-8-

"Hiya, pal."

Megan swung around in shock, startled that two strange men were standing so close to them and had crept up behind them deliberately without them even noticing; she was so startled she almost knocked herself and Kevin into the road. Actually, were they strangers? She thought she recognised them both, but they ignored her. They were focused right on Kevin, and she was getting scared.

Kevin, meanwhile, gasped and dropped the map and magnifying glass. Slowly, he turned around, and gasped at the sight of the two men, and his eyes widened in terror.

"Kevin?" Megan whispered, worried as he gaped at the men, who leered cruelly down at him. She braced herself for a fight…she was just about to grab her brother, when…

Kevin suddenly screamed when the tall, thin man with the stupid beard reached out a hand-

"HEY!" Megan shrieked angrily, her mind jumping to some really nasty implications, even if the two men were familiar, especially the shorter, dumpier one. She lashed out, and punched the taller man in the eye, making him cry out, whimpering as he clapped a hand to his eye, in agony, while Kevin was still screaming before he yanked her off of her feet in a run, rushing across the busy road.

"Kevin," Megan panted as she raced after her brother, "Kevin, who were they? KEVIN?!"

Kevin didn't answer back, and she realised they were heading back for the Plaza Hotel. That made sense; at the hotel, the security would keep those two creeps out. But Megan wanted to know who they were. She was still trying to find through her memory of where she had seen those two men before, but in the meantime they were rushing down the street, passing by the other shoppers. When she got to a clearer patch, Megan saw Kevin risk a glance back, and she did the same.

The two men were chasing after them; wherever she glanced over her shoulder, trying to keep hold of her shopping bags holding the puzzles and other gifts she had bought for her family while they ran, they did make running difficult. More than once she couldn't stop herself from bumping into other people as she ran after Kevin.

Megan had just caught up with her brother when they reached a corner of the street where a dark-skinned man was selling necklaces.

"Buy now and avoid the Christmas rush. Two for $5. Two for $5. Four for 10."

Megan almost ran into Kevin when he suddenly stopped and raced back.

"Kevin, what the hell are you doing?" Megan demanded as she panted for effort while Kevin urgently went through the money envelope, and bought a large pearl necklace.

"You'll see in a bit," Kevin said back, looking back down the way they'd come. Megan turned as well, spotting the tall man with the weird goatee jumping up and down; she thought he'd said "There they are!" But she wasn't sure.

Kevin held up the necklace. "Thanks," he said to the seller.

"Alright, kiddo," the seller smiled while Kevin grabbed hold of Megan, and they raced back down the streets. Megan groaned as she was forced to run again, but this time she had no intention whatsoever of losing her brother this time, but keeping stride was difficult. "Merry Christmas, dude," the seller said from behind them, and just in time because those two men had just turned the corner after them.

Megan was relieved as she ran alongside her brother, using the fitness she had built up from school and from her cheerleading practice and other athletic pursuits to keep up, but the bags she was holding was holding her up. "Kevin, what are you doing?"

"Shut up, give me a chance to break these loose-," Kevin grunted with the effort as he struggled to break the necklace in two.

"Kevin-," Megan began again when he managed to snap the necklace, losing a couple of pearls.

"Done it!" Kevin cheered with delight, ignoring the way his heart was racing. "It might just work."

"What might?" Megan demanded.

"You'll see," Kevin replied.

Still holding onto the necklace, Megan and Kevin rushed across another crossing to a street; Megan could only just see the Plaza Hotel not too far in the distance. Kevin grabbed hold of her, just holding onto the necklace. "Wait a second," he said, turning and saw the two men gaining on them.

"Kevin, what are you doing?" Megan repeated for like the ninth time. "Actually," she corrected, "what are we doing?"

Kevin waited until the two were closer before he tipped the necklace upside down, and quickly dropped the pearls to the ground. Megan gaped as she realised what her brother had just done before he grabbed her, and pulled her along with him.

Megan, despite running fast, twisted her head and gaze and she watched in surprise as the two men both slipped on the pearls and in a slapstick act of comedy she had only thought lived in comedy movies, they both leapt into the air and slammed into the ground again. She couldn't help but flinch at the sight even as they looked stunned. She was stunned that her brother had devised a simple but effective weapon against those two bozos, but she was more worried about the other pedestrians; what if they fell the same way and hurt themselves?

But Kevin didn't seem worried about that.

Kevin stopped and he turned and he pumped his arm in triumph, "Yes!"

"You've done that before, haven't you?" Megan said suspiciously.

"More or less, yeah I have," Kevin said with a self-satisfied smirk. "Anyway, you can't deny it didn't work."

"No, I can't," Megan conceded, but then she became more serious. "And wipe that smirk off of your face, Kevin. While that worked, you could still hurt others. Didn't you think about that?"

Kevin's smirk faded and he looked concerned and even a bit worried. "N-No, I didn't," he muttered.

Megan speared him with a look. "Next time, think. Now, come on, we need to get back to the hotel."

As they raced towards the hotel, the image of the manager/concierge guy appeared and he became clearer, seeing a man and a woman who were both well dressed get into a limo that looked like the one that had taken Megan and Kevin into the city (for a moment, Megan asked herself if it was the same one, but she killed that thought).

-8-

Meanwhile, Mr Hector was carrying out his routine duties as he saw a respectable - legitimate - couple get into the limousine. That reminded him of the limousine that had taken the two McCallister children into the city. The driver had been summoned back to the hotel as soon as his discovery of the stolen credit card had been confirmed. Hector had been tempted to lull the two children into a false sense of security, let them overspend and indulge themselves as the driver drove them around New York.

When they got back he would confront them, with the company of both his hotel security and the police, but he had ultimately decided against it.

The demand for a limousine was quite high for his hotel, and while the driver would keep the two McCallisters' occupied for a few hours until they returned where the police would then confront them, but he couldn't. He hadn't made the call yet as he had been made far too busy, and his job came with so many demands he couldn't afford to focus on two children too much. In any case, he was under pressure from others to use one, so he had decided to change his plans. He was actually looking forward to seeing the two McCallisters return from the city, exhausted after either a very long walk back, or coming back in a cab.

"Thank you for your suggestion," the woman said as she and her grateful partner prepared to get into the car.

Hector had to snap himself back into the here and now. "My duty," Hector said with a genuine and professional smile, "My pleasure."

As he watched the couple leave, a flash of movement caught his eye. To his shock, Hector saw the McCallister children coming back. He was stunned by this. What were they doing back so soon? He had expected the two thieves to be splurging all over New York. He narrowed his gaze and let a smug but welcoming smile cross his face.

"Oh, thank god!" Megan gasped as she came to a stop.

"Help! There's two guys after us both!" Kevin panted.

Hector smirked, deciding the game had reached its end. And he was the undisputed winner. "What's the matter? Store wouldn't take your…," he leapt forward, hand plunging into Kevin's pocket and he held up the card triumphantly, "stolen credit card?"

"Wait a minute!" Megan began. "We can explain this! Please, just give us a chance!" She pleaded while Kevin just stood there in shock.

"What's there to explain?" Hector shrugged dismissively, relishing in seeing the arrogance he had seen in both children fade. "Let's see what the police have to say about this!"

Kevin, grabbing hold of Megan's arm, raced into the hotel. But the concierge managed to grab hold of her after missing him by only a few inches.

"Get off!" Megan snarled angrily and she socked him in the eye as they raced into the lobby.

"Get back here, you thieves!" Hector called behind them, but the two McCallisters' ignored the call as they ran deeper into the lobby. It looked like business as always; with people coming and going, and hotel staff going about their daily jobs. But now things were going to get chaotic.

"STOP THOSE CHILDREN!" Hector shouted.

Megan was affronted by the remark, but she managed to push away Cedric effortlessly as he tried to grab them, resulting in him and Hector colliding with one another while Kevin and Megan both evaded them, bouncing away from them and heading for the elevators where they saw the receptionist woman in their path.

"Grab them!" Cedric called to her, and she stood with her arms outstretched. Megan raced around her, pushing her sideways so fast the woman was unprepared for it, and she spun madly like a spinning top. Kevin, meanwhile, had raced around her and they both darted into the elevator, which was miraculously open. Quickly Megan pressed the button for their floor, just as Hector, Cedric, and the receptionist crashed into each other, sending them to the ground.

While she panted, Megan turned to her brother, but the words she wanted to say just wouldn't come to her tongue. Still panting, Kevin leaned against the wall of the elevator car in shock. "We've committed credit card fraud."

"Don't blame me for this! I shouldn't have gone along with you in the first place!" Megan had to slam her eyelids down closed and shut, and she took a deep breath. "We should have called Mum and dad the moment we had the chance. But hopefully it's not too late. With luck, we can either get to the cops and explain our side of the story or we can contact Mum and dad before it's too late."

Kevin looked down. "I'm sorry, Megan. You're right, we should have called them. Do you think they did something to the card?"

Megan knew enough about how credit cards worked to know the answer to that. "Dad must have done something to the card," she replied. "I don't think he intended for something like this, but there's nothing we can do. The question is what do we do now?"

"What do you think we should do?"

"Part of me's tempted to stay and wait for the cops, but I dunno what they'll do," Megan replied after giving the question he'd given her a moment's thought. "I…I don't know," she admitted, "it's hard."

"I think we should try to get to Miami," Kevin said.

Megan liked the idea, but at the same time she wondered if it was a good idea. By now, she was convinced that her parents had reported the credit cards they had as missing, and sooner or later they would be coming to New York. In fact, she didn't doubt that. She would do the same if her own kids had gotten lost at an airport and wound up on the wrong flight, she would move heaven and Earth to find a way to get to them.

She remembered how determined her mother was to return to Chicago the year before. And she remembered how her daddy had gone out of his way, trying to bargain for a flight that was early, but they'd had to wait for the scheduled flight. So, for several agonising days, the McCallisters had been unable to have a good time in Paris because of their mistakes.

But she would have done the same.

And she knew when their parents learnt where they were, they would fly out from Miami. Megan had no intention of being on a flight bound for Miami, only to discover they had gone to New York.

No, if they could reach the airport and just wait, they could meet their family again, and then they might make alternative plans after explaining what went wrong. Megan was not sure what kind of reception they'd get, but at this point she preferred her parents to the police and these hotel idiots.

"Maybe its possible to go to the airport, and wait," Megan said, voicing her thoughts.

Kevin blinked in surprise. "What?"

Clearly he hadn't thought of what she had, just now.

Calmly Megan explained her idea, inwardly worried he would stubbornly just fight back. But he didn't. Fortunately for her nerves and temper, he had lost his desire to stay in New York; those men and the hotel staff had seen to that.

"Kevin, who were those men?" Megan asked him.

Kevin sighed. "They're the two burglars who tried breaking into our house last year," he said shortly.

"I thought I recognised them!" Megan was now kicking herself for not working it out sooner. "But, I thought they were still in prison."

"Me too. But they must have escaped," Kevin said before he shook his head. "It's not our problem. I just want to get out."

As the elevator reached their floor - finally - a large part of Megan wanted to just stay here at the hotel, and wait for the police, and hope they would be reasonable with them both, but she knew no matter what they decided in the long run, they would both be in trouble, her especially since she hadn't contacted her parents the moment they found themselves in New York and not in the airport of Miami.

But she didn't want to be at the hotel, not after what happened downstairs. So, she and Kevin both raced out of the elevator, entered the hotel room, and began packing.

The good news was they didn't have to do too much; their shopping trip yesterday had resulted in a whirlwind when they'd checked in to the Plaza Hotel where they'd both wanted to enjoy the fruits of them being here, so only a few things had been neatly folded up and put into drawers. With her help, Kevin was able to quickly gather what they needed while keeping in mind they didn't have much time left.

They had just about finished (they were leaving the clown behind) when the door burst open. Thinking quickly on his feet, Kevin picked up the remote control and played back Angels with Even Filthier Souls on the VHS.

"What are you doing?" Megan hissed just as Johnny said his first line as his doomed girlfriend walked into the room.

"Hold it right there!"

Megan blinked in surprise when she heard the hotel staff who'd run in just…stopped while Kevin quickly manipulated the remote control.

"This is the Concierge, sir," the voice of the hotel manager guy, now the concierge said.

Still manipulating the remote control, Kevin carefully forwarded the video to cut out the woman's dialogue, focusing expressly on Johnny. "I knew it was you. I could smell ya getting off the elevator! You was here last night too, wasn't ya?"

Megan was unsurprised by the sincere confusion in the concierge's voice. "Yes, sir. I was."

Suddenly she bit her lip.

She remembered the next part, but surely Kevin wouldn't-?

"You was here... and you was smoochin' with my brother."

Oh, he would.

Megan sent Kevin a disbelieving look. She could not believe he would ever torture someone like this, and she couldn't believe that the concierge was just…standing outside the bedroom like that. Why hadn't he? Was it just because he didn't have a clue what was going on, and he wanted to know who it was who was here? What was going through his mind? He would know by now they had conned him last night with the dummy of their father when they'd used Uncle Frank's voice.

Sadly he just proved how stupid he was.

"But... I'm afraid you're mistaken, sir."

Forwarding the tape again, Kevin concentrated hard on the best place to play it. "Don't gimme that. You been smoochin' with everybody! Snuffy, Al, Leo, Little Moe with the gimpy leg, Cheeks, Bony Bob, Cliff…"

Megan thought she heard a horrified gasp in the other room. "No. It's a lie!" A reedy old voice said, and she had to choke down laughter. Not only were they driving the hotel staff of idiots mad with this tape, but they had just found there was a guy called Cliff working here!

"I could go on forever, baby!" Megan bit her tongue as they continued making a fool out of the concierge.

Quickly he tried to regain control over the situation. "I'm terribly sorry, sir, but I'm afraid you're mistaken. We're looking for a young man."

Megan picked up her stuff and headed for the door quietly while Kevin continued working on the remote, cutting out the doomed women's dialogue again to get to the next bit, and as she watched the screen, Megan realised what was coming; after seeing how stupidly the gang in the other room just stood there and did nothing, she wondered how they would react to this.

"All right. I believe you," Johnny said as he picked up his Tommy submachine gun, "But my Tommy gun don't! Get down on your knees and tell me you love me."

Megan blinked.

No.

No…

Okay, sure it had gone quiet in there, and she didn't dare poke her head around the corner, to see what they were thinking, but they could not be this stupid, surely?

Surely they didn't believe this? Surely they would not just…get down on their knees? Surely one of them was going to run in here, see what was going on and realise Kevin was playing a prank? Surely…they knew there wasn't a gangster in here, right? How the hell could they be falling for this?

Mr. Hector: On your knees.

'They are falling for this!' Megan thought to herself as she finished her packing. 'My god, how could they be so stupid?'

There was silence from the other room, barring a bit of shuffling, and Megan could almost picture them sinking to their knees. It took a moment longer before the concierge idiot guy called out in a faux cheerful and happy voice.

"I love you!"

Megan had to bite down hard on her lip at the laugh that threatened to explode out of her; she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Near her, Kevin snickered quietly to himself at the ludicrousness of the idiots outside, and unmuted the T.V. Megan almost choked down another laugh as she remembered what was coming next.

"Ya gotta do better than that!" Johnny the gangster snapped.

A chorus of voices came through from the other room. "I love you!"

'Okay, this lot are a bunch of idiots!' Megan thought to herself as she struggled to hide her laughter. Perhaps this idea of Kevin, last minute as it was, might just work out.

By this point, they had reached the climax of the video, and that was the moment when Kevin and Megan both ran out of the room quickly, but they could still hear what was going on. "Maybe I'm off my hinges, but I believe ya. That's why I'm gonna let ya go. I'm gonna give ya 'til the count of 3 to get your lousy, lyin', low-down, four-flushin' carcass out my door! 1... 2…!"

Megan and Kevin watched as the hotel staff dove for cover the moment they had gotten out of the hotel room, while the sound of Johnny's insane cackling as he fired his gun wildly echoed through the corridors. The sound was loud enough to make some of the other guests, and this was the most mad thing ever, poke their heads out of their own respective rooms to discover what the hell was going on.

Johnny's cackling died down. "3! Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal!" Megan thought she caught sight of Kevin mouthing along the lines, and she rolled her eyes at his childish antics, and she took great joy in just grabbing his shoulder, and pulling him through the exist, but he pulled back to mouth, "And a Happy New Year."

-8-

"You enjoyed that!" Megan accused her brother as they ran downstairs to the emergency exit door.

"Yeah." Kevin's voice was unrepentant.

"You've done that before. When?" She asked shrewdly.

"It was last year. I was washing up in the kitchen when one of those idiots tried to break in, but I quickly turned the TV on to the last movie, and I played the part where Johnny killed the gangster, Snakes. I set off firecrackers for special effects to spook him, and it worked…well at first," Kevin said, admitting the last part ruefully.

Megan shot him a look while she was torn between shaking her head and rolling her eyes. In the end, she decided on just shake her head as she ran after him. Kevin burst out of the exit door and did a spectacular leap…right into the waiting hands of the two burglars he'd helped put away last year.

"Come to Papa!" He smirked before he reached into his pocket, aiming it right at Megan, making her jump in horror, stifling a scream at the sight of the weapon. "Now, get down here. And no tricks!" He snapped while both McCallisters looked on in growing horror at the sight of the gun.

Megan slowly walked to them, jumping down off the loading dock, and was grabbed by the tall one, who was holding onto Kevin's boarding pass. He opened it and read.

"Round trip to Miami?" He laughed down at Kevin. "What's the matter, kid? Get on the wrong plane, squirt?"

Megan put her hand on Kevin's shoulder. "Don't tell me you have never have had accidents, especially last year!"

"Shut up!" The short one took the pass and ripped it up. "Looks like you won't be needin' this, kid."

"What's the point of that?" Megan asked, not understanding why they would do this. Sure, she could understand them hating Kevin, but this was taking things too far.

The short one levelled the gun in her face. Megan swallowed as she tried to hide her fear, but she was sure some of it leaked out.

"And now yours," he said.

Biting her lip and seeing she didn't have any choice, Megan did as she was told, and her own ticket was reduced to confetti.

"Now, come on," The short one growled while he kept his gun in his pocket.

Meanwhile, the taller burglar was leering at Megan. "Wow, I saw your picture when we were trying to rob your home, but I never thought you were this gorgeous in the flesh."

He leered at her, making Kevin snarl protectively, not liking the kind of unwanted attention his sister was getting, and Megan grimace in disgust herself. "In your dreams."

"Why, what is it about me? Why do girls always do that?"

That was enough for the shorter one. "Okay, Marv, that's enough. Flirt later," he snapped. As they left the alley, he went on, "We spent 9 months in jail thinking we had the worst luck in the universe. We were wrong, little buddy," he snarled in Kevin's face.

"We busted out and we're doing fine," Marv, the taller one said. "Even better...because we're not robbing houses anymore, now we're robbing toy stores. At midnight tonight, we'll hit Duncan's Toy Chest. Five floors of cash. Then after that, we grab some phony passports and go to Rio."

That was enough for the short one. "Marv, you want to shut up?"

"What's the difference? They're not gonna talk to anybody. Except maybe a fish," he added as an afterthought, "Or the undertaker."

Megan and Kevin both gasped as they realised what these two had in mind.

"Let's go to the subway tunnel. I'll feel better once I get them on ice," the short one said.