Momochan77: I'm so sorry this update took so long, but better late then never I guess. In regard to your comment about not getting the notifications, I wasn't either for the stories I follow, then I noticed that on my account there's a new box where you have to approve to get email notifications and it resets every 6 months. Try that and see if it fixes the problem. Also, I'm so glad you liked the Dancing with Billy the Kid book! It's one of my favorites now too! And glad you liked the extra Jed Octavius scene, I had no idea where to fit it in but couldn't just leave it in my scraps folder. I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much. And Happy New year friend!

Chapter 12

Anna had chuckled all the way back to the office downstairs at the fresh memory of Laa and Larry. He'd looked so ticked off about the whole thing, but the caveman calling him Dada was too unexpected which only made it more hilarious.

At the office she pulled out her laptop from her tote bag and turned it on before looking for a movie to watch. Billy plopped on the couch and laid down resting one hand behind his head. Anna joined him once she hit play and his free arm instantly wrapped around her.

Faintly behind the sound of the movie she could hear the music being played at Larry's presentation. Anna was very glad she'd opted out of the party and instead could relax rather than hold back her social anxiety all night. She'd gotten better at managing her anti-social tendencies, touring the children around helped her come out of her shell but in a room full of highly educated adults she'd be in uncharted territory.

She was just pulling herself out of her head and focusing back on the screen when Billy took a deep breath and stiffened behind her.

"Billy?" she asked as he sat up, making her do the same, as he readjusted himself so his feet were on the ground and he sat on the couch properly. He didn't answer her, didn't even look her way. Only kept his fingertips pressed to his chest as he looked confused like he was trying to figure out what was going on. Anna kept her eyes glued to him, but they went wide as Billy suddenly let out a loud groan in pain and bent all the way over. She leapt into action moving to sit beside him, draping an arm across his shoulders before trying to rub his back, he kept on groaning through gritted teeth, his hand now clutching his chest.

"Billy? Billy?" she asked frantically, "What's wrong? What is it? What's going on?" With each question her heartrate sped up and she did all she could to keep from freaking out.

Then with another loud 'AHH' Billy fell forward and to the side a bit, Anna slid off the couch with him as they sat on the floor, Billy leaning so far over her was practically lying down. his head was practically in her lap as she ran her fingers through his hair and held onto him, scared that she was so helpless when he was obviously in such pain. His body rocked slightly like he thought maybe he could reposition himself and the agony would go away, he took fast deep breaths that reminded her of Lamaze and groaned and grunted as the pain coursed through him. His other hand braced out against the floor to keep him off the concrete but she saw his fingers clench into a fist, then relax, then go white knuckled again.

"It's okay." Anna said, finding nothing else she could do, "It's okay. It's okay. You're going to be alright."

Meanwhile upstairs in the ballroom Larry was rushing through the tables of guests trying to calm Teddy down and he brandished his gun.

"I don't know you." Teddy told Larry from the end of his rifle. the sound of rushing feet pounded from down the hall as all the animals came parading into the room wreaking havoc. Guests began to catch on that it wasn't part of the presentation and began screaming and fleeing their seats. Laughter at their feet went unheard in the chaos leaving no one to notice the miniatures until it was too late. A rope stretched across the floor sending several guests in their best formalwear faceplanting on the ground. on one side Jedidiah and his cowboys laughed as Octavius and his romans on the opposite end cheered and huzzah-ed.

"I don't know what's come over me!" Jed yelled, "But I like it!"

The constellations shot across the sky in blue glittering sparks as the Huns ran in, their weapons raised as Attila shouted battle cries. Immediately he smashed the ice statue of the dolphin to pieces hacking away at what was left.

"What's going on?" McPhee cried in fright as he took cover by a table with Larry. Dexter, riding a tiger sped past a waiter and snatched a kabob, wielding it like a spear and attacked the chairman. Larry rushed over and jumped in front of her as the cavemen grunted holding lit torches - Laa not among them.

"What are you doing?" Larry asked confused before Dexter leapt at his face and attacked. Behind the grappling pair Teddy was saluting in rapid secession over and over again

"Orion, don't!" Larry shouted once he'd removed the monkey from his face and saw the archer lining up a shot. his arrow flew and ignited a table making a nearby zebra bray and buck on its hind legs.

A loud roar cut through everything and Larry turned looking alarmed. "Rexy."

The dino charged in and let out another roar as guests began to flood out the main door and back down the red carpet into the street.

The whole thing lasted far too long for Anna. She could only imagine how slow time had passed for Billy. They were still sitting on the concrete floor as he caught his breath and she ran her fingers through his hair, calmer now that the worst seemed to be over. she was collecting herself too. Tears stung her eyes that she blinked back, she wanted to be strong for Billy, though she wasn't too sure how. Billy was the one with confidence, Billy was the positive one. Billy was the carefree one. She was the modern girl, plagued by modern anxiety attacks, paranoid that she was being judged for what she said and how she said it, self conscious and self critical. She didn't know if she could be what Billy needed right now. But he seemed to settle under her touch and when he was feeling better he pushed himself up with one arm and rubbed his chest with the other. He looked at the floor for a minute before turning to her with a grin that didn't reach his eyes.

"Okay." he said with a nod.

"Okay?" Anna repeated confused.

Billy sat upright, with his back against the couch. "I'm fine." he told her.

"Billy you are not fine."

"Anna relax. he said bringing his hand to rub her knee, "I'm made of. . . well I'm not sure, but I'm not human, so I'm fine."

"How can you say - You were in pain." she reached over placing her hand over his on her kneecap. "Excruciating pain. that's not -"

"Anna." he said sterner, then his voice softened "I don't want you to worry."

She chuckled humorlessly, "Too late. And too bad." she leaned over to snuggle closer to him. He turned his hand over and intertwined their fingers. They stayed like that for a minute or two, sitting in the quiet, their minds both trying to figure it out, going through what happened slowly to process it all.

"We should go find Larry." Billy said after another long minute or two. Anna looked to him, "I doubt it was just me."

.

.

"Guys what was going on out there?" Larry asked the group he'd gathered on the marbles steps in the lobby. Furthest back where the animals, then the Civil War troops with Attila and his men. The cavemen sat up front and Sacagawea and Teddy were off to the side. Anna was sitting at the main desk while Billy stood in front of it leaning back. Behind Larry Laa repeated everything he said in similar grunts. Off to the side even Rexy stood there hunched and guilty.

"Seriously, what were you thinking?" then he turned, "Laa, I got this alright. Just. . .go over there."

"Attila, what were you doing to that dolphin man? It's a dolphin. It's one of the most peaceful creatures on earth and you're hacking on it like it was The Cove or something. Did you see the look on Regis Philbin's face?"

"Reeju?" Attila asked looking broken.

"Yeah, Reeju." He nodded, "Teddy, what were you doing pointing a gun at me?"

"Forgive me Lawrence. I don't know what came over me.

"Do you even remember that?"

"Not at all."

Then Dexter started whizzing on Larry like in the old days. "Oh, Hey! Dexter! What are you doing! Honestly if you're going to act like a baby then I'll get you some diapers. You want diapers again? Huh?"

"Whoa, whoa.." Jedidiah shouted, "Ease up on the reigns there, hoss. Can't you see? He feels terrible! Hell we all do!"

"I don't know what's going on with everybody here but tonight was really weird. Really weird."

"We feel awful." Octavius spoke up, "Something took hold of us like an evil spell."

"Yeah. "Jed agreed, "Like we just weren't ourselves."

"Billy, what happened to you?" Larry asked walking over to them as the others looked among themselves like there was a small hope one of them would have an answer.

Billy kept his eyes averted and Larry looked to Anna. She had to analyze the look in his eyes as he racked over every inch of her body.

A moment later she realized what he was doing.

"He'd never hurt me." she told Larry with certainty. He looked at her questioningly, probably thinking back to Teddy pointing a rifle at him.

"He'd never." Anna repeated.

Billy, knowing what they were talking about, sighed and admitted what happened, "It was pain. Blinding pain just. . . everywhere."

Larry nodded to him and turned to the others, "We're going to figure this out."

"I need some air." Anna whispered to Billy gently touching his arm.

"I'll go with you." He offered as he pushed off from the desk. But she quickly turned and put a hand to his chest stopping him.

"It's getting close to dawn, I don't want you getting caught out there."

It was a lie. Dawn was still a good few hours away. She knew it and Billy knew it. She didn't want him with her. And that hurt more then what had happened in the basement.

Instead of calling her out on it Billy nodded, "Okay."

She headed for the front door while he shifted his weight to one side and rested against the circular desk again. Larry noticed too and left the others to their guilt and confusion as he approached the outlaw.

"Is she okay?"

Billy didn't take his eyes off the glass door and Anna's figure behind it as he shook his head, "No." he took a deep breath "I think I freaked her out."

Larry sighed, "I'll talk to her."

"Okay." He muttered the smile wiped off his face for once.

When Larry made it outside Anna was seated on the steps, she sounded like she was crying but when Larry sat down next to her he could see they were dry sobs. The kind you had when your body was just badly shaken up and you were more freaked out then sad. She was having an anxiety attack.

Larry wrapped an arm around her and rubbed to help keep her warm and maybe help her calm down.

"What happened?" he asked. His mind could come up with dozens of scenarios for what could have happened when the tablet affected Billy like it did the others. He was worried The Kid might have hurt her, the fact that she hadn't wanted Billy's comfort only made Larry think the worst.

Anna took a deep breath folding her arms on her lap, "I don't know what happened to the others. But Billy. . . " she tried not to get too caught up in the painful expression on his face, "I think he was reliving his death."

Larry's brows pulled together confused as he tried to make sense of a completely nonsense situation. "The others were all acting out, like the worst versions of themselves. Like Octavius said: evil."

Anna's worry vanished for a brief moment and a passionate anger filled her eyes as they turned harsh. She sat up straighter and looked Larry dead in the eye. "Well contrary to the propaganda of the time, Billy the Kid was not, nor ever has been, evil."

Then the stony look faded and she shrugged, "He straddles the line of morality, yes. But he's not evil."

"Okay." Larry replied softly, "Sorry."

Anna nodded as she looked back down at her hands and started playing with her fingers. Then, very softly, she said, "How do we stop that from happening again?"

Larry sighed, "I don't know."

A moment passed where they just fell into quiet, both their minds spinning with problems and questions and very few answers.

"You know." Anna began, "If you came out here to cheer me up, you kind of suck at it."

Larry laughed once, "Well how about this image?"

Anna turned to him.

"Dr. McPhee. . . hiding in a trash can. . . while Rexy plays with it like a hacky sack."

Anna grinned, "Was the governor by any chance also a garbage can hacky sack?"

Larry shook his head though he was smiling, "I think I've figured out why you and Billy get on so well." He laughed, "You both have a problem with authority."

Anna shook her head this time, "Just corrupt authority." She smirked.

Larry stood, "Come on. We need to clean up that mess. . . and Billy's worried about you."