Tuesday, December 7th

"It's about time," Sabrina sighed, pushing herself to her feet.

She was several steps closer to the gate by the time Jill stuffed her playing cards back into her purse and got up to join her.

The overhead speaker had just announced the arrival of Kelly's flight and, though Sabrina had been teasing her all week about how much she worried about Kelly, she knew Sabrina had been just as worried. She caught up to her quickly, not quite sure what her hurry was.

"It's gonna be another fifteen, twenty minutes, Bri," Jill told her, laughing softly.

Sabrina glanced at the big clock on the wall and sighed. "Yeah, I know. I just…" She paused and flipped her hand dismissively toward the glass wall where they could see the plane taxiing onto the runway.

"You just miss her and you've been even more worried than I have," Jill finished and then gave her a teasing nudge with her elbow. "Admit it."

There was no point denying it. Sabrina cracked a smile and rolled her eyes tolerantly. "Yeah, yeah. Something like that."

"Don't worry, I won't tell her," Jill said airily. "Your secret is safe with me."

Sabrina scoffed. "Why?" She said, scowling slightly. "She should know how worried we were. Maybe next time she won't go running off halfway across the country by herself while some psychopath is on the loose and make us stay home and wait up for her."

Jill nodded reluctant acceptance. Sabrina did have a point. What with everything that was going on and Kelly not exactly being at a hundred percent, it had been a torturous week knowing that she and Sabrina were a thousand miles away and completely helpless if anything were to happen to her in Dallas.

"I know what you mean," Jill answered her carefully, not wanting to set her off. She'd endured Sabrina's sometimes angry venting since Kelly's departure and, as much as she knew Sabrina missed her, knew that Kelly would get an earful upon her return. Not today though. Not if she could help it. "But, look, she's back now and she's okay. And that... that Greg Samson seems like he's decided to disappear and leave her alone."

"Yeah. For now," Came Sabrina's cryptic reply.

Jill caught her tone and turned toward her. This wasn't the first time Greg Samson's name had been brought up since Kelly left last week and it also wasn't the first time she'd caught that strange, pensive look on Sabrina's face. "What?" she sighed, suddenly exasperated. It also wasn't the first time she had asked.

And as she'd done all week, Sabrina only shook her head. "Nothing."

"No, it's not nothing," Jill snapped, trying to keep her voice down. "Look, Kelly is gonna step off that plane in a few minutes and then I really don't want to bring up this asshole's name again so tell me what's got you all deep in thought about him lately."

Sabrina heaved a tired sigh. "Nothing," She insisted, but for the first time all week, Jill saw her resolve begin to crumble.

"Tell me, Sabrina," She urged her and finally, Sabrina let out a soft groan.

She'd won.

And about time, too.

"Fine," Sabrina started. Her brown eyes darted suspiciously around the waiting area, to the small groups of people milling nearby and then, with a tilt of her head, began moving towards a section of wall occupied only by a cheery-looking Christmas display. An odd place to have such a conspiratorial conversation, but it was away from most of the hustle and bustle and with Bing Crosby crooning "White Christmas" over the speakers, they'd have relative privacy from any potential eavesdroppers. Jill found herself more and more intrigued by the second.

"Look, the more I think about all those people who Greg killed-" Sabrina started once they were far enough away. Her voice had dropped to barely more than a whisper and Jill had to lean in to hear her. "-the more I wonder what would make someone do that."

Jill bit back a sarcastic laugh. "Being a crazy bastard doesn't hurt."

But, Sabrina shook her head. "No, it doesn't. But, I think there's more to it," She went on. "I started thinking, who would be motivated to kill someone who hurt Kelly when she was young. Think about it, Jill. Who would be motivated to kill someone who hurt a child?"

"Lots of people," Jill whispered back uncertainly. Whatever road Sabrina's logic was taking, she was having trouble following. "What are you getting at?"

Sabrina finally caught her gaze. "Who would be more motivated to kill someone who had hurt a little girl than that little girl's parents?" She said finally.

Jill stared at her for several seconds before her pretty face broke into a laughing smile. "Her parents?" She echoed, laughter in her voice. "Bri, Kelly's parents are probably-"

"Probably what? Dead?" Sabrina blurted out, a bit louder than she had been speaking earlier. "You don't know that. Kelly doesn't even know that. What if... what if Greg Samson is her father? Just think about it." Her voice was getting more and more agitated now. "He comes into Kelly's life right at the same time that all of these people start turning up dead. He comes to us with this bullshit story about a missing daughter and his ex-wife and... you're telling me that guy - Greg Samson, the Babe Ruth of stalkers - that the only picture he has of his kid is from the early fifties? When we all would have been babies? Sort of convenient, don't you think?"

Jill raised a brow. "So, you think that picture he showed us at the restaurant was of Kelly?"

"It could have been," Sabrina said stubbornly.

"So why does he wait over twenty years to introduce himself?"

Sabrina sighed her frustration. "I don't know, Jill," She grumped. "Maybe he just now tracked her down, who knows? I think he just used us to get close to Kelly."

"And then he sent someone to beat the crap out of her?" Jill pointed out, shaking her head. This was crazy, there was no way. "Why would he do that if he's her father?"

"I didn't say he was a good father," Sabrina shot back. "We don't know for sure what happened that night and Kelly isn't ever going to tell us. What we do know is that Greg took a special interest in her and..." Her face went blank all of a sudden as if she'd just puzzled out something. "Hey, maybe Kelly does know. Maybe that's why she's been so weird lately."

That was a valid point. Jill shrugged, not willing to let on that she was considering Sabrina's little theory. "She's had someone stalking her for weeks. That's enough to make anyone weird."

"Maybe," Sabrina said grudgingly. Her gaze settled back outside on the plane, now stopped on the tarmac waiting for its passengers to disembark and new ones to take their place. "And maybe there's more to it."

Jill groaned. "I don't know, Bri. It's a stretch." She said doubtfully, but now her stomach felt like it was tied in knots. As much as she didn't like it, Sabrina's theory- crazy though it was - did hold water.

A little water.

"I won't argue that," Came Sabrina's quiet reply.

The women fell silent, both lost in thought, staring outside. The boarding bridge was being put into place now. Jill watched the process with mild interest before she made the mistake of looking back up to point out to Sabrina just how flattering a blue jumpsuit looked on one of the men in the ground crew below. Her lewd comment died on her tongue when she caught sight of the look on her best friend's face.

Jill wrinkled her nose. "Oh, Bri, would you let-"

"And she kind of looks like him, don't you think?" Sabrina went on, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Jill shoved her shoulder gently. "There are millions of people with dark hair and green eyes."

"Oh, it's way more than just hair and eye color!" Sabrina cut her off. "She looks like she could be his daughter!"

"Sabrina, no," Jill pleaded. "This is... no. You sound crazy."

"Do I?" Sabrina challenged her. "It all makes sense, Jill. You know it does. Stop shaking your head at me."

Jill did not stop shaking her head. "No, and again, please don't share that with Kelly."

That seemed to deflate Sabrina a bit. "I'm not," She sighed. "Anyway, that's why I didn't mention it sooner... I didn't want her running off to track down Greg, I wanted to keep her away from him as much as I possibly could. Also, I didn't tell you 'cause, you know, you would've blabbed."

The comment struck Jill so hard that her mouth fell open. "I wouldn't have!"

Sabrina gave a curt nod. "Yeah, 'course not."

Jill was quiet for a moment. She didn't want to bicker, especially right before seeing Kelly, she would instantly sense something was amiss. So instead of talking some much-needed sense into Sabrina's head, she kept her mouth shut and decided to let it go. For today. "I can see why you kept it to yourself." She settled on, sending her friend a sideways glare that, unfortunately, went ignored.

Both women lapsed into another thoughtful silence, content to stare out the window until the loudspeaker announced that it was time to collect Kelly at the gate.

Friday, December 10th

Jill bounded through the wide double doors that led to Townsend Agency and into the posh office.

"Hi, everyone!" She purred.

Her three friends looked up at her and gave her some kind of greeting all at once. Jill grinned widely. She was late again, she knew, but a quick glance around the room told her that her slight tardiness wouldn't be a problem this morning. Sabrina was pouring coffee, Kelly was leaning up against the bar talking to her and Bosley was seated at his desk doing...

Well, she had no idea what Bosley was doing. Relieved, she wasn't in trouble, Jill flounced over and sank into the couch closest to Bosley's desk.

"Hey, Bos," She cooed, climbing up on her knees to peer at what he was looking at.

"Hi, honey," Bosley replied absently. He glanced at his watch. "You're ten minutes late."

Jill feigned a hurt look. "Just ten minutes. I'm getting better, aren't I?"

Bosley looked up and smiled warmly at her. "Well, you can't get any worse."

Brushing off his comment, Jill leaned over and was finally able to see what it was he was so interested in. A crossword puzzle, she noticed with disappointment. Boring. "Luckily," Bosley started, fixing his gaze back to his puzzle. "Charlie is even later than you are."

The couch cushions shifted and Jill turned to see Sabrina and Kelly had both joined her. She was pleased to see they'd fixed her a cup of coffee as well and she accepted it from Kelly with a quiet thanks.

"So what's this all about?" Sabrina asked. She craned her neck to see Bosley's puzzle and then tapped her finger. "Five down is Brahms, not Bach. And Bach is spelled with a CH."

Bosley shot her an annoyed look and then discreetly began to erase. "I knew that," He muttered and began filling it in. "And to answer your first question, I'm not sure. Charlie just said to get the three of you together here and that he would call at nine. He said it was something you all needed to know."

The three girls shared a look and shrugged.

For the next few minutes, Sabrina coached Bosley through his puzzle, much to his annoyance, and, not too big on word puzzles, Kelly and Jill contented themselves with sipping their coffee and laughing at his irritation.

At just past nine-thirty, the phone finally rang.

And not a moment too soon. Bosley gratefully thrust his crossword puzzle into his desk drawer and clicked on the speaker.

"Hi, Charlie," He greeted wearily.

"Hello, Bosley!" Came Charlie's cheerful reply. "You sound flustered, is something the matter?"

Bosley stared down his nose at the girls, now giggling softly at his expense. "Uh, no, Charlie."

"Is everyone present and accounted for?"

"All here, Charlie," Jill purred. "And on time too, I might add," She added shamelessly. "You should really pay closer attention to time, you know."

Charlie gave a low chuckle. "Sorry, Jill, I got caught up in a meeting with a... very persistent client. You know how those things go."

Kelly and Sabrina shared a doubtful look. "Yeah, we do," Sabrina replied. "So what's this big news that you wanted to tell us?"

Charlie cleared his throat and there was an obvious change in demeanor even through the speaker box. "Well, I heard some news last night and I wanted you to hear it too. I thought it would be better that you all hear it together."

Jill shared a concerned look with her three companions. "What's going on?" She asked.

"I trust the four of you remember Gregory Samson?" Charlie started carefully.

Hearing his name was like swallowing sour milk. Just the sound of it turned Jill's stomach.

"Do we ever," Sabrina grumbled. "Don't tell me he's back in town."

Charlie paused. "Not exactly, Sabrina. I got a call from one of my old Army friends who works for the NYPD. It seems our friend Gregory met up with the wrong sort of people."

"What do you mean?" Jill asked, looking confused.

"I mean, he's dead," Charlie said bluntly. "A victim of his own lifestyle, I suppose. He was found in an alley with two gunshot wounds. Apparently, he was into a life of drugs and money laundering and it finally caught up with him."

A few somber moments ticked by as the room absorbed that news.

"Well," Kelly broke the silence. "I guess he won't be bothering us anymore."

If Charlie was put off by her callousness, he didn't show it. "No, I imagine not. It seems we dodged a bullet."

"Yeah," Sabrina added quietly. "Better than he did."

"I'll say," Bosley didn't look like he'd be shedding many tears about Gregory Samson either. "Do the police know who killed him?" He asked curiously.

"No, and I doubt they'll dig very hard. It seems Gregory Samson had some sort of empire to his name. With him gone, it's started to crumble. Looks like someone did the NYPD a big favor."

"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes," Jill chimed in softly. "Too bad."

The news, while dark, was a relief in many ways. It had been weeks since his sudden disappearance and while they had gotten on with their lives, Jill knew that he was still on the back of everyone's mind, a ghost that haunted them throughout their day. She had worried constantly while Kelly was away, and even after she returned, safe and sound, there was still that persistent nagging, that feeling of a lack of closure. But now Greg was gone and Jill felt like she could breathe again.

"Well, now that you know, we can officially wrap up his case." Charlie continued, though there was a certain hesitance to his voice that Jill was almost certain she knew the cause of. She shot a sympathetic glance toward Kelly, wondering what her reaction would be to what she knew Charlie was about to say. "I'm sorry that we never found a reason for Greg's... fixation on you, Kelly. I was hoping we could provide you with some closure."

At the mention of her name, Kelly snapped to attention. She'd been a thousand miles away.

"Are you alright?" Charlie probed gently.

Kelly's eyes made a quick circuit around the room, probably just now realizing that she was the focus of everyone's attention. Her cheeks flushed slightly. "I will be, Charlie." She forced a smile. "Some closure would have been nice though."

"I understand," Charlie replied. "Though I suppose this might be for the best in some ways. Judging by the lengths he went to to get to you, I find it hard to believe that he would have really left you alone for good."

Kelly was quiet for a moment before giving a slight nod. "Yeah, I had that feeling too, Charlie."

The mood in the room grew a bit awkward, no one quite knowing what to add that would make Kelly's situation any better. Jill settled on sipping quietly at her coffee and avoiding eye contact until Charlie finally cleared his throat. "Well, that's all I had for you today." He said, his voice somewhat brighter.

Jill decided to run with it. "Oh, and I got all dressed up today and everything," She pouted.

Bosley cleared his throat loudly. "That's all he had planned for you," He gave her a broad smile. "I've got some paperwork that needs doing. We need to wrap up that Weavers case as well."

Jill turned away groaning and Charlie laughed. "Come on, Jill. We can't lead a life of excitement all the time."

"I guess not," Jill sighed.

"Well, I'll leave you to it then," Charlie said. "I wish Gregory Samson could have faced justice the right way, but I think we can all rest a little easier, that's for sure."

The room muttered its approval.

"Enjoy your boring day," Charlie chuckled lightly. "You've earned it."

"Thanks, Charlie," Bosley crowed, eyeing the three women with a big grin. "Goodbye!"

He hung up and the line went dead.

"Well, there you have it," Bosley sighed. "It may be a bit... macabre... but, it's good to know he's not out there anymore." He glanced at Kelly, who'd been quiet since her exchange with Charlie. Her elbow was resting on his desk and he reached out to lay his hand on it. "How you doing, honey?"

Kelly looked up, caught off guard. "Oh, I'm alright. I had a feeling he had gone back to New York."

"Looks like that intuition was right, after all," Sabrina piped up. She patted Kelly's shoulder. "You sure you're okay?"

Kelly shrugged. "I'm okay," She said quietly. "It's a relief though, that's for sure."

The somber mood was starting to get to her. Eager to change the subject, Jill popped up and grabbed her arm."Well, before you get too comfortable, don't forget that we still have some excitement left."

The confused look Kelly shot her made Jill laugh. "The basketball game, remember? You promised you'd help me coach."

A slow grin spread across Kelly's face. "Oh, I did, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did," Jill said firmly. "You already missed the last one when you went to Dallas. I promised the girls you'd be there for tomorrow night's game," She paused for a beat. "And tonight."

Kelly looked incredulous. "Tonight?"

"For practice!" Jill insisted. "Come on, Kelly!" She pouted. "You can't break their little hearts again."

"I can't?" Kelly teased, eyeing Sabrina and Bosley.

"Aw, no you can't," Bosley gushed. "Think of their little hearts."

"Only some kind of monster would break their little hearts twice," Sabrina agreed, nodding her head.

Kelly started to laugh. "Well, in that case, I'll be there,"

"Good," Jill replied, grinning victoriously. The matter settled, she turned to Bosley. "Now where is this paperwork you're forcing us to slave over. The sooner we get started the sooner we'll be done."

Bosley put both hands over his heart. "Oh, I thought you'd never ask."

Saturday, December 11th

Despite it being well after ten at night, Jill was in high spirits when she and Kelly finally arrived at Kelly's house. As promised, Kelly had 'helped' her coach tonight and the extra morale boost led the girls to a resounding victory. They'd treated the team and some of their parents to some well-deserved ice cream and now, tired but happy, the two women had piled back into the car to go home for some well-deserved rest.

But it seemed that 'coaching' had worked up an appetite for Kelly so when, a block from her house, she offered to buy Jill a late dinner, who was she to refuse?

They just needed to make a quick stop to grab Kelly's purse and then they'd be off. For no particular reason, Jill decided to follow her friend inside. It was dark in the house so she felt around for the entry table and waited until Kelly finally flipped on the light switch. In the light, she could see that Kelly's living room was a normal 'just finished a case' state of cluttered and for some reason, it made Jill smile.

"Let me just change real quick since we're already here," Kelly said quickly, dropping her gym bag on the floor beside the entry table. "Think about where you want to go."

Ooh, options...

The night was only getting better.

Jill grinned, still on a high from tonight's victory. "Hmm, we could go back to that burger place if it's still open this late."

"I'll hurry," Kelly promised and then disappeared into her bedroom.

Jill watched her go, amused at her frenzied pace. She hadn't meant to rush her, but she wasn't going to slow her down now.

And since she was already waiting on Kelly, it probably wouldn't hurt her to change either. Jill began humming happily to herself and, not thinking, let her own gym bag slip from her shoulders and onto Kelly's entry table so she could dig out a change of clothes. The heavy bag accidentally knocked into some mail Kelly had stacked up, upsetting the pile and sending half of it sliding off of the table and fluttering to the floor.

Still humming to herself, she crouched down and was scooping the mail into her lap when certain flowing handwriting caught her attention. Helen Martin's handwriting.

A magazine had fallen to the floor along with some bills and poking out from within its pages was a letter.

Jill stopped humming and looked up cautiously. She shouldn't be snooping in Kelly's business, but she had asked her friend over and over how the trip went in Dallas and had gotten nothing but the vaguest of answers. She was only trying to help, Jill told herself. Even though Kelly had been in good spirits since returning, it tore her up knowing that her best friend might be hiding some sort of mental anguish from her. She stood quickly, returned the stack of mail to its proper place and, after making sure Kelly was still in her room, quickly scanned the contents of the letter.

12/6/76

Dear Kelly,

I wanted to thank you again for what you did. I know it had to have been extremely difficult to relive your experiences and I appreciate you being brave enough to do it. The diocese still hasn't given their final decision regarding Beamish, but I will let you know as soon as I find out. I think that our testimony gave them something to think about.

It was so good to see you again. I'm glad you're doing so well and that you've found happiness. I wish you could have stayed through the weekend, but I know your business back home couldn't wait. I hope everything turned out alright.

Again, thank you for what you did, Kelly. The other girls send their love. I do hope we can be in contact more often. It's always good to have another friend. Take care of yourself.

Your friend,

Helen Martin

Jill read through the letter three times more, each time finding herself more and more confused and upset.

Business back home? Why would Kelly tell Helen Martin that she was leaving early? There was nothing Kelly had needed to take care of.

It didn't make sense. Unable to wait even a moment longer, Jill stormed into the hallway and knocked loudly on Kelly's bedroom door. "Kelly! Hey!"

"I'm almost done! I'm just washing my face," Came her muffled response.

Jill threw open the door and marched into Kelly's bedroom. Her bathroom door was open and Jill could hear the sounds of running water and splashing.

"Kell, look I know I shouldn't be going through your mail, but-" Jill started and then stopped and shook her head. "You know what, that doesn't matter. I found Helen's letter. What's all this about business back home? We didn't pick you up early."

The water squeaked off.

Jill's eyes increasingly narrowed, not able to wrap her mind at what she had read or what she was saying. "Who'd you lie to, Kelly? Her or us?"

Kelly didn't respond and Jill felt herself tense up even more.

"Kelly!" Jill called again, surprising herself by how upset she sounded. She clenched her jaw, feeling close to grabbing Kelly by the shoulders to get her friend to finally communicate with her. Jill finally had the proof in her hands that Kelly had been lying, and it left her reeling. "Why does it say that you left early? What the hell were you doing between leaving Helen and us picking you up at the airport?"

Again, there was no response. Disgusted, Jill swore under her breath. "Kelly! Where did you go?!" Nothing but silence answered her. Jill slapped the letter down on Kelly's dresser in frustration, fully intending to go stomping into the bathroom to drag her lying friend out if that was what it took to get some answers. But before she could, something caught her eye.

The picture of Eva Rossi, she realized slowly.

It was sitting innocently on Kelly's dresser, half hidden underneath some folded pants. Jill stared at it, a sudden understanding leaving her cold.

"You went to New York, didn't you," She accused softly. "You went looking for Greg."

The bathroom door thudded softly into the wall and Jill looked up to see Kelly standing in the doorway, a damp towel in her hands and an odd expression on her face.

She wasn't denying it and that was as good as a full-blown confession. "You did, didn't you? Why did you lie to us?" Jill asked her firmly, trying not to sound as hurt and betrayed as she was feeling.

Kelly looked away and shrugged her shoulders. She thought it looked a bit like shame, but she couldn't be sure. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry?!" Jill snapped at her, suddenly much more angry than she was hurt. "What the hell kind of stupid stunt is that?! You run off across the whole country -alone!- and you... you don't even tell us what you're doing or where you're going!" She was yelling now and didn't care one bit. "Are you crazy?! What the fuck is wrong with you, Kelly?!"

Kelly lowered her gaze to the carpeted floor and said nothing.

"After everything that happened last month, after you got the shit beat out of you?! What if something had happened to you!?" Jill raged on, emotion choking her voice and garbling her words. "You could have gotten yourself killed and we would have had no idea-"

She stopped then, the words suddenly lost to her, swept away like her bag had done to the mail on Kelly's table.

Who would be more motivated to kill someone who had hurt a little girl than that little girl's parents?

Sabrina's earlier words came crashing back to her, jolting her back as if they were a physical thing. "Oh my God," Jill said, her voice still shaking but zapped of anger. "Sabrina was right, she knew it. Greg was your father, wasn't he?"

Kelly's gaze was still fixed on the floor in front of her. Just as good as a confession.

"Kelly?" Jill stared hard at her friend and felt like she wasn't seeing her at all. "What did you do?"

When she finally looked up, there was an expression on Kelly's face that Jill had never seen before and she knew immediately that she was going to forever regret hearing the answer. "He would never have left us alone," Kelly said quietly, almost pleadingly.

"Kelly," Jill could scarcely recognize her own voice. "Tell me. What did you do?"

Kelly only shook her head. "He offered to move me out to New York. Said he never wanted to lose me again." Her voice grew darker as she spoke, darker to match that look that Jill had never before seen on her face. "Charlie said it too. You heard him. After all that. He would never have left me alone. He would have never left any of us alone."

For what felt like a long time, Jill stood in silence and stared.

Well, I guess he won't be bothering us anymore.

Kelly's earlier words echoed over and over in her head until they lost all meaning.

Then Kelly broke eye contact and time seemed to move forward once more. "He took everything from me, Jill." She said, suddenly looking very unsure of herself. "I could have been normal. I could have grown up with a mother that loved me and... and he..." Her fist shook at her side. "He took that chance away from me. He took her away from me."

Jill finally found her voice. "A... a mother? What-"

And then she knew it. Her eyes traveled over to the surface of Kelly's dresser, at the half-hidden photo of Eva Rossi. Kelly's mother. When she looked back up at her friend, she found Kelly's eyes fixed on it too.

"She died because of me," Kelly went on softly. "She died trying to save me from him. She could have had a life too and... he took that away from her, took everything away from her."

She died because of me.

She'd heard those words before, on the night of Kelly's disappearance. Kelly had known even then, she realized. She'd known the truth that night while they'd talked, while she'd claimed her injuries had been the result of a mugging gone wrong. All a lie. She'd somehow found everything out and hadn't dared to mention it to anyone. Jill didn't know if her anger was going to get the best of her because of the lies, the vile act it seemed Kelly had committed, or because she found herself pitying her friend all the more for what she'd gone through.

Maybe it was a mix of everything all at once that made her head swim.

"Kelly..."

"I couldn't let her die for nothing."

Jill suddenly felt more tired than she could remember feeling. "Oh my God," She breathed and was grateful the bed was close by because she very much needed to sit down. "How did... I mean, what happened?" Later, she'd lay awake wondering how Kelly would have answered that question if she would have answered at all. But, she would never know because before Kelly could open her mouth, she raised both hands to silence her. "No. No, nevermind. Don't tell me. I don't want to know. Jesus Christ, Kelly. I don't know... I don't know what to say to you right now."

Kelly's gaze hardened. "I guess I'm more like him than I thought."

Jill's eyes snapped back up to her friend and the two women lapsed into an awkward silence. Kelly was staring hard at her, Jill realized, almost pleadingly, and her heart sank.

Those pleading green eyes wanted something so badly. Acceptance? Forgiveness?

She couldn't be sure, couldn't be sure if she would be able to offer that either now or later, couldn't be sure of anything right now.

Except for one thing.

Kelly was nothing like Greg Samson. And, if she could help it, his death wasn't going to send her to prison for the rest of her life.

With a tired sigh, she pushed herself off the bed and wandered over to the dresser. Eva Rossi smiled back at her, the same smiling girl that had once cradled the baby that would become Kelly in her arms. She studied her face for a quiet moment, more intently than she ever had before, until she was able to see some of Kelly in her sixteen-year-old mother's pretty features.

Maybe not in looks, but Kelly was more of her mother than she would ever be of her father. And to make sure she knew that, Jill stepped closer and took Kelly's hand.

"No," She said firmly, tears glistening in her blue eyes. "No, you're not."

Jill didn't know where their friendship would go from here, but when Kelly looked at her, she could see the gratitude and relief shining in her eyes and it was just enough to keep moving forward. Kelly didn't say anything, but that was just as well.

She gently tugged the photo of Kelly's mother from underneath the pile of clothing and handed it to her with a tight smile. "We should get this framed," She could feel Kelly's gaze on her while she plucked up Helen's letter from the bed. "And make sure no one sees this." She folded it once before tearing it into several pieces and tossing the scraps into the wastebasket by the wall. "Get rid of that. You'll want to call Helen too. Get a story straight between the both of you in case someone asks."

"Jill," Kelly's voice sounded strangled.

Jill turned and, again, waved a hand to silence her. "No. Just don't say anything. If you get away with this, keep being a better person than him because that's what your mother would have wanted. You're not Greg Samson and you don't have to end up like Greg Samson. You're not a monster, you... you're nothing like him." Jill finished wearily."

The two women stood in awkward silence. For a moment, Kelly looked as if she were about to say something and suddenly, Jill knew that whatever it was, it wouldn't make the situation any better by hearing it.

"I think I'm gonna go," Jill said quietly. She watched Kelly falter for a moment before her friend nodded her head.

"Okay."

"Uh," Jill couldn't come up with any parting words and suddenly, she was too tired to even try. She stood awkwardly for a moment before giving Kelly a forced smile. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

Kelly nodded again.

"Okay," Jill said quietly. She ran a hand alongside Kelly's arm and, without waiting to be walked, turned and left the room, shutting the door lightly behind her. She knew Kelly well enough to be certain she wouldn't follow.

Only once she was safely out of sight did she stop and allow herself a few moments to process everything she'd learned.

He never would have left us alone.

Feeling numb and cold all over, Jill let herself sag against the wall. Even if she could think, she wouldn't know what to think. About Kelly, about what she'd done, about how she and Sabrina had missed it completely and let it happen. Without her permission, scattered memories of the past month took turns flashing through her mind one by one like a distorted slideshow, things she'd misinterpreted or missed until she couldn't bear it. With a soft groan, she rubbed her face and tried desperately to clear her head.

What was done, was done and a new feeling began to replace her earlier panic.

No one would be bending over backward to solve Greg's murder. It could have been anyone, men like that had more enemies than friends. She'd done the NYPD a favor, Charlie had said so himself.

Still...

Jill took a deep breath and stared at the smooth surface of Kelly's bedroom door. It was still and quiet in Kelly's house. From the other side of the door, she could just barely pick up on the soft sounds of Kelly finally succumbing to an entire month's worth of pent up emotions. It hurt Jill's heart to hear it but instead of opening the door and being her friend, she stood in silence staring at its surface.

It was nearly a minute later before Jill gathered up the strength to leave.

Maybe later, once time had separated them enough from all of this, she could talk about it with her. Jill tried visualizing that as she snatched up her gym bag from the entry table on her way out. Yet again, her carelessness sent the messy pile of mail fluttering to the floor. The magazine Helen's letter had been hidden inside was on the top of the pile.

This time, Jill left it there. Deep down inside though she knew they wouldn't ever talk about this again. She'd lie for Kelly if she had to, she knew she would, but they'd never talk about it again. It would be a dirty secret between them and though things might go back to normal on the surface, it would always be there, hanging between them but unacknowledged.

Just like Kelly wanted, Jill thought darkly.

She let herself out and stepped out into the chilly night.

It was Kelly's choice.

She'd done it alone and Kelly alone would reap the consequences.

I did warn it was a bit out there. After watching the (terrible) fourth season finale, I wondered how much more fun it would have been if the story had focused on Kelly's "father" rather than the love triangle, especially if he had been less Daddy Warbucks and more Al Capone. Then this story just kind of grew from there. I hope it was still entertaining to read! Thank you for sticking with me throughout, especially those of you who left such encouraging words! There may be a more traditional story in the works later on, who knows!

Thanks again,

- glambo