The four of them were in a conference room at Lafayette General Hospital.  The four of them being Cade, Drake, Dru, and Dr. Van Hoffel, the senior doctor in the emergency room that night.

They had arrived to find out that Ivey was in a coma.  Dru was not at all shocked.  After all that had happened, she was becoming numb to emotion.

They were discussing with Dr. Van Hoffel all the information he needed.  They wanted to move her down to the Intensive Care Unit, but had to wait for parental permission.  They explained that her mother just died, and that Drake was now her legal guardian.  After talking with the other hospital personnel and giving them the information they needed to care for her, they went and saw Ivey before leaving.

As they rode the elevator down to ICU a wave of apprehension and guilt gripped Dru.  Suddenly she did not want to see Ivey.  She was almost sure Ivey would wake up and accuse her of letting her be poisoned.  After all, if Dru had stayed with her for another hour she would have been there when the effects started, and could have gotten her help sooner.  Then maybe she wouldn’t be in a coma.

Then Dru felt uncomfortable under the scutiny of Cade and Drake.  Are they thinking that its my fault?  Do they blame me?

When they got out of the elevator Dru raced to her room and flung the door open.  She was lying on the bed with her hair strewn around her, motionless.  Her skin was missing the normal vividness it usually held; even her lips had an ashy coloring.  Everything about her was different, and it scared Dru.  She touched Ivey’s hand, thankful it still felt normal.

The tears were streaming down Dru’s face, unchecked.  She did not even realize they were there until Drake and Cade were behind her.  They gentley led her out of the building to the car.  The tears rolled down her cheeks ceaselessly, but no sound came with them. She was not sniffing, not sobbing, not making any noise that would normally accompany a fit of crying. Only the tears.

She let the tears come. She could tell herself over and over that she was stronger than the others, but inside she knew that was far from the truth.

Most of the hour’s long drive was spent in silence.  At the end Dru got enough courage to voice a question that she had been pondering most of the night.  “Drake?”  she asked him.

“What?”

“Why did you run if you didn’t start the fire?”

“You thought I started it!  You think I could do that?”  Drake exclaimed, incredulous.

“My experiences with you were rather limited, if you remember. Moreover, those few times I was with you I got the impression that you don’t really care about other people’s feelings and do what you please!”

Dru stopped momentarily and glanced over at Cade, who was smirking.  He was obviously enjoying this exchange, and seeing Dru so vexed.  Then she looked at Drake.  A look of bewilderment was crossing his face, followed by a cogent embarrassment.

Dru continued,  “Furthermore, what you were doing to me was beyond the orders you received from your high and mighty father!  There was much more to it that that!”

Cade wasn’t smirking anymore.  Good.  Dru got him off his high horse, too.  Nothing can give a more satisfactory feeling than giving off months of bottled up anger and telling someone off.

“I figured Ivey would have at least told you I’m not like that.”

“Oh, she did.  But that doesn’t change what you did.  Believe me, you are far from my most-trusted list.”

“If you don’t trust me then what are you doing here?”

“It depends.  What have you been doing for the last five days?”

He tossed her a look which she could not decipher.  “Tracking down him.”  The him, of course, referred to his infamous father.

“What have you found so far?”

“He’s staying at the Marriot.”

“And you haven’t gone over there and knocked him silly yet!” Dru exclaimed, not believing he could be so ignorant.

“I was just coming back to get Cade when I met you in the lobby.”

Silence.

“I’m going to help you find out the cause of all this.”

“Of what?” Cade asked Dru.

“Of this.”  she motioned her hand around in an incongruous pattern.  “Who poisoned Ivey.  Who killed Jill and your mother.  An-and who killed Father.”  She ended in an emotional whisper.  It was not like her to get so emotional frequently, like she had been doing lately.  Dru was determined to stop doing that.

“And how are you going to do that?”  Drake asked me in a voice slightly taunting.

“I’m going with you to confront your Father tonight.”

“No!  Its too dangerous!”  Cade and Drake cried out at the same time.

“Try and stop me!”

“I will,” said Cade as Drake said,  “Bet on it.”

What a jerk!  Both of them: insidious imbeciles!

“Look guys, I have been through what most people could only imagine.  My life has been anything but mellow.  Now you are denying me the one chance I have at putting my life back together.  Can you look at me in the eye and think I’ll take that?  Even you would have to know me better than that!”

“I’m not going to let you end up dead,” said Drake.

Dru’s already scarcely-controlled temper was rising by the second.  “Why?”

“Because . . .”  Drake said, mumbling.  Dru could only understand the first word; a lot of good that did her!

“I didn’t hear what you said, repeat it,” Dru ordered.

“I heard,” said Cade vehemently.

“Because enough people have died already,” Drake said.  Dru had a feeling that was not what he had said the first time.

Cade looked at Drake, and they stared at each other for a long moment.  It seemed like then was a turning point;  the two of them could not act civil anymore. Dru was aware that they had never been real fond of each other, but now they were downright nasty towards the other.

She decided to change the subject and convince them of her helping later.  “Did you see Ivey?”  She asked, wanting to see if they blamed her for letting Ivey be harmed.

“Yes,” said Cade.

“She looked horrible, I thought she was dead at first look,” Drake commented.

“It’s my fault,” Dru said tearfully.  “If I had stayed with her instead of coming here she wouldn’t have been alone and I-”  Dru broke off, tears flying again.

“Look what you did, Drake.  She’s crying again.”

“I didn’t do nothin’ you didn’t do.”

They argued the rest of the trip home, but Dru didn’t hear because she had fallen asleep while crying.
 

She awoke sometime in the middle of the night in a bed and place she didn’t remember.  Dru looked around, her eyes adusting to the recondite light.  There was an armchair with a blanket on it near a door, a barren closet, another door, two nightstands, and a dresser.

She sat up and got out of the bed slowly and silently, realizing she was wearing the clothes from the night before.  She tiptoed to the first door she saw and found it to be a bathroom.  The second door she tried opened to a room that contained a couch, dining table, television, two recliners, and a table next to the couch.  There were two more doors leading out of the room.  Dru’s overnight bag was set neatly next to one of the doors;  laying next to it was Cade’s jacket.  She remembered that this was Drake’s room from last night.  But where was Drake?  And Cade?

They left without her. They went to find their father and left her here.

Dru’s whole body filled with a rage she did not know was possible.  It angered her more than words can say.  The fact that they hadn’t even left a note to tell her where they were going made her all the madder.  She looked around at the room blindly and felt the urge to run, to do something. Anthing to control this anger flowing through her at this moment. She turned sharply and drew a startled breath as she knocked into a table and a lamp toppled onto to floor, shattering.

Then a tranquility settled over her, a sort of placidity.  She felt guilty, extremely guilty.  The lamp was broken now, because she couldn’t control her anger.

Though she was not anymore mad, she was not about to stick around and wait for the two of them to return from their adventure. Though she was no longer angry, she decided to exert a little revenge.

“I guess I really am vengeful at heart;  for any little thing- or big thing- that goes wrong I needed someone to blame, and then have my revenge,” Dru said to herself.

Dru grabbed her bag and exited through the door.  She ran by way of the hallway and punched the button for the elevator.  As she waited for the elevator the sound of racing footsteps echoed through the hall. A fear gripped her and she bolted. Dru ditched the elevator and started running down the staircase.  She stopped as an idea came to her.  “By now the elevator would be open, and they would take that down and stop me in the lobby when I came out of the staircase.  If I go up and wait for awhile, they’ll never find me,” Dru said, again, to herself.

She acted quickly and hustled up the flights of stairs in good time.  As she came out of the doorway she saw a maid’s cleaning cart.  Dru walked up to it and saw a maid in one of the rooms.  Grabbing the ring of keys, She pulled off one of them as soundlessly as possible and hurried to the number embossed on the front of the key.  Dru went in and turned around to lock the door.  She walked through the very short hallway to find it situated exactly like Drake’s suite was:  living room with two bedrooms, one off to each side.

Dru grew bored quickly of watching the television shows on at four in the morning.  She walked around the room, achieving nothing. Eventually, she fell asleep.
 

Upon waking, Dru decided to go visit Brian. Dru walked down the six flights of stairs it took to get to the floor Brian’s room was on.  Before she could even knock the door was thrown open.  She looked up into the upset eyes of Brian.

“Where have you been!”  Brian yelled.

“Wh-what do you mean?”  Dru stammered.

“You disappeared over three ago.  He’s out looking for you right now.”

Dru asked him, irritated because he was mad at her, not them.  After all, they were the ones that left her.  She had done nothing wrong.  “How’d you find out?”

“Me.”

Dru glanced behind Brian and saw Cade’s outline.  Great.  This was just what she needed.  The two of them making her feel guilty when she had done nothing wrong.  Dru turned around and started walking away, frustrated.

“You aren’t going anywhere, Dru,” Brian said as he easily pulled her back to him.

“You have no authority to keep me here!” Dru said, my voice full of malice.

“Oh well.  We need to talk,”  Cade said as she was pushed into Brian’s room.

Dru knew this would have to happen eventually, so she didn’t resist it.  Dru thought,  Why keep running when I can finally stop?

She heard the door click when Brian shut it, then heard the click of the lock.

“Where were you?”  The question was shot at her, with no attempt at compassion.

“Up in my room.”

“What room?  The front desk has no record of a room in your name.”

Dru felt her face redden.  “The room is not exactly registered with them.”

“What do you mean, exactly?”

Dru looked to Brian for help, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“I stole the key from the maid’s cart.”

Cade opened his mouth to say something, then shut it.  Dru took the opportunity to start my questioning.  “Where were you?”

“What do you mean?”

“When I woke up this morning, which was at about three in the morning.”

“Drake and I were in the lobby of the hotel.”

“Coming in or going out?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Did you or did you not go and see your father!”

“We tried, but he was already gone.”

“I cannot believe you didn’t let me go with you!”

“Dru, you don’t know what he’s like.  You can’t even imagine confronting him.”

“I could imagine it.  After all, I’ve seen the results.”

“We are just doing this for your benefit.”

“You sound just like Mother.  ‘I’m only doing it for you.’” Dru mimicked.

“You should listen to your mother more often!”

“I-  Hmm.”  She couldn’t come up with a response for that.

“Look, Dru, I know about your. . .condition.”

“My condition?” Dru said, feigning innocence.

Cade looked down at her stomach that was becoming increasingly larger.    Dru followed his gaze, wondering what to do.  Now that someone besides herself knew, she could not any longer deny it to herself.

“You’re pregnant, and you haven’t been taking care of yourself or your baby.  That kid is going to turn out being a pathetic bundle of, well, not joy if don’t do something soon!  You’re what? six months along now, and not even showing!”

Dru didn’t say anything, knowing how foolish she had been.

“Don’t tell anyone else,” she whispered, more out of fear than anything.  She swallowed hard.

“If you promise not to run away again.”

“I promise,” Dru said nonchalantly.

“I’m serious, Dru, if the wrong people found you. . .”

“Oh, stuff it, Cade.  I’m sick of hearing about your deleterious father!  How do we even know that he is the person doing this?  They’ll never find us if we move around a bit more.”

“Dru, my father is not a forgiving man.  After what happened between him and Rob, he’ll never stop trying to have his revenge.”

Dru recognized that vengeful streak that Mark Burke had in herself.  The ironic part was that these two people-- so different, but so similar-- were trying to carry out their revenge on each other.  Cade said Mark would never stop carrying his revenge out on her.

“As he will never stop, neither will I,” Dru vowed.

“Unfortunatly, he has the money and resources to do it. You don’t.”

“I can worry about that later.”

“Or you could give up this idea altogether.”

“You know I can’t. I have to know.”

“Know what? There are a lot of answers I could give you, Dru.”

“Like what?”

“For starters, why you’re pregnant.” He paused as alarm appeared on Dru’s face. “You don’t know, do you. These past months that you’ve known you were pregnant have just passed by, and you never bothered to do anything about it.”

Dru avoided his gaze. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“Yes you did.”

“What would that be, then, huh? I found out I was pregnant and didn’t know what to do. There wasn’t a thing I could do about it, and I didn’t know how it happened.”

“But you suspected.”

“Yes.”

“And. . .”

“And nothing. I couldn’t just call Drake and asked if he knocked me up, now, could I?”

“You could have asked Ivey. Or me.”

“I didn’t realize you would know. It’s not exactly like you were there, witnessing it.”

“If I had known you were pregnant, I would have known Drake was the father. Period.”

“How? Not how did you know Drake fathered the baby, but how did it happen.”

“That I don’t know. I assume that afternoon. He must have given you something to make you sleep. But you’ll have to ask him.”

“I’ll never do that.”

“You will have to eventually.”

Dru shook her head.
 

A few hours later Cade and Dru emerged from the room.  After talking for half an hour Dru had fallen asleep, exhausted.  Not only was she physically tired, but emotionally as well.  Cade had spread a blanket over her and fallen asleep in armchair next to Dru’s couch.  Both had woken up when the light streaming in through the elaborate curtains that had fallen on their faces.

Before their morning nap Cade had managed to make Dru promise several things.  The first was to see a doctor.  Another was to try to stay out of danger.  One of the other promises was to eat properly, get enough sleep, and other general things that would improve the health of her child immensly.

The two walked the short distance to Drake’s room, where he and Brian were talking.

“That took long enough!” Brian exlaimed.

“We fell asleep,” Dru said.

Brian’s eyebrows raised, forming a perfect arch on his forehead.

Dru realized how she had sounded and quickly corrected herself.  “I fell asleep on the couch and Cade let me sleep.”

“Well, I have to get back to my room.  I’ve only had two hours of sleep!”

“See ya later,” Dru said.  Brian left the room unnoticed by Cade and Drake, who were talking quietly among themselves.

“Well, I better get going too,” Cade said.  “I need to pack my stuff.”

“Where are you going?”  Dru asked, alarmed that she and Drake were going to be left alone.
“I’m going home after I check on Ivey.  I was never going to stay here;  in fact, I was supposed to go back last night, but then you came.”

“Home?” Dru questioned.  “You don’t have a home.”

“Our home in Tennessee.”

“You-you aren’t going to stay with us?  I thought-”

“I’m sick of this mess, Dru.  I don’t want to be a part of anymore bloodshed and senseless deaths.  I’d rather you weren’t either, but I know you too well to argue.”

“But-”  Dru’s eyes were filling with tears.

Cade’s heart filled with pain to see her like this.  Today had been such a horrible day, and it was not yet nine in the morning.  To Cade, this day was nearly worse than the afternoon six months ago when Jill and Merry had found Dru in her room.  And Dru-- carrying a child!  That was the worst part of this all.  In Cade’s opinion, there was no hope for him and Dru, now.  Before, there was still a chance for them, thought it was small.  He was sure he loved her, which was why he felt so bad about seeing her like this.

I don’t want to leave her.  I want to be with her and make sure she is safe, and I don’t want her anywhere near Drake!  Ivey and I both know that Drake would never have done her if he hadn’t liked her.  When he had recieved his orders he had declared he would never obey them.  And then he saw her. . . Cade stopped his thoughts from meadering down a dangerous path.

Dru’s voice brought him back to the present.  She was still every bit as beautiful as she was the first time he saw her.  Only now there was a worldliness about her, and that made her even more attractive.

“Excuse me,” Dru said angrily.  She walked into the adjoining room that she had slept in before she had hidden from them.  Dru slammed the door behind her and curled up on the double bed, fuming to herself.

Dru felt betrayed. Cade had made it seem like he cared, and now he was leaving her.

Dru wished Merry were here with her.  Merry had always been the one to comfort her, even when she had needed it herself.  Dru knew what Merry would tell her right now.  She would give Dru a gentle lecture explaining that Cade felt defeated, because Dru had not given him any encouragement.

Dru laughed bitterly, thinking how paradoxical this situation truly was.  Cade had wanted her from the beginning of their senior year, and now that he was giving up, she wanted him.  “Ivey was right all along.  She was sure I liked Cade.  She had it all figured out before I even knew it.”

But she would not ever let Cade know.  No, she would simply put her feelings aside and wreck havoc with anything that got in her way.

There was nothing Dru cared about anymore.  Her father was dead, along with Jill.  Cade was leaving and Ivey was practically nonexistent.  Her mother was off on the East Coast somewhere, oblivious that her daughter was yet home.  She only had one hope left: the child growing within her.  Dru knew that whatever else happened, she would keep her baby and protect it from everything.  It didn’t matter that Drake had fathered it;  she would never let him touch her child.

Dru had decided what to do with herself, and decided to take a shower and change her clothes.  She had been wearing the same outfit for over twenty-four hours.  When she had finshed her shower she felt better.  She changed into the clothes she had brought in her overnight bag.

Dru opened the door and entered the main area of the suite.  Cade got up as soon as he saw her.  “He’s in the shower,” Cade said, knowing she would ask where Drake was.  He was concerned for her; she hadn’t eaten anything since lunch the day before.  “Are you hungry?”

“Yeah, actually I am.”  Cade called room service and soon food was brought up to them.  Dru’s stomach began aching at the sight of the food before her.  There was a bowl of scrambled eggs, many peaches, bacon, rolls, and orange juice.  She quickly devoured her half of the meal, then ate part of Cade’s.

When she was done she sat back contentedly in her chair.  She heard a door open and saw Drake.  He told them he was leaving and would be back in about half an hour, but that didn’t erase the frown that had settled across Dru’s brow.

“Are you okay?” Cade asked.

“Fine,” she said coolly, remembering how upset she was with him.  Dru got up and started retreating to the room again.

“Cut the crap, Dru,” Cade said as he effortlessly pulled her back.  It was almost as if she wanted him to pull her to him.

“Excuse me?” she said arrogantly.

“You’re mad that I’m leaving, aren’t you?” Cade laughed.  “You want me to stay.”

“I don’t care what you do, because if you don’t want to be here, then you don’t deserve to be,” Dru said, maintaining her conceited tone.

“Liar,” Cade teased.

“I am not a liar!”

“You are so.”

“So are you,” Dru said, losing the tone.

“You really don’t want me to leave do you?” Cade asked her, serious now.

“I’m afraid of Drake,” she whispered.

Cade saw the fear in her eyes.  He wanted to hold her and tell her everything was going to be all right, but that would be a complete lie.  But he could make her feel safe for at least a little while.
Cade leaned down to her, hoping she wouldn’t push him away.  He had waited too long for this.  Ten months to be exact.  The day he met her, all he had wanted to do was take her in his arms and embrace her.  Yes, he had waited much too long.  In all his twenty-one years he had never felt like this about anyone, and now he was leaving her. Leaving her.  I can’t kiss her and then leave.  I’d feel miserable without her afterwards.

Cade immediatly pulled back.  “I’m sorry, Dru,” he said huskily,  “I didn’t mean to.”

“Yes you did, Cade,”  Dru stood on her the very tips of her toes and parted her lips slightly.  The temptation was too great-- for both of them.  Their lips met.  Cade felt her arms encircling his neck.

In all the people he had kissed, Cade had never felt this good.  He regretted not kissing her that night in January when they were in her car, or the morning after, and he certainly regretted not pulling her back in the airplane corridor when she pushed him away.

Dru felt her knees go weak and went limp in his arms.  The sudden weight was too much for Cade and they fell on the floor together, laughing.  Cade’s face grew serious and he said,  “Are you okay?”

“I’ve never felt better,” she said truthfully.

Cade sat up and Dru followed suit.  They must have looked funny, sitting the way they were.  Dru was sitting Indian-style and Cade was sitting in front of her, sideways, with his knees bent and feet on the floor.

He leaned down to her so their foreheads were touching and encompassed one side of her head in his hands.  “I couldn’t stand the thought of you being hurt,” Cade’s raspy voice whispered.  “Don’t go with him.  Come home with me.  You could go to college or get a job, do whatever you want. I have more than enough money.”

“I have to do this, Cade.  I would regret it if I don’t.”

“I love you, Dru.”

“We aren’t old enough to know what love is.”

“There are thousands of people that get married at our age.”

“I can’t marry you, Cade, not now!”

“I didn’t say anything about marriage.  All I said was that I love you.”

“I repeat:  we’re too young to be in love.”

“I’m twenty-one, you’re eighteen.”

“Twenty-one?”

“Another little lie.”  Cade stalled any other questions by kissing her again.  A door opened, unheard by Cade and Dru.

“I just need my--”  Drake stopped, taking in the scene before him.  Cade and Dru hopped up and stood before Drake.

“We were just-” Cade started explaining, then stopped, knowing there wasn’t a need for an explanation.

Drake slammed the door behind him, leaving the two to stare at eachother.

“He’s not going to be happy with me later,” Dru said,  “when you aren’t here.”

“He’s not happy with you even when I am here!”

Dru moved away from him.

“What’s wrong?” Cade asked her.

She gestured around her.  “A lonely hotel room.  The two of us alone. . .”

“And you, standing in front of me, looking as beautiful as ever.”  Cade stopped just long enough for Dru’s face to flush into a deep red.  “And I would never do anything you didn’t want to.  I respect you, Dru.”

“I still think we should cool it for awhile.”

“Your wish is my command.”
 
 

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