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PART XIV

When Gary pulled the car up to the front of the house, Selene opened the passenger door, stepping out.

By the time she crossed over the front of the car, Gary was out of the car and calling to her.

"You want me to come in with you?"

She felt her teeth grind together at the thought she'd already put this poor man through difficulties by changing their flight plans. She didn't want to put him out any further.

"I'll be okay, Gary. Thanks for the ride. I'll make sure you're reimbursed for any expenses and your time."

"Selene," he called after her. "It's okay. "

As she reached the top of the steps, she heard him one more time.

"Call me when you need me! I'll be there!"

The door opened before she could knock, and she barely glanced at Mandy before she was dashing inside. "Where is he?"

"His office. It's-"

Selene didn't wait for directions; she was moving through the entry toward his office down the hall. "What's going on?"

She'd called back over her shoulder, but she didn't even hear Mandy's footsteps on the floor.

The door to Cooper's office was open and she paused just inside the door. Cooper was sitting at his desk, no, not sitting, he was slumped over on this desk.

"Cooper?"

She dropped her bag on the floor and moved over to his side. She didn't know much about what to do, but she touched her fingers to the side of his neck, feeling for a pulse.

His skin was cold and clammy, and Selene fumbled a little before she found a pulse lightly pushing back against her fingertips.

"What are you doing?"

"How long has he been like this?"

Crouching down beside his desk, she turned his head to look at his face.

There was something on the desk, on the desk blotter, an odd shade of yellow with clumps in it. "Oh my god, Mandy? Tell me you called 911!"

"Get off of him."

"Mandy?" She turned her head and felt something crash into the side of her face.

Selene stumbled back and hit the wall behind his desk.

She reached out a hand to grasp something to keep her on her feet.

One hand touched a part of the chair and then slipped down onto what was likely Cooper's thigh.

Her other arm hit the wall and while she splayed her fingers out, there was nothing that she could get a hold of. She went down beside Cooper's chair looking up at his assistant.

The normally mousy young woman was seething with anger. Her dark hair, so very different from the blonde hair that she'd had when she'd been acting, was mussed and stringy.

The skin under her eyes was smudged dark, but it was the look in her eyes that put abject fear in Selene. Mandy's eyes looked haunted as if she wasn't looking at her, but through her. "Mandy?"

"What? What do you want?"

Selene didn't know what to say. She was lost in the other woman's anger. Confused was an understatement.

"See?" Mandy was looking at Cooper. "She's here! Are you happy? "

Selene didn't know what to say or think, but she looked down at her bag on the floor beyond Mandy. She was sitting on her butt on the hardwood floor, her legs a little weak.

She licked at her lips and tried to move across the floor.

Selene's shoulder bumped into Mandy's leg. She tried to lunge past her, but something hit her in her middle, pushing every bit of air out of her lungs.

Another hit. A kick. Sent her into the wall. Her temple and shoulder took the hit.

Selene tried to get up, at least she made the effort, but her arms shook and then she fell face first into the ground, moaning.

And very near crying, but she wasn't going to give into it.

"M-Mandy? Did you... call... 911?"

"Did. I. Call?"

She heard a sound hit the floor beside her and managed to turn her head.

Mandy's face was nearly at her level. "Why?"

Her teeth were bared.

"Why would I call? The sicker he got, the more he asked for you!"

Selene's eyes opened wide at Mandy's word and then wider when she felt her hair pulled back, yanked almost to the root.

Her vision was filled with Mandy's face, eyes staring, her pupils barely pin pricks .

It looked... it felt like madness.

"Ah..." Selene's mouth dropped open as Mandy's hand twisted in her hair.

"I was you, you know?"

Selene could only stare as pain lanced through her scalp, the side of her face tingling with prickling sensations.

"I was his favorite. His protégé!"

"I saw..." Selene felt a pain throb in her temple and it worked down to her jaw. "I saw pictures of your movie."

Mandy's lip curled and then she smiled. "I was good... better than good." She twisted again and Selene's vision darkened at the edges. "I can be again, but... but he won't let me try again!"

"M... Mandy..."

Mandy turned her head toward Cooper's desk. "Shut up."

"Let her go."

Mandy wrenched around and Selene cried out when Mandy's hold on her loosened and then released.

"You shut up, Coop. You started this. You brought her in when I could have done it. I could have done the movie, you said so!"

Selene turned her head to see, noticing that Mandy was on her feet, looming over Cooper on the desk.

Both of her hands were balled at her sides, one hand, her left, had strands of long dark hair in between her fingers.

"You didn't even give me a chance!"

"You weren't ready... Too much time-"

"You brought her in!" Mandy stamped her foot like a little child and Selene tried to crawl toward her purse.

Mandy had the upper hand if Selene tried to get up, Selene wasn't sure she'd make it far. Her head was aching, and she narrowed her eyes on her purse, but her vision was blurry. She moved closer, feeling along the floor, hoping she could get to her phone and make a call she should have made a long time ago.

She just hoped it wasn't too late.

As soon as the car came to a stop, William was out and running.

Badger wasn't far behind.

They both had some details thanks to Cypher, but not enough.

The security cameras inside the house were all down. The last footage she had was from a home across the street that showed Selene going in and Mandy locking the door behind her.

The details that Cypher called up off of facial recognition software was disturbing .

They'd never considered Mandy as a suspect. Cooper had counted her as one of his most trusted people.

He'd never mentioned the stint she'd had in a rehab for drug and alcohol addiction and it had never made the news or popped up on their investigation before they'd gone on set with Selene.

Cypher was struggling, beside herself that she hadn't cast a further net.

William didn't even try the door when he reached it, he put his shoulder into it and battered it down, the hardwood door gave in, but it hurt like crazy.

He went through like a battering ram and kept going. "Selene!"

"Will!"

Badger was at his shoulder as they ran toward her voice.

Neither of them had a sidearm, but William knew it wouldn't matter. They had a job, and they were fucking close to failing it.

He wasn't about to fail.

Neither was Badger.

Selene heard the explosion of sound from the hallway, and she knew.

She knew it was Will.

How ?

She had no clue how she knew, but she did.

"Selene!"

Her heart all but leapt out of her chest. "Will!"

She started to get up, but something smashed down on her ankle, making her cry out in pain.

Instantly, she wished that she'd managed to keep quiet. She didn't want to scare William more than he was already.

She turned on her side as Mandy moved for the desk.

"Get off me, Cooper!"

Selene turned in time to see Mandy pull a pistol out of Cooper's desk. Cooper was wrestling with her for it, but she threw an elbow and Cooper's head snapped back.

Gritting her teeth, Selene got to one knee as Mandy spun around with the pistol clutched in her hands.

That's when she saw it.

It wasn't her life leading up to that moment flooding her head.

No, it was her life ahead of her.

Life with William. Her career. Children. Living until she was old and gray with her family all around her.

She saw it.

And she wasn't about to lose it.

"Selene-" William was running, but a moment later he was there, taking in the scene in a heartbeat. Diving to cover her as Mandy leveled the gun in her direction.

Panic.

Sheer panic.

There was nothing else that she could feel.

The world around her slowed to a crawl, creeping along in something akin to a movie scene going frame by frame.

As William covered her body with his own.

She knew that Mandy would and could do something horrible.

And Selene knew as much as William wanted to save her life, she wanted his saved just as much, so she rolled as he covered her, and they rolled over again.

She heard the explosion of the gun, but only after it happened and not while it happened.

She waited for the jerk of impact from a bullet. Waiting for the pain and the loss that might come with it.

But it didn't come.

She ended up on her back, looking up at William.

Seeing the worry in his eyes and the anguish that she knew were in her own.

"Subdued."

William turned his head toward Badger's voice, but Selene couldn't take her gaze away from him. Looking at his face and his chest, anywhere she could see .

He looked whole.

She put her hands on his chest and arms.

He felt whole.

Then she sat up, almost knocking him to the side. "Cooper! He's sick."

A voice called out from William's pocket. "Emergency Crews are just turning down the street."

William got up and offered her a hand.

She took it gratefully and started to get up, but her ankle took her down.

William started to reach for her and she waved him off. "Check Cooper, please. He's... he's sick."

Selene sat there on the floor, watching the room before her.

Badger had Mandy on her knees, holding tight to her hands that he'd trapped behind her back.

The gun that she'd aimed at them was on the hardwood floor.

Selene could see Mandy's manic gaze flicked back and forth between the gun and herself.

She didn't look to see where the bullet had landed. She didn't want to know how close she'd come to losing her future.

William was standing over Cooper, assessing him in a way that said he knew what he was doing.

Something Selene didn't have the skills to do.

It was horrifying. All the things that could have gone wrong. All the things that could have happened.

She was shaking with fear, or was it relief ?

Then she decided that it didn't matter. She was alive.

There would be other days.

There would be a life ahead of her.

The police came in first and sorted through the scene.

They moved the gun out of the way and let the EMTs in to take a look at Cooper.

They weren't quite sure what to make of William and Badger, but Cooper's pull had some sway, as did his relationship with the Police Commissioner.

By the time Cooper was loaded onto the gurney, he was calling here over to talk.

William let her lean heavily on his arm. She had already agreed to let him take her to the nearest ER instead of waiting for an ambulance. She didn't want to wait around and William understood. What she'd been through in that house?

He wouldn't want to stick around either.

She wanted to get out of there and he was all for that option.

William stood beside her with her producer laid out on the gurney. He could keep an eye on them both, and he was close enough to hear their words, but he wasn't trying to crowd in on them .

Cooper peeled off his mask even as one of the EMTs argued with him to leave it on.

Cooper didn't even acknowledge the man's concerns.

"I'm sorry, Selene. I never thought... She didn't show any signs-"

"It's okay, Cooper." She smiled at him and put his mask back in place so he could get the oxygen he needed. "It's impossible to know what everyone is going through. She hid it well."

He shook his head. "I should have known."

She smiled at him and William felt his heart kick against his ribs. He could see her sweating and the tightness of her expression. She was in pain, but she was trying to console Cooper. He didn't think he could be so generous, but she could.

Shit.

He pulled her gently against himself as the EMTs wheeled Cooper out of the house to take him to the hospital.

William needed to hold her for a second to make sure that she really was okay, and this wasn't just a strange kind of dream.

He was so lucky to have her.

And now that they'd stopped the person who'd been trying to hurt her, he'd keep her alive for years and years to come.

"I've never been so scared."

She looked up at him. "You? "

He smiled down at her. "Yes. Me. When Cypher said that your plane didn't take off and that you were headed somewhere in town, likely here, we took off. Now I'm realizing that I should have gone with my gut before."

"Hmm?" She gave him a smile. "So what are you saying?"

"I need to go to Montana and debrief with Alex. Any chance you'll go with me?"

"With us?" Badger's droll tone made William and Selene smile.

"And from there?" Selene only had eyes for him. "Where are you going?"

He smiled. "Wherever you are."

She looked like she was thinking about it for a moment.

When she spoke again, she had a bright smile for him. "Sounds great. I was thinking of who I was going to have handle all of my security."

He leaned in for a quick kiss before he swept her up in his arms. "It just so happens that I might know a guy."