Business

I got out of my Mustang and ran back to the house. I walked into the house ready to kill. As I looked around, I heard a door slam in the back. I didn't see Alex anywhere. All I saw was a bunch of excited guys, drawing cards. At this point none of the guys there were paying me any attention. To them I was just another guy. I started for the door and one of the guys grabbed my arm.

"Hey asshole, who said you get to go first?" he said. "I won the fucking draw so I get to go after Brian is done. So just sit down and take a number!"

I grabbed a heavy wine bottle off the table and broke it on the side of his head. He collapsed and fell in a puddle at my feet. As I glared around the room there was silence for a second and time seemed to slow down. I heard a voice that seemed to be almost comically slow say, "Oh shit, it's him!" I grabbed another guy by his neck and choke slammed him through the card table they were drawing cards on. The room started to clear with all of the guys running for the exit. I opened the door silently just in time to see my Alex, barely on her feet, fight off Brian Austin. She slumped down into a chair and if I wasn't so pissed it would have been funny. Brian was trying to take her bra off, and she wasn't having it.

"Not your titties," she slurred. I'd seen Alex drunk before, but this was beyond alcohol. Whatever they had in her she was fighting with everything she had.

"Dan's titties," she said.

"Just for tonight, I'm Dan," leered Brian. He was so intent on his conquest, that he didn't realize I was making my way up behind him.

"You're not Dan," laughed Alex. "There's Dan, my Dan."

Brian turned around but he was too late. My punch caught him in the side of his head, twisting him around. Then I kicked him in the side. I was sure I heard ribs snap. He was gasping for air and holding his chest when I kicked him in the nuts. Then I felt my arms being grabbed from behind and I was pulled away from Brian.

"Stop it. You're going to kill him."

"That was the plan", I told the officer. The cop just looked at his partner and said "We didn't hear that."

I went over to Alex and took off my shirt and covered her with it. 2 EMTs came in and sat her down. They looked into her eyes and took her vitals.

"She's on something," one of them said. "We'd better transport her to the hospital."

The officer who'd grabbed me said, "And we're taking him down to the station to answer a few questions."

Greg stormed into the room and started talking to the officers, who nodded.

"We'll be right outside," said the officer.

"Dan, drink this," said Greg, handing me a small vial of clear liquid.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Do you want to go to jail?" he asked.

I drank the vial down. It tasted like cleaning solution. Greg opened the door and the officers stepped back in. They handcuffed me and started to put me in squad car.

"Wait," Greg said. He called the EMTs over. "Take a sample of his blood too," he said.

One of the techs ran back to the truck and came back with a needle.

"Roll up your sleeve sir," he said.

Greg smiled as the squad car pulled out of the driveway.

My arm stung like hell from the needle but I had other considerations. I needed to find out what was going on with Alex first and foremost. Some of those drugs can have long lasting effects on the mental status of the victims. I also wondered why I was going to jail.

Everything was cleared up over the next few hours. Alex was being kept in the hospital over night for observation. She wanted to see me badly, but they wouldn't let her out until follow up tests were done in the morning.

Right then, I wasn't being charged with anything, but there was the possibility of 3 or 4 assault cases against me, plus the speeding and reckless driving thing.

It basically looked like I just went nuts in the café and knocked the shit out of my ex-wife for no reason. I then supposedly jumped into the car and drove away, speeding.

I drove to someone's home, invaded a private party and then assaulted 3 men there. I was at that time being held for questioning only, with charges to follow.

Darla came to see me. Her left eye was swollen shut.

"Are you OK?" I asked.

"Much better now," she said.

"Did they give you pain killers for the eye?" I asked. "Was that what made you feel better?"

"Nope, seeing the asshole that hit me, in the hospital after you got done with him," she smiled. "Now that made me better. Alex is frantic." she said quietly.

"She doesn't understand why you aren't with her."

"They're holding me for questioning." I said.

"Oh I'd better go tell her that now," she said.

"Why does she think I haven't been there?" I asked.

"She thinks that you think that she's damaged goods," laughed Darla.

"What?" I said to Darla's retreating back.

Nearly 2 hours later, a very distinguished looking man came into the room. His hair was all gray. He was wearing a suit that had seen better days. I don't think I'd ever seen him before. But there was something familiar about him.

He looked at me over his glasses. He held an official looking folder in his hands. "You don't look like the type," he said.

"What type?" I asked.

He gently but firmly grabbed my arm and rolled up my sleeve and looked at my arm.

"Definitely not the type," he said.

"I'm the chief of detectives in charge of your investigation. You seem like a reasonable guy, so why don't you tell me a story. I already know what the evidence suggests, but I'd like to hear your side."

"I really need to see Alex," I said.

He looked at the folder, and without looking back at me said, "Ah, the supposed victim."

"What do you mean supposed," I asked, my eyes narrowed more than slightly.

"Calm down bud, I'm just trying to get to the truth here," he said.

"If I go on the evidence, there's a couple of ways I could look at this," he added. "First, you and your girl friend, who I might add is a trifle young for you but that's neither here nor there. You and she are in a club. She leaves you sitting there with your ex-wife."

"She does this because she's jealous of the ex-ball and chain. So she takes off and leaves with another guy to make you jealous." He looked over the top of his glasses at me and kept talking. I think he was trying to see how I'd react to his speculation.

"You punch out the ex in a fit of steroid rage and high tail it after her. You break several traffic laws and enter a private dwelling uninvited. Then you assaulted several citizens to stop her consensual liaison. Finally, in a fit of jealous rage, you beat her partner to a bloody pulp."

"That's the biggest crock of shit I ever heard," I said.

"So why don't you tell me a better one then." he said.

I sat back down and tried to calm myself.

"First off, Alex was drugged. There was nothing consensual going on," I said.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"Because she's not like that," I said.

"She's mighty pretty," he said. "Maybe she's got a secret wild side to her."

I jumped back up, ready to fight.

"Sit your ass back down," he roared.

"Fuck you," I screamed back just as loud.

"Alex is the air that I breathe," I told him. "There is no way she'd do anything like that. I have total faith in her."

"So you got lucky, you ran off not realizing that you'd been drugged too. To try and save her, instead of calling the police like you should have," he said.

"I had to get to her," I said.

"And you got really lucky," he said. "But what If you hadn't been so lucky?"

"If she'd been so out of it on the drugs and got gangbanged by all of those guys and you came in in the middle of it. What then?" he said.

"I'd have killed them all," I said.

"And what then?" he asked.

"I'd probably go to jail," I said.

"And what then?" he asked. "What about you and your girlfriend?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Could you still be with someone, after they had been rode hard and put away wet by 10 other guys?"

"Even if it was against their will, that would take a lot of getting over. You're no one's spring chicken, so maybe she just wanted some excitement."

"Number one," I said. "I already told you that Alex isn't like that. If you knew her, you'd know that she is the sweetest, most special person on this fucking planet. And if I had been too late and she had gotten attacked. I would still love her for the rest of my fucking life, no matter what."

"If you knew us, you'd know that," I said.

"Oh, I already knew that," he said. "I've known how she feels about you for a long time. I just needed to hear you say the same about her. And I think she needed to hear it too."

He opened the door and Alex and Darla were standing there. Both of them looked like they were barely on their feet. Alex came towards me slowly and grabbed my hand. She slowly worked her arm around me.

"I was so scared," she said.

"Oh come on, you knew I'd come after you," I said hugging her.

"Oh, not that," she said. "I was worried that my uncle John wasn't going to like you."

"I had no doubt that you'd drive thru hell in a gas truck for me, just as I would for you.

I kept telling those guys that when you got there, it wasn't going to be fun for them." She shook her head and grabbed my hand.

"Come on let's go home," she said.

"They're holding me for questioning," I said.

"You can go," said Detective Uncle John.

"When you spoke to Greg last week, we started watching your ex but we didn't say anything about it."

"We had 2 cars following you guys all night. But you got out of there and were in flight in that car before we even realized anything had happened. Your ex wouldn't admit to anything but we found the drugs in her house."

"The 2 guys she hired other than Brian have both admitted to us that she planned the whole thing with Brian."

"She wanted you back. He of course wanted my niece. She flipped out while she was in her cell and we've had to have her restrained. We'll probably need you both to testify, but other than a speeding ticket, I don't see any reason to charge you."

* * * * * * Epilogue.

Alex and I went home and lived happily ever after. We got married 3 weeks later. We didn't even wait to graduate.

We kept building up our company for about a year and would probably still be doing it except for a slight changing our plans. Alex somehow got pregnant, go figure. Anyway we sold DanAlex for a retarded amount of money. Alex wanted to be a stay home mom, and she insisted that we stay home together.

Dana never recovered from the incident. A few months after it happened, I was called to a nearby psychiatric hospital to visit with her. Her doctor said that seeing me might help her with her problem. I was expecting her to be either very apologetic and contrite, or evil and bitchy. I was quite surprised to find neither. First the doctor wanted me to go in alone so Alex just stood outside by the door.

"Hi Dana," I said tentatively.

"Why are you calling me Dana?" she asked.

"Do I look anything like that bitch that hurt you?" she asked

She stood up, and it was all I could do to hold in my laughter. She looked ridiculous. She had rolled her pants legs up so they looked like really short shorts. She'd also tied her shirt up so it looked like some weird cropped top that stopped just beneath her breasts. She'd also stuffed the shirt to make her breasts appear larger. She bounced towards me with her arms extended and hugged me desperately.

Two orderlies came into the room and separated us.

"Tell them who I am," she said. Her eyes appeared maniacal and she kept looking around the room.

"Who should I tell them you are Dana?" I asked. I felt a minor empathic connection to her.

"I'm Alex" she said, "Your Alex."

I just walked back out of the door to see her doctor, without saying anything to her.

"Do you see the problem?" asked her doctor.

"We need to give her some reason to try and accept our treatment program. She seems to be fixated on you, to the point where she'll do anything to be a part of your life."

"Would you consent to be part of her treatment?"

At this point, Alex quietly spoke up.

"I think I know how to help her," she said.

Alex walked into the room and said, "Hey Dana."

She pulled me into the room and kissed me hard. Then she turned back and looked at Dana, who was horrified.

"Once upon a time, you had a man who loved you very much." she kissed me again.

"You threw him away." she kissed me again.

"I caught him." she kissed me.

"You broke his heart into a million pieces and I put them all back together again."

"Better than new," I said.

"Have a nice life Dana," she said as we walked away laughing.

I guess we knew that it was a cruel thing to do, but after everything that I and we went through, we just didn't care. We never saw or heard from Dana again.