The Body Hunters (40 page)

His face flushed, his inner voice berating his stupidity. Why didn't he realize? Lately he felt as if he could do nothing right when it came to Danny.

"I'm so sorry both of you I-I wasn't thinking! Let me escort you ladies back so you can talk to the Ramirez family."

Danny and Cassie sat quietly with Alex and Juanita, their conversation off limits to
 or Lucius. Danny made sure of that. After fifteen minutes hugs were exchanged. Whatever Alex and Juanita said seemed to relieve a heavy burden from Cassie
.

The flight back was almost a blessing. It had been a hard day for both women. A few hours after arriving back at Cassie's home, they heard a knock at the door. It was Aiden. He had followed them back on the next flight.

Looking like a lost little boy, he stood on the threshold of the home. "Can I come in Cassie?" he pleaded.

She obliged him with a stern warning not to upset Danny
.

"Nani?
Are you OK?" He asked as he sat next to her in the large family room on the light blue plaid sofa. In a knee length pink fluffy robe, she looked tiny and delicate. It took everything in him not to pull her into his arms
.

"Aiden why are you here? Shouldn't you be in D.C.?" She asked closing the robe's collar around her neck
.

He waved his hand dismissively. "That can wait. I'm taking a week off anyway. I wanted to be here with you, make sure you're OK. I can pack up your stuff from the house. You won't have to do anything, OK?
"

"It's not necessary. Stephania is coming back soon. She said she'll do it."

"OK what about the apartment are you going to go back there?" He asked.

"It's all Luc's equipment and his lease actually. He has some people packing up my stuff that survived for storage." From what she had heard from Aiden, the monster had pretty much destroyed most of her family heirlooms from the apartment. It was just more salt in the wound. "I can't go back there. It's too painful and Cassie said I can stay here as long as I need. I don't want to make any rash decisions just yet.
"

"Nani, I'm feeling like you're pushing me away." He said, his eyes almost watering
.

"Aiden, I just can't talk about anything right now. OK? Just give me a bit of time. I need to get myself together." Danny held his hand. Seeing this hard-edged ex-soldier on the verge of tears was disconcerting to her.

He regained his composure quickly. "I meant was I said Nani, I love you.
"

"I know. I know.
"

Early the next morning Danny slipped out of Cassie's house and drove her Camaro to the mini-mansion. The yellow police tape was still hung across the front door along with a trespassing warning sign. She took out her key and unlocked the big oak door, slipping under the tape with a few boxes.

In all of the commotion that followed the raid, no one had bothered with the alarm system. As the door closed behind her, standing in the doorway she was frozen. She had spent much of the morning mentally preparing herself to see the monster's ghost. Probing out in her mind she felt nothing. The glass from the figurines still lay broken on the floor along with various other items that found their way to the floor in their struggle. She stepped over a burgundy stain in the tile, which she was certain came from when she broke his nose
.

Taking a deep breath Danny found her laptop where she left it in the living room. She walked into her office and packed up a few small items. Making her way upstairs to the bedroom they once lovingly shared, Danny paused at the top still expecting an angry ghost to appear, but all she heard was silence.

She found her way to the master bedroom and opened her closet. She started taking some of the clothes out that she had brought from New York, preferring to leave anything that he'd bought her alone including the black baby doll lingerie that he liked her in so much. She took it off the hanger and tore it to shreds. Laying the rest on the big four poster bed, she sat down to pack. She looked at his pillow, picking it up and holding it to her chest. She tried to force herself into remembering the human Gerard. Her mind would not obey. Her emotions started running amuck, and with a primal scream she threw the pillow across the room and hit the engagement photo of the two of them which dropped off the wall. Crying hysterically and screaming at the top of her lungs, she failed to hear Lucius enter the house. He ran up the stairs to her and pulled her close in a hug. She started beating him in the chest, still hysterical
.

 
"Why, why?"She yelled and Lucius refused to let her go
.

"Cry, let it out, go ahead. Scream Danny it’s OK." Lucius retained his grip. Danny screamed one last time and fell limp in his arms. Lucius just rocked her back and forth for a while. Finally the lump in her throat cleared and she was able to talk
.

"How did you know I was here?" She asked
.

"I came to make sure the house was still secure. Why did you come?"

Using her fingertips, Danny swiped the last remaining tears from her eyes. "I wanted my laptop. I know I shouldn't have come in without permission Luc, but I felt like I needed to do it alone. I wasn't sure what I'd do once I got here. As you can see, apparently it was to have a meltdown."

Danny was holding her hands in her lap and Lucius wrapped his arms around her again.

"It's ok Danny, but I think it's too soon to face this alone. I won't leave you here by yourself. If you want I can help you pack some things.

"I can help her Agent Johnson."
  Aiden walked into the bedroom.

"Aiden, how long have you been standing there?" Danny asked in surprise
.

"Yes Agent Stone how long have you been here?" Lucius growled.

"I just got here, I was passing by to make sure everything was secure and saw your Camaro." He lied. He had stopped by Cassie's and found her car gone. Acting on a hunch he went to Gerard's hoping he would not find her there. "I am surprised to see you Agent Johnson.
"

"I came for the same reason, Agent Stone."

Both men stared for a moment at each other, Lucius still with his arms securely around Danny. The hostility between the two men was palpable, the friction in the air crackling like lightning
.

"Luc?"
Danny spoke up. "Can you let me have a few words with Aiden?"

"Are you sure you're going to be OK?" He asked standing up
.

"Yes I just want to talk to
 Aiden alone, please."

“Ok, then. I will head back to the office. Agent Stone make sure you help her get anything she wants out of this house and lock up when you are done."

"Yes Sir" He gritted out, hating the fact that he had to address him so formally.

Lucius walked slowly down the stairs like he was afraid someone was going to push him from behind. Soon, Aiden heard the front door shut. He was relieved he was finally alone with Danny. He sat next to her on the bed in the spot Lucius had just vacated.

"Are you alright?" he asked. "I heard some crying and saw Johnson holding you.
"

"I'll be OK. Really, it's alright."

He tried to hold her but she got up and started back into the closet taking clothes off of hangers.

"Danny, please don't push me away! I want to help you." He pleaded with her.

"It's not you. I've got a lot to work through." Staring into his blue eyes, her golden brown eyes started to well up. Defiantly she wiped at the tears and continued her work in the closet
.

"I'm going to ask you again to come back home with me. Lucius can get depositions from you anywhere. You know that you don't need to stay in Phoenix. We can start new, leave all this behind. Please say you'll do it!
"

Danny returned to the bed and took his large hand in hers. "I don't want to go to DC.
 I don't know what I want. I don't know how to get that through to you. I think we need to end whatever it was we started before all this. I don't mean to hurt you. It's just not the right time. I don't know if it will ever be. Please I need time away from all this."

Her words swirled in his head stinging his heart. He felt as if the floor had suddenly dropped out from under him.

"Danny please! Don't do this! We can make it work! I want to be there for you! Don't throw us away."

"Us?
There is no us! We have barely begun! I want you to think about this. You have told me you loved me several times now. Have I ever said it back? I do have feelings for you but I can't do this now! The last man I said I love you to ….tried to kill me!"

She'd been so carried away with her emotions she'd almost told him about the rape. Danny started crying, throwing her favorite AC/DC t-shirt she had just taken off the hanger on the floor. She ran out of the room and down the stairs into the main hall. He followed after her.

"Danny, Danny, wait please." Aiden gently grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. Still sobbing she buried her head in his chest. He tenderly stroked her back, letting her cry it out. "I get it Danny! I promised not to smother you, and I will honor that. I'm sorry I pushed you, but promise me you won't give up on us. Please promise me that.
"

"You're asking for a promise I'm not sure I can keep." She cried, her voice muffled by his chest
.

"Just say you'll try, OK?"

"I'll try. I really will. But I need time alone. Go back home to D.C. We'll keep in touch, I swear." She told him
.

"Every day!" he demanded
.

"Aiden!"
She slapped him in the chest
.

"OK. At least twice a week, please?" he begged
.

"I can do that, I promise.
"

"Nani, I will wait for you, I swear." He said, tilting her chin so he could look right into her eyes
.

"I know, Aiden." She said quietly
.

He helped her pack the rest of her things and for a little while things felt like they used to between them: He would crack a joke and she would smile or hit him. After their work was
done, he loaded the boxes in the trunk for her. Standing at the Camaro he held open the drivers' side door.

"I'll miss you...” she said frankly
.

He gently squeezed her hand. "I'll miss you too, Nani. Go get better and don't forget call me twice a week."

"I won't forget.
"

"I love you Nani." He leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips.

After watching her drive off, he returned to the house.  Entering into the bedroom once again, he finished what she started and trashed the room. He tore the bed sheets into ribbons, overturned the mattress, and found the engagement picture of her and Gerard on the floor in the broken frame and glass. Picking the picture off the floor, he ripped it in half and tore Gerard's picture into little shreds as if to punish the man one last time, keeping Danny's side of it intact. He then made short work of Gerard's dresser, smashing the drawers as he threw them across the room into the wall. Finally exhausted he left the house and returned to his motel. While packing he carefully placed Danny's torn picture into his suitcase. He had one more stop to make before leaving town
.

Sitting in his borrowed office at the Phoenix FBI field office, Lucius looked up to see seething
 staring directly into his face. "Agent Stone, I trust everything went well at the house?"

"What the hell did you say to her Johnson?" He hurled the words out of his mouth
.

"What?"

"Don't you what me! What did you say to her to make her want to leave?" He edged right into Lucius' personal space
.

"I was only comforting an old friend's daughter, Agent Stone, and you'd better watch your tone with me!" Lucius dropped his pen on the desk with a clatter, standing upright at his desk
.

"Why do you insist on coming between us? You are not her father!" He roared. "I hope you're happy now because she broke things off with me!"

"Agent Stone, I'm sorry, really, but if Ms. Labouleaux broke it off with you, that’snot my fault. She is going through a very rough time, Agent Stone, and I suggest you give Danielle her space." Lucius usually controlled voice had raised a few octaves
.

Outside the closed door of the office, agents and office personnel had vacated their cubicles and were watching events unfold in Lucius' office like it was a pay-per-view special. Their professionalism temporarily forgotten, they were like children watching the prelude to a schoolyard scrap.

"Oh, I get it! You're the only one who can comfort her right? You did this! You did this to her! I wanted to stay with her when she wanted to go back to Phoenix, but you stopped it! This is your fault Johnson!" Aiden’s fists pounded the office desk, rattling everything that rested on it
.

"Stone, you'd better calm down and remember that you are talking to one of your superiors." Lucius warned, rounding the desk and meeting him toe to toe. "I seem to recall someone who didn't want to tell Danielle the truth about her fiancé just so he could get close to her. What did you think you were living, a fairytale? What, were you going to swoop in and be her hero and it would be all happily ever after? You could have ended this before it even started. If you would have told her your suspicions in the first place, she wouldn't have been in Phoenix and we could have continued with our investigation of Wolfe. No, this is all your handiwork, Agent Stone.
"