By Next Thursday

Chapter Nineteen

"Oh god. Oh god, oh god," I stumbled back to Jay's hiding spot around the corner. For the first time in my life I was hit with something more than mild concern for someone other than myself. This was a stomach clenching, heart stopping fear for Meredith. The pain in my head before felt like butterfly kisses in comparison to the thoughts going through my mind at that moment.

Jay's voice jerked me out of the scenes playing in my imagination about what Rory would do with a gun. "Kelly, what happened?" his voice was low and I vaguely heard a squeal of tires as the gun-seller drove off.

"Jay, we need to find Meredith, ASAP. He has a freaking gun now and who knows who he's gonna hurt with it!" My voiced cracked at the end of my sentence, the weight of the situation finally bearing down on me. Guns weren't a joke, it really hit home that I might die and Meredith was in serious danger.

"Well, what are we waiting for then," Jay stated grimly. We ran over to the neighboring parking lot and made it to the car without Rory seeing Jay.

I sagged against the leather interior in exhaustion but Jay ran his hands over his growing stubble in frustration. "This is bad, he went right so he's actually heading towards that diner and downtown but that creepy house is the opposite direction. It's already four o'clock so we can't mess around with him while trying to find Meredith."

Jay looked to me for answers and I sighed. "I don't know what he's doing at this point. Let's just follow him for one more hour and if nothing points to where Meredith is, we go to that house."

With a plan in place, Jay took off towards the old diner we were at before. The ride was relatively silent with Meredith still gone. There was nothing to do but watch the rear end of Rory's black car and try to drive inconspicuously.

"Jay, slow down. You're getting too close."

Jay just muttered some colorful language back at me, but not even three minutes later I had to tell him to lay off again.

"Seriously, Jay, he's going to see you," I hissed as we got so close again that I could easily make out Rory's features in the rearview.

"And why should I fucking care?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe because you're no help if you get shot or because he might hurt Meredith as a defensive maneuver," I snapped back sarcastically.

Turned out Rory was just going to a convenience store near the diner. "Dammit, this was pointless," Jay muttered as he pulled into the grubby diner's parking lot to turn around. My stomach sank thinking about the extra time we wasted following Rory again until, to my surprise, a car pulled up next to his and Karen got out. Hadn't they just seen each other?

"Wait," I spoke up. "Karen's here that's gotta mean something, right? Let's just go see what they're doing."

I got out of the car and looked at Jay expectantly. He just glared at me. "Why the hell do you insist on playing detective every damn time that woman is involved? Kelly, please can we just go to that house and find Meredith?"

"And what if she's not there? The we lost every trail. So you are gonna get off your sweet little ass and follow me into that store. Okay?" I smiled sweetly, my voice practically dripping with venom. With one last angry glance, Jay finally gave in and got out.

We reached the door to the store when he at last stopped sulking and spoke up. "So you think my ass is sweet, eh?"

My cheeks burned in surprise. "What? No, that's not- no."

Jay chuckled but then caught a glimpse of my face and suddenly keeled over in hysterics. "What?" I asked, frantically searching around for anything funny. "Is there something on my face?"