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Date Posted: 19:00:49 06/25/01 Mon
Author: Andrea E.
Subject: Another Second Chance--Chapter 15


Another Second Chance~Chapter 15

Guilt...frustration...relief. Maybe she was feeling all of them at once, or maybe what she felt had gotten lost somewhere in the myriad of emotions that had flooded her conscience in the past few days. Either way, Carrie was sure of one thing--she hated it.

She reached up and pulled off the plastic princess crown her grandfather had placed on her head, which he'd accompanied with a regal bow and a kiss on her cheek. "To put that lovely smile of yours back where it belongs, darlin'," he'd told her with a flash of his infectious, broad Irish grin. Carrie bit her lip and watched as her grandfather danced with little Belle, her small feet perched on top of his as they twirled in crooked little circles, Belle's head tipped back as far as it would go to look up into his smiling face.

Carrie felt her smile fade as she watched. Grandpa had been worried about her earlier, she could tell. She looked away, hugging herself against a sudden chill. It killed her to have to lie to him, especially today, on his birthday of all days. Carrie sighed deeply with a fleeting smile, running her fingers over the huge plastic diamond embedded in the highest tier of the crown. "I'm so sorry, Grandpa..." Her voice drifted away with the rythmic lapping of the water against the dock. "But for right now, there's no other way..."

Ali stifled a wince as the rough brick grated against her back. She strained to hear Carrie over the whir of the kitchen fans. " 'No other way'? What the hell..." A startled gasp escaped her as her foot came in to contact with an object on the ground.

Carrie looked up at the sound, her eyes squinting against the darkness. An empty liquor bottle rolled out of the alleyway, clunking into the far wall before finally rattling to a stop. She paused, her gaze shifting to the entrance of the alley behind the Pub. She swallowed and made herself take in a deep breath. This whole letter thing is making you jumpy, Brady. She shook her head. Somebody's probably just taking out garbage from the party. Carrie held her breath and listened again. Silence. She swallowed hard against the deafening pulse of her own heartbeat drumming in her ears. "Well, then again...maybe not."

She glanced back inside, then quickly discarded the thought of going to get her dad. C'mon, Carrie, buck up. You stopped needing Daddy to chase away things that go bump in the night a long time ago... Carrie swallowed hard against the tightening of her throat. She took a deep breath and shook herself. Despite her determination, Carrie cast one last glance at the window before taking a deep breath and stepping into the alleyway.

The narrow walkway was empty and dark--or so it looked. She blinked hard, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. The narrow walkway was poorly lit, and she could barely distinguish the faint outlines of the dumpster and the pyramid of carboard boxes stacked to one side of it. Carrie moved a few slow steps forward, then froze as one of the boxes toppled over, landing with a dull thud at her feet. She swallowed hard, her throat suddenly dry as sandpaper. "Searching alleyways in the middle of the night. Real smart, Carrie." Her tight, high-pitched laugh sounded foreign even to her own ears. "Mike would kill me for this."

Ali's hand brushed over a thick, splintered shard of glass at her feet. She silently picked it up as the sound of Carrie's footsteps drew closer, hardly noticing as the sharp edge gouged into her palm. He's gonna have to stand in line, sweetheart...

"Carrie?" Ali slunk back into the shadows as Carrie turned towards the deep voice calling to her from outside the alley.

Carrie let out a deep sigh of relief. "John?"

John stopped as he rounded the corner of the alley. "Hey, kiddo. What are you doing back here?"

Carrie turned to look back into the shadows. "I, um...I heard something back here, and I thought..." She paused, then shook her head before turning back to John. "Never mind. Whatever it was seems to be gone."

John shrugged. "It was probably just a hungry alley cat or something roaming around back here." He grinned. "Hey, they know good food when they smell it." Carrie returned his smile, and came toward him out of the alley. "I just came out here to see if I could offer you a ride home, " He continued. "You shouldn't be out walking around by the docks this late alone." He gave her a teasingly stern look. "Didn't your dad and I give you that lecture enough times as a kid?"

Carrie nodded and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you did. I guess I just needed a little fresh air, and I... well, I guess I wasn't really thinking about it."

John nodded sympathetically. "Well, considering what's going on with you right now, it's understandable you had a few other things on your mind." He shook his head affirmatively at Carrie's surprised glance. "Marlena told me what happened. I'm sorry about Mike, honey."

Ali crouched deeper into the concealing shadow cast by the dumpster. 'Sorry about Mike'?

Carrie nodded and accepted his offered hug as a welcome excuse to hide her guilty expression. She'd always been a lousy liar, and John had always been very good at picking up on when she was being less than truthful. She shut her eyes against the fresh wave of guilt as John pulled back to look her in the face. He shook his head, his expression one of puzzlement. "I just don't get it...I mean, you two were so in love, and so bound and determined to stay together...You just seemed ready to take on anything that would keep you apart..." Carrie dropped incriminating eyes away from John's. A small light of realization flickered to life behind his eyes. He paused as Carrie lifted transparent eyes back to his face. "Carrie, is there something else going on that you're not saying?"

She opened her mouth to speak, then clamped it shut again. Her smile was forced as she looped an arm through John's to turn him towards the parking lot. "It's a really long story, John..."

He hauled Carrie to a stop and urged her to face him. "And I've got plenty of time to listen."

Carrie paused, then nodded resolutely. It was time for the truth--but not here. She tugged on his arm. "C'mon--I'll explain in the car."

Ali watched until they disappeared from view, then snuck out from her hiding place to watch them leave.
She leaned her head back against the brick with her eyes closed, her mouth curved triumphantly, savoring the sweetness of her victory. Mike had finally seen the light--and figured out Carrie Brady wasn't the sun at the center of his universe emanating it. Her delighted expression suddenly melted away, her face going dark. "She'll try to turn Mike away from me again...she'll never let him go just like that..." She ran her thumb over the outer edge of the glass still clutched in her hand. She brought it to eye level, testing the point with her fingertip, pulling it away as a shock of pain pricked through her hand. A crooked smile snaked its way across her face. "Well, then...if two's company, and three's a crowd..." She watched John's tailights fade into the dark. "Looks like someone's gonna have to be uninvited to this 'lil shin-dig."

*******************
John pulled the car to a stop in front of Carrie's building. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he shifted in his seat to look at her. "Are you two sure about this?"

Carrie nodded. "Like you said--Mike and I are ready to take on anything that would keep us apart." She smiled lightly. "It's gonna take a lot more than some letter writing-lunatic to make us give up."

John sighed, nodding resignedly. "Well, if there's anything I can do to help..."

"No," Carrie cut him off. "Whoever's writing these letters has it in for two people. You are not on that list, and it's gonna stay that way. I don't want you or anyone else in the family hurt by this. Just let us handle this, okay?"

John took her hand, giving it a quick squeeze. "Just promise me you two will both be careful, all right?"

Carrie smiled gratefully. "Promise." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and swung open her door. "John?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." She gave him one last smile and was gone.

John watched her disappear inside the front door, shaking his head with a smile of admiration. "Stubborn Brady women..."

************************

"Third floor nurses' station."

"Hello, this is Nancy Wesley. I was on my way to drop off some important paperwork for Carrie Brady...she needed it before tommorrow morning...and I can't seem to find her building. Here, wait a minute...let me grab the address I got from the computer at the hospital...2940 South Bridgelake, is that correct?"

"Can I have your security code please, Mrs. Wesley?"

"Certainly. It's 89512-6."

"Okay, one moment...um, no, Mrs. Wesely, that's her old address. It's 3120 East Walnut now."

"Of course, how silly of me. I was in such a hurry, I must have copied down the wrong address. 3120 East Walnut...thanks so much." Ali hung up the phone with a satisfied smirk as Nancy Wesley strolled out the front doors of the hospital. "Thanks, Nanc. You're a lifesaver."

********************

Ali sat back against the cracked upholstery of the back seat of the taxi, fingering the money she'd lifted out of a nurse's locker before she'd left...that place. She allowed herself a small smile of satisfaction. They'd probably taken forever to notice she was gone after she pulled the fire alarm outside her room last night. She'd pretended to be unresponsive for weeks, and they'd bought it. She fingered the money again. She smiled gleefully at the thought of their faces, searching her room, finding her gone. They'd never find her. Not now, not ever. She'd find Mike, and they'd be on their way down the first road leading nowhere--together.

She glanced up at the rearview mirror, her eyes meeting the driver's eyes in its reflection. Blue. The man's eyes were blue. Just like Mike's. Her Mike. She remembered seeing that look in his eyes before. How could she ever forget it? She'd dreamt of reliving that night again with him nearly every night since. Getting lost in those eyes again..feel his arms around her...his hands on her body... She clutched her lower lip between her teeth as the images danced across her mind, he breathing going shallow.

The driver's ruddy cheeks lifted in a lopsided smile at the inviting gaze Ali was giving him. She blinked, then looked again. Brown. The driver's eyes weren't blue, but a dark, lifeless, utterly ordinary brown. Ali's upper lip suddenly curled in revulsion. She crossed her arms across her chest and shifted her gaze out the window.

The driver's smile died, shrugging his shoulders as he reached for the radio knob, the speakers behind Ali's head crackling to life with the late evening news... "....and in other news, a patient escaped from the Pleasant Pines Mental Institution earlier today. The hospital and the police have yet to release a definite description of the young woman that escaped, but have placed the city on alert until she is found. Police have said little, except that the escapee is possibly suicidal, and should be considered dangerous to others as well."

The driver shook his head. "Sure hope you don't plan on going out anywhere by yourself tonight, miss." He pulled the cab to a stop outside the front door of Carrie's building. "That looney bird could be anywhere in this city."

Ali turned her gaze out the window, staring at the building slowly rising into the air. She nodded slightly, her face coldly expressionless. "You're right. She could be...anywhere."

End Chapter 15

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