This is the longish story I was working on at the same time as I'm Not Your Toy. This isn't finished yet. What I'm hoping for is pressure from you helping me write the end of this story. I kinda feel like Cal in The Royal We, looks for anything to do besides what he's suppsed to do. I want to get this finished so I can focus on The Beginning. This is also very short, I think the next chapter is short too but I wanted to break it up without breaking the flow of the story. Meh. I also hate the title but I really couldn't think of anything better. I used to be sooo good at titles...but instead of dwelling on it here's the first chapter...

Shot Me Down

"Oi, Foster!" Gillian turned around at the sound of her name. Cal smiled as he sidled up next to her in the line to get coffee, much to the annoyance of the costumers waiting behind her. He gave them a challenging look and they turned away with angry expressions on their faces.

"What can I do for you, Cal?" She asked, ignoring his rudeness. Long ago she stopped chastising him for behaving like a child because it didn't do any good. He gestured for her to turn towards the counter and she did, seeing it was her turn to order. "I'll have a caramel macchiato, Grande, and one of those." She said and pointed at a square of something that had chocolate on it in the display case.

"I'll have a coffee, medium, splash of milk and sugar." Cal added, rocking back and forth on his heals with his hands in his pockets, looking proud of himself for his cunning. She shook her head at him and ordered the equivalent of what he wanted from the menu.

"I take it that's all you wanted?" She asked pulling him to the pick-up station by the lapel of his jacket. He feigned shock.

"Just a coincidence, Love. I assure you." He smiled as she handed him his coffee. She smiled back despite her best efforts, his boyish charm winning her over. She glanced away, towards the door as it chimed and watched as a man came in.

She frowned as she brought her drink up to her mouth. There was something about the man's expression that caught her attention. She couldn't see the lower half of his face behind his scarf but she wouldn't have needed to see it to know that wasn't what bothered her. His eyebrows were drawn down and together, there was rising of the upper eyelid and tightening around the eye. She'd seen that look before and she knew what it meant.

The world slowed as she seemed to blink for eternity, she opened her mouth to warn Cal about the man's intent just as a very loud crack went off, then the world sped up so fast she didn't seem to keep up.

People were screaming. And there was movement all around her.

Cal was pulling her down to the floor and it hurt. Confused she glanced down at herself and saw a deep red blossom on her chest to the right, at her shoulder. At first she wondered why her drink had been red then her brain told her it was blood. The sudden pain sent blinding white flashes to her eyes telling her it was her blood.

She heard Cal calling her name but it sounded like he was at the other end of a tunnel which was strange because they'd been in a coffee shop. Someone was tapping her face and she opened her eyes, trying to remember when she'd closed them. "Gill, love, wake up." Cal was saying. She followed his mouth as he spoke, watching as he formed each word with his lips. There were little red spots on his lips and she frowned. She tried to lift her right arm to touch the spots but more pain flared up and she dropped her arm. She tried the other arm and smiled when she was successful.

Her fingers brushed the spots and smeared them, making it worse. She tried again and smeared more red across his cheek and chin.

She swallowed and her mouth was dry. "Cal…" She tried to tell him she was thirsty but her voice wasn't working. The pain was getting worse and she shivered against the cold. When did it get so cold?

Gillian tried to lift her head to see if the door was open letting in the late winter air but her head wouldn't co-operate. She coughed and more pain flared making the lights go out.

She opened her eyes again, this time she was moving, and there were bright lights flashing by in the ceiling above her. "Gill, can you hear me?" Her head lolled to the side and she saw Cal looking down at her, walking along side the gurney. She smiled at him then frowned when she saw tear marks on his face.

Cal was crying. His eyes were puffy and red like he'd been crying for a while. Why was he crying? She tried to reach out to him, with her right hand, to stop the tears but she couldn't. She swallowed again, her throat felt like cotton lined her esophagus and she hated it. She choked on air suddenly and pain tried to take her away again.

She didn't want to go yet, she needed to know why Cal was crying. She'd seen him sad before but she'd never seen him cry. She needed to know what could make Cal cry.

AN: There will be author's notes just not this time :)