"I mean it!" she yelled. "Don't move!"

"Laura, you're not gonna shoot me."

"My father's a cop. You better believe he taught me how to defend myself," she growled.

"Laura, baby," he said, stepping even closer to her.

She aimed the gun low and shot him in the knee with incredible accuracy.

Alex cried out and fell immediately to the floor.

"DON'T MOVE!" she yelled again. "I'll call an ambulance. Hand me your phone."

Alex was rolling on the ground and wailing loudly as he held his knee. "Give me your cellphone!" When he didn't, she backed up quickly to the office and picked up the phone. She dialed 911 and returned to her position, aiming the gun at his head this time.

"911. What's your emergency?"

"My stalker broke into my home, apartment 9G in Uptown Apartments on West Broadway, and attempted to murder my husband and abduct me. I shot him in the knee with his gun, so he needs an ambulance, and I need the entire police force, including Captain Carl Winslow. This is his daughter."

"Yes, Ma'am. They're on their way. Please stay on the line."

"I have to untie my husband," she said, hanging up the phone. She moved immediately to Steve and unfastened the belt on his wrists. "Baby, you have to undo the rest yourself because I can't take this gun off of him." She stood up again and pointed the gun at Alex's head.

Steve removed the duct tape first. Then he undid the belts on his knees and his ankles. Finally, he stood up. He looked at Laura in shock. He wiped the tears from his face. He was shaking and in so much emotional pain, he hadn't even noticed the physical pain.

Laura glanced at him. "I just wanted to keep you safe, Steve," she explained. "I would do anything to keep you safe."

He moved over to where Alex was laying on the ground. He kicked him hard in the back. Not once, not twice, not three times like the kicks he had received, but five times. Then he bent near him and belted his ankles together and then his wrists. He took the screwdriver out of his pocket and tossed it to the other side of the room with the baseball bat. Then Steve stood and walked back over to Laura. He didn't kiss her. He didn't touch her. He didn't speak. He just stood there.

Only a few minutes later, the police arrived and broke in the door. Laura quickly set down the gun and put her hands in the air. "Clear!" Laura and Steve heard as they checked the living room before bursting into the bedroom. "Drop your weapons! Hands in the air!" the first officers on the scene ordered. Laura was already in position. Steve mirrored it carefully.

The paramedics rushed past them to the aid of their attacker. They lifted him on a stretcher and began to haul him out of the building.

"Do you have any other weapons on you?" One of the two cops demanded while the other picked up the gun.

"No," Laura replied. "There is a baseball bat and a sharpened screwdriver, both of which were brought by the intruder, to the right of the bed."

"Is this your gun?"

"No," Laura answered.

"Is it yours, Sir?"

"No," Steve replied softly.

"Speak up, Sir!"

"No," Steve said louder. "It was the intruder's. I don't own any weapons."

"Ok. I need you both to turn around and put your hands behind your backs."

"Wait. Why?" Laura said as she complied. "I shot him. Steve didn't do anything. He was tied up for most of it."

"It's procedure, Ma'am," the officer replied as he locked the handcuffs around Steve's wrists and then around Laura's. He led them out into the living room, away from the crime scene, and instructed them to sit on the couch. "We need statements from both of you."

"We need to call a lawyer," Laura said immediately.

"Ma'am, this'll all go a lot faster if we don't have to wait for lawyers. It's a simple statement."

"Lawyers," Laura repeated.

"Do you request an attorney, too, Sir?"

"No," Steve said softly. "I'll just give a statement."

"Steve!" Laura scolded. "You need an attorney!"

"No!" Steve barked at her. "I just wanna get this over with!" He stood and the officer walked him into the office to give a statement.

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Carl arrived while Steve was giving a statement. He was trailed by several other officers. "I know my daughter isn't in handcuffs," Carl barked at the officer standing beside Laura.

"Daddy!" Laura said in relief.

"Take those damn things off now!" he ordered. The officer quickly helped her stand and unlocked the cuffs. "Go take them off my son-in-law, too!" Carl pulled Laura into his arms, and she immediately broke down. "It's ok, Sweetheart. It's ok," he promised. "Did Steve finally install those security cameras?"

"Yeah," Laura sniffled.

"Ok. We'll turn those tapes in as evidence and show them to the prosecutor so they can start treating you like a victim again instead of a criminal."

"Daddy, I don't think Steve's ever gonna forgive me," she whispered.

"What are you talking about, Sweetheart?"

"I kissed Alex… to get the gun away from him. I pretended we were gonna have sex, and we lay down on the bed I share with Steve, and we made out. He was on top of me. Then I was on top of him, and I was grinding on him. Then I took the gun. Steve was in the room. Watching me and hearing me do all of that with some other man. He was crying so hard, Daddy. He's never gonna forgive me."

"He's not mad, Laura. You did what you had to do to stay safe. Steve understands that," he promised.

Laura shook her head. "I'm married. 'Til death do us part. I wasn't supposed to… I never should've… He was gonna kill Steve," she sobbed.

Carl held her tighter. "Shhh… Shhh… It's ok."

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When Laura's lawyer arrived, Steve still hadn't completed his statement, so a detective sat Laura at the kitchen table to make her statement. He was joined by a prosecutor, as was the detective taking Steve's statement, which was unusual at this stage in the investigation, but Carl had called in a couple of favors. "What happened tonight, Laura?" the officer asked.

"Steve and I were coming home from my sorority's Halloween party, and we went into the bedroom to…" Laura blushed and looked down. "So we were on the bed, and he was tickling me, like literally. That's not a euphemism or anything. He was tickling me, and then Alex hit him over the head with a baseball bat, and he fell to the ground."

"Alex is the name of the intruder?"

"Yes."

"Do you know him?"

"Yes," Laura admitted nervously. "He used to be a classmate and a friend. Then he roofied me. Then he began to stalk me. There's police reports on all of this."

"Ok. What happened next?"

"He had the baseball bat, but it was just a bat, so I started talking to him and trying to get to the phone, but he just cornered me and hit it out of my hands. Steve and I both need medical treatment, by the way. I know it's not a gunshot wound or anything, but he must have a concussion, and I think I broke my hand."

"Ok. What did you do then?"

"I kneed him in the groin, and I ran, but then I remembered Steve was still unconscious, so I grabbed him by the feet and started to drag him out of the room, but then I heard the safety unclick on Alex's gun, which obviously changed everything."

"How?" the detective demanded.

"I was begging for my life essentially. He got Steve's belts out of the closet and told me to restrain him, but I was too upset. I barely heard him. Then he aimed the gun at Steve and gave me the order again. He realized quickly that that was the best way to control me. I was much more afraid of losing Steve than my own life. So I tied him up, but the belts couldn't go tight enough, so he handed me the screwdriver and insisted I make a new hole so they could be tighter, and when I did, I acted like I was handing the weapon back to him. Then I tried to stab him, but he caught my wrist and slapped my face. I screamed again, but then he pointed the gun at Steve, so I stopped. That's when Steve woke up," Laura whispered. She wiped her tears. She wished he had just been unconscious for all of it, so he wouldn't have had to see her… "Then he tried to attack Alex. Even though there was a gun to his head, he wanted to protect me, but he couldn't. That's when Alex said he was going to kill him. He has this delusion," she explained, "that Steve is abusive, and that he can save me from him, so he said that the only way to protect me was to kill Steve, so I panicked, and I lied, and I told him that I saw how abusive Steve was and that I didn't wanna be with him anymore. That I wanted Alex to protect me. He didn't believe me at first, so I laid it on thick, and I told him that Steve beats me, which isn't at all true. He's never laid a hand on me I didn't want him to, but I told Alex that he'd been right about him all along and that I was too scared to leave. He pointed at the swelling on my cheek and legitimately seemed to believe Steve was responsible for it. Then he said he was going to kill Steve so we could be together, and I begged him not to. I couldn't let him know that I was still worried about Steve, so I told him that I was really close with his parents and that it would be devastating for them to lose their son. Then I kissed him, so he agreed to let Steve live, and I agreed to go with him. I knew I needed to stall until I could get to a phone or disarm him, so I told him I had to pack, which I did as slowly as possible. He got impatient, and he started touching me and kissing me, so I went with it, and we started making out. I distracted him enough that I got the gun away. I pointed it at him, and I ordered him not to move, but he did. I warned him that my father was a cop, and I knew what I was doing, but he still advanced on me, so I shot him in the knee. I immediately called 911. Then I untied Steve. Then I pointed the gun at Alex until the police arrived."

"Ok. We'll let you know if we need any further interviewing, but your father said you guys have security cameras, so as long as those corroborate your story, we likely won't be in touch with you until we need a witness to testify against the intruder."

"Ok," Laura agreed. The detective and the prosecutor began to walk to the door as lower level officers continued to bustle around the crime scene. "And you're going to try him for a class one felony, right?" Laura asked as she followed them.

"Your father mentioned you were a law student," the prosecutor replied.

"Breaking and entering on a residential property with intent to commit a crime is a Class 1 felony in Illinois. He intended to kill Steve and kidnap me."

"If the cameras corroborate your story, we will try him appropriately."

"They will," she said firmly. "So you'll push for maximum sentencing, right? Because he wasn't intending to steal something or vandalize something. He was trying to kill my husband."

"We will see what the tapes show."

"A good prosecutor could get him for attempted murder," she boomed. Laura's lawyer and Carl came up behind her and attempted to guide her away from the prosecutor before she continued to insult him. Sure, she had acted in self defense, but a really bad, really talented, prosecutor could also make her life very difficult for a while before admitting to that.

"We will see what the tapes show," he said again.

"Oh, c'mon!" Laura exclaimed, winding up for a fight.

"Laura," her lawyer hissed in her ear, "I do not advise you to keep hounding them right now. We will push them on this later, when they've actually, officially dropped all plans to charge you."

Carl forced a smile as Laura's lawyer led her back toward the couch. "Thanks for coming out, Ted," Carl said, shaking the prosecutor's hand.

"No problem, Carl," he replied. "You've got a real firecracker on your hands there," he chuckled.

Laura could still hear them from where she was standing, refusing to sit as her lawyer instructed her to, and she fumed. She decided then that she would mop the floor with that guy when she was his coworker.

"That's right," Carl agreed. "See you next week, Ted. See you back at the station, Fred."

When they were gone, Laura said goodnight to her lawyer and stood silently in the corner of her living room as she watched people hurry to document and clean the crime scene.

Finally, Steve came out. She swallowed hard when he looked at her. She felt tears stinging her eyes as he walked towards her. He stood beside her and said nothing. She slowly turned to him. She stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his waist. He didn't say anything. He didn't embrace her, but at least he didn't move away. Still, she couldn't hold it in any longer. She began to sob against him. He finally opened his arms and held her close. He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back as she sobbed.

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After a few more minutes, Carl led Laura and Steve down to his car, once he made sure that his officers had everything they needed to handle this crime scene right. He insisted they get checked out at the hospital, even though Steve tried to insist he was fine. In reality, Laura had a small fracture in her hand, and Steve had a minor concussion. Laura left the ER with a brace and Steve followed with a myriad of brain scans and orders to rest.

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Upon Carl's request, Laura and Steve each packed an overnight bag and let him drive them back to the Winslow home. Carl insisted so that his team would have time to finish investigating and the clean-up crew behind them would have time to put the apartment back together before Laura and Steve actually had to sleep there again. Neither Laura nor Steve argued, not necessarily because they felt more comfortable with the idea of spending the night at Carl and Harriette's, but simply because they felt very uncomfortable saying anything at all. They hadn't spoken to each other at all since they left the apartment, even though they were both there for each other during their exams and they talked freely with both of their doctors. They gave Carl short responses, glancing uncomfortably at each other for confirmation. Before they'd broken the uncomfortable silence between them, they had arrived, both bags slung over Steve's shoulders, on the familiar front porch.

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