Laughing at the sniffling mess before him he was reminded of the way the Fairbanks son had begged for his own life.  The little rat was no trouble and put up absolutely no fight.  ***** his ***** of a mother a least struggled against death.  The weak angered him, and this woman had just reached the end of his patience.  He should probably just kill her, she knew nothing, he was sure no one did.  The feds really wanted his boss, and leaks was not likely, but his employer had insisted on him making an impact, so here he was.  Drawing his gun again, he pointed at the weeping woman.  “You make me sick.” 

*Bang*

******

Taking a deep breath, Dana stepped out of the bus and into the warm California air.  Grasping her only bag she looked at the palm tree before her.  It was great too look out and see a familiar tree, not that the elms and oaks of the east coast wasn’t beautiful by there own right, but it wasn’t like home.  Even the air smelled different, not necessarily good but it brought her comfort.  She could smell the salt from the ocean and the cool night air enveloped her.  She was home, and this time she was not intending to run and hide.

Dana grinned and almost started to skip down the sidewalk, but she managed to contain her excitement and not draw attention to herself.  The last thing she needed was someone recognizing her or word getting back to Raun Sparks that she was back in town.  Dana was sure that she couldn’t keep that a secret for long, but she wasn’t ready for it to be out.

Glancing at her Timex she quickened her steps; she didn’t want to keep Al waiting.  She had no doubts that the blonde would understand the letter she had sent to her; however she was unsure if her girlfriend had actually received the letter in the mail.  It’s not that she didn’t trust Lara in delivering the letter, but she and Alice are not exactly friends.  Alice held insecurities when it comes to Lara and it was a situation she and her girlfriend were still working through before the incident.

She couldn’t help but hope that two comforted each other and became friends.  Lara was a genuine good person, Alice was just jealous because of how the red head had helped Dana become comfortable with herself.  It was something that Al and Shane had tried to help Dana with for years.  The ex-tennis star wasn’t sure why Lara brought her out from behind her walls.  In reality she didn’t think it really had anything to do with Lara or Alice, it was just something that she was ready for.

It wasn’t Lara’s fault that it happened to be around the time they had been together.  It also wasn’t her fault that Dana still desired to be friends with the chef.  There was something nice about someone not knowing everything about you, and she loved learning new things and hearing different stories than she did with the girls.  Besides Dana knew that her heart belonged to Alice, and no one can take that away, not even Lara.  In reality Dana looked forward to the squabbles she had with Al over Lara.

It would be something she could understand and repair with the blonde journalist, not something the brunette would run from.  Dana intended to never run from any problem again, she was going to stand by Alice always, and if need be she would stand in front of her.