Tom leads Abby to his office around the corner, she is not fighting him as he guides her there. He closes the door behind them and sits her in a chair by his desk. He sits opposite of her, offering her a tissue.

She snatches the tissue from him and starts wiping her face and blows her nose. She is still so mad, so angry but she cant seem to stop crying in front of man she hates with all her soul.

He hands her the whole box, this is going to be a long day he thinks to himself. He remembers what his family did to her and grimaces at the memories coming into his mind. I know that she hates me, my whole family, for what we did to her. It wasn't just to her but her whole family.

Abby is calming down now, she no longer wants to kill the bastard sitting across from her. She takes a few more tissues and finishes drying her eyes and face. She takes a long breath and begins to tell him off again.

"I cant believe that you are just sitting there and not go running to the phone to let the rest of Lima that their number one loser is in town. The slut that ruined your lives is back in town, the girl that made your lives so miserable is back to cause more heartbreak in this Podunk town." She is slowly losing her voice and she is starting to sound like a squeaky toy. This only makes her more angry.

Tom lets a smirk form on his lips as her voice starts squeaking, but soon hides it as he sees her becoming more angry. He tries to take her hand in his, but she jerks it away quickly eyes shooting daggers at him.

"Abby, I know that you hate me and my family. I have been apologizing for an hour now, but you wont listen to me. I have a deal to offer you about the shop and I need you to really listen to me okay?" He was speaking so fast that she could not interrupt him and her voice wouldn't allow it either.

Abby nods her head, she is not ready to give in to let him make it all better. Yet she wants to hear what he has to say, to maybe make sense of what is happening to her and with her. So many years of anger and hurt just cant be washed away in one meeting.

"I will give you the shop for one year, rent free. You can see if this is where you really want to be or not. I know you can afford to buy the building, but this way if you want to run away again then nothing is holding you here", Tom knows that part of his statement will be met with mistrust and anger.

Abby looks at him with questioning eyes.

Abby's POV

A year rent free and the option to leave, run his words not mine, whenever I want. If the business is failure, which it wont be, I will have lost only time and a few bills. This isn't a bad deal even if it would be making a deal with a demon from her past.

He looks like he is trying to be sincere even after I busted his nose and blacked his eye. Maybe I should give it a try…..A small smile plays at her lips and not the fake she wears everyday….

Tom can see the wheels turning in her mind and the corners of her lips starting to curve upwards, he knows she wants to say yes. And then he almost blows it.

"Abby I have only one request of you, there is a young man that needs an after school job and he could help you on the weekends too", as soon as the words leave his lips he regrets it.

"Oh you have a request from me? I knew there was some kind of hidden agenda here on your part. You haven't changed a bit Tom, you still think I am someone that you can boss around?" Her voice takes on an angry squeaky sound that is punctuated with her throwing the tissue box at his head.

As she rises to leave his office he takes her hand and more or less pushes her back in the chair. "Abby, you came back here wanting a second chance at life here at home. You want to be able to face the ghosts, the demons that haunt you." He sighs as she slumps back in the chair and watches her tears start falling again.

"This person I am wanting you to hire needs the same things that you do, a second chance to have a home here to have a life. He has had an extremely difficult time in his life, he needs to feel like he deserves to be wanted to be needed in this God forsaken place I call home." He pauses long enough to gauge her reaction.

"He just got out of Juvie and the events leading up to his incarceration were a direct result in how he was treated here by people he thought were his friends and family. He needs this chance and so do you Abby. Give him the chance no one gave you back then." He has laid all of his cards on the table and now it is up to her to make the choice.

Abby uses the sleeves of her sweater to wipe the new tears away from her face. She knows what Tom just said are true, she has to face her demons to ever have a decent life here or anywhere for that matter. She has tried in two other cities and it didn't work out in either one of them.

Tom is reaching for the box of tissues she threw at him when she agrees to the arrangement with her own stipulations.

"I will agree to all of this but I have to meet him and if he is too rough around the edges or is a psycho killer in the making, I reserve the right to say NO. And I will pay you some type of rent each month, a nominal fee to use your building, if I stay take it off the sale price. And thank you, for at least making me see that I do need to do this for me and not anyone else. But it doesn't mean that we are going to be friends, I still hate you for all the hell your family put me and my family through." She waits for his response with a dead on gaze that shows she is not changing her mind about this or him for that matter.

Tom holds his hand out to her to seal the deal, "Okay Abby, I will set up a time tomorrow after school for him to drop by and see you. I will call you and let you know, Okay?"

She shakes his hand, nodding yes to him. She reaches across his desk and scribble her cell phone number down, "I think you will need this" she squeaks at him. She hands him the notepad.

"I will call Mrs. Lang and let her know that we have a deal and you just keep the keys. And thanks Abby for helping when no one else has the decency to be kind to someone." He offers her his hand once again.

Taking his hand, "I havent said that I would hire him yet, I still have to meet him", she says as she turns to walk out of the front door, "Call me tomorrow".

Doppelganger by Mark Salling

If the struggle is prolonged

Ending is abrupt cant you tell

That I am a product of hell