"I was in a car accident a few years ago and I was the only survivor, barely." he said curtly. I frowned at him. It didn't seem like that was all to the story.

"Who was with you?" I asked in a gentler voice. Abruptly he shook his head and smiled at me.

"It's in the past so it doesn't matter, how about that round of pool I challenged you to?" he walked out of the room while I stood there frowning at his back. You aren't the only one with a painful past. My subconscious pointed out to me.

As I caught up to Shane I walked beside him. He was so closed off about his pain.

"I never got to comment on what you said last time." I saw Shane glance at me confused as we made our way down the steps.

"About what?" his voice was soft and for some reason I knew it was okay to talk to him. Alison said he was a good listener.

"What happened overseas."

I glanced at him and saw his eyes wide. I looked straight ahead, and decided this wasn't the right time so only a little.

"My unit was ambushed because of me." I whispered before we walked into the game room and I smiled at Molly dancing around a table containing a growling Jake and a frowning Alison and another man that was grumbling at Molly.

"Love Molly, but never play cards with her." I chanced a glance at Shane and saw that he was still stunned by the little I revealed to him. "The little twerp cheats." I gave him a lopsided smile and continued to walk into the room feeling him a few steps behind me.

"Did you get beat by her again?" I asked Jake with a straight face… well almost. My lips were twitching especially when he scowled at me.

"She cheated." The other guy said.

"Don’t pout Bryan, she didn't cheat. She is just better than you." Alison chuckled as she collected the cards.

Shaking my head I walked over to the couch and watched as a guy that I guessed was Bryan's twin, played Call of Duty MW3. He was good, but needed work.

"Can I join?" I said grabbing a controller from off of the coffee table.

"Sure. Let me get a multiplayer game going." The guy muttered as he eyes didn't leave the screen. I shrugged and leaned into the couch. A body collapsing down beside me had my eye wandering over even though I already knew who it was.

"Make it a three player game Bob." Shane said as he too got comfortable.

Soon we were engrossed in the game. Choosing a sniper rifle I was able to dominate in the game. I was hidden too high and out of sight for other players to figure out where I was.

"Where the hell is he?" Bob mumbled beside me. I just grinned and took him out from his cover. "Damn You!" he yelled.

"Watch it, my niece is still in the room." I elbowed him in the ribs.

A bullet hit my character, so I quickly scanned the area. There. I took aim for the head that was very well hidden but suddenly I was dead.

"What the?" I whispered. Chuckling beside me drew my gaze. Shane was looking at me with a guilty grin.

"You can't hide from me forever." He whispered.

At that moment I realized just how close to me he was. His eyes were blazing as our faces were inches apart. His warm breathing mixed with mine. Bob cursing broke the spell so I snapped my head back to the screen and continued through the kill screen. A while later it ended up that Jake joined in and Bob gave up. Though Shane, the bastard I couldn't get a hit on him. Impressive. I mused as I scanned the area below me from a new spot I discovered. A few seconds after I got down in position, I was killed. Blankly I stared at the kill camera and saw that Shane had been in my shadow the whole time. How the fuck did he do that? I chanced a glance at him again, but he wasn't looking at me. His eyes were on the screen but that grin on his face told me that he knew he had impressed me.

"Wow, Luke, losing your touch?" Jake joked from the recliner.

"F- Off" I muttered as I changed weapons and went for a ground attack. I'll show you. My ego growled as I prowled the area. Soon I found Jake and slit his throat and was rewarded with his curse. After a few more computer players, I found Shane moving around ahead of me. He rounded a corner and when I rounded it, he was gone.

"What the-?" I started

"Don’t think so." Shane whispered beside me as his character came out of nowhere and got a point blank shot to my head, making it the final kill. I watched in stunned silence as the camera caught his attack. He had slid into a cubby hole below eye level and crawled out after I passed. During my scope of the room, that's where he stood and shot me.

"Well damn." Jake said getting up. I watched as he shook Shane's hand. "You ever in the military?"

"Nope." Shane smiled and walked away with his hands in his back pockets. Slowly I stood and watched him leave with a grin on his face. At the doorway our gazes met and I just barely saw the narrowing of eyes at me before he turned and left the room.

Noticing the time, I left with Jake to find Alison and Molly. Both were upstairs sitting in the bunk room playing on the computer.

"Thank you Luke." Alison said as she packed up her things.

"For what?"

"Working your magic on that hunk of junk." she nodded her head towards the computer that Molly was playing solitaire on.

"No problem." Shrugging it off I walked out of the room and headed for the side exit where we had entered earlier.

Soon we were home and Molly was so tired, that she was sleeping standing up while Alison changed her into her nightgown. Alison wasn’t too far behind her, so I left. It would be Lucas’ turn tomorrow with Molly.

Once home I peeled out of my clothes and saw that my laundry basket was overflowing and I needed to desperately do laundry. Groaning I dragged the basket down the hall and started the washer. While still in just boxers I wandered around my one story home. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for me. I had a spare bed for if Molly would spend the night or if one of my brothers or friends needed a place to crash. Granted, I haven’t needed it yet but I never know what will happen with my family.

Going to the computer I saw that Trevor had started another private chat with me. Quickly I sat in my seat and dragged the chat box to the middle screen and saw that he started it about five minutes ago.

Brown: How have things been?

Willow: Weird but… good?

Brown: Good. I’m happy to hear that you are not in pain.

Willow: No but I noticed that my chest hurt earlier when I learned that he too has had a horrible painful past.

Brown: Want me to look it up?

Willow: No, if I wanted to, I could do it myself.

Brown:…. Yea, like you would risk yourself like that.

Willow: True.

Brown: So what are you doing tomorrow?

Willow: Laundry, and I have to help one of my other elderly neighbors clean their gutters. I would hate to see him fall and need an ambulance.

Brown: True. I wish someone like you would have been around for my grandfather. Then again, he would have just pointed a gun at you and demand you got off his lawn.

Willow: Sounds like a wonderful guy.

Brown: yea I miss him, but he was too stubborn for his own good. I got my personality though from my grandmother as you can tell.

Willow: Yep.

Brown: would you mind some company the day after?

Willow: you going to be in town?

Brown: yea cause I’m going to visit my friend and crash at his new place.

Willow: Wife?

Brown: she is having a girls day. Her and her friends are getting together for a play date with the little ones.

Willow: Alright then. I have a spare room that is reserved for you now for the day after tomorrow.

Brown: Great. Well wife is calling to join her.

Willow: No more info. Bye.

Brown: lmao, Bye.

I climbed into bed and fell into my dreams. No, Nightmares. I dreamt of that first horrible night after the ambush. The medication that they gave me made me hallucinate as I tried to keep a sound enough mind to not give them what they wanted. The horrifying things I saw still were so fresh in my mind. I swore they had cut my leg off at one time, when I realized that they just cut into it. I then relived the pull of the suture as one of my captors sewed my skin back together horribly.

Finally I woke up before they cut open my side. Breathing heavily and sweating I looked around and then at the clock. It was six o’clock in the morning. I slept longer, but I would have given anything to be woken up before those first set of sutures. Shuttering I walked into my kitchen and grabbed cereal and milk. After a food and a cup of coffee to wake me up I remembered that I had laundry. I switched them over and waited for the cycle to finish. I was wearing the last pair of boxers I had.

Knowing that no one would be visiting me at this hour I filled time with a cold then hot shower. The tension and residual pain washed away temporarily down the drain. Once done I just wrapped in a towel. Walking into the living room to sit on the couch and go through mail, my doorbell rang. I froze and tensed before I looked at the clock and saw that I had taken a two hour shower and had apparently procrastinated with breakfast. It was already after nine.

Checking my surveillance, I saw that it was Mr. Revien’s Granddaughter. I knew I was supposed to clean his gutter at ten, but I still had time. So I swung open the door and stared at the young woman. She was petite, a fake blonde, and looked stunned. I watched as she turned from stunned to hungry. I raised an eyebrow at her and cleared my throat. Her eyes hadn’t risen from my lower waist ever since I opened the door and it was pissing me off.

“What?” I snapped.

After she cleared her throat and gave my body another look she finally met my eyes. “My grandfather told me to make sure you remembered that you promised to clean his gutters.”

“I remember. I had something else to do then I was going to be over at ten. Obviously I was getting ready.”

“Yes, I can see that.” Her eyes darted to my groin, and I felt nothing for this girl that I probably would have taken as a one night stand before as a joke.

“My face is up here.” I growled. She jumped a little before I finally saw fear etch into her eyes.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered.

“Yea. Lie through your teeth some more and you will have to explain to your grandfather why he lost his free help. Get off my property. I’ll help Mr. Revien out at ten.” I promptly shut the door on her and went to the dryer. The buzzer had gone off while I talked to the girl that was probably barely nineteen.

After I was done folding and putting away my clothes and sporting my holed pants and a white shirt this time, I walked across and down the street and saw Mr. Revien and his granddaughter standing near a ladder. Putting on my gloves I went to work without anything more than a wave to Ian, letting him know that I just wasn’t in the mood to talk.

When I was working on the gutters on the back side of the house I noticed that the roof would need to be worked on before we got any serious snow. Storing the information I finished the gutters, put the ladder away and searched for Ian. Instead I came across his granddaughter.

Hiding my grimace I stared impassively at her as she smiled at, what she thought was seductive, me.

“What?” I snapped again.

“Grandfather has fallen asleep in his recliner. I was told to pay you, but instead of the cash I was given, how about I make you dinner instead?” She batted her lashes at me and I narrowed my eyes at the girl.

“You are too young and I only eat homemade food by my sister.” I growled before I walked around her and headed off the property. I would have to talk to Ian a different day about his roof.

“Wait you forgot payment.” She said running up behind me. I abruptly stopped and turned towards her. “I could always pay you a different way.” She said in a horrible seductive way, which did nothing to me.

“One, I never accept payment. Two, I never accept sex as payment. Three, I don’t like you. Four, I will inform you grandfather of your behavior.” I heard her gasp as I spun and headed for the safety of my home. Going to my garage, I grabbed my helmet before I slipped on my black leather jacket. I then walked past my Dodge Charger and over to my Kawaski Z1000 SX. The bright green reminded me of Shane’s eyes.

Shaking off all thoughts I hopped on it and rolled out of the garage. Soon I was flying down the road. The wind blew around me as I winded through the back roads and then slipped onto the highway. I wasn’t going anywhere, just wanted to go for a drive. It was a nice day. Noticing that I had gone into a different town, I turned around and headed back. Recognizing that I was near Alison’s firehouse, I ignored the invisible force that wasn’t trying to pull me towards it. I continued driving until I came to a small diner that looked good enough for lunch.