected for this project, but not her.

"You're the only one I trust with this. You were my only option." She tried to sign as she spoke, but she didn't seem to have the strength. Her arms flopped down beside her with fatigue.

Sue eyed her suspiciously. "Yeah, right. Which explains why I'm embarrassed enough for the both of us. You're lucky Lucy didn't want to drive to work with me."

"Would you have told her the truth if she had?" The look that Sue gave her told her that she didn't want to know the answer to that question. "Okay, then…" The churning returned to her stomach and she dipped her head into the bowl one more time. When she removed it, she saw Sue's disgusted look. "Sorry." At least Sue didn't have to listen to the sound. That was what sent most people over the edge.

The blonde held out the small, brown paper bag to her cousin as she checked her watch. "I have to go. Here. Call me if you need me." She didn't want to stick around for the answer. She wanted to know, she just didn't want to be party to this. This was between Bobby and her. But, as her eyes set upon Danni's, she saw the pitiful expression that was plastered on her cousin's face. "Please, don't look at me like that."

"Please stay, Sue. I don't want to do this on my own." There was pleading in her eyes that was mixed with fear. There was no way she could have done this on her own if she tried.

Sue wanted to say no. With all of her heart, she knew that Danni needed to do this on her own, but the pathetic expression on the girl's face made her give in. With a heavy sigh and a roll of her eyes, she said, "okay."

A minute later, tension was high. Sue sat quietly upon the bed as Danni sat on the floor before her. She didn't exactly have the energy to stand and this way, she would be close enough to the bathroom if the churning began again. "Danni, can we talk?" Sue never heard the sigh, but she saw the exasperation on her cousin's face.

"Please, Sue, I know my moral resolve isn't as strong as yours or my mother's, but please, spare me the lecture until I'm feeling better." She rubbed her pallid face with the palms of her hands and groaned loudly. The last thing she wanted to hear right now was how wrong others thought she was. She didn't usually care what others thought, though; that was why she traveled to the beat of her own drum. But, Sue usually spoke her mind about what was right or wrong and she didn't have the strength to listen.

But, it didn't look like that was what Sue wanted to talk about. She surprised Danni when she giggled softly. "That's not what I wanted to talk about. I like how you are with Bobby. If you love him, I know there's nothing I can say that can change the way you are. I know you're a good person and if others can't see that, then they're blind…" she trailed to a paused as she thought about the question she wanted to ask. "No, I wanted to talk to you about a guy."

Danni smiled with a small laugh. "This guy wouldn't happen to have gorgeous chocolate brown eyes and the most amazing smile in the world, would he?" She saw the dark blush appear on her face to know that that was who she was talking about. "I'll take that as a 'yes'."

Sue shook her head to show her cousin how unbelievable she was, but then nodded to answer the question. "Yes… he asked me out to dinner last night."

"And you went, right?" If Sue hadn't, she deserved a good strong slap. If Danni wasn't dating the man's best friend, even she wouldn't say no to that invitation. Jack was definitely a hot item and any girl would be lucky to sink her hooks into him.

The blond nodded again. "Yes, I went." Her cheeks became darker. "He kissed me… on the lips." She wanted to make sure that Danni knew how severe the situation really was. Jack had kissed her on the cheeks before, but only as a friendly gesture. A kiss on the lips was very big.

"Wow… so, what's the problem? I thought that's what you wanted to happen." If she didn't know their history, she wouldn't see a problem at all. Too bad that she knew more than she should have.

A small smirk appeared on Sue's lips. "It was, but something happened." She averted her eyes for a moment as she tried to gather up the strength to tell her. She found this more embarrassing than this morning's task. It made her think that there was something wrong with her, but Danni would happily tell her otherwise. "He ran away." She felt tears stinging the back of her eyes as she remembered seeing him retreat. When the day he finally kissed her came, that wasn't what she'd expected to happen. She felt her cheeks become wet and she hastily reached up to wipe the stray tears that had fallen, hoping that they hadn't been seen.

Since Sue had dropped the bomb, all Danni could do was keep her eyes upon her cousin's face. She was studying it, like she did with so many criminals. But, this time, she was looking for a way to comfort her and not get any information. She carefully leaned forward, wincing at the chronic pain in her stomach and took Sue's hand in hers. It was partly to get her attention, but mostly for consolation. She hated to see the blond in so much anguish. She gave it a gentle squeeze and was satisfied when hazel eyes met her blue ones. "Don't you even think about blaming yourself. Maybe he's just insecure. I can see how much he cares for you. He wouldn't have kissed you in the first place if he didn't want to."

"But, why would he run?"

She shook her head. "I can't say. But, perhaps I'm not the person you should be talking to. You'll never know if you don't ask." She Danni closed her eyes and took in a deep breath as she felt her stomach churn once more. The good thing was that she did have the urge to scramble to the toilet. She checked her watch and saw that only a minute had gone by. She gave a short laugh and rested her head against the wall. "Talk about the longest three minutes of my life." She'd brought it up to take Sue's stress off of her, but it only added more to Danni.

"What are you going to do?"

With a shrug, Danni answered, "I don't know. We haven't exactly talked about this and I'm afraid of what Bobby might say." She ran an exasperated hand through her hair. "What am I going to do?"

Sue never got the chance to voice her opinion. She saw both Levi's and Danni's heads perk up, which meant the timer they'd set had gone off. The brunette scrambled to her feet and entered the bathroom. She'd expected Danni to come right back out, but as another minute passed, she figured that it wouldn't be the case. She stood up from the bed and peered inside.

Danni had slumped to the floor, her knees pulled up to her chest. Her chin rested upon her knees and her eyes had tears falling from them.