Author's Note: Sorry that there isn't tons of action in this one. I want to get this story wrapped up, because I feel so bad that I haven't updated in forever. It'll be easier with only two stories, and pretty soon, just one. :) This story still has an epilogue after this, so it's not completely over yet. Despite this one's shortness, I kind of like the ending scene. The rest of it I'm not so sure about. Sorry to keep you guys waiting so long!

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonny With a Chance, Starbucks, or Pressure by Paramore.

Pressure
Chad

"I can feel the pressure, it's getting closer now
We're better off without you
I can feel the pressure, it's getting closer now
We're better off without you
Without you"

I take a deep, shuddering breath, fighting against the blackness at the corners of my eyes. "You killed her," I whisper, shocked. "YOU KILLED HER!"

Grady/Aidan smiles at me, tight-lipped, and turns the gun on me. Remembering the impact of the first bullet, I draw back, bracing myself for the excruciating pain. "Yes, I did," he answers, his voice none too steady, "and I'm going to kill you too. Sonny can live without her mother and Tawni… but not without her mother, Tawni, and Chad. That's too much."

I inhale, wondering what to do now. There has to be a way out. I can't see anything I could use, though, except for my unlocked car. But I would be too slow. My bloody leg would hinder me, and I'd never be able to make it.

Death now or death whenever Grady/Aidan decides to pull the trigger. He only seems to do any of this on instinct - when Tawni and I launched our plan, he shot, but not before. He's not shooting me now.

I don't think I can wait here any longer.

I lunge for the car, standing up on one leg and grabbing onto the handle like it's a lifeline. Grady/Aidan shouts and all of a sudden thousands (it seems) of bullets are raging at me, splitting the air with a high pitched whistle. All of them miss, but more come, and I'm sure I'll be dead soon. I climb into the car as rapidly as I can, turn on the engine, and rev it.

Then a bullet comes through the windshield.

My other knee explodes with pain.

I yell out in horror, barely able to keep from falling over and writhing my way to death. But I have to get home. There's no way I'm giving up yet. I try to floor the gas, but any movement sets my leg on fire, and I feel like I'm dying. Ducking below the windshield, I press my hand up against the cold, rough metal, and I rapidly push it to the ground. The car lurches forward, but jerks back as I hear a cold, sickening thud.

I look up, open the car door, glance out. Then I see, only a few short feet ahead, a bloody, twitching carcass who has no more than minutes left to live.

Relief. Guilt. It swirls through me, making me light-headed and weak. That could be the pain, too. If I don't get out of here soon, get help soon…

But even past that daunting thought, I want to help Tawni. She's dead. I've known her almost my whole life and she's dead. Too early. I groan, using my hands to push me to the ground. I land on my feet and then fall face first into the gravel. Spitting away the stones, I army crawl to where Tawni's body lays, under the night sky, under the rain and the wind I'd almost forgotten. I choke back a sob - this is no time for any more weakness - and start pulling her by the leg, trying to get her back to the truck. Her golden hair drags and gets caught in the rocks. She looks more like an angel than she ever has, with her eyes gently closed. It would seem as if she were sleeping if not for the bullet in her cheek, which I try not to look at.

Finally I get back to the truck and push Tawni's body up into the passenger seat. My arms ache with the effort, but I pull myself up and close the door. I move Tawni to the backseat as gently as I can manage, and then climb up into the driver's seat. Remembering my legs this time, I lean down and push against the pedal again, realizing with a horrified thought that this way, I can't steer or see. I scan the car, looking for a solution, and find an oddly out-of-place stick, skinned and polished. Maybe the people who sold me the car left it in there. In any case, I'm grateful to them. I grab the stick and use it to push down the gas pedal, twirling the wheel with my left hand.

Everything crashes down on me all at once.

And that's how the cops find me, two bullets in my legs as I sob and shout, swerving everywhere on the road like a drunk, with the dead body of Tawni Hart in the backseat and a hell of a story to tell.

*

No one but the casts would have believed me if one of the buildings we were beside, Wilson's Diner, hadn't had a camera installed because of a rash of vandalism just last week. It caught everything, how Grady/Aidan shot me and killed Tawni, and how I ran over him. Everything in his soul that Grady/Aidan poured out was also caught on camera, and that's the reason that Marshall/Joseph is being led away today, howling cuss words at me and vowing that he'll kill me if it's the last thing he ever does.

But it's over.

I see Sonny today, and how she's trying to be brave, but as soon as she notices me lingering in the hallway she crumbles. I push down on the wheels and roll myself over to her bedside; moving is something I'm getting better at every day. Two casts cover my legs. The doctors told me that they could replace my knees, and though they'd still be weak, I could walk on them.

I told them to give me a wheelchair and forget the surgery.

The brunette glares at me, her chocolate brown eyes as hateful as they can be. For a second I consider leaving, but then she wraps her arms around me and hisses in my ear, "How could you put yourself in danger like that?"

I grin. "I didn't really have much to do with it," I remind her, but then she lets go and stares at the floor. "Are you okay?"

"No, not really…" she murmurs. "Tawni's dead and my mom's dead. Aidan killed them."

I was surprised to hear that she knew Grady/Aidan's real name. "Did the cops tell you about Grady -"

"That wasn't Grady," she whispers, closing her eyes as tears cling to her eyelashes. "That was Aidan, who almost killed you. Grady is my friend… was my friend. But he died too." I waited for the inevitable you killed him but it doesn't come. She sighs. "He killed himself."

I don't say anything. I only hug her again, holding her close as she sobs into my shoulder.

*

I've never seen him cry before, but Nico does, when I explain to him exactly how Tawni died.

He deserves to know. He deserves to know everything, not just what the cops say. I can see it in his eyes, the heartbreak that so easily could have been Sonny's, could have been mine.

Grady/Aidan and Nico were always a pair, but now one of them is dead. When Nico wasn't with his best friend, he was with his girlfriend, Tawni. She's dead too.

He sobs and sobs, hitting his head sideways against the wall, and I don't know what to say so I just roll out of there, leaving him behind to drown.

*

"So this is the end," Portlyn says with unanticipated dry eyes. She stares somberly at me, pushing her dark curls back behind her ear. We're sitting in the hospital cafeteria. I'm drinking lemonade and she's clutching a mocha from the Starbucks down the street.

"Not the end, not really, I guess," I shrug. "I don't think it's ever really the end… until death. That's the end."

"Tawni reached hers," Portlyn remarks, then her voice lowers and something akin to both wonder and fear appears on her face. "Do you think it hurt?"

"I… don't know. The bullets did," I answer, gesturing down to my knees. "But actually dying? Maybe it's just like drifting off to sleep."

"Do you think she's… in a better place?"

"Uh… I don't know. You know me. I'm not really a churchgoer, or anything like that. I don't pray often. But I really, really hope so." I shift uncomfortably in the wheelchair.

"It's a shame that we don't have any of the answers," Portlyn says dejectedly. She places her head in her hands, and her shoulders start shaking.

"Hey… hey," I whisper, trying to comfort her. "We're not meant to have the answers, I don't think. Later we will. But for now… why not just enjoy what's left of life, rather than brooding about death?"

She sniffs and nods, still hiding her eyes. Then she looks up at me, only traces of tears on her cheeks, and grins widely. "You know what, Chad? I think now… well, maybe not now, but soon… I think we're all going to be okay."