"No!" Brenda’s knuckles were white as she gripped armrest in the front seat of Jax’s jeep. "Just keep going….."

"Maybe if we stopped at a 7-11 and I got you some water or a Coke or something……"

"NO!" Brenda’s shout made Jax jump a little. She gulped air into her lungs, her chest heaving with the effort. "I’ll be fine…….just as soon as we get back to the brownstone……."

Jax gritted his teeth and then stepped hard on the accelerator pedal. He wove through traffic and around a corner. He smiled and pointed straight ahead as he leaned towards her. "Look, Brenda! We’re almost there! Just one right turn and then two more blocks and you’ve got it made!"

"Almost there……almost there……" Brenda’s eyes were riveted on the front windshield as she chanted the comforting mantra. She swallowed hard and her glance flickered towards Jax as she panted out the words. "I’m..……so……..sorry……."

"Hey….." Jax took his right hand off the steering wheel to cover her left. "Nothing to be sorry about, babe." He quickly put his hand back to make a sharp right turn and then hit the accelerator again. "Look…….see? We can see your front porch now……."

Brenda nodded wordlessly, focusing completely on the familiar brick building, straw wreath, and stone bunnies. By the time Jax swerved into the driveway and quickly killed the motor, her breathing was becoming slower and shallower.

"OK – everybody out!!" he called cheerfully. "We’re here!" Before Brenda could say a word, he barreled out of his side of the jeep, sprinted around the front and then opened her door. Although she tried to squeak a protest, Jax ignored her and gathered her into his arms, carrying her briskly up the front steps.

She buried her face in the familiar smell of his bomber jacket. "I hate this."

"You *hate* this? You hate being in my arms?" Jax rose an eyebrow at her as he stopped at her front door. "Funny – you sure didn’t seem to mind it last night," he added with a chuckle.

"Noooooo, not that, silly," Brenda objected weakly. She sighed when Jax set her on her feet so she could get the key to the front door out of her purse. "I hate you having to treat me like some porcelain doll, just because I’m afraid of ……. everything."

"Welllllll……." Jax grinned broadly and snatched the key from her hands before she could place it in the lock. "You just wait till you see how I fall apart when I see a cockroach, Miss Barrett," he teased. The lock clicked open and Jax swung the door wide. "You’re going to have to do some major bodybuilding so you’ll be able to carry ME to the door!"

Brenda grimaced and then preceded him through the door. "Would you *stop* trying to pretend like my phobia is nothing, Jax?" she asked, shaking her head. "I’m just…….." She sighed and set her keys on the small table in the entryway. "…….just a mess……."

Jax came up behind her, put his hands on her shoulders, and turned her to face him swiftly. "A mess that I happen to love more than anyone or anything else in the whole world," he whispered huskily. He captured her mouth with hungry urgency to punctuate his point, then pulled back and stared deeply into her eyes while cupping her face in his hands. "I told you last night, Brenda. I’m *not* going to run out on you just because of the agoraphobia." His thumb tenderly strayed over to stroke her quivering lower lip. "I’ll never leave you."

Her chest shuddered with the breath she took. "I think……" She placed her hands over his to pull out of his embrace slightly. "I was thinking……. maybe that’s why I had such a bad attack this morning, Jax….."

"You were scared witless because you thought I’d *never* leave?" He smiled and laughed softly. "Now *there’s* a switch……."

"No…..that’s not what I mean!" Brenda stepped away from him to close her front door. "It just doesn’t make sense to me – having such a bad panic attack this morning." She slid out of her coat with Jax’s assistance. "I mean, I had been doing *so* well at the Port Charles Hotel and everything."

"I know." Jax hung her coat on the hall tree. "I don’t think I’ve seen you have an attack this bad since…….well, probably since you had to go to the lineup……"

"Exactly." She stooped over to pick up the mail that had come through the slot in the front door, glanced through it, and then walked to the foyer table to deposit it. "You know, my therapist at GH tells me that this is all related to some kind of deep-seated desire to be in control."

Jax’s one eye narrowed. "You mean like you were mad at me cause I wouldn’t let you drive home?"

"No." She shook her head and laughed a little at his attempt at light-heartedness. "Up until now, I guess I had the feeling that I was still in control of things. Or at least YOU were."

Jax’s eyes widened in understanding. "Ahhhhhh……..I get it. But now……"

"Now, neither one of us is controlling what happens to me." She grimaced and folded her arms. "Mac Scorpio, Junior is."

Jax frowned again. "But he was all along, wasn’t he? When we didn’t know that he was the Slasher and we hit the roof every time we heard a stray bump in the night?"

"Not like he is tonight." A shiver visibly coursed through Brenda’s body. "Not like when I’m just sitting here, waiting for him to come get me, like that poor innocent goat they put out for the T-Rex to eat in Jurassic Park."

Jax’s breath left his body in a long whoosh. "I know, love." He moved to Brenda’s side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, placing a tender kiss on top of her head. "And you know if there was some other way to do this, I’d find it."

"It’s just……..it’s like YOU’RE not even in control of this, Jax!" Brenda pulled free of his arm and strode nervously towards the kitchen. "And it’s different because we KNOW he’s probably going to make a move tonight, and yet you can’t do a darn thing about it!"

"I WILL be doing something about it, Brenda!" Jax objected. "And despite what you think, we DO have pretty much control over how all of this is going to go down."

She flipped on the light in the kitchen, walked over to her stove and grimaced. "Then maybe you’d better tell me again, cause I sure don’t remember it that way." She opened the cupboard and reached for some cups. "You want some tea?"

"Sure." Actually, Jax could have cared less if she had offered him a tall glass of motor oil with a shot of floor wax for a chaser. His entire body had shifted into a "red alert" mode as soon as they turned onto her street. He didn’t need additional caffeine to heighten his state of awareness, but if it gave Brenda something to do with her hands, he’d drink all the tea in China.

She took a kettle out off the counter, filled it, and set it on the stove to heat. "So when does Mac, Junior get into town?"

Jax sank into a kitchen chair. "The kid’s car is fixed now, so he’s driving home from NYU. He’s supposed to get in sometime around 5 or 5:30." Brenda’s eyes remained trained on Jax as she set a delicate china cup in front of him. "They’ll have a family dinner, during which Mac will casually let it slip that your memory has returned and you’re actually working with a *real* sketch artist to develop a composite."

"So Mac talked to his son all the time about the case?" Brenda’s hand was surprisingly steady as she poured the now-steaming water into Jax’s cup.

"Yep." Jax stirred the fragrant liquid slowly. "That’s part of how the Slasher was always able to stay a step ahead of us. The kid knew everything that was going on cause Mac inadvertently blurted out all of our suspicions."

Brenda glanced up nervously at the wall clock. "So he’ll come after me sometime after dinner, then?"

"And Mac will take that call someplace where he knows Junior will be listening?"

Jax nodded. "He’ll rant and rave at me – just like he usually does," he added with a wry smile. "And then he’ll tell me that he’s sure you’ll be fine just for those few hours." He took a sip of tea, as did Brenda. "As soon as the kid splits to come over here, Mac will follow him in a separate car."

"But what if Mac doesn’t see him leave?" Brenda’s voice rose a pitch, despite her attempts to remain calm. "What if one of his other kids distracts him by accident, or what if his wife asks him to take out the trash?"

Jax rubbed his hand over hers again soothingly. "We’ve got all those bases covered, Brenda," he said gently. "Blue’s going to be stationed in an unmarked car at the north end of Water Street and V’s going to be at the south end. If either of them sees Junior’s car, they’re going to get in touch with me……." He reached into his back pocket with a grimace. "……on this contraption……"

Brenda’s eyes narrowed and then she smiled. "A cell phone?"

"Yeah." Jax’s lips thinned with disgust. "I hated to give up my pager, but sometimes we need to be in closer contact."

Brenda nodded but then her smile faded to fear again. "But what if Junior parks on a different block and walks here? What if he gets past both Blue and V somehow?"

"That’s why *I’ll* be in your back yard, Brenda," Jax explained patiently. "We’re going to micro-manage this situation right down to the way he gets into the brownstone." He nodded towards her back porch. "I want you to leave your back door unlocked tonight." He leaned towards her when she caught her breath and her jaw dropped. "Junior is a killer, not a burglar. He’s not into breaking and entering. And he’s not stupid. Why raise a ruckus cracking a window or trying to break through a deadbolt when he can walk right in through an almost "open" door?"

"So you’ll be in the yard, watching for him to come through the back door?"

"Yep." Jax smiled wanly at her and patted the cell phone lying on the table between them. "And as soon as I spot him anywhere within 20 feet of your back steps, I’ll call Blue on my trust wonder-gadget and tell her to come and get you out of the house through the front door."

"So you mean I won’t even be in the house?" Her face brightened visibly. "You won’t have to, like, catch him with a knife at my throat to be able to arrest him?"

"With the evidence Mac’s given me so far and what we hope to find when we get a search warrant for his place at school, we should have enough to lock him away for a long time." Jax patted her hands and smiled at her. "Besides, Mac doesn’t want this to escalate into a major confrontation, anyway. He …….well……" He shook his head. "Junior’s his son, right or wrong, and Mac doesn’t want to take a chance on something going haywire in a standoff and the kid getting hurt."

"OK……OK." Brenda nodded her head up and down vigorously and then took a deep breath. "I guess you’re right. You do seem to have all the bases covered."

She still jumped and nearly knocked over her cup of tea when Jax’s cell phone shrilled abruptly. He picked it up, pressed a button, and then put it to his ear. "Jax here." He listened, then held it away from his face for a moment. "It’s Blue – we’re just synchronizing last minute stuff for later."

"Gotcha." Brenda rose from the table, surprised that her knees weren’t knocking together. As she took her cup to the sink and glanced up at the clock, she took a deep breath. {Almost 3:30. Just a few more hours. And then it’ll *all* be over.}

*****

Jax sat on the couch in Brenda’s front room, silently checking the night scope on his sniper rifle. As he lowered the barrel and began to rub it with a cloth again, his thoughts strayed in a hundred directions. Everything Mac Scorpio, Senior, said seemed to make sense. The corroborating dates, the teen angst motive, the missing knives – it all seemed to add up to Junior being the Slasher. It was neat and tidy – maybe *too* neat.

But if Mac had really suspected his son of being the Slasher, why didn’t he come forward sooner? How many lives could have been saved by discreetly pointing the PCPD in Junior’s direction? Jax paused and closed his eyes, trying to remember back to his own childhood. Lord knows he and his brothers had been a thorn in John Jacks’ backside more than he liked to remember. When Jeffrey had gotten a little too "enthusiastic" in their re-enactment of Robin Hood and put an arrow through Old Lady Hartmann’s bedroom window, knocking over her favorite crystal vase, the other three brothers hung tight. Even though John had grilled them separately and as a group, they refused to expose Jeffrey as the culprit.

When their father had somehow managed to find out the truth, Jeffrey was promptly grounded for the foreseeable future and deprived of television privileges for a week. But it wasn’t until the family found out that the crashing of the vase caused Mrs. Hartmann’s long-adored Persian, Omar, to go into cardiac arrest that John forced Jeffrey to march next door and own up to his guilt. Jax’s eyes opened and he chewed on his lower lip – John was willing to conceal Jeffrey’s crime until it affected someone else grievously. Wouldn’t Mac have felt the same way?

A loud thump from the hallway stairs made Jax jump up from the couch, just in time to see Brenda’s jeans-clad rear end make an appearance in the archway from the living room. "Brenda?" He rushed over to her and had to stifle his laugh at the sight of her, bent over a large cardboard box, scooting it across the hall backwards. "What the bloody h*ll do you think you’re doing?"

She straightened, turned around to face him with a smile, and dusted her hands on her silver-gray silk charmeuse shirt. "I’m bringing up the Christmas decorations, of course!" Brenda pushed some stray hair back off her face and then massaged the small of her back. "Although I didn’t remember that the box weighed that much when I put it in the basement last year."

Jax nodded, his mouth an "O" of understanding. "Why didn’t you call me? I would have been glad to carry it up for you."

"Oh, I didn’t want to bother you…….." Brenda waved a hand at him. "You seemed so busy, bringing stuff in from the jee……." She stopped in mid-word when her gaze lit on the weapon on the couch. "Jax?" She swallowed hard and put her hand to her chest. "What’s……..what’s that *thing* there for?"

He smiled proudly – as only an overly-endowed-with-testosterone member of the male species can do – and went to her couch to pick up the rifle. "It’s an SR-60 sniper rifle with special infra-red night vision scope!" Jax announced gleefully. When he saw her panic-stricken look, the smile quickly left his face and he set it down, almost like the proverbial "hot potato." "It’s just a precaution, love," he added, rushing to her side. "Just something to make me look good……."

"To make you look good……." Brenda repeated his words slowly and carefully, her dazed condition still evident.

"Yeah – like a prop in a movie!" He put his arm around Brenda’s shoulders and pointed at the lethal-looking instrument of death. "I mean, if Junior sees me pointing that thing at him, he’s *bound* to surrender without a fight, right?"

"Right……..without a fight." Brenda nodded and her color started to return. "Without a fight is good." She rubbed her hand on his chest lovingly. "You know, although I’m scared for *me* tonight, I’m *more* scared about you getting hurt!"

"Nah……..not a chance!" His lips lowered to meet hers, lightly at first. Then, just as she sighed in pleasure and Jax’s tongue begged entrance to the sweetness of her mouth, a shrill beeping noise made them jump apart. He looked down at his wrist and then reached to press a button on his watch. "My alarm – it’s 6:30," he explained. "Time to call Mac and get this show on the road."

"By all means……" Brenda released him and Jax strode purposefully towards the kitchen phone, never hearing her sigh and shaky in-drawn breath. "Let’s get this show on the road."

*****

"Now you’re *sure* you don’t want me to go over this all with you again."

"Nope." Brenda patted Jax’s back with a wan smile as he slipped into his bomber jacket. "I think the seven times you’ve explained it so far should do the trick."

"And you’re going to leave the back door unlocked……"

"……and you’ll be right across the alley in the Fleishmanns’ yard, watching for Junior to make his move."

Jax nodded and slid an arm around Brenda’s waist as they walked through the hallway towards her front door. "And YOU’LL be in the front hall so that when Blue comes on the porch, you can slip out the door without Junior hearing you."

He barely paused at the entry to the bathroom – just long enough to make sure that the sniper rifle was propped just inside the doorway. Hidden enough from Brenda so that it wouldn’t disturb her yet close enough that he could grab it at a moment’s notice. They stopped in her front foyer near the small table, where Jax patted the Glock 9mm in his shoulder holster confidently. "And then I’LL come in here, show enough force to convince Junior to surrender without a fight, read him his rights, and then call Blue and give her the all clear."

"And then I’LL come back and put the champagne in the fridge for later – so we can celebrate our freedom!!" She smiled broadly and clapped her hands like a child. "And then tomorrow we can put up the Christmas tree and start making our lists and checking them twice……"

The shrill ringing of Jax’s cell phone made Brenda freeze. She stared at the unit as though it was a live snake as he pulled it from his back pocket. "It’s probably Mac – telling us that the kid’s on the way over." He gave her a smile that never betrayed the butterflies dancing in his stomach. "Jax here."

"Jax – it’s Blue. I need you to come out here to the car right now."

"Blue?" Jax’s frown mirrored Brenda’s. "Is something wrong? Did you spot Junior at your end of the street?"

"No, but Mac’s here. There’s a problem and he wants to talk to you about it before things get out of control."

"What kind of….."

"Just get your butt down here right NOW, DD! Mac will explain it all when you get here!"

"OK." Jax eyed Brenda warily. "Are you in that old beat-up Buick clunker you usually pull from the motor pool?"

"Yeah." In the background, Jax could hear Mac shouting at Blue that he needed him pronto.

"OK, I’ll be right ……" Before Jax could finish the sentence, Blue ended the transmission.

"Is everything OK?" Brenda’s eyes were wide with fright and her face had turned pale.

"Yeah……" Jax grimaced and shook his head. "Blue says there’s something screwed up and Mac needs to talk to me."

"What kind of screw up?"

"I don’t know." Jax swore softly as he hit the "end" button for the transmission. "Maybe Junior decided to see a movie first or something. Maybe he doesn’t like to kill before the evening news comes on. Or maybe Mac just wants to go over the entire operation *one more time*, like he usually does at the precinct." He opened Brenda’s front door with one hand, still juggling the cell phone in the other. "You just stay put while I take a jog down there and find out what’s cooking." Giving her a pointed look, he glanced down at the doorknob. "And remember to lock *this* one behind me, OK?" When Brenda smiled and Jax heard a resounding click after the door shut, he gave her a thumb’s up before disappearing into the darkness.

Jax was halfway to the sidewalk in front of the brownstone when he realized he was still holding his cell phone. He grimaced, muttered a few choice words about technology, and then shoved it into his back pocket before taking off towards the end of the block in a sprint – never noticing that as he did, the phone fell out of his pocket and into a large snow bank at the curb.

As promised, a dark blue, beat-up, 1991 Buick Skylark was parked near the intersection of Water Street and Walsh Avenue. It momentarily occurred to Jax that he didn’t see Mac’s car, but he banished the thought quickly, figuring that he probably parked it a block over so his son wouldn’t recognize it and smell a trap. More than likely, Mac was waiting in the Buick with Blue for their "meeting."

The clouded windows of the Skylark gave even more credence to Jax’s theory. It wasn’t that unusual, that Blue would have the car’s lights off. On a stakeout, the car needed to blend into the shadows so that it wouldn’t draw attention. Drawing even closer to the car, Jax blew into his cupped hands, trying to instill some warmth in his ungloved fingers on this frosty mid-winter night. With the deep snowcover and the temperatures hovering below freezing, two bodies inside the car no doubt fogged up the windows in a hurry.

What did surprise Jax was that Blue didn’t flash the lights as he approached. Even when he came right up to the car, she didn’t pop open the back door so he could hop in. He frowned and tried to see inside the car windows, but the condensation was too thick. Finally, his patience gave way as he danced from one foot to the other and he rapped sharply on the passenger side window.

"Hey, Blue – it’s Jax. Let me in." At first, a chill ran down Jax’s spine. But then, he remembered Mac’s penchant for the dramatic. {Maybe he even decided that we should meet at *his* car, wherever he’s parked. Maybe they left me a note inside.} He jiggled the passenger door and then, finding it locked, loped around to the driver’s side of the car. When Jax tried and found that door locked too, a shiver shook his body.

"Blue!" Jax raised his voice slightly and made a fist to knock on the driver side window. "Are you in there?" When silence met his inquiry, he speared his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Blue!!" He pounded the flat of his hand on the top of the car. "What the bloody h*ll’s going……."

Then he heard it. A low, moaning sound. Coming from inside the car. Jax crouched down and furiously rubbed his sleeve against the driver’s window. When he finally was able to clear it some, he caught his breath and then swore loudly. "BLUE!!"

Jax backed away from the car, bounced lightly on the balls of his feet, and then stepped up to deliver a stunning karate kick to the back window. It shattered on contact, the pieces of glass littering the street as he frantically swept them clear of the frame. He didn’t even notice the scratches they made as he put his head and right arm through the broken window.

"Blue!!" His heart started beating again when he pressed two fingers against her neck and felt a faint pulse. "Hang on, partner……" Jax pulled his head out of the back window so he could snake his arm towards the front and hit the button to reverse the power locks. Barely an instant after the locks released, he yanked open the driver’s side door.

"Ohhhhhhhh, God……." Jax’s cry sounded like a wounded animal in the night. Blue’s head was resting on her left shoulder, her hands clutched to the steak knife that protruded about two inches below her ribcage on the right. His own hands fluttered helplessly in space as Jax fought back nausea. Suddenly, he seemed to regain some measure of composure. "Don’t worry, Blue – hang on! I’ll get help – just don’t you *dare* die on me, OK?" He leaned into the car, trying to reach for the controls on the two-way radio. When he saw the slashed wires dangling uselessly near the front floorboard, Jax eased away and reached into his back pocket. Finding it empty, he realized that he had lost his phone, drawing another round of expletives that shattered the calm, clear night.

"OK, Blue – I’m not gonna let you die……" Jax took giant gulps of air, quickly brushing away the tears that blurred his vision. He reached gingerly for the knife, froze, and then was about to close his fingers around its hilt when her body convulsed and she groaned loudly.

"No – don’t ……touch……."

"Blue!!" Jax cradled her ashen face in his hands. "Blue – what happened?"

She licked her lips, her agonized moan piercing Jax’s heart. "Stabbed…….me……..don’t…….." Blue opened her eyes wide and stared deeply into Jax’s. "Don’t….take…out……I’ll….bleed…death……."

"OK…..OK……." Jax nodded painfully. "I understand." He looked up and down the street in a frenzy. "Did Junior do this to you? Where’s Mac?"

Blue shook her head, gritting her teeth against the pain. "Not Junior." She clasped Jax’s hand tightly with her blood-stained one. "It….was….Mac. Fooled …..us……Made……me …….call……"

"Mac?" Hysteria – at his own gullibility, at the price it would cost him, at Mac’s duplicity – bubbled up inside Jax. "It was really Mac all along?"

She took a racking breath. "You……go……"

"Go……." Jax patted her hands gingerly and started to get to his feet. "Yes, I’ll go…..to the other end of the block! I’ll have V call 911! We’ll get you out of this….."

"NO, JAX……" Blue waved her hand weakly before she could connect with Jax’s arm. "Not…..me……." She pulled him back down to look into his eyes again. "Mac…..after……her……."

Jax’s face suddenly paled. His blood pressure dropped and dots swam before his eyes. He looked through the front windshield of the car towards Brenda’s house – her welcoming front porch with the light on, the straw wreath, the stone bunnies……..the unlocked back door. It had been Mac’s plan all along. And he and Blue had played right into his hands.

His quick breaths made small clouds in the wintry night as he reached in front of Blue. Jax pounded his fist as hard as he could on the car’s horn, resulting in loud, staccato bursts of raucous noise. When he pulled back and straightened to his full height, he filled his lungs with air and then broke the serenity of the silent night.

"BRENDA!!!!!!! LOCK THE DOOR!!!!!!!!!!"

To be continued……..

Author’s note: I apologize in advance for ending this chapter at such a critical point. Unfortunately, this "Energizer Bunny" of a fanfic has so many dramatic turning points in the next plot twists that there was no better place to end it – in fact, there were two other spots that are still to come that might have been worse! And if you read the original novel, be warned – the hero finds his police partner (also a woman) dead at the hands of the "Slasher." The scene where he finds her body in the unmarked police car is pretty gruesome and shocking since main characters don’t usually get killed off in romance novels. Needless to say, both Blue and I found this particular plot twist totally unacceptable. *g*