DeeDee's Dilemma

Okay, with a tiny bit of judicious editing just to get all the names consistent, the Plotting Princesses present: DeeDee's Dilemma.

The car sped along the deserted stretch of highway its high beams cutting through the thick blanket of fog swirling before her. The roadway was deserted as the blackness of midnight beckoned her. Her fingernails dug crescent-shaped gouges into the leather steering wheel, her hands clammy with sweat as a chill of fear slid along her spine.

"I can't believe I did that." She slid her hand up her face and into her hair, yanking off the wedding veil. "What was I thinking?"

The radio blasted out the latest techno beat, which she hardly heard, but nearly hid the trill of her phone--nearly. She glanced at it, noting the name on the screen. "Oh hell no," she declared into the empty space after letting the night take the device the flung from her window.

"What have I done?"


She reached up to brush away the lone tear trailing down her cheek. Her mind raced back to the debacle she'd just run from as if the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels.

"How could he keep this from me" she whispered as she stared into the gathering fog. "I love him more than life itself, and he kept the most important thing about him, about our relationship, a secret." She pounded her fist against the steering wheel, flinching at the pain and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Damn him!"

Now she had to make a choice. Keep on driving or turn back and face him.
It only took a few seconds and she knew exactly what to do.

She had to know the truth behind his hiding something so important, and he knew she'd dreamed of having at least three kids. How was she supposed to do that now? Of course there was always adoption, but she'd dreamed of cuddling an infant with jet black hair, just like his.

The car swerved across the blacktop as she leaned over the console, and jerked open the glove compartment. Her hand searched through the jumble of papers. She had recently stuffed two new items into the small space--a package of fun size Snickers, and a matte black 9 millimeter handgun.

She was startled by the loud sounding of a siren. Her gaze shot to the rear view mirror and there he was. The brother of the man she'd made the decision to say "I don't" to. The local chief of police who had been way too sexy for her piece of mind. Releasing the cold metal, she shut the compartment and pulled over.

He got out of his squad car and strode with purpose toward her. DeeDee's heart seized. God, he was a sight for sore eyes.

"Jeremy," she said as he approached the opened driver's window.

He glanced up the highway and then squinted at her. "It's dangerous--the way you were speeding. I should take you in--"

"Go ahead. And while you're at it, arrest that low-down lying brother of yours."

"Maybe that's what I ought to do--put both you and Brad in a cell together until you work this out."

"Work this out? How do I work out the fact that my lying, low-down, good-for-nothing ex-fiance has a mistress, two children and a vasectomy?"

With a soft click, the glove compartment door popped open spilling half the contents on the floor board.

Frantically, DeeDee shoved everything under the passenger seat before turning back and meeting Jeremy's dark gaze. Had he seen the gun?

Tears turned Deedee's into sapphire crystals. "Did you know, Jeremy?" Hurt that he could be involved in his brother's deception splintered her heart.

"Children?" Jeremy's dark brows jerked together.

Could he have not known? She stared hard at the sharp angles of his face. So very much like his brother and yet... Why hadn't she noticed the strength in his jaw? For the first time DeeDee noticed the distinct difference from Brad's weaker features.

"I need you to step out of the car, DeeDee," he said softly.
"Why?"
"So I can read you your rights," he said gazing at her like he didn't know who she was. "Brad's dead."

"What?!" DeeDee stammered. "How..when?"
"Shot and we found him after you ran." Jeremy said, pulling open the car door to grab her arm.
"Oh, God, but I didn't do it!" DeeDee screamed, putting the car in gear and taking off, leaving Jeremy falling to the ground in the process.

DeeDee caught the emergency lights in her rear view mirror getting closer. Jeremy had to have seen the gun. Why else would he think she killed Brad, other than she was so angry that she threatened to kill him?

Patsy sat in the sheriff's office, fuming and scared. When the front door opened, the sound of scuffling and "right thru here," caught her ear. She turned her head and began screaming, "There she is, the woman who killed...my beloved."

Jeremy wondered just how much worse the night could get. His brother was dead--murdered on the night of his botched wedding. Now he was leading the woman he loved, had always loved, into the police station in handcuffs about to be charged with murder.

"Put a sock in it, Patsy." Jeremy stalked past her, leading DeeDee toward the solitary interrogation room. "I don't have time to deal with your crap right now."
Jeremy sat her down on one of the two chairs in the dimly lit interrogation room. Her wedding dress draping over the sides. He drew in a deep breath to hide his true feelings.

When he first saw her in the wedding dress, his breath escape for a different reason. It should have been him standing at the alter. If she'd said yes to him this would have been their wedding night and his brother would still be alive.

The voice in Patsy's head screamed "Liar!" She silenced it with a shake of her head and the more calming assurance invaded. DeeDee has to take the fall for Brad's death. She has to remove all suspicion from herself. Her children deserved to be the only heir to Brad's estate. She couldn't afford for Brad to go after DeeDee and somehow convince her to marry him. "Murderer" the voice whined again. Patsy began rocking back and forth.

Jeremy rubbed the spot over his right eye where a massive headache pounded. At least he was the only one who'd seen the 9 millimeter in DeeDee's car. The gun was safely hidden in the trunk of his cruiser, for now. Would he lose his career to save the woman he loved?

The deputy stuck his head inside the interrogation room. “Hey Sheriff, we’ve got a real problem out here.” Jeremy stepped out to see several of his officers holding a screaming Patsy between them.

“She has to die!” The wild-eyed woman yelled.
With a sigh, he blocked the urge to say, "Your turn first." As the newest chief, it wouldn't be professional.

Professional? Who was he kidding? If they only knew.

"Water?" A her nod, he passed a cup at the same time her arm flew in the air to swat at the station's pet fly, knocking the cup skyward and its contents on his face.

"Thanks," he slid a sleeve across his mouth. "I needed that."

Jeremy stared into DeeDee's blue eyes, desperately wanting to see her innocence reflecting
back at it. All he saw was fear and guilt. Could he be wrong, he wondered.

"Tell me the truth, Dee? Did you shoot Brad?"
Before she could open her mouth, the door to the interrogation room flung open, slamming up against the cinderblock wall.

DeeDee's brother, Ron, stormed into the room. "Not a word, Dee. Don't tell him a damn thing. Your lawyer's on his way."

Confused at Jeremy's question and the appearance of her brother, DeeDee stared, mesmerized at the moisture clinging to Jeremy's firm yet sensual lower lip. Her own watered at the butterfly sensation fluttering in her stomach. How could she be thinking of him like that at a time such as this. His brother was dead...and he believed she'd killed him.

"But I'm innocent. The rat bastard deserved to die, but I didn't do him in. If I'd killed him, you would have found him hanging by his balls. A bullet wound was way too quick. He needed to suffer."

"Shut up," her brother warned her.
"He was my brother," he said softly.
"No, he wasn't. He was your half brother."

One of Jeremy's deputies limped into the interrogation room with four bloody scratches gouged into his cheek.
"Hey, Chief," Deputy Mike paused, dabbing a coffee stained napkin to the ugly gashes. "This woman out here is nuts! Do you still have that extra First Aid kit in the trunk of your cruiser?"

The room tilted as an overwhelming lightheadedness assailed DeeDee. It was just too much. First, finding out about Brad's other life, then running out on her own wedding. Hearing about Brad's murder and realizing she was being accused of doing the deed pushed her to the ultimate response. The blackness began in her peripheral vision and then she knew no more.

Jeremy lifted DeeDee into his arms when she fainted. He held her soft body against his chest, relishing her sweet scent.
Thinking fast he turned to the deputy. "Sorry, Mike. I dropped the First Aid kit at home. You'll have to get a band-aid from somewhere else."
No one else could know about DeeDee's gun.

Jeremy walked out of the interrogation room with DeeDee clutched to his chest, searching for a couch to lay her on. A screech rent the air as a heavy body struck him in the side. "Murderer!" Patsy screamed, her claws reached toward DeeDee.

Patsy grabbed handfuls of wedding dress and blond hair. Jeremy tried to avert the cat fight by swerving DeeDee away. He only assisted in the tearing of the dress bodice.

DeeDee woke up at the same moment the crazed Patsy tried to land another blow to her chest. Dazed and dizzy she clung to Jeremy as he wove between the desks and the downed chairs toward the outside.

As Patsy kept yelling "Murderer" DeeDee unable to move in the voluminous skirt prayed they would get to the truck and leave all this behind.

In the blink of an eye, the giant west bullet proof window shattered, splintering until it rained down in one whoosh of air as an enormous black wolf leapt through, knocking Patsy down and DeeDee out of Jeremy's arms. In a flash of fur and crunch of bones, the wolf was a man, wide chest heaving, lying atop Patsy, grasping her long train to cover up his bare bottom. Blood oozed from his shoulder, dripping onto her wedding gown. "Brad!"

Somehow, Jeremy managed to block Patsy from doing further damage on anyone, only to see her trip on the lacy train to her dress and land on her ass. The gown billowed like pouffy meringue around her.

He moved on to his office, and set DeeDee--God, he hated that name. Why doesn't everyone call her Diane?--on the brown leather sofa.

Obviously Jeremy was either blinded by love or insane when he scooped DeeDee out from under a snarling wolf who then turned into his naked brother! "Get your pants on, dude! The full moon is a week away!"

DeeDee's expression looked wild and confused as she stared at Jeremy.
"Did I just see what I thought I saw? Was that Brad in some sort of animal skin?"

"Oh my Goodness," DeeDee exclaims. "Patsy had Brad's puppies."

Jeremy and DeeDee heard someone outside scream "Werewolf!"
"That's just more damn thing Brad 'forgot' mention" DeeDee said, then faced Jeremy. "If he's one then you..you"
"You must be too!" she exclaimed.

"No...no" Jeremy stammered "that gene comes from his fathers side!" Brad laughed an evil laugh. "Correct, Jeremy! But you my brother, you got the vampire gene!"

Jeremy ran a hand through his hair, a frustrated growl passing through his lips.

"Quiet!"

All the voices silenced and he glanced around the station house noting all eyes on him, including his deputies and other officers, before he continued, "No, Patsy did not have Brad's puppies, she had babies; yes, Brad is a werewolf . . . and yes, I'm a vampire."

He watched DeeDee's bottom lip quiver. "You said Brad was shot. That he was dead!" She stomped her foot. "Why isn't he dead, dammit?"
DeeDee casts a sheepish look at Jeremy. "No offense."

Jeremy raises a dark brow. "Technically, I'm undead."

DeeDee humpfed before continuing. "Not you, although we'll definitely be talking about that. I mean Brad, the jerk."

Jeremy shrugged. "Whoever shot him didn't use silver bullets."

Deputy Ken slipped silently behind DeeDee's car and around to the passenger door. He quietly opened it. He'd spotted the gun earlier searching for that damned band aid. He was gonna have a talk with Patsy later about overdoing the violence thing.

With a quick glance around he made sure no one was watching before exchanging the bullets with the silver ones in his pocket.

Now all that was needed was opportunity and distraction. He quickly skirted away.

Patsy took a deep breath, staring at the bars in front of her. They really shouldn't have locked her in the holding cell. Bad things were about to happen, and she didn't want to miss the fun.

"Well, obviously Brad's NOT dead, so you have no grounds to hold me here...not even you, Jeremy. I could never love a--vampire!". DeeDee declared to Jeremy, hiking up her heavy skirt to leave.

Between one second and the next, Ron pulled a gun from inside his jacket waving it around wildly.

"Nobody's going anywhere. I shot Brad once, and I'll do it again--Jeremy, too! You're all going to die!

"Oh, hell." Several people said.

Deputy Mike/Ken (a schizophrenic) looked wildly around at Patsy clapping her hands.

"Why are you so happy? You lied and now you're going to die to. Too bad you made me guardian of your kids should anything happen to you. In fact, I think you're the first one who should die, you greedy wench."

Deputy Mike/Ken raised the gun and pointed it at Patsy who was now backing up and screaming against the cold wall of her cell.

A snarling growl sounded behind the deputy. Brad had assumed his werewolf shape and was closing in. Jeremy moved around to the other side, countering his brother's stance.
"You can't get us all. "Jeremy said, leveling his gun at his deputy.

"You don't understand!" Ron screamed, pointing the gun at Brad's advancing hairy form.

"You took everything--you stole Patsy from me and treated her like dirt; seduced my sister away from your own half-brother--who she loves, and for what? To win some lousy bet with your bar buddies!"

"OMG! This is all too involved. I wouldn't have believed this story line on the soap The Young and the Restless much less I'm involved!" DeeDee whirled, her hands to her head. She stomped over to face Ron and reached out her hand. "Give me that damn gun!"