I rose early, and found a cheerful-looking note from Lexi stuck to the kitchen table.  It was written in gibberish.  After a moment I figured out that she had replaced all of the punctuation symbols with words:  "tail" meant a comma, "dot" meant a period, and so on.  She didn't use capital letters, either.  According to the note, Lexi had gone to her storage area and would be back for lunch.  There were also detailed instructions on how to make pancakes, complete with provisions for "test pancakes."

I wondered how happy she'd be when she found the storage area empty.  I was suddenly very, very glad that Ian was there, and not safe at home in Farmington Hills or Birmingham.  He deserved to face what he'd done to Lexi. 

I went upstairs and woke Eddie anyway.  He was uncharacteristically slow to wake, probably thanks to the wine they'd consumed, but the note brought him back to reality.  "Oh, shit, shit shit! She's gone?"

"She took your car," I said.

"She can barely pour a glass of juice, how's she going to drive?"

"In case you hadn't noticed, she stopped taking her pills two days ago.  Or maybe driving's easier for her, since she loves cars.  What are you going to do?  Should we wake Ian?"

"Yes, Poppet, please do.  Why hasn't she been taking her pills?"

"She doesn't want them any more.  Why are you looking at me like that? Are you trying to make this my fault?"  The last thing I needed was for him to be blaming me for shit. 

"No, I'm not.  Sorry.  I wanted to know if or how she was capable of driving.  It makes the difference between looking for my car at this storage area or in a ditch."

I looked at him for a moment.  "I'll go get Ian."

"I changed my mind," Eddie said.  He looked in the closet for a shirt.  "I'll go get him.  Could you bring my coat?"

"Sure.  You want a cup of coffee too, Mr.  Sharp?"

"Only if you'll be a dear and make me some."

"Ask me when we get to hell."

He smiled, and went downstairs to wake Ian.  I went downstairs, put my coat on, and got Eddie's.  He'd replaced the one I had been shot in; I hadn't noticed.  I sat on the steps to wait for them.  I felt halfway festive, like we were going to a carnival.  It surprised me how eager I was to see Ian face up to what he'd done.

I heard Ian wake up with as much surprise as Eddie had, and that made me feel good.  They were both ready to run in five minutes.  They both looked rumpled.  I noticed that Ian had managed to find a moment to throw on some cologne, but his five 'o'clock shadow made him look like a short, balding chimney sweep.

"How far is it to the storage area?" I asked as they came down, shrugging into coats. 

"Probably forty minutes in this weather," Ian said.

"I want you to stay here, Poppet," Eddie said.

I actually felt myself bristle.  "Why?"

"In case she comes back while we're gone.  No sense in all of us being out there, is there?"

My mind raced, looking for an excuse to avoid being left behind.  "If she's out of her mind you'll need a third person," I said.  Even I didn't believe that, though.

Eddie raised an eyebrow.

"Do you need some help?" Taiisha asked from behind me.  Her fake Italian accent masked the amusement in her voice from everyone but me.  "I do not mind going for a drive with you if I can repay your kindness to me."

She was going to kill both of them.  I jumped to my feet, my coat rustling.  "No, that's--"

"--not a bad idea," Ian said, interrupting me.  I tried to catch Eddie's eye; he just shrugged.  "If you don't mind, that is, Gray."

"Not at all," she said.  "I will get my coat."  She looked at me as she descended the steps, daring me to say something.  I didn't, and they were gone. 

There was nothing to do but pace, and I did.  I took off my coat, feeling stupid.  If I hadn't been so fearful that Taiisha was going to come back alone, driving Ian's truck, I would have felt abandoned and left out at the way Ian and Eddie had taken off and left me at the children's table.  I knew more about Lexi than either of the fucking idiots did, and I had to stay behind? 

It was almost an hour before I heard an engine, followed by a loud thud from the road.  I was in the kitchen when I heard it, and ran to the front door but it door burst open before I got there.  It wasn't Taiisha, though, it was Lexi.  There was a look on her face that I'd never seen before.  Rage didn't suit her.

"Hey," I began.  "Is everything--"

"Eat my fuck!" she screamed in my face, and kept going, straight up the steps.  The fury in her voice suggested I'd better not follow, and I heeded the warning.  She slammed the door to her room, and I heard her in the attic a few moments later.  Something fell over.  She had left the front door open; I realized there was no car in front of the house, peered out to investigate, and saw Eddie's Lincoln out in the road.  It was stacked on top of Martin's station wagon, wheels dangling.  How the fuck had she done that?  I closed the door and put my back against it.

Even if Taiisha had killed Eddie and Ian, I still had to protect Lexi.  Locking the door wouldn't keep her out, of course, but if Lexi and I could run...but then, there was Martin to contend with.  And I wasn't positive that Eddie was dead.  I didn't care about Ian, but Eddie...I wasn't sure.

Frozen with indecision, I was still in the foyer looking up the stairs when Eddie, Ian and Taiisha returned a few minutes later.  "Where did she go?" Eddie asked.

"Upstairs," I said.  "Attic.  She's pissed.  Did she find out you got rid of her cars without telling her?"

"Shut the hell up," Ian snapped at me.  I opened my mouth, caught between replying and just breaking his jaw, and Eddie cut me off with a look.  I realized that I was glad to see him alive.

The house seemed quieter than usual.  It felt like the wood and glass and plaster and even the air were charged in anticipation.  I smelled something, but I couldn't place it.  It made me think of rice after all the water has boiled away, in the moment before it begins to burn.

The crash of something being overturned in the attic shattered the moment.  Then another.  Several long seconds later I heard the groaning clatter of the attic staircase unfolding.

I was worried about Lexi.  She'd been in a white-hot rage, but also terribly hurt.  Her friend had betrayed her, even if he was acting like he didn't realize it.  Lexi's cheerful demeanor--even with strangers she knew were as bad as could be--entitled her to better treatment.  Better treatment from her friends, from the world.  It was enough to make me angry at Ian--and Eddie--for not seeing or understanding it.

I started up the stairs, calling Lexi's name.  I wanted her to know I was there.  She needed someone there.

"Bring her down, Poppet," Eddie said.

"She's not a fucking dog," I snapped.  "She'll come down on her own."  He didn't have an answer so I turned around and headed up again.

Lexi ran down to the first landing when I was halfway up the steps.  She was carrying a bright red compound bow and she had an arrow nocked.

"Oh, kee-rist," Ian said.  He sounded more exasperated than concerned.  I didn't like the look of the arrow.  It had a hunter's tip, a wicked cross made of sharp triangles. 

"With all that can go wrong in your day, isn't it nice to know you can depend on your car?" Lexi said.  She was wearing an archer's arm-guard, a quiver on her hip, and the arrow she had readied was pointed at me.  The razored edges glinted.  Lexi's eyes were very far away, but she knew what she was doing with the bow.  "Life is pretty pathetic when your own hallucinations lie to you," she said quietly.

"I didn't lie to you," I said. 

The arrow didn't waver.  A twitch of her fingers would release it.

"Lexi, stop this, this instant!" Ian yelled.  His voice boomed in the high-roofed foyer.

Lexi's face twisted in a wicked grin.  "Pugsly," she said to me.  "The baby weighs ten pounds.  The cannonball weighs twenty pounds.  Which will hit the stone walkway first?" With that, she rotated quickly and let her arrow fly toward Ian and Eddie in the foyer.  The bow released with a concussive whap.  Before the sound had died away, Ian howled.  I thought for a moment she'd shot him, but the arrow had buried itself in the front door next to him.  Only a few inches of the shaft were visible; it had gone most of the way through.

Ian was spent.  He bleated and ran out the front door.  I heard his truck start, heard tires spin in the snow.  Eddie and Martin were on the floor.  They got up and stood their ground, but reluctantly.  I glanced around quickly for Taiisha.  She wasn't in sight.

Lexi already had a second arrow ready and was aiming at me again.  I tried hard to remember the Addams Family movie we'd watched a few days ago.  "I'm still on fractions," I said, remembering Pugsly's dialogue.

"Which one do you think?" Her voice matched Wednesday's emotionless inflection with eerie precision.

"The cannonball?"

Lexi's grin widened.  "Very good.  But which one will bounce?"

"The baby?"

"There's only one way to find out.  Ready?"

She wouldn't shoot me, would she? I didn't trust the funny faraway look in her eyes.  "Lexi, come on.  It's me.  It's Nikki."

Her little grin disappeared, and she switched to Pulp Fiction.  "Are you calling me from a cellular phone? Who is this? I don't know you.  Don't come here.  I'm hanging up the phone.  Prank caller! Prank caller!"

I realized she was going to do it, and I dropped to my knees.  My hand was coming up at the same time the bowstring thwacked again, into the arrow's path in a fast, blocking strike, deflecting it.  It was a needless maneuver; the arrow had been aimed over my head.  It cut a bright streak of pain across my left palm.  I had a dim thought as I charged up the steps; one shot, out of one possible.  She was momentarily unarmed.

I was on top of Lexi before her third arrow had cleared the quiver.  I hit her in the stomach, low, then seized the bow and wrenched it out of her hands, twisting it around her arm and head as she doubled over.  I spun around behind her and brought the bow down and back, trapping Lexi inside her own weapon, the string hard up against her throat.  When she started to stumble forward I yanked her backward, forcing a strangled croak out of her as she fell and hit the floor on her back, still wrapped up in the bow.  In that same moment I was on top of her, running on a killer's autopilot.  I seized Lexi violently by the hair and banged her head against the floor three times before Eddie dragged me off of her.  His arms were strong and huge as he closed them around me and lifted me with depressing ease.  I felt like a small, enraged animal and for a moment I turned on him, the combat-urge still out of control.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do, I was on autopilot, but he slung me to the side before I could heel-stomp his instep, knee, or groin, and then he just lay forward taking me down with him.  Struggling against his bulk was futile, but I did it anyway for a moment.  Pushing against his crotch didn't make him raise up this time; he'd remembered.  Between realizing it was him and realizing how close I was to him--enveloped in his flesh, in fact--I calmed down quickly.  I said, "Okay, I quit, I quit, I quit," but Eddie didn't let me up right away.

When he wouldn't let go, I went limp, so he'd know I was finished.  I had to see if Lexi was all right.  I hadn't meant to hurt her, but the frustration and anger had taken over...I could have killed her, and it would've been an accident.

By the time Eddie put me down, Taiisha and Martin were there.  Lexi was sitting by the wall, not moving.

"I give her a shot," Taiisha said.  "The doctor left them, and your assistant was kind enough to show me where I could be finding them," she added, nodding toward me.  She was testing me again.  If I told them she was lying, she'd probably kill everyone on the spot. 

No one but me noticed that she didn't have a syringe.  I desperately wanted to know what she'd really done to Lexi, but said nothing.  Eddie gave me a glance with a mild question in it; I didn't return it.  "Holy shit.  You want me to take her to her room?" Martin asked.

"Please do," Eddie said.  He ran a hand through his hair. 

"Don't take off her clothes," I called after Martin, who didn't respond.

After Taiisha and Martin were upstairs with Lexi, Eddie touched my shoulder.  "You okay?"

I twitched at the contact, then opened my left hand.  "Scratched," I said.  Blood was filling my palm, scarlet against my pale skin.

"Dammit.  Come on," Eddie said.  "Bathroom." I followed him to the downstairs bathroom, squeezing my hand closed so I wouldn't drip on the floor.  Eddie washed it for me, even though I could have done it myself.  His hair hung in his face, and I noticed faint crinkles at the corners of his eyes for the first time.  "So what happened?" he finally asked me.  "Why'd you jump on her like that?"

"Lost my temper," I said.  "I'm more mad at Ian than her.  When she shot me it got misdirected."

"You looked like Bruce Lee up there.  Where'd you learn that?"

"I was just mad," I said, skirting the subject.  Eddie looked at me to let me know I hadn't answered him.

"At least you didn't break her nose."  I glared at him.  "I mean it.  Getting mad is fine.  Getting mad and attacking people is psychotic.  Troubleshooters who have psychotic episodes are not troubleshooters who get hired twice.  You get my drift?"

"She's the one who shot me," I said.

"So?  She didn't kill you, did she? Let her be the psycho by herself next time, okay? I'd rather you didn't lose your head in situations like that."

I answered him with a nod.  The cut was too big for a Band-Aid; Eddie handed me a roll of gauze and I started wrapping it.

"Something like this happened in Denver, too, didn't it? DPD reported four dead folks at Mabry's.  Unsolved.  I didn't say anything.  Hell, I wasn't there, I won't say if you overreacted or not, but if we need to talk..."

"Is the lecture over yet?"  He was pissing me off, and he knew it.

His voice was maddeningly calm and level, and he had one hand up, palm out, as if he were about to point at me, but he didn't.  "No, it isn't.  I want you to understand me.  I clean up the messes that other people make.  I try not to make my own.   Reserve the violence for self-defense."

"And what do you call this?"  I snapped, holding my cut hand up.  The tape holding the gauze was peeling off, and I reached to secure it.

"How long were you gong to keep hitting her?" he shot back.

I was yelling now.  I tried to stop, and I couldn't.  "Oh, that's so fucking cheap.  Why do you even give a damn?  It's your rat-shit coward friend who's robbing her.  Yesterday she was a fruitcake, and now you're pissed because I hit her after she shot me with a fucking razor-tipped arrow?  Fuck you, you fucking waste of life! Your shit-sucking buddy hurt her worse than I ever could.  I'm glad he's gone.  I'm glad she knows what you assholes did to her."  I left the bathroom before he could offer any kind of a rebuttal.

He tried, though.  "Ian's coming back," he called after me in that mellow, almost-casual voice.  "With butterfly nets."

The awful thing was that I halfway agreed with Eddie.  The way I had snapped terrified me.  If I had been holding my sword, I might have stabbed Lexi to death without thinking about it, and that kind of loss of control scared me.  When the arrow grazed my hand, I had gone to some other place in my head, one that only knew attack and defend, heedless of faces or friendships.  Taiisha's place, perhaps, and the violent edge she'd put there.  I didn't want her to get at Lexi, either personally or through me.  And I was beginning to feel the same way about Eddie.  He was an asshole, but he was sort of a friend, too.  I hadn't given a shit before, but now I didn't think I could forgive myself for killing him.

But maybe there was a middle ground.  If I could protect my friends, it would be safe to have them.  If they'd have me.

I had to go apologize to Lexi.