FicWad

Disclaimer: Don't own COTT or any of its characters.

Thankfully today was the last day of school before the Christmas holidays. Everyone was happy about the Christmas holidays especially seven teenagers who almost every one of them had not seen their families for over a year.

Theresa yawned as she sat leaned on the desk she was sitting at. The last class she had today was history, the most boring subject in the entire universe.

Luckily she was not the only one of her friends who was in this boring class. Archie, Atlanta, Jay and Neil were also there.

Tiredly and not paying a speck of attention she looked around to see what her friends were doing. Quietly she saw Atlanta and Archie playing a game of tick tack toe under the desk. Turning away she looked at Neil who was checking his teeth for leftover food from lunch in his three panned golden mirror. She sighed and rolled her eyes but looked in the other direction. To her left she saw Jay resting his head on the table, his short brown hair flying in all directions. He was apparently sleeping and he was snoring pretty loud, causing a group of girls beside them to giggle quietly. As the bell rang to signal the end of the period Jay still did not wake up. Giggling again Theresa shook Jay slightly.

"Wake up sleepy head." She whispered in his ear and shook him again. Jay abruptly lifted up his head.

"Is it over?" He groaned looking around him. Theresa stifled laughing at him,

"Yep you slept through the whole period. Now come on Odie told us to meet him at your locker, something about Christmas shopping."

Grumbling Jay stood up and gathered his books into his bag. Theresa to shoved her books in her bag and fallowed Jay, Archie, Atlanta and Neil out the door. For some reason of lately she had not wanted to leave Jay's side for too long. She just felt uncomfortable with it.

For some reason quite unknown to her, although not to most of her team mates, she had felt much closer to him then she did to any other person in their group. Could it possibly be that Theresa liked Jay as more then a friend? It was a possibility for Atlanta and the rest of the team, more Atlanta then anyone else, had pointed out how protective Jay was over her.

Maybe I do like him. Theresa thought as she walked down the crowded hallway, but how could he possibly like me back? There are so many prettier girls in this school then me, and Jay could like anyone of them. There is probably more of a chance that Cronus with turn good.

She was at Jay's locker sooner then she thought. Herry and Odie where already fully dressed for the weather outside. They both had big fury scarves on, and Herry was wearing a big green knitted sweater with Santa Claus on it. As soon as Archie saw this he burst out laughing. Herry gave him a glare and Jay stifled giggling.

"Ah so Herry what is with the..."

"Don't even ask Theresa." Herry mumbled, "Granny sent it to me in the mail, along with about ten other sweaters that have stupid designs like this on it."
Getting up from his uncontrollable fits of laughter Archie patted Herry's shoulder.

"I pity you buddy," Archie said still laughing between words. "Enough to switch shirts?" Herry asked hopefully.

"Not a chance." He said quickly.

"So anyways we were going to go and buy stuff for Christmas. Are you guys going to come along?" Odie asked the others.
"Sure why not," Atlanta said then nudged Archie, "Maybe we can find Herry a new sweater that does not have any weird designs on it."

Archie shrugged, "Got nothing better to do. Pleased Odie looked at Jay and Theresa.

"Are you guys coming?" Jay shrugged and nodded, but Theresa shook her head.

"I already have all my Christmas shopping done. And I think I was supposed to do something after school but I just can not remember what it was." She said.

"Oh come on Theresa," Atlanta urged her, "You don't even have to buy anything you can just come along for the ride if you want." Finally after much begging from Atlanta, Theresa agreed.

So quickly the seven of them went to their own locker and got whatever they needed from it, shoved on their coats, and met up again at the front of the school. Once the dismissal bell rang they hurried out of the school into the snow covered world. They walked on the crowded side walk until they were halfway towards the mall. Suddenly Theresa gasped and stopped, she remembered now what she was supposed to do after school. Jay noticing that Theresa had stopped looked behind him.

"He Theresa what are you stopping for?" Jay asked her turning around. "Ugh I just remembered that I was supposed to meet Persephone after school. This is just great. She will kill me if I am late again. Last time she almost blew up her office."
Herry laughed, "Well then you better hurry up and get back to school. I don't think that you would like to see Persephone in her angry phase again." He said waving her off.

With a quick goodbye to her friends Theresa started running back the way they came. When she was around the corner and into the alleyway, which was a shorter route to the school, the others continued walking. But Jay his eyes being so sharp saw something odd out of the corner of his eye. He saw two dirty men both in ripped jeans with chains hanging at the side of their pants, both of them had the sort of dirty minded, gangster type look in there faces that made Jay start to get worried.

As soon as Theresa had left the group they started pointing at her. Watching them intently Jay saw smiles form on their faces as they fallowed her down the alleyway. Unsure what they had in mind Jay left the group and fallowed the two gangsters and Theresa down the alleyway.

Whatever they want to do to her, Jay thought as he ran down the alley, I am as sure as heck not going to let it happen.

In the alleyway:

Theresa ran down the alley, wishing she could run as fast as Atlanta. As she was in a hurry her feet looked like they were hovering over the snow more then walking on it. Unlike the sidewalk the alley had a good foot or two of snow on covering the ground, causing loud crunching noises where ever her foot landed. Theresa shivered as the chilly air made whistling sounds as it rolled across the alleyway. She felt really uncomfortable while she was running down the alley. She could sense a great amount of danger lurking around in the alley, making her feel uneasy. Suddenly she heard two pairs of crunching noises, other then the noises here feet were making.

She quickened her pace and then abruptly stopped hopping to catch whoever was fallowing her off guard. She then heard one loud noise behind her. Quickly she twisted around her fists raised. No one was there. Betting really worried she felt the sense of danger growing even larger then before. She backed up against the wall.

Then Theresa saw a thin man come up and grab her from behind, pulling her body against his. The man put his grubby arm around her neck and squeezed slightly. The man reeked of body odour and beer, a smell that was so vile it almost made her puke in her mouth. Although his stench was unbearable his arms were like steel bars holding her down.

Suddenly another man, more built and hairy then the last, appeared out of nowhere. The man walked towards her, with a horrible smile that made Theresa truly become scared. If the man was not holding her down so tight she might have been able to escape, she was after all a black belt in Karate since she was twelve. But his strength did not hold her back from trying. She screamed and kicked the man powerfully in the shin. The man cursed and tightened his grip on the girls' neck, choking off her air.

Other then her loss of air Theresa struggled wildly trying to free herself. The thin man flung her to the ground knocking the air completely out of air. Then the hairy man turned her around so her back was on the snow and sat on top of her pinning her to the icy ground. The man smiled an evil smile reviling a mouth full of yellow stained teeth.

"Well I think we hit the jackpot today." The man said to his partner, first cupping Theresa's cheek with one hand then slapping it with the other to stop her from screaming.

His partner smiled back, he was busy tying her hands and feet together, and Covering her eyes and mouth.

"We sure did," He replied back pulling out Theresa's purse and pouring it in his hands, "This girl is filthy rich."

Theresa gulped as she tried to scream. What are they going to do to me? She thought helplessly, please somebody, anybody help me! Theresa basically screamed in her mind as she felt them start to unbutton her coat.

And as if the gods had heard her prayers, she heard hep arrive. The two men hands had stopped touching her. She heard them get slammed to the ground next to her. This was fallowed by yelps of surprise from her captors and a furious scream from her rescuer. Then she heard two loud thuds and the breaking of stone. No more fighting sounds were heard after that, someone had won. Once the silence began, she heard the rush and crunching of footsteps as her rescuer knelt down beside her. Quickly the person cut her bonds and removed the dirty pieces of cloth from her mouth and eyes.
At first her vision was blurry but her eyes soon adjusted to the light. Theresa gasped when she saw Jay kneeling over her his eyes filled with worry. His arms looked tired but Theresa saw the fire in his eyes as he looked back at her captors to make sure they were out cold. As soon as she sat up Theresa pulled Jay in a hug.
"Jay how did you know I was in trouble?" She said after a while, "I thought you had left with the others?"
Jay smiled grimly,
"I almost did," he said, "but then I noticed those men following you and I knew that my worst fears were confirmed. So I started to follow you."
"You were worried about me?" Theresa uttered shyly. Jay did not reply, but was definitely glad it was so cold outside so that Theresa could not see his blush.

But interrupting this uncomfortable conversation Jay's radio rang. Jay pulled out of the hug, much to both of their disappointment. He turned away from Theresa and answered his radio, still blushing.

"What then hell are you doing man!" Archie screamed through the radio, his red face showing in the radio screen. "Why did you run off like that! Could you be such of an idiot that you did not notice we had already left?"

Jay laughed, "Relax Arch, Terri and I just ran into trouble."

"Hey Jay are you blushing?" Archie asked slyly through the radio.

"NO! I am just cold that's all!" Jay said holding up his hands in defence.

"Sure Jay whatever you say." Archie said back sarcastically.

Theresa turned away giggling at Jay and faced the two dirty minded boys who had attacked her.

They were thrown against the brick wall of the alleyway, their bodies slumped against it. They both had their clothes ripped in various places, and big bruises almost everywhere on their bodies. And jugging by the size of them Jay had attacked them pretty harshly with his xiphos because they also had cuts on their arms and legs.

Wow, Theresa thought, Jay must have been pretty mad. He has never attacked another human before. Theresa looked back at Jay who was still trying to prove his innocence to Archie over his PMR.

But then Theresa sensed a great amount of danger all around her. Theresa stared back to the two men. At first no one moved, but then Theresa saw the thinner mans hand go to the inside of his coat. As quick as lightning he took out something long and silver. It was a revolver. Before she could yell a warning she jumped in front of him and trying to push him away.

BANG! BANG! BANG!