Losing You by Bennight30

[JRK Archiver]

Chapter 11


Tony had just laid Georgie down on one of the empty beds, when her eyes fluttered open. Disoriented she looked around, before settling on Tony and Bobbie’s concerned faces. “Wh-What happened?” she asked, struggling to get up.

Gently pushing her back on the bed, Tony replied, “You fainted. Not to worry though, we’ll run a couple of tests and get you back on your way.” He quickly made a few notations on some forms and handed them to Bobbie. “We’re going to keep you overnight though. Just as a precaution.”

“Overnight? For fainting?” Georgie asked incredulously. She scooted around until she managed to be in a half-reclining position. She felt a little more in control of herself, by being able to look them in the eye.

“Yes. I know you’ve been putting in a lot of hours here, plus with school, you’re bordering on exhaustion, but I’m sure the blood tests will show that you probably haven’t been eating right either. The only thing I’ve seen you with is a Dr. Pepper.” Tony informed her, while checking her vitals. Bobbie came back in and went to the cabinet to get the necessary items for the blood test. “We’ll take a couple of samples and then admit you to a real room so you can rest.”

“Blood tests?” Georgie croaked, eyeing the syringe in Bobbie’s hands.

“Yes, we have to rule out other things like anemia, thyroid problems, etc. Now let’s get started. Trust me it will be over before you know it.”

Taking a deep gulp of air and closing her eyes, Georgie thrust out her arm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Bobbie this is ridiculous!” Georgie complained as she was wheeled into her room.

Seeing the young girl settled into the bed, Bobbie gave her a stern warning, “If you even think about leaving this hospital bed for anything besides going to the washroom, I’ll put restraints on you!” She knew she wouldn’t do it, but the girl needed some rest. Figuring that what Georgie didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her, she let the threat hang.

“But your short on volunteers.” Georgie tried to reason her way out of it.

“Well lucky for us, it’s a slow night. You have a visitor by the way, would you like me to show him in?”
**********************************************
Guy walked in and caught the flash of disappointment that washed over Georgie’s face. Knowing that the first person she would have thought of would have been Dillon, he smiled as he made his way over to the bed and dropped a brotherly kiss on top of her head. “Don’t you ever, ever scare me like that again!” he warned her. He walked over to set his coat on a nearby chair.

“What are you even doing here?” she asked.

He looked down at his hands as though expecting to see something. Glancing back up at her, he smiled ruefully. “I had a bag that your sister sent with me. She wanted you to have some more of that soup that she made before it all got eaten.” He glanced around the room to see if he had set it down somewhere. “Must have dropped it out in the hallway.”

“Well, that was awfully nice of you to do that, but wasn’t it out of your way? You live on the other side of town.”

“Yes, it was out of my way, but you have been avoiding me for the past two weeks, I want some answers. Now.” Guy loved her like the sister he never had and was fiercely protective of her. Especially when she looked as she did now. While he hadn’t gotten to the root of the problem with Maxie, they had both agreed that Georgie had been taking on too much and as a result had lost some weight and looked like she had gone rounds with Stephanie Ali.

“I haven’t been avoiding you, I’ve just been really busy.” Georgie said defensively.

“Well, you’re not busy now, so we can talk.” Guy sat perched on the edge of her bed and took the remote that she had been fiddling with out of her hand. “What’s going on between you and Dillon? One minute you two are the super-couple P.C. High and the next the two of you hardly speak to one another.”

Not wanting to go through the whole spill again, Georgie stated flatly, “Dillon and I are through. He’s moved on to someone new.” Even that brought the tears to her eyes. Quickly averting her eyes, she counted to ten before she trusted her voice. “That’s all there is to it.”

“That has got to be the biggest load of crock that I’ve ever heard! Dillon has not moved on to someone new, or was that a clone of you sitting in class when he read that poem? No one just stands up in public and says ‘the music has gone silent and the sun hides behind the clouds’ to their ex and then goes off with someone else.” Guy declared.

Georgie closed her eyes and sighed, “It’s a long story, and I really don’t want to talk about it any more. Whoever said that talking about ones problems would help them feel better obviously lied. I should know because I’ve talked to Skye, Maxie, and Dillon, and it hasn’t helped one bit. It only makes me mad.”

“Oh! I see,” Guy was hurt and he let it show, “you won’t tell me-- your best friend, but you will tell Skye, someone who is practically a stranger to you.” Just then his phone rang. “I’ll call you right back,” he said into the phone before turning it off. Looking over at Georgie he relented a bit seeing how tired she looked. “That was Dillon, do you want me to tell him that you are here?”

“Dillon?” Georgie echoed. “Dillon calls you?”

He grinned for a minute as he watched her lay there in that hideous hospital gown with her cheeks flushed and her eyes shining. She might say that her and Dillon were over but Guy knew better. “Every night for the last couple of weeks.” He got up to get his coat and stopped by to drop another kiss on top of head. “I’ll call you tomorrow to see how you are doing. Get some rest.”

When he was almost to the door Georgie realized she hadn’t answered his question. “No! Guy wait! Don’t…” the door shut behind him with a quiet click, “tell him anything.” she whispered to the empty room.
**********************************************
Skye got off the elevator and walked up to the nurse’s desk looking for Bobbie. She wandered around for bit calling out “Bobbie? Bobbie are you around?” Not getting a reply she walked around the corner and stopped as a familiar name caught her eye. ‘Georgie Jones’ read the name under Bed 1. Surprised, Skye knocked on the door softly before letting herself in. “Georgie? Hi,” she said, “What are you doing here?”

Turning off the ‘Friends’ repeat Georgie turned her attention to the redhead who was setting her purse and keys in the same chair that Guy had used. “I fainted,” she said with a shrug, as if she did it all the time.

“They admit you for fainting? Well that’s a new one.” Skye said dryly.

“They do when you faint in front of a doctor who just so happens to be your uncle.” Georgie smiled as she looked at the older lady. She didn’t know how she did it, but Skye Quartermaine could make even faded jeans and an old dark blue sweater look classy. “What brings you here?” she asked.

“Luke.” Was all Skye said, as if that one word said it all. Which it did.

“Oh no. What did Luke do this time?”

“Well you see, we went to this theatre right outside of Port Charles and they had this juggler who could juggle three bowling pins while holding a roman candle in his mouth. When we got back, we went to Luke’s where he decided to show me that he could juggle just as well. He got all three glasses up....”

“And they all came crashing down.” Georgie finished for her, laughing at the picture she could see in her mind’s eye.

“What about you?” Skye asked sobering up. “Why did you faint?”

“By doing too much, too fast, too soon.” Seeing the other woman’s confusion, she went on. “I’ve been doing extra homework and taking on extra shifts here at the hospital. Then last week, I was asked to help Dillon get caught up with his studies.”

“Georgie, you can’t go and do all of that. You need to take care of yourself. Why would you want to risk your health?”

“I had to find something to do. I realized that after the first couple of days when I would just sit in my room doing nothing but opening that door over and over again in my mind.”

“I know it hurts, but you have to deal with it. Running yourself into the ground isn’t going to make the pain go away. You have to face up to it someday.”

“You wouldn’t understand,” she said sadly. “You’ve never had a boyfriend cheat on you with someone you can’t stand.”

Skye walked around to stare out the window with her arms wrapped around her waist. She stood there unseeing into the night where the lights of the city twinkled like multi-colored stars. “You’re wrong. I do know what it’s like. Only with me it was Jax, my husband of all of what? Two weeks? Three? And yes, it was with someone I couldn’t stand. Brenda.” She spit out the last word like it was something vile in her mouth.

“Jax?” Georgie gasped. “Jax cheated on you?” Never could she have imagined anyone hurting the other lady. Not knowing what else to say, she said the first thing that came to mind. “Men suck!”

Giving a rueful chuckle, Skye turned from the window. “Yes they do,” she nodded in agreement. “But what can you do? You can’t live them and you sure as hell can’t shoot them.” she said dryly throwing up her hands.

The expression on her face was so comical, that Georgie hid a giggle behind her hand. “But,” she pointed out “you have Luke now. So it all turned out okay for you.”

Skye hastened to correct her. “I have Luke for now. But we both now that if Laura was to come to tomorrow, Luke would be at her side in a micro-minute. Look, Luke never made me any promises and I haven’t asked him to. We’ve both agreed to take this minute by minute and day by day.”

“I don’t know how you do it.” Georgie admitted. “Can I ask you a totally and completely petty question?”

“Sure.”

“How lame am I that while I was helping him last week, all I could think of was that he never gave me anything to show me how he felt. I mean I got a flower one day and a ton of movie stubs, but nothing personal. He moves on to someone else and in a few short weeks, has already given them his necklace.”

Keeping her expression perfectly bland, Skye walked over to her coat and pulled something out of one of the pockets. She turned back to Georgie with the shark-tooth necklace in her hand. “You mean this necklace?”

[JRK Archiver]

chapter 12


Georgie blinked in surprise at the necklace swinging from Skye’s hand. “Wh..where did you get that?” she asked.

“Hmmm. Apparently Dillon hasn’t told you about his ‘spring cleaning day’.” Skye went on to tell Georgie the events of the night when Georgie had left Dillon in the gym. She went on to tell about how they had found the bedding and other things heaped in a frozen pile on the ground. It had taken Reginald, Alice, and several other members of the staff two hours to get the stuff inside and thawed before deciding what could be used and what was going to the trash. Alice had found the necklace tangled in with the bedcovers and had given it to Skye.

“Why wouldn’t she just give it to Dillon?” Georgie asked.

“Dillon moved out and is currently living in Luke’s old office over at Luke’s. Since Alice knows that Luke and I are spending some time together, she figured either I’d run into Dillon or I’d give it Luke to give to him. Unfortunately I never see Dillon and Luke is always coming up with some crazy scheme that I totally forget about it.” Skye moved over to set the necklace on the nightstand next to Georgie’s bed. “So if you don’t mind, maybe you could give it to him?”

Gazing over at the necklace, Georgie hesitated. “Um..yeah, sure. I’ll see that he gets it.”

Nodding in agreement, Skye looked down at her watch. “Oh my goodness! I told Luke I’d only be gone for a few minutes and I’ve been up here for almost an hour.” She went back and grabbed her belongings. “Besides you are supposed to be resting.” Walking back over she gave Georgie a small hug and bid her good-bye. She got to the door before she paused and turned back to face the girl in the bed. “Say you wouldn’t be interested in coming to work for me would you?”

“Skye, they want me to slow down, not to take on more.” Georgie reminded her.

Skye dismissed it with a wave of her hand. “I know that, if you were interested you’d have to give up tutoring and the extra homework, plus some of your volunteer shifts. Not all of them though. I’d never ask you to do that.”
Georgie chewed on her bottom lip before asking, “What would I be doing?”

“Oh nothing exciting. Ordering supplies, keeping up with the inventory, filling the salt and peppershakers, etc. Just trivial things, you wouldn’t be out serving or anything. It would all be completely behind-the-scene sort of stuff. I could pay you say seven dollars an hour, plus some of the staff might give you some of their tips. Of course everyone is covered with medical insurance but that’s it.”

“Wow! That sounds great. Let me talk it over with Mac, okay?”

Skye reached into her purse and pulled out a card. “Here’s my card, call me anytime and let me know. You have no idea how much this would help me out if you could do it. And if you can’t maybe you could pass this along to one of your friends.” Skye checked her watch one more time. “I’ve really got to be going. Call me anytime if you ever want to talk about, oh, anything.” With that said she was gone.
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Ten minutes later, Guy came back into the room. “If I ever have someone come and ask me what’s a good way to lose weight, I’m going to give them this room and tell them they have to make a phone call on their cell!”

Georgie laughed. “What?”

“Do you know how long it takes to get from this room, down to the lobby, and then try to find a spot where you can actually get a signal?”

Still laughing, she replied, “No, I have no idea.” Then more serious, “Guy you didn’t tell Dillon where I am, did you?”

Guy nodded in assent.

“Why?” she demanded to know.

“Just because the two of you are lying to each other, doesn’t mean I have to do the same. And to answer the question that I know you’re not going to ask, even though you really want to, yes he’s worried about you. I also called your sister and she is too. She was going to call Mac as soon as we hung up.”

“Well, then I guess that means you’ve probably asked him what happened between the two of us, huh?” She knew she was being nasty and he didn’t deserve it, but being cooped up in the room with nothing to do was starting to get to her.

“No, actually I didn’t. I was hoping to give you another opportunity to do it yourself.”

“Why are you so interested in what happened? It has nothing to do with you.”

“Excuse me? It involves my best friend and another person who is quickly becoming a very good friend. I want to help. I want to see you smile for more than a fraction of a second and I can’t do that if I don’t know what’s wrong.” He got up to pace around the room. It was a familiar sight that told Georgie that he was getting very impatient with her. “Look,” he continued on, “I know it has something to do with Sage. I mean he spends a lot of time with her and her uncle had him take her to some island. I also know that she would do anything to get him away from you so she could have him for herself. Hell, the way she throws herself at him, anyone can see it.”

“She did more than just ‘throw herself at him’”, Georgie muttered under her breath. “A lot more.”

Suddenly it clicked. Guy stopped in mid-stride and from the expression on his face, Georgie knew he had figured it out. Still, his next words confounded her. “So what are you going to do about it?”

“Do about what!?” she nearly shouted.

He bit back a sigh of impatience. “You know Jones, for being one of the smartest people I know, you’re clueless when it comes to this stuff.” He shook his head and counted backwards starting at ten. Then, as if he was speaking to a child, he asked her very carefully “What are you going to do to get him back?”

She shrugged having nothing to say.

“Do you even want him back?” Guy asked stopping his pacing to sit back on the edge of her bed.

“Yes,” she said in a small voice.

“Have you told him that?”

She shook her head “no”.

“Have you told him how you feel? That you still love him?”

Once again she shook her head.

“Why not?”

She gave a snort of laughter. “Oh sure,” she mocked. “I can see it now. ‘Hi Dillon. How are you? Fine? That’s good. Me? Oh, I’m fine and by the way I still love you.’” She gave him a pointed look. “Yeah, sure, that’s all it’s going to take.”

“Nobody like’s a smart-ass. You’re just mad because you know I’m right.” When she said nothing he continued on, “All right, if you don’t want to tell him, why not show him?”

“How? Sage is on him like white on rice 24/7.”

“Simple. Write him a letter, e-mail him, heck better yet, just walk up to him and plant a big fat, sloppy ,wet one on him.” He said leering at her, while wriggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Just then the door opened and Bobbie came in. “Sorry to break this up, but visiting hours are over and this one,” she said indicating to Georgie, “needs some rest and some food.” Both she and Guy laughed at Georgie’s horrified expression at the mention of hospital food. “Don’t worry,” Bobbie continued, “we managed to save the gumbo your sister sent over.” She was rewarded with a two bright smiles.
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The next morning Georgie was released with assurances from both Mac and Maxie that she would be doing nothing more than laying down, watching TV, and being pampered to death. Everybody ignored Georgie’s moan of dismay. “Besides,” Maxie was telling Bobbie, “we have a long talk to finish.”

Georgie lay on her bed still reeling from her conversation with Mac about Skye’s offer. Instead of getting the flat refusal she had expected, he had taken the card and said that he wanted to talk to Skye first before making any definite decisions.

“Did that really just happen?” she asked her sister. Maxie was up looking through some her sister’s cd’s.

“Looks that way,” she muttered. Georgie looked at her sharply. Her sister seemed different today. Not in the physical sense, since she still looked great in a red velour running suit with her pale blond hair pulled back in a ponytail. It was rather an aura around her.

“What happened here yesterday, while I was stuck in the hospital?” she demanded to know.

Maxie turned to crawl up on the bed and lay beside her sister. Grabbing the remote, she turned the radio off. “Nothing more than usual,” she said trying to sound nonchalant. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning to ear to ear. Not only had Mac actually listened to her, but also her sister was looking better. The dark circles under her eyes were starting fade and her face held a healthy glow of finally getting some rest. “Besides, what I told Bobbie is the truth. I want to finish that talk we were having, and since Mac is busy, the timing couldn’t be better.”

Georgie sat up and crossed her legs to sit Indian style. She had long ago abandoned the black robe and now sat in her dark blue flannel pajamas with her own honey brown hair pulled back. “Is this the one where you were going to tell me where Dillon and I messed up?”

Sitting up herself, Maxie settled herself against the headboard with a pillow behind her head and back. “The one and the same. But I want you to promise me that you will hear me out first, before you say anything.”

Nodding her head, Georgie agreed.

“Look I know that together you and Dillon are a tough act to beat. You’ve got the brains and he’s got the guts. But that’s where I think the two of you messed up. You both tried to outsmart Tracy, but you each tried to do it alone instead of together. Dillon tried getting out from under her, by trying to get a high paying job so he could try to file for emancipation. You tried to strike a deal with her, after failing to get on her good side—which I doubt she has-- to get him out of that very same job. Neither one of you actually sat down and tried to come up with a plan together.” She paused as though weighing her words. “Plus I think, no strike that, I know you’ve both got abandonment issues. Mom has been gone for a really long time. Besides a few phone calls, we have no interaction with her. Tracy and Dillon have both admitted that she has left him high and dry so many times that they’ve lost count. Dillon is the first guy who actually saw you for you. Not for being my little sister. Not for being the straight-A geek who knew everything. And that was a lot for you to take and Sage knew that and fed off of your insecurities. Dillon, like I said, has been abandoned by his mother and as far as I know, doesn’t have a clue as to who his father is. So I suspect that somewhere deep down, he’s been scared that you were going to do what you did. You bailed on him and your relationship when things started to go really bad. You let Sage win when you tried to strike that deal with Tracy and you haven’t really shown any signs to anyone that you want him back. I mean, yeah, you tutored him. But you told me that Monday that you only agreed to it, because you had a migraine. Would you have taken that tutoring job if you hadn’t been in any pain? To top it all off, you used the hospital as an excuse to only see him for an hour.

“Look I know this sounds like I’m saying its all your fault, when I know it’s not. Dillon shouldn’t have disregarded your feelings. He especially should have never slept with that little witch. But at least he’s tried to show you how he feels and has started to take steps to make amends, which -as much as I love you-you haven’t.”

Georgie let out a long sigh knowing her sister was right. “You sound like Guy." she grumbled. "He pretty much said the same thing you just said. You know, the last part, that I haven’t done anything to show Dillon how I feel.” She got up to stand quietly by the window. After a few minutes she turned and faced her sister with a small smile. “Do you have any idea how much I hate it when the two of you are right?” she whined. “Too bad he’s gay, the two of you would be a match made in heaven!”

[JRK Archiver]

Chapter 13


Dillon stood in front of his locker, quietly cursing the combination lock that was not cooperating with him. He had had it all planned out. He was going to put his stuff away and camp out in front of Georgie’s locker until she showed up. Now the confounded lock was putting a huge glitch in his plan. “Okay,” he muttered under his breath “4-17-3. How hard could this be? I’ve only opened you a half a billion times so far this year.” Spinning the combination again, he pushed the lock up and then tugged it down. Nothing. Beyond frustrated now, he slammed the lock against the locker and turned to look down the hall again, hoping to see her walking to her locker. He still didn’t see her, so he turned back to his locker, hitched his backpack back up on his shoulder and went to work on the combination again. Spin, push, tug, and click. “Finally!” Dillon muttered. Just as he opened his locker, some inner instinct had him looking down the hallway again. There she was standing in front of her own locker. Forgetting about his backpack, Dillon headed off.

Georgie caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye, and turned to wait for him. He was wearing a black button-down shirt and pale blue jeans. Black, she decided, was definitely a good look on him. Unconsciously she rubbed a finger over the small indention on her palm. Last night she had fallen asleep with his necklace in her hand. When she had awoken this morning, she had found the tip of the shark tooth imbedded in her palm, leaving a small impression.

“Georgie!” Dillon whispered coming up to her. His left hand reached out on its own accord and cupped the side of her face. He felt a tingle run through his body as his fingertips dove into the silky strands of her hair. Using a slight pressure, he urged her face upwards, where he could fully look at her. Today she was wearing a blue tie-dye shirt and black denim skirt but she could have been wearing a garbage bag for all her cared. His brown gaze sought her own noting that the circles under her eyes were all but gone and she didn’t look as pale as the last time he had seen her. “Are you okay?” he asked. Before she could answer he went on. “I called the hospital Saturday night and Bobbie wouldn’t let me talk to you. She said you were resting and they were going to release you the next day. So I called your house and left a message with Maxie since she wouldn’t let me talk to you either. Did you get the message? ”

“I’m fine,” she assured him. “And yes, I got your message. Thank you. It was really sweet of you to call and offer to get me anything that I wanted or needed.” Georgie looked up at him recalling both her sister’s and Guy’s words. “Please don’t feel that they were leaving you out on purpose. Neither of them was allowing any one to talk to me. If you don’t believe me ask Guy.” At his look of disbelief, she went on. “Maxie took both my cell phone and the phone in my room and Mac appointed himself my personal secretary.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re okay.” Dillon said. Finally he noticed his hand cupping the side of her face. It was such a familiar gesture to the two of them that neither had noticed. He noted that she hadn’t pushed his hand away instead, he reflected, she had taken a step towards him and her hand covered his own. Not knowing what else to say each just simply looked at the other.

“Dillon!” Sage came running up to him wearing a short black mini dress and high- heeled boots despite the cold January day. “You have to come help me,” she was saying. “There are these two boys who are being very mean to me. Go beat them up.” She managed to pout and order at the same time.

Georgie looked from Sage to Dillon seeing him squeeze his eyes shut and grit his teeth in frustration. Just then she noticed the awful smell coming from Sage. She removed her hand from his to hold it under her nose. “What,” she asked Sage, “that dead skunk you’re carrying around with you didn’t render them unconscious?”

Sage glared at her. For the life of her she couldn’t figure out how Georgie Jones could accomplish with so little effort, what she, Sage Alkazar spent hours trying to do. Get Dillon’s undivided attention. “It’s not a skunk!” she snapped. “It’s ‘Midnight Potion’, an eau de toilet. I got it from your mother.” She informed Dillon who was trying to breathe only through his nose.

Waving a hand under her nose Georgie mocked her, “Last time I checked we didn’t have vampires in Port Charles, but if we do then I’m sure your ‘eau de Pepe La Pew’ will save you.” Glancing back at Dillon, Georgie grabbed her books. “I’ve got to go. Mr. E is waiting for me to give him back some papers he had me make copies of.”

Dillon nodded torn between wanting to get out of there quickly and at the same time wanting to give Sage a piece of his mind. Spying a door nearby that led outside, he grabbed Sage by the arm and pulled her out the door. Once outside, he dropped her arm and dragged in a lungful of clean air.

“Okay,” he warned her pointing a finger in her face. “I’m only going to say this once. I-do-not-work-for-your-uncle-anymore! So if you have any problems with any of the kids, go tell a teacher, or the principle, or- or go tell your uncle for all I care. You are not my responsibility any more!”

“Don’t you mean ‘problem’?” Sage flung back hurt that he hadn’t run to her defense.

Just then the bell rang. Dillon spared her a glance. “I don’t have time to argue with you right now. I have to get to class and if you don’t want anyone to pick on you anymore today, then I’d advise you to go home and take a shower.”

Sage smirked at him before replying, “Okay, only if you agree to wash my back.”

Dillon turned and walked away, leaving Sage to pout out in the cold January air without her coat, which she had ‘conveniently’ forgotten.
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Georgie made it until lunchtime, but the odor from Sage’s perfume still clung to her and was making her nauseous. She headed to the secretary’s office hoping they would let her go home.

“Yes? May I help you?” Mrs. Shoemaker asked. She was a small wiry older lady with sharp green eyes and russet colored hair. She picked up her glasses that were attached to chain around her neck and looked at Georgie.

“I’m Georgie Jones and I was wondering if I could use the phone to call home.” Georgie answered.

“Hmm. Georgie Jones?” A look of recognition crossed over her face. “Oh yes, Mac Scorpio’s little girl. Are you not feeling well dear?” she asked.

“No, not really. Could I use the phone?” she asked pointing to the phone on the other side of the secretary.

“Oh yes, of course.” Mrs. Shoemaker handed her the phone and quietly went back to work.

The phone rang and rang. On the third ring Mac picked it up. Georgie quickly told him what had happened and asked that he could pick her up. He agreed to be there in ten minutes. She had just hung up the phone when she saw Ned enter the office. He started towards Georgie and then stopped with a peculiar expression on his face.

“That bad, huh?” she asked.

He was saved from answering when Mr. E prodded Sage into the office and quickly left. Both Georgie and Ned left the room with their hands covering their mouths.

“My gawd!” Ned exclaimed. “Did she bathe with a skunk?”

“No, she said it’s some fancy perfume she got from your mother.”

Ned nodded his head. “Smells like something she’d wear.”

Just then they heard Mr. Gibbs, the principal, yell out, “Mrs. Shoemaker call the exterminator! Something’s died in here. I know because I can smell it.”

“So what are you doing here?” she asked.

“Picking Dillon up for lunch. I’d invite you, but no offense..”

Georgie waved his explanation away. “None taken. I can’t even stand the smell of me. I had just gotten off the phone with Mac when you came in. He’s coming to get me so I can take a shower.”
“Well, if the two of you would like to join us, we’ll be a Kelly’s.”

“Thanks Ned. But I need to talk to Mac about a few things and things between Dillon and I are still pretty weird right now.”

“I understand, but the offer’s still good if you change your mind.”
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Friday afternoon found Georgie sitting in Mr. E’s classroom with an open book in front of her. She glanced re-read the same page for the fifth time and still couldn’t make heads or tails out of the numbers and letters. Her conversations with Guy and Maxie were still plaguing her. Every time she saw Dillon, she kept hearing Guy say ‘kiss him’. Realizing that once again, she had been thinking of Dillon instead of her work she merely groaned and placed her head in hands only to picture herself that day at Kelly’s.

“AARRGGHH!” she yelled and shoved the book along with several papers and pens to the floor. Hearing a low chuckle behind her she swung her gaze around to find Dillon leaning against the door.

“I think that has got to be the first time I’ve been glad not to have been a book in your hands,” he informed her walking into the room.

“I still can’t get the ‘Pythagorean Theorem’.” Georgie said not giving the real reason, which was standing right in front of her.

Dillon bent over and picked up the book. He pretended to ponder on it giving an “Oh yes I get it,” and several “mmm hmms”. “Well that’s easy,” he said giving the book back to Georgie while trying to maintain a straight face. The look on hers was that of such shock and bewilderment that he almost lost it.

“What? You actually understood all of that? You get the Theorem?” she asked incredulously.

Spinning one of the desks around to face hers, he dropped his backpack on the floor and sat down. “Nope,” he conceded, “the only thing I could see was how you couldn’t make any sense out of that stuff. Looks like some sort of code to me.”

Georgie gave a strangled sound and glared at him. He couldn’t help it, she was sitting there with her mouth pursed and her eyes shooting daggers at him, that he burst out laughing. Without thinking about it he jumped up and placed a kiss on her forehead.

Stunned Georgie watched him settle back into his chair. Once again she heard Guy’s voice in the back of her head telling her to kiss him.

So, she did.

[JRK Archiver]

chapter 14


The kiss had started out to be just a quick peck on the mouth. She had jumped up and cupped a hand around the base of his neck and pulled his mouth to hers, but the peck never happened. Instead fire and sparks exploded from the long period of separation. Lips locked fiercely together and tongues dueled. Dillon’s hand blindly made it’s way to hers and tugged gently on her wrist. Without breaking contact she answered the tug and walked around the desks to find herself being yanked down onto his lap. She slipped one arm around his neck, while her other arm slipped under his to wind it’s way up his back. Dillon held her head immobile with one hand thrust deeply in her hair while his other lay across her lap lightly gripping her leg. Lost in the feel of each other, they strained to get closer still. Only the lack of oxygen kept them from continuing the kiss. Both pulled back at the same time, their breathing labored, eyes glazed, and cheeks shining.

Dillon closed his eyes and pressed his lips to her hair, while they both struggled to get their breathing back to normal. He felt he should say something but nothing came to mind, so he contended himself by simply holding her.

Georgie still sat on his lap, her mind a whirlwind of emotions. She closed her eyes as she felt Dillon’s mouth against her temple. She didn’t know what to do or what to say, so she kept quiet silently hoping Dillon would say something to break the silence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sage had stood outside the door, witnessing the kiss. She had just placed a hand on the door handle when she felt a hand wrap itself around her upper arm. She whirled about to find Maxie standing behind her.

“Lets, me and you, go have ourselves a nice little chat.” Maxie told her as she began to lead her away. But Sage dug in her heels. There was no way she was going to let the other girl manhandle her again.

“Take one more step and I’ll scream!” Sage threatened.

Maxie’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh? And who’s going to come to your rescue?” Indicating around to the empty halls, she went on to add, “the school’s closed and everybody has gone home.” Maxie peeked inside the door and saw her sister and Dillon caught up in their kiss. ‘Go Georgie!’ she thought silently.

“Well Dillon’s right inside. You know he won’t let you take me away and hurt me.”

Maxie threw back her head and laughed. “Are you kidding me? By the time he’s able to come up with a coherent thought after that kiss, we’ll be long gone.” With that she tightened her grip on the other girls arm and led her fighting and swearing down the hall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dillon and Georgie continued to sit in the room, though neither had spoken since the kiss had ended. Georgie looked over at Dillon and started chuckling. His hair was sticking up in more ways than usual, there were traces of her lipstick around his mouth, and the cranberry sweater he wore was slightly a skewed.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, surprised to find her laughing at him.

“Umm..I don’t think ‘Sweet Honey’ is your color.” She explained using the sleeve of her pale green jacket to rub it off his face.

“Hey!” he protested. He looked at her and smiled, seeing that indeed the color had smudged. Using his finger he gently wiped away a smudge. “Georgie we need to talk about this. Why did you kiss me?”

She flushed slightly before murmuring. “It was only supposed to have been a quick peck.” She fiddled with one of the rings on her hand before looking up at him. “Do you remember that question you asked me?”

“Question?”

“Yeah, the one in the poem.” At his nod she continued on. “Well, I think I have an answer for you. Actually Maxie seemed to really know the answer.”

“Maxie?” Dillon interrupted.

“Yeah, remember those papers I told you about the other day. The ones Mr. E wanted copied. Well your poem was one of them. I couldn’t get it out of my head so I made an extra copy for myself. I spent that entire Friday afternoon sitting in the library trying to come up with an answer. But I got nothing.” She shook her head slightly to stop his interruption before going on. “So I went home and gave Maxie the copy and she asked me if I wanted to hear her thoughts on it. Naturally I said ‘yes’, but then Mac came and I had to go and then you know all about that night, so we didn’t get to talk about it again until Monday.”

He shifted slightly in his chair, his arm around her waist, to keep her from slipping or trying to get up. “Well, what did she say?” he asked.

“Well, I’ll give you the shortened version,” she replied and went on to tell him what Maxie had told her.

“So you didn’t trust me?” Dillon asked angrily after she had finished. “Dammit Georgie! You are the only one I’ve ever wanted to be with.”

“It wasn’t just you I didn’t trust. I didn’t trust anyone. Not Sage, Alkaczar, Tracy or even myself for that matter.”

“So where do we go from here? Can we start over?” Dillon asked.

“I don’t know. I know that I still care about you but I don’t know how long it will be before I can completely trust you again. I mean, I’d trust you to get me out of the way of a speeding car, but when it comes to my feelings. I just don’t know.” Suddenly she looked up at the clock. “Oh my gawd! Look at the time! I’m so going to be late and it’s my first day. Skye’s going to kill me.” Georgie jumped up and started throwing things in her backpack.

“What?” his mind was in a tailspin. “Late for what? Georgie, what are you talking about?”

She zipped up her backpack for answering him. “Skye offered me a job on the ‘Haunted Star’ and I’m supposed to be there in 10 minutes.”

Without asking any more questions, Dillon stood up and grabbed his backpack “Madame,” he announced with a fake, thick British accent, as he withdrew some keys, “your carriage awaits.”

[JRK Archiver]

Ch. 15



After dropping Georgie off at the Haunted Star, Dillon walked into Luke’s with a thousand different thoughts running through his head. They had continued to talk about some of the things that had gone on, from Georgie’s talk with Alkaczar to Mac allowing her to work on a floating casino. Dillon was so lost in thought that he didn’t hear Luke calling his name from behind the bar.

“Hey Pacino!” Luke yelled, finally getting the younger man’s attention. Dillon was mere inches from walking straight into a wall.

“Huh? What?” Dillon looked up and blinked in surprise as if the wall had just suddenly sprung up out of nowhere. He swung his head around and saw Luke standing behind the bar, sipping a cup of coffee.

“What seems to be the problem?” Luke asked as Dillon walked over to sit on a barstool.

“Can I have one of those?” Dillon asked, indicating the cup of coffee in Luke’s hand. As Luke poured the coffee, Dillon told him about what had happened. “I still can’t believe she didn’t trust me.”

“Didn’t you just say that she said she didn’t trust anyone? Including herself?” Shrugging out of his black vest, Luke rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt and started wiping down the bar.

“Yes, but..”

“Let me ask you this,” Luke interrupted, throwing the towel under the sink, “how would you have felt if the situation was reversed?”

“How do you mean, ‘reversed’? If Georgie had went to island with Sage instead of me?”

“No, if Lorenzo didn’t have a niece, he had a nephew- a tall, dark, strapping young buck? And Lorenzo had hired Georgie to go tutor him while he was hiding on that island. Are you going to sit there and tell me that you wouldn’t have worried about her and Lorenzo’s nephew, who had been constantly hitting on her, alone on a tropical island?”

“Good point. No, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I wouldn’t have worried. I guess I would have felt the same way.” Shaking his head at his own foolishness, Dillon looked down into his cup, surprised to find it empty.

“So tell me how my girl got the good commissioner to let her work on a floating casino.”

“Nobody’s really sure about that. All I know is that Georgie told Mac about some offer that Skye made her. Apparently he called Skye and they worked out the details. Georgie just started working there tonight.”

“Hmm. Guess I’ll have to talk to Red about it later. Hey I’m opening up for a few hours Monday night, so I will need you to disappear at around ten o’clock.”

“But Luke, I asked Georgie to come over to help me with some school work.”

“That’s why they invented libraries, dear boy.” Luke shot over his shoulder as he grabbed his vest and keys.

“I was kind of hoping to have to time alone with her.” Dillon grumbled.

Luke smiled as he made his way to the door. He already knew that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Georgie groaned as she dropped on her bed later that night. Who knew taking inventory and filling salt and peppershakers could be so exhausting? There was a familiar knock on her door that had her opening one eye, to see her sister walk in the room.

“So how was your first night? Are you hungry? I could make you something.” Maxie rambled on.

“Exhausting and no thanks, Skye made sure I had some dinner.” Georgie said without opening her eyes.

“Good, I was hoping you’d say that, cause Mac and I ordered out tonight. Which reminds me, how many times did he ‘pop in’ tonight?”

Gerogie grinned, “I lost track after the fifth time.” Opening her eyes she looked at Maxie and both girls dissolved into a fit of laughter.

Wiping her eyes, Maxie looked down at her sister with an expectant look. “Speaking of time Dillon called and said that he needed to talk to you about Monday.” All she got was a gentle snore from her sleeping sister.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monday found Sage sitting in her chair at school watching Dillon and Georgie interact with each other. Fragments of her conversation with Maxie and Guy flitted around in her head.

“He’s never going to look at you like that”

“What’s it like being a substitute for my sister? Has he ever said that he ‘likes’ you or did he just say that he likes you? The other kids laugh at you behind your back.”


“While you may be somewhat exotic looking on the outside, the inner you tarnishes it with the ugliness that filters through. Georgie is pretty, but her true beauty remains inside.”

For the first time Sage took a long hard look at her nemesis. She saw the rich honey blond hair, the soft brown eye, the clear complexion, and the healthy glowing skin. Nothing that most people didn’t have, she reflected, and looked deeper. She saw the caring and compassion inside the other girl and finally knew what it was that Georgie Jones had, and she, Sage Alkaczar did not. She tamped down a feeling that she didn’t want to identify and sat brooding, staring out the window.

“Alright class,” Mr. E interrupted the chattering class with a short rap of his ruler on the desk. “We have a new student who just transferred here from Venezuela. Please welcome Antonio Ramirez.”

Mr. E pointed to the chair behind Sage after the class had said hi to the new student, “Why don’t you take the seat behind Ms. Alcazar.”

Sage watched as the tall, dark boy with the black wavy hair and darker eyes, gracefully make his way to her. She turned to face him with a smile on her face and stuck out her hand. “Hi, I’m Sage.” Her day had definitely improved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lorenzo sat at one of tables at Luke’s facing the dark stranger. An open bottle of Chianti sat between them. “Is there a problem, Mr. Alcazar?”

“No, not at all. I just thought that when I was meeting Franky Toscano, that I would actually be talking to him.”

“My godfather is feeling a little under the weather, so he asked me to take his place.” Sharp blue eyes pierced into Lorenzo’s, daring him to challenge his authority in this meeting.

“Well, please send him my regards.”

The other man nodded, “Certainly. Now shall we get down to business?”

Pouring a glass of the wine for the other man as well as himself, it was Lorenzo’s turn to nod. “Of course. What can I help you with?”

“You can start by telling me what happened to our ‘merchandise’. You’ve lost the last three shipments after guaranteeing my godfather that there would be no problems.”

“Yes, well there has been some, uh, confusion with a small local mobster here who thinks he owns everything. He’s the one responsible for the first two boats exploding and the disappearance of the last shipment.”

The other man waved away his explanation. “I’m not interested in your excuses Mr. Alcazar. My godfather wants his money and he wants it now.”

“I can’t come up with that amount of money overnight. I can give you ten percent now, but I need some time to come up with the rest.”

The other man said nothing; instead he reached for his glass of wine. Taking his time he slowly drained his glass. “This man would give Jason a run for his money.” Lorenzo thought after several minutes had dragged by.

“You have two weeks, Mr. Alcazar to come up with the rest of the money.” Blue eyes met his levelly as the other man pulled out two 8x10 pictures of Sage and Carly. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you why they call my godfather “Franky ‘the fingers’ Toscano.” It wasn’t a warning or a question. It was a promise.

[JRK Archiver]

Chapter 16


They were in the upper section of the public library. Dillon was sitting at one of the two tables that were sandwiched in between two towering bookcases filled with literature on traveling. It was the only section of the library where they knew they wouldn’t be interrupted.

“Antithesis.” Georgie called out looking up from the sheet of paper in her hand. She was leaning against the table in front of him giving him his spelling words. Save for her own crazy hair-do, she looked the part of the librarian. She was wearing a crisp white button-down shirt and khaki pants. The only time Dillon could ever remember her hair looking like it did was the day that Sam had stolen the antique playing cards out of her room.

“Georgie,” Dillon whined, “we’ve been going at this for hours! Can’t we stop? I’m starving!” Longingly he thought of the sausage and mushroom pizza that he had tucked in the small freezer behind the bar.

Glancing at her watch, she replied, “It’s only been an hour, not hours, and no we can’t stop. Didn’t you just tell me last Friday that you need an A on this test in order to pass?” She waited until he answered before going on. “You should really consider yourself lucky, this is one of Mr. E’s easier tests. And the sooner we get through these words the sooner the both of us can get home and get something to eat.”

When he continued to sit there and pout and not answer her, Georgie thrust the sheet of paper under his nose. “Here. Look over these,” she ordered. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. I need to make a phone call.”

“For pizza?” he asked hopefully.

Ignoring his question, she headed for the door. Dillon glanced around the empty library before sighing deeply. Grumbling softly to himself, he looked over the list of words. “When am I ever going to use these?” he wondered.

A few minutes later, Georgie re-appeared with a Big Grab Bag of salsa flavored Doritos, a can of Mtn. Dew and Dr. Pepper, and a box of Hot Tamales. Dillon looked up and saw the snacks and felt his mouth start to water. “I love you,” he declared with reverence, all the while never taking his eyes off the bag of chips. He started to clear a spot on the table when Georgie’s next words stopped him.

“Not so fast Romeo,” she said stopping him. “You have to earn these. If you spell a word right, you get a chip. If you get the spelling and the definition right, you get a chip, a piece of candy, and a drink of soda. If you get anything wrong, I get the reward. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“Antithesis.” She repeated the earlier word.

“A-n-t-i-t-h-e-s-i-s. The direct opposite.”

“Very good.” Opening the bag of chips she handed him one along with the Mtn. Dew while she opened the box of candy and handed him one.

They continued going over the list of words with Dillon getting most of them spelled and defined right, until Georgie got towards the bottom of the list.

“Degenerate,” she read off and took a drink of her Dr.Pepper.

“D-i-l-l-o-n. A word used by Edward Quartermaine and the police commissioner to define a young, quirky guy with weird hair.” He deadpanned before giving her his cheesiest grin. His grin quickly faded away when she didn’t respond. Instead, she ignored him completely, grabbed the bag of chips, and made a big show of rooting around inside the bag, withdrawing the last unbroken chip. Slowly she brought it to her mouth and began to nibble on it. Dillon watched her every little move, and nearly groaned, now torn between wanting to grab the bag of chips and inhaling them or grabbing her and kissing her with everything he had. Biting back a sigh of frustration, he gave her a rueful look. “Okay, okay, you win. The Chinese have nothing on you when it comes to torture. Did you know that?” he asked grumpily. ‘Degenerate’ D-e-g-e-n-e-r-a-t-e. To decline in physical, mental, or moral qualities.”

This time she smiled and handed him his reward. “Thank you, and yes, I knew that.” She answered with a small laugh. “Okay last one. If you get this one right, without any funny comments, you get the rest of the chips. Define and spell ‘sesquicentennial’.”

Slowly Dillon shook his head. “Nah ah. Nope, not good enough.”

Georgie stared at him in disbelief. “What do you mean ‘not good enough’?”

Locking his eyes with hers, he got up and started making his way towards her. “I want more.” He whispered standing in front of her.

“More?” she croaked. Her eyes were wide with shock by the look on his face. She felt her heartbeat quicken and her hands began to sweat.

Dillon reached out to cup her cheek. “What was the question again?”

“Um. Define ‘whelp’.” She grabbed the first word that came to her mind.

“We’ve already done that one.” Dillon whispered, lowering his head.

“We did?”

“Uh huh.”

“Oh, “ was all she got out before he captured her mouth with his own. He pressed her back over the table, until they were all but laying on top it. She felt one of his hands move away from the small of her back. It took her all of about thirty seconds to figure out what he was doing. Using both hands, she pushed firmly against his chest to push him away. “Give me back my candy.” She demanded between taking deep breaths of air.

Grinning like a fool, he danced away from her, waving the box of candy. “You have to catch me first.” Spinning around on his heel he took off with her right behind him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A couple weeks later, on a Saturday morning, Dillon was busy sweeping the floor of the bar. Intent on getting his jobs done, he didn’t hear the door open.

“So, this is what you left me for, huh?” Lorenzo Alcazar stopped in the middle of the room and looked around. “Cleaning a dirty, run-down bar.”

Dillon smiled and set the broom aside. He didn’t care what most people thought of his former boss, he liked the guy. Walking around the bar, Dillon poured himself a glass of water. “Nothing wrong with getting your hands a little dirty.” He quipped.

Lorenzo walked over to the bar and sat on one of the stools. “No there’s not.”

“Look Mr. Alcazar, please don’t take this the wrong way, but what are you doing here? I mean this isn’t your usual place of establishment.”

“It’s Lorenzo, and you’re right, it’s not.” Taking a deep breath, Lorenzo decided to forgo the small talk. “Dillon, have you ever heard of Franky ‘the fingers’ Toscano?”

Dillon shook his head. “No. Sounds like a character out of “The Godfather”.

“Funny you should say that. You see he’s a business partner of mine and we’ve come across some problems. A couple of weeks ago, he sent his godson down to discuss some of these problems. I’ve managed to put them off until now, but I can’t any longer.”

“So what does this have to do with me?” Dillon asked, getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew that Lorenzo’s ‘business’ wasn’t of the legitimate kind.

“Dillon, Franky is called ‘the fingers’, because when his business partners have problems that come up and can’t be fixed, he takes it out on their families and friends.” Lorenzo gave him a pointed look. “He starts with their fingers.”

Dillon gulped. “Oh,” was all he could think of to say.

“I’ve already taken care of Sage. Her and her new friend are going to be going away for a few weeks. Dillon, you need to get yourself and Georgie out of town. Tonight.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Antonio was waiting outside of Kelly’s waiting for Sage to show up for their date. She had just called to say she was running a little late and would meet him there in ten minutes. Figuring he had time, he punched in some numbers on his cell phone.

“Hi, it’s me.” He said when the other end was picked up.

“How it’s going up there?” The man on the other end asked.

“Fine, I’ve met a lot of nice people up here and have even gone out with a girl I met.”

“Is she nice?”

“Oh you bet. She’s the best. Her uncle has arranged for us to go on a trip.”

“A trip you say? Will you be escorted?”

“I certainly hope so.” A cold look came into his eyes. He certainly hoped that Toscano’s godson would follow them. He wanted to find Franky Toscano and make him pay for what he had done to Antonio’s family.

Antonio Ramirez was not the average, everyday, student. In fact he had graduated college at the age of sixteen. Being the genius that he was, he had quickly made his way to a junior field agent with a top-secret government agency. Now, thanks to the link they had found with Sage’s police record from an earlier shooting, they had found a connection between the smuggler and the Alcazar’s.

“Have you made any other friends?” The other man asked intruding on his thoughts.

“In fact I have.” For the first time since he had made the call, Antonio genuinely smiled. “There are these two girls that I just know you’d love.”

“Yes, I’m sure I would.” The other man acknowledged. “Well, I’d better let you go now. I’m sure you need to start getting ready for your trip. Make sure you call me when you get there so I know you’ll be okay.”

“Will do, Uncle Frisco.” Antonio said before hanging up. Patiently he waited for Sage to show up.

[JRK Archiver]

Chapter 17


“Georgie?” Dillon echoed. “What does Georgie have to do with this? She never worked for you!” A mixture of fear and disbelief had him all but shouting the questions at Lorenzo.

Holding up his hand, Lorenzo tried to calm the boy down. “I know that and so does Franky. It has nothing to do with Georgie working for me. You worked for me and the two of you were going out together until just recently. That’s all he needs. If he can’t get you to get to me, he’ll go after Georgie to get to you to get to me. He will peel away all the layers to get to what he wants.”

“Who’s going to peel layers to get what he wants?” Luke demanded to know as he came striding into the bar. He had only had to take a look at Dillon’s face to know that something bad had either happened or was going to.

“Some guy named Frank Toscano.” Dillon blurted out before Lorenzo could stop him. Scowling at the young man, Lorenzo turned to face Luke, catching the flash of concern that entered the older man’s eyes.

“That old coot’s still alive?” Luke joked, covering his own unease.

Wiping at an imaginary spot on his black suit, Lorenzo replied, “Yes, though I understand he’s under the weather right now. I had a meeting with his godson, just the other night.”

Luke nodded, “That would be Ernesto. Well,” he said walking around the bar to hand Lorenzo his coat, “thank you for coming over and letting the boy know. As you can see he’s got plenty to do right now,” he said pointing to the broom and the floor.

Turning around Lorenzo looked at Dillon, pulling an envelope out of his pocket, he handed it to him. “Remember Dillon, get her out of here, the sooner the better. There’s some money to help get the two of you out of here. I wish I could do more but I have to go and see about getting Sage and her boyfriend out of here, myself.”

“I think you’ve done plenty,” Luke coldly informed him.

“Thank you,” Dillon said, ignoring Luke. Reaching out he shook Lorenzo’s hand before the other man turned and left.

“He’s right you know,” Luke said making his way back to the bar to pour himself a drink. “You and Georgie both have to get out of town immediately.”

Dillon had been pacing in front of the bar. Now he stopped to look at Luke. “Yeah, I know, but how am I going to do that? I can’t just walk up to Mac and say ‘Hey, my former employer is having “difficulties” with some psycho, so I’m going to grab Georgie and then we’re going to go.’” Not knowing what to do, he resumed his pacing, tapping the envelope against the palm of his hand.

Luke rolled up the sleeves of his gray shirt, grabbed his drink, and started to walk to the phone, when a calendar hanging on the wall caught his eye. He stopped in front of it and was soon smiling. Turning to Dillon he said, “I’ve got it. Go pack yourself a bag and leave everything to me.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Georgie was in one of the meat freezers, taking inventory of the meats and seafood. It was only her second time, but she already knew she hated this part of the job. She knew from the past couple of times that she had ever been in the freezer, the head chef Charles, would have a steaming cup of hot chocolate waiting for her. Shivering slightly she pulled the edges of her white coat tighter over her butter-cream sweater. Glancing down at the clipboard in her hand she jotted down the necessary numbers in the column beside the word ‘pike’.

“Q.” she said and turned the page, only to find that it went ‘S’. “This isn’t right,” she whispered, flipping quickly through the pages. She never heard the door open and didn’t know that she wasn’t alone until she felt the glancing blow on the back of her head.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Luke caught her up in his arms and quickly got out of the freezer. Skye stood waiting for him with Georgie’s purse, on the other side of the door.

“Did you get everything?” Luke asked as she held open the freezer door.

“Yes, everything’s inside. Maxie should have been here by now with a bag for her. Luke she’s really pale, are you sure she’s okay?” Concerned, she stroked the younger girls hair.

“She’s fine. She’ll have a helluva a headache when she comes to.” He stopped by a door as Skye put a scarf around his neck. “Did you get a hold of Sonny?”

“Yes, he said his plane would be ready by the time you get to the airport.” She stopped him by placing her hand on his arm. “You’re something else, Luke Spencer.” Skye commented after a lengthy pause.

Her gave her his most charming smile. “You’re just now noticing this?” he quipped dropping a quick kiss on her smiling mouth before heading to the car he had waiting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While Luke was inside getting Georgie and checking the last minute plans with Skye, Maxie showed up with Georgie’s bag. “Dillon, how am I supposed to explain this to Mac?” she asked worrying.

Dillon shrugged his shoulders. “All I know is Luke said that he would take care of Mac.” He took the duffel bag from Maxie and stowed it in the trunk. Shutting the lid he turned back to her. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”

“I’m not the one you’re in love with,” she reminded him. Just then Luke showed up still carrying an unconscious Georgie with Skye beside him.

“Georgie!” Maxie screeched running up to Luke. “Wha..what did you do to her?” she demanded to know.

“She’s fine. Just a little knock on the head, that’s all.” Carefully Luke put her in the car. Looking over at Dillon he asked, “Do you have everything?” Seeing the boy nod, Luke quickly gave Skye a hug before getting in the car.

Maxie looked at her sister in the car one more time, before going over to give Dillon a quick hug. “Take care of her and have her call me as soon as you two get to wherever it is you’re going.”

“I will,” Dillon said returning the hug and on impulse turned to give Skye a quick hug also. “Thanks,” he whispered in her ear. A short blast of the horn had him hurrying to the car.

Together Skye and Maxie stood out in the darkened night and watched the car until they could no longer see the taillights. “C’mon,” Skye said, wrapping an arm around Maxie’s shoulders. “Let’s go see if Charles can whip us up something sinful to eat while we wait for Mac to arrive.”

[JRK Archiver]

chapter 18


Georgie was trapped deep in the heart of some jungle. She was lying on the soft earthen floor, her body held immobile by green leafy vines that had wrapped themselves around her legs and around her waist, pinning her arms to her sides. The thick, muggy air carried the sounds and smells of a distant village, while it pressed down over her, like a thick blanket. Uncomfortable, she ran her tongue over her parched lips, and thought of only two things. A long cool drink of water and the soft, furry creature that had tried to burrow itself in the spot where her neck and shoulder met. She felt sweat gather and trace its way down her body to pool on her stomach and behind her knees. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw something or someone move in the dense foliage. Temporarily forgetting about the creature that was curled up against her neck, she moved her head to the side and let out a small yelp of pain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“He did what?!” snarled Mac crumpling a piece of paper that he had in hands into a small ball. He, Maxie and Skye were sitting in the living room of the Jones’ house. They had all agreed it would be more private there than at the casino. To Maxie he demanded, “Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?”

“Mac, there wasn’t time.” Maxie said, silently pleading with him to understand.

“Yet you had time to pack her a bag and go meet them at The Haunted Star?” Ignoring the look on her face, Mac paced the length of the room with the waded up ball of paper still clutched in his hand.

Helplessly Maxie looked over to Skye. Catching the other girl’s eye, Skye cut in. “Mac, Luke didn’t give us much time to do anything. He wanted to get Dillon and Georgie out of town as quickly as possible.”

“What do you mean he wanted to get Dillon and Georgie out of town? Do you mean to tell me that he didn’t go with them?” Mac fairly shouted.

“Luke thought it best that the less people who knew where they were the better off everyone would be.” Skye replied.

“Georgie is my daughter, not Luke’s. I should have been the one to protect her. Not Luke and definitely not Dillon. I’ve told her over and over again that he’s a bad influence and this proves it!”

“That’s it!” Furious Skye jumped up and stalked over to where he stood. “I’m sick to death of how everyone treats Dillon. He’s a good kid and Luke is just about the only person other than Georgie who has ever given him the time of day. You’re daughter was the first person they thought of protecting when they learned about this Franky character. And this is the way you thank them?”

“I could have protected her here, not-” Mac made a small gesture with his hand, “wherever they’re at.”

“Yeah, and I’ll bet that’s what Captain Mathews in Charleston thought also.” Skye countered. “It’s a miracle that his daughter is still alive.”

“I’m the police commissioner, he’s just a captain.” Mac argued as if it made all the difference.

“He had the FBI guarding her for crying out loud!” cried Skye. “And Franky still got to her. And in case it’s escaped your notice, Dillon is the one whose life is more at stake than Georgie’s.”

“Mac, don’t you care what happens to Dillon?” Maxie quietly asked, fearing what his answer might be.

Seeing the worry in his oldest daughter’s eyes, Mac let out a long sigh. “Of course I do. Despite the fact that I don’t like what he’s done to your sister, I don’t want to see him hurt.”

“Well, that’s good to know.” Luke said as he walked into the room. Throwing his coat over a chair, he went over and sat between Skye and Maxie. Looking over he beckoned Mac to sit. “C’mon over and I’ll tell you all what I can.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Georgie blinked in confusion as the room came into focus. Looking around she saw a writing desk and chair, off to the corner stood a tall armoire, and next to it a table with four chairs surrounding it. Seeing the nightstand by the bed, she realized that she was in some hotel room. She tried to get up only to find that she was indeed trapped. Somewhat half expecting to find herself covered in vines, she was startled to see a denim clad leg entangled with her own, and an arm flung over her waist. Panic had just started to set in, when she saw a familiar thumb ring. Relief washed through her and she sagged back down into the mattress.

She lay there until she couldn’t handle the combination of heat and thirst any longer. She tried to untangle herself from him, only to wake him.

Dillon yawned and stretched, slightly disoriented, looked around the room. He turned his head, saw her, and the events of the past 12 hours came rushing back. Scooting up into a sitting position, he ran a hand over the back of her head, “How are you doing?”

Wincing a little as his hand grazed the slightly swollen lump on the back of head, Georgie answered, “My head hurts and I’m hot and thirsty. What happened and where are we?”

Dillon swung his legs off the bed and got up to turn off the heat. “It’s a long story,” he called out from the adjoining bathroom. Coming back out, he offered her a glass of water. “Sorry, I think we left the pain killers on the plane.”

“Pain killers? Plane? Dillon, what’s going on?” Georgie asked. Suspicious when he didn’t answer her, she narrowed her eyes. “Dillonnnn…” she said warningly.

“All right, all right!” Dillon scrubbed a hand over his face. He wasn’t sure where to start. To give himself some time, he walked over and opened one of the sliding glass doors to let in a soft breeze. Turning back into the room, he unzipped and removed the dark blue sweater he was wearing and threw it on the table. He grabbed one of the chairs and swung it around to straddle it. Folding his arms over the back, he launched into the story starting from the time Lorenzo had entered the bar.

“Um, so what are we supposed to do? Hang out here until who-knows-when?” Georgie asked, waving her hand around the room. “Which by the way, you still haven’t told me where we are.”

“We’re in New Orleans. Its a few day till Mardi Gras, so we should be safe, and according to Luke, this Franky guy doesn’t like crowds.”

“Lucky us,” Georgie grumbled getting up from the bed. Though he had opened the sliding glass doors, the room was still unbearably warm. Added to the bump on her head, she could feel a headache coming on. Fanning herself, she walked over to her bag, which he had flung on the floor, to see if there was something lighter than the buttercream sweater she was wearing.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, concerned by the painful look on her face.

“Yeah. No.” With a slight shake of her head, she pulled out a pale pink t-shirt. “My head is just beginning to hurt, that’s all.”

“I could go downstairs and buy you some aspirin.” Dillon offered.

“No thanks, I have some in my purse. Besides I only take them as a last resort. But some ice would be nice.” She smiled, touched by his concern.

“A bucket of ice, coming up!” Getting up from his chair, Dillon did his silly little dance to the door, ice bucket in hand. Giggling at the sight of him, Georgie went into the bathroom to change her shirt.

When she came back out, Dillon had already wrapped up several cubes of ice into a hand-towel and handed it to her. Taking it, she held it to the back of head. “So I was wondering, are we pretending to be brother and sister? I mean, is that why the hotel is letting us stay here, without parental supervision?”

“Uh, no, not exactly.” Dillon hedged, feeling himself blush slightly.

“Ohhh?” Georgie had a feeling this wasn’t going to be good.

“No, uh-um, that is…” Dillon lifted his hand to rub it against the back of his neck. “Luke called the hotel, and informed them that we are on our honeymoon.”

[JRK Archiver]

Chapter 19

Georgie choked on the drink of water she had just taken. “Honeymoon!?” she cried, coughing slightly. “Dillon, do I need to remind you that we’re teenagers? No one’s going to be convinced that we’re married! Look, I don’t even have a ring.” She stopped short as she held up her left hand. There, placed on her third finger, was a plain gold band. She gaped at him and then at the ring. “Where did this come from?” she demanded.

“Luke.”

Georgie eyed him with some skepticism. “Okay and how did you and Luke just manage to conveniently come up with all of this on such short notice?”

“Come on over here, sit down, and I’ll tell you everything you want to know.” Dillon placed his hands on her shoulders and led her to the ottoman that sat at the foot of the bed. He walked over and leaned against the desk. “We didn’t just fly straight from New York to Louisiana.”

“We didn’t?” she asked skeptically.

He shook his head. “No. We had to make some stops. The first one was to Chicago to drop Bobbie off. She was on the plane to keep an eye on you and make sure you were okay, while Luke and I thought up of a plan and Luke placed some calls. We waited around a bit to see Bobbie off and that’s when Luke received some papers. I swear, I didn’t know Luke’s plan involved us being on our “honeymoon” until he showed me the fake license.”

“So why didn’t Bobbie stay with the plane? I mean then she could have just posed as our mother or something.” Georgie asked, having nothing else to do, she walked over to the window to look outside.

“She couldn’t. For one thing, she had to be at the hospital at 8:00. For another, we were making a couple of stops not only to make plans, but also to try to confuse anyone who might be following us. And--and could you step away from the window please?” he asked uneasily, waving her back over to the ottoman.

Since her head was still hurting and she was starving, Georgie decided not to voice the protest that was on the tip of her tongue. Sitting back down she asked him to go on with his story.

“Well, we saw Bobbie off and got back on the plane and headed to Atlanta to drop Luke off. It was while we were on our way there that he realized that we would need some rings. I took a piece of paper and wrapped it around your finger so we’d know what size you wore.” He stopped, grabbed her glass of water and drained the glass. “When we landed in Atlanta, I got off the plane with Luke and we went to one of those little vendors and got these.” He held up his own left hand to wiggle his fingers, the ring shining brightly. “And then I got back on Sonny’s plane and here we are.”

“So you just walked up to the front desk and checked in? With no “wife” and only a duffel bag? What about our I.D.’s?” Georgie asked finding it hard to believe that they would just let Dillon walk up--alone-- and check in.

“They were in with the papers that Luke got when we were at O’Hare. Which leads me to the next thing that I need to tell you.”

Georgie raised an eyebrow. “And that would be…?”

“We’re not Dillon and Georgie anymore.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“What did you find out?” Maxie asked as she walked up to the park bench that Guy was sitting on. She had phoned him right after Luke and Skye had left. None of the adults had answered any of her questions. She wasn’t sure if they hadn’t heard her through all of their bickering or if they had all just simply chose to ignore her. Fortunately she had
remembered the names.

Guy reached into his coat to pull out some papers. “Nothing good,” he said handing them to her. “This Mathews girl is the only one who has survived one of his attacks. I can guarantee you it’s going to be a while before I enter into anyone’s bathroom where the door is shut.”

“Huh?” Maxie asked as she quickly scanned the papers.

“The guy was hiding in her bathroom. Got her as she went in to get ready for school that day.”

“Did they get him?” Maxie asked, her eyes scared and round.

“Yeah, fortunately, her guard from the FBI was standing right outside the door. He got the guy before he did any damage.”

“That’s good to know.” Maxie let out a small sigh of relief.

“Don’t go getting too excited, they’re still not safe. This thing with the Mathews girl happened about two months ago.” Guy saw the glimmer of hope wash away from her face. He reached over and grabbed one of her hands. “Hey, you’re not the only whose worried about them. Besides," here he gave a rueful chuckle, "if anybody grabbed G. on one of her bad days, I’d probably have to feel a little sorry for them.” That brought a smile to her lips.

“Isn’t that the truth?” Maxie said leaning her head against his shoulder. “You know, that sister of mine is right…”

Guy pulled a look of utter astonishment. “What? Really? Well that’s never happened!” Together they laughed. “Okay, okay. What was she right about this time?”

“We could have been a great match, if only there wasn’t that one pesky little problem.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault you can’t flex your pecs. Speaking of pecs, we have a new transfer who just came in. Interested?”

Maxie pretended to think about it. “Well before I can make that kind of decision, I’ll need some details.”

“Okay he’s tall, dark and handsome. Name’s Travis something-or-other and is a complete jock. So?”

“Okay, yeah, go ahead and give him my number.” Maxie lifted their combined hands and looked at Guys watch. “I’d better get home.” She leaned over and gave him a hug. “Thanks Guy for everything.”

“Your welcome. Call me if you hear anything?” She nodded and got up to start heading home. Guy waited and counted to twenty before he got up, and just to safe, he followed her home.

[JRK Archiver]

chapter 20



We’re not?” Georgie asked slowly.

Dillon shook his head. “Nope.”

“Okay,” rubbing her forehead Georgie let out sigh. “I know I’m going to regret this, but who, exactly are we?”

Dillon pointed to himself. “Well, I’m Cary…”

“Cary?” Georgie echoed.

“As in Cary Grant. And your name is Gracie.”

“My name is Gracie Grant?!” Georgie asked with something akin to horror, causing Dillon to laugh.

“No, no, no. Emerson. See Luke suggested coming up with some names that we would be familiar with. So I picked Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. Unfortunately neither name went with either of the last names, and since I knew that Emerson is one of your favorites, we became Cary and Gracie Emerson.”

“Lovely. Now we sound like we’re eighty years old,” she grumbled. “Well, Mr. Emerson, now what do we do?”

Dillon shrugged. “I have no idea. There’s no DVD player here and I’m not sure if it’s a wise idea to be leaving the hotel.”

“Well, I think the first thing we should do, is see if the hotel has a restaurant. I’m starving and am starting to go a little crazy being cooped up in this room already.”

“Sounds good. Why don’t you check your bag and make sure Maxie packed everything that you would need. The gift shop might still be open, so we might be able to pick up some stuff. Maybe we’ll luck out and they will have some sort of games or something.”

Georgie quickly walked over to her bag and rummaged around in it. Sure enough, Maxie had forgotten several things, like her hairbrush, socks, and something to sleep in. Making a mental note, she grabbed her purse. “Okay, I’m ready. Are you sure you have everything you need?”

“Yeah, I checked everything twice while we were on the plane.” Glancing over, he saw his cell phone and the room card key lying on one of the bedside tables. Walking over he grabbed them and stuck them in his pocket. “Shall we?” She nodded and together they headed out the door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ned walked into the library and headed towards the bar to pour himself a brandy. For the last two hours all he could think about was how he was going to relax tonight with a good book, a drink, and no interruptions. The meeting he had been in had been long, boring and after two hours the board of ELQ still had not come up with a proposal that met their clients current needs.

He walked over to the couch and sat down. Setting down the snifter, he kicked off his shoes, and settled against the arm of the couch all but lying on it. He had just opened his book when his phone rang. Thinking it would be Alexis returning his call, he smiled when he answered it. “Hello.”

“Darling, this is your mother,” came the reply on the other end.

His smile quickly vanished. Blowing out a breath, he forced himself to ask, “What do you want mother?”

“I’ve been trying to reach your brother all day, and all I get is some message saying that his number has been disconnected. Now, I need you to give me his number.”

“Did you forget that he all but disowned you?” Ned asked after he had taken a sip of his brandy.

“Oh don’t be ridiculous. He’s just being a typical teen-age boy. Mad at his mommy for trying to help him out. Now be a doll, and give me his number. I need talk to him to set up a schedule for his internship at ELQ.”

“Mother, you set him and Georgie up! You ripped the only stable thing in his life, right out from underneath him..”

“No,” Tracy said, interrupting him, “what I did was prove to him that Sage is a much better match for him than that little conniving, whining, unacceptable…”

Ned couldn’t stand to hear anymore. Pulling the phone away from his ear, he looked at it with disgust. “Bye mother,” he muttered under his breath, before hitting the off button. Setting the phone on the coffee table, Ned once again grabbed his book. Settling back against the cushioned arm of the couch, he soon lost himself in the pages of the latest Tom Clancy book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Dillon, I’m never going to remember these names.” Georgie whined as they set their bags down on the table. They had gone downstairs and had dinner before heading to the gift shop, only to find that they were out of practically everything, due to the tourists who had come in for Mardi Gras. Georgie had only found a flimsy comb and a small bottle of mouthwash. Dillon had lucked out and found a deck of cards and some crossword puzzle books.

“Yeah, I kind of figured that out, when I had to kick you under the table to get your attention. I think that waiter thought you would never answer him.”

“Ha-ha. So what are we going to do about it? I mean, you can’t keep kicking me under the tables all the time, or I’m going to have so many bruises I won’t be able to wear shorts at all this summer.”

“I barely nudged you,” he defended himself giving her a wounded look.

It was, she thought, better than the fear that had lurked in his eyes ever since they had left the room. It was during dinner that she had realized two things. One, he had looked at every person with mixed emotions. Dread, when people had walked by their table and relief when they passed with no incident. She had also realized that she had been something of a pain earlier and Dillon didn’t need that. His life was more at stake than her own, so on the elevator ride up to the room she had come up with a plan to try to take his mind off their problems at least for a little while.

“So I was thinking, you know, how do you feel about pet names?” Dillon asked interrupting her thoughts.

“Pet names?”

“Yeah, you know, nicknames.”

“Oh okay. Hmm. Let me think.” Georgie walked around the room trying to think of something clever. Recalling the flower on their table, she queried with a straight face, “How do you feel about Buttercup"? She had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at his horrified expression.

“Do I look like a flower?” he asked looking aghast.

Pretending to ponder his question, Georgie tilted her head to the side and tapped a finger to her mouth. “Well, if we dressed you all in green and added more blonde highlights…”

“No.”

“Okay, how about, umm--Schnookums?” Georgie suggested with a smile.

"We’re not, as you pointed out earlier, eighty.”

“Okay, okay, I got it! Lovey, dovey poo-bear!” She bent over chortling so hard; she was amazed she didn’t fall down.

Slamming one of the puzzle books down, Dillon's temper snapped. “Damnit Georgie! I’m trying to be serious here. I’m trying to figure out a way to keep people here from asking too many questions and at the same time, trying to keep things as normal for us as possible.”

She was instantly contrite. She sat down on the bed looking at her hands. “I know,” she whispered in a small voice. Looking up at him, she continued on, “I was just trying to see if I could manage for you to forget about all of this, like you’ve done for me. I really just wanted to try to repay you, someway.”

Dillon hissed out a breath and cursed himself a fool. Crossing over, he sat beside her on the bed, “I should have realized that you wouldn’t be making jokes at time like this, unless you were up to something. I’m sorry.”

“It’s just--just that you make it seem so easy. Like I told you that day in the barn, you’ve always managed to make me laugh and forget about things, when things were scary. I just wanted to give you a few minutes to forget about things.”

Reaching over, Dillon grabbed one of her hands. “You do, do that for me. You always have, and if you don’t believe me, you can ask my grandfather.”

“Your grandfather?”

“That night, when we thought I was going to military school, and you got mad at me and left, well grandfather was feeling mighty proud of himself. I was so mad at him for tricking you like he did and for telling me that we were too young to be in love. I told him that the only way I managed to survive that loony bin, was that I could call you and just escape. When you broke up with me, I lost that and everything has seemed to have fallen out of place.”

Surprise filled her eyes. “I had no idea. You’ve never told me that.”

“I should have told you that a long time ago. But lately, since we’ve been able to talk to each other, everything seems..”

“To have fallen back into place.” She finished for him. She looked at him, nodding her head. “I know, it’s been the same for me. The only thing that has helped me get through this has been something that I should have given back to you a long time ago.” She released his hand and walked over to her purse. She withdrew the necklace and walked over, holding it out to him.

“My good luck charm!” he exclaimed. “Where did you find this?”

Georgie sat back down and started to tell him the story that Skye had told her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the dark, pre-dawn hours, a phone rang in a dark hotel room. It’s incessant ringing waking-up the lone figure in the bed. A hand reached out and grabbed the receiver. “Yeah,” came the muffled reply. “Okay. I’ll be there in a half an hour.” The man simply known as Ernesto threw back the bed covers and grabbed a robe, on his way towards the closet. Flipping on a light, he grabbed his suitcase and started to fill it with the few meager possessions he had brought with him. He glanced around to make sure he had left nothing behind. Satisfied, he grabbed the suitcase and quietly left the room.